In commemoration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, Dan Chadwick prepared the following text to present to the youth he works with in a residential treatment facility just outside Erie, PA.  These were his remarks following the showing of excerpts dealing with the last years of King’s life from the documentaries Citizen King and Eyes on the Prize.  In clear and plain language, Dan conveys the essential shift King was making towards economic human rights – towards building a broad social movement to end poverty.

NBC reports that 40% of all the food produced in the United States is thrown away while 1 in 6 Americans say they don't have enough to eat. NBC follows one middle class family that could be called "the new face of hunger" in America.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

On Saturday, January 16th, participants in the Poverty Initiative's 2010 Immersion Course took part in United Workers "Social Justice Theater Conference."  Along with more than 100 other participants, they listened to Willie Baptist's opening remarks.  United Workers has created a short video of this address. In this clip, Baptist talks about the present significance of Martin Luther King's final vision of a Poor People's Campaign and the need for us all to participate as leaders in reigniting a movement to end poverty led by the poor across color lines.

We, the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, offer our prayers and support for our sisters and brothers in Haiti. We invite you to join us in offering prayers and support for those who have died, those who have been injured, those who are still trapped in the debris, those who are missing, and those who are still searching for loved ones in the earthquake and its aftermath

Almost one year ago, the Poverty Initiative was deeply honored to send a delegation of students, staff, alumni, and faculty members of Union Theological Seminary to partner with the Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti in offering an educational and vocational enrichment program January 16-30, 2009. During our time in Haiti, we were also able to spend time with Partners in Health, Maisson de Naissance and Beyond Borders. While there, we recognized a shared plight and fight of poverty that is becoming a growing reality around the globe. In this great time of need, we will continue to stand with our sisters and brothers in Haiti.

This most recent earthquake is not the first natural disaster to affect Haiti in recent years (four storms battered the country between mid-August and mid-September 2008, causing destruction from which the country had not yet fully recovered) and that these disasters will take years from which to recover. For more information about the situation in Haiti and opportunities to donate to relief efforts, see:

Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti

Partners in Health

Maisson de Naissance

Beyond Borders

The Episcopal News Service states that “Haiti is by far the poorest and least-developed country in the western hemisphere, with more than half of its people living on less than $1 per day, and 80% living on less than $2 per day. One-third of its children are malnourished and 500,000 cannot go to school. The unemployment rate is estimated to be 60 percent.”

The Poverty Initiative is committed to building a global movement to end poverty.

Poverty Initiative Immersion participants celebrate MLK’s Legacy with the North East Pennsylvania Organizing Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA on Sunday January 17th!

Join NEPA Organizing Center (198 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre) on Sunday January 17th at 2 p.m. to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King by coming together and discussing how we can use Human Rights to connect our work! The event will include:

•  A presentation of the findings from local work with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Housing
•  The unveiling of our upcoming NEPA Housing Rights Campaign.
•  A presentation on the life of MLK, and how we can use Human Rights standards to organize together in NEPA
•  A discussion on how you can use the NEPA Organizing Center and Media Mobilizing project to help your work and your community.
•  Refreshments, music and fun!  MLK deserves a birthday party!

Contact Frank Sindaco at frank@nepaorganizingncenter.org or 570-270-6372 for more information!

Poverty Initiative Immersion participants will attend in the United Workers Justice Theater Conference this Saturday. Join United Workers members, community organizers, youth leaders, activists, and artists for a day of workshops on Theater of the Oppressed, street theater, puppet making, and the Battle of Stories Framework in preparation for a community-wide participation play on Our Harbor Day, May 1. For more information visit http://unitedworkers.org/justicetheater. To register today, email info@unitedworkers.org or call 410-230-1998.

Poverty – The Plight and Fight: An Immersion Experience

January 13-22, 2010

http://immersion2010.wordpress.com/

This immersion course will explore the global scope of poverty by examining the reality of poverty in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in the midst of this current economic crisis.  We will learn from community and religious leaders who are involved in a growing movement to end poverty.  Exploring tools and strategies for overcoming and eliminating poverty, we will dialogue with leaders from local and national poor people’s organizations about their struggles to attain health care, living wage jobs, affordable housing, and basic human dignity.  The experience will include reality tours, Bible studies, video-showings, and site visits with poor people’s organizations and religious congregations engaged in mission work and community organizing.  Significant time will be spent learning about theories of poverty and race, the history of poor people organizing, and the legacy of the Poor People’s Campaign launched by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.  We will discuss the theological implication of building a movement led by the poor to end poverty and explore the unique role of religious leaders and communities in this effort to create social transformation.

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Poverty Initiative, on its January 2010 Poverty Immersion Course, will be joining the Philadelphia Student Union at "A Call To Witness And Action: End School Violence In All Its Forms".

Philadelphia Student Union says "Now more than ever, young people are rising up and demanding an end to all forms of violence in our schools and communities. Standing on the shoulders of our ancestors, we take up the call to build a movement for peace and justice.   As our work addressing school-based climate issues shows, young people working in partnership with adults across the city can create solutions that address the root causes of inter-personal and structural violence.*"

For more information go to http://home.phillystudentunion.org/

An article by Willie Baptist and Liz Theoharis titled 'Who are the Poor?' is cited in the "Poverty" entry of the new Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion by David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, Stanton Marlan.  Here is an excerpt from p 696:

"In a contemporary expression of Christian concern about poverty, people at Union Theological Seminary in New York City started The Poverty Initiative to raise awareness and take action on behalf of the poor. Their perspective is reflected in an essay entitled 'Who are the poor?' written by Willie Baptist and Liz Theoharis, August 2008:

'If you can’t get the basic necessities of life, you’re poor… The poor and dispossessed today differ from the poor and dispossessed of the past. They are compelled to fight under qualitatively new conditions and to creatively wield new weapons of struggle. In other words, the socio-economic position of the low waged, laid off, and locked out is not that of the industrial poor, the slave poor, or of the colonial poor of yesterday. The new poor embody all the major issues and problems that affect the majority of other strata of the country’s population… Presently, we are experiencing the wholesale economic destruction of the so-called “middle class” in this country. This is huge in terms of political power relations and of strategy and tactics. This “middle class” is beginning to question the economic status quo. The point here is that the economic and social position of the poor is not one to be pitied and guilt-tripped about, but that it indicates the direction this country is heading if nothing is done to change it. Poverty is devastating me today. It can hit you tomorrow. The crisis of healthcare is currently the cause of half of all the bankruptcies in this country. (see www.povertyinitiative.org and www.universityofthepoor.org).'"