May 1, 2014 (Happy May Day!!!)
Dear ROPnetters,
We have a great Caucus coming up this weekend! Check out the weekend’s agenda, workshop descriptions, and directions to get there — all below!
We look forward to seeing you for our Caucus and Strategy Session on Saturday, May 3rd in Hood River at the Riverside Community Church, 317 State Street and for our Civil Disobedience and Direct Action Training on Sunday, May 4th at Hood River Valley Adult Center, 2010 Sterling Drive.
Haven’t registered yet, but wanna come? You can register online atwww.rop.org/caucus and you can register day-of at the Caucus!
See you in Hood River!
Jessica, Cara, Amanda, Rosa, & Sam
RURAL CAUCUS & STRATEGY SESSION
Riverside Community Church * 317 State Street Hood River, OR
Saturday, May 3rd * 8am – 5:30pm
8am: Participants arrive, register, mingle, and grab coffee & snacks at the breakfast bar
9-9:20am: Opening: Welcome to the 22nd Annual ROP Rural Caucus & Strategy Session!
9:20-10:30am: Our Movement/ Our Moment: Organizing for Racial & Economic Justice: Keynote by Kayse Jama of the Center for Intercultural Organizing. Followed by a conversation with statewide and human dignity group leaders exploring inspiration and organizing opportunities for 2014 and beyond!
10:30- 10:40am: Introduction to Small Town Oregon Listening Project
10:40-12noon: Cross-Community Small Group Conversations
12-1:15pm: LUNCH
1:15-3:30pm: Strategy Sessions
- Racism: what it is, how it looks, how it functions, and what must be done to eradicate it
- It Takes a Movement to Protect Your Home and Community
- Advancing Immigrant Rights & Racial Justice in 2014: Local organizing strategies on drivers’ cards, deportations and responding to hate activity (Spanish with interpretation to English)
- What’s at Stake? Small Town Organizing Responses to Right-Wing Attacks on the Ballot (and some inspiring legislative possibilities!)
3:30-3:45: Break with snacks
3:45-5pm: Breaking it down — how do we do our work better and bolder?
- Learning to Share our Stories: The Intersections Between Race and Class
- Beyond Marches & Rallies: Actions That Make an Impact
- Developing a Racial Justice Lens for Your Work
- Rural Latino Leadership Session (Spanish with English interpretation)
5:05-5:30pm: Closing Reflections & Human Dignity Awards!
Join us for a little fun – music, food and good company immediately following the Caucus!
Sunday, May 4th * 10am – 4pm
Hood River Valley Adult Center * 2010 Sterling Dr, Hood River, OR 97031
A special session for those who can stay with Andrew Willis Garces of Training for Change and the Not One More! Campaign.
Creating Powerful Civil Disobedience Actions
Creating social justice campaigns that win victories is like baking a cake: the right ingredients, in the right order. Powerful civil disobedience actions can be like the “yeast” that helps send campaigns “over the top,” demonstrating our vision and our commitment, and helping win new allies to our cause, all at the same time. In this workshop, we’ll look at how to create effective actions, and we’ll even get to practice conducting civil disobedience.
Many thanks to our host groups: Gorge Ecumenical Ministries/Building Community Connections and Nuestra Comunidad Sana
ASAMBLEA de LÍDERES RURALES de ROP
Iglesia Comunitaria Riverside
317 State Street, Hood River, OR
Sábado 3 de mayo, 8 am – 5:30 pm
8 am: Llegada, registración y desayuno/café
9-9:20 am: Apertura: Bienvenidos a la vigésima segunda Asamblea de Líderes Rurales de ROP
9:20-10:30 am: Nuestro Movimiento / Nuestro Momento: Organizando Nuestras Comunidades para la Justicia Racial y Economica: Discurso principal por Kayse Jama del Centro para la Organización Intercultural. Seguido de una conversación con líderes rurales del estado de Oregón y de los grupos de dignidad humana.
