Arise for Social Justice

Submitted by Guest on December 3, 2008 - 2:00pm.

94 Rifle Street

Springfield

01150

Website:

www.angelfire.com/ma4/arise

Ownership:

501c3 organization

Advocacy Organization

Organizational Membership:

Individuals

Organization Type:

Advocacy Organization

Organization Number:

31506

Organization Phone:

(413) 734-4948

Organization Fax:

(413) 781-3712

Detailed Description

Organization Description:

Mission Our purpose is to educate poor people to know, stand up for and achieve our rights; to promote self-esteem in poor people; to promote involvement in the electoral system, and to educate the community as to our common interest in social justice. We became a multi-issue, low-income rights organization as the original founders left welfare for low-paying work and found we faced the same problems as before. In 1992, after a major organizational retreat, we amended our by-laws to include educating our members to take action against all forms of oppression- racism, homophobia, ableism, etc.?although being poor has always been the bond that ties us together Constituency We have four staff working 10 or more hours; four are women. Our membership is 50% white, 40% African-American, 10% Latino/a. About 25% of our members are disabled. About 15% of our members are gay/lesbian/transgendered. About 20% of our members are under age 25; about 20% are over 45. We consider our constituency to be all low-income and oppressed people in Springfield and, to a lesser degree, surrounding areas. Racially, our constituency is about 40% African-American, 30% Latino/a and 20% white. The work of our organization is done by those most directly affected by the issues of poverty and oppression. We benefit because Arise is our home and our family and our vehicle for social change, and reflects the realities of our members? lives. We are all encouraged to treat Arise?s well-being as our personal and collective responsibility, from washing dishes in the sink and taking out trash to fundraising, media work and conflict resolution. We watch out for each other. Structure Our general membership includes anyone who agrees with Arise?s mission and who works in any way to support our work. General members are welcomed to all meetings and events, but are not eligible to vote on organizational matters. We have about 1000 general members. Working Members are the heart of Arise, and our working membership has collective authority over the organization?s direction. To be a working member you must be part of an active committee and commit to a minimum of two hours a month to that committee?s work. Working members are responsible for carrying out the campaigns and projects that they themselves have identified, and are eligible to vote on all important matters. We have about 150 working members. To form a program committee, at least three members must come together to commit themselves to sustained work; develop an action plan which includes program, membership development, and Board representation; and meet at least once a month. Once formed, committees have autonomy over their program and are accountable to the organization as a whole. Our Board of Directors is composed of members elected at large and one member appointed from each committee. The board meets at least monthly and is entrusted by our working membership with the tasks of establishing, staffing, and promoting the work of the organizational development committees; assuring accountability to the organization on the part of each committee; discussing programmatic work and setting organizational direction between membership meetings; and planning for the long term needs of the organization. At times certain committees are able to hire staff to carry their programming forward on a paid basis. When this occurs, it is the committee?s responsibility to develop job descriptions and a mechanism for mutual accountability between staff and committee members. Decision-making process Committees of Arise have autonomy and make their own decisions. Controversial issues and issues that affect all of Arise are brought to a vote.

States Worked in:

MA MASSACHUSETTS

Current Organizing Agenda:

