Cross Keys High School Gets SCAP'D

Today marks a special occasion for AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP) for two different reasons. First, this was our first day of tabling this school year, second, this marks our fourth year working with students and faculty at Cross Keys High School! When I first started making monthly visits to the school today's current senors were freshmen. It's been really awesome to watch Cross Keys students grow up into adults while watching SCAP grow as a project as well.

Today was about reuniting with familiar smiling faces in the student body, as well as faculty. Each year we've been at Cross Keys we've escalated our presence on the campus, we're excited about what that's going to look like this year.

Today we decided to focus on promoting SCAP's new monthly events, which are youth planned and facilitated. This year every month SCAP will be hosting an event somewhere in Atlanta. We also promoted our migrant youth voice video workshop to students. The workshop is designed to give students a crash course in video production with hope that youth will record, edit, and share their own stories. Students get paid a $25. stipend to attend the five hour workshop.

We'll be back at Cross Keys next month and we can't wait!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

AFSC Youth Organizers Converge In The Bay Area

AFSC Staff from Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, Oakland, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle came together July 20-23 in the Bay area to explore ways to improve the impact of our work and create more ways to cross pollinate our local work. The common thread between staff who came out to the meeting was our youth focus.

The meeting was hosted by AFSC's Pablo Paredes who's doing some pretty dynamic youth work in the Bay. Pablo has brought together an amazing group of young folks who have founded, or birthed the 67 Suenos movement. 67 Suenos youth organizers played a huge role in developing the weekend agenda, preparing meals, and keeping everyone energized. BIG ups to 67 Suenos crew!

I'm super pumped about the projects that will be coming out of this gathering. Look for more news about our Migrant Youth Voice Project making bigger national waves, and we also are beginning initial plans to roll out a youth organized national tour call...LOVE BOMBS!

We also had the chance to show the locally produced short documentary, "Last Best Option" which focuses on SCAP work we've been doing in Atlanta this year. Check it out:

LAST BEST OPTION from T.J. Hicks on Vimeo.

There was also talk of doing a 2013 national youth conference that would be youth organized, youth attended, and youth lead! So we're on the move ya'll!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

From Atlanta to LA

On Saturday July 16th I had the pleasure of traveling to AFSC's LA office to participate in an entitled, "Migrant Youth Voices;From Atlanta to LA. Several short film's chronicling the stories of struggle from migrant youth in Atlanta and LA were shown. I was on hand to discuss the state of anti-immigration legislation HB87 and talk about how folks in Cali could support the struggle to defeat the racist anti-immigrant law.

Several Georgia Youth from AFSC's Migrant Youth Voice Project will be joined the discussion via Skype. During the skype session several undocumented youth in LA, along with their parents, made a point to have face time with folks in Georgia via skype. I wasn't the only one in the room with a lump in my throat and a few tears in my eyes. Truly a lovely evening.

Big thanks to Crystal Gonzales and Anthony Marsh for organizing the event.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Migrant Youth Voices Hits The Campus

After this past Sunday's Food For Thought Benefit, where one of our Migrant Youth Voices short film was shown, we we approached by a Paideia high school student who wanted to show the short film at his school and have a facilitated discussion about immigration reform, racism, and the coming realities of HB87.

We were surprised that there were any high schools still in session, but we were happy make the film screening happen on short notice. We want to get out to as many school, churches, homes, and community centers for film screenings as possible. The short notice event also gave one of our Migrant Youth Voice(MYV) participants the opportunity to polish his public speaking skills a bit more. After the film screen our MYV participant(who was featured in the film) spoke and answered questions for about 30 minutes.

It's been unexplainable inspiring to witness the journey many of the Migrant Youth Voices participants have taken in a fairly short period of time. From living with their secret, to sharing their stories with others who have been there, to sharing their story on film(safely), to speaking publicly. It's clear that there will be several emerging community leaders from this crew. Perhaps that is the silver lining that the passage of HB87 has brought, a new unstoppable force that will unquestionable prevail in the long run.


Contact us if you're interested in hosting a film screening in your community. The films are very short and we can set up a panel to follow. It's a great way to start a conversation.

Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee
tfranzen@afsc.org

Food For Thought Sparks Funds For Change

This past Sunday Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP), a project of AFSC, hosted an event called "Food For Thought".

SCAP organizers spent all day cooking a delicious three course meal for attendees. The event was a fundraiser for SCAP's scholarship fund, and it was an opportunity to create important conversations about some of the issues SCAP focuses on.

