CKCPJ PEACE Leaders

Lexington's "Looking for a Home" Posada procession: Our Third Stop—the Homeless

A message to Mayor Jim Gray and the Lexington/Fayette Urban County Government during Lexington's "Looking for a Home" Posada procession Tues. Dec. 17, 2013 at our third stop

(read by CKCPJ board member Billie Mallory):

 “Just as Mary and Joseph needed a place for their child to ‘lay down his sweet head,’ many of our homeless also need a place to call HOME.

“We urge you to fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, so no more families will be turned away.  We also humbly request that you follow your own Task Force recommendations by putting the Office of Homeless Prevention and Intervention into place now.

 “PEACE AND GOODWILL TO ALL — men, women, children, youth, elderly, veterans, mentally ill, addicted ....

 From the People of the Streets

“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business;

we are each other's magnitude and bond.” 

― Gwendolyn Brooks 

 More details about CKCPJ's "Looking for a Home" Posada procession event:

This event drew attention to the need for our community to focus on, and take action to provide homes for  the displaced amongst us, including the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Why?  Because we are all human beings and each of us, regardless of nationality or economic status, deserve respect and dignity. These issues are Human Rights' issues and should be treated as such. 

Together, we can move mountains!

The day's events:  began with a meeting in the parking lot at 772 Winchester Road (just East of the McDonald’s on Winchester Rd. across from JIF plant). Children acting as Joseph and Mary led us in a procession.  At McDonald's, we paused and sang, and CKCPJ board member Kerby Neill made a statement on the theme:

If you are Looking for a Home you have to earn a living-wage!

Next, we proceeded down Midland Ave, stopping at the Herald Leader, to sing a song of thanks for their articles on the problem of Homelessness. Our statement:

If you are Looking for a Home you may need an advocate!

We proceeded to the Government Center, at the corner of Main St. and Martin Luther King and sang with a statement of concern about the delays in implementing recommendations of the Homelessness Commission and BUILD, including an Affordable Housing Trust Fund and a statement:

If you are Looking for a Home, shelter must be available for the homeless and housing must be available and affordable!

We proceeded to the Circuit Court Building to address the issues of restoration of voting rights.

If you are Looking for a Home you don’t want to live where you have no voice!

We  walked to the Federal Court House to sing and press for action on immigration reform. Our statement:

If you are Looking for a Home you need to have a Country to call home and be safe from deportation.

Finally, we moved to Central Christian Church (205 E. Short Street Lexington) for hot chocolate and fellowship before we dispersed (https://www.facebook.com/CentralChristianLex).

don't forget: you can contact us by email at: [email protected].

We'll have more events regarding the need for economic justice and human rights in 2014!  Check back with us soon, on our Facebook page, or sign up for email updates!

 

DREAM 9 Vigil

As part of the national Bring Them Home campaign of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, family and friends of local Lexington deported DREAMer Ceferino Santiago held a vigil for the DREAM 9 detained at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona (see more about Ceferino at the DREAM Activist website).

U.S. immigration authorities denied humanitarian parole for this group of nine undocumented youths who presented themselves at the legal port of entry at Nogales, peacefully protesting the border-security based immigration policies and requesting intervention from President Obama. (Read more at the Huffpost article here.)

Ceferino Santiago is an award-winning student who graduated from Lafayette High School in Lexington. He needed ear surgery that his family could not afford here in Kentucky, so he was forced to go to Mexico for treatment. He wants to return to the U.S. to further his education and give back to the Lexington community.

Several CKCPJ PEACE Leaders (including Kerby Neill and Tanya Torp) supported in person the vigil yesterday for Ceferino Santiago, brother of former CKCPJ Board member Pedro Santiago. The Herald-Leader reported that about 30 people attended the vigil.

From a negative comment on the news site, it is clear that not everyone understands the issues regarding undocumented youth and their continuing relationships that cross national borders despite draconian laws. As Dominic Power, a volunteer coordinator with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance put it in an interview with ABC: "These are people who have spent most of their lives in the United States. This truly is their home. They [the DREAM 9 protesters now imprisoned] wanted to take a stand for all of the people that want to come home, and at the end of the day they're in the same situation."

The poignant portrayal of brotherly love -- figuratively and literally -- cannot be more eloquently stated than in the photo of Pedro Santiago at right; see more Herald-Leader photos of the vigil here.

For those who couldn't attend in person, please make a call to Kentucky Representatives Barr (202-225-4706) and Yarmuth (202-225-5401) urging them to sign the Congressional Support Letter.  More information is available at the DREAM 9 Facebook event page.

Vote for CKCPJ Youth Program Proposal

We've gathered together some fantastic activists and scholars to propose a project for the Digital Media and Learning Competition - Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming.  Under the leadership of Dr. Jasmine McNealy, we're seeking funding to support a jobs for youth program starting in early July of this year.

Entitled CKCPJ 'Be Brave: Peace is Possible' Youth Leadership and Digital Media Program, the proposed program evolves from a conversation begun by the CKCPJ Youth Services Initiative. The program focuses on the orientation and training in the appropriate use of digital media for creative digital storytelling by youth aged 13-17 from Lexington’s most underserved neighborhoods. Trainings under the supervision of Dr. McNealy, a digital media and mass communications law expert, occur in the East 7th Street Center.  CKCPJ’s program matches with the goals of the East 7th Street Center: “to motivate children to learn, help them develop self-confidence and self-expression, and encourage them to take on new challenges.”

The youth accepted into the program would work with Dr. McNealy, Lexington United trainers and CKCPJ volunteer trainers to develop leadership and digital media skills. CKCPJ will (if funded by Project:Connect Summer Youth Program) pays the youth a wage to learn these career/college readiness skills and to begin to teach their peers the following skills:

• create digital media with ethnographic-autobiographical methods; articulate the ethics of digital storytelling and privacy rights;
• use collaboration, peaceful negotiation or other intervention strategies in dangerous settings, and conflict resolution; and,
• effective use of public transportation, civic organizations/agencies and other community resources/services in Lexington.

At the end of the six weeks program, the youth will have produced a compilation of digital stories that creatively express their everyday lives. Dr. McNealy will preside over a celebratory event with parents, representatives from local government and NGOs, and the local press. This culminating event will take place at The Plantory, a collaborative working space situated in Lexington’s East End neighborhood for grassroots activists.

Sound good?  We need your help during the open voting period.  Visit the project page:

CKCPJ "Be Brave: Peace is Possible" Youth Leadership and Digital Media Program

Click on the Vote button (on the upper left, right under the title...just a small check mark) and add your comments below.