Catherine Read Archives - Read. Think. Act.

Literacy Council of Northern Virginia – Inside Scoop

(March 5, 2018) Catherine Read interviews Roopal Mehta Saran, Executive Director of the Literacy Council of Northern Virgnia (LCVN), about the numerous programs and services being offered in the Northern Virginia area. They are joined by Amy Tristan, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, in the last segment where they discuss the numerous ways individuals, organizations and companies can engage with LCNV.

The Literacy Council of Northern Virginia is 55 years old, and Roopal Saran has been at the helm of the organization for the last six months. There are over 36 million American adults that don’t have literacy, writing or math skills above a 3rd grade level. Some those adult learners are native English speakers and some are native speakers of many other languages. The Northern Virginia area is multiculturally very rich with over 100 languages being spoken in classrooms and homes around our region. Adults learning English as a second language may or may not have literacy skills in their native language. LCNV’s Beginning-level English classes teach the foundational skills adult English Language Learners (ELLs) need to learn to speak, understand, read and write English.

Classes are taught in multiple locations – in places such as the James Lee Community Center where LCNV has offices, in schools such as Crestwood Elementary, and spaces provided by collaborating non-profits such as Connections for Hope in Herndon, VA. The idea is to take the classes to meet the people where they are and where it’s easy to get there using public transportation. There will be new classes starting out in the Centreville area in early 2018.

LCNV is also collaborating with local companies in workforce development training through increased literacy that is both industry and company specific. Destination Workforce® training for B.F. Saul Hospitality Group’s Doubletree by Hilton at Tyson’s Corner focused on their housekeeping and banquet employees. The program provided instruction on language and cultural tools to provide better staff interactions with customers through the B.F. Saul “Know Your Hotel” framework. LCNV has also partnered with Goodwin House in Bailey’s Crossroads and with other local business to craft specific literacy programs that are job specific. The Destination Workforce® program is also working with the City of Alexandria to help newly arrived refugees with basic English literacy in preparations to more quickly prepare for entry level job opportunities.

Amy Tristan spoke about the hundreds of literacy volunteers that make their programs possible. Many have been with LCNV for over a decade and they are always looking for new volunteers who are interested in taking the training to be classroom instructors, to offer small group tutoring and also conversation classes. There are programs to meet that time and location preferences of a variety of volunteers and they welcome companies who encourage their employees to engage in community volunteerism. LCNV also welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with other organizations and non-profits who serve clients with basic literacy needs.

The Literacy Council of Northern Virginia was named Parade Magazine’s 2017 Outstanding Charity in Virginia: “Last year, 1,551 students from more than 90 countries (including the U.S.) participated in LCNV Programs.”

Like all non-profits, LCNV relies on individual donations and corporate partnerships. More information can be found at the LCNV website: www.lcnv.org or by calling them at 703-237-0866. They can also be found on Facebook and on Twitter @LCNV

by William Zuhl Leave a Comment

Restorative Justice – Inside Scoop

(Feb 26, 2018) On this episode of Inside Scoop, Catherine Read talks to Restorative Justice experts Vickie Shoap, Bill Casey and Dave Deal about what Restorative Justice (RJ) is and how it is being applied in Fairfax County Public Schools and by the Northern Virginia Mediation Services. Vickie Shoap is a Restorative Justice specialist working for FCPS, on their Restorative Justice Initiative which deals with the school system’s disciplinary process. Bill Casey and Dave Deal are co-directors of the Northern Virginia Mediation Service Restorative Justice Program, and work with the county on the Alternative Accountability Program, which provides an alternative to criminal charges for first time offenders.

Restorative Justice is a philosophy of dealing with misdeamors and minor crimes by examining the situation through a different lens. Where traditional justice does an investigation then punishes the responsible party exactly according to the law. Restorative Justice examines individual harm, who and how were they harmed, then bringing them together with the one who did the harming. In school, they use it for all forms of conflict, using it to prevent the escalation of situations. They also use it to respond, letting those who were harmed talk about what they experienced and what exactly it meant to them. It brings offenders face-to-face with the realities of what they did. It creates a conversation which can be very difficult to have, especially for children. All of that is with the ultimate goal of repairing the harm and making the situation right and prevent the situation from occurring again.

Restorative Justice is an old method of seeking to address wrongs which was suppressed under zero-tolerance policies. The traditional method was, when an offense had occurred, to gather the community and discuss how to repair the harm and restore relationships. They built upon a notion that everyone is connected, ultimately, it’s about developing empathy.