Current Organizing Agenda Our current work and activities: Women in Support of Each Other (WISE) and the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition (ShaRC): The WISE committee is led by women who are formerly incarcerated, some current and former drug users, and some current and former sex workers. WISE women are also active in SHaRC. Between the coalition and the committee, our campaigns are: stopping new jail construction, needle exchange, and decriminalizing our lives, most especially prostitution. In late August, Gov. Romney announced that funds were being released for all three of the Massachusetts county jails that had been on hold- Greenfield, Barnstable and Chicopee. This was a major disappointment to us but the ground has not been broken at any of the three sites yet. We held meetings with a number of our key legislative contacts who told us that the governor was now the chief decision maker about the fate of the new jails. We organized a postcard campaign and have (so far) sent 1,500 postcards to the governor. We have organized presentations to the Public Safety Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee of the Legislature. Needle Exchange: For the past several years, Arise had been choosing to operate an underground Needle Exchange Program, despite such a program being illegal in Springfield. We knew we were taking a calculated risk; all of us who were distributing were also enrolled in needle exchange programs operated by cities where NEX is legal, making it legal for us to possess syringes. Distribution, however, was not legal. In Mid-August, we took part in a statewide action about NEX that took place in five cities around the state. Our demonstration was legal, although in two cities groups openly distributed syringes; one action led to an arrest and the other action was ignored by local police. On August 30, the Arise office was raided by the Springfield Police Department and all of our syringes were confiscated. Two staff were charged with distribution of illegal paraphernalia. The raid was front-page news; the public and the media both praised and condemned our actions in ignoring a law we felt to be immoral. While the Police Department was obliged to act on?first, a tip- and then, later, information from an informant which they themselves sent into our office for NEX- it turned out that the District Attorney?s office had little interest in actually prosecuting us. The DA offered to drop the charges in three months as long as we agreed to stop distributing syringes. We had no choice but to agree. This has been a painful agreement for us. When we were distributing, we had an opportunity to encourage people to enter drug treatment programs, and did many referrals. Users took advantage of our supply of free clothing, took us up on our offer to make themselves something for lunch in our kitchen, and helped us distribute flyers on a range of issues in the community At this point we are staking our bets once again on the possibility that NEX will be passed by our City Council. We have had face-to-face meetings with those city councilors who seem most ?on the fence? about NEX. We have attended all the subcommittee meetings where the ordinance is being crafted, sharing our expertise. We are still organizing phone calls and letters to the councilors, thanking those who support NEX and urging those who don?t to rethink their views. On a statewide level, we advocate for the passage of legislation which would make over-the-counter purchase of needles legal. Decriminalizing Our Lives: In November, 14 Arise members,, mostly from the WISE and Economic Justice Committees, participated in a Worcester conference at Clark University called ?Decriminalizing Resistance.? We were presenters in several workshops, and had an opportunity to explore with others from around the country strategies to limit the interaction of oppressive institutions- the police, the Department of Social Services, etc?in our communities. This theme of decriminalizing our lives has been central not only to the analysis we?re building, but also to our search to find and implement solutions both within Arise and in our community. For example, if an Arise member steals from Arise, we don?t call the police but instead we form an accountability circle of those involved to meet with the offender. We design a way that the offender can act restoratively and we offer choices. When a person?s membership in the organization is at stake, that person often chooses to do the right thing. Within common sense boundaries, we discourage members from calling the police or Social Services on each other. We hang the following statement on our bulletin boards: ?I pledge never to oppress another person in the ways that I have been oppressed by the institutions and people with power over me in my life.? Within the community, we continue to be upfront about the need to decriminalize prostitution by seeking media opportunities and speaking engagements. This fall we have presented panels (and raised money) at Westfield State College and Hampshire College. We hold periodic pickets after prostitution sweeps in Springfield. When we became aware that the Springfield Police Department had three volumes labeled ?H.O.S.??Ho?s of Springfield?and that it represented the case files of women who have been arrested for prostitution in Springfield, we wrote to the Police Chief about removing these books and we will follow up until they are gone. Voting Rights: We have organized a group of 3 organizations and 5 individuals to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city charging racial discrimination in voting practices, primarily in the way our city councilors are elected-- all at large rather than by ward. We have held monthly coalition meetings with members of Arise and