After everyone loaded up on food we screened two short films, the first one was, "Last Best Option" which was produced by several really talented Georgia State Students. The film basically chronicled some of the work the SCAP does in Atlanta. We were really lucky to have all the film makers( Kristy Breneman, Kristen Woolford, Victoria Temple, and T.J. Hicks) present along with one of the youth featured in the film(Aisha Davis) for a Q&A after the screening. We all feel that, "Last Best Option" is a really great snap shot into what SCAP stands for, and more importantly what we actually do. Sometimes it's difficult to adequately give the skinny on how SCAP works, so it's really amazing to have this resource to share with folks in the future.

The second short film entitled, "Migrant Youth Voices" is on in a series of films designed to raise the voices of undocumented youth in Georgia. The short that was shown Sunday evening was a compilation of several interviews. The audience was treated to a Q&A with both of the courageous youth chronicled in the film. I can honestly say that there were few dry eyes after the short film was shown. I can't explain how truly inspiring it's been working everyone associated. Migrant Youth Voices is part of a national AFSC effort, here in Atlanta we've been watching what Oakland's been putting out with excitement.

We're really excited at the prospect of showing both of these films around the state or Georgia, feel free to contact me in you would like to set up a film screening at your school, church, community center, ect.

Big thanks to everyone that came out Sunday! We raised a lot of awareness and over $4oo.oo for SCAP's scholarship fund!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee
tfranzen@afsc.org

AFSC/SCAP Featured in Documentary Film!!

Last Friday evening Peripheral Visions did a film screening of several short documentaries. One of them, called "Last, Best Option", chronicled the work AFSC does to promote non-military options for Atlanta youth. About fifteen of us went to the screening, none of us had seen the film so we were all pretty anxious. The film makers(Kristy Breneman, Kristan Woolford, Victoria Temple, and T.J. Hicks) did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of what we do in Atlanta. All of us were just blown away with the quality and the content of the film.

At the event raffle tickets were sold with all of the proceeds benefiting Student Career Alternatives Program's scholarship program. At the end of the night we were presented with $470! Big ups to everyone with the Peripheral Visions crew for making last Friday such a great night for us. The film is something we're all really exciting about using in the future to shine a light on the work we do.

Film maker Kristy Breneman also worked with our own Josie Figueroa to put together a great short film on our Migrant youth Voice Project.

You can see both short films, meet the youth who were featured in them, meet the film makers, Help lift up the youth we work with, and enjoy a delicious three course meal by attending this event on May 29th. Just Click THIS for the details.


'Last, Best Option'
by
in collaboration with Members of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and its Student Career Alternatives Program (SCAP)
Last, Best Option explores the work of the Student Career Alternatives Program (SCAP), an initiative of the southeast regional office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The short documentary looks into the ways in which SCAP seeks to educate, activate, and empower young people who are struggling to find future paths, especially those students who feel military service is their "last best option." Veterans, active duty soldiers, military recruiters, students, SCAP organizers, and volunteers all add their own unique voices to a discussion of what this young and innovative program is doing to promote peace and help at-risk youth within the Atlanta area community.


Here's Josie introducing and answering questions about Migrant Youth Voice:




Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Georgia Law Makers Legislate Hate

In a sad historic vote the Georgia Senate passed SB 40. The bill has been know by many as an Arizona copy cat law.

The bill signifies a new chapter in Georgia's legacy of hate and discrimination. SB 40 will discard thousands of human beings that have helped build Georgia's infrastructure, grow our crops, and do most of Georgia's dirty work.

Most economist predict that SB40 will have a devastating effect on Georgia's struggling economy. The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials stated,

"Georgia’s economy is at stake. HB 87 and SB 40 would impact the heart of Georgia’s economy: its agricultural industry, tourism and convention business, and foreign investment. Georgia’s leading industry is agriculture, which generates $65 billion annually toward the State’s economy and employs one out of every seven residents. It is estimated that 50-70% of our nation’s agricultural workforce is made up of undocumented immigrants. We commend the Georgia Farm Bureau for voicing its concern over a copycat Arizona law.

The tourism and convention business is the State’s second largest industry and has a total economic impact of about $34.8 billion. It is estimated that Arizona has lost over $140 million dollars on lost tourism and convention business as a direct result of the passage of its controversial law. Georgia cannot afford this type of loss. Georgia could potentially have a loss far greater than Arizona’s because Georgia is the home of many multi-national corporations, has the world’s busiest airport, has a thirst for expanding international trade."

