Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice inspires, educates, and mobilizes people to unite across differences and to act from their shared ethical and spiritual values in pursuit of peace with social and environmental justice.
Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice envisions a world free from violence, including the violence of war, poverty, oppression, and environmental devastation. To enact this vision, we commit to nurture a community in which compassion and respect foster actions that dismantle systems of violence while simultaneously creating systems of peace, justice, and ecological sustainability.
Our 2014 Fall/Winter Newsletter is now available, jam-packed with news, reflections, and action alerts about how action for justice and sustainability can start right at the end of our fork–and how it can continue from there.
Many Americans today believe that if they simply stopped talking about racism it would eventually cease to have any effect on their lives. In truth, the situation is exactly the opposite. It is our failure to engage and understand the ways racism has functioned and continues to work in the present that lies at the heart of its ongoing influence. This film and discussion series, moderated by La’Ron Williams, provides the needed opportunity for our community to participate in constructive discussion about racism as it is expressed in the 21st century.
Sunday, February 1, 1:30 p.m. Race – The Power of an Illusion,episode 2: the Story We Tell.Hasn’t race always been with us? Explore the roots of the concept of race, including the 19th century science that justified it and how it gained a hold over our minds.
Sunday, March 1, 1:30 p.m. Race – The Power of an Illusion, Episode 3 – “The House We Live In.” Race has been shown to be a biological myth, but racism gives different groups vastly different life chances. Forty years after the Civil Rights Movement, the playing field is still not level and “colorblind” policies only perpetuate existing inequities.
Location: Ypsilanti District Library, 5577 Whittaker Road.
Sponsored by the Ypsilanti District Library and Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice.
Details: info@icpj.org, 734-663-1870
Washtenaw County recently released the much-awaited Housing Affordability and Economic Equity Analysis. It shows that there is a growing imbalance between the communities west and east of US-23, the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti divide.
The numbers are striking. To make up for lost housing affordability, the Ann Arbor/Pittsfield Township area needs to add 3,137 non student affordable rentals over the next 20 years. Conversely, Ypsilanti City and Township need to grow demand by 4,187 college educated households over the next 20 years. Otherwise, we will see inequality continue to increase in our community with negative impacts in safety, education, transportation, and the environment.
Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County have shown a strong commitment to affordable housing, but affordability and equity analysis shows that the efforts so far do not reach the scale needed to stem the growing inequality in our community. Now is the time to push our community for bold action at a greater scale to take on affordability and equity in our community.
Visit The Farm at St. Joe and hear from a panel of “solutionaries”- Dan Bair, the farm manager for the Farm at St. Joe, Betti Wiggins, Executive Director of the Detroit Public Schools Office of Food Services, and Nicki Milgrom, Healthy Food in Health Care program at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor. The panel will discuss the impact of growing healthy communities through the institutions like schools and hospitals. The Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation and Pardes Hannah, in partnership with the Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice and Jewish Alliance for Food, Land and Justice, will be hosting this tour and panel discussion this Sunday, December 7th from 1:00-3:30 pm at the Farm at St. Joe – St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ypsilanti (Womens Health Center, 5320 Elliott Dr., Classroom 1).
Panelists include:
Dan Bair (The Farm at St. Joe’s)
Betti Wiggins (Office of Food Services at Detroit Public Schools)
Nicki Milgrom (Ecology Center)
Register for the event here: http://foodlandjustice-st-joe-farm.eventbrite.com
I’m excited! An anonymous donor just let me know that she would like to match new gifts to ICPJ up to $1000!
I’m also a bit nervous, will we be able to make the match?
I’m depending on you. Your gift can help ICPJ carry on the struggle for justice and peace.
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Help us make the match. Donate today.
And thank you for all you do to make the world a better place.
Following the death of Michael Brown, ICPJ organized a Lessons from Ferguson panel (see video). Since then we have been in conversation with civil rights, faith, and community leaders to explore strategies to address concerns about racial disparities and use of force by law enforcement.
We’ve identified nine potential policy changes or reviews, from pushing for body cam deployment to reviewing use of force policies, but I need your help in 2 ways:
1. I need you to help me prioritize this list. We have nine things we could do, we need to focus that down to the top priorities that we can get some action on. Please take our survey
2. I will need you to help move this forward. Tomorrow the news coverage will go back to Thanksgiving sales and deadlock in Washington. The only way we will keep this going is with organized community action for change. Sign up on the survey page or email me to get involved. Continue Reading »
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