ACTS-CNY

ACTS “FAITH & DEMOCRACY” MEETING:

A TESTAMENT TO OUR GROWING POWER FOR GOOD

By all media accounts, and by most counts from people participating at our ACTS Faith & Democracy meeting on Sunday, Oct. 26, we had an overall turnout of over 1000.  The Post-Standard, gave us over 1000.  The TV news channels as well as NPR gave us over 1200.  This is the best coverage ACTS has received; here is the link for the best TV coverage we got - from Channel 5 (rest of media coverage at the end).

Here’s the link for the photo gallery, thanks to Wendy Colucci.

Short of an exact count, what we do know is that we are on a roll, growing stronger than ever before in ACTS’ history, with 26 member organizations (largest membership ACTS has ever had), incl. Catholic Charities and SEIU 1199, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim, urban and suburban.

The climax of the meeting was the challenge to both state officials and then to candidates for federal office to expand the outreach and resources for child enrollment in Child Health Plus.

Candidates for the 25th Congressional District Green Howie Hawkins and Democrat Dan Maffei committed publicly to overturn the past vetoes of President Bush for an expansion of federal support for Child Health Plus and to create a national commitment to end this scandal of uninsured children.

They also committed to meet with ACTS within 50 days of taking office to work with us on our national legislative agenda: healthcare reform (HCAN), quality education for all children, equitable economic development and job creation, investment in infrastructure and mass transit, and compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform.  The Republican candidate Dale Sweetland left before he could answer our questions.

During the meeting Sunday, ACTS President Emeritus Rev. Nebraski Carter introduced himself as a registered Democrat; Rev. Roosevelt Baums as a registered Republican.  But they had not come here for any party - but for the issues.  Both pastors, veterans of the Civil Rights movement, reminded the crowd that too many people shed blood and lost lives to obtain the right to vote, and led the people assembled to chant their commitment in unison: “We will vote!” We are now carrying out our get-out-the-vote effort until Nov. 4, continuing our voter mobilization campaign begun in August.

Beyond election day, ACTS and the rest of Gamaliel NY (NOAH, VOICE-Buffalo, ARISE, LION, and NWBCC) plan to bring 250 people to Washington, D.C., on December 4, to the “Realizing the Promise” National Forum.

The candidates for the 25th Congressional District have agreed to meet the ACTS delegation in D.C. on Dec. 4!

The four ACTS task forces were also recognized for the tremendous work they’ve done and the progress they’ve made in the areas of:

1. helping smooth re-entry of persons formerly incarcerated by giving them a valid state DMV ID as CNY’s Republican and Democrat state senators and assembly members have agreed to co-sponsor legislation to amend DMV policies (Justice Taskforce);
2. increasing enrollment numbers in Child Health Plus due to ACTS’ coalescing of the Onondaga County SCHIP coalition (made up of county and state government, region’s private insurers contracted for SCHIP, and ACTS) and work on technical and marketing improvements (Healthcare Taskforce);
3. expanding the successful AVID program to help students do better in school, graduate; and go on to college (Youth Taskforce); &
4. promoting a ground-breaking Community Benefits Agreement connected with the $1 billion Joint School Construction Board project to yield good jobs, training, and community improvements as schools are rebuilt (Economic Development/Jobs Taskforce).

Media Coverage:

Channel 5

Channel 10

Channel 9

The Post-Standard article:

ACTS lobbies its agenda to 25th District hopefuls
Candidates heard the interfaith group’s concerns at Most Holy Rosary.
Monday, October 27, 2008
By Paige Dearing
Contributing writer

With nine days until Election Day, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse gathered more than 1,000 Central New York residents Sunday to meet local candidates and lobby the group’s antipoverty and social justice issues.

The group’s meeting at Most Holy Rosary Church in Syracuse focused on justice, education, health care and the economy, with reports given by leaders of four task forces on the progress made in the last year.

