Workshop Recap:
The Storyteller as Activist
On Tuesday, July 29th, Elaine Blanchard shared her gifts, skills, and passion with participants of the workshop, The Storyteller as Activist, as she revealed how the effectiveness of storytelling is in the listening and connection we make with others. Activists have stories to tell, stories rooted in a need for justice. As Elaine says, “As we become a community of storytellers, we improve our relationships and construct a safer place for all of us to call home.”
We are very thankful for this collaboration. Stay tuned for future workshops with Elaine. You can learn more about her and her work here.
Upcoming Workshop, September 11th
Founding and Funding Your Grassroots Group
Led by former MSPJC Director, Jacob Flowers
I want to register!
In this workshop you will have the opportunity to learn the process, skills and actions you can use to establish and financially sustain your grassroots organization. The session will begin with an in-depth look at the mission, vision and values from which you are organizing, and end with concrete actions that you can take to fund your work sustainably over the long term.
Join us to learn how you can found and fund your organizing group to be successful from the beginning.
Date: Thursday, September 11th
Time: 6pm – 8pm (please be on time)
Location: 450 Mulberry St., Links Education Center,
National Civil Rights Museum
Wheelchair accessible
Cost: $20-$45 Sliding scale.
Registration online or by phone is required to attend. Minimum 10 and maximum 25 participants. Some scholarships may be available. Request a scholarship application by email or phone. Donations for workshop scholarships gratefully accepted!
New Workshop. Coming September 18th
Privilege and Oppression Awareness
In this workshop participants will have the opportunity for recognizing privilege and oppression in themselves, in a safe space, as a first step to combat them.
I want to register!
Date: Thursday, September 18th
Time: 6pm – 8:30pm (please be on time)
Location: 450 Mulberry St., Links Education Center,
National Civil Rights Museum
Wheelchair accessible
Cost: $20-$45 Sliding scale.
Register here!
Registration online or by phone is required to attend. Limited to the first 8 people who register. Some scholarships may be available. Request a scholarship application by email or phone. Donations for workshop scholarships gratefully accepted!
New Workshop. Coming September 30th
The Labor Liberation Workshop
In this workshop we’ll explore the complexities of the labor movement in intersection with people’s diverse identities as workers and how they identify their personal histories and lives with the history of labor movement.
Who can attend this workshop? Workers, students, union members, and anyone who wants to learn about the labor movement! It’s for Everyone who would like to learn about their identity as a worker and how they can identify as a part of the labor workshop.
REGISTER HERE!
Date: Tuesday, September 30
Time: 6p.m. – 8p.m. Please, be on time.
Location: 450 Mulberry St Memphis TN 38103 Links Education Center, National Civil Rights Museum. Wheelchair accessible
*Minimum 12, maximum 20 participants who register.
Cost: $20-$45 Sliding scale.
Registration online or by phone is required to attend.
REGISTER NOW
Some scholarships may be available. Please request a scholarship application by email or phone.
Donations for workshop scholarships gratefully accepted!
For more information on anything happening with G.O.T. Power, MSPJC Training Department, please contact Training Director Gio López at gio@midsouthpeace.org or call the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center at 725-4990.
G.O.T. Power, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s training program, is committed to building our community’s capacity building skills in grassroots organizing, providing support to people doing community work and offering oppression awareness and liberation education.
We are pleased to announce our support and fiscal sponsorship of the new Cooperative Memphis! Like many community-based initiatives, the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center will incubate CoOperative Memphis as it grows into a meaningful force for good in Memphis.
The Will Hudson Transit Center, also known as the North End Terminal or “NET”, is MATA’s most used transit hub. 23 of MATA’s 31 routes begin at the NET, which was built in 1998. The terminal serves as more than just a place to transfer or wait for your bus. You can buy your monthly pass, converse with fellow riders, and access critical information about service changes. The NET has working pay phones, plenty of seating and bathroom facilities. It also provides climate-controlled shelter from severe Memphis weather – the sweltering hot summers or freezing rainy winters – a protection that most bus shelters simply don’t provide.
We have begun to increase pressure on MATA to improve conditions at the terminal, a move sparked by the recent assault on a rider by one of the Pro-Tech security guards who are contracted by MATA. At the next MATA Board meeting, board members will vote to expand their contract with CDA/MaxSent, the security company who serves all other MATA facilities, to replace Pro-Tech at the NET. MBRU members have also brought attention to the terminal by sharing pictures of the conditions through social media and giving tours to members of the board.
MBRU members want improvements that go beyond a touch of paint or even a functional soap dispenser, (although that would be nice!). Members have suggested such improvements as multiple working electrical sockets near benches that allow riders to charge cell phones, free wireless Internet, and public art. The NET should be a place where people feel comfortable and welcome. A desirable environment with plants and color, not an institutional concrete shell that feels like a corral for cattle. The second floor of the terminal used to be home to the Tennessee Career Center, a much-needed resource for bus riders, which moved out this year due to leaks in the ceiling. Perhaps structural improvements would bring this kind of supportive service back to the building.
This month we welcome Ace F. Madjlesi as the new Associate Director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. Ace joins us from the 
This week was marked with a big win for bus riders as Shelia Williams, Co-Chair and founding member of the Memphis Bus Riders Union was appointed to the MATA Board of Commissioners.
H.O.P.E. is a Mid-South Peace and Justice Center-sponsored organization whose members are exclusively people have formerly or are currently experiencing homelessness. HOPE has developed different projects to address and deconstruct specific dimensions of what is a dynamic problem that continues to affect so many in the Mid-South and beyond.
Under the leadership of HOPE Organizer, Jim Brown, members areforming a new Outreach Committee. Members of this committee will be working in teams to do targeted engagement with encampments and ‘homeless-hotspots’ across the city. Our members recently attended a training hosted by the 
A BIG HOPE thank you to 
Memorial Day is a day to remember the men and women who have served in the US armed services. As many of the 
H.O.P.E would like to once again thank 
