Daily Archives: February 27, 2020

Updated Feb. 26.

Activist organizations across the United States have compared incidents of missing and murdered Indigenous people to a plague, an epidemic, and a national emergency.

Oklahoma state legislators and the Cherokee Nation recently pledged to end it, with bills and natives targeted at data collection and emergency response.

For too many Native women, violence is an ever-present threat, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. wrote in a December editorial. Murder is the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our Native sisters experience rates of violence at 10 times the national average. A large majority have been victimized by non-Native perpetrators.

In the Oklahoma House of Representatives, a bipartisan group of legislators authored five bills addressing missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP).

House Bill 3892, authored by Rep. Merelyn Bell (D-Norman), would require law enforcement to collect detailed biological information about the missing child, the person reporting the child missing, and the alleged suspects. The bill is currently awaiting review by the Public Safety Committee.

Too many Native American families in our state have suffered loss and trauma when a loved one went missing or was murdered, especially when that loved one is a child, Bell said. We must be intentional about preventing the next child from being ripped from their family and community.

Bell also authored House Bill 3893, which would allow for the creation of an electronic repository of student photographs to ensure there is a current photo of the child for law enforcement to use in helping locate them when they are identified as missing. The bill is currently awaiting review by the Public Safety Committee.

In missing person cases, every second counts, Bell said. The creation of a photo database will allow law enforcement to obtain data critical to their success in locating missing persons in a timely manner.

Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-Oklahoma City), authored Idas Law, House Bill 3345, which outlines the creation of the Office of Liaison under the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons. The Office of Liaison will consist of a missing person specialist with significant experience working alongside tribal communities.

HB3345 is in honor of Ida Beard, Dollens said. Ida has been missing since June 30, 2015. Beard is a citizen on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and her missing person case remains open to this day. Ida is one of many Native American women and girls across the country that has vanished without a trace and continues to vanish at alarming rates.

Ida's Law passed through the Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Feb. 25 with a vote of 14 to 0.

Working closely with tribal members for the past year on legislation to address MMIP in Oklahoma has been a transformative experience. The heartache and suffering that this community has gone through is brutal, and it is real," Dollens said. "I am proud to see Idas Law pass through committee today, and I want to commend each of the fierce Native American advocates, especially LaRenda Morgan with the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes and Ashley Nicole McCray Absentee Shawnee for bringing this issue to my attention and now to the attention of our state. I commend each of them, and I thank all tribal members for including me on this journey.

House Bill 2847, authored by Rep. Daniel Pae (R-Lawton), would creat a Red Alert System through the Department of Public Safety for when indigenous people are reported missing. The bill is currently awaiting review by the Public Health Committee.

Pae also authored House Bill 2848, which would require law enforcement officers to take an additional hour of CLEET training that would focus solely on cultural competency and sensitivity training when interacting with missing indigenous people and their families. The bill is currently awaiting review by the Public Safety Committee.

Like most issues, one of the biggest barriers to helping with the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous people is education, Pae said. My bills deal with educating the public when indigenous people go missing and educating law enforcement about the needs of this community. I appreciate my colleagues for shining a light on this issue, and I look forward to working with many more to get this legislation across the finish line.

Each piece of legislation came as a result to an interim study on MMIP that concluded in November.

Representatives of Rogers County sit on committees where these bills are currently under review, including Rep. Tom Gann (R-Inola) on Public Safety and Rep. Terry ODonnell (R-Verdigris) on Judiciary.

On the specific legislation put forward by state legislators, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said, The Cherokee Nation supports raising awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous people in the state legislature and opening a dialogue with state leaders about potential solutions. At this time, the Cherokee Nation is still reviewing MMIP related legislation and has not made an official endorsement on any of the related legislation, but will continue to monitor these bills and work closely with legislators and bill sponsors.

Within the Cherokee Nation, however, the commitment to dressing MMIP has been put into action with ongoing initiatives and federal lobbying efforts.

The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service cross deputizes with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies so they can work cases on non-tribal land and across state lines.

Cherokee Nations ONE FIRE Victim Services initiative provides advocacy and legal assistance to Cherokee Nation citizens who are victims of crimes such as domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking or dating violence.

Victims of domestic violence or sexual assault should call ONE FIREs 24-hour emergency helpline at 866-458-5399 to receive help.

The Cherokee Nation is also advocating at the federal level for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Within the Cherokee Nation, tribal councilors passed a law expanding the tribal VAWA law to authorize prosecution of non-Indians in domestic violence cases, taking advantage of the federal VAWA authority authorizing that.

The grief of losing a sister, mother, niece or cousin is magnified when families feel that government officials are not doing enough to find out what happened and the case remains unsolved, Hoskin said. Now is the time to put a stop to this epidemic. To our federal and state partners, our community advocates, and all Cherokees and allies who are ready to take a stand, let us stand together and combine our resources and our voices to say, No more.

The federal Department of Justice has announced plans to hire 11 coordinators to respond to reports of missing and murdered Native Americans. Oklahoma will have one coordinator. The new plan also calls for the deployment of the FBIs most advanced response capabilities when needed, improved data collection and analysis, and training to support local response efforts.