In modern society its hoped that by applying Restorative Justice techniques that there can be a reduction in recidivism and a reduction in punishments which don’t actually achieve their goals. For example, it has been suggested that out-of-school suspensions fail to serve anyone’s needs, the student who is suspended simply gets free days, while they fall behind their school work and does nothing to solve the underlying issues. That idea has gained enough traction that the Virginia State Legislature is looking at addressing an excessive number of suspensions.

Traditional punitive methods create a stigma around the offender, preventing them from properly integration back into the community even if they have done their time and learned from their offenses. Restorative Justice focuses on the victim as well as the offender, then those who were affected by the fallout. The needs and harm done to the victim is addressed, which traditional methods frequently ignore in favor is just punishing the offender. Restorative Justice is about making the offender acknowledge their offense and contribute in some manner to repairing the harm done by their actions. Generally, students will still be in the same class together, so it is important to work out their differences and resolve the issues before things escalate.

Applying Restorative Justice to various situations turns punishment into an educational process, especially for students. In Fairfax County, the school system has been applying Restorative Justice to their correctional process in aid of developing social skills and empathy. They feel that traditional out-of-school suspensions teach students that simply staying at home is better than facing situations where they come into contact with those they may have harmed and further that the traditional suspension is based upon the idea of isolation, something which modern technology makes a near impossibility and does nothing to solve potential ongoing conflicts or prevent escalation. Data has shown that repeated suspensions in middle school triples the probability those students will be involved in the juvenile justice system. By having face-to-face conversations with those they wronged, students are taught exactly what their actions have caused and about resiliency, social responsibility and empathy. Discipline is supposed to be educational, to teach students how they can be better, rehabilitation, not necessarily about the punishment itself.

Zero tolerance policies came to the fore in the 1980s initially relating to the drug issues in society, but over time became too rigid. Juvenile offenders and school offenses became lumped in to the need for punishment and created a situation where offenders became isolated from the community. They also made no allowances for children acting as children sometimes do, turning relatively minor learnable situations into larger situations. The policies were about punishing offenders but did nothing to address restoring the damage done. It became so harsh that offenders failed to learn while those harmed did not have their needs met.

FCPS has been working on a Restorative Justice policy for almost ten years. Initially the program was piloted using the services of the Northern Virginia Mediation Service (NVMS) in Westfield High School. In the 2010-2011 school year FCPS committed itself to a system-wide implementation of Restorative Justice policies in every school, elementary, middle and high school. Over 200 schools implemented the system with the aid of seven full-time restorative justice experts, including Vickie Shoap.

FCPS has been applying Restorative Justice techniques to more than just their disciplinary process. Teachers have been trained in using the techniques to encourage students to talk with one another, share information and create a community, preventing incidents before they can happen in the first place. By getting students used to Restorative Justice Practices they also allow the process to move more smoothly when an incident does occur, as students are familiar with the concepts behind restorative justice, or even allow teachers to resolve incidents without escalating matters higher up.

By cooperating with each other FCPS and NVMS have, with the aid of the Fairfax police, the county juvenile court and the county Neighborhood and Community Services office, expanded Restorative Justice programs for police referral. Over time law enforcement officials have become more excited at being able to refer offenders to the program and out of juvenile court, allowing minors to avoid tarnishing their records, provided they participate in good faith. Initiating a Restorative Justice case is far simpler than going through the criminal system. Generally two 30 minute meetings are needed, each party involved, the victim and the offender, individually, followed by a longer group session involving everyone, including the police, victim and perpetuator, which answers three questions, what happened, who was impacted and how, and what should happen. The victim starts with laying out what they think should be done. At the end of the process there is a written agreement, reached between the offenders and the victims, where the perpetrator agrees to restitution ranging from apologies, to payment, to community service as well as agreeing to not reoffend. After the meeting is over the Restorative Justice Mediators keep a copy of the agreement and make sure that the perpetrator has followed through on what they agreed to. If the perpetrator fails to do what they agreed to then the case is sent to juvenile court. Restorative Justice is an entirely voluntary process one which a student or parent can chose to forgo, but data has shown that restorative justice tends to lead to better outcomes, even though it can not be applied to every situation.

