AFSC Brings Demilitarizing Strategies And Analysis To SOAW

AFSC's national youth and militarism task force meeting was planned to take place right before this year's School of the Americas Watch(SOAW) because several AFSC staff from other regions planned on participating in the demonstration at the gates of Fort Benning. Knowing that several AFSC staff from around the country were going to be at SOAW this year was exciting, as I was putting together a workshop on how to demilitarize your campus and community that would have a national audience.

I was equally excited that a local Student Career Alternative Program(SCAP) organizers, Josie Figueroa, Jenell Holden, Caitlin Barrow, Molly Mclaughlin, Erica Schoon, and Brett Davidson were all coming as well!

Thanks in part to all the buzz generated by SCAP folks during the day our early evening workshop ended up being standing room only. The workshop covered strategies to develop relationships with local high schools, connecting youth with non-military post high school options, building a student campaign, and how to create local policy changes that limit military recruiters access to youth. A big thanks to Darlene Gramigna and Jesus Palafox from the Chicago AFSC for facilitation help!

My favorite part of the workshop was right after it ended. Conversations were sparked between SCAP organizers and workshop attendees from all over the country. We had several enthusiastic college students that have asked us out to thier campuses over the next few months and we're excited to make those trips!

Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Atlanta Youth Grasp Organizing Tools

AFSC's pilot curriculum is in it's seventh week at Horizon's school and so far the experiment is going very well. This past week we meet with the whole student body and reviewed ways in which social justice organizations have used different art mediums have to create dialogue in the Atlanta community in the last month or so.

We also had Caitlin Barrow spend a few moments sharing her experience organizing against the Iraq war in Glynn County Georgia when she was in high school. Caitlin talked about what inspired her to get active,the challenges of organizing in rural Georgia, and the impact her high school activism has had on her life.

We spent the rest of the morning split up into working groups that the students helped to form around issues that they wanted to address in their communities. There were groups devoted to addressing education budget cuts, skateboarders rights, violence in the community, gay marriage, and the price of fossil fuels on our globe. Me, Caitlin, and Josie Figueroa went from group to group to help facilitate the process of campaign development.

Each group presented their ideas after we re-grouped and I have to say that I'm pretty excited what come of all this! Next week we'll be pairing each group with a young Atlanta organizer to help each group get a stronger focus, time-line, and a solid idea about need and resources available.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Caitlin Barrow, Atlanta Loves You!

Intern Spotlight: Caitlin Barrow



This week the AFSC-Atlanta office loses a valuable staff member, and AFSC has decided it's time for a long overdue look into what has driven this dynamic intern to become so dedicated to social justice work over the last several years. Caitlin is leaving Atlanta to take a year off from school to travel. We look forward to her swift return, but until then...we'd like to recognize the incredible work Caitlin has been doing and encourage her to continue it wherever her journey may take her.



Caitlin's connection with AFSC begins in 2007 in Brunswick, GA, where she was attending high school. That year the State of Hope (Eyes Wide Open) tour came through Caitlin's town. She was so moved by the tour that she decided to get involved in peace and justice work. Tim made a deal with her that next year's tour would come through Brunswick again if she would organize it. True to her word, Caitlin got all her friends together and helped organize the stop for the 2008 State of Change Tour. Throughout the year of working on this event, she became active in the local Glynn Peace group, where she formed the Glynn Peace Youth Division to get more young people involved.



In 2008, Caitlin graduated from high school and moved to Atlanta to attend Georgia State University. She continued her involvement with AFSC more directly and eventually came on staff as a part-time intern. She started the Progressive Student Alliance at Georgia State University, which has grown into a vibrant, multi-issue group that has taken on countless important projects. She helped organize the Cost of War speaking tour, the "Be the Change" Youth Convergence, and the ongoing legislative efforts to limit recruiters' access to young people. We asked Caitlin a few questions about her work, and here is the gist of what she said.



Q: What's your motivation for doing this kind of work?

A: The more I learn about injustices and how they're interconnected, the more upset I get and the more I recognize the need for change. I wouldn't feel comfortable with knowing all the things I've learned and letting these things go on.



Q: Were you exposed to these ideas a lot growing up?

A: Not in the political context. My parents are Catholic and taught us to really take care of people, and I just kind of transferred that to the bigger picture.



Q: What has been your favorite part of your work?

A: Networking on the state-wide level because it's so important for the rural areas and pretty f****** radical--more radical and impactful in the small towns.



Q: What's the take-home message that you've gotten from this work?

A: You have to look at things from different contexts. You can see different forms of oppression and can't turn your back on that. Everything looks different.



Q: What skills have you gained from your work?

A: Meeting people where they are, facilitating meetings, talking to strangers, event planning, fundraising...



Q: How do you see yourself being involved in social justice work in the future?

A: It's changed my attitude and made me more proactive. I'll always be involved in some capacity. I want to be an art teacher, so staying involved in art and education will be big.



Q: What are you going to miss?

A: Friends and relationships, that personal connection with everyone here working for a common purpose.


Caitlin left an immeasurable impact on all whose lives she touched and the whole state of Georgia. We here in the Atlanta office cannot express how proud we are of Caitlin's many accomplishments and how much we are going to miss working alongside her. We wish her the best in all her travels.