Go here to read the rest:

UPDATED: Oklahoma legislators, Cherokee Nation emphasize need to address missing and murdered Indigenous people - Claremore Daily Progress

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Today, Medic Mobile announced the creation of Medic Labs, a new global health technology accelerator, with $3 million in seed funding from The Rockefeller Foundation. Medic Labs will pursue moonshot ideas in the tradition of dedicated R&D arms of major technology companies, including Microsoft Research, Google X, and Bell Labs to drive better community health outcomes for all people, everywhere, through the intentional, equitable application of data science.

Globally, there is a growing and urgent need to improve community health. Today, half the world lacks access to essential services, and by 2030, the world will face a shortage of 18 million health workers. The current model of community health, based on static care and protocols, is ripe for large-scale change.

"New datasets and precision approaches to clinical practice are transforming healthcare for the wealthy, and it is time for the powerful insights underlying this shift to strengthen health systems serving the poorest and hardest-to-reach communities," said Isaac Holeman, PhD, Co-Founder of Medic Mobile and Head of Medic Labs. "Medic Labs will play a crucial role in realizing the potential of Precision Public Health, creating human-centered solutions that help community health systems to reach more people in need and improve health outcomes for everyone."

"Moonshot ideas have generated innovations that have transformed the lives of many," said Naveen A. Rao, MD, Senior Vice President, Health, The Rockefeller Foundation."The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support Medic Labs as they apply this approach to generating new ideas that have the potential to advance precision in public health and improve health for all. I welcome others to join us in supporting such bold approaches to solving the world's greatest public health challenges."

For the past decade, Medic Mobile has worked with Ministries of Health and other partners to support countries in realizing the potential of community health workers to improve the health of their populations. Through the Community Health Toolkit(CHT) open-source project, Medic Mobile has built digital health applications that over 27,000 health workers have been trained and equipped to use. The organization's well-established human-centered design practice, and other insights and expertise gained through this work, will inform Medic Labs' research agenda and approach to moving projects from the lab to the field.

Medic Labs will be a separate research unit housed within Medic Mobile. This separation between routine operations and R&D will provide Medic Labs' growing team with room to experiment, while having the ability to roll out promising developments withMedic Mobile's health system partners across 14 countries to make an impact at scale. In the coming months Medic Labs expects to form new partnerships with health systems, co-funders, and other innovative organizations to further expand on its ambitious R&D agenda. Initially, Medic Labs will focus on three areas:

"The Community Health Toolkit has enabled community health workers to reach more people with life-saving interventions," said Beatrice Wasunna, a Senior Researcher at Medic Labs. "We're excited to work with The Rockefeller Foundation to ensure that Medic Mobile's innovations do not stay in the lab, but reach those who stand to benefit the most as quickly as possible."

About Medic MobileMedic Mobile's mission is to advance good health and human flourishing with and for the hardest-to-reach communities. A unique non-profit organization, Medic Mobile works with partner organizations to build and apply software that helps health workers deliver equitable care. As technical steward of the Community Health Toolkit open source project, Medic Mobile supports more than 27,000 health workers who provide care for over 12 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Most of the organization's nearly 100 engineers, designers, and global health practitioners work from offices in Nairobi, Dakar, and Kathmandu, and roughly a third work remotely or from offices in Seattle and San Francisco. The organization and its open source community envision a more just world in which health workers are supported as they provide care for their neighbors, universal health coverage is a reality, and health is a secured human right.For more information, sign up for our quarterly newsletter at http://www.medicmobile.org and follow us on Twitter at @Medic.

About The Rockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation's mission unchanged since 1913 is to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Today the Foundation advances new frontiers of science, policy, and innovation to solve global challenges related to health, food, power, and economic mobility. As a science-driven philanthropy focused on building collaborative relationships with partners and grantees, The Rockefeller Foundation seeks to inspire and foster large-scale human impact by identifying and accelerating breakthrough solutions, ideas and conversations. In health, The Rockefeller Foundation has been working to improve global public health for more than a century from eradicating hookworm in the American South, to launching the field of public health, to seeding the development of the life-saving yellow fever vaccine. The Foundation's Precision Public Health initiative aims to empower community health systems and frontline health workers with the latest digital innovations including more accurate and precise decision-making tools based on predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at http://www.rockefellerfoundation.organd follow us on Twitter at @RockefellerFdn.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medic-mobile-launches-medic-labs-a-new-tech-accelerator-for-global-health-with-an-initial-3-million-investment-from-the-rockefeller-foundation-301008680.html

SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation; Medic Mobile

Read the original post:

Medic Mobile Launches Medic Labs: A New Tech Accelerator for Global Health with an Initial $3 Million Investment from The Rockefeller Foundation - P&T...

LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is an open letter fromJonathan Thompson, founder of Good Seed Community Development Corporation("Good Seed"), an organization that grew out of the Good Seed Church, whose mission is to help youth not only live but thrive by providing supportive, nurturing, specialized care for homeless young people in California through supportive housing, job training, comprehensive services, and individual planning:

Across the United States, we assume that the modern-day church is free of persecution from government. However, through land use and zoning laws, and procedural processes, the local church is facing levels of opposition, suppression, and delay in cities throughout the country. The Atlantic previously wrote an article, The Quiet Religious-Freedom Fight That Is Remaking America, in 2017 regarding a small town church nestled in Bergen County, New Jersey. However, the quiet religious freedom fight is making its way across the United States from the East Coast to the West Coast. And, just like a basket is a combination of individual strands woven together to form a unit so, too, are the systematic means and methods to oppress the modern-day church.

The church (meaning an organization or assembly, from the Latin word ecclesia), in all of its splendor, was established and identified directly as the body of the Lord Christ Jesus. The church is designed to be a local group of believers who come together to glorify God; seek fellowship; spread the gospel; support and nourish the saints; visit those in jail; care for the poor, widows, and orphans; and, ultimately, to be the light on a hill pointing to God the Father.

However, those who do not see the value, who do not believe or only see the occasional blemishes in the church, are using local laws (such as land use laws) to delay, deteror stop churches from being established or from operating.Throughout the United States, there are countless stories of local governments such as cities and counties establishing laws, fees, zoning codes, and procedural processes that make it extremely difficult for churches to operate. This continues to occur despite the passage of federal legislation such as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which was designed to prevent local government and municipalities from obstructing churches through discriminatory zoning procedures and laws.

In many ways, the church is not intended to conform to the fluctuating ways of the world. However, when done properly and implemented justly, local laws benefit the church such as those that ensure proper implementation of egress and handicapped designs, energy efficiency, fire safety, and other best practices.

However, when zoning and land use laws are implemented maliciously, they essentially prohibit the legal operation of churches within local systems and codes. This results in unnecessary conflict, delays in the gospel, and wasted resources. It also forces orphans, widows, and the homeless to seek support elsewhere.

The City of Long Beach, California, for example, codes, zoning laws, systems, and procedures are an example of laws used to suppress the local church. This image showsthe requirements a church must meet in order to be legally established in an area of Long Beach, including the fee schedule to submit an application for a permit and local requirements to operate, which in this case is a Minor Conditional Use Permit. The relevant fees are highlighted in yellow.

In comparing the zoning codes for a church, theater, and adult entertainment business, the chart shows that a church is the only use requiring a Minor Conditional Use Permit (which would cost over $4,000) and would have to undergo a lengthy discretionary conditional use approval process, which can take a few months to complete if approved.

These requirements can greatly affect the success of a new church or the relocation of an existing church by redirecting time, energy, and resources away from their core mission. This raises the question of whether these restrictions are put in place to intentionally deter churches and other faith-based institutions from operating in Long Beach. In regards to layout, seating requirements, and operational structures, there are clear similarities between a church and a live theater or movie theater. However, a theater and adult entertainment use is permitted by right while a church is subject to a lengthy discretionary approval process.

Story continues

The Christian faith believes the evil one uses any number of tools at his disposal, and this can be one of them. In these instances, prayer, discernment, voting, and active civic engagement are paramount for faith-based organizations; without these efforts, the subtle attempts to block their existence may succeed and will impact wider communities and future generations.

The Good Seed Church is one institutional example of land use discrimination and oppression in the City of Long Beach. Their church focuses on meeting the spiritual and physical needs of Transitional-Age Youth who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. They paid the Minor Conditional Use Permit fee in April of 2016, submitted the required documents for review, and participated in numerous meetings with the city's Planning Department. However, they were still met with opposition and ultimately realized it was never about jumping through the hoops; it was about the church living out its mission to glorify God in fellowship and service, caring for the poor and the orphans, and ultimately to be a light. Good Seed believes youth homeless or not need a church that can meet their spiritual, physical, and mental health needs. They need showers, meals, a support team trained in mental health best practices, and mentors to show the love of God in a supportive and welcoming environment. As the Good Seed Church goes into its third year of experiencing "denial by delay" with the City of Long Beach Planning Department, it is important to share their experience as a caution for churches and faith-based institutions to be mindful of the intentional oppression of churches in local cities throughout the United States.

Media Contact

Jonathan Thompsonjthompson@goodseedcdc.orgT (323)758-5433

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/rluipa/543504

Related Images

long-beach-california.png Long Beach, California

long-beach-planning-bureau-fee.png Long Beach Planning Bureau Fee Schedule

planning-commission-2019-estimated.png Planning Commission 2019 Estimated Filing & Hearing Schedule

Related Links

The Quiet Religious-Freedom Fight That Is Remaking America

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/persecution-of-the-local-church-long-beach-california-301011914.html

SOURCE Good Seed

Continue reading here:

Persecution of the Local Church: Long Beach, California - Yahoo Finance

Since the religious right emerged as a U.S. political movement in the 1970s, theologian Jim Wallis has been pushing back against it. In the early 1970s, Wallis founded the progressive Christian community Sojourners, whose stated mission is "to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world."He writes regular columns for Sojourners magazine and for national media outlets, and he served as a spiritual advisor to former President Barack Obama.

In the Trump era, Wallis has become an outspoken critic of the president and his Christian supporters. His new book, "Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus,"argues that many white Christians on both the right and the left have forgotten to factor Jesus into their politics, and that this failure is part of the rot at the center of U.S. democracy. Besides writing, Wallis leads several action-oriented movements bringing together Christians and other religious communities around the country and the world.

