Notes from the Left Coast

Drummond Pike’s Blog

It’s that time again, please circulate amongst folks who may want to apply! As many of you probably already know, it’s a pretty prestigious award and a great way to refresh and rejuvenate many folks of color whose work has helped push forward social change to a higher level. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with and for some of the past recipients of this award program and know how much it helped sustain and renew their fervor in their work.

The Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program

Long-Time Activists of Color Invited to Apply for Sabbatical Program

Deadline: December 15, 2007

The Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program is committed to advancing progressive social change by helping to sustain long-time activists of color. The program honors those who have devoted their lives to helping their communities organize for racial, social, economic, and environmental justice, and provides resources for these organizers to take sabbaticals for reflection and renewal.

To qualify for an Alston/Bannerman Fellowship, applicants must:

• be a person of color;
• have more than ten years of community organizing experience; be committed to continuing to work for social change;
• and live in the United States or its territories.

Both full-time and volunteer activists are eligible to apply.

Fellows receive a $25,000 award to take sabbaticals of three months or more.

Fellows are expected to stop their day-to-day work activities for at least three months and devote that time to activities that are substantially different from their normal routine. Fellows have the freedom to use their sabbaticals however they think will best re-energize them for the work ahead. Past fellows have used the time and resources to travel, study, visit with other activists, read, relax, acquire new skills, explore new interests, spend time with their families, restore their health, plan, evaluate, and “just be still.”

Visit the program’s Web site for complete program details:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10009223/alstonbannerman

Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Progam
1627 Lancaster Street, Baltimore, MD 21231
Phone: 410-327-6220
Fax: 501-421-5862
E-mail: info@Alston/Bannerman.org
Web: www.AlstonBannerman.org

I also want to acknowledge the stellar work of Maritza Schafer and Christopher Herrera on The Right to the City, Tides’ newest Donor Guide.

If you haven’t picked up a copy from Maritza (or viewed the video documentary on the Tides Foundation’s website), you should. The content offers a powerful model for organizing to revitalize our cities, and introduces basic issues of human rights.

It is a model for what Tides can achieve, bringing together donors and activists to maximize our impact and create strategic change.

I want to highlight a new Tides donor, Ishmael Beah, who hosted a “tea discussion” with Tides staff on the afternoon of the New York launch. Ishmael is a 26 year old whose new Tides fund will support young people in his native Sierra Leone, where he was a child soldier.

Now an activist, and author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael serves on many international human rights commissions, and is a brilliant writer with a captivating presence. During the discussion, Ishmael elaborated on the inspiration behind his fund and his plans for implementation.

Ishmael Beah Fund

Ishmael has lived through the kind of death and destruction that most of us cannot imagine. His work with Tides is one of his ways healing and creating change. The purpose of the Ishmael Beah Fund is to assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers as they transition back into their communities after years of captivity and torture. It will support projects run by local organizations in Sierra Leone and other African countries that deal with the rehabilitation and reintegration of children who have been used as weapons in war.

Rene Joslyn in NYC is Ishmael’s Philanthropic Advisor, and she facilitated the tea discussion last week. Kudos, also, to Gary Schwartz for having the vision to secure Ishmael as a donor.

As a token of his appreciation, Ishmael gave a signed a copy of his book to Tides. It is inscribed to the Tides San Francisco Office, and was delivered via Berit and Gary to me. I encourage you to read it, as it is a remarkable story of the resilience of the human spirit and a great reminder of why we do this work.

For more details about his book, and life see videos at
http://www.alongwaygone.com/media.html
.

Just a few things to add about last week’s grand Thoreau Centers for Sustainability NY opening event: It is amazing what the Tides organizations can pull off when they work together.

This gathering was simply fantastic. The Communications team created a beautiful slide show presentation that was running in four different conference rooms while the event was happening. The presentation includes some basic facts about Tides, an in-depth look at Tides Shared Spaces, and an amazing pictorial overview of our Tides projects, grantees, funds and initiatives.

I encourage you all to take a look.

Through 21st Century Foundation (a grantee of Tides Relief and Reconstruction Fund), Tides Foundation is part of the Gulf South Allied Funders, a group of committed donors moving resources to grassroots groups in the Gulf Coast Region. On behalf of this group, Jason Sanders played the role of key convener and host for this Tides briefing that was designed to:

• Inform current and potential donors about the challenges and opportunities of rebuilding along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast for the long-haul;
• Give attendees a clearer sense of approaches that are working and strategies that are needed;
• And feel inspired to pledge to rebuilding efforts thru 21st Century, and/or Tides R&R Fund.

The briefing moderator was:
Donna Edwards, Executive Director, Arca Foundation
(Donna is running for a US Congressional seat for Maryland too.)

The activist panel included:
Derrick Evans, Turkey Creek Community Initiative (JBL Awardee);
Derrick Johnson, NAACP of Mississippi;
Judith Browne-Dianis, Advancement Project;
Steve Bradbury, Louisiana ACORN;
Patricia Jones, Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (LNWNENA) .

Participants also viewed a video clip from Spike Lee’s documentary, When the Levees Broke.

The briefing preceded an awards dinner honoring community heroes rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Jason reported that, “Both the donor briefing and awards dinner were great successes and folks walked away sober, fully engaged and excited about partnering opportunities.”

So…why WAS there a FEMA trailer in front of Tides?
One of the activists brought this trailer — the kind that folks are still living in on the Gulf Coast — for our viewing. For those of you who missed the chance to walk through, here are some pictures taken by Courtney McFall. This only begins to provide a real sense of the serious hardship still being faced by so many survivors of Hurricane Katrina two years ago (in 2005).

Kindred: Community Foundations

On Wednesday, Tides welcomed 13 community foundation leaders for lunch and a conversation about Tides as a partner. This event was a great example of Tides Network in action.

Tides Center, Tides Shared Spaces, and Tides Foundation share an interest in Community Foundations …

• as vehicles - to advance the field of fiscal sponsorship
• as resources - to improve local capacity-building work
• and as partners - to engage in global giving

And it took all of our resources to make this event a success. We held an open Q&A and heard a presentation from Brian Van Weele at the Marin Community Foundation.

Participants left with a better understanding of Tides as a resource to help them achieve their goals. It was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to connect with community foundations in a meaningful way. Thanks to those of you who pulled together to make this program a success for Tides.

Of particular note this week was the very disappointing decision by Congress to grant continuing authority to President Bush’s administration to eavesdrop on phone and email of American citizens without judicial oversight. This fundamental tenet of the American system is crucial: an executive branch MUST be held accountable, and that is a role for the judiciary. To see this given away by a Congress fearful for their reelection prospects is beyond disappointing. But it also reminds one of the importance of our work in support of true American values.