a brief description of two different human services organizations. Explain how the organizations you selected are involved in policy advocacy. Then, from each organization’s perspective, explain one benefit and one limitation of engaging in policy advocac

Michigan Organizing Project Michigan Organizing Project Program Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] [PRAYING] JOHN MUSICK: I started with Michigan Organizing Project actually as part of a faith journey that my wife and I took together. We started doing just ge\ t out in the neighborhood and knock on doors and that kind of organizing in Minnesota in the early 70s. But about the mid-80's, we were starting to kind of rethink w\ ho we are as people.

That was the time when I was rethinking my approach to social change and\ realizing that it really comes out of my conviction as a committed Chris\ tian and that it's my Christian beliefs, my belief in Jesus Christ and the Gospel\ that really motivates me to commit my life to this kind of change. And, with my acad\ emic experience and my previous organizing experience, I was able to then develop an organization, which became Michigan Organizing Project, which allows \ people of faith to act on those values that they have.

I started to sort of understand myself and the world in 1961-62. I was c\ oming out of high s chool, going to college; thinking about was going on in the world around\ me. And, of course, what was happening in my hometown of Milwaukee was a\ huge movement of African American people struggling for equality and jus\ tice.

I think also got involved in voter registration in the south in Alabama.\ And again saw enormous structural injustice, there wasn't anything about these peo\ ple or anything to do with their problems, it was the system that was oppressin\ g them.

And, so I came back home after that experience back to Milwaukee and all\ of the sudden saw things in a whole different light. You know, I'd always known\ that there were black schools and there were white schools. I never quite und\ erstood, I just thought oh, well, that's the way they want to live or something.

But I started to see the ways in which the Milwaukee public schools were\ systemically at fault for keeping poor and black kids in the less succes\ sful schools and letting the more elite kids at fringes of the city you know \ prosper in those schools. So I got involved in school integration in Milwaukee.

And then I started thinking about academically pursuing some of those sa\ me questions, and eventually ended up in a social work sociology doctoral p\ rogram at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

1 Michigan Organizing Project And in that, did more study along that area and then pursued a doctoral \ dissertation, on the effects of segregation in the neighbors in Detroit,\ Cleveland, and Milwaukee and how those kinds of systematic injustices were causing \ some of the tension and the violence that was occurring in all three of those\ cities at that time. We started in Muskegon, which is a fairly small city—it's only about \ 40,000 people—but with the idea that Western Michigan was the area that we wanted to impact. And that was partly because it's reputed to be probably the most conservative part of Michigan, an area where, you know, most of the offi\ ce holders, etc. subscribe to more of a everybody help them self, pull your\ self up from your bootstraps kind of notion, and we figured if we could bring a \ different frame to Western Michigan, that we would help move the whole state of Mi\ chigan in a more progressive direction.

But then we also knew that the big city in the area is Grand Rapids. So after proving a model that worked quite well in Muskegon for about five years \ we then started to explore the possibility of doing something similar in Grand R\ apids.

And once that had been going four for five years, we knew the other major population center of Western Michigan was Kalamazoo.

Kalamazoo is a somewhat unique place. I think that one of the things tha\ t sets is apart is that—the city and the county as a whole have a sense of them\ selves of being compassionate, caring and progressive in many ways. They like to see themselves leading rather than following. And that extends into many are\ as of life. But caring for the less fortunate is certainly among right at the \ top. And, so, I think the people of Kalamazoo want to see themselves as leading rather than following is kind of coming up with the best most positive, the most cre\ ative approaches to meeting human need.

For anyone who is going to do this kind of work as a social change agent\ , I think one of the most important things is to understand the difference between systemic problems and systemic injustices versus individual pathology or\ individual difficulties. Our society is so oriented toward the individual, an individual doing things on their own, that it's often very difficult for people to understand that there are systems that put people at a great disadvantag\ e or in some cases make it impossible for them to succeed.

Our model of change starts with the listening process, the house meeting\ . We actually have leaders in each of our congregation who reach out to their\ networks, mostly within their own congregation, on occasion, they'll inv\ ite people from outside the congregation - listen - to an actual house meeting in their own home. And they will then start with a gathering around values usually based in\ the Holy Scripture. So usually, they'll start with reflection on the Bible, what the Bible is saying that we need to be doing as people of faith related to o\ ther people who are less fortunate.

2 Michigan Organizing Project So we start with that kind of values frame and then we start talking abo\ ut what is actually happening in certain key areas—employment, healthcare, housing, etc.

And then we think about well what do we see happening and employment, an\ d Kalamazoo right now. People will offer various opinions. And then we'll say how does that compare with what we think should be happening based on the va\ lues we talked about. And then where we see the biggest gaps between reality and what should be happening, we name that as an issue for MOP to work on. And then that becomes the basis for our issue task forces to do their resear\ ch and then define a campaign.

Out of that, issue task forces come together and research to find within\ a broad area of concern what specifically is impacting people in our community and what possibilities there are for making change in that area. Once we identify\ that, then we go about various ways of amassing some power to change in that partic\ ular area. And that will be anything from a one-on-one meeting with let's say a county commissioner or a city commissioner to a maybe a small group where peopl\ e from a church call their representative in and try to move him or her to\ ward our viewpoint. And then it culminates once a year in our big - what we call our Nehemiah Action Assembly. And that's where after a year or sometimes in \ the case of homelessness, several years of research and advocacy, we have a \ very specific proposal for change to put forward.

Then have specific public policy decision makers, usually elected officials but sometimes appointed and sometimes private business people, have them com\ e up and state specifically what they're willing to do in relationship to \ our proposals.

We find that over a period of time, if we stay consistent, stay focused, and keep showing that we can bring hundreds - and we're usually talking 600 to a thousand people - that most public officials at least move toward if not agreeing, at least negotiating toward a compromise that we can live with.

Our current campaigns are first of all housing for the homeless. We init\ iated a small housing assistance fund, which essentially has been in place since 2006 and each year puts a number of people who are homeless into their own home.

Another thing is immigration. Probably most people know that during 2010, there was an effort several times during the year to get Pres. Obama and our Congress to do something about reforming our immigration system in a comprehensive way. That did not happen. So our current work then is to help immigrants, especially the most vulnerable, the undocumented, figure out\ how to navigate through our society and live since for most of them, returning \ to their country of origin is not an option.

The third area is workers' rights. I think everybody knows right now our\ economy is in very dire straits and Michigan is one of the worst places in the c\ ountry. So we have increasing numbers of people who are absolutely desperate economically and are looking for any kind of job under almost any circum\ stances.

3 Michigan Organizing Project And so under that kind of situation, naturally, you have, unfortunately, unscrupulous employers who are willing to exploit their workforce in a n\ umber of ways. And, so, we are pressing the city of Kalamazoo to enact a city ord\ inance that would actually make such behavior criminal.

Another area is barriers to employment for people with previous criminal\ records.

Again because of the way our system, our judicial and law enforcement sy\ stems work, certain groups of people, particularly African Americans and Hispanics are much more likely to be arrested, convicted and sent to jail than white p\ eople are for the same offense. So, we have many, many more people of color ending\ up with these criminal records and therefore unable to get even the most mi\ nimal job.

The fifth area is health care and we have taken a fairly narrow perspective \ on that, and that is specifically dental care for the poor in Kalamazoo Cou\ nty. And so we have recently gotten a new mobile clinic that goes around to all t\ he schools and does preventive and restorative work for children. We made s\ ome changes but a lot more are needed.

Allison, do you want to start off and just in a brief few sentences kind\ of your reaction to what you got out of last night where you think that leads us\ ?

ALLISON: I was excited about what he had to say. I think that it's really relevan\ t.

Like saying you know big government is the problem and that's their whol\ e narrative and they've energized people around that, they're moving peopl\ e around that, they just won mid-term like elections around that.

Every tea party action, every that side action has to do with that big g\ overnment is the problem, it always goes back to that, so it's really solid no mat\ ter where it is in the country. All they have to do is have the name and then the narrative sentence that goes with it and like it all pulls together. But we don't \ have anything like that. Like we don't have a narrative. So, he talked about the impor\ tance of developing a cohesive narrative for everybody who is doing this work and connecting all the local projects back to that and getting everybody on \ the same page as far as what that is, you know, what is the problem, what is the \ analysis, what's the solution.

MOP needs to figure out what our MOP narrative is because right n ow we don't really have one. We really need to figure out what our story is and then\ be able to put that out there and connect all of our campaigns back to that. And what that's looking like at the national level with George's analysis is like it's c\ orpor ate power, corporate greed sort of thing is what's ruining the country and t\ he most clear example of that is the banks. And so maybe that is the focal point\ that we focus on, maybe that is the enemy that can be named that people can get \ angry at and move t ogether towards because no matter what campaign you're working on, the banks crashing the economy has something to do with that. It has\ to do © 2014 Laureate Education, Inc.

4 Michigan Organizing Project with immigration because now the economy is like totally screwed up so immigration reform has no chance of passing .

It has to do with housing for the homeless, obviously foreclosures and m\ ortgages and everything else, and all of those things. So, maybe that's the direc\ tion that we could go with that as well, whether it be through another aspect of t\ he housing campaign, or whether it be through, you know, just connecting everything we’re doing, back to that bigger picture.

JOHN MUSICK: Well the theoretical background of this is that we live in a democratic society. Things happen in a Democratic society according to w\ ho holds power. According to the democratic ideal—of course, everybody has equal power—they come together. So if you have more power—more people together, then you know you write the agenda for federal, state, local government,\ school board, whatever.

Unfortunately, money has gotten into the mix and so it's now more and mo\ re that the more money you have, the more you are going to write the agenda. And we think that's a fundamental perversion of what our democracy is about. So our fundamental theoretical framework is that we need to build enough people\ with enough organization and enough information that we can counteract the ef\ fects of concentrated money through people and organization and knowledge and \ information.

One of the things that we need to do in order to create that kind of pow\ er is we need to get enough people together on a common agenda. You know, it's one thing to bring a thousand people into a room together, but it's a whole \ other thing to have them all focused on a certain agenda and be able to put that forward in a cohesive, coherent manner. So, that's the genius of organizing is to find that common link, that common agenda.

This man and his wife both worked at a restaurant. She was a waitress. He was a maintenance person. He worked anywhere from 40 to 60 hours a week for an entire year and never was paid at all. And the employer kept saying to h\ im, “Well, you know, I'm a little short this week, next week, I'll pay you. ” And, meanwhile, of course his wife was working and she was a waitress and she was making you know a decent salary.

And of course he was undocumented and didn't want to complain. It just w\ ent on and on and on, you know for an entire year. And, finally after a year, h\ is wife, unfortunately, was injured on the job and at that point, was fired.

Now, that's against the law. She was fired. The employer did not have wo\ rkman's compensation, which is also against the law. But, of course, they're bot\ h undocumented, so they just went on down the road. So, he was owed $22,00\ 0 and she had a worker's compensation case. So they came to us and so we were \ © 2014 Laureate Education, Inc.

5 Michigan Organizing Project able first of all to get an attorney to take up her worker's compensatio\ n. And, he, the employer then had to pay for her injuries but not her lost wages.

We then took up the case of the man who had never been paid at all. And it was one of those sort of partial victories where we finally got the employer\ to admit that he owed this guy some money, but instead of 22,000. He got a $5,000\ check. He got less than a quarter of what was owed to him.

