Grant to Iowa Will Bolster Juvenile Justice Efforts
The $750,000 grant will provide training and technical help from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for improving services to young offenders. The three-year program will be administered by the Iowa Department of Human Rights' Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning....
Read moreCentral Texas Religious Leaders Call for Immigration Reform
In a prayer service and press conference organized by Austin Interfaith, Central Texas Bishops and clergy from six religious denominations "pressed Tuesday for reforms centered on keeping families together and allowing unauthorized immigrants to earn legal residency with a path to citizenship.... such principles are key to what they called just and humane immigration reforms."
Central Texas Religious Leaders: Immigration Change Must be Just, Humane, Austin American Statesman Printable version
Read moreOne LA Enrolls Hundreds in County Healthcare System
"L.A. County is teaming with OneLA to hold enrollment events in places where those needing healthcare coverage naturally congregate, such as churches and schools....Volunteers are identifying people through the church parishes and doing pre-screening so the enrollment can occur on the spot. Some of the people are eligible for Medi-Cal, and others are being enrolled in Healthy Way LA, a temporary coverage program until the Medi-Cal expansion takes place in 2014.
The effort relies on trained volunteers, with help from Neighborhood Legal Services and the L.A. County Department of Health Services. The volunteers are also working to link people with clinics near their homes."
Read more‘Working Together Jackson’ Launches in Mississippi
"Representatives from approximately 50 organizations based in Jackson, Mississippi came together on June 14, 2012 to kick-off 'Working Together Jackson', a community development initiative three years in the making. The well attended event was held at New Horizon International on Ellis Ave., pastored by Bishop Ronnie Crudup. The majority members of the broad-based coalition of institutions in the Jackson Metro Area are churches. However, the remainder of the groups are service oriented, such as Stewpot, Spencer Perkins Center, United Auto Workers, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliances and Zoo Area Progressive Partnership."
Community Welcomes 'Working Together Jackson', The Jackson Advocate
Read moreVOICE Rises in Oklahoma City
"Founded last winter at a convention that drew more than 1,200 people, Voices Organized in Civic Engagement (VOICE) hopes to get residents focused on what their biggest needs are, and how those can best be achieved at the local and state level.
"We hope to get citizens engaged in conversations that confront our communities, and we will try to hold public officials accountable for their decisions and votes," said Lance Schmitz, pastor of Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene and an original member of VOICE's earlier entity, the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee..."
Read more‘Nevadans for the Common Good’ Cuts Video of 1st Convention
"We understand that when people come together and they are of one accord, things can happen....
We want to engage in a process of contagious neighborliness! We want to get to know each other better in our institutions. At the same time we want to enlarge our neighborhoods. We move forward with the knowledge that together we can change the face of Nevada..."
Read more1,500 Leaders Launch ‘Nevadans for the Common Good’
"The first-ever Las Vegas Valley Community Convention for the Common Good aimed to teach, to inspire and to harness the power of faith to better Southern Nevadans' quality of life.
The Tuesday evening event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas student center ballroom drew more than 1,500 people - UNLV President Neal Smatresk noted that it was the "most full I have ever seen this room" - interested in organizing a broad-based, interdenominational effort to address social problems facing the valley...."
Read moreWorking Together Jackson Launches House Meeting Campaign
"Jerry Jones wants a decent place to take his wife to eat where they live in south Jackson. Bill Osborne, a retiree, says abandoned homes are ruining Jackson neighborhoods and wants to work on revitalizing them. They were among small groups of 10 at a church in south Jackson last week where they were asked to name the one thing they'd be willing to do to improve Jackson....
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