For example, when dealing with a shoplifting case the Restorative Justice program will bring the offenders together with the store owners and answer the three questions, what happened, who was affected and how to resolve the situation. The offender is told exactly what happens when they steal, even as little as one item, the whole process of checking inventory, loss of money having to employ security and other knock on effects. Then they ask, what are you going to do next time? They create a hypothetical situation where the offender is encouraged to think about what they will do if a similar situation occurs again, what if a someone encourages them to shoplift again, or other encouragement. Creating a plan, where rather than having to make a decision on the spot, the person knows ahead of time exactly what they would do in a given situation. They also create a space where the parents of the perpetrator can discuss what their experiences are, how hearing that their child had broken the laws and the morals they had attempted to teach made them feel.

The Restorative Justice system is not available to every offender. The perpetrator only qualifies if they have no other criminal record, only first offenders. Offenses which lead to the restorative process commonly include thief, damage, trespassing and vandalism, but never capital offenses. The process only applies where there was a victim and an offender who has recognized that they have done something wrong.

According to data collection since Restorative Justice becoming official police policy in June of 2017 the recidivism rate of offenders who go through the Alternative Accountability Program (AAP) is approximately 4-5 percent in comparison to the court system’s 40+ percent. NVMS maintains a database of what cases have been through the system and hope to use the information to improve outcomes even further. The FCPS Restorative Justice Initiative’s own data shows a far lower rate of repeat suspensions for students who go through the program, as well as a rising rate of students themselves asking for conflict resolution services.

Every case is different, and the reactions of parents, victims and perpetrators vary greatly, but sharing viewpoints allows every side of the story come out and provide paths to a better outcome.

For more information on the FCPS Restorative Justice Initiative visit https://www.fcps.edu/resources/student-safety-wellness/restorative-justice. For more information on NVMS and their Restorative Justice Program and the Alternative Accountabiliy Program visit http://nvms.us/restorative-justice/.

by William Zuhl Leave a Comment

Sandy Evans – Your Need to Know

(Feb 21, 2018) Sandy Evans is the Fairfax County School Board member from Mason District. She has been on the FCSB for 8 years after having first been elected in a special election in March of 2010. She and Catherine Read take a look at the issues facing Fairfax County Public Schools, the nations 10^th largest school system.

Sandy Evans started out as a parent advocate, supporting the PTA of her daughter’s school. When her daughter entered middle school Sandy Evans was made aware of the then early start times for Fairfax Country middle and high schools. Seeing the early start times as a serious health issue, she cofounded SLEEP (Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal) and then ran for the school board. In Fall of 2014 the school board approved the change of high school start times from 7:20 AM to 8:10 AM starting in the Fall of 2015. Currently, Sandy Evans and SLEEP are advocating for later middle school start times as well.

Currently, Sandy Evans is the budget chair of the school board, and they are currently debating the school superintendent’s proposed budget ahead of an expected early February vote to send the budget to the Fairfax Country Board of Supervisors. The new budget makes a priority of creating new teacher pay scales in order to make the country more attractive for talented teachers. While the new pay scales will take time to go into effect, more than 54 million dollars have been set aside in the current budget to raise teacher salaries into the new scale. The current overall budget is 2.9 billion dollars providing services for over 188 thousand students.

The members of the school board have also been working with legislators in Richmond to try and increase state level support of the county schools in support of special need, ESL (English as a Second Language) and impoverished students. Currently, about 25% of FCPS students qualify for free or reduced cost meals, 29-30% need ESL services and 14% qualify for special needs. These numbers are currently expected to grow going into the future, and local community support is not expected to be enough to fill the gap. The current state funding formulas mean that Fairfax County Public Schools receive less funding proportional to their size in spite of the fact that over 54,000 students qualify for free or reduced price meals, a number equal or larger than many other school systems entire enrollment in some parts of the state.

Going into the future, Sandy Evans is determined to make sure the school board is committed to school equity, using needs based staffing to make sure every student has equal opportunities regardless of the school they attend. FCPSOn is an initiative dedicated to making sure that every student has access to a computer. Students attending schools with high poverty rates will be offered laptops which they can take home and use, then return at the end of the school year. FCPS have also recently put their Parent Liaisons on contracts to work full time as opposed to their older hourly system. Parent Liaisons are particularly important in schools with high ESL or poverty rates, which frequently have either no or underfunded PTAs, having a person dedicated to communicating with parents and providing translation services to ensure that parents feel welcome to speak concerns and keep informed of how their children are doing.

Talks have also been on going about using schools as a platform for community services. The school board has been in talks with County Supervisor Penny Gross about building a new school in the Wilston area which could potentially be combined with a health facility or a public library to provide services to the population at large while reducing costs for students in particular.

The school board has also recently made changes to the school discipline system. They’ve aimed to replace out-of-school suspensions with in-school suspensions overseen by people versed in restorative justice and positive behavior approaches. They’ve also attempted to speed up the process of informing parents of troubled students, and Sandy Evans wishes to make that process even faster going into the future.

In July, the Fairfax County School Board voted to change JEB Stuart High School’s name. The public suggested 73 different names but failed to produce a majority opinion. The school board took the five most popular names and picked Justice High School. Students attending the school were allowed to pick their new mascot and following a school-wide vote chose to become the Wolves. The school board has allowed 2 years to make the transition to the new name, but the school superintendent expects the process to be finished by next fall.

For more information, contact Sandy Evans at [email protected], or www.fcps.edu/index.php/school-board/Sandy-Evans or go to fcps.edu for more information about Fairfax County Public Schools.

by William Zuhl Leave a Comment

Legacy Planning with Bettina Lawton – Your Need to Know

Catherine Read has a conversation with Bettina Lawton (Esq.) of Lawton Legacy Planning about legal planning. Bettina Lawton is a licensed legal professional who specializes in legal planning for a client’s eventual death or incapacitation. She deals with people from all walks of life, from single adults to married couples with children to seniors of all financial statuses and helps them plan how to meet their objectives in the event of death or incapacitation.

While indisputably important, many people have difficulty talking about, and planning for their eventual incapacitation or death. Over 60% of Americans have no will, or other similar document. According to Bettina Lawton, it is critical that people find a qualified person they can work with in order to make a plan, as even a will alone is not enough. Wills only go into effect after the person has died, so they make no differences in cases where the client is incapacitated or otherwise unable to take care of themselves or others. It is especially important in cases where children are involved, as a failure to have a designated guardian can see children placed into the foster care system when their parents are otherwise unable to take care of them. In Virginia, parents can designate whom they wish to take their children using a Standby Guardianship, which grants their chosen caretakers 30 days of authority, which gives time for the courts to work without sending children into foster care.

Beyond just having a will in the first place, it is also important to make sure your will is up to date. Laws change over time so what you currently have may have unintended consequences if it is not updated. For example, in July of last year Virginia adopted a fiduciary access to digital assets act, which allows a person to designate a beneficiary to access their digital assets, like photos hosted online. Bettina Lawton recommends reviewing your will and other legal plans every three to five years. Generally, only minor changes will be needed, but they can add up to a big difference to the final result.

When planning, it is important to keep in mind the location of your assets. Real estate passes ownership based on the laws of the location it is in, not necessarily the laws of the jurisdiction where the owner lived. Two properties in two different locations are subject to two different laws. This is why Bettina Lawton recommends outside properties be placed in a revocable trust, which changes real estate assets into trust assets and simplifies the process. In Virginia the law now allows for transfer on death deeds, which allows owners to designate a beneficiary who will receive ownership of the deed in the event of the original owners death, allowing property to transfer without going into an estate.

In addition to a will, people should also be planning for what happens if they are unable to make medical decisions. A person retains their legal right to make decisions up until two medical professionals agree that someone is unable to make a choice themselves (either due to inability to speak or inability to understand their situation). People need to make an advanced medical directive to designate who can make medical decisions on their behalf. While the state does designate a list of people who can make the decision in the event you have not made plans, it can be very hard on the person who is called upon to make the decision, and they might make a decision contrary to your wishes. It is best to designate someone ahead of time, and to make sure that you have written down what your wishes would be in the event of various medical situations.

While it can be a topic hard to discuss, it is important to plan ahead. Doing so makes things easier on those left behind and ensures that you have the final say on how your assets are passed on. According to Bettina Lawton, the best time of year to begin your legacy planning is around the time you pay your taxes, as you frequently need the same fiscal documents in order to make your plans. You need to decide whom it is who can best fulfill your will. Sometimes a spouse or child isn’t the right choice, as financial positions, such as executors, trustees or someone with a designated financial power of attorney needs to either be good with financial details or capable of supervising those who are. You also need to make plans for what happens if your designated person dies or is incapacitated at the same time, or before, you are.

For more information, you can email Bettina Lawton at [email protected] or visit LawtonLegacyPlanning.com for an estate planning guide so you know what information you need and what decisions you should be making.

by William Zuhl Leave a Comment

Network NoVA with Stair Calhoun – Your Need to Know

(Dec 6, 2017) Catherine Read interviews Stair Calhoun, founding member Network NoVA. Dedicated to involving women in politics, Network NoVA was founded by Stair Calhoun, Katherine White and other activists who had participated in the Women’s March of January 2017. These grassroots activists organized women in support of Democratic candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates election of 2017.

Following the 2016 Presidential election local women, including Stair Calhoun, sought to find ways that they could make their voices heard in politics. Seeking to make the biggest difference possible, they organized themselves into Network NoVA. Their organization has since gone from strength to strength organizing a Women’s Summit in June of 2017 and backing Democratic candidates in the 2017 election. Dedicated to keeping local people involved, their summit was organized by a group of 7 women in less than 70 days, but still had hundreds of attendees, including 30 state delegates or delegate candidates and a number of sponsorships.

Stair Calhoun attributes their success to both their willingness to innovate and the inability to take no as an answer. Network NoVA’s newness aided them in providing a place to try new ideas without the inertia of the old. They agreed to back any candidate whom they believed best represented the women of their district, regardless of their perceived chance of winning, and tried new techniques to encourage women to vote. They involved children in making personalized reminder cards, which encouraged women to make voting plans in advance to support of their motto “When we vote, we win.” Further, they produced more than 17 different short videos in support of various candidates.

Currently, Network NoVa is working on contacting newly elected delegates to find out how to best support them, as well as creating plans to keep constituent pressure on legislators in Richmond on a range of topics including gun reform, the ERA amendment, Medicaid expansion and redistricting reform. To do this Network NoVa is creating VAPLAN, the Virginia Progressive Legislative Alert Network, a centralized way to keep people informed about what the state legislature is doing. They seek to create a system where people can check on what their legislators are doing on the issues important to them in an easy manner without being inundated with other information.

Network NoVA has partnered with a number of other organizations, including Democratic Promise, in order to try and reach out to rural Virginians. Democratic Promise is an organization based around the idea of reverse constituent services. They contact people in rural Virginia and seek to learn about the issues and problems they currently face, then put them in contact with the services that could solve them. They seek to keep politicians focused on local issues even between elections.

Going into the future, Network NoVA is seeking to expand their membership. They’ve already begun preparations for their 2018 Women’s Summit, and signups are already available. Topics at their June 23rd summit are planned to include how to get out the rural vote, Democratic Promise and the involvement of new technologies in elections. Network NoVA has also begun their initial planning for the 2018 congressional elections, where they seek to back Democratic candidates in the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 9th and 10th congressional districts, and even hope to support candidates in every district. Overall, they seek to get people involved in politics, while also seeking out the ways they can use Network NoVA to serve the needs of all Virginians.

To learn more about Network NoVA visit them at their website at networknova.org, you can follow them at Facebook, join their events via Meetup or email them directly at [email protected]

by Catherine Read Leave a Comment

Reproductive Justice with Reproaction Director Erin Matson

(Nov 1, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Erin Matson, co-founder of Reproaction, a national direct action organization focused on advancing issues of reproductive justice and increasing access to abortion services. Reproaction’s other co-founder, Pamela Merritt, is based in St. Louis, MO, and they have a network of activists across the country. The work in collaboration with many other abortion rights, reproductive justice, and women’s advocacy organizations.

Erin established her credentials in feminist activism as the youngest state president of the National Organization of Women when she assumed leadership of Minnesota NOW at the age of 23. She moved with NOW to DC and one of the early issues she worked on was pharmacist refusal clauses. This is the right of pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription if it is conflict with their personal beliefs. Today, in 2017, the Mid-Atlantic grocery store chain Harris Teeter has taken the emergency contraception Plan B One Step off the shelf and made it available ONLY through the pharmacy or through a store manager. THIS IS A CORPORATE POLICY. Any employee of the store can refuse to sell any customer this FDA approved medication. Harris Teeter has given no explanation as to why this is their policy. Reproaction is leading a direct against a Harris Teeter store on November 20, 2017, to raise the visibility of this issue to women in the DC metro area.

Erin also helps to define what “reproductive justice” is and how it encompasses more than simply protecting women’s access to their legally protected right to abortion services. She explains that the concept and framework of reproductive justice was pioneered by women of color, specifically black women in this country, in the 1990s. It encompasses three things:

The Right to Parent
The Right not to Parent
The Right to raise children in a safe and healthy communities

Social justice includes addressing forceable sterilization, inadequate pre-natal and maternity care, and even issues like the Flint Michigan poisoned water supply. All of these issues disproportionately impact communities of color.