10:30-10:40 am: Presentación del Proyecto: Escuchando a nuestras comunidades Rurales
10:40-12: Conversaciones Entre Comunidades en Grupos Pequeños
12-1:15 pm: ALMUERZO
1:15-3:30 pm: Sesiones de Planificación Estratégica
- • El Racismo: Qué es, como reconocerlo, como funciona, y como eliminarlo
- • Se Necesita Todo un Movimiento para Proteger a la Familia y a la Comunidad: 3 movimientos que velan por el derecho de vivir sin miedo de privación y despojamiento
- • La Lucha por la Justicia Racial y los Derechos del Inmigrante: Estrategias para organizar sobre la tarjeta de conducir, las deportaciones, y como responder a incidentes de odio racial(Esta sesión se presentará en español)
- • Organizando Contra la Derecha: las elecciones de este año y la sesión legislativa del año que viene
3:30-3:45: Descanso y bocaditos
3:45-5: Como mejorar, profundizar y fortalecer nuestra lucha
- • Compartiendo Nuestras Historias: Las Intersecciones entre la Raza ya las Clases Sociales
- • Más Allá de Marchas y Manifestaciones: Acciones Impactantes
- • Organizaciones Rurales y la Justicia Racial
- • Taller de Liderazgo Rural de Latin@s (en español)
5:05-5:30: Comentarios de Clausura y Los Premios de la Dignidad Humana
Habrá música, comida y convivencia inmediatamente después de la Asamblea
Domingo 4 de mayo, 10 am – 4 pm
Hood River Valley Adult Center * 2010 Sterling Dr, Hood River, OR 97031
Una sesión especial con Andrew Willis Garcés, de la organización “Training for Change” y la campaña #NotOneMore! #NiunoMas
Acciones Impactantes de Desobediencia Civil
Una campaña de justicia social como un panadero: Hay que contar con los ingredientes correctos, en el orden indicado. Acciones impactantes de desobediencia civil pueden servir como la levadura, el ingrediente clave que demuestra nuestra visión y nuestro compromiso, y que sirve para que nuevos aliados se unan a nuestra causa. Este taller se enfocará en la creación de acciones eficaces. Inclusive, vamos a practicar una acción de desobediencia civil.
Muchas gracias a nuestros anfitriones: Gorge Ecumenical Ministries/Building Community Connections, y Nuestra Comunidad Sana
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WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
Saturday
Racism: what it is, how it looks, how it functions, and what must be done to eradicate it
In this workshop presented by Ahjamu Umi, we’ll ask some of the most important questions of the day: What is racism? How does it operate? How can we truly confront and eliminate it? Come to this workshop to look at the history of systemic racism, to examine how white privilege and racism play out in our communities today, and to work together to develop effective strategies to respond to racism and hate in small town Oregon.
It Takes a Movement to Protect Your Home and Community
In a moment when it is revolutionary to take care of each other, rural Oregonians are leading the way! Together we will learn about three grassroots movements to protect the right to live free from fear of losing the place you call home, including foreclosures, rural emergency response, and deportations, and discuss organizing strategies for building people-powered systems that hold our rural communities together and keep our neighbors safe.
Advancing Immigrant Rights & Racial Justice in 2014: Local organizing strategies for drivers’ cards, deportations and responding to hate activity (Spanish with English interpretation)
With demographics changing drastically in our communities and across the nation, we have also seen an increase in organized hate and a more vengeful and powerful right-wing movement in rural Oregon. Come hear about how the Drivers Card ballot measure, Deportations, and stalling of Immigration Reform are all interconnected and being lead by a well funded and organized Right. Learn about how it is no accident that all these anti-immigrant campaigns and ballot measures are popping up all over the state and the nation, and how they are designed to make our communities inhospitable to immigrants and people of color. Come to learn more and to strategize together on how rural and small town Oregonians can fight back collectively to these attacks on our community.
What’s at Stake? Small Town Organizing Responses to Right-Wing Attacks on the Ballot (and some inspiring legislative possibilities!)
From ALEC to Oregonians for Immigration Reform, our ballot and our legislature is dominated by issues and policies that advance a corporate agenda and attacks on human dignity. But rural Oregonians are fighting back! Join us for an overview of this year’s ballot and several inspiring policy pieces for next year’s Legislative Session. We’ll unpack small town organizing strategies to build an “electoral machine with heart” that centers our values of democracy, justice and human dignity.