The three candidates running for the 25th Congressional District - Dan Maffei, Dale Sweetland and Howie Hawkins - attended.

“We just want people to participate in the electoral process and we want to hold the people we elect accountable,” said the Rev. Kevin Agee, ACTS president.

ACTS is an interdenominational activist group, made up of 26 faith, civic and union organizations that aims to highlight poverty and social justice issues in its annual political program.

“I think this group has made a lot of progress,” said Maggie Mahoney, of Syracuse. “I know at first a lot of people wrote them off as a flash in a pan, but they have made a lot of progress. I give them a lot of credit for that.”

Over the past year, ACTS has worked to:

Help those getting out of jail get a free birth certificate and help people get identification cards. It also pushed for legislation to have the state Department of Motor Vehicles accept jail records as valid proof of identification, which it currently does not do, said Emily NaPier, justice task force chair.

Increase the number of students exposed to the Advancement Via Individual Determination program, which encourages higher education and helps young people get ready for college, said Sheryl Aiello, youth task force co-chair.

Introduce community benefit agreements, contracts between developers and a coalition of community members, to “nurture, nourish and develop a community that benefits all of us,” said Julio E. Urrutia, economic development task force chair.

Pushed for fixes of technological problems with enrollment in Child Health Plus, New York state’s health insurance plan for children, and helped increase enrollment by 420 children, said Peter Sarver, health care task force chair.

“America is finally recognizing something we’ve been fighting for 40, 50 years,” said Bernard McMillian, of Syracuse. “In order to be a world state you’ve got to be about the people.”

Agee asked the congressional candidates if they would pledge to work with S-CHIP (a children’s health insurance program); commit to work for ACTS legislative agenda; and appear Dec. 4 at a forum on community, faith and democracy in Washington, D.C. Hawkins and Maffei said yes to all three questions; Sweetland was not present when Agee asked the questions.

Hawkins said he would not be able to ignore a group with such big, clear goals and would be willing to work with ACTS if elected.

“I think it will be a challenge, a dialogue,” he said.

Maffei referred to the biblical story of David, who always remembered his roots in Jerusalem, to show his dedication to the community.

“You, my friends, are my Jerusalem,” Maffei said. “I will remain faithful to you.”

Our voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts are in full swing. We are focused on: 1) in and around our member congregations in Syracuse and its suburbs, 2) African-American and Latino communities in the south, near-west, and north sides of Syracuse, and 3) immigrant communities. 

We are conducting phone banks, door-to-door canvassing, and mass mailings as well as “Citizenship Sabbaths” in our member congregations.  

On the Post-Standard Thursday, September 18, 2008:

Group works to raise immigrant voter turnout
ACTS wants minorities’ concerns heard by candidates in 25th Congressional Dist.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
By Maureen Sieh

Urban affairs editor

A Syracuse-based interfaith coalition which works to address health, education, economic and other social barriers affecting minorities has launched a voter registration drive and outreach to increase immigrant voter participation in the upcoming 25th Congressional District election.

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse has hired a full-time community organizer to canvass 13,000 voters with Middle Eastern, Latino and Asian surnames.

The group identified the voters through a 2006 election database from the Onondaga County Board of Elections, said Andres Kwon, lead organizer of ACTS. The goal is a 20 percent increase in participation by immigrants who have become U.S. citizens, he said.
 
Julio Urrutia Jr., the new community organizer, began calling the immigrant voters last week to remind them to vote. Between now and Nov. 4, ACTS hopes to contact at least 5,000 of those voters five times through phone bank and direct mailing, Kwon said.

“What we’re doing is building (the) political power of underrepresented constituencies,” he said. “Politicians and elected officials are not going to adhere to a constituency if they’re not voting. If you’re here, you have to practice the basic right which is to vote.”

The immigrant voters will also be invited to ACTS’ annual public meeting planned for Oct. 26 at Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Ave. The group invites elected officials to commit to addressing issues affecting the urban community.