Erin and Pamela Merritt, along with SisterSong, led a direct action against a “fake clinic” in Atlanta as part of the Netroots Nation conference in August of 2017. Crisis Pregnancy Centers lure women into their fake clinics by offering abortion assistance when in fact they exist only to talk women out of having abortions. Many are funded with tax dollars that have been redirected from other programs – like food assistance. They perpetrate fraud and do not have to meet HIPAA requirements regarding privacy of information because they are not real medical clinics. The stigma around abortion has been engineered by anti-abortion forces that are deeply anti-woman. The “1 in 3” campaign highlights the fact that one in three women in the U.S. has chosen to have an abortion and yet many never discuss it – not with friends, family or colleagues. This keeps this choice stigmatized and feeds this culture of shaming women who have made a decision that is right for themselves and their families.

More information can be found at www.Reproaction.org, follow them on Twitter @Reproaction, on Facebook, and subscribe to their YouTube Channel.

by Catherine Read Leave a Comment

Emerge Virginia – Training Democratic Women Candidates – Inside Scoop

(Aug 21 2017) Catherine Read talks with Emerge Virginia Board Members the Hon. Kate Hanley and Atima Omara about this affiliate of Emerge America. Emerge Virginia is a program designed to recruit and train Democratic women who are interested in running for office – local offices as well as statewide and federal offices. They do not endorse candidates or fund their campaigns, but they work in cooperation with Virginia’s List which does both.

In 2017, Emerge Virginia has 24 alumnae running for office – in both the House of Delegates and in local offices like Charlottesville City Council (Amy Laufer) and Fairfax County School Board (Karen Keys-Gamarra.) In total, there are 43 Democratic women running for the Virginia House of Delegates, a record number of women candidates. This effort in recruiting and training women is in response to the dismal level of representation of women in Virginia’s General Assembly – where they make up only 17% of the legislators. Virginia has never had a woman in the office of Governor, Lt. Governor or U.S. Senator. Only ONE WOMAN has ever been elected to statewide office – Mary Sue Terry was Attorney General from 1986 to 1993. She is the only woman to ever run for Governor and she lost to George Allen.

The Honorable Kate Hanley, Chair of the Emerge Virginia Board, started out on the Fairfax County School Board, was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors from the Providence District in 1986, and represented that district until being elected Chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1995, where she served until 2003. Governor Tim Kaine appointed her as Secretary of the Commonwealth in 2006 where she served until 2010. She has been instrumental in launching and building Emerge Virginia to serve women running at every level – including the election of Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid in 2013, the first woman to serve in that position in the Fairfax County’s 275 year history.

Atima Omara distinguished herself early in her political career by running and winning a national campaign to be the President of the Young Democrats of America in 2013– the first Virginian to hold that office and the first African-American woman to hold that office in it’s 81 year history. That same year, she made Jet Magazine’s 40 under 40 and Ebony Magazine’s Power 100. A native of Richmond with a BA from the University of Virginia and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from George Mason University, she is on the Board of Directors of Emerge Virginia as well as Virginia’s List. She is a regular speaker/panelist at NetRoots Nation each year, and a sought after political media commentator at major news outlets across the country.

Emerge Virginia has a powerhouse Executive Director, Julie Copeland, and distinguished Board of Directors that includes women from every part of Virginia. They include First Lady of Virginia Dorothy McAuliffe, Delegate Kathleen Murphy, Maggi Luca, Doris Crouse-Mays, Cianti Stewart-Reid, Gaylene Kanoyton, Sandra Brandt, Alexsis Rodgers and the late Mary Ann Hovis. Every Board Member has brought their unique talents and expertise to the task of increasing the number of elected Democratic women in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mary Ann Hovis was instrumental in helping to launch the DPVA’s Pat Jenning’s Project, and regularly opened her home to both Democratic women candidates and nearly every other Democratic candidate running in Virginia. Mary Ann was the daughter of Congressman Pat Jennings of Marion, VA. She was a graduate of Radford College and a long term member of the Radford University Board of Visitors where she served two terms as Rector. In 2000 she received the University’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Her commitment to electing more Democrats in Virginia is legendary.

There is much work to be done in supporting women running for public office in Virginia at every level. Emerge Virginia is focused on finding women in this Commonwealth with the passion for public office at every level of elected office. If you want to be a part of this movement, find out how you can help at www.EmergeVA.org

by Catherine Read 1 Comment

Women Behind Bars Returning to the Community – Friends of Guest House

(July 31, 2017) Catherine Read delves into the unique challenges of women who are incarcerated in Virginia’s jails and prisons and what they face when returning to their local communities – including reconnecting with their children, finding support for addiction, and finding employment. Friends of Guest House based in Alexandria, VA, is a residential program that can accept 26 women at a time into their residential program. Founded in 1974, this program has helped about 3,000 women and their 4,000 children while accepting only 17 women at a time, until very recently when the program expanded to 26 residents and expanded from 3 months to 6 months.

In the first segment of the show, case worker Laura Jessick outlines some of the broad challenges these women face and how the Friends of Guest House residential program works to successfully support them through their transition. In the three segments following, Trystika, Kimberly and Alexis talk about their experiences while incarcerated and the challenges of trying to cope with life behind bars. One of the most basic challenges is managing their monthly menstrual cycles without access to adequate supplies – including underwear. We explored this topic in an earlier show with Holly Seibold of BRAWS – Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters. The lack of medical care and basic necessities for incarcerated women is an issue that the ACLU has brought forward in other states with a case in Michigan still pending.

The statistics are staggering for the growth of women in our jails and prisons. Their offenses are overwhelming low-level non-violent trangressions with many involving addiction, fraud, property damage, probation violations and theft. Many of those crimes are tied to issues of poverty. In 1970, 73 percent of counties across the United States reported zero women in their jails. Between 1970 and 2014, incarcerated women went from under 8,000 to nearly 110,000. Currently, nearly half of all jailed women are in small county jails which are funded and operated by local municipalities.*

Another key differentiating factor is that nearly 80 percent of women in jails are mothers.** Unlike incarcerated men, they are by and large single parents who are solely responsible for their young children. While much of the discussion around mass incarceration in this country has focused on the high numbers of men of color in our prisons, there has been little discussion about the explosive growth of women behind bars and the trauma that they endure there. Only Thailand incarcerates women at a higher rate than the United States. And the statistics don’t begin to show that many of these women are victims of trauma, with 86 percent reporting that they experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. Another staggering statistic is that while women make up only 13 percent of people held in local jails, they make up 67 percent of victims of staff-on-inmate sexual violence.

Traumatized when they arrive, traumatized while incarcerated, these women have major hurdles to overcome when they are no longer behind bars and must navigate their way back to a sustainable life on the outside without the support of treatment programs and services to help with affordable housing, workforce development, healthcare, transportation and support for their children. This is where the Friends of Guest House have a proven track record of helping women to get their lives together in a way that is sustainable. While national recidivism rates are around 70 percent, for those who complete the Friends of Guest House residential program, that rate is less than 10 percent.

Scant attention has been paid to the struggles of women behind bars, the explosive growth in their incarceration, and the many social-economic-racial factors that have led to this national crisis. One fact alone should give this nation pause: an estimated 2.6 million children have a parent behind bars. When that parent is their only parent, we are almost ensuring that the cycle of poverty and prison will continue and will grow. There are alternatives to incarceration and more can be done for the women who find themselves incarcerated. It’s incumbent on us to do more both nationally and locally.

* From the published research: Overlooked: Women in Jails in the Era of Reform

** From “Mothers in Prison” – Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Nov. 25, 2016

by Catherine Read Leave a Comment

Lisa Johnson-Firth of Immigrants First PLLC talks about Know Your Rights

(July 20 2017) Catherine Reads speaks with local attorney Lisa Johnson-Firth of Immigrants First, PLLC about the shift in policy regarding enforcement of immigration laws and which immigrants are the focus of this shift under the Trump Administration.

Lisa Johnson-Firth does presentations for many groups in the area entitled “Know Your Rights.” In the first segment she discusses what it means to be “out of status” and the appropriate measures to take when being pulled over by police. While Virginia is a “name only state” and we are not required to give anything other than our names, Lisa talks about the practical issues of cooperation with law enforcement while being aware of giving information that can and will be used against us in a court of law. The point of her Know Your Rights presentations is to make certain that people in our community know their legal rights and also the practical considerations of how much to say and when.

Catherine and Lisa also talk about the various groups of people in this country who are “out of status” which includes those who have overstayed their student or tourist visas from countries around the world. Europeans and non-Hispanic people do not appear to be the target of this crackdown on immigration which brings into question the profiling of anyone who might be an “out of status” person in this country based solely on their appearance. This seems to be driven by a fear of gang members and criminals pouring across our southern borders instead of the many women and children who are fleeing violence in their own countries as refugees.

