Job: Research Associate/Community Organizer

Research Associate/Community Organizer

Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation
Great Neck, New York

Our Mission Statement: To encourage and support Programs that directly provide assistance to individuals who due to either environment or circumstance have not had the opportunity or ability to live independent and productive lives. Such challenges may be physical, medical, economic, environmental or geographical. We strive to have a direct and measurable impact on the quality of individual lives, either through direct sponsorship and/or innovative program design and development.

The Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation is seeking a dynamic, experienced community organizer/leader with a proven track record of research competence to work in conjunction with our program director to spearhead a grassroots needs and assets assessment in Long Island City/Astoria, particularly in the most disadvantaged zip codes of 11101, 11102, and 11106.

The Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation, after a 6 month strategic planning process, has shifted a substantial portion of its funding streams to the social & economic development of communities within the three aforementioned zip codes. Strategically, we have concluded that a grassroots, stakeholder driven needs and assets survey in the community is essential to discovering the best use of our resources. Simultaneously, the partnerships we form with residents, government officials, business leaders and nonprofit leaders will become invaluable assets as we move from assessment to intervention. Our projected timeline for this project is 12-18 months. You will receive a transportation stipend, and will have access to professional development opportunities. Further career opportunity for the chosen candidate after this period is likely, so experience and/or training in nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship is preferred.

Probable roles & responsibilities of Hiree:

Behind the Scenes:

• Partner with program director to develop a detailed action plan for the needs and assets assessment. This includes developing a detailed timeline for the project.
• Partner to design various surveys for community residents, stakeholder groups, and potential funding partners.
• Assist graduate interns in conducting background research of the community.
• Attend three-day training seminar at "Harlem Children's Zone."
• Initiate relationships with key stakeholders, set up initial meetings with each.
• Survey collection, assistance with analysis and interpretation of results.

Within the Community:

• Coordinating door-to-door initiatives involving surveying and invitation to events.
• Co-facilitation of community stakeholder meetings.
• Large "town-hall style" meeting organizing. Will include public speaking.
• Resident's focus group facilitation.
• Intern and volunteer co-coordination.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Macro Social Work, Nonprofit management, MPH, or a Bachelor's in social science with a track record of community work.
• Prior experience working with non profit organizations, particularly CDC's.
• Comfortable and capable working with diverse populations.
• Willingness to invest whatever time and resources are necessary for success.
• A working knowledge of community engagement best-practices.

To Apply: We look forward to hearing from you! Please send a cover letter, resume to:

Christopher Cutter
Program Director
Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation
E-mail: ccutter@jetfoundation.org

Support the Social Justice Fund

Dear Friends,

The Social Justice Fund is an important supporter of Tufts campus activism. Since its inception it has funded many of the campaigns and projects that trained us as social justice activists and made us who we are today.

The Social Justice Fund has existed in various capacities for almost ten years. Over the past few years, it has achieved renewed successes, supporting numerous amazing projects. In 2007 alone, the committee granted almost $5,500 for social justice activism at Tufts

With the Fund’s help, Tufts student activists have recently:

- Campaigned for Tufts janitors, the cause for which the Fund was started.
- Completed a video archive of queer history at Tufts from 1969 to the present.
- Brought the “AIDS Quilt” to Tufts and raised awareness about the global AIDS pandemic.
- Built a mock refugee camp on the Quad to raise awareness of refugee rights.
- Campaigned to reduce consumption of bottled water on campus.
- Organized a “Hip Hop for Social Change” festival.

But our pool of money is shrinking! At the current rate of disbursement, the fund will cease existing within the next two years.

That is why we need your help. As Tufts progressive alumni we ask for your
assistance in keeping social justice alive on the Hill.

Contributing to the Fund is easy, and can be achieved in a number of ways. Please see the end of this email for complete instructions.
With your help, we can keep this valuable institution going, so that future activists can inspire Tufts and the larger world to be the places we know they can be.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Yours in peace and solidarity,
Cindy Chang
Mara D’Angelo
Gary Goldstein
Douglass Hansen
Rachel Jones
Eva Skillicorn

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where there is a critical lack of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with a focus on projects that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

Click here for more information on recipients and the fund.

It’s easy to give to the Social Justice Fund!

Option 1: Give online via credit card. Enter your personal information to The Man. Be sure to designate your gift by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the Gift Designation 3 box.

