DemocracySpace.org

Friday digest-open thread 5/16/08

"One city ... thousands of voices heard ... democracy is here." That's the message of the winning video from the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, which took the $1,000 prize this week in Everyday Democracy's "Making Every Voice Matter" YouTube video contest. Using dozens of photos, music that moves from dramatic to energetic, and inspiring quotes about outcomes, the INRC entry shows how change is happening in neighborhoods throughout Indianapolis. As Everyday Democracy deputy communication director and operations manager Carrie Boron wrote on our website, "The video shows that all kinds of people are having a voice in improving Indianapolis neighborhoods. And it demonstrates that by employing simple production techniques, a community can use video to showcase its work in a medium accessible to lots of people." Read more here.

Everyday Democracy got another major media mention this week, this time in an essay, "Where Racial Healing Happens," from Rob Corcoran in the Christian Science Monitor. Quoting a friend who told him that "change happens from the bottom," Rob writes, "And he's right: Ordinary people are coming together to do extraordinary things. Healing conversation is already under way. In hundreds of local efforts across the US, diverse groups of citizens are bridging the traditional boundaries of race, class, and culture. Thousands have engaged in dialogue, symbolic acts of reconciliation, and collaborative problem solving. Organizations such as Everyday Democracy and Hope in the Cities (a project of Initiatives of Change) are facilitating this." Read it all here. Rob is national director for Initiatives of Change in the United States.

The past two weeks have been horrible ones for natural disasters including the cyclone in Burma and earthquake in China. A discussion at the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge website has been asking social entrepreneurs and community organizers to think about both how people can help affected areas now and what they'd do if a disaster hit their area. For example, author Jill Finlayson asks, "Are there grant applications or proposals for programs that you need funded that you can pull off the shelf and submit after a disaster?  Having these written in advance can enable you to promptly take advantage of funds that become available (before interest and support wanes), without having to start from scratch or take time away from the critical response efforts at the point of an emergency." Read more and join the conversation here.

Everyday Democracy executive director Martha McCoy spoke Thursday at the United Way's annual national conference in Baltimore. Her talk focused on "Engaging the Community, Building Community Knowledge." Also Thursday, United Way president Brian Gallagher outlined a new 10-year campaign focused on halving the number of high-school dropouts and working families that are struggling financially. "The country is at a crossroads right now," Gallagher said. "I've never felt a time in my career where there's this combination of enough pain, feeling of a lack of progress, feeling like we've stalled, combined with a next generation of leadership demanding change." Gallagher took questions about the goals in this live discussion at the Washington Post website.

Don't forget: There's now less than a week to catch the early-bird rate for Everyday Democracy's national meeting June 12-14 in Denver. Go here for more info, including the entire conference program now available in pdf form.

People-centered philanthropy

The Case Foundation's Make It Your Own program has announced the winners of its Final Four awards of $25,000 each. They are:

Citizen Participation - New Orleans, Louisiana
Crossing Borders - St. Paul, Minnesota
Juveniles 4 Justice -  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Leaders of the New School - Chicago, Illinois

The Final Four were determined by a vote open to anyone who cared to check out the Make it Your Own website and select from among a list of Top 20 finalists. Traditionally, that's not how philanthropy works.  But in a new essay on the Make It Your Own website, Cynthia Gibson writes about how citizen-driven grant-making like this "reflects a slow, but simmering, movement away from expert rule to citizen-driven efforts that are bringing wide swaths of communities together to decide what's important and what to do about it."

Gibson, the author of a report issued last year, "Citizens  at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement,"  goes on to explain how the Case Foundation brought everyday people into the process at every step, from getting input on the program guidelines from diverse groups of residents in several cities to recruiting people from outside the philanthropic community to narrow nearly 5,000 applications down to 100. Next, leaders from the civic engagement community were asked to help winnow the field to 20 before the Final Four website vote.

Pointing to similar efforts by Grassroots Grantmakers, the Knight Foundation, and even American Express, Gibson notes how these programs "are laying groundwork for what many hope is a full-scale trend across philanthropy -- one in which foundations move from being the arbiters of what gets done to serving as facilitators of a process in which they partner with other community institutions and residents in designating priorities and crafting actions."

Gibson concludes:

No one is arguing that philanthropic institutions don't have the right to decide what to do with their money. Nor are they suggesting that there is no role for experts and intermediaries in making decisions, especially in processes that threaten to dovetail into popularity contests or politically motivated shortcuts.

What's needed is more of a balance between the professionals and the public, as well as more discussion about how to achieve that goal. Let's hope that philanthropy makes it a goal worth pursuing - now and in the future.

