Tulsa Peace Fellowship

There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Ben Franklin

The Peace Alliance campaign includes a domestic component, and this has been recently strengthened substantially with a bi-partisan bill worked up by the experts in anti-gang campaigns. Note that this bill includes mention of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) training, the very thing Peace House and TPF have been involved in, including by providing NVC courses at Peace Hosue. Two of the present TPF STeering Committee members are graduates of just such an NVC course. Either Peace House or TPF could be part of the local council envisaged for reducing gang violence locally, working in partnership with the Tulsa County Police Department (TCDP).


The Youth PROMISE Act

The Youth PROMISE Act, introduced into the U.S. House by Bobby Scott (D-VA-03) and Congressman Mike Castle (R-DE) and in the Senate by Robert Casey (D-PA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), implements the best policy recommendations from crime policy makers, researchers, practitioners, analysts, and law enforcement officials from across the political spectrum concerning evidence and research-based strategies to reduce gang violence and crime. The Youth PROMISE Act is a bold plan for addressing youth violence in all sectors of society by delivering funding to programs on the ground effectively doing the work of youth violence prevention.

* The legislation calls for hundreds of millions of dollars to fund prevention programs, which could include many of the organizations we have worked with and promoted over the years, including Tariq Khamisa Foundation, Barrios Unidos, Challenge Day, our friends doing restorative justice work, NVC training and so many others.


* Under the Act, communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges will each form a local council called a Promise Coordinating Council ("PCC") which will:

o Include representatives from law enforcement, court services, schools, social service organizations, health and mental health providers and community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations.
o Develop a comprehensive plan for implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies that target young people at risk for gang involvement in addition to those who have already become a part of the cycle of violence in an effort to empower them toward productive and law-abiding alternatives.


* This legislation is the first step toward building a metrically driven culture of violence prevention and reduction. It builds local structures for decision making and oversight that must document measurable impact in the communities. Through this legislation we will finally see a set of best practices translated from the field in an institutionalized manner that will allow for effective replication around the country.


* This will save lives AND money.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/696/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email...

H.R. 1064 / S. 435

The Youth Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support, and Education (Youth PROMISE) Act


This Youth PROMISE Act implements the advice we heard over the last year from over 50 crime policy makers, researchers, practitioners analysts, and law enforcement officials from across the political spectrum concerning evidence- and research-based strategies to reduce gang violence and crime. Under the Youth PROMISE Act, communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges will form a local council. This council will include representatives from law enforcement, court services, schools, social service, health and mental health providers, and community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations. The council will develop a comprehensive plan for implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. These strategies will be targeted at young people who are at-risk of becoming involved, or involved in, gangs or the criminal justice system to redirect them toward productive and law-abiding alternatives.

May 4, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC – This week, the Youth PROMISE Act (H.R. 1064/S. 435), introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Mike Castle (R-DE) and in the United States Senate by Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), receives a major boost from localities, juvenile justice advocates and Hollywood.

The Youth PROMISE Act has been endorsed by localities throughout the country, including the City of Los Angeles, California; the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the County of Santa Fe, New Mexico; the City of Pasadena, California; the City of Newport News, Virginia; the City of Norfolk, Virginia; and the City of Hampton, Virginia. Resolutions endorsing the Youth PROMISE Act are also currently pending before the City of Portsmouth, VA and the City of Richmond, VA and several mayors from around the country have written letters of support.

These important endorsements precede a week of events on Capitol Hill in support of the Youth PROMISE Act.

On Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 6:00 p.m., Representatives Bobby Scott and Mike Castle will host a screening of the film “Crips & Bloods: Made in America” in the South Orientation Theatre at the Capitol Visitor Center. Also attending the screening will be the film’s director, Stacy Peralta, producers Baron Davis and Cash Warren, and Los Angeles City Councilmember Tony Cárdenas. Because space is limited, RSVP for the screening is required. Please call Representative Scott’s Washington Office at (202) 225-8351 to RSVP.

On Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 10:00 a.m., Representative Scott will speak at a forum in support of the Youth PROMISE Act, hosted by a coalition of advocate organizations, on Capitol Hill (location TBD).

For more information on the Youth PROMISE Act, please visit: http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/ypa.

# # #

http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&ta...

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Julia Ward Howe proposed the idea of Mother’s Day for Peace over a century ago. Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870 was a call for disarmament and for women to come together to seek diplomatic ways to settle disagreements amongst nations. The following PSA went out to the various media contacts that we have.


Public Service Announcement, from the Tulsa Peace Fellowship
Date:
Sat, 9 May 2009

January Hoskin of Tulsa Peace Fellowship presents Captain Perkins of the Tulsa Police Department with a pie to share with TPD's Gang Violence Task Force. Also pictured, B. Geary and Tony Nuspl of Tulsa Peace Fellowship.

Members of Tulsa Peace Fellowship joined with Peace Alliance groups all over the US Friday, May 8th, to declare 'Peace Wants A Piece of the Pie' in honor of Mother's Day. TPF chose to deliver pies to members of the Tulsa Police Department's Gang Violence Task Force and ask for their support for proposed legislation HR 1064, the Youth PROMISE Act, which will fund action to curb gang violence and promote non violent alternatives.

TPF has offered to partner with Tulsa's Gang Violence Task Force in offering non violence communication education for Tulsa youth. TPF hopes that the legislation will be a first step towards funding the ultimate goal of a Nat'l Dept. of Peace. Tulsa police seemed very receptive and TPF will follow up to schedule meetings in the near future.

Contact: Judy Ramsey, TPF Secretary 918-344-0988
You too can help reconnect Mother's Day with its original peaceful purpose:

Mother's Day Proclamation 1870
By Julia Ward Howe

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress,
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

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