Wallis recently visited North Carolina to speak about "Christ in Crisis"at Southeast Raleigh Table, a multiracial church in Raleigh, and he visited Duke University in Durham to host a conversation on the topic of "Reclaiming Jesus."Facing South caught up with him to talk about the current political moment, the Christian church's racial divide, and how the nation's changing demographics are also changing religion. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In your view, what is the state of the Christian church right now, in this moment of national political upheaval?

In a crisis, vulnerable people are always the most vulnerable. After the [2016] election, my calls were from black pastors afraid of their youth groups being more racially policed. Younger guys saying, "We're not sure if we'll be home for dinner tonight."Most young people I know who are in the "nones" category, none of the above, most believe in God still. They're not anti-religion, they just don't see its relevance. Courage is what they're looking for. They're not interested in going to a religion that isn't making a difference. I think this is a great opportunity. I say don't go left, don't go right. Go deeper. Our democracy's literally at stake, I think, and the integrity of faith is at stake. In this crisis, we're going to figure out who we are. Trump didn't cause all this. He's just a consequence. He reveals.

How do churches work together in the context of America's original sins of slavery and racism? How do you find coalitions between white and black churches, between people of faith and people who are not people of faith, between people who have felt abandoned by the church or see the church as sort of something that stands for power at this particular moment, power that is not Christian?

When you've got white evangelicals doing a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump, a transactional politics "Give us our judges and we'll ignore everything you're doing" that's the will to power itself. I got on the phone with a bunch of evangelicals after the election. I have the white evangelicals saying on the phone, "Well, we didn't vote for him because of his racial bigotry, but because of other moral issues."And then a black evangelical woman says, "So racial bigotry isn't a deal breaker for you."And that was the end of the conversation.

Dr. King, who was a mentor for a lot of us, believed in the separation of church and state. And I do too. That doesn't require the segregation of moral values from public life. He didn't say, "I get a civil rights bill because I'm in a Judeo-Christian country."He had a debate about what's best for the common good, but he evoked Jeremiah and Jesus's names in making his argument. These aren't political issues; they're a lot deeper. They're moral issues, they're spiritual issues, they're biblical issues, they're Jesus issues. Jesus said "Be not afraid"eight times. Don't be afraid. They're running on fear. White nationalist politics is "be afraid all the time."But Jesus says, "Don't be afraid." So I'm trying to put those things together.

The black church has led so many of the movements for change in the South. And I think, speaking very broadly, the white church has had a really hard time. Not even just evangelicals, but mainline denominations.

White Catholics and white mainline Christians all voted for Trump too, the majority. All white Christians.

Right. So have you seen any successful ways of getting white congregations to work with black churches?

There's the woman [Lisa Yebuah] who's pastoring the church we're at tonight [Southeast Raleigh Table]. She was an intern at Sojourners years ago, a black woman, then was a divinity school student here [at Duke]. Now she's pastoring this church that's racially 50-50, and a lot younger. That's archetypal of the kind of leadership going forward: multiracial and led by a black woman. She's becoming a powerful American preacher, and she was just a kid in our internship program a couple decades ago.

I was in this church in Charlotte, the Myers Park Baptist Church, with a long history on civil rights. That's the Sojourners choir. [At our event in] Western North Carolina, people came out from all over the place. We didn't know each other. I had lunch with a whole bunch of young activists and pastors who have never had lunch together, but they're all out there. What I learned is, when the choir is feeling hopeless and helpless, it doesn't help anybody. They felt inspired by that Sunday morning last week, and now they want to do all kinds of stuff. They want to not just have a group reading a book, but two churches, black and white, doing Jesus conversations together.

I told them about our Lawyers and Collars, putting [clergy] in polling places with lawyers where elections are stolen. Voter suppression has become a very deliberate, intentional strategy for people whose goal is to prevent changing demography from changing democracy. They can't stop changing demography. But they want to keep them from changing democracy. And this country hasn't yet committed itself to a multiracial democracy. This is clearly America's original sin.

I think the religious right, the white religious right, white evangelicals, they might rise and fall with Trump. They could be the chaplains for what would be an American brand of fascism.

For a lot of us, what changed our lives was being places we were never supposed to be. My whole life has been changed by being places I was never supposed to be, or being with people I was never supposed to know. We are systemically kept apart from each other by deliberate racial geography; 75% of white people have not one significant relationship or family [with a black person] in their social circle. Why are we doing better on LGBTQ stuff? Because white people know gay people. And so we're building relationships. It's solidarity, it's relationship. It's joining together on stuff like voter suppression that will make a difference.

The demographics of the country, the demographics of the South, are starting to change dramatically, and two of the fastest-growing communities in the South right now are Latinx people and Asian Americans. I'm curious if you've seen any faith movements develop in those groups, and how you see faith and public life and politics intersecting there?

The only place any churches are growing anywhere Baptist, Catholic is immigrants. All white churches are declining, and they're getting older, and their kids aren't coming. But the immigrants, refugees I was just in Mexico, seeing how in Tijuana, Mexican churches are taking care of thousands of Central American refugees. They're just doing what the Bible says, you know. But faith is strong, even young people, in those communities.

So it's shifting the church's view by shifting the church's demographics.

Exactly. The church's demographics are changing. The country, the right, Republicans, Trump, they want to not let changing demographics change democracy. But it's got to happen in the churches. And it is. Globally, the body of Christ, this global name of the church, is the most diverse on the planet. We're taking our young leaders' group to Nairobi, where the African evangelical association, 200 million of them, wrote and said, "Can we partner with you?"And we said sure. This is all long term, and it's a struggle, and there's lots of issues to resolve. But this to me is a far better way forward than just pitting left against right.

On that note, the South has a lot of conservative Christian governors and legislators. And it seems like there should be points of commonality between Christians, left or right, on things like caring for the widow, caring for the orphan. Are there issues where you see religion generally or Christianity specifically being a meeting point for people who otherwise would be on opposite political sides?

The text I talk about is Matthew 25 [on right action and how to treat the least of these]. That text changed me. We have a Matthew 25 movement around the country, and we were hosted in San Diego and Tijuana by the Mateo 25 group in Southern California. We now have a whole racial policing cohort going on, and one of the next ones will be in Raleigh-Durham. How are pastors combining to make sure that racial policing is stopped? It's multiracial pastors going to the police chief and saying, "We want fair law enforcement. We want to help, but we're going to watch what's happening."So the Matthew 25 movement, there are three parts: immigration, policing, and solidarity with Muslims. In particular areas, I think it truly brings faith back together again across boundaries of distance.

Where do you see the conservative evangelical movement going in the next years? What path is that part of the church charting for itself?

They have made a deal with the devil: Give us our judges for abortion, and we'll ignore everything else.

The [anti-Trump] editorial in Christianity Today Mark Galli wrote, that's a crack in the wall, a real crack in the wall. I was surprised. He's not a progressive, prophetic, or young. He's an old, conservative white guy who just couldn't live with this balance. Those are cracks in the wall. Republican evangelical suburban women in Texas drove their Lexus cars to megachurches during the last election with Beto bumper stickers. And their husbands and pastors got really furious, and the women said, "Well, life at the border is as important to us as life in the womb."There's some cracks in the walls. Young white evangelicals, raised in that world like I was a long time ago, are breaking. They're doing climate strikes on Fridays in their schools, or theyre breaking on LGTBQ issues from their parents. So there are cracks in these walls.

But I think the religious right, the white religious right, white evangelicals, they might rise and fall with Trump. They could be the chaplains for what would be an American brand of fascism. It would be white nationalism racialized authoritarian politics. History doesn't ever repeat, but it rhymes. So it wouldn't be like the Germans. It would be our brand. It would be racial. It would be based on the elephant in the room: By 2020 we're no longer a white-majority nation. That's the elephant in every political room. So can we [Christians] break with that? And if we don't, history will look back and say most of the white Christians supported this.

We're so polarized. How do you bring people back to some commonality, to some sense of understanding the other, of understanding each other as people with vocations and ideas and convictions, and not as simply political forces in the world?

One place where that happens is schools. My kids have always gone to multiracial public schools. After 9/11 my son Luke, who's now graduated college, was like 10 or something and they're doing a report and the TV guy talks about what Muslims are like. And Luke's just watching, and he says, "Dad, that's not true. Mohammed's not like that at all. Mohammed's not like that, what do they mean?"Its because he's in school with Mohammed.

The phrase "white Christian" what's the operative word? Christian or white? In America, it's white. Making Christian the operative term? That's conversion. How do we get transformed? A lot of that happens with young people who are in situations where they become friends with people who are different. We are separated deliberately by racial geography that keeps us from ever having a conversation. We get culturally conformed. The Gospel turns that upside down.

More here:

VOICES: 'In this crisis, we're going to figure out who we are' - Facing South

AMHERST UMass Amhersts Spotlight Scholar, Jamila Lyiscott, deserves more than just a spotlight.

Working as an assistant professor of social justice education for the College of Education, Lyiscott instills a life-long message of exceeding the restrictions institutions impose on her students and the UMass community. With humility and passion for her work, Lyiscott serves as a great role model for all of her students.

My mission is to support individuals and institutions to become their highest selves. I want to work alongside them, said Lyiscott.

Lyiscott grew up as a first-generation American in Brooklyn, N.Y. She found comfort in going to church and being a part of youth organizations. When she was 15, she became involved with Urban Word NYC, an organization that supports young writers, where she traveled locally to perform poetry.

It was within these community-based organizations where Lyiscott realized there were different ways of engaging young voices and minds outside the constraints of a conventional classroom.

I noticed a lot of my peers were extremely talented and were thriving but hated school, said Lyiscott. School was just a backdrop of hoops that I had to jump through until college. It was in college that I cared more about learning and was pushed to think more critically.

Since she was young, Lyiscott felt the presence of racial disparities in the world.

I realized after growing up that my parents were very intentional about me staying woke. We were always in conversation about who I am in this world, said Lyiscott.

She says everything her parents did for and around her as a child were seed[s] planted for the work she would later pursue.

At the age of 19, Lyiscott appeared on an academic panel to speak to high school students about their transition to college. In the middle of her sentence, she was interrupted by a woman, who called her articulate. This moment would be a turning point in her life.

I know she meant it as a compliment, said Lyiscott. But its about holding individuals to the responsibility of that kind of thinking and perspective and holding institutions to the responsibility that me speaking standardized English leaves an impression and is the only way to sound intelligent.

After this experience, Lyiscott felt uncomfortable and confused. As she rode the train home, she decided to put her feelings into a poem.

Poetry always helped me question my world in a way school didnt, said Lyiscott.

When she was 26, TED reached out to her and asked if she could perform her poem, 3 Ways to Speak English. With delight, she complied and a month later, her talk was presented on the front page of TED.

I started getting messages from all over the world. The talk was translated into 20+ languages and was being thrown around all over the media.

In addition to appearing on TED, she was interviewed by several news outlets. She even went on to write her own book, Black Appetite, White Food. Writing this book was initially challenging for her, as she struggled at first to force herself to fit the mold of what a book should sound like.

I ended up throwing out my entire book outline and wrote the book how I wanted to write it. I felt more connected to my voice after this.

Lyiscott has always implemented her voice into every piece of her work, despite the institutional pressure she feels her and many others face. In doing so, she combats racial injustice by encouraging youth to be self-expressive by using their own unique voices freely.

When asked about her greatest accomplishments, Lyiscott did not name any awards she had won, any media platforms she had appeared on or even mention the book she had written.

She said, The relationships I build with young people in my spiritual community, as a Christian and using those values to help people be their highest selves. Theres something to be said about how I represent the fact that they can be more than predominantly white institutions limit them to be. These people erase themselves in some way and I feel like, for a lot of people, they now feel like they can be unapologetically viewed.

Lyiscott never pursued media outlets, as they were never her priority. To her, these were simply just nice surprises.

The most important thing is that my message is heard, felt and spread, said Lyiscott.

As an assistant professor at UMass, Lyiscott is still making sure her message is instilled. She finds comfort in the support of her colleagues and the resources around her, both of which contribute to her vision.

She is currently working to launch a center for racial justice and youth engaged research. Her goal is to uphold different racial practices by bringing in historically marginalized communities.

I hope to sustain racial justice and youth leadership across discipline and education. I see the work of racial equity and youth and leadership voice are essential practices of every discipline, not just the arts, said Lyiscott.

Lyiscott recently won a grant through the Fulbright Student Program, giving her and 12 other teachers the opportunity to travel to Ghana in July for 30 days. She is going to work with other teachers to uphold these values and ideas, while also questioning, how they can honor complex linguistic ideas of students as something valuable and that are connected to the youth voice.

Although she pursues her work at UMass right now, she feels she was meant to do what she is doing right now, as it is a calling that is beyond anything, she said. Even if it wasnt here, I would be doing it somewhere else.

Email Carrie at [emailprotected]

Excerpt from:

The spotlight is on Jamila Lyiscott - Amherst Wire

Updated, Feb. 26

A contentious process to promote school integration in Queens is moving forward after being temporarily derailed by parent protests, many targeting the firm contracted to lead what will likely be impassioned and complex community discussions around race and equity.

Although meetings for a potential diversity plan to integrate and share resources among District 28s 13 middle schools are now slated to start next month, many parents are unhappy with how little they know about WXY Studio, a New York City-based architecture and urban design firm whose work has been at the center of high-profile school integration efforts around the country.

In Queenss District 28, parents have questioned the scope of WXYs contract, its strategy for reaching all communities, and how its past projects position it to spearhead discussions that could ultimately influence where their children attend school and learn.

I thought architects built buildings, parent Judy Wong, whose two children attend school in Rego Park, flatly observed at a District 28 Community Education Council meeting earlier this month. I dont know if [WXY] would be qualified to do whatever this is.

The firms role facilitating wide-reaching community engagement that informs and guides future recommendations for achieving equity and diversity in schools is a recurring part of its portfolio. And this is not the first time WXYs motives, methods and qualifications have become fair game in the conflicts around school desegregation efforts.

WXY oversaw a similar process two years ago in Brooklyns District 15, though parents and community members had advocated for that undertaking at the onset, and is conducting a controversial review of school boundary lines in Montgomery County, Maryland, that has raised parents ire. Its simultaneously collaborating with the School District of Lancaster in south-central Pennsylvania to propose new school boundaries. Nearly a decade ago, it also evaluated prospective school assignment policies in Boston Public Schools, a city whose history is inextricably tied to school segregation battles.

WXY does important work to bring voices together, and does not make any decisions about the plan that will come out of this [District 28] process, a New York City Department of Education spokeswoman said in a Feb. 14 email.

That WXY will not steer public dialogue toward a preset conclusion has been underscored repeatedly by city school officials, who earlier this month delayed scheduling public talks for District 28s diversity plan after parents decried a lack of transparency around decision-making and who had a seat at the table.

Parent and Forest Hills resident Art Raevsky addresses District 28s CEC at a Feb. 6 meeting at The STEM Institute of Queens in south Jamaica. (Taylor Swaak)

So far, we dont get any feedback from WXY Its not clear how theyre planning to go through the whole process, said Forest Hills resident and parent Art Raevsky, who also attended this months Community Education Council meeting. It leads us to believe that something is going on behind the scenes, that theres some predetermined outcome.

In what appeared to be a concession, the DOE last week announced that it had extended the projects timetable from June to December, promising meetings at every local elementary and middle school beginning in March along with six public workshops starting in May. Parents will receive at least three weeks notice for each workshop date.

The DOE also released the sought-after names of the 20 current working group members who will ultimately use community feedback to submit recommendations to the DOE, with the goal of increasing middle school diversity and boosting students academic achievement. The members include students, teachers, PTA presidents and leaders of local multicultural associations. Officials say the list will expand.

We are excited to make this process more inclusive, the DOEs announcement read. Its success is dependent on hearing viewpoints from every corner of the District, mutual trust, transparency and clarity.

Far-flung District 28 is slender and long, nearly touching the outer rim of the behemoth NYC system and stretching from Forest Hills to Kew Gardens, Rego Park and Jamaica. It is whiter and more affluent to the north, and more racially diverse and working-class to the south. Not a single District 28 middle school reflects the local demographics.

The DOE and WXY use that word diversity very loosely, remarked Terri Wright, a Jamaica resident and mom of a 14-year-old boy. I just want the same opportunity all around. Not lets give this side this opportunity or lets give this side that it should be the same all over, whether north, south, east or west.

Parents opposing a diversity plan in District 28 have repeatedly maintained that it would lead to rezoning and busing. The DOE in its letter to community members Wednesday re-emphasized that there are no pre-determined outcomes and that recommendations can cover solutions including school resources, parent empowerment, student voice, and admissions policies.

WXY declined to discuss past projects or its District 28 engagement strategy, but it provided a brief statement noting the challenges of school diversity work and its own qualifications.

This is a new model for trying to solve a very, very complex issue that relates to lots of other things outside of education policy, a WXY spokesperson said. It requires a pretty unique set of skills, and I think we bring those to the table.

A think tank that builds

WXY, whose offices are in Lower Manhattan, was founded in 1998 and now employs some 50 people. The firm, which describes itself as a think tank that builds, has racked up numerous architecture and urban design awards. It was named one of the Worlds Most Innovative architecture firms by business magazine Fast Company last year and received an Excellence in Design award in June from Mayor Bill de Blasios administration for co-designing an affordable housing development in the Bronx for low-income and previously homeless New Yorkers.

The bulk of its clients are government entities school districts fall under that umbrella along with nonprofits.

Most of its experience is outside of education. Its website lists projects ranging from land use master plans to the design of sustainable energy infrastructure and pedestrian bridges. A fairly consistent thread across its portfolio, though, is gathering public feedback on thorny civic issues in traditionally hard-to-reach communities.

Akina Younge, the WXY project manager overseeing District 28 planning, has a masters in public policy and a background in New York City and state advocacy efforts, including coordinating a campaign that won a first-ever rent freeze on rent-stabilized city apartments five years ago. Adam Lubinsky, a WXY managing principal also closely involved in District 28, wrote his Ph.D. at University College London on the impacts of school choice policies on cities.

WXY has collaborated with at least four school districts, including Bostons, which like New York City grapples with highly segregated schools. The firm evaluated alternative options to Bostons school assignment policy in 2012, though it didnt make recommendations (the policy the district ended up implementing, which was meant to increase students access to good schools close to home, generated mixed outcomes).

When contacted about WXYs performance, a Boston Public Schools spokesman replied that those most intimately involved with this project are no longer with the district. The 74 separately located a former Boston school administrator who was involved in WXYs work, but he declined to talk about it.

In New York City, WXY is currently contracted to work with five local districts on their diversity plans District 9 in the Bronx, Districts 13 and 16 in Brooklyn, District 28 and District 31 on Staten Island at $155,000 each, or $775,000 total. District 31, though, is not currently utilizing WXY or any outside firms services, according to the DOE. The department would only say that WXY was tapped following a competitive evaluation and selection process when asked who else applied for the job.

WXYs contract covers 1,105 labor hours for each local district, according to Panel for Educational Policy documents. With District 28s timetable extended from June to December, the DOE acknowledged Thursday that were assessing if there are any needed contract changes, though it didnt answer questions about additional costs.

As of early December, there wasnt a locatable contract between WXY and the education department, according to a DOE officers response to a public records request filed by CBS. The response further stated that WXY did have a contract with the NYC Economic Development Corporation and that the DOE had accessed the services of WXY Studio through that contract. The city comptrollers office, when contacted by The 74, said it was under the same impression. Asked about the discrepancy, a DOE spokeswoman said Friday that the contract with the Economic Development Corporation is old and not the D28 and WXY contract, which DOE holds.

The 74 in late January submitted a FOIL request for any contracts between the Economic Development Corporation and WXY, and is awaiting a response.