Read Gibson's entire essay here.  And for more discussion of how everyday people are taking leadership roles in local government, philanthropic action, and more, don't miss next Thursday's water cooler here at DemSpace, which will feature Matt Leighninger talking about his book, The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same. The event is set for 1 p.m. Eastern on May 15 right here at DemocracySpace.

May Day brings rallies

Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved
With good intentions and a people’s faith   
In the sacred promise a statue made
Livin’ in a city of immigrants ...
~ Steve Earle, "City of Immigrants" (lyrics, video)

May Day, known as International Workers' Day throughout most of the world, has in the United States lately become a rallying day for supporters of immigrants and immigration reform - and today is no exception, though rallies this year are expected to be smaller than the historic processions held two years ago. In Detroit, a four-block-long throng marched downtown at lunchtime, carrying signs calling for an end to workplace raids and deportations that separate families. But in Miami, activists are placing more emphasis on a family celebration set Saturday than on a modest march planned today.

In the nation's largest cities, however, crowds will turn out today. Organizers expect a large turnout for a march and rally set later this afternoon for New York's Union Square. In Los Angeles, up to 100,000 people are expected at four different marches that will wind up at a rallying point near City Hall. From the Los Angeles Times:

While most of the attention will be focused on the marchers, the LAPD will also be under a great deal of scrutiny today after last year's mostly peaceful event ended with riot police beating journalists and demonstrators in MacArthur Park. The beatings, captured on television cameras, took place as the police were trying to clear the park after 20 to 30 people starting throwing rocks and bottles. This year, after additional training and cooperation with march organizers, the Police Department leaders say they are better prepared to keep things under control without letting conditions turn chaotic.

Click here for a list of May Day marches around the country and here for some interesting history on why May Day has always been associated with immigrants in America. Finally, here's a compelling column from Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union-Tribune on why today's calls for immigration reform are of interest to the 80 percent of U.S. Hispanics who were either born here or are legal residents.  "When they talk to me about the immigration debate, they condemn the hypocrisy of a society that is addicted to illegal immigrant labor but looks for others to blame for the addiction," he writes. "...  Most of all, they scoff at the claim that, as U.S. citizens, this debate doesn't concern them and that the attack is limited to illegal immigrants."

April books roundup

It's time for our monthly roundup of recent books of interest to people who are working, organizing, and educating for positive community change. This month's selections include Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon; Fight  Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community by Bill McKibben and the Step It Up Team; and The True Patriot: A Pamphlet by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer. You can get these books at your local bookseller, or online, or at the links offered below.

Slavery by Another Name tells how for decades after the Civil War, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, charged with outrageous fines, then sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. The practice was finally given up due to government embarrassment over possible enemy propaganda about American racial abuse at the beginning of World War II. Blackmon, a white man who is Atlanta bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, started writing nearly a decade ago about how U.S. Steel Corp. relied on forced black laborers in Alabama coal mines in the early 20th century. This book grew out of that reporting. (Order here.) Click here for more of Blackmon's writings on race, school resegregation (he attended Mississippi schools as they were integrated in the 1970s), baseball, and more.  You can also read an excerpt from the book and listen to a "Talk of the Nation" interview with Blackmon here.

Earth Day 2008 may be behind us, but many communities are eager to keep the momentum going. In Fight Global Warming Now, McKibben and his collaborators offer a hands-on, locally oriented guidebook for halting climate change. McKibben draws from the lessons of 1,400 Step It Up demonstrations held last spring, one of the biggest days of environmental action since the original Earth Day and one that came together in mere months. He pledges that proceeds from the book will go back into efforts to combat climate change. (Order here.) Another recent McKibben book - Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future - is recently out in paperback, and it's a good companion to Fight Global Warming Now. McKibben shares why, particularly in our current era of unequal wages and dwindling natural resources, "more" usually doesn't mean "better." He shows how communities around the world are building vibrant local economies where people work together to create more of their own food, energy, and even entertainment.

The True Patriot has been out for a few months, but it may be a good prism through which to view the rest of this presidential election year. "We believe all politics is fundamentally about morality," Liu and Hanauer write in the slim book's introduction. "What rules do we need to live a good life together? How should those rules govern the choices we make not only as individuals but as a community?" Written in the style of Thomas Paine's classic Common Sense, The True Patriot has a decidedly progressive philosophy but one that calls to conservatives as well by appealing to core American values, like sharing of sacrifice. In a radio interview, Liu said, "I think if you take these values seriously, you’re able to find a zone where people of both parties can come together and say, 'You know what? This is the essence of true patriotism: whether we are looking out for the next generation, whether we have a sense of obligation and responsibility, not just to ourselves but to those who are going to come after us.'" (Order here.)