Option 2: Give through the mail via check. Send a check to Tufts University, P.O. Box 3306, Boston, MA 02241-3306. Be sure to designate your gift by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the memo line.

Option 3: Give through Cindy Chang, administrator of the Social Justice Fund, via check and she will write her own personal check to Tufts of an equal amount. Keep your personal info from Tufts while she gets all the junk mail. Contact her at cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.

THANK YOU for your support!

Disclaimer: For those of us who have objected to donating to the University in the past, please know that while contributions to the Fund are kept with the University’s endowment, our reserves and interest received are for the exclusive use of the Social Justice Fund. We are otherwise completely independent from the University.

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where there is a critical lack of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with a focus on projects that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

For more information on recipients and the fund, please visit http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/serv01.htm

IAAB: CFP

From TPAN member, Nikoo Paydar LA'02:

       
       
As the February 2 deadline for the submission of abstracts approaches, we encourage you to continue submitting your abstracts and forwarding the Call for Papers announcement to your friends, family, and colleagues. We have received an array of submissions from around the world and hope to receive even more in the final weeks of the Call for Papers. We endeavor to collect the most representative sample of the Iranian diaspora, transcending geographic and polemic boundaries. The quality and success of the Conference largely rests on the assortment, representation, and quality of the submitted abstracts.

Please spread the word and forward this newsletter to your networks to encourage submissions. Together, we can further develop and refine the diasporic discourse through proactive collaboration within the international Iranian diaspora community. Your submissions contribute to the open and supportive environment for productive discussion that has been the hallmark of IAAB's International Conferences.

We look forward to receiving a record number of submissions for the Fourth International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora!

www.iranianalliances.org/conference

REMINDING: CALL FOR PAPERS FOR PRESENTATION

(DEADLINE for abstracts: February 2, 2009)

Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB) is pleased to announce The Fourth International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora, to take place April 4-5, 2009 at the University of California Berkeley's Pauley Ballroom.

IAAB is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen the Iranian diaspora community through programs that fulfill its threefold mission, in creating greater awareness of Iranian culture, promoting leadership especially among youth, and connecting Iranians across borders.

The conference aims to address both the accomplishments within the Iranian diaspora and the issues the community is currently facing. It seeks to unite multigenerational scholars, students, and members of the community to discuss the current state, accomplishments, and future of the Iranian diaspora community.
Distinguished speakers from around the world will sit on specific panels to discuss their accomplishments and work on their areas of expertise. In addition to providing an open environment for productive and interactive discussions about the diaspora, the conference will also serve as an opportunity to build a stronger network of Iranians across various borders.

In addition, Iranian Alliances Across Borders will be hosting a night of entertainment with guest performers in the San Francisco vicinity on Saturday, April 4, 2009.

Paper submissions

Submissions are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following areas:

·       Fieldwork or case studies of diaspora communities internationally

·       Representing Iran through the diaspora: implications, challenges, and opportunities

·       Importance of language study in the diaspora

·       Contributions of the Iranian diaspora towards fighting the stigmatization of Middle Easterners, Muslims, and Arabs in the United States and beyond

·       The role of NGOs, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders in the diaspora

·       Transnational politics and the impact of diaspora activism upon both domestic (e.g. elections) and Iranian issues (e.g. human rights campaigns)

·       Transnational economic networks, in particular the role of the diaspora in Iran's socio-economic development.

·       The effect of the recent global financial crisis on diaspora communities

·       The role of media, such as film, music, television, and printed media, in the formation of diasporic cultures

·       Identity negotiation and expression among second-generation Iranians, in particular with issues of gender and sexuality, non-traditional career paths, and the future of the next generation in the diaspora community

·       Family life in the diaspora, particularly with regard to domestic violence, gender roles, family dynamics, and communication

·       Other topics regarding the present conditions, contributions, or challenges faced by Iranians in the diaspora

All papers may be delivered in either of the conference languages, English and Persian. We encourage you to submit narrative and personal stories in addition to papers of a more academic nature. Short films will also be accepted for consideration.

The audience of the conference will include academics, NGO and community leaders, students, artists, and members of the Iranian diaspora and international community.

Although the International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora is a professional academic conference, preference will be given to papers that will generate discussion among a diverse audience and have potential to engage the entire community.

Submission Requirements

Extended abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted using the online submission form available at www.iranianalliances.org/conference.

Please provide all of the contact details and biographical information requested. Abstracts without this information will not be considered.

Please direct any questions regarding submissions to conference@iranianalliances.org.