Shifting segregation in Brooklyn

Often armed with more questions than answers, some parents have theorized that the DOE and WXY will use District 15s 2018 diversity plan as a blueprint, even though the districts are different in size, demographics and enrollment practices. The DOE has touted District 15s plan which opted to eliminate middle school admissions screens in favor of a lottery system that gives preference to English learners, low-income students and homeless students as a success, with the change already shifting racial compositions at the local middle schools.

There have been mixed opinions on how WXYs community engagement model played out in the Brooklyn district that covers Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and parts of Boerum Hill and Fort Greene. Miriam Nunberg, a cofounder of advocacy group D15 Parents for Middle School Equity and a working group member, recalled being skeptical initially about the actual influence community members would have over the final plan. Her doubts largely revolved around the DOE and what really would come out of this whether this was going to be more window-dressing.

It was reassuring that WXY seemed disconnected from the education department and was intent on establishing a diverse working group, she said. Though it took an extra two months to finalize the groups 18 members, Nunberg was impressed with the team of students, parents, teachers, advocates, community leaders and others that materialized.

It was a really nice balance of people, she said. Nunberg added that there were Spanish interpreters for every single meeting. We had headsets, so it was a real-time translation. There was a very, very intentional effort to make sure that [all] voices were equally heard.

Those members identities werent formally released until the final plans unveiling in late July 2018. Even with District 28s working group members now named, some still take issue with their selection being made by WXY and the DOE, rather than parents and community members.

Community members at District 28s CEC meeting on Feb. 6. (Taylor Swaak)

Other stakeholders were more critical of WXYs outreach. Voces Ciudadanas, a nonprofit based in Sunset Park that seeks to empower low-income communities of color, declined to participate in District 15s working group. It referred The 74 to comments it made in late 2017 that it didnt think there was a plan to integrate marginalized communities in a meaningful and sustained way or to address deep rooted causes of school segregation, such as racial discrimination, economic neglect, [and] housing and real estate segregation.

The critiques are still valid today and in retrospect, they played out with the major players being the major players, a representative for Voces Ciudadanas wrote in an email on the groups behalf. Families of color were not centered in the process.

Viewed as an outsider by some in Maryland

Concerns with transparency and inclusion have also accompanied WXYs relationship with Montgomery County Public Schools, a diverse 165,000-student suburban district outside Washington, D.C.

Nobody knows what [WXY] is, district parent Anil Chaudhry said.

The firm last year beat out one other contractor, Cooperative Strategies, LLC, to conduct a nearly year-long school boundary review of the Maryland district for about $475,000. The countrys 14th-largest school system is facing overcrowding and rising enrollment projections, and its Board of Education wanted a comprehensive assessment of how current boundaries are affecting students access to schools that are diverse, not over capacity and within walking distance of home.

The firm is coordinating community workshops and meetings as part of its review. Contrary to many parents deep-seated concerns that the study will spark widespread rezoning and busing, the district has emphasized that WXYs final report expected in June wont include recommendations or policy changes.

While district officials did pause when we realized this wasnt the thing that they do 24/7, Montgomery County schools chief communications officer Derek Turner said WXY won them over with its creativity and how it had a better sense of our community and our community needs. Officials seemed particularly excited about WXYs plans to use all of its data analyses to create an interactive map that would allow users to fiddle with certain factors, like how crowded a school is, to see how changing that would alter other factors, like student diversity.

This is an area where everything is evolving very quickly, district superintendent Jack Smith told The 74. As we think about the integration of data and information and engagement with the community we really wanted to think about a very different, more interactive, more push-in to the community kind of engagement than weve ever done before.

WXY had coordinated six regional meetings in Montgomery County, reaching some 2,500 people as of Feb. 12, each time polling attendees to gauge which groups are underrepresented, Turner said.

Some parent groups, like One Montgomery, have publicly backed the school boundary review WXY is conducting, noting that it will provide an independent, data-driven look at how schools are being used, and how to reduce segregation. Many parents, though often in posts on Facebook groups say they feel the school boundary review has been largely out of public view.

When we see an outside consultant coming in, that causes us concern, because we know that when parents want information about the process the odds are pretty good were going to be given roadblocks, said Janis Sartucci of the Parents Coalition of Montgomery County.

Chaudhry, who has three children in the district, attended one of the regional meetings and was troubled that he couldnt get answers to what he deemed two simple questions.

I said, Can I get a clear definition thats been approved by [the district] for words youre using in this study? [Words like] equity how do you calculate equity? Wheres the formula?' he said. The second question was, Will the public taxpayer be able to see the underlying models and algorithms you used to get to your findings? I could not get an answer on that either.

Chaudhry said his frustration is part of what inspired him to run for a Board of Education seat to ensure accountability moving forward.

It starts with the Board of Education as the policymakers, he said. But now that WXY has committed to taking on this process, the ball is in their court. Theyre getting paid $475,000 to do something; they should be able to clearly explain to the taxpayer what they are spending the $475,000 on, and what we expect to see in return.

Turner, the district spokesman, said he believes that public discontent with WXY is likely misdirected.

Its not the vendor, he said. Its that they have anxiety about the process.

View original post here:

Urban Design Firm WXY Is at the Center of the Country's Most Contentious School Integration Work From New York City to Maryland. Who Are They,...