ACTS-CNY

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Dozens of people gathered for a prayer vigil in downtown Syracuse in hopes of raising awareness for immigration reform.

See video.

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse sponsored the vigil. Their message — to call on Senator Charles Schumer to support comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Many members of the Alliance say that too many immigrants are trapped in a system that makes it difficult to obtain lawful status as American citizens.

“We’re here because so many of us in our community are really broken-hearted in the way that families are being separated. Children from their parents, spouses and partners from their beloved,” said Plymouth Church Reverend Craig Schaub.

Reform legislation will be introduced into the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks.

By Lyndra Vassar
February 02, 2010, 3:00PM
Syracuse Post Standard

A community activist group called on U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer to give immigrant families equal rights and protection under the federal laws.

(Protesters today hold a vigil calling for immigration reform outside the federal building in Syracuse. It was organized by the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse. David Lassman / The Post-Standard)

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) held a prayer vigil on at noon Monday . Huddled in the courtyard of the James M. Hanley Federal Building, people raised signs, sang songs and shared testimonies that carried the same message: every person deserves equal rights . Continue Reading »

By Tim Knauss / The Post-Standard
December 09, 2009, 6:00AM

(David Lassman / The Post-Standard) Retired State Trooper Lisa Parlato attends a meeting of the Onondaga County Legislature's Public Safety Committee Tuesday. She was initially denied a job as a volunteer mentor in Syracuse schools because the county sheriff's background check turned up a 33-year-old arrest for shoplifting; the case was forever sealed by a judge.

Syracuse, NY - Lisa Parlato served 20 years as a New York state trooper. After she retired, she earned a bachelor’s degree in social work.

But the Syracuse school district initially denied Parlato’s request to volunteer as a mentor to pupils.

The reason: Her “background check” provided by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office revealed a black mark. It said she had been arrested for petit larceny - more than three decades ago, in 1976.

What the sheriff’s report did not say is that a judge ordered Parlato’s arrest record forever sealed from public view after she was accused of shoplifting at a DeWitt department store when she was 17. Continue Reading »

Post-Standard:

• Organizer hopes meeting brings grocery store to Syracuse’s South Side
• ACTS hosts Syracuse mayoral candidates
• Weatherization Politics
  
• On final Sunday of campaign, Syracuse mayoral candidates go to church, knock on doors, thank volunteers
• Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney agrees to look into sale of arrest records to landlords
• On Election Day, a reminder that it’s all about a better world
  

News Channel 3 (prior to event):

• ACTS Town Hall expects big draw on Sunday

News Channel 10:

• Thousands attend ACTS public meeting

Clippings from the Post Standard:

Part I

Part II

ACTS of charity
Posted by Post-Standard Editorial Board October 22, 2008 5:01AM
Categories: Consider This

Last November, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse held a public meeting that attracted more than 700 people. The interfaith group, based on a model of the Gamaliel Foundation, an international community organizing institute, established four core subjects areas on which to focus.

Since the event, ACTS, which comprises 26 faith/civic/union organizations, has met monthly to address health care, justice, youth and economic development/jobs.

It has worked toward breaking down barriers that have kept children from being enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

It has met with the Joint Construction Board of the Syracuse City School District to seek internships for youths in the massive school construction project.

One of its most important efforts has been helping people leaving prison to obtain identification that is sorely needed for employment and housing.

ACTS will reflect on its accomplishments over the year and its future endeavors at 3 p.m. Sunday at Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Ave. in Syracuse. The group is expecting hundreds to attend the open meeting.

It’s a worthy effort with the potential to empower citizens and contribute to the transformation of the community.

http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2008/10/acts_of_charity.html

Friday, February 20, 2009
SEAN KIRST
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST

Mike Kruglik is a rumpled guy. Before his talk Wednesday at the Living Water Church of God in Christ in Syracuse, he grabbed some cheese and crackers from a snack table in the meeting room, then shot the breeze with the Rev. Nebraski Carter, pastor of Living Water.

Noticing how Kruglik made good use of his napkin, Carter remarked on how the napkin has special significance within some religious faiths.

“Well,” Kruglik said, “I think it’s better than using my shirt.”

They both smiled. That is Kruglik’s way. In similarly unadorned fashion, he proceeded to offer what was undoubtedly the most insightful take on Barack Obama that we’ve heard in Syracuse. Kruglik knew Obama in the 1980s in Chicago, when the president was young anddealistic and dreamed of mobilizing communities around civil rights, as Obama recalls in his book, “Dreams From My Father.” Kruglik, a community organizer, helped Obama get started on Chicago’s struggling South Side, a time that Obama has described as profoundly influential in his life.

Wednesday, Kruglik spoke in Syracuse to about 40 city and suburban clergy of various faiths who represented ACTS - The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse. Andres Kwon, lead organizer for ACTS, brought Kruglik here to offer more than a stew of memories.

Continue Reading »

Friend, adviser to Obama talks about segregation in Syracuse
by Maureen Sieh / The Post-Standard
Thursday February 19, 2009, 6:20 AM

Gloria Wright / The Post-Standard

Mike Kruglik, a close friend and adviser to President Barack Obama when Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, spoke to a gathering of religious leaders Wednesday at Living Water Church of God in Christ, 121 Huron St. in Syracuse.Syracuse, NY –

Mike Kruglik didn’t see a potential president when he gave a young Barack Obama his start in community organizing on Chicago’s South Side 29 years ago.

Kruglik, who spoke Wednesday to an interfaith coalition of 40 clergy members in Syracuse, said he saw qualities back then that he sees in the president now.

“He cared about people and he was empathetic,” he said. “He wanted to help people understand their gifts and what would make them special.”

Kruglik spoke at a gathering of Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse, a group that mobilizes congregations to address poverty and social justice issues.

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »