Tuesday, May 4, 2010

IMPACT! keeps it going in April!

Here's a breakdown of some of the awesome work IMPACT! members were involved in for the month of April


We participated in 11 meetings, for projects such as Free Mind Media, the May 1st Coalition, The North Bay Sponsoring Committee, the Youth Organizing Institute, and of course, IMPACT!

We also helped organize a mass meeting of young people and students at Sonoma State University on April 10th. Over 50 youth activists from the North Bay came together to form a North Bay youth coalition, which will focus on cuts to education and broader social justice issues such as immigrants' rights, economic justice, women's rights, health care, and more. Our next mass meeting is scheduled for May 8th.

We attended another mass meeting of roughly 400 people at St. Vincents church in Petaluma, to address the unjust and illegal practice of the police towing immigrant peoples' cars. This meeting was organized by the North Bay Sponsoring Committee and mainly included people from St. Vincents church.

We held one People of color caucus for IMPACT! members. We also helped organize the monthly meeting of white anti-racist allies of Sonoma County, which over 30 people attended.

We appeared on "Aztlan en Vivo," a bilingual radio program on KBBF, as well as the North Bay Report, a news program on KRCB radio.

We organized four free art workshops at the Phoenix Theater. We gave two "Know Your Rights" trainings to educate people on their rights with the police. We also gave a Know Your Rights training, and a counter-military recruitment workshop at the annual Raza Youth Conference, organized by MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), at Sonoma State.

We attended some awesome events such as a sold-out screening of "800 Mile Wall," a documentary about the U.S./Mexico border, and the thousands of people who have died crossing it. We also tabled at and supported a wonderful and well-attended production of "V-Day," organized by several young women at Casa Grande high school. We helped table at the sold out speaking event with Tim Wise, prominent white anti-racist author, at Sonoma State. And most fun of all, several of us attended the Tea Party's anti-tax rally in Santa Rosa. It was better than going to the movies...

We organized a Critical Mass bike ride, as well as a successful garage sale fundraiser. We put together a social event for IMPACT! members, otherwise known as a "Muster." We also held a BBQ potluck in the park. Lastly, we worked with members of the Committee for Immigrants' Rights to demonstrate against a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint (which are typically used to profile immigrant drivers, detain them, and tow their cars). We held signs in Spanish warning people of the checkpoint, and most likely saved dozens of people from a painful and expensive fine at the hands of the police.


IMPACT! is on the move. Now is the time to get involved and support this growing movement of young people for justice and liberation.

Educate! Participate! Liberate!

IMPACT! achievments- Dec.2009-April 2010

In late November of last year, IMPACT! had several strategy meetings and outlined a series of goals that we wanted to accomplish over the course of 4 or 5 months. Here is the list of what we have done since then.

1.) We developed our own "Know Your Rights" cards for our CopWatch program
2.) We revised and improved our "Know Your Rights" presentations which we have since taken into various schools and community organizations
3.) We finished a 13-page report entitled "Community Views and Experiences With Law Enforcement in Petaluma," based on a community survey we conducted in 2009. We received several endorsements from groups such as the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the Peace and Justice Center, and the Police Accountability Clinic and Helpline (PACH).
4.) We have held 6 Know Your Rights trainings in local schools.
5.) We have organized regular "Womyn's Caucuses" and "Men's Allies meetings."
6.) We have held regular "People of Color Caucuses" as well as "white anti-racist allies" meetings
7.) We helped form a county-wide network of white anti-racist allies which meets monthly and now is comprised of about 60 individuals.
8.) We have set up monthly social gatherings, or "Musters," for young activists to build relationships, get to know each other, and have fun.
9.) We helped table information at the Tim Wise speaking event at Sonoma State University in April.
10.) We organized a consensus workshop.
11.) We took "field trips" to various actions around the Bay, including the March 4th student protests in Berkeley and San Francisco, the "March in March" student protest in Sacramento, and a large immigrants' rights demonstration in San Francisco.
12.) We held a fundraising strategy meeting and delegated a point-person in our group in charge of fundraising.
13.) We expanded our web use through our blog and our Facebook page.
14.) we printed our own brochures and other literature on our womyn's and men's caucuses.
15.) we worked on our organizational culture by addressing internal problems, much of which stemmed from racial and gender inequities. We began confronting, and continue to confront, problems with speaking dynamics in meetings and the rotation of roles within the group.