Learning to Share our Stories: The Intersections between Race and Class
Good story-telling is crucial to successfully organizing in rural and small-town communities. In this workshop with Dianne Riley of the Social Justice Fund Northwest, we will use story-telling as an entry point to looking at the intersections between race and class in our own lives and our work. This workshop is intended to help human dignity leaders develop and strengthen our own race and class stories, rooted in our experiences and grounded in anti-oppression, healing, and justice. The goal of the workshop is to strengthen our skills in connecting our personal stories to larger histories and to gain a better understanding of how race and class operate in our lives, our communities, and our organizing.
Beyond Marches & Rallies: Actions That Make an Impact: Even though we know we have to make decision-makers uncomfortable in order to get what we want, as activists, sometimes we get “stuck” in our comfort zones. In this session, we’ll spend some time coming up with creative actions that demonstrate our people-power and win new allies to our cause.
Developing a racial justice lens for your work: Our work is more closely aligned with our values for justice when our solutions to problems our communities experience is rooted in addressing structural racism. We’ll use exercises and case studies to practice applying a racial justice lens in our organizing work.
Rural Latino Leadership Session (Spanish with English interpretation)
Este espacio es solo para Latinos y gente de color. Acompáñanosanos para conversar sobre todos los temas que hemos aprendido hoy. Vamos hablar sobre que es la Justice Racial para nosotros? Que son las estrategias que como comunidad Latina y inmigrante queremos llevar para la Campana de licencias? Para parar completamente las deportaciones, y que es lo que necesitamos para apoyanos uno a otro para ser exitosos en nuestras comunidades? Vengan con sus preguntas y comentarios sobre la Asamblea de hoy.
Sunday
Baking a Campaign: Creating Powerful Civil Disobedience Actions
Creating social justice campaigns that win victories is like baking a cake: the right ingredients, in the right order. Powerful civil disobedience actions can be like the “yeast” that helps send campaigns “over the top,” demonstrating our vision and our commitment, and helping win new allies to our cause, all at the same time. In this workshop, we’ll look at how to create effective actions, and we’ll even get to practice conducting civil disobedience. This session is designed for human dignity organizers to be able to take next steps in their home communities using these new skills.
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Directions to Caucus Locations
Saturday, May 3rd: ROP Annual Caucus and Strategy Session
Riverside Community Church, 317 State Street, Hood River, OR
From Eastern Oregon-
From I-84, take exit 63 into Hood River.
Turn left onto 2nd Street
Turn left onto Oak Street
Take 1st right onto 1st Street
Turn Right onto W. State Street
Church on left: 317 State Street.
From Western Oregon-
From 1-84, take exit 63 into Hood River.
Turn right onto 2nd Street.
Turn left onto Oak Street.
Take 1st right onto 1st Street.
Turn Right onto W. State Street
Church on left: 317 State Street.
From Central Oregon–
From OR 35 North, turn left onto U.S. 30/E State Street
Church on left: 317 State Street.
Sunday, May 4th: Civil Disobedience and Direct Action Training
Hood River Valley Adult Center * 2010 Sterling Dr, Hood River, OR 97031
From Eastern Oregon-
From I-84, take exit 63 into Hood River.
Turn left onto 2nd street.
Turn right onto Oak Street.
Turn left onto 13th street.
Continue onto 12th St
Turn right onto Brookside Dr
Take the 1st right onto Sterling Dr
Arrive at 2010 Sterling Drive.
From Western Oregon-
From I-84, take exit 62 toward U.S. 30 E/Hood River
Turn right onto U.S. 30 E.
Turn right onto 13th St
Continue onto 12th St
Turn right onto Brookside Dr.
Take the 1st right onto Sterling Dr
Arrive at 2010 Sterling Drive.
From Central Oregon-
From OR 35 N, turn left onto U.S. 30 West/E. State Street.
Take 1st right onto Oak Street.
Turn left onto 13th Street.
Turn left onto 13th St
Continue onto 12th St
Turn right onto Brookside Dr
Take the 1st right onto Sterling Dr
Arrive at 2010 Sterling Drive.