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!

The Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta Citywide Alliance (BAP-Atlanta), rooted in the legacy of anti-imperialist, anti-war, and pro-peace movements within the African/Black community, firmly denounces the ongoing exchange between the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Atlanta Police Leadership Institute, and the Israeli Occupying Forces, scheduled May 14-22nd, 2023—and the urban warfare training facility, Cop City.

As an empire conceived in settler-colonial violence, the United States continues to impose systems of militarized control upon African/Black, Indigenous, and Palestinian communities. This oppressive reality manifests itself through international interventions, such as the GILEE program, as well as domestic initiatives, like the proposed $90 million police-training facility, Cop City. Local residents and activists have been demanding an end to GILEE for many years.

GILEE's training exchange with the Israeli Occupying Forces disrespectfully falls during the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, the violent displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 invasion of Palestine by Zionist settlers, an event marked by the bloody, brutal, destructive ethnic cleansing and occupation of more than 500 Palestinian villages. This violent occupation continues today with the complete and unwavering support from the United States military-industrial-complex, particularly in military assistance. According to the 2022 Congressional Research Service Report:

“Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $150 billion (current, or noninflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. At present, almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance; from 1971 to 2007, Israel also received significant economic assistance.” 

The continued mass settler violence against Palestinians, and the proxy state supported by the United States for geopolitical reasons, has established an enduring legacy of conflict and injustice in the region, amid escalating violence against Palestinians. This disturbing reality illuminates the web of global imperialism and racial oppression that stretches from the occupied West Bank to Atlanta's neighborhoods.

Simultaneously, we face the Atlanta city government's insidious plot to lease 381 acres of stolen Muscogee (Creek) land, known as Weelaunee Forest, to the Atlanta Police Foundation. This massive proposed police training facility, Cop City, funded predominantly by taxpayers, is a brutal example of colonial-capitalist fascism in action. Designed to refine the tactics of urban warfare and repression, Cop City epitomizes the connections between white supremacy-fueled genocide, militarism and oppression. It threatens to expand the cycle of state-sanctioned violence and political repression upon working-class African/Black and Indigenous communities, and would further expand the GILEE program’s resources and capabilities. 

BAP-Atlanta asserts the unwavering link between the liberation struggles of African/Black and Indigenous peoples. We stand against the oppressive forces of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonization. We demand the immediate abolition of the GILEE program, a halt to the construction of Cop City and accountability for all acts of state-sanctioned violence.

Our collective human rights, our dignity and our very lives are at stake. We demand justice, transparency, and the immediate cessation of all activities contributing to the operation of GILEE and Cop City.

Abolish the GILEE program! 

Stop Cop City!

No Compromise, No Retreat!

BAP-Atlanta

bapatl@blackallianceforpeace.com

Banner photo: Senior GA police and public safety executives post for photo upon return from Police Executive Training in Israel (courtesy of news.gsu.edu) 

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.