News

PEOPLE FIRST is an MSPJC supported partnership with residents and activists working in the Binghampton community to raise voter turn out during elections and assist in long term resident-driven grassroots community organizing after the elections end.

For the two month groups of activists and Binghampton residents have been canvassing door to door ,talking with residents and neighbors about the issues that they care about.

This Saturday, October 8th, People First is hosting the first of a series of monthly community meeting for Binghampton residents.

At these meetings we will work with the community to organize and provide support and training for a new and fully resident owned and resident driven Neighborhood Organization. Collectively this association reflecting the full diversity of Binghampton will allow residents to collectively address their issues and concerns, run their own grassroots campaigns and ensure that area residents will have front end input in any redevelopment projects in their community.  We do so hope you all will attend this first step in an ongoing grassroots effort in Binghampton.

People First Community Meeting

Join our working group to organize residents across all of Binghampton around our most pressing issues. Stand together as one community to ensure that redevelopment efforts are community driven

People First Community Meeting-Kickoff

This Thursday the 2011 City of Memphis municipal elections will take place from 7AM until 7PM all across our city. The Memphis Mayor, members of the Memphis City Council, the City Court Clerk and City of Memphis Judges will be on the ballot and asking for your vote.

This election season will have far reaching ramifications on the future direction and priorities of our city on issues of HOMELESSNESS, BLIGHT, URBAN POVERTY and PRIVATIZATION of city services among others. So, it is crucial that our community comes out in big numbers to make our voices heard at the polls.

Sadly, voter turnout this year has been at a historic low. At the conclusion of early voting last Saturday a total of 29,431 residents of Memphis casted votes in this election. That represents a mere 7.4% of registered voters within our city. This is shameful and disheartening but it also means that YOUR VOTE has never been more valuable

and your influence in these elections of those who most affect your dally life has never been stronger.

The difference in votes cast between many competing candidates is as low as a few hundred votes, your vote could very well make the difference.

CITY OF MEMPHIS MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS-Thursday Oct 6th

Polls open  7AM-7PM

Voter registration/poll location questions?…if you are unsure if you are still registered as an active voter in Memphis and Shelby county you can check online at www.shelbyvote.com and under the  Voter Information tab click on the page marked Am I Registered? If you have questions about your polling location please click on the page marked Where To Vote  or call the Shelby County Election Commission at 545-2600

We are under one month away from conference time, and we want to be sure that you put GKC on your calendar now so you don’t miss any of the great events we have in store this year.

Register online here to reserve your space today!

We are very excited to begin the conference weekend Thursday evening, October 20th, with a concert with political singer/songwriter David Rovics at 7pm at Otherlands Cafe. Rovics has been called “the musical version of Democracy Now!”

by the show’s host, Amy Goodman. While David tours across the country and around the world, he’s never played in Memphis before, and we’re thrilled to bring his songs and ideas to our community, as well as to conference attendees.

We’re also bringing some of the highest caliber speakers to Memphis to date. Nipun Mehta and Pancho Ramos-Stierle of ServiceSpace will open the conference at 11am on Friday October 21st with an address to both the youth conference and regular attendees. And if you are a middle or high school student, or you know one, be sure to get them to the GKC Youth Conference occurring all day Friday.Dr. Clayborne Carson of the King Center in Stanford will address the conference Friday evening followed by a viewing and discussion with the Director of the film, Little Town of Bethlehem. David Bacon opens the conference Saturday morning, and we are thrilled to be offering simultaneous Spanish translation for Dolores Huerta‘s address Saturday afternoon. And of course we’ll be joined by activists, academics, and organizers from all over the country who will share their knowledge through workshops, films, presentations, papers and more over the course of the weekend.

If you haven’t already, please register now for the conference at www.gandhikingconference.org. There are also sponsorship opportunities as well as exhibit space available, but you need to act now to reserve your space in the program booklet.

• There are now day rates available. Register now!!
• Videos of last years conference are being uploaded daily here.
• Volunteers are needed to do everything from staffing registration tables to helping guide participants around campus. You are given free conference admission in exchange for their service. Sign up through this page to reserve your spot.

Register now! We look forward to learning and sharing with you October 21-23 at GKC!

For more information, please contact info@gandhikingconference.org or call (901)725-4990.

It has been a full year for the GrowMemphis neighborhood community garden program.  To give you just a taste of what we’ve been up to: we hosted workshops on winter growing, bed preparation, and tomato diseases; gardeners pitched in to grow thousands of seedlings that were given to community gardens and sold at our annual plant sale; we raised funds to help start two new garden projects; and student volunteers came from Kansas and Florida to lend a hand.

Collectively, community gardens grew thousands of pounds of food for neighborhood residents, family members, friends, students, food pantries, and more.  Most importantly, in community gardens this year, children tried new foods, watched butterflies, and caught snakes.  Neighbors met each other for the first time.  Vacant land was reclaimed and restored.  Clearly, we have much to celebrate.

GrowMemphis invites you to join in that celebration at our 5th Annual Fall Harvest Party.  Green Leaf Learning Farm at Knowledge Quest (featured in the current edition of Edible Memphis Magazine) will host the celebration onSaturday, October 15th from 2:00pm to 5:00pm with a ribbon cutting ceremony with honored guest County Commissioner Henri Brooks at 3:00pm. Knowledge Quest is located at 1027 Arnold Place in South Memphis.

The grill will be hot and we’ll have hotdogs, hamburgers and veggie options for everyone.  Please bring a side dish or dessert to share.  Youth gardeners from Green Leaf will be giving tours of the Learning Farm.  Keeping in spirit with the community gardening movement, children are extremely welcome.

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact josephine@midsouthpeace.org or call Josephine at (901) 725-4990.

Sign up today to learn the essential skills of grassroots community organizing. The course begins September 15th and continues the following 7 Thursdays from 6-8:15 at First Congregational Church. Topics covered include: Intro to Organizing, Campaign Planning, Facilitation, Organizing your Community, Media, Transforming Conflict, and Direct Action.

The wonderful facilitators for this training, along with other community trainers, completed the weekend long Training for Social Action Trainers facilitated by the national training organization Training for Change last

month. Members of Workers Interfaith Network, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, BRIDGES, AFSCME, Memphis Center for Independent Living, and the Mid South Peace and Justice Center attended. This training taught many of the tools that we’ll be using in the Core Organizer Training, and we learned to teach them in a fully experiential, interactive way. This method of education is based in popular education which focuses on bringing out the expertise that we all already have within and takes away significance in difference between “teacher” and “student”. We are all teachers and students who will learn magnitudes from each other.

If you’re interested in learning more or would like to share this opportunity with a friend, please click here and sign up today!