Film and Music Submissions

If you are submitting a short film or music for consideration, in addition to submitting a brief description through the online submission form, please also mail a copy to:

IAAB’s Fourth International Conference
4266 Nottingham Drive
Danville, CA 94506, USA

Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB)
IAAB is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, non-profit volunteer organization with a young, dedicated staff spread across the United States,
Europe and Iran. The mission of the organization is to address issues of the Iranian diaspora community while raising awareness of the
Iranian community, promoting leadership, and connecting Iranians across borders. For more information about IAAB please visit
www.iranianalliances.org.

               
       
You are subscribed to the following list: IAAB News

using the following email: louis.esparza@gmail.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www.iranianalliances.dreamhosters.com/dada/list.cgi/u/iaabnews/

Ariane de Rothschild Fellows Program: Dialogue & Social Entrepreneurship

An initiative of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, the Ariane de Rothschild Fellows Program: Dialogue & Social Entrepreneurship is a new, innovative program designed for social entrepreneurs with an interest in fostering a culture of mutual respect and dialogue among Jewish and Muslim communities.

Delivered in partnership with Columbia Business School and Cambridge University, this 2-week program blends three educational components:

- An innovative and action-driven social entrepreneurship program
- Training in cross-cultural dialogue and leadership
- Exposure to state-of-the-art scholarship

Benefits of the program

- Learn how to be a successful agent of change
- Understand the leadership role and its impact on others
- Use specific tools, frameworks and diagnostics to identify personal and organizational issues and challenges
- Gain knowledge in management, negotiations, accounting, finance, marketing, governance and other fields of business
- Learn to appreciate and apply cross-cultural dialogue
- Experience scholarship and debates across and within participants' respective communities
- Build a deep and far-reaching network

Application Criteria

Acceptance to the program is by application only. Selected Fellows will be invited to the program in New York City in July 2009, inclusive of travel, lodging and some meals. Application criteria include:
- Social entrepreneurs who have already created their organization and are engaged in the early stages of development (one to four years) and who are interested in fostering a culture of mutual respect and dialogue among Jewish and Muslim communities.
- Residence in the US, UK, and/or France, or operation of their venture from these countries.
- Social entrepreneurs who demonstrate their interest in and commitment to sustainable civic engagement. There will be no specific sector focus.

In exceptional cases we will also consider individuals with an outstanding background in social activities even if they have not created a legal entity, per se.

Please visit www.adrfellowprogram.com for detailed information on eligibility, program curriculum and application process. Please sign up to receive regular updates on this website.

Fellowship of Reconciliation Seeking Applicants

Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Seeking Applicants for FOR Human Rights Team in Colombia Training in San Francisco, March 17 through 22, 2009

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Colombia Peace Presence is an accompaniment project begun in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, one of several rural communities in Colombia that have taken an extraordinary stand against war by refusing to support any armed group. FOR also has a team in Bogotá to support this accompaniment and to highlight other Colombian grassroots peace initiatives that youth, rural communities and others are building around the country. FOR’s partners include the Red Juvenil de Medellín and the Asociación Campesina de Antioquia.

Volunteers serve for twelve months, which is renewable based on mutual agreement. FOR seeks applicants, 23 years or older at the time of service, with sound judgment and proficient in Spanish, committed to nonviolence and prepared to live simply in a rural environment. FOR provides training, in the US and in Colombia, in international protective accompaniment and other dimensions of the team’s work. We seek US applicants, but accept non-US citizens as well. Volunteers offer first-hand accounts of their experiences on their blogs, including http://1peaceatatime.blogspot.com, http://limpingtowardsjustice.blogspot.com and http://orbiting4peace.blogspot.com.

For more information and an application, go to http://www.forcolombia.org/apply, or contact John Lindsay-Poland, at 510-763-1403 (johnlp@igc.org).

Please apply by February 1.

-

Fellowship of Reconciliation

Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean

369 15th St

Oakland CA 94612

Tel: 510-763-1403 Fax: 510-763-1409

Web:  http://www.forcolombia.org/

Che and Gaza

Future Hope column, January 4, 2009

 

Che and Gaza

 

By Ted Glick

 

“In these circumstances one must have a great deal of humanity and a strong sense of justice and truth. . . We just strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.”  

                                                        -Che Guevara, Socialism and Man

 

I wonder if, centuries from now, Che Guevera will be looked upon by people around the world in the way Jesus of Nazareth is looked upon by billions today, as a model for how one lives one’s life.

