[Mitai-announce] Hope in Action -- A Social Justice Initiative at MIT -- IAP Events

[Eleni Orphanides]

Hope in Action, a social justice initiative at MIT, is sponsoring three 
events this week (two on Thursday 1/21, one on Saturday 1/23). See below 
or http://web.mit.edu/hia/Events.html for more information!


************************************************************

*GET LOCAL!  IAP Discussion with Horace Small*
21 January 2010
12:00 pm - 2 pm  (Lunch Provided by TAndC)
Student Center Coffee House Lounge
contact: marybeth at mit.edu

Come meet Horace Small, Executive Director of the Union of Minority 
Neighborhoods and local Boston community organizer.  Small has lived in 
Boston for only four years, but his is fast becoming a local legend in 
the field of community organizing.  He will discuss his experiences here 
and Boston and how members of the MIT community can make a difference in 
Cambridge and Boston.  For more information on Small you can read a 
recent profile in Boston Magazine. 
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/horace_small_has_a_very_big_mouth/


************************************************************

*Social Justice Social!*
21 January 2010
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
The Friendly Toast, 1 Kendall Square

Come hang out with other members of the MIT community who are interested 
in Social Justice.  This event is meant to be a chance to get to know 
others people who are interested in the same things you are.  The 
Technology and Culture Forum will be providing snacks and the Friendly 
Toast offers a wide variety of beverages, for those both over and under 
21 years of age.  We hope you will join us for this fun and relaxing event!


************************************************************

*Do you care about social justice and serving your community? * Do you 
want to meet other young adults from MIT, and from all over Boston, who 
also care about the state of our city, and our world? Do you want to 
learn more about an exciting city-wide, young-adult led campaign to 
fight poverty and economic injustice right here in Boston? If you do, we 
welcome and encourage you to *join the MIT Hope in Action campaign team 
for its kickoff event, a Martin Luther King celebration on Jan. 23rd. *

*The Skinny:*
Hope in Action MLK Kick-Off Event
23 Jan 2010
9:30 am - 2:30 pm (lunch provided)
St. Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont St., Boston (T info: On the Red Line, 
right at the Park St.)

Questions?
*Contact: Nicholas Hayes,* Justice Minister, MIT Technology and Culture 
Forum
(517) 425-0928; nicholas at diomassintern.org
Hope in Action at MIT website - http://web.mit.edu/hia/Welcome.html
Hope in Action website - http://www.diomassintern.org/Hope_in_Action.html

*More about Hope in Action and the January 23rd Kickoff Event*
The Hope in Action campaign is a young-adult led effort sponsored by the 
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts to get young adults (18-35) involved 
with understanding and working to relieve economic injustices within the 
city of Boston. Its leaders come from many different backgrounds, from 
many different neighborhoods; some are students at schools like MIT, 
some are working young adults from inner city parishes in Dorchester and 
Roxbury. All the young adult campaign leaders have received training 
from Marshall Ganz's Leading Change project, some of the professional 
community organizers who put together Barack Obama's campaign. (Check it 
out:http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/person_of_interest_marshall_ganz/). 


In the coming months, we'll be engaging in a diversity of projects, from 
campaigning door to door to save and renew failing neighborhood schools, 
to planting community gardens in Dorchester, to working side by side 
with Boston's homeless population to get them affordable housing. Most 
importantly, we'll be doing all this together, learning how to achieve 
goals that matter to us through organized collective action, with young 
adults of all backgrounds from all over Boston.

This all begins next Saturday, Jan. 23, when we will celebrate the 
legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.  There, you will meet hundreds of 
other young adults who want to make a difference like you do and you 
will be able to see the power and promise of our collective efforts.  At 
the event, each community involved in Hope in Action will decide upon 
the issue it most wants to focus on in the coming months-- so come, 
represent the MIT student community and make your voice heard!  It will 
be an incredible opportunity to see people working together and to be 
part of an amazing team.

Come, inspire, and be inspired.  (Bring friends!)