On Monday, January 16, the Poverty Initiative begin its 7th immersion course.  This year’s course brings students, staff, and other leaders from the struggle to end poverty to NYC, Baltimore, Harpers Ferry, and Charles Town, West Virginia to learn, experience and reflect on the US Civil War, the Abolitionist movement, and the ways in which this history both helps define the ongoing struggles against poverty in the US and World, and how we can gain lessons from this history as we build a movement for change today.

Follow us throughout the trip on a special Tumblr site that has been set up to record the thoughts, images, and reflections from participants along the way.  Also follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Union is proud to announce a one-year grant of $55,000 to The Poverty Initiative from The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s Pathways out of Poverty Program. This award will support the year-round Poverty Scholars leadership development and training program, which seeks to lift up the hidden genius of grassroots leaders most affected by poverty, while further developing their leadership, voice, organizing skills and capacity for intellectual engagement.

The Program brings together a unique network of leading grassroots organizers (men, women and youth from urban and rural communities) – Poverty Scholars – with proven local-level success working on issues of economic justice including

• unemployment,
• community revitalization,
• housing/homelessness,
• immigration,
• water privatization,
• ecological devastation,
• eviction and foreclosure,
• healthcare,
• low-wage workers’ rights,
• organization of poor youth,
• public education reform,
• grassroots media production,
• and living wages.

Dear friends and family,

As our country awakens to the realities of growing economic inequality, we are reminded of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s call for “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.” After 8 years of work dedicated to raising up generations of religious and community leaders, the Poverty Initiative seeks to make sure that these moments of awakening catalyze a sustained, broad-based movement to end poverty. 

Thank you for supporting the coming together of small streams of study and struggle into a deep, wide river that flows toward justice. Together we are engaging a new generation of social change makers and grassroots Poverty Scholars to craft the building blocks of such a movement. 

Whether in the pulpit, on the streets of New York, in a Union classroom, on Facebook, or in community meetings and mobilizations on the border, in Philly, Vermont, and around the country, the Poverty Initiative links arms with leaders of every race, age and religion to call out the immorality of poverty in a land of abundance.

What We’ve Accomplished in 2011

As Union celebrates its 175th year, the Poverty Initiative continues to advance the seminary’s social justice legacy on campus and beyond by deepening and expanding our training and leadership development efforts, reaching unprecedented audiences and developing powerful new sources for our movement. In 2011, we have:

• Released our latest book, Pedagogy of the Poor: Building the Movement to End Poverty— published by Teacher’s College Press and coauthored by Poverty Scholars Program Coordinator and Union Scholar-in-Residence Willie Baptist and Union professor Jan Rehmann.  The book has sold over 1,000 copies and been presented to over 1,000 people at book events in NC, NY, MD and PA.

• Convened a Regional Leadership School of the Poverty Scholars Program on statewide organizing strategies. This School accelerated our exciting work with a Statewide Collaboration Project which brings together a powerful group of Poverty Scholars from Media Mobilizing Project, United Workers, National Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Initiative, Northeast PA Organizing Center and Vermont Workers Center.

•  Engaged over 100,000 readers on pressing issues of poverty via the Poverty Initiative’s social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog, Flickr and website).

•  Launched the Poverty Initiative Fellows Program, which graduated its inaugural class of 11 in May and welcomed a new class of 11 masters-level Fellows this fall. Past Fellows have been successfully placed in churches, non-profits and graduate programs around the country. 

• Poverty Scholars from West Virginia and Maryland were featured in the PBS documentary series “The Poverty Tour” with Tavis Smiley and soon-to-be Union professor Dr. Cornel West, which was filmed and produced by Poverty Scholars from Media Mobilizing Project. 

• Served as a resource for strategic planning, bible study curriculum, preaching and community engagement for congregations and national religious organizations such as the Community Organizing Residency Program, Interfaith Organizing Initiative and Union’s White House Interfaith Initiative.

• Recognized by a growing number of institutional funders for our important work. The Poverty Initiative received its first multi-year grant from the Ford Foundation, as well as critical support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, US Human Rights Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, as well as denominational support from Presbyterian Hunger Program, United Christ of Christ’s Neighbors in Need Program, the American Baptist Church, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Disciples of Christ’s Week of Compassion and gifts from several local congregations.

What We Dream 2012 May Bring with Your Support!

In the coming year, we will continue to develop our movement building blocks. Our staff, Fellows and Poverty Scholars will: 

• Participate in a January immersion course that will travel from NYC to Baltimore, Maryland and Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia to study religion and the leaders of the Abolition Movement—John Brown, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas—together with Poverty Scholars of MD’s United Workers.

• Convene 3 high-level Poverty Scholars Intensives at Union with a small cohort of organizers for focused study and exchange in support of ongoing organizing and leadership development efforts.

• Gather for a Pedagogy of the Poor Book Launch and Sustainer Celebration and national book tour.

• Celebrate and commission our second cohort of Poverty Initiative Fellows in May 2012.

• Continue to grow our Statewide Collaboration to develop models of movement building.

In the coming year, we will rely on our friends and family in the movement for justice for contributions large and small to help sustain our efforts and carefully build on recent grants from our institutional supporters. Gifts from loyal supporters like you provide the financial foundation (over 50% of our annual budget!) of our work year round. Please consider joining our core Poverty Initiative supporters by making a tax-deductible gift today. Checks can be made payable to “Union Theological Seminary—Poverty Initiative” and mailed using the enclosed envelop. Secure online donations can be made at www.povertyinitiative.org/donate. 

