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Orange County Justice United Public Assembly

Racial & Economic Justice

Justice United

Date:

Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Location:

Amity Church on the corner of Estes and MLK

Updates on current work and presentation of new areas of focus.

Comments

LOCATION CHANGED

Submitted by James Barrett on May 12, 2011 - 11:23am

New location is Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love, 8005 Rogers Rd.Same time - THIS Sunday May 15th at 3pm (gathering starts at 2:30) Flyer hereAgenda Includes:

Public announcement of current priorities of Justice United
Furthering negotiations on current priorities (day laborers and foreclosure campaign)
Celebration and acknowledgement on recent public victories

Even if you are not with an organization, please join us to celebrate social justice in Orange County and learn about what we're doing next.

quick report

Submitted by James Barrett on May 15, 2011 - 10:21pm

busy, busy Sunday, so this will be brief.184 Justice United members in attendence (didn't hear how many institutions represented, but it was a good, diverse group).Invited guests who were able to make it were: CH Police Chief Chris Blue, BoCC members Bernadette Pelissier, Valerie Foushee, Barry Jacobs, Earl McKee, Steve Yuhasz, and Pam Hemminger (6 out of 7!), CH Town Councilmembers Penny Rich, Donna Bell, and Sally Greene, CH Planner Megan Wooley, NC Rep Verla Insko. We reviewed current accomplishments in day laborer work, Efland sewer, and usury/foreclosure campaign. We then shared stories from our new priorities - an update on Rogers Road (some history, but big question is what we all do going forward), campaign with seniors, and homelessness/affordable housing. Note we will also be continuing efforts in foreclosures and day laborers. The invited elected officials each had a minute to respond with their view on working with us on our priorities. All were positive in their responses (wasn't exactly a hard question if you've already shown up), although Commissioner McKee did point out the need to balance priorities for all 130,000 residents of OC. He's always been willing to work with us, so I think that was a statement of reality more than an intended slight, but I know some took it as not the most positive response.We took internal commitments for action teams and the meeting ended on-time at 4:30pm. This will likely be my last post where I speak for JU. I want to say it has been a pleasure working with this organization. It starts from all the great people I've met from all over our community. It continues through all the great training which gives us a unique voice in OC (thanks Commish Hemminger for recognizing that in her response). And then there's the work - focused on just the right social justice efforts that I believe in (my church's national slogan is "God's Work, Our Hands" - if you believe how many times in the Bible God is working for social justice, how can you not be His hands in our society?). I wish JU all the best in bringing change to our community.

Orange County Justice United Assembly

Submitted by Ed Harrison on May 15, 2011 - 11:13pm

James, thanks much for the succinct and informative report. As you know, I was working on statewide public interest issues (non-motorized transport) elsewhere in NC this afternoon. And thanks for being a voice for a fine organization. Ed Harrison

should have mentioned

Submitted by James Barrett on May 15, 2011 - 11:21pm

Thanks, Ed. I appear to have left out the part of the report about officials who weren't there. Many such as yourself had clear conflicts, including being out of town (the CH Mayor was out of the country so he wins best excuse). I should also say one Carrboro Alderman is so interested in what we're doing that he's asked for a meeting this week to make up for not being there today.

Providing a bit of clarity on Justice United's new priorities

Submitted by Molly De Marco on May 22, 2011 - 9:30pm

I just wanted to provide a bit more information about Justice United's priorities because to those who haven't been involve with the process the priorities sure must seem vague.- First of all, we will continue to work on improving working conditions for day laborers in our community by working with municipal partners (Carrboro and Chapel Hill) and organizational partners (El Centro Hispano, Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Orange County Branch of Durham Tech) to develop plans for a safe, dignified worker center.- We will continue to work toward ending the burden placed on the Eubanks-Rogers Road neighborhood by receiving our waste.- Justice United has already been working for many months with it's sister organizations in North Carolina (Durham CAN, HELP Charlotte, WInston-Salem CHANGE) to cap the interest rates banks can charge at 10% and encourage banks to work with homeowners on options aside from foreclosure.- We have one new priority (senior issues) and one issue we are returning to (homelessness and affordable housing). These issues came to the forefront from listening sessions we held in the early Spring with nearly 1000 people in the county. The process of Justice United is to refer these issues to teams of people within the organization who are interested in addressing senior issues and homelessness/affordable housing. These teams will do research to discern what specific actions to take. In the case of senior issues, it might be to work with the senior center to educate seniors about long-term care options. In the case of homelessness and affordable housing, it may be to work with the Community Home Trust on extending their services to those who make 115% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Of course, it may be neither of these.There will be a meeting of all Justice United-member organizations and partners on Monday June 20th at 7 pm (location TBD) to start moving on these issues.[James - thanks for posting on Justice United's behalf. Good luck with the campaign.]