What are you reading these days? What's next on your list?

Seeking environmental equity

Yesterday, we took a look at communities on the East and West coasts (Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Port Townsend, Washington) where citizens are working to build sustainability and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Today, we focus on the Heartland, where an inner-city neighborhood is focused on environmental justice. From our website:

What began as a few people talking in a church-based dialogue has grown into a widening campaign for environmental justice in Indiana. The last two Saturdays of this month, the Martindale-Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative (EJC) will mark Earth Day with two mini-environmental conferences to help residents learn about ongoing toxic hazards in the community.

Martindale-Brightwood is a neighborhood in central Indianapolis with about 10,000 residents, most of them African American. As reported last year on our website, Scott United Methodist Church became a center of environmental justice activism when its minister, the Rev. Ray Wilkins, learned through an environmental analysis that a nearby business had improperly disposed of trichloroethylene, a toxic chemical that had possibly seeped into subsurface water flowing beneath the church property. The issue was discussed in a study circle, and participants went on to form the environmental group.

Now – as the “Voice to Action” conferences are held April 19 and April 26 – the EJC is working with a growing list of partners to raise awareness of the continuing toxic threats in their neighborhood. For example, the Indiana Black Expo and Marion County Health Department will be at the conference to test children for lead poisoning in a neighborhood where contaminated toys from China may be the least of parents’ worries.

Read more here. Also, have a look at the article "Environmental Justice for All" on the Utne.com website, which tells more about the emerging environmental justice campaign that leading activists are calling the civil rights movement of the 21st Century.

Give until it helps

Today is Tax Day in the United States, and millions of us will be making last-minute dashes to the post office to get our returns dispatched to the Internal Revenue Service. Charitable donations are one way that taxpayers can trim their tax bill and support worthy organizations at the same time. So - looking ahead to Tax Day 2009 - here are a few places on the Internet to help you contribute to favorite causes, find new charities, or perhaps raise awareness of your community's own charitable works.

GuideStar.org - Here's a site where donors and others can research non-profits ranging from the smallest community foundations to major international organizations. The site's basic tools are available free to users who want to "verify a nonprofit's legitimacy, learn whether a contribution will be tax deductible, view a nonprofit's recent Forms 990, or find out more about its mission, programs, and finances," the website says. "Select" and "Premium" levels allow users access to more information. Similar information is available at Charity Navigator, the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, and the American Institute of Philanthropy's Charity Watch.

NetworkForGood.org - If you click on "Donate Now" at GuideStar or Charity Navigator, you are taken to the Network for Good site, which gives donors a tool to contribute to one or more charities in one place. As a bonus for taxpayers, Network For Good can store all your charitable donation records in one place for easier return preparation. Network for Good also has a handy list of tips and info for taxpayers.

PledgeBank.com - PledgeBank describes itself as "a site to help people get things done, especially things that require several people." Basically, people use the site to start an online pledge drive, set a target, and promote their efforts on a global scale. For example, one user wrote "I will give away 1/2 of my economic stimulus rebate check but only if 20 others will do the same." So far, 22 people have agreed. Other pledges have collected underwear for kids in Liberia, stocked a library in India, organized a neighborhood clean-up in California, and solicited contributions of $50 for solar panels on the City Hall in Ypsilanti, Michigan. (That last drive, expiring tomorrow, appears to be falling short of its goal but still raised awareness.) 

PledgeBank drives can be cross-posted to Facebook and shared elsewhere on the Internet. It's interesting to think about ways that community activists might use PledgeBank.com to recruit dialogue participants, raise money for an action project, or meet other needs. PledgeBank doesn't take the place of face-to-face networking, but it's another way to get the word out about projects to people in your community and around the world. Click here to read more about what PledgeBank is and how it works. 

Friday digest-open thread 4/11/08

Have you had enough talk about race yet? We haven't either. So mark your datebook for next Thursday (April 17), when we'll be holding our more-or-less monthly water cooler from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern right here on DemocracySpace. The topic will be how communities like yours are working to create greater racial equity. No RSVP necessary. Just show up and blog with us!

Following Martha McCoy's post yesterday about how big media may be missing the mark on its coverage of race, we posted the following discussion question on the Everyday Democracy page at Facebook: Do you think the media is getting a clue to the idea that substantive change will come not from talking about race relations but about racial equity? The discussion board is here, so if you are on Facebook, please join our group and weigh in on that topic. (Your comments are welcome here as well.) Meanwhile, in a response to Martha, Michael Weiksner wonders at e-thepeople whether it's wise to focus on problems like poverty through a strictly racial lens.