Erica Schoon and Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Connecting the Dots in Augusta Ga.

This past weekend the Central Savannah River Area Peace Alliance hosted the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition and the American Friends Service Committee down in Augusta, Ga. for an event called “Connecting the Dots.” Art as an Agent for Change, an amazing spoken word group from Milledgeville, Ga., inspired the community with poems that linked militarism, racism, and materialism. These connections were made my Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech and serve as the grounding text for the upcoming “Be the Change” youth convergence in May.
The crowd at the event ranged from two rows full of antsy eight year olds, to mothers and grandmothers. The local county commissioner even came out to show his support for the cause. After speaking about the youth convergence many young men and women came up and expressed interest in attending. Everyone in the crowd really enjoyed the smooth rhymes and sweet sounds of Art as an Agent for Change and as always they “Shut it down.”
After the event pizza and cookies were to be had by all and everyone gathered to socialize at the community center. Gwen Johnson and Maxine Donaldson are two women from Big Sisters in Action, a local non-profit that mentors young women. They connected with AFSC at Poor Peoples Day in Atlanta and invited us to come out and have an event in Augusta. This event could not have happened without their support and the support of other members on the board of the community center. Everyone was so grateful to have something like this take place in their community and made us promise we would return for future events.


Caitlin Barrow
American Friends Service Committee

"It's My Life" Art Contest, Huge Success!!!!

We've been promoting the Student Career Alternative's, "It's My Life" contest across the metro area since January with an underlying fear that no submissions would come in.
High School Art and English teachers in Gwinett, Cobb, Fulton, and Dekalb Counties were all invited to participate by passing along the contest information to their students.

The contest challenged students to create art works inspired by one of four themes:
"Young People Acting for Local and Global Change"
"Your Vision of a Peaceful and Sustainable Future"
"Non-Military Career Paths and Dreams"
"Is America Addicted to War? If so, How Does it Affect you?"

There five art mediums that students could submit entries in:
Music
Essays/Short Stories/Poetry
Photography
Graphic Design
Painting/Mixed Media

Prizes promoted were:
1st place in each medium: 12 month membership to WonderRoot Community Art center along with a very special, funded six month mentorship with a successful artist in that medium.
2nd place in each medium was a $50. gift card to Sam Flax art supply store, donated by Sam Flax!!!!

Then there was an over grand prize of $100. cash.

Our Goal was to provide an opportunity to showcase some of Atlanta's talented youth, possibly provide some new windows of opportunity, and to get folk to really think about some of the themes that each piece was to be inspired by.

Well, during the first week of March all of our worries about light submissions evaporated as we were overwhelmed by phone calls by students, parents, and teachers about the contest. We were invited to come out to more high schools to talk about SCAP and the contest then we could cover. It was pretty amazing to be invited to so many schools to talk about SCAP, many remember that it was just last year that it was like pulling teeth to get school faculty to return a phone call from SCAP. Some administrators even laughed us off their campuses. For the first time ever we were in a position to have to turn down invitations to high school due to capacity, clearly an issue we must address.
By March 15th, the contest deadline, we had 63 amazing entries all worthy of being part of our three week, "It's My Life" exhibit at WonderRoot. As we went through all of the entries that came from a dozen different metro area schools it was clear that the judges of the contest were going to have a difficult time picking winners.

Our panel of judges where:
Joey Arbuckle with Sam Flax
Kwajelyn Jackson with WonderRoot
Haley Murphy with Student Career Alternatives
Jo A Peterson, a professor with Savannah College of Art and Design
Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, renowned painter, photographer, and writer

On Saturday March 20th we held our art opening and awards ceremony at WonderRoot. Turn out was wonderful. We had artists, SCAP members, parents, teachers, students, and other community members come out for the event. One of the highlights was live performances by extremely talented high school students, Aaron Cooper, Iqbal Chandbury, Manuel Allison, and Britnie Valentine.

After performances everyone that entered the contest was given a certificate of participation and invited to get a picture taken next to their art work.

After certificates were given out and pictures were taken Andy Fritz, our emcee for the night, called everyone together and introduced the judges who announced the winners.

Grand Prize
Samara Abdulla- None-military career paths and dreams-Essay.

First Prize
Photography
Lisa Bi – Awakened By Sleepless Nights
Mixed Media
Khris Dixon - Survivors Story
Music
Iqbal Chandbury – One Rhyme
Graphic Design

Michelle Partogi – Peace Starts With Saving One Person
Writing
Wesley Harmon – A Soldier’s Tale

Second Prize
Photography
Courtney Seale - Sacrifice
Mixed Media
Erin Foster – Affected Youth
Music
Aaron Cooper - Fatherless
Graphic Design

Julia Kim – Hello, My Name is Peace
Writing
Manuel Allison – Young People For Local and Global Change

In addition to the 1st,2nd, and grand prize winners WonderRoot extended the offer of a free year long membership to every student that entered the contest!!
We plan to chronicle all of the winners on this blg in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

ALSO!!! Please stop by WonderRoot between now and April 11th to view the art exhibit!!

WonderRoot:
www.wonderroot.org

Sam Flax:
samflaxsouth.com

Student Career Alternatives Program:
scapatl.org


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee