Burnet Elementary Needs Your Help

Burnet Elementary students need us! Mr. Ronald Caraway wiht Communities in Schools is collecting toiletries for Burnet students. Mr. Caraway has shared that Burnet students are in need of:

Loofahs

Shower caps

Toothbrushes

Mouth wash

Deodorant 

Lotions

Wet wipes 

Donations can be dropped off/sent to Burnet Elementary addressed to Ronald Caraway at Communities in Schools. 

Who is the Policy Task Force?

The Policy Task Force (PTF) is an arm of The Future is US initiative based in Galveston, TX comprised of students, parents, and other community stakeholders and advocates

What is it designed to do?

The PTF is designed to facilitate policy change within the areas of social determinants of health pertaining to Arts & Cultural Expression, Social Networks & Trust, and Norms & Culture through community voices and the redistribution of decision-making to the communities most affected by the decisions being made.

How?

• Educating, organizing, and mobilizing students, parents, and community members to advocate for policy change and increase public awareness of current policies pertaining to school discipline, Arts & Cultural Expression, Social Networks & Trust, and Norms & Culture.

• Provide free, accessible educational content and opportunities on what policy is; how policy affects us; the relationship between data and policy; policy analysis; stages of policy making; how to advocate for policy change; advocacy through art; stages of policy change; rhetoric and composition; writing for justice; and civil discourse.

• Educating about and facilitating access to existing policies connected to school discipline; Arts & Cultural Expression; Social Networks & Trust; and Norms & Culture

• Facilitating opportunities for advocacy and actionable, measurable works to achieve institutional and structural policy changes that promote positive health outcomes for all youth and families in Galveston.

• Creating public documents including policy briefs, policy recommendations, and policy reviews.

• Education and capacity building around methods of policy advocacy and raising public awareness

• Supporting financial and structural sustainability of TFIU

1000 Books Before Kindergarten!

Did you know that by reading and sharing stories with babies and young children not only helps their brain development, but strengthens your relationship with them? Research has found that reading and story telling:

• Helps in developing children's brain development in concentration, focus, social skills and communication

• Expands children's vocabulary! A 2019 study found that children that were regularly read to the 5years leading up to Kindergarten were exposed to 1.4 million more words.

• A 2008 study found that children feel secure when read to and can support a solid parent-child relationship.

Sign up today for Rosenberg Library's Reading Challenge!

From: Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

NO MORE FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN HAITI:
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the Core Group Do Not Represent Haitian People!

APRIL 26, 2023—Today, the United Nations Security Council is holding consultations on the future of Haiti. No Haitian individuals or organizations will be present at the meeting. Instead, Haiti will be represented by its occupying entities: The Core Group and the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the mandate of which is set to expire on July 23.

The Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and BAP member organization in Haiti, MOLEGHAF (Mouvement National pour la Liberté et L’égalité des Haïtiens pour la Fraternité or National Movement for Liberty and Equality of Haitians for Fraternity), denounce the Core Group’s and BINUH’s continued occupation of Haiti as well as their ongoing actions to undermine Haiti’s democracy and sovereignty.

Over the past year, we have witnessed massive popular protests that have been part of a broader struggle for a Haiti free from suffocating foreign interference. That includes manufactured “gang violence” and the illegitimate government installed by the United States and the Core Group. Yet, those speaking on behalf of Haiti refuse to recognize the core demands of the people for democracy, sovereignty and a just life.

BINUH and the Core Group do not represent Haitian people. Haitian people consider these entities occupation forces. BAP and MOLEGHAF have consistently demanded the Core Group and the so-called “International Community” acknowledge and atone for their role in the continuing deterioration of the situation in Haiti today.

As we have continually stated, the “crisis” in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism, a crisis initiated in 2004 by the United States, France and Canada, and consecrated by the United Nations. No decision about Haiti should be made by those who not only do not represent the people, but have also consistently harmed them.

Once again, we demand the disbanding of the Core Group, the removal of the BINUH office from Haiti, respect for the sovereign rights of the Haitian people, and NO MORE FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN HAITI!

Photo: Mass protest on February 28, 2021, demanding now-assassinated President Jovenel Moïse’s departure. (Reginald Louissaint Jr./AFP/Getty Images) 

TFIU School Board Watch Doc!

The Future is Us’ critical goal is to effectuate policy change in GISD, so that black students, and ultimately, all children receive a quality education. However, institutional power can be adversarial at times. Therefore, it is compulsory to us as parents, youth, and Galveston community members to hold our local institutions and Board of Trustees accountable.

Through a collaborative effort, TFIU created and is making available our The Future is US SCHOOL BOARD WATCH Document. With this self-explanatory document, any interested community member can attend or watch a school board meeting, and record detailed notes and minutes, as well as assess, in real time, the quality of content in the meeting.

Once completed, please e-mail the document to info@thefutureisus.co. We will compile the information so that we can become better equipped and more effective in our advocacy for positive change and creating better GISD schools.

Thank you all in advance for your support and dedication to making sure all of Galveston’s students get the best education possible!

Upcoming Board Meetings: 

Check here for all GISD Board of Trustees meetings!

More Upcoming Dates!

There are lots of ways you can make a difference in the community! 

• Take our Survey (QR Code below) and let us know what you think will make change in the school district.

• Join the TFiU/NIA Book Club.

• Become a TFiU Member!

• Visit TFiU's Youtube.

• Visit TFiU's Website

TFIU Co-coordinators' Research Announcement!

Blair-Warren Research Project

Research and Study Announcement

Title: Engaging in advocacy and activism to positively increase mental health

The goal of this research is to increase the awareness and research into the efficacy of promoting actions and/or counter-actions against an oppressive state or oppressive state institutions in order to positively increase the mental health of actor/counter-actor. In order for this to happen, we analyze historical and contemporary first-hand accounts, third-party accounts, as well as contemporary research and interviews. The results of this research will provide an effective prescriptive, and ultimately, a pathway to alleviating many pathologies that affect BIPOC populations.

The literature review and results of this research will show that based on unique and situational context, counter-actors can find a way to counter the pathologies of living under oppressive conditions. Colonialism and its mental health effects, through its oppressive tactics and practices vary in every situation. Oppressed peoples in each of those situations determine their ideal method(s) to rid themselves of colonialism. Building off the Cycle of Liberation, we flattened it into two levels: intrapersonal and interpersonal.  Subsequently, we want to add two additional levels to address higher intensity actions/counter-actions: insurgency and revolution.

Suggested uses for this research include mental health professionals, especially those whose work involves or focuses on BIPOC populations, mental health researchers, and advocates and activists. This research will lead to better mental health interventions and practices to address the mental health needs of the most vulnerable populations

Shanice Blair L.P.C.A.

Jonathan Warren, J.D.