Writing at The Democracy Movement, Everyday Democracy senior associate and Deliberative Democracy Consortium executive director Matt Leighninger tells how, in civic-engagement programs originally launched to talk about race, many participants have come to question traditional assumptions. For example, he says, "they question the notion that racism is just an easily identifiable, individual sin – that we are all either racists or non-racists. When people take a closer look, they usually begin to see racism as a blurry spectrum, a series of individual and institutional biases that get progressively more inaccurate and damaging." Read more here.

In Lynchburg, Virginia, where the Community Dialogue on Race and Racism has brought more than 600 people together with the goal of dismantling racism, the local newspaper asked city council candidates: "Explain whether you feel issues of racial inequality do or do not continue to persist in Lynchburg. Specify what, if any, role is played by the city government in those issues. Further specify whether you feel the dialogue is an effective way of dealing with concerns related to race." You can read their answers here. Wouldn't it be great to see local editorial boards nationwide ask probing questions about racism as campaigns unfold this year?

The Human Rights Commission in Jacksonville, Florida, is launching a new series of study circles on racism this month. Visit the City of Jacksonville website to learn more and register. Jacksonville and Lynchburg are among the nine partners in Everyday Democracy's Communities Creating Racial Equity  initiative. Many more communities are engaging on the issue through resources such as our Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation discussion guide. Click here to learn more.

Update - Friday afternoon: Everyday Democracy staff member Molly Holme Barrett has passed along word of a show set to air on MSNBC at 9 Eastern /8 Central tonight. (Check your local listings.) “Meeting David Wilson” depicts the journey of 28-year-old David A. Wilson - a black man from New Jersey - to North Carolina to meet 62-year-old David B. Wilson, a descendant of the white Southern family that owned his ancestors during the slavery era. See more here. The program will include a 90-minute live discussion of racial issues in America.

Update - Monday, April 14: Peter Levine wrote this post at his blog Friday afternoon citing both Martha's post and a recent one by Rich Harwood on the changing narratives and need for action in our conversations on race.

YouthBuild, MTV team up

It's not every day that low-income youth get their voices heard in the nation's capital, but it's happening this week. Last night, nearly 500 youth held an "Our America" town hall at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington to unveil a "Declaration of Inter-dependence” informed by their life experiences. Today, about 100 of them are on Capitol Hill to advocate for change in six key areas of the declaration: the public school system, family supports, economic development in low-income communities, the justice system, the environment, and the role of young people in society.

Participants in the town hall included young people from 28 states who have had setbacks such as dropping out of high school, being homeless, having a teen pregnancy, or doing time in jail, but who are rising above such difficult challenges. The town hall was sponsored by YouthBuild USA, Think.MTV.com, and dozens of other national organizations with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. MTV News correspondents Sway Calloway and Kim Stolz served as emcees.

“We have gathered in Washington DC to bring attention to the conditions facing young people in low-income communities, and to call upon our elected officials and presidential candidates to join with us in finding solutions,” explained Antonio Ramirez, President of YouthBuild’s National Alumni Association, and a speaker at the event.

“We wrote the Declaration of Inter-Dependence because we believe it is our responsibility as young leaders to think through the important issues facing our communities and our nation, and to make proposals that can lead to changes and improve these conditions," said Verondha Henry, another YouthBuild graduate. “We recognize that there is an interdependence between young people in low-income communities and the future of America. In the Declaration, we voice our views about the public schools, the justice system, the system of family supports, the economy of our local communities, and how to improve these systems to break the cycle of poverty.”

“This is a unique gathering of low-income young people whose voices are too often overlooked and have been absent from policy decisions on issues that directly impact their lives and futures,” said Dorothy Stoneman, president and founder of YouthBuild USA, a national nonprofit in which low-income youth work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas while rebuilding affordable housing for poor people. “Their leadership and commitment demonstrate that young people should be part of the conversation and they should be encouraged to take action to transform America’s most pressing problems."

To keep the momentum going, YouthBuild now has an "Our America" group page on ThinkMTV.com described as a place that's "open to ALL youth who want to amplify their voices and share ideas for tackling poverty in this nation." Elsewhere on the Think.MTV.com site, users can share their views on a wide range of issue-oriented forums, including poverty. Check out the full list here. And while you're on the MTV site, have a look at the Teen Hero Awards page for info on how teens you know can try to win grants for their charities of choice.