other community members who are participating in the lawsuit. . We have secured pro-bono legal counsel from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in Boston, and have worked closely with attorneys there, as well as organizers at MassVote in Boston to line up legal advice, research, and expert witnesses for the case. The Lawyers committee has drafted the complaint, and it will be filed at the end of March. Last August we created a website for the fund (www.fevrnow.org) and held our first fundraiser with poet Magdalena Gomez. We also introduced a video CD produced by one of our members, Joe Oliverio, which explains the difference between at-large and ward representation systems, and outlines our efforts so far to win ward representation. The next 6 months will be mostly fundraising and coordinating a media campaign as the lawsuit progresses. We need to raise $15,000 over the life of the lawsuit. Our Peace& Justice Committee has kept the issue of opposition to the Iraqi occupation before Springfield?s public?mostly without other organizations? support. We have also maintained our working relationship with regional and national groups. In August, we held our Third Annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki Commemoration, attended by more than 100 people. We hosted the national tour of ?Eyes Wide Open? in Court Square on the same day?a pair of shoes for every enlisted person killed in Iraq- which at the time numbered 904. Following ?Eyes Wide Open,? some committee members decided to vigil every Monday at noon in Court Sq. For the last two years, we have held signs and passed out information. Two larger demonstrations on September 13 and October 11 brought dozens of Arise members and area activists out into the street. With WMA ANSWER, We brought 15 Arise members to Washington, D.C. for a January counter-inaugural demonstration. The two listserves we maintain, AriseAction and WMAPAGE, have a combined membership of 500 people and are WMA?s main source of anti-war organizing and progressive information. The committee?s main goals are: continue our counter-recruitment campaign, involve more Arise members and community members in organizing against war, play our part in strengthening Western Mass. organizing efforts against the war, and continue to advocate/educate, within the anti-war community and within the community at large, as to the special impact of the war on poor people. We sent six young people from Arise, ages 14 to 19, to training on counter-recruitment sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee; this group will serve as the organizing core in Springfield to talk to other young people about military recruitment and war. Digital Divide: We have taken a very hands-on approach to helping our low-income members understand the internet, set up email accounts, and learn basic programs such as Word and Access. The homeless community in particular has taken advantage of this opportunity to learn. A core group of homeless organizers now know what we proposed last year:-- how to do fliers and leaflets, use email, participate in activist mailing lists, and use search engines to do research on issues that shape their everyday lives. Earlier this year we bought the domain name ariseforsocialjustice.org. Our tech person will help us move our website to the new domain and revamp the content as well. We will also be setting up the public access computers as we have a high demand from our surrounding community for computer access for homework, job and apartment search, and resume writing. Economic Justice: Our main work this year has been with single homelessness although other areas of work continue to grow. Our Food Pantry Committee consists of the food pantry coordinator and five mothers on public assistance. We have started to enroll people in the Serve New England Program, a way for families and individuals to purchase more food cheaply. The number of families we serve continues to increase. People are eligible to come every other month, with two exceptions: people who are homeless and anyone who volunteers can come once a week. We continue to educate people who come to the pantry with flyers, discussions, opportunities to sign petitions, and a warm cup of coffee or soup while they are waiting. We provide a safe haven for women and men on welfare forced to do community service. Our program is very flexible and allows the women all the time they need to job and apartment search, arrange childcare, go to court or meet whatever personal needs they have. This year the Governor wants to increase the number of hours women and men have to do community service in order to keep their benefits. We are organizing women to protest this aspect of the Governor?s budget as well as others. People who enroll in the program with Arise have an opportunity to learn computer skills, organizing and general office management. We have 18 women and 4 men enrolled. Goals and Tactics Our goals are the same as our mission and that is to educate poor people to know, to stand up for and achieve our rights, to promote self-esteem in poor people; to promote involvement in the electoral system, and to educate the community as to our common interest in social justice. We do this through phone banking, pickets, newsletters, etc.

Issues:

Civil and Human Rights

Leadership:

Members Elect Board

Organizing Strategies:

member meetings

Organizing Strategies:

leadership development

Organizing Strategies:

direct mail

Organizing Strategies:

regular mail

Organizing Strategies:

e-mail/list serves

Organizing Strategies:

phone banking/phone meetings

Organizing Strategies:

voter registration

Organizing Strategies:

public education

Who We Organize:

Everyone

Arise for Social Justice

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