 

This will only happen, of course, if humanity is successful, short-term, in avoiding catastrophic climate change via a clean energy revolution and, longer-term, through a wide and deep justice-based revolution away from capitalism and towards a society organized on the principle of respect for one another and our natural environment.

 

These thoughts are prominent on the day after watching the movie “Che,” a four-hour semi-documentary focused on one successful and one thoroughly unsuccessful revolutionary war, the first in the late ‘50s in Cuba and the other in Bolivia in the late ‘60s. Che Guevara was a leader of both.

 

Yesterday was also the day that Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza. The Israeli government was urged on both by the Bush Administration’s to-be-expected overt support of Israel’s air strikes that left thousands dead and wounded and by President-elect Barack Hussein Obama’s deafening silence. Israel made clear, for the umpteenth time, that their illegal and brutal military occupation and encirclement of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem will only end when they are forced to do so because of a mixture of Palestinian resistance and concrete acts of international solidarity and pressure, as in a cutting off or reduction of military aid from the United States.

 

There is an uncanny link between the second half of “Che” and what is now taking place in Gaza. In both instances, people engaged in armed combat against an oppressive government—in one case, a socialist-oriented group and in the other a radical Islamic group—faced or are facing decimation.

 

“Che” reveals in close detail what took place in Bolivia after, under Guevara’s leadership, an armed guerrilla column was established with Cuban government support in an attempt to spread the socialist project beyond Cuba. This portrayal follows the first half of the movie showing how, a decade earlier, Fidel, Che and the Cuban people successfully defeated the U.S.-backed Batista military dictatorship during a two-years-long guerrilla war.

 

“Che” is not a full biography of the man. 90% or more of the film is devoted to a “you-are-there” rendering of the day-by-day realities of these two guerrilla wars. A small portion of it dramatizes a meeting between Che, Fidel and others in Mexico City in 1955, notable for Fidel’s explanation of the exploitative and brutal realities of Cuban society which was the motivation for his willingness to risk his life in the revolutionary cause. A more substantial section of it is devoted to Che’s visit to New York City in 1964 to speak at the United Nations. Most of the political motivation for what they did is revealed in these two sections.

 

The movie is well-researched. While based upon Guevara’s diaries, there were also, according to an article in the January 4^th New York Times, “interviews that proved decisive. (Peter) Buchman, (Steven) Soderbergh and (Benicio) Del Toro traveled to Cuba several times and talked to Guevara’s family and friends, generals who fought in the Cuban revolution and survivors from the Bolivian expedition.”

 

The movie makes no explicit effort to explain why the Cuban armed uprising succeeded and the Bolivian one failed, but several reasons are indicated. One was the opposition from the Bolivian Communist Party to the Guevara-led effort. A related reason was the weakness of indigenous Bolivian leadership in the effort; Guevara is clearly the dominant figure. But perhaps most significant was the active role of the U.S. government in giving strategic and tactical military direction and weaponry to the Bolivian junta. This included sending military advisors and trainers who had honed their skills in the Vietnam war. This aid was decisive, leading to the eventual wiping out of Guevara’s guerrilla column.

 

Guevara’s character is played well by actor Benicio Del Toro. It is striking to watch Che’s heroic effort to prevent chronic asthma from precluding his full participation in the strenuous activity required during the revolutionary wars. He is portrayed as a no-nonsense, incisive leader of men (and a few women), prepared to make whatever sacrifices were necessary, including his life, to advance the revolutionary cause.

 

At the end of the film, after Guevara is wounded and captured and is being questioned by his captors, he makes the comment that, to paraphrase, “perhaps our failure will teach them lessons,” referring to Bolivians generally as well as the peasantry in the area where they had operated who were unwilling to support their effort. Given the emergence several decades later of the Bolivian Movement for Socialism and its success in electing Evo Morales to the Presidency, as well as the growth of the socialist project in Venezuela, Ecuador and elsewhere in Latin America, it looks like he was right.

 

The film portrays Guevara dying as one would expect him to die. Sprawled wounded on the ground, an executioner orders him to stand up. Looking the executioner in the eye, he refuses and says, “Shoot me.”

 

Che Guevara, if alive, would feel solidarity with those under the gun in Gaza today. He would draw strength, as I did, from the young Palestinians and Arabs I marched with in their thousands yesterday through midtown Manhattan. Chanting, “Gaza don’t cry, Palestine will never die,” and “Free, free Palestine,” their anger, energy and determination were palpable.