War, faith, and a new social contract

This is the second of two posts from the Take Back America conference held this week in Washington, D.C. More than 2,000 progressive activists and organizers attended the event. Julie Fanselow was at the event as an invited guest (independent of her work at Everyday Democracy). Here are some of the interesting stories she heard:

• "A New Social Contract" was the theme of a panel moderated by Miles Rapoport, who is the president of Demos, described on its website as "a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization committed to building an America that achieves its highest democratic ideals." (He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Paul J. Aicher Foundation, which oversees our work here at Everyday Democracy.) In this panel, Kate Kahan of the National Partnership for Women and Families, policy analyst Karen Kornbluh, and Julie Smith of Ohio Acorn discussed ways that the United States might replace or augment government programs that were designed for the 20th century with policies and programs that recognize modern realities. Rapoport noted how, after World War II, businesses, labor, and government all collaborated to increase prosperity for everyone. "It was public policy," he said. "It wasn't an accident." And yet the old contracts left a lot of people behind, notably people of color and women. They also were formed at a time when unions were stronger and the U.S. faced little global competition. So what - beyond the "plastic net" of mortgage and credit-card debt - might be part of the tool kit we use to rebuild the middle class? The panelists mentioned living wages (including a much higher minimum wage), paid sick days and an expanded Family and Medical Leave Act so workers can care for their families and not lose their jobs, and other policies that value families and individuals.

• As U.S. involvement in Iraq entered its sixth year this week, ten congressional candidates led by Darcy Burner of Washington state used the conference to unveil what they call A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. Their central point is that America shouldn't have to decide between an endless U.S. presence in Iraq and a sudden, destabilizing withdrawal. The candidates also indicated that - due to media ownership consolidation and war fatigue - many citizens have disengaged from the discussion. "The American public must also re-engage in the discussions and decision-making about how to proceed," the plan's text says. Although the plan's 10 original endorsers are all Democrats, it cites pending legislation including several bills with strong bipartisan support, including the Media Ownership Act of 2007 and the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007.There also was a lot of talk at the conference about the "Iraq Recession," with speakers pointing out that the cost of the war in Iraq - more than a half a trillion dollars so far, and estimated up to $3 trillion once related costs are tallied - has prevented the United States from dealing with domestic spending needs at home.

• A panel on "Religious Activism and the Public Good" featured a lively discussion among several prominent clergy members and community organizers over recent shifts in some parts of the evangelical movement away from  issues like abortion and gay marriage and toward environmental activism and poverty relief. As evangelicals begin to work with more mainline and secular activists on these issues, they will need to focus on the common ground and minimize their differences on other issues. But it also means that activists who see the world in secular terms need to respect the religious views of others. "That will be a chance for progressives to be more progressive," quipped the Rev. Brian McClaren of Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

• Speaking at the final session on Wednesday, Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change noted that political candidates from both major parties are busily seeking the votes of people of color and of low-income and working-class Americans. The big question, he asked, is whether low-income communities and communities of color will be as central to elected officials' agendas in 2009 as they are this year, when the elections are at stake. He advocated for a governing philosophy that benefits us all, but pays special attention to people on the margins.
  

Were you at Take Back America? What did you take away from the experience?

Tourism and economic development

In recent years, Everyday Democracy - formerly the Study Circle Resource Center - has been working with the Northwest Area Foundation on a project called Horizons, which aims to help communities move from poverty to prosperity. For many of these communities arrayed across the Great Plains and Northwest, tourism can be at least a piece of the puzzle of creating a more vibrant economy.

On her blog Smart Communities, Suzanne Morse of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change is writing this week about how tourism is helping many towns, while warning that it can't be the whole solution,  especially in a time when volatile gas prices and rising recession are keeping many people at home.

For another perspective, check out this article in the March issue of Ode magazine that mentions (toward the bottom) the growth in agritourism, which is building off a burgeoning interest in locally produced food. People may not be able to travel far from home this year, but we may be able to book a weekend at a nearby farm B&B or drive a few towns over to a thriving farmers' market or a creative new restaurant.

As an occasional travel writer who used to make a living at it, I know that my favorite places to go are ones that have - and celebrate - character all their own. Take an inventory of the scenic, cultural, culinary, and other offbeat assets that your area can offer tourists. But when you do, remember to focus on amenities - present or planned - that boost the quality of life for residents as well as enriching the visitor experience for travelers. Making Places - another link from Suzanne - offers many ideas in its sections on parks, public squares, markets, waterfronts, and more.