"Lost In Detention"

Immigrant detention centers are a major blight in our immigration system. I've posted before about the horrible atrocities immigrants may face in these centers, from being relocated to a state hours away from their families to being sexually assaulted by guards. Our system is flawed.

PBS Frontline recently produced a documentary called Lost In Detention that highlights some of these injustices and the legislation at the root of them. It is about an hour long, but well worth your time. Even if you just watch the first 15 minutes, you will be more informed than you were before! Some of these families may not have another voice. Some may not have another chance to speak to you. Please, watch. Even if it's only for a few minutes.

Watch Lost in Detention on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Technology is not the best

Usually I consider myself pretty tech-savvy!

I can make minor adjustments to html tags, I can operate Adobe Photoshop with competency, and Microsoft Office with ease. I'm a regular, and enthusiastic, user of social media.

Even with all of those things in my favor, sometimes even my interactions with technology go... awry. There are so many different web applications and mobile versions of this application or that! And some interface more effectively than others.

Blogger, for example, has a mobile app. Last Saturday, I tried to upload my blog post from the Blogger mobile app. The app gave me a message that said it had posted, then I went to type a post today and found my post from last week in my drafts!

Obviously, I'm not as tech-savvy as I think I am.

Technology is something than many non-profit organizations are struggling to utilize well! It can be difficult keeping up with the best way to get new followers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or that new blog you've started to get publicity. There are tips and tricks to each different medium and it can basically be a full time job to successfully use all available

What I think might work best is for organizations to start out with one or two media outlets. Then, as they build a base, add one or two more. This spreads out the amount of time spent learning the "tricks" to getting followers and gives the writer time to acclimate to each platform.

Maybe I'm just oversimplifying! Or maybe my plan moves too slowly and results in missing out on some early involvement. Opinions?

My Non-Profit Is The Best.

I am so glad that I have chosen El Zócalo to work with for this class!

Today I had the opportunity to talk to Sarah Mullaly, the director, on the phone. She seems like she will be really great to work with. Since their formation, she's been the main driving force for the organization. Other people come and go, adding their expertise and time, but then moving on to other things. As a result, she's thrilled to have more help!

In case you're not a faithful reader, or you've simply forgotten, El Zócalo is a local organization that works to provide assistance and resources to immigrants in the central Arkansas area. They've only been around about a year and a half, so they are still very much in the growing stages!

I'm so excited to get started on a project to help this organization! There are, of course, challenges. El Zócalo isn't a registered 501c3, so donations aren't tax deductible. It also means that to apply for grants we have to apply as a part of another organization. Luckily, they've already done some applications and things so we have a basis! Seriously, they're fantastic. I hope this project is the start of an ongoing relationship!

Fundraising??

The last couple of weeks in class, we've been discussing fundraising. As in, how to do it.

If you've never attempted fundraising before, you may not understand how ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING it can be.

Luckily, we've got our awesome textbook (The Grant Writing Toolkit) that gives us the technical parts of each step and guides us through the different aspects of creating a budget and all that jazz. The book goes in to all of the stuff that anyone who has tried to do a fundraiser for a church youth room renovation would have given their left arm to know. The business theories, the marketing strategies, all of the basic rules of what works and why.

It can't convey, however, that extra bit of personability and spark that really make or break a fundraiser. That's the part the church fundraiser usually nails. Our instructor made up for that by bringing in two great guest speakers! One was a grant writer for Bethlehem House, a local homeless shelter, and the other is an experienced grant writer now on a committee that approves grants for the City of Little Rock.

Unfortunately, what they had to add was basically "this is just as hard as you think it is, probably even harder." Jill Imboden, the representative from Bethlehem House, stressed the need for good marketing materials and personal contact in fundraising. And connections. Connections were the worst because what undergrad has connections to millionaires? Basically none. One bit of advice she had to add (that wasn't wholly disheartening) was that we should be aware of our audience and match our marketing materials to our target audience. For example, young professionals like YouTube videos, but older supporters may still prefer receiving tri-fold pamphlets in the mail.

Marq Golden, the representative from the City of Little Rock, talked more about grants. He's not only written many grants, but also been on committees judging the grants. His advice was fantastic, but also daunting for an undergrad partnering with a small non-profit. He shared that government grants are really looking to fund cooperative efforts. For example, if someone is applying for a grant for a community center, they would want to see a local educational non-profit pairing with a local sports league to provide activities for at risk youth. Things like that.

That's all totally easy to pull out of a hat, right?

And that's not even getting to the budget. Sheesh. Well, hopefully this secret insider advice is as interesting to you as it was to me and my classmates!

...still daunted...

The American Dream

One of the current focuses of El Zocalo's work is advocating for the closure of the 10 especially abusive detention centers. They have joined a national campaign with 300 other organizations to work to promote awareness and write letters to local and national legislators.

The 10 dentention centers singled out for closure by activists for immigrants rights are:

Etowah County Detention Center (AL)
Pinal County Jail (AZ)
Houston Processing Center (TX)
Polk County Jail (TX)
Stewart Detention Center (GA)
Irwin County Detention Center (GA)
Hudson County Jail (NJ)
Baker County Jail (FL)
Theo Lacy Jail (CA)
Tri-County Jail (IL).

Detention Watch Network has recorded several stories of cruelty in these centers. Some detainees are denied adequate food and water, some are denied medical care, and some are even beaten or verbally abused by the detention center employees. In their "Expose and Close" reports, they have detailed specific instances of this mistreatment:

At Pinal County Jail complaints regarding sanitation include receiving food on dirty trays, worms found in food, bugs and worms found in the faucets, receiving dirty laundry, and being overcrowded with ten other men in one cell and only one toilet.

At Polk County Detention Facility, one man showed volunteers from the DNC a fungal infection on his scalp and the medicine he was prescribed.  According to the packaging the medicine was intended for female infections.

A man with serious emotional health problems in the Houston Processing Center in Texas was placed in solitary confinement for months at a time, a practice which the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has deemed torture.

El Zocalo is one of the signatories of the special letter written to President Obama asking him to do more to close these centers. They also hosted a prayer vigil in respect and solidarity for those who are detained and to demonstrate that there are people who are staunchly opposed to allowing the violation of human rights.



This gross mistreatment of our fellow man is not what the American dream is all about. People come seeking hope and opportunity, only to be faced with cruelty and shame. This is what El Zocalo Immigrant Resource Center seeks to change. They seek to preserve the beauty of the American dream.

Do you?

El Zócalo: An Introduction

El Zócalo Immigrant Resource Center is a local non profit that does a lot of grassroots work. When I say grassroots, I mean grassroots. They are new enough that they don't even have a physical location. All of their work has been put together through people making connections and volunteering their time to help out. 

A lot of information about their work and different projects they've done can be found on their Facebook page! Looking through their photographs will really show you just how much they do and how much it means to the people that they help.

I first learned about them at a Volunteer Fair that featured several local organizations that were hoping to recruit some support from the local university community. I was drawn to their ideas. The root of their mission is essentially to help these immigrants in any way that they can. They visit detained immigrants, they provide assistance to families, and help them navigate complex paperwork. The whole time, they're also lobbying for meaningful immigration reform. 

Hello, there!

I've started this blog to correspond with an exploration of charitable non-profit organizations and advocacy writing (read:  its actually homework and my professor is making me).

Ideally, this blog will be a way for me to explore and reflect on things that are going on in the world as well as a way to fulfill the criteria of a class assignment. The requirements include reflecting on the research we do for Writing For Change (the class), but I think doing just that certainly limits my audience.

I don't really want to start going off on a rant about the American Red Cross burning donated blankets (Yeah, that happened. They didn't have enough room to store them over the summer. Like, what?) without also explaining that one thing to consider before donating or volunteering your work or writing talents for a non profit is the non profit's ethical practices. While my classmates would know that relates to the study, any one else may not.

That said, any time I'm being crazy, feel free to comment for clarification. Even if you are a classmate and should know better.

Perhaps I should also add a warning that I'm not always the most formal person, so some posts may be less professional sounding and a little more tongue in cheek. I hope. I don't want to be boring!