ABLE, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment, organized an historic forum in Cobb County, GA on Sunday, September 27, 2009. A diverse group of over 150 community members and 17 organizations gathered at Welcome All Baptist Church in Smyrna, GA to share personal testimonies of racial profiling and the negative results of the 287(g) agreement in Cobb County.
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Author traces a spiritual odyssey
to a personal encounter with God
New York, September 24, 2009 — A member of the National Council of Churches Interfaith Relations Commission — a convert from Islam to Christianity — has concluded that a personal encounter with God can be powerful enough to transcend any one faith tradition.
Farmingville is a documentary from the Point of View (POV) series on PBS. It shows how organizing helps to address immigrant issues in Farmingville, NY.
This documentary is free to watch until November 18 at:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1264711314/program/1154485580#
Farmingville: The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate.
VOICE-Buffalo has taken a pro-active role in confronting street violence. Buffalo and surrounding suburbs have experienced a particularly brutal summer and fall with over 50 people killed or harmed. While violence is greatest within the City of Buffalo, the surrounding areas of North Tonawanda, Amherst and Orchard Park also saw violent shootings and killings this summer.
Tax Credit for Employer-Assisted Housing. This is an issue that is being addressed especially by the Workforce Housing committees of JOSHUA and SOPHIA. They are exploring the possibility of urging the state of Wisconsin to consider giving a tax credit that would encourage employers to help their employees buy a home or rent near their place of work. Some companies already do some form of employer-assisted housing. They might, for example, loan $5,000 to the employee to purchase a home, then forgive $1,000 of that loan each year if the employee continues to work there. The proposal in the legislature would offer companies tax credits to offset a portion of that cost – encouraging the practice.
By Jerry Kellman
Director of Organizing, Gamaliel Metro Chicago
This is the second part of a talk delivered to the International Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Social Work with groups. The talk was on the experience and learning gained from training Barack Obama as an organizer. The first part of the talk emphasized how Barack had to decide, and all of us must decide, whether we are going to define ourselves or let others define us. The first part of the talk developed this by talking about the importance of story (narrative) and action for organizing.