ACTS has also teamed up with Service Employees International Union and Citizens Action, a grass-roots group which works on social justice issues, to register African-American, Latino and Asian voters on the city’s South, North and Near West sides.

Urrutia, 22, who graduated in May from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in international relations, said he’s been knocking on doors as well as making phone calls.

He’s registered 18-year-olds who will be voting for the first time. In some cases, new residents have moved and some of them are not registered voters.

“It’s been great seeing people who are new to the process get involved and get excited about the electoral process,” Urrutia said. “The excitement is there, it’s just a matter of tapping into it.”

The local effort is part of a national campaign to turn out 1 million immigrant voters across the country. The national campaign spearheaded by the We Are America Alliance, an immigrant rights advocacy group, was launched Wednesday in observance of National Citizenship Day.

The goal is to engage immigrants in the electoral process and pressure elected officials to pass immigration reform, one of the hottest issues in the country.

From 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today, about 30 immigrant rights activists groups from around the state will gather at Plymouth Congregational Church in Syracuse to discuss a range of issues affecting immigrants- racial profiling on trains and buses, the lack of health care for migrant workers and the impact of immigration raids on families.

Kwon said ACTS wants to ensure that underrepresented groups participate in the elections because this is the first time in 20 years that there’s an open seat in the 25th Congressional District, which includes Syracuse and its suburbs.

Three candidates are vying for the seat being vacated by Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga. The three are Dan Maffei, a Democrat; Dale Sweetland, a Republican, and Howie Hawkins, of the Green Party.

At 2 p.m. today, Maffei and Sweetland will meet with ACTS’ clergy caucus - 20 faith leaders. When the group invited Maffei and Sweetland a month ago, Hawkins wasn’t on the ballot, Kwon said. Hawkins will be invited to the Oct. 26 public meeting.

Maureen Sieh can be reached at msieh@syracuse.com or 470-2159.

At the public meeting in November, County Executive Joanie Mahoney committed to working with the ACTS Justice Taskforce to establish procedures that will allow every person incarcerated at the Justice Center or Jamesville to obtain a New York State DMV photo ID upon his or her release. 

Based on samples from the Justice Center and of people being released from Jamesville, we have found that over half of the people incarcerated in Onondaga County have no photo ID, and over one-third do not have a Social Security card, which is required to get a photo ID from the DMV.  Having photo ID is necessary to access services that one might need post-release and to obtain employment so as to reduce recidivism, support successful reintegration, and promote public safety.

Since January 2008, a core group of ACTS Justice Taskforce leaders has been meeting monthly with representatives from the offices of many of our elected officials and from partner organizations.  We have had some major accomplishments already.  For example, the Justice Center has developed a questionnaire to be administered to people when they arrive at the Justice Center to determine what documentation they need to obtain photo ID upon release.  If one of the pieces of documentation that someone needs is a birth certificate, the Bureau of Vital Statistics has agreed to provide, free of charge, a government-issued birth certificate to those people born in Onondaga County who are incarcerated at the Justice Center or Jamesville.  And the Justice Center has committed to use their Commissary Fund for Indigent Inmate Needs to cover, on a case-by-case basis, the fees associated with obtaining an out-of-county or out-of-state birth certificate.

At our Taskforce’s meeting with elected officials at the Onondaga County Justice Center on June 9, we heard from various stakeholders including members of ACTS, officers from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, Syracuse City School District teachers, leaders from community organizations, and two young men who were recently released from incarceration themselves.  It became clear that this is an issue that has inspired a broad base of support from a wide spectrum of local government agencies, faith communities, service providers, community organizations, and community members.  We are now working to establish relationships with elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels who are working with us to make the DMV and Social Security Administration procedures more responsive to the needs of people being released from jail and prison.

On November 18, 2007, ACTS held its first Public Meeting in three years where our Healthcare Taskforce received a pledge from the county executive as well as from state representatives, the regional governor’s representative and U.S. Rep. James Walsh to work on ensuring more effective outreach, including funding, to enroll children in Child Health Plus.  Our taskforce found that at least 7,500 children in Onondaga County remain uninsured although they are eligible for Child Health Plus.  

