CORI Reform - We need your help!

Dear Friends,

This is a note from one of our Burgess Urban Fund Grantees. Please take a moment to read and take action!

Nearly 1.5 million Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) reports are issued each year, these reports are notoriously flawed and difficult to interpret. CORIs display all court arraignments--regardless of the eventual outcome of the case--and in effect, turn all criminal histories into "life sentences". These misleading reports can keep a Massachusetts citizen securing employment, housing, loans, insurance, and entrance to college.

Just 5 minutes of your day could help thousands of men and women attain opportunities for a stable life. Please take a moment to make a call

Best,
Katie

________

Dear Friends,

Last fall the Senate passed the CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) reform bill by a vote of 28-12. Now, we have just a few weeks to get it through the House of Representatives, and onto Governor Patrick's desk! Speaker DeLeo says he wants to do this soon, but time is running out.

PLEASE call your State Representative TODAY and ask her or him to tell Speaker DeLeo that s/he would like to vote on the CORI Reform bill H.3523 right away!

To find out who your Rep. is, go to www.wheredoIvotema.com and type in your address.

Your Rep's name will be next to where it says: "REP IN GENERAL COURT".
Click on the Rep's name, and it will take you to a page with her or his phone number.


Here is a script to help you make your call:
(Chances are you will speak to an aide not the Representative)

Hello Representative .…..’s office.

I live your name and address and I am calling to ask my Representative to ask Speaker DeLeo to bring up H.3523, the CORI Reform Bill for a vote as soon as possible.

Thank you.

__
If we don't do it now, the moment will pass, and we're looking at a very long road ahead. Please help today!!

For questions please call:
Steve O'Neill
Ex-prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement
(508) 410-7676

Upcoming Events

How Faith Communities Can Help End Homelessness: A New Vision

Sunday, February 28, 2010, 3:00-5:00 PM

First Parish in Concord, 20 Lexington Rd., Concord

Keynote Speaker: The Rev. Liz Walker

Guest Speakers:

Liz Curtis, Executive Director, Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness

Mary Doyle, Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership

State Legislators

Sponsors: Advocacy Network to End Family Homelessness and Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries.

Co-sponsors: Episcopal City Mission and UU Mass Action Network

To learn more visit: www.coopmet.org

Courage to Lead: a Retreat Day for People Engaged in Urban Ministry

Friday, April 30, 2010

Boston Nature Center, Mattapan, MA

Courage and Renewal Northeast

Is your work an expression of your deepest value that touches your soul that requires you to bring all of yourself to it?

Are you seeking space and time to access more of your inner resources, so you can be more present to the challenges of those to whom you minister or serve?

Do you feel compelled to step back and reflect, in order to move forward in your work with greater clarity?

Do these difficult times require you to be more present and attentive to the deepest values of your faith, your ministry, or your social justice work?

Where: Boston Nature Center in Mattapan, MA

Cost: $60, which includes continental breakfast, delicious lunch, and all materials.

Scholarships are available.

To learn more: Contact Sharlene Cochrane at 617-349-8477 cochrane@lesley.edu or

Donna Bivens, donnabivens@gmail.com.

January Flowers Bloom In Dorchester

The following is a posting written by Kelsey Rice Bogdan, one of the Relational Evangelist interns from the Life Together: DIOMASS Intern Program, which ECM collaborates with and sponsors. Kelsey’s internship is with Trinity Church, Boston.

The business of planting seeds sometimes seems like a lot of work with very little to show for it. In the Relational Evangelism Pilot Project, we spend a lot of our time planting seeds in coffee dates, church services, volunteer fairs… anywhere where we can learn a little bit about others’ dreams for the world and inspire them with God’s dream. But as this fall wore on, I became impatient to see those seeds grow into full-blown flowers. We listened a lot, we talked a lot, but I longed for the time when we would see more fully how God is bringing about justice through our fledgling campaign.

Well, I can now say that I see some flowers blooming. The Hope in Action Leadership and Organizing Training, January 8-10 at Epiphany School in Dorchester, brought together more than 70 people from all over Boston and Cambridge to develop skills that will empower us to be agents of change in the community. A major part of that training was learning the practice of public narrative, a form of storytelling intended to inspire others to action. The library at Epiphany School was abuzz all weekend with clusters of people huddled together, listening intently to one another weave stories of hope and possibility based on their own experience. Some told humorous stories, such as the Hope in Action site event that seemed beset by every catastrophe imaginable only to create a powerful and meaningful action in the end. Others shared stories of courage, such as the woman who stood up to a group of men for verbally abusing a young gay man on a Boston street. And some were stories of pain and loss translated into work for justice. All these individual stories wove together to create the story of Hope in Action—one in which we speak with a collective voice to say that we have the power to act, and we will use it.

But why do we tell our stories? How do we presume to think that a roomful of people in Dorchester, coming up with stories about their experiences, is supposed to make any difference in the world whatsoever? What I discovered this weekend was that every time someone gets up to tell her story, she claims an agency she didn’t have before. One of the most powerful moments of the training for me was on the last day, when one young woman got up and told that room of 70+ people what it was like to find yourself homeless. It wasn’t just the story that drew me in, either—what moved me so deeply was the power the speaker claimed through storytelling. In the very act of talking about such a devastating experience, this woman refused to be the silent, downcast figure we so often associate with homelessness. She refused to allow others to define her, to talk about her as a statistic or an abstract problem. She challenged us to understand her experience in the context of her essential personhood, as a beloved child of God. And she invited us to be transformed with her in the end. After getting back on her feet, this young woman now works at a homeless shelter. She provides others with the generosity and respect so often denied to her in her own experiences. Those of us who heard her story are now also called to offer respect to the homeless we meet because of her narrative. And that is the beginning of power, for her and for us.

As I listened to so many stories this weekend, I realized that I was seeing the blooming of so many seeds we had planted in the fall—seeds of hope, seeds of empowerment, seeds of God’s dream for our world. It happened every time someone shared, saying in essence, “Yes, I am important! I am beloved! I am going to make a difference!” That was worth the work this fall. And it is only the beginning.

To learn more about the Life Together: The DIOMASS Intern program please visit: www.diomassintern.org