We wish you a blessed holiday season and healthy and happy New Year!

The Poverty Initiative 

PS – Please make your gift of $1,000, $500, $100, $75, or $25 today –or become a monthly Movement Sustainer—to support our work in 2012. THANK YOU!

“Hope in Hard Times” was the theme of a PI-led worship service at First Presbyterian Church in Asheville, NC on October 30. Using Jeremiah 33 – in which, in the midst of a devastating war, Jeremiah envisions the restoration of Israel– we shared the incredible visions and victories that Poverty Scholars groups have achieved, even during an economic crisis. The congregation at First Presbyterian gave us hope, too. Over the weekend, we witnessed the church’s dedicated work with the homeless, had deep conversation about issues of poverty, and strengthened relationships with the community. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with this dynamic church.

Jeremiah 33 Sermon Part 1 by Emily McNeill
Jeremiah 33 Sermon Part 2 by Liz Theoharis

The Poverty Initiative, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), Bread for the World-NY, Sojourners along with other faith-based non-profits, churches and local activists will encircle Friendly Hands Ministries in East Harlem; this organization was started by local pastors and provides direct services to the community and participates in advocacy efforts to bring justice to East Harlem.

Join Faith leaders, parishioners, advocates, community leaders, and their constituents as they come together to join hands and create a human circle around Friendly Hands Ministries to call attention to the needs of the most vulnerable in our society.

Join us in highlighting the importance of low-income programs at risk of severe cuts in the Supercommittee and appropriations budget process.

Friendly Hands Ministries - 225-41 East 118th Street
November 16 at 11:40am

Contact: Onleilove Alston, FPWA at: oalston@fpwa.org or 212-801-1356, More info: www.fpwa.org, Sojourners

Download flyer

The Poverty Initiative and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice - SF (CLUE) will join academics, activists, and faith leaders at this years Annual American Academy of Religion Conference in San Francisco for a saturday morning session "The Struggle is Our School: What the San Francisco Hotel Workers' Struggle, Occupy Wall Street, and Other Grassroots Organizing Movements Can Teach Us About the Possibilities for Social Transformation?"  

Theology of the Political Group and Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy Group Joint Session 
Marriot Marquis Hotel - Room: Yerba Buena 2
Saturday, November 19, 2011
9:00 a.m.- 11:30 a.m. 

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The inaugural issue of Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice is focued on 'The Dark Night of the Amer­i­can Economy' and features an article by Willie Baptist and Char­lene Sinclair, "Finishing the Unfinished Business of Dr. King" and also features a profile of the Poverty Initiative. Join the discussion on this important new interactive journal!

Active Compassion:
Retreat for Social and Environmental Activists, Peacemakers, and All Who Serve Others

Union Theological Seminary
Nov. 4-5, 2011
Friday 7 PM to 9 PM
Saturday 9:30 AM to 5 PM

Teachers: Lama/Prof. John Makransky
with Prof. Paul Knitter

Resource Persons: Ms. Julie Forsythe & Ms. Cathy Cornell

Download flyer [PDF]

The White House Interfaith Campus Challenge is an initiative for colleges and universities around the country to develop an interfaith service project.  The Interfaith Caucus, Edible Churchyard, and Poverty Initiative of Union Theological Seminary are partnering with Jewish Theological Seminary, the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church to develop a service project based around food justice in our neighborhood, Harlem.  Together, throughout this year, our plan will be to (1) dialogue on food justice issues, bringing to the table our rich theological traditions, (2) convert sections of St. Mary's churchyard into green spaces, where fruits and vegetables can be grown for those in need in Harlem, and (3) educate our communities about some practicalities of food and growing within the urban environment.

We are launching this year’s initiative with two programs in October:

Justice in the Sukkah: An Interfaith Exploration of Food and Social Change
On Sunday, October 16th, from 6-8pm, we invite you to join us at the Sukkah at JTS for our first dialogue on food justice issues, called Justice in the Sukkah: An Interfaith Exploration of Food and Social Change. This is an opportunity to actively participate in a dialogue with members of other faith traditions, hearing what they have to say about food justice, while offering your own unique perspective.
 
Jewish Theological Seminary
3080 Broadway at 122nd Street
RSVP by Tues, Oct. 11.
To RSVP or for any questions you might have about the event, please email Shuli Passow (shpassow@jtsa.edu).

Download flyer [PDF]

Worship. Labor. Dialogue. Eat.
Sunday, Oct. 23, 10am-5 pm @ St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Join us to celebrate our faiths as the substrate for building community, growing gardens, and working for justice. Union's White House Interfaith Service Initiative and our community partners will come together to begin building gardens at St. Mary's. We will begin with an interfaith service at 10am, and then enjoy potluck food and fellowship. We will then roll our sleeves up and begin the work of transforming St. Mary's grounds. As this is a potluck, please contribute a dish if you can, and consider making it vegetarian to accommodate for various faithful eating practices and dietary considerations.
 
St Mary’s Episcopal Church
521 West 126th Street, between Amsterdam and Broadway
RSVP to edible@uts.columbia.edu or at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3DG5YMK
Download Flyer [PDF]

“CALLING ALL REBELS” To Faith in Action
Join us on Thursday, October 20 6:30 pm
James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary
For
Analysis, Reflection, Strategizing
Presentation on the State of Our Economy and Democracy by
CHRIS HEDGES
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author of The World as it Is, Empire of Illusion, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
Sponsored by The Poverty Initiative, UTS Students for Peace and Justice, Engaging the Powers, Church & Society
Download flyer [PDF]
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