ACTS-CNY

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.

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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.

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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.

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