Since our public meeting, we have gathered a coalition of county and state officials and interested private insurers – Fidelis, Excellus Blue Cross-Blue Shield, United HealthCare, and Total Care.  We have been meeting monthly as a collaborative group of grass roots organizations, health care providers, health insurance companies, Dr. Rueben Cowart (CEO of Syracuse Community Health Center), Mr. Dan Young of the Governor’s office, Onondaga County Health Department representatives, Onondaga County Social Services Commissioner Mr. David Sutkowy and representatives of the Onondaga County Executive’s office.

The following is the letter we sent, with the signatures of both Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Mrs. Linda Ervin, acting co-chair of the ACTS Healthcare Taskforce, to the NY state governor:

As you know, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (A.C.T.S.), a network of community organizations, has convened a coalition of experts, community members, and practitioners to address the barriers to acquiring public health insurance coverage for children and families.

This committee has developed specific recommendations and is requesting help from the Governor’s office in reducing obstacles for families enrolling in public health insurance. The following recommendations represent three sustainable systems changes that would benefit all of New Y;ork State, and one that will specifically increase enrollment in Onondaga County.

They are:

·         Waive the fee for obtaining an original birth certificate for all Facilitated Enrollers.

·         Review the literacy level of the State application, and make the necessary changes so that it reads at or below a 4^th grade reading level in all available languages.

·         Allow Facilitated Enrollers to use information that applicants have already provided to government programs such as Food Stamps and HEAP. Many applicants for public health insurance already have applications on file for other services that require similar documentation. This would require changes to the state application process.

·         Establish a fund of $40,000 for a localized media campaign, unique to the needs of our community. Currently, the New York State Department of Health only allows localities to use Sate developed promotional materials, thereby limiting a community’s ability to address specific needs of their population.

It is our intent to serve as a model to other communities across the state, and with your help, we are certain that barriers to providing health insurance to all New Yorkers will be reduced.

We look forward to your support of our request and thank you for ensuring healthier children and families in Onondaga County.

We are presently working with the governor’s regional representative as well as our state legislators in order to address the points we’ve put forth in the letter above. 

Furthermore, the ACTS Healthcare Taskforce has met with Onondaga County school superintendents in order to begin an outreach strategy through school districts throughout the county.

The event was very well attended, as we had a full house and a very strong representation from our member organizations.  

Our issue task forces were able to report back to ACTS and to the community-at-large on the substantial progress made thus far.

Bishop Violet Fisher (United Methodist Church Western New York Conference), our keynote speaker, was simply perfect for the occasion, as she preached powerfully about “renewing our strength.”  

Finally, there were proclamations read from the mayor’s office, the county executive’s and the governor’s office, praising ACTS for our “powerful grassroots voice,” and committing to continue our partnerships as we transform our region.

We want to thank all of our supporters for your message in our ad-book/journal.  We raised well over our initial goal of $25,000.

Our list of member organizations keeps growing - we have now reached 24! Please visit our Members page for a complete list.

March 31, 2008 was the target date set by Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney’s office, when she committed to work with ACTS at the November 2008 public meeting, by which to have procedures in place for every person incarcerated at the Onondaga County Justice Center or the Onondaga County Department of Correction (Jamesville) to obtain a New York State Department of Motor Vehicles photo identification card upon his or her release. Having photo identification is necessary to access services that one might need post-release and to obtain employment so as to reduce recidivism.

A core group of ACTS Justice Taskforce leaders have been meeting monthly since January 2008 with representatives from partner organizations including the County Executive’s office, the Justice Center/Sheriff’s Department, the Department of Correction (Jamesville), the Probation Department, the Syracuse City School District/Incarcerated Education Program, the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Health Department, the Department of Social Services, the Jail Ministry, the Center for Community Alternatives, the Concerned Citizen’s Action Program, and the Southside Resource Center of Catholic Charities. As of March 31, the group has:

• assessed the need for this type of intervention and found that, based on samples from people incarcerated at the Justice Center and people released from Jamesville, over 50 percent of people incarcerated have no photo identification, and over one-third do not have a Social Security card;
• developed a questionnaire to be administered to people when they arrive at the Justice Center to determine what documentation they need to obtain photo identification upon release;
• secured an agreement between the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Justice Center, and Jamesville that Vital Statistics will provide, free of charge, a government-issued birth certificate for those incarcerated people born in Onondaga County or any other county in New York State;
• received a commitment from the Justice Center to use their Commissary Fund for Indigent Inmate Needs to cover, on a case-by-case basis, the fees associated with obtaining an out-of-state birth certificate;
• submitted a request for a memorandum of understanding between the Social Security Administration, the Justice Center, and Jamesville whereby certified records from the Justice Center or Jamesville could be used to obtain a Social Security card;
• submitted a request for a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Justice Center, and Jamesville whereby certified records from the Justice Center or Jamesville could be accepted as the four points of proof of identity required, in addition to a birth certificate and a Social Security card, to obtain DMV photo identification;
• assembled a transition sub-committee, consisting of representatives from the above relevant organizations as well as the District Attorney’s office and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), to identify a central clearinghouse in which to store all the documentation gathered for people while they are incarcerated, and to develop procedures for assisting people in obtaining their identification upon release;
• initiated the planning for an evaluation structure to assess the implementation and outcomes of the intervention; and
• adopted procedures to conduct a pilot study of the intervention at the Justice Center to begin when responses are received regarding the memorandums of understanding with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Emily NaPier

In September 2007 after the extensive listening campaign in the congregations and associations involved with ACTS, health care became one of the issues chosen at the Issues Assembly.

After much research and development, the core issue that was refined and presented at the Public Meeting on November 18, 2007 was the 7500 children in Onondaga County who are without health insurance according to Dr. Cynthia Morrow, Onondaga County Health Commissioner. Dr. Morrow indicated that the children are qualified for the public insurance yet are not covered. At the Public Meeting, we received positive answers from potential allies from Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Congressman Jim Walsh, State Assembly members Al Stirpe, Joan Christensen, SEIU and others.

Since November, the members of the task force have been very busy establishing partnerships with various stakeholders. We have been blessed to have an Intern, Monique Brantley from Syracuse University who is helping with data analysis. We have also begun collaboration with the insurers who provide the coverage, the Onondaga County DSS office, the New York State Health Department, Syracuse Community Health Center, County Health Department, County Executive’s office, Governor Paterson’s office and have been meeting monthly. We have been receiving many calls asking to work with us to help solve this issue of children without coverage.

Our most recent meeting of the collaborative group was held on Thursday, March 20, at which there were representatives from all stakeholder groups. We discussed the barriers to enrolling families and the system as it exists now. The governor’s office can certainly help us and a letter is being formulated to him about our needs in helping remove some of the barriers. Amanda Nestor of the Onondaga County Health Department will work on a draft letter. We envision having something to report from the governor’s office by our banquet in May.

The goal of the health care task force is to have a system in place to identify the 7500 children, enroll them and prevent our children from falling through the cracks in the future. With the help of our partners, we expect to accomplish our initial goal and to have a foundation to explore future areas of concern in health care.

Linda Ervin

At the 2007 Gamaliel Foundation International Leadership Assembly, ACTS received one of the highest awards from the Gamaliel Foundation – for the best Strategic Executive Team of 2007.

A delegation of seven braved through bad weather to receive the award in Iowa, and were also trained in many capacities, ranging from GOTV work to recruiting congregations to winning state-wide campaigns. The delegation then participated at the Heartland Presidential Forum with presidential hopefuls, a forum co-sponsored by Gamaliel Foundation and the Center for Community Change, among others.