Legislate This!

Join us Wednesday, February 20th as we host our 6th LegisalateTHIS Statewide Day of Action! This year’s theme is Women of Color Reclaiming & Rebuilding the South and who better to speak to this than two fierce Southern visionaries, Deon Haywood and Moya Bailey.

Deon Haywood serves as the Executive Director of Women with a Vision, a community-based grassroots organization in New Orleans created by Black women dedicated to providing HIV/AIDS, substance use prevention services, harm reduction, health promotion, and advocacy to address risk behaviors and social vulnerabilities. The organization was the target of arson in May 2012 and have worked to find a new space and replenish their resources while continuing to be a vital source of support for the community.

Moya Bailey is a graduate student at Emory University and blogger for the Crunk Feminist Collective. She is also the founder and co-conspirator of Quirky Black Girls, a network for strange and different black girls.

We’ll be sharing more information about these two amazing individuals as the date approaches.

Under this year’s theme, we will continue to utilize our power to push our legislators to take action. We need your support to seek justice for the many who have suffered under the inhumane practice of restrained childbirth and to seek dignity and wellness for all Georgia families!

So mark your calendars and we look forward to seeing you on February 20th!

The details:

RSVP to Facebook Event

Breakfast will be provided. Parking is available in the Government Center Parking Deck to the southwest of the church building. Accessibility details will be posted on our website as the date approaches.

For more information, contact Bianca Campbell at bianca@sparkrj.org.

From SPARK:

Our Mama’s Day Brunch was a wonderful success thanks to your presence and support. The photos from our amazing shoot will be available soon!

May 13 is just around the corner, and so is another chance to celebrate the mamas in our lives. We are tired of the same commercials for cleaning products and Hallmark cards, along with the message that we just want material things for Mother’s Day.  While flowers and robes are welcome, we know the mamas in our lives want and need much more — love, support, connection, and policies that support our families as they are.

Much of what we see and hear every day in the news and TV gives the impression that there is one right way to have a family, but we know that the vast majority of us living in the US today don’t live in a nuclear family behind a picket fence. Whether it’s immigration status, sexual orientation, race or class, we are asbeautiful as we are varied. SPARK, as a partner in the Strong Families coalition, a 10-year national initiative to change the way people think, feel and act in support of families, believes that all families matter. Yours, mine and all of ours.

This Mama’s Day, we are proud to bring you lots of ways to show and share you care:

Share Stories: Mother’s Day Celebration in South Atlanta

On May 12, Project South will host its 2nd annual Community Forum. Join mothers and their supports in the South Atlanta area to discuss issues women of color face such as lack of assistance with childcare and a decreasing number of childcare options. We will also celebrate the resilience of mothers with music, free food, and exclusive tokens of love and appreciation.

Send Love: Mama’s Day E-Cards

Strong Families E-Card available at www.mamasday.org!

This Mama’s Day, you have a whole new way to show love to the mamas in your life. Nine artists designed cards for you to customize and share. The full set will be available on May 8th, but you can see a sneak preview here. When they are released, we hope you will send, share and savor these beautiful cards.

Shout Out: Calls From Home

Media Literacy Project, Strong Families, and Thousand Kites need your help to produce Calls from Home: Mama’s Day Special, a radio project that connects incarcerated mothers to their families, friends, and communities. With your support we’ll send voices through barbed-wire to our millions of neighbors behind bars this Mama’s Day.

Sing a song, read a prayer, speak from the heart and let our mamas behind bars in our nation’s prisons know you’re thinking about them. Call to our toll-free 24/7 answering machine now at 877-410-4863 to leave a recording we’ll play over the air.

Follow Strong Families on Facebook and Twitter, and join us by tweeting #mamasday to share the love!

Thank you so much for remaining a fierce fighter for justice this year, all year, every year. We couldn’t do this without you!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - By Bill Torpy and Fran Jeffries

A Clayton County inmate whose baby died after she delivered it in her cell Saturday, said she didn’t receive proper treatment from jail personnel, denying claims from the sheriff who said his staff followed procedures properly in responding to the inmate.

Read full article here.

Saturday, May 5th, 2012 — 12:00pm to 2:00pm
SPARK’s House @ 2048 Hosea L. William Drive Suite B

SPARK and Project South, as members of the Dignity & Wellness for Georgia Families Coalition, are proud to host Mama’s Day Brunch!

A brunch that’ll make you jump up and kiss yo mama! This event celebrates motherhood and honors all of our diverse and beautiful ways of building families. Through media campaigns, community outreach, political education, and positive public policy, The Dignity and Wellness for Georgia Families Coalition strives for long-term investment in safe, strong families.

Join us for food, music, photos, and celebration! This event is free to the public and childcare will be provided.

To volunteer, sponsor, or donate, e-mail Bianca Campbell.

Please RSVP @ http://bit.ly/Je0Jpp

Huffington Post – By Jamarah Abdullah Amani, Co-director, Mobile Midwives

Every time I hear or read the story of a survivor who was forced to birth in chains, I am reminded of how broken our prison system is. The legacy of prisons, especially in the South, evolved from the convict-lease system, a thinly veiled continuation of the enslavement of Black people (See Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon). Today, Black women, disproportionately comprising the prison population, are subjected to very similar treatment as their ancestors in the first half of the twentieth century.

Read the full article here.

After two successful events, we are ready to use the momentum of the 5th Annual Legislate THIS! to demand justice!

TODAY, we ask that folks call Chairman Jay Neal’s office and explicitly ask him to vote HB 653, The Giving Birth in Safety and Dignity Bill, out of committee. HB 653 will ban the use of restraints on incarcerated women during childbirth in Georgia.

Enclosed is a script and Chairman Neal’s contact information. Please share this information with your base, particularly to those whom live in Walker or Catoosa County Georgia.

We thank you for your time, dedication, and support in ensuring that all women in Georgia can give birth in dignity and safety. Be sure to let us know how your call went by emailing Bianca!

Script & Contact Info

Contact: Representative Jay Neal of LaFayette, GA
Office: 706.375.9200
Email: jay.neal@house.ga.gov

Script:

“Hello, my name is ______ (If you live in Walker or Catoosa county, mention where you live). May I speak to Representative Neal?”

If NO: (Be sure to leave a message!)

“Well, I want Representative Jay Neal to vote HB 653, regarding safe birth for incarcerated women, out of committee. It is unsafe for both mother and child, and I am uncomfortable knowing so few counties have policies against this practice. We’ve proven it’s happened recently, and outside of Fulton county. We need a STATE law so that we all fall in line and ensure safe birth for all Georgians. We need Jay Neal to vote this out of committee immediately!”

If YES:

“Hello, Representative Neal. My name is ______ (If you live in Walker or Catoosa county, mention where you live). I want you to vote HB 653 out of State Institutions and Properties! Restrained childbirth is unsafe for both mother and child, and I am uncomfortable knowing so few counties have policies against this practice. We need a STATE law so that we all fall in line and ensure safe birth for all Georgians. Will you put this up for a vote this session? (If NO, what is his hesitation and what information can you/we provide?)

Thank you for your time.”

We understand that it can be difficult to make it out to afternoon and evening events during the week. Nevertheless, you can continue to stand with us and all Georgia families by utilizing the script and templates below to call and email the Georgia legislatures sitting on the committee for HB653, The Giving Birth In Safety and Dignity Bill.

Let’s make sure that our voices are hard loud and clear at the Georgia capitol!

You called! You wrote! You showed up!

Thank you to everyone who packed the room at the committee hearing today. Your presence proved to be just as convincing as the testimony and fully demonstrated the community support for this legislation.

Ashley shared her experience in restraints and it left the room quiet. Not a question was asked. She stood strong, held her ground, and compelled the committee to pay attention to this serious issue. Thanks to the expert testimony of our additional witnesses, medical provider Dr. Michael Lindsay, law professor Kathleen Burch, and Georgia Sheriff Association’s Oliver Hunter, the legislation was articulated from every conceivable angle.

After a long and exhaustive discussion, Committee Chairman Representative Jay Neal said, “I don’t want to let go of this bill.” He is committed to doing what he can to get this passed and has moved the bill into a mini-committee!

The discussions in this smaller committee will move fast, and we need to move even faster! Here are four ways you can help pass HB653:

1. Join the core! Come to our planning meetings Tuesdays @ 6:00pm to learn more and join in on this important work.
2. Register for the 5th Annual Legislate THIS! Join us and Dorothy Roberts for Two Days of Action and Power.
3. Call & email your legislators!
4. Donate! We can’t do this work with you. Your generous support allows us to ensure that our community needs take precedent in policy discussions.

Chicago Tribune – By Colleen Mastony

Cook County jailers will no longer be allowed to shackle pregnant prisoners and those in postpartum recovery unless they are deemed to pose security or flight risks, under a new state law.

Advocates for incarcerated women hailed the governor’s move, which was prompted in part by reports in the Tribune and elsewhere that despite a previous law banning the practice, pregnant women in county custody continued to report being handcuffed by the wrist or shackled by the leg while they were giving birth.

Read full article here.

Colorlines – By Miriam Zoila Pérez

Rebecca Brodie sits in her suburban Massachusetts home, talking on the phone with me while her family member sits nearby, filming the interview. The oldest female correctional facility in the United States, MCI-Framingham, is just a short eight-minute drive away. “When I conceived my third child earlier this year, it really hit home for me because everywhere I go I pass the prison,” Brodie explained. “I have all these choices and opportunities: who do I want in the room with me, do I want a water birth, or a home birth? Obviously the incarcerated women can’t make these choices.”

The proximity of the women’s prison and Brodie’s pro-bono legal work with incarcerated women is what inspired the protest she’s planning for December, when her third child is born. If all goes according to plan, she’ll be laboring and delivering her baby in metal restraints that restrict her arms and legs. She’s planning to simulate the same conditions that many incarcerated pregnant women face when delivering in state prisons and jails, including some of the women housed at the prison right by her home.

Read full article here.