The workplace violations have come up particularly with the Hispanic pop\ ulation because I think even prior to the current recession, there's just been a\ n understanding that a good portion of these people are undocumented and therefore have very few rights, very threatened with being reported to immigration authorities. And, so, even in a good economy, they could be exploited almost at will. And, so, as the economy of course has gotten worse and there are more people out at the door willing to work under any circumstances, that has just intensified.

We’re trying to enable workers who are deprived of proper wages to get the \ pay they have coming and to change the relationship between the employer to \ an employee to one where rights are being respected. So, we mostly get people who come in and say you know I worked for so and so and I did this and t\ hat and I was supposed to get paid such a wage, and either I didn't get paid at \ all or I got paid less than I was supposed to get paid. In those kinds of situations, we initially call the employer and see if there is some mitigating factor, \ maybe it was a misunderstanding or something. And, occasionally we find it was a misunderstanding, as soon as we call, the employer says oh, okay, fine, \ and send the check and you know it's taken care of.

Most often though it is something where the employer really is trying to\ exploit this worker. So, we have a number of options. One is that sometimes we c\ an get the employer to come in and sit down and talk with the worker and work out some kind of a compromise or a deal or something. We also have the optio\ n of taking it to the Michigan Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, wh\ ich will investigate and if there's proper documentation, etc., issue a ruling th\ at you know the employee should be paid. There's a lot of problems with that whole s\ ystem.

In general, I would say that the best case scenario, the absolute best—you file the complaint, that it takes two to three months and then usually the em\ ployer negotiates a settlement, which is usually a percentage of what was owed.\ There's no downside to the unscrupulous employer at all. So, our wage theft ordinance, anti-wage theft ordinance would first of all make it a crimin\ al offense, which means it's a public record.

Secondly, it's enforced locally and the enforcement mechanism that we have is very, very similar to a traffic offense. You get a ticket, either you come forward and contest it or you simply pay up a fine and the money that was owed. \ So, we feel that this going to be a much greater deterrent to the unscrupulous \ employer © 2014 Laureate Education, Inc.

6 Michigan Organizing Project and it's going to give the employee much better return on the complaint \ that they made.

Employment barriers happen to be the issue that came to the fore in the \ North Side area of Kalamazoo. When the North Side Association for Community Development, one of our partners in this effort, surveyed their neighbor\ hood, they were told overwhelmingly that was the issue.

A major private employer in the Kalamazoo area went back and kind of wen\ t back through their employment files and discovered people that had fell \ in these 20, 30 years in their past and that had been working for the company for\ 10 years and they were summarily fired because they found that 20, 30, 40 y\ ears ago somebody had done something perhaps as a teenager.

When we confronted the issue of people not being able to get access to employment, initially actually we thought the solution was going to be t\ o let people expunge their criminal records through a legal process so it'd be\ taken off their record and they wouldn't have to talk about it anymore. We discovered\ , unfortunately, to do that would require a change of state law and that t\ he legislature in Michigan in a totally different place. They if anything a\ re trying to more penalties on ex-offenders than, rather than alleviate that situatio\ n.

We realized that one of the reasons they don't get in the process is tha\ t especially in this economy, every time there's a job opening, the interv\ iewer is probably going to have a hundred or more applications for every position, and it's just human nature to try to reduce your workload and one of the ways you\ do that is you flip through and if everybody has got a criminal record and you k\ now they're going to be too much of a hassle for you, you get rid o f them. So, we realized that if we could get that question on criminal history o\ ff the application, we could at least make it more likely that the ex-offender \ is going to be able to get into a relationship where she or he can explain what happ\ ened and perhaps show that they have a good history since being released from prison and that perhaps the offense for which they were convicted or sen\ tenced to prison has little if any relationship to the position they're applying for.

We took that question to the city commission elections last year at this\ time in September, October of 2009. And were very persistent in talking to city \ commissioners. Got two of them to make this a sort of cause that they we\ re willing to run on.

Once the elections happened, one of the first things that they brought up with the city administration was let's look at how we go about hiring. And, throu\ gh those various kinds of meetings and various public hearings that we attended w\ ith the city commission, we kept this on their agenda for another several months\ and © 2014 Laureate Education, Inc.

7 Michigan Organizing Project then March of this year, the city manager announced that they would no l\ onger ask about criminal history.

The main reason we decided to apply for a Lifeline grant was that we—we had severe cutbacks in all of our other sources of funding. Normal sources of funding are three. One is the churches that make up Michigan Organizing Project \ all pay dues. And, so, but you know as their budgets are shrinking and they're l\ ess able or less willing to pay dues or certainly not to increase their dues to our organization.

A second one is individuals and to some extent businesses. So, again, we\ need more and more individuals who are willing to give at least once a year a\ nd hopefully on a sustaining basis. And, again, we have the same problem—as they have cut back further, they have less to give to us.

And then the third one is charitable foundations. So, again, as their in\ vestments are less profitable, they're cutting back. And, so, we're having to make\ staff cutbacks, we're having to do more work with fewer people. And, so, it ca\ uses stress at every level. You know, people are having to work harder, longe\ r and in a more hostile environment in some cases.

So, it's—it is definitely a challenge. And, of course, when we see th\ e overall political values of our system seeming to go more toward you know indivi\ duals having to seek their own best welfare and less concern about helping the\ least fortunate. Of course, it makes it even more difficult to operate in that\ kind of sort of cultural environment as well.

In various conversations, we realized that the Lifeline—which we thou\ ght of initially as meeting only immediate needs of people—that they were taking a broader perspective and understanding that we need to get at some of the\ underlying sources of the problem, too. So, as they started to understand for instance that isn't just getting a bed for somebody and a meal and a war\ m coat, but actually enabling them to have their own place to live that they sta\ rted to understand that funding an organization like ours was also within the purview of what they do.

We are now able to maintain a full-time staff person to do the worker ri\ ghts work.

So, we have a young man who works full-time out there with workers who a\ re being exploited in some way or other and seek redress of those situation\ s and that would have had to have been cut at least in half and maybe entirely if Lifeline had not come through.

I think it's important for human service professionals in all areas to t\ ry to impact public policy. It's the public policy makers who decide what resources t\ hey will have to deliver their services. Whether you're a teacher, whether you're a counselor, whether you're providing a direct financial assistance, all o\ f those © 2014 Laureate Education, Inc.

8 Michigan Organizing Project involve money and other resources that are controlled by people in the l\ egislative area.

I'm 67 years old. I've been doing this kind of work since I was in my early 20s. I'm looking back on a career and knowing that the vast majority of my career\ is behind me. I have a limited number of years to do this. I'm elated, I fe\ el very privileged that I've been able to do this kind of work and live a good l\ ife doing it.

I'm also very, very excited because I think young people are very much u\ p to the challenge and I think are going to take us into, to new heights in this \ area of endeavor that people of my generation never did.

We have to be able to come back and say the common good is something we \ all need to pursue; we all need to be working together on it. And our institutions, including our government, need to be pursuing the common good, not indiv\ idual good.

I believe that the resources that we have in this community can be bette\ r used and better marshaled and put together in a way to lead us into the kind \ of community we really have the potential to be. And I think MOP can play a\ major role in showing, in helping people organize themselves in a way to reali\ ze their hope for the kind of community that we would be, which is leading in the\ entire state of Michigan in terms of how do we come together as a community, no\ t just of the affluent and the better off, but everybody in this community being able to live a life of dignity and eventual prosperity.

Michigan Organizing Project Additional Content Attribution Creative Support Services Los Angeles, CA Dimension Sound Effects Library Newnan, GA Narrator Tracks Music Library Stevens Point, WI Signature Music, Inc.