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News January 19, 2012 | Guerilla filmmaking: Reno O'Neal and Allen Parks on returning citizens organizing HELP/AMOS team organizers Reno O'Neal and Allen Parks got together at Joe's Diner in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood to talk about life on the job, organizing with returning citizens, and how criminal justice reform fits into the big picture of economic justice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 2-5, 2011 | Movement Builders attend the Campaign for America's Future conference in Washington, D.C., carry out action on lobbyists A team of 19 Ohio Movement Builders traveled to the Campaign for America's Future conference in Washington DC on October 2nd-5th. The group sought opportunities to train, meet community organizers from across the nation, sign up volunteers to visit Ohio for Get Out the Vote work, run an action at the offices of legislators and lobbyists, and in a jobs-focused rally at the Capitol. The team represented Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Oxford, Warren, and Youngstown. Backdropped by the growing Occupy Wall Street protests and a supercommittee still negotiating the end of the federal budget debate, conference attendees discussed pathways for collective action demanding good jobs and the strengthening of public services like social security and Medicare/Medicaid. Click the photo below to view
videos and a photo journal from the trip.
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September 28, 2011 | Cincinnati AMOS/HELP team: Allen Parks on being hired to work in Washington Park  Allen
Parks is helping to build a movement by organizing with the HELP Program/AMOS Project team.
AMOS and HELP organizers push for positive change in employment rights
for people with felonies - returning citizens who have done their time
and want to support themselves, their families, and their communities.
In this video, Allen tells us about being hired to work on a local
construction project, an opportunity that arose through a
coalition-driven effort to advocate for local and ex-felon hire in
Over-the-Rhine. The campaign is led by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition
for the Homeless, and is fueled by volunteers and staff working across
organizations toward the goal of creating good jobs for all Ohioans.Click the picture to watch Allen's video journal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 24, 2011 | Movement Builders gather in Dayton to discuss next steps in statewide movement Representatives from Movement Building teams across the state gathered in Dayton today to reflect on their collective work since April, to explore the most pressing issues facing Ohio and the place of Movement Builders in addressing these, and to systematically chart out the next six months of their work together. Breakout: Jan
Harper-Keeton (Chillicothe), Jerry Park (Chillicothe), Pat Trammel
(Dayton), and Pat Youngblood (Cincinnati AMOS) work together in a
breakout session to discuss how plugging into statewide
campaigns--like the Issue 2 and HB 194 referendum
efforts--has helped their teams to grow membership
and
develop new leaders. Looking forward, teams also formulated concrete
strategies and peaks that would guide team-building in the context of
the emerging statewide campaign for good jobs.
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September 17, 2011 | Movement Builders from across Cincinnati teams train together for electoral, Get Out the Vote work Movement Builders from seven Cincinnati neighborhoods gathered in Bond Hill today to learn the basics of electoral work and voter education, to explore their own stories of what brought them to organizing, and to build the skills they needed to train others in their own neighborhoods. The training ended with a canvas of the neighborhood--organized in collaboration with the We Are Ohio campaign--that focused on talking to residents about HB 194 and Issue 2. Off to the doors: Center
for Community Change organizer Katy Heins and Cincinnati Movement
Builder Riccardo Taylor look through their walk packet before leaving
to canvas a section of Bond Hill.
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September 14, 2011 | Movement Builders comment on President Obama's Job Speech for ChangeNation Movement Builders Heather Wingo (Chillicothe team), Nate Gordon (Cincinnati AMOS/HELP team), and Kelissa Hieber (Butler County team) were recently asked to offer their analyses of President Obama's "Jobs" speech. Speaking from the perspectives of a single mother and student, a returning citizen, and a college senior interning with the We Are Ohio campaign, they offered commentaries now published on ChangeNation. Click their photos below to read what they said. 
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August 20, 2011 | Movement Builders at the Stand Up for Ohio Festival A highlight of the August 20th Stand Up for Ohio festival was the space it afforded for community and statewide organizations to engage with visitors about their work. Movement Builders from eight teams around Ohio attended the festival, and five staffed tables in the display area. Click the image below
to read a Photo Journal from the event.