 

Young Fred Hampton, Chicago Black Panther Party leader murdered by the police in 1969, said that “You can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill the revolution.” The movie “Che,” and the on-going resistance in Palestine and all over the world to a profoundly unjust world order, confirms this truth of history.

 

 

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. Past Future Hope columns and more information can be found at http://www.tedglick.com.

Manifesto Slam on a Biodiesel Bus!

Hello and a very happy 2009!

I'd like to share information about an event I am organizing with Platform2 later on this month.  If you are in or around Boston, I hope you'll be able to join.

Warm wishes to you, wherever you find yourselves this January evening!
Andi

Platform2 presents MANIFESTO!SLAM

An evening of 5-minute manifestos performed by YOU.

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 - Inauguration Day - 7-9PM.

We invite you to stand on a soap box to read, sing, dance, scream, build, perform – to SLAM! – your own (or your favorite) manifesto. In this celebration, we will climb aboard a bio-diesel bus and drive through Boston broadcasting our individual and collective voices throughout the city. Join us to manifest the visions we have, the politics we feel, and the movements we revere.

We will gather together words, thoughts, and gestures of action.

We will distribute them on loudspeakers from the windows of a bio-diesel bus.

We will mail hard copies and documentation to the White House.

We will provide a soap box and musical interludes.

You will provide the manifesto.

MANIFEST!
We invite submissions for 5-minute manifestos. RSVP by replying so we can send you the pickup location.

Platform2: Art and Social Engagement is an experimental event series about creative practices at the intersection of social issues. Platform2 is organized by iKatun, Andi Sutton and Jane D. Marsching.

Oscar Grant police murder video

Shocking Video of Police Murder in Oakland, CA

I'm sending you the video linked below, which shows the execution style
murder of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African American father of a
four-year-old, by a white Oakland transit police officer on on New Year's
Day. The impact of this video is making the case into the Rodney King case
of the 21st century. Oscar was pushed to the ground, face down, and then
shot in the back while another officer forced his head into the floor with
his knee. The video was shot by a woman standing 20 feet away from the open
doors of a train. Police attempted to confiscate other video's of the
incident, but the train left before they could get to this person's camera.
Last night, nearly 1,000 people rallied at the train station where Oscar was
killed and some protesters later faced off with riot police in downtown
Oakland. On Wednesday, January 14 at 4 pm, there is a rally planned at
Oakland City Hall to be followed by a mass march to police headquarters.
The mainstream media has played only part of this video, or other video's
shot from different angles and the police are trying to claim this was an
"accident." I need your help to spread this video around the world so that
millions of people know what really happened.

The shooting takes place at approximately 1:25 minutes into the tape. You
can clearly see the officer draw his pistol, stand over Oscar, and fire
directly into his back. The gun shot is clearly audible as well as the
cries of fear and disbelief from many of the dozens of witnesses. The
bullet entered Oscar's lower back, ricocheted off the concrete floor and
then punctured his lung. After he was shot, several officers rolled him
over and hand-cuffed him as he lay bleeding to death and suffocating in his
own blood. Another 30 minutes went by before they finally took him to
Highland Hospital, approximately 2 miles away. He died on the way.

Here's the video

A newly formed group called "Coalition Against Police Execution" has formed
and it has a rapidly growing site on Facebook. Please join the Facebook
page and help us spread the word. Fore more background and up to date
coverage of Oscar's murder and the movement against police brutality in
Oakland, go to www.SocialistWorker.org

In Solidarity,
Todd Chretien
www.SocialistWorker.org
Oakland, CA

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Sixth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference!

Host: NYC Grassroots Media Coalition
Date:Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Time:7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location:NACLA office
Street:38 Greene Street, 4th floor (corner of Grand Street), SoHo

Come out and help organize the most important media gathering in NYC! Get to know grassroots media makers and social justice organizers from around the city while working to change our city's media landscape. Network, learn about media, and make friends!

We're looking for people to join our core organizing team. Starting in January, you'll work closely with staff and other organizers to make this the most diverse and exciting GMC yet. We particularly need people with event organizing, design, and web skills, but we welcome everyone. So come & learn about the organizing process and meet the rest of the group.
The NYC Grassroots Media Conference organizing committee actively seeks participation from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, classes, and physical abilities.


Phone: 8023098146
Email: jbatten517@gmail.com