In the second segment, Lisa discusses those who seek to claim asylum here and the process for that and how it varies from one country to another. There continues to be a stream of unaccompanied minors coming across our boarders from Central America and managing that flow is taxing our resources at the border and is putting these children in danger. This risk is driven by desperation and until the violence subsides in those countries, the flow of illegal immigration is not going to slow down.

The final part of this show asks some fundamental questions about dealing with illegal immigration going forward and what can be done to craft better public policies around this issue. We must also be honest about the benefits of immigration to our communities in this country as well as to the immigrants themselves. For more information visit Immigrants First, PLLC.

by Catherine Read Leave a Comment

Turning Point Suffragists Memorial – Occoquan, VA – Inside Scoop

(July 3 2017) Catherine Read interviews Patricia Wirth, Executive Director of The Turning Point Suffragists Memorial Association. The goal of the organization is education of the public regarding the Suffragists Movement. The proposed memorial to be built in Occoquan Regional Park in Fairfax County Virginia, would serve as a monument to the 72 year struggle by over 5 million women in America to pass the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. It’s design also includes an education center to provide the historical context missing in the history lessons taught in classrooms around the country.

For instance, the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, did not give ALL women the right to vote. There are still issues with voter suppression to this day.

The first Women’s Rights Convention convened at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848, is often cited as the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in this country. The convention organizers, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Two hundred women attended this event and it would be the beginning of seven decades of struggle with millions of women working to get the right to vote for all women – current and future. An interesting account of this arc of history can be found in Adam Grant’s book “Originals” contained in the chapter “The Narcissism of Small Differences.”

Throughout this interview, Patricia Wirth shows slides of the women whose names are virtually unknown to most Americans despite their importance to this history of our country. Carrie Chapman Catt was the leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the founder in 1920 of the League of Women Voters, an organization that is thriving in 2017. Alice Paul was the co-founder of the National Women’s Party and she authored the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1923. The ERA Amendment was passed in 1972 (five years before her death in 1977) but it has NEVER been ratified. In recent years it has come up annually for a ratification vote in the Virginia General Assembly where it is passed by the Senate and killed in the Republican controlled House.

The ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote hinged on the votes of the Tennessee legislature in August of 1920. It came down to the vote of one single legislator, a young man named Harry Burn, who received a letter from his mother asking him to support Mrs. Catt and vote yes. Few people were ever taught this bit of history in school, and this is one of the missions of The Turning Point Suffragists Memorial, to educate. Through education and leadership development programs, we can build a monument not only to the people who sacrificed so much for women’s suffrage, but also as a reminder of what it takes to create substantive social change. As Rebbecca Solnit points out in her book Hope in the Dark, we must build monuments to the journey of how great change takes place.

The location of the memorial in Occoquan Regional Park in Virginia has historical significance. In 1917, the “Silent Sentinels” who had been peacefully protesting outside the White House for years, were rounded up by order of President Woodrow Wilson and imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. They were held without charge and brutalized there – beatings, force feedings and in deplorable conditions. It was the headlines of the international media that finally forced the administration to release the women. A documentary titled “Iron Jawed Angels” detailing the infamous “Night of Terror” that took place on Nov. 15, 1917, is available online.

The role of African American Suffragists will also be an integral part of this memorial to the suffrage movement. The earliest suffragists came from the abolitionist movement well before the 1848 convention in Seneca Falls. The Women’s Suffrage Parade held in Washington, DC, in March of 1913 included 22 founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. It was the only African American women’s organization to participate and they remain a stalwart supporter of building this memorial 114 years later.

The Turning Point Suffragists Memorial will be part of a proposed “Constitutional Trail” connecting historical sites in the region that impacted the creation of the U.S. Constitution, including it’s 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. The trail will include the Archives in Washington, DC – home of the original Constitution; Mount Vernon – home of George Washington, president of the Constitutional Convention and the first President under the new Constitution; Gunston Hall – home of George Mason, Father of the Bill of Rights and Montpelier – home of James Madison, Father of the Constitution.

A major capital fundraising effort is underway to raise the funds necessary to construct this $2 million dollar memorial with a deadline of February 2019. The goal is to allow 18 months to construct the memorial complex in time for the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August of 2020. There is an urgent need to find major donors to underwrite the cost as this will be a privately funded memorial built on donated county park land.

For more information on how you can help raise the visibility of this fundraising campaign visit http://www.suffragistmemorial.org