But a bill being a bad deal for Georgian's didn't stop Senate from letting this one pass.

Outside the capitol, during the debate on the bill, 30-40 folks rallied against SB40. I had the honor of carrying several banners that youth involved with our migrant youth voice project had painted the day before. They weren't able to attend themselves because they're high school students, but they wanted to have a voice. One of them, Javier, was actually able to leave class for a few minutes to do a radio interview on 89.3.

About 20 minutes after the Senate voted to pass SB40 I received a phone call from one of our youth. His voice was shaky, I could tell something was wrong. He told me that his mother was moving the family to Houston because the laws passing here make them all unsafe. I can't think of any young person who deserves a future without bureaucratic, xenophobic obstacles more than this young man...yet I had little to say to him.

I found it ironic that just the day before this young man had bought an, "I Love ATL" shirt from a down town vendor after eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. He's an amazing guitar player and a rock and roll aficionado and the Hard Rock was a really great experience for him. I could see the doors of imagination opening up in his mind as he looked and took pictures of every piece of rock and roll history in the restaurant. He's just the kind of kid this city needs, smart, passionate, altruistic, and creative. I wish I could tell him that ATL loves him back, but today I couldn't.

I can't fathom any other reason for the passing of SB40 them pure racism.

Now more then ever we need folks off the sidelines. We need folks to go beyond agreeing with us, we need you to stand with us, organize with us.

Governor Deal has the power to veto this bill. We recommend you jam his office line, let his staff know this is unacceptable! That we don't want Jim Crow back in Georgia.

His Number:

404-657-7332

I'd also like to invite folks to come out to a few demonstrations over the next two weeks.

Wednesday, March 16 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Saturday March 19th 12-3pm

Thursday March 24th 11-2pm

Tim Franzen

American Friends Service Committee

Migrant Youth Voice

AFSC's national campaign Migrant Youth Voice is reaching the people of GA. We already have several contacts in Atlanta and surrounding cities. The voices of these young men and women will be heard and will be recognized. Check out our first official release and check in with us for more to come!

Josie Figueroa

American Friends Service Committee

GA Immigrant Youth Speak Up!

Migrant Youth Voice is a project of AFSC created to lift the often unheard voices of undocumented and latino youth into the public discourse on immigration reform. Too often we hear the pontifications of those who are unaffected by the immigration policy. Too often we are fed unrealistic fears paraded as truths by politians and pundits who seek to gain political capital. We hope to amplify the human voices who simply dream of having a lawful existence in the nation that they call home.

This past Saturday we organized a youth conference in support of Migrant Youth Voice. Storycorps expressed interest in this national campaign and joined us to record interviews that would be considered for radio play on NPR. Youth came to participate in learning about current legislation, they came to share their stories and link the ties between how immigration policies have already been affecting their lives. Most importantly, these students came to be heard and begin to make a change.

As these students shared their stories of facing racism and xenophobia it became clear that even at a high school age there is an understanding of what an undocumented student or peer is being deprived of. A lot of the undocumented students we encounter do not recall coming to the United States. This has always been their country. If these youth were to be deported they would be going to a country completely foreign to them. This is the reality that many undocumented students are living with. It is a fear of simply trying to make a life for themselves in a country that seems to be trying to criminalize them more and more. One young man specifically mentioned he and his family having to move out of a county that enforced 287(g); a law that gives law enforcement authority to use racial profiling and detain undocumented individuals for unspecified periods of time. We learned how all undocumented families are living in fear. “Ojale no me pare la policia”.

This is one of the many, many reasons the kids came to share their stories. To put a face to who is actually being affected by these detrimental pieces of legislation. Students were inspired to film their stories anonymously. They were inspired to get involved and get others involved. Banners were made for GLAHR’s upcoming immigration march, discussions were had with the GADREAMERS to give kids a better understanding on local immigration issues. We had fun group exercises to get everyone working together and grasp the concept and importance of working with others to reach a desired goal for all.

As we approached the end of the day, students were coming up to us asking when we could meet again. They are telling their friends and family members and they want to get their stories out there. They want a future for themselves and their families here in the U.S. and they are going to fight for it.

The most important part of Migrant Youth Voice has been to inspire youth to be vocal on the issues that are affecting them and through this project to have achieved a sense of fulfillment and pride in themselves and their hard working immigrant families. We are so proud of you guys! And we can’t wait to share your stories with the world.

Videos are coming soon!

www.glahr.org

www.67percent.net

Josie Figueroa

American Friends Service Committee