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August 16, 2011 | Rebuild the American Dream of Good Jobs and Strong Communities Festival: Join the Movement Builders this Saturday in Columbus! Join thousands of Ohioans at the State Fairgrounds in Columbus this Saturday, August 20th, from noon to 8pm, for free music, activities, and speakers. Be sure to visit the tables (and a costume photobooth) hosted by our very own Movement Building teams from Butler County and Cincinnati! Click the image below for a larger version of the
poster.
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August
7-14, 2011 | Chillicothe, Dayton, and Butler County teams: From
volunteer groups to community organizationsThe start of August has been a month of intensive structural work and strategic planning for teams across the state. Two weeks ago--five months into the Movement Building project--three teams reached a point where their core leadership saw a need to formalize organizational structure, mission statements, and grounding principles, and to begin cutting issues and establishing plans for voter education work in the upcoming election season. In Ross County, a campaign to impact the Chamber of Commerce's influence over public employees' pay and benefits began to take shape this week. For Butler County's team, it became clear that this fall's work would align with a fight to keep public universities public in the wake of the Board of Regents' report on enterprise universities, released this week. And for Dayton's group, cutting an issue over the next two weeks will provide a solid plan for pushing back against the biennial state budget's projected impact on the poor. Building:
The Ross County Movement Builders (above) and Dayton’s Putting
People First (below) each
spent six hours this week approving their organization’s mission,
principles,
roles, and leadership structure in preparation for the electoral season
and
beyond.
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July 16-17, 2011 | Rebuilding the American Dream House Meetings Click
on the image to view photos and stories from more House Meetings,
hosted this weekend by Movement Building teams across the state
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July 6, 2011 | Northside team gets ThinkProgress coverage for their July 4th street skit The Working Families Movement of Northside (WFMN) performed their moving skit, featuring battles between a giant scissors-wielding Governor Kasich and groups of Ohioans affected by cuts in the state budget, at the Northside Fourth of July Parade. ThinkProgress posted a short article on the team's skit two days later. Click the image to view video and photos from the
event.
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June 25, 2011 | Toledo team: Support Toledo Families! Toledo's Movement Builders held a block party in the LaGrange neighborhood, complete with DJ, live music, and food with a purpose. The event took place amid battles in Columbus over election overhaul bills, and toward the end of the signature collection period for efforts to repeal Senate Bill 5. As such, organizers registered voters, signed petitions to repeal SB 5, canvassed the neighborhood, and encouraged calls to their Senators to stop the voter ID bill and major budget cuts to services needed by Toledo's families. From the very young to senior citizens, a diverse crowd talked with all four Toledo TV stations about the purpose of the event. Click
the image
to view a photo journal from this event.
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June 23, 2011 | Stand Up and Fight for Akron! The joint Movement Building/Fight for a Fair Economy team hosted the "Stand Up and Fight for Akron" rally on June 23. Union leaders Paul Hlynsky and Greg Coldridge spoke of the devestating affects SB 5 would have on the Akron community. John Smith, graduate student at the University of Akron spoke of 900 state regulations that keep ex-felons out of jobs. And several college students from Kent University highlighted the cuts to education funding and spoke of their own fight for quality education. Despite the heavy rain, nearly one hundred rally-goers stood up for Akron and Ohio. Click
the image
to view a photo journal from this event.
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June 22, 2011 | Butler County team: Meeting with David C. Hodge on charter/enterprise universities and the public good A five-person delegation of representatives from the Butler County Defend Ohio movement building team met with Miami University President and Inter University Council Chair David C. Hodge in Oxford to discuss the implications of adopting "charter" or "enterprise university" status for workers, families, and students in Ohio's university towns, and to express their opposition to the charter/enterprise option. A crowd of students and instructors stood outside Roudebush Hall in support of the delegation. Click the image to see videos and a photo
journal from the meeting.
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June 18, 2011 | Lincoln Heights team: Community Rally and Jazz Event to Repeal Senate Bill 5 The Lincoln Heights Movement Building team held a June 18th rally and music-on-the-lawn community event at St. Simon of Cyrene. Organizers collected petition signatures, gave attendees the opportunity to make their own anti-SB 5 signs, and welcomed Mayor Laverne Mitchell in unveiling the village council's newly passed resolution against SB 5. From start to finish, introducing and passing the resolution was an idea and project of the movement building team. Click the image to view a photo journal from
this event.
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June 18, 2011 | Lima team: Juneteenth SB 5 and Voter Registration Event Lima's Movement Builders held a Juneteenth celebration and cookout on June 18th at MLK Park. They registered residents to vote, collected Senate Bill 5 signatures, and talked to local residents about ways to fight anti-people, anti-worker laws introduced under the Kasich administration. Click the image to view a photo journal from
this event.
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June 18, 2011 | Butler County team: Alumni weekend event - Policy in the Park Butler County's new Movement Building team held an action on Miami University's Oxford campus during alumni weekend. The event sought to educate the university community about the anti-worker (including anti-faculty) elements of SB 5 and items in the state budget bill that would allow for partial privatization of Ohio's state universities via the creation of "charter universities." Organizers believe that by accepting deregulation in exchange for lower state funding, universities pursuing the charter option would see unacceptable losses to workers' rights, benefits, and pay, significant tuition raises, and a lower quality of higher education in general across the state. The team aimed to frame higher education issues as issues of workers' well-being and community viability, collecting petition signatures and sending dozens' of attendees' postcards to their elected representatives urging them to support college town economies by protecting public workers and services. Click the image to view a photo journal from
this event.
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June 18, 2011 | Columbus team: Focus on food at Kroger Rally Columbus movement builders held an event at a local Kroger to urge Gov. Kasich to provide additional funds to Ohio's food banks. Movement Builders also highlighted cuts the US House of Representatives recently made to food aid programs like WIC and SNAP (formerly food stamps) and called on Senators Portman and Brown to restore funding to those initiatives. The program featured a senior who has come to rely on food banks, a young mother who with the help of WIC is able to feed her family, and representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1059. Attendees ended the action by donating 11 bags of groceries to a local food bank. Click the image to view a photo journal from
this event.
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June 16, 2011 | Cincinnati(AMOS) team: Ante Up! Jobs not Jails Organizers with the AMOS Project Movement Building team held an extremely well-attended event today in which they marked off the site of the Cincinnati Casino--at which returned felons are barred from finding work--as a crime scene, in which the state of Ohio stands as perpetrator. A restriction against working in the gaming industry is just one of over 900 legal restrictions--or "collateral sanctions"--that keep ex-felons out of work or away from political activity in the state of Ohio, crippling communities by preventing citizens from working and organizing to support themselves and their families. Team organizers saw tremendous support today from local community and union members in demanding that these sanctions be repealed. Speakers also connected felons' rights issues to Senate Bill 5, naming both as obstacles in a single, broad fight to secure good jobs for all Ohioans. Click the image to view a photo journal from
this event.
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June 12, 2011 | Yellow Springs team: Rally for Ohio - Yellow Springs style! The Yellow Springs Movement Building Team held a rally and music fest at the John Bryan Center featuring speakers from local community organizations and unions. Attendees wrote and mailed postcards to Senator Chris Widener expressing their concerns about the impact of the state budget and Senate Bill 5 on local issues. Attendees expressed particular concern about elder care programs and the ability of public employees to ensure the effectiveness of their work via bargaining - e.g. the rights of firefighters to bargain over safety procedures and the rights of teachers to influence classroom size and teaching loads. Click the image to
read a photo journal from this event.
