Announcements
Volunteer for Texas Civil Rights
The Texas Civil Rights Project -- with offices in Austin, El Paso, and San Juan -- has many opportunities for volunteers who have a passion for social justice and human rights. Every amount of time contributed, at any kind of work you feel comfortable with, helps TCRP to build a stronger and more vigorous civil rights program in Texas.
If you are interested in volunteering please email your resume and area of interest to: volunteer@texascivilrightsproject.org
Short- and long-term opportunities are available in the following areas:
Community Outreach and Development
Development Assistants: Help research and write new funding proposals and grants.
Membership Assistant: Help coordinate membership drives and record and organize membership data.
Event Planning: Help plan annual Bill of Rights Dinner fundraiser and other special events.
Community Outreach: Represent TCRP at agency and community fairs, speak to groups about special events.
Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing: Assist with media relations and advertising duties, including preparing for press conferences, researching information for the media, and creating ads.
Creative
Graphic Designers: Design visually appealing publications such as t-shirts, booklets, reports, brochures, ads, and newsletters
Video Producer: to make a half-hour video on TCRP, interviewing clients, volunteers and staff
Website: Contribute to content and design and help update our website
Legal
Paralegals: Help work with clients, conduct new client intake interviews, develop cases and prepare for trials.
Attorneys: Work on a pro-bono basis for our low-income clients
Law Students: Work with clients, develop cases, do legal writing, and prepare for trials
Researchers: Research and contribute to ongoing research projects, including the annual Human Rights Report
Office Help
Clerical: Help answer phones, organize and maintain legal files, and perform day to day office functions.
Maintenance: Help maintain yard and outside grounds and help keep building clean.
VAWA: Domestic Violence within the Rural Immigrant population
The VAWA program at TCRP is always looking for volunteers to help provide services to underserved immigrants living in Texas' rural areas who qualify for protection but who otherwise do not have access to services. We work with immigrant victims of domestic violence married to abusive US citizens or permanent residents. Instead of filing for their residency as would happen in a healthy relationship, abusers isolate and abuse them, while always threatening them with deportation.
If you are interested in any of the VAWA volunteer opportunities listed below, please contact Isaac Harrington at the Texas Civil Rights Project at 512-474-5073, ext. 109 or isaactcrp@gmail.com.
Translators: Primarily between English and Spanish.
A knowledgeable computer type: With skills in creating databases (possibly with Access).
Case Workers: Folks interested in working an entire case or different aspects of a case. This work includes working with clients and witnesses on drafting affidavits and documents, provide referrals and information to immigrant women, working with other agencies to access important documents. Client and witness interaction more likely than not requires fluency in Spanish. Other casework does not.
Intake Specialists: Conducting long intakes with viable cases and providing them with initial information.
Outreach: Working with and identifying other organizations in cities that have access to our clients, educating organizations about the immigrant provisions of VAWA, possibly conduct presentations with these organizations.
Web Guru: Putting materials on the web for training purposes.
Administrative Assistant: Assist in administrative and paralegal capacity in helping immigrant victims of violence file documentation to adjust their legal status under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
To support the work of the Texas Civil Rights Project:
Donate Now to TCRP
Your Tax-Deductible Gift Will Help to Keep
TCRP Active in the Most Needed Places
www.texascivilrightsproject.org
Carver Library on Angelina
Austin, Texas
July 22, 2007, 2 to 4 pm
We will meet Sunday, July 22, 204 at Carver Library on Angelina. I am trying to get a Gray Panthers rep to talk about their health care initiatives and upcoming forum, August 26th.
Texas Labor Against the War has agreed to hawk peace signs at Wheatsville 3rd Saturdays of each month, so Saturday, July 21 is covered.
August 1 at Monkeywrench there will be a showing of the DVD on the Iraqi union workers visit to the U.S.
In response to Marcus: no, we don't have literature to hand out, but should. As Thorne would say, "that's all I have at this time."
Alice
As one who has the honor of knowing and respecting Harold McMillan, I find it sad that, after so many years, so many setbacks, and so many successes, he still has to reach out and ask for money.
But Harold is the kind of guy who is proud to ask for help from brothers and sisters rather than pander to the corporate suits who prefer black music, art, and poetry performed in whiteface on bended knee -- "Mammon, how I love ya, how I love ya, dear sweet old Mammon."
This dude is a righteous culture warrior and deserves our thanks and our support for his great service to the community.
Please help.
jr
========================================
press release...press release...press release...
DiverseArts seeks funds, support to avoid closing East 11th Street Nonprofit Music Venue
We started 18 seasons ago with the Clarksville Jazz Fest in West Austin and the Blues Family Tree Project on the East Side. Now DiverseArts is Central East Austin's oldest and most prolific nonprofit producer of African American culture-based live music
programming. For the past several seasons, we have had the privilege of operating Kenny Dorham's Backyard, a great outdoors live performance venue on East 11th Street. Unfortunately, we now have to consider the option of canceling the balance of our 2007 performance season, and perhaps abandon the Kenny Dorham's project altogether.
Because of a mixture of issues -- unsuccessful fundraising, a cut in our City arts funding, lack of sponsorship support from area merchants and business organizations, and rainy weather -- DiverseArts is now involved in intense emergency fundraising actives to save our Kenny Dorham's performance space and continue our programs.
Our next Fourth Fridays! event is in fact a fundraising event for the venue. It is true that performance events often are not terribly successful as major fundraisers, but we are using the event to help create public interest in and awareness of our plight, as well. What we hope is to spur media attention to our situation, so that
potential donors--as well as audience attendees--might also want to seek us out and offer more substantial assistance. We do not want to close the venue nor cancel our Fourth Fridays! Series, the East End Summer Music Series, or the Austin Jazz and Arts Festival. What we want and need is public and corporate support of our nonprofit
cultural programs.
Our timeline for making these decisions is a tight one. Between now and early August, we must garner a substantial amount of support or we will have to "pull the plug" at Kenny Dorham's Backyard.
We invite your help with spreading the word. We would like for the July 27-28 event to be a celebration of new energy, support, and a rebirth for our proposed late summer and fall programs. East 11th Street is Austin's historic home of African American music, jazz and blues, but the current wave of commercial gentrification is
dangerously close to totally wiping this legacy from sight.
Please, if you agree that--of all places in Austin--East 11th Street deserves to continue to have affordable, family oriented, regularly scheduled jazz, blues, gospel and world music events and public festivals, then we need you in our corner now. We believe this is about more than just our little organization, it IS an Austin
(especially African American) Quality of Life issue. This is a MAYDAY. We need new sponsors, contributors, volunteers, and friends to help us keep the "soul in the heart of the City."
We respectfully seek your support in making our Mid Summer World Carnaval a celebration of successful fundraising and new partners, rather than the swansong performance for Kenny Dorham's Backyard. Either way, we invite everyone to join us. It will still be a good party.
If you want more information or want to know how you might help, please don't hesitate to call me at 512-477-9438. Thank you.
--Harold McMillan
Founder/Director
DiverseArts and Kenny Dorham's Backyard