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June 9, 2011 | Cincinnati(Northside) team: Press event and work session to construct props for 3rd of July parade skit, "Johnny Scissorhands" A day after the Ohio Senate passed its version of the state budget blueprint, the Working Families Movement of Northside (WFMN) team held a press event and work session to construct props and craft a script for a moving skit depicting a battle between a giant Governor John Kasich puppet--who wields a pair of budget-cutting, union-busting scissors and has been dubbed "Johnny Scissorhands" by the team--and Northside residents. The skit will be performed as a float for Northside's 4th of July parade, with team member and local rapper Eric Standifer narrating the showdown and soliciating for cheers in support of teachers, bus drivers, students, pool users, and firefighters from the crowd. The team also provided footage and a video interview for a story by Cincinnati's Fox19 News explaining the implications of the proposed budget for Northside families - and stressing the urgency with which budget cuts must be fought. Click the image to
read a photo journal from this event.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 6, 2011 | Dayton Team: Ohio's Future - Condition Critical On
June 6, 2011, Dayton's Movement Building team organized a funeral
procession through downtown to highlight the threats to Ohio's
well-being posed by the
proposed state budget and Senate Bill 5.
Click the image to
view video testimonies, press, and a photo journal on this event.
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June 6, 2011 | Cincinnati(UC) Team: Human Be-In at the University of Cincinnati On
June 1, 2011, Organizers based around the University of
Cincinnati held a Human Be-In, " a
"celebration of peace, love, and progressive ideas" held on June 1,
2011. A tradition with historical roots at UC, the
"human be-in" was popular among activists during the 1960s and 1970s as
a tool for raising political consciousness.
Click the image to
view a photo journal from this event.
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May 31, 2011 | Chillicothe team: Teach-in on Senate Bill 5 and the State Budget On May 31st, organizers in Chillicothe's Movement Building team held a teach-in on the projected impacts of Senate Bill 5 and the proposed state budget on Ross County's communities. Click the image to
view press and a photo journal on this event.
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May
1, 2011
| Chillicothe
team: Power to the People RallyChillicothe's Movement Building team held a well-attended rally to speak out against the projected effects of Senate Bill 5 on their local community. Organizers hosted speakers and collected hundreds of petition signatures at the event. Click
the image to
view a photo journal from this event.
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Recent Stories January 19, 2012 | Guerilla filmmaking: Reno O'Neal and Allen Parks on returning citizens organizing October 2-5, 2011 | Movement Builders attend the Campaign for America's Future conference in Washington, D.C., carry out action on lobbyists September 28, 2011 | Cincinnati AMOS/HELP team: Allen Parks on being hired to work in Washington Park September 24, 2011 | Movement Builders gather in Dayton to discuss next steps in statewide movement September 17, 2011 | Movement Builders from across Cincinnati teams train together for electoral, Get Out the Vote work September 14, 2011 | Movement Builders comment on President Obama's jobs speech for ChangeNation August 20, 2011 | Movement Builders at the Stand Up for Ohio Festival August 7-14, 2011 | Chillicothe, Dayton, and Butler County teams: From volunteer groups to community organizations July 16-17, 2011 | AMOS/HELP team: Rebuilding the American Dream House Meeting July 6, 2011 | Northside team gets ThinkProgress coverage for their July 4th street skit June 25, 2011 | Toledo team: Support Toledo Families! June 23, 2011 | Akron team: Stand Up and Fight for Akron! June 22, 2011 | Butler County team meets with David C. Hodge June 18, 2011 | Lincoln Heights team: Community Rally and Jazz Event to repeal Senate Bill 5 June 18, 2011 | Lima team: Juneteenth SB 5 and Voter Registration Event June 18, 2011 | Butler County team: Alumni weekend event - Policy in the Park June 18, 2011 | Columbus team: Focus on food at Kroger Rally June 16, 2011 | Cincinnati(AMOS) team: Ante Up! Jobs Not Jails June 12, 2011 | Yellow Springs team: Rally for Ohio - Yellow Springs style June 9, 2011 | Cincinnati (Northside) Team: "Johnny Scissorhands" press event and work session June 6, 2011 | Dayton Team: Ohio's Future - Condition Critical June 1, 2011 | Cincinnati(UC): Human Be-In at the University of Cincinnati May 31, 2011 | Chillicothe Team: Teach-in on Senate Bill 5 and the Budget May 1, 2011 | Chillicothe Team: Power to the People Rally |
