Hunger Knows No Recession

Almost every day New Yorkers pass by someone asking for money, in the subway, on the sidewalk, in the park. Homelessness, hunger and persistent poverty are so visible we sometimes literally trip over the poor. Most of us look the other way not because we don’t care, but because solutions to these problems seem overwhelming. More than a million people are hungry and can’t afford to buy food in New York – and that’s why Camino PR was honored to take on a client at the forefront of both alleviating hunger and offering real and compassionate help that creates a path out of poverty.

Camino client Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP) provides millions of groceries and meals each year as the largest single site for alleviating hunger in New York. But the YCP mission is not only to provide emergency food for a family, it is also to provide the realistic and compassionate care that families need to move out of poverty. Check out this video of Halana Richardson talking about YCP– it’s worth taking a few minutes to hear her story to understand the complexity of hunger in America.

As the job market worsens, YCP estimates that it will have a sharp increase of 19% in the number of people who face hunger in the coming year. Camino PR’s Andrea Hagelgans and Pablo Toledo went to YCP to help them tell their story to NBC News for a special on hunger in America. Here’s a behind-the-scenes clip of the filming.

Behind The Scenes with The Yorkville Common Pantry from Camino PR on Vimeo.

YCP is New York City’s unique provider of assistance to the hungry, including providing more groceries and meals at a single site than any other program, and helping people become more economically stable by offering assistance with obtaining food stamps and housing, preparing for employment with basic services like showers and job counseling, among other practical and compassionate services. They even provide cooking classes to make help people eat healthy and stretch food stamp dollars. Camino PR was thrilled to partner with a community organization that takes a holistic and compassionate approach to hunger.

YCP won the prestigious Robin Hood Heroes award this month, which includes a $50,000 grant. That’s a huge honor, but more donations are needed to meet the skyrocketing need for basic food assistance. According to Stephen Grimaldi, executive director of YCP, “in this dismal economic climate many families throughout New York City face a bare table. Families of all means should be able to celebrate the holidays without choosing between paying rent or buying food.”

This holiday season consider supporting Yorkville Common Pantry or local food banks in your area.

Talking about abortion in Mexico

Mexico City pays for early abortion for any women who seeks it.  Contrast that to the U.S. healthcare reform efforts, which have devolved into a debate over how best to reassure taxpayers that federal funds will not be used to pay for women to access abortion.

We can learn a lot by studying the communications strategies of Mexican health advocates, who a few years ago defied all odds and legalized first trimester abortion in Mexico City. “We didn’t take the streets, we took the media”, observed Maria Luisa Sanchez Fuentes, one of the primary leaders of the Mexican legalization movement.

We recently sat down with Sanchez Fuentes when she was an honored guest speaker at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health gala.  We asked her to talk about what communications strategies broke through the political and religious barriers that had thwarted efforts for decades to legalize abortion anywhere in Mexico. GIRE, the national Mexican organization headed by Sanchez Fuentes, has a long road ahead to further liberalize legal access to abortion in Mexico.  The political and legal backlash to the Mexico City gains in other Mexican localities have been severe.  But what is clear is that GIRE and their allies are walking down a different message road than U.S.-based abortion supporters, and creating public support for legal abortion within a very different values context.

You can watch the interview with Sanchez Fuentes here.

The first thing that might surprise you is the amount of support that exists for legal abortion among Mexicans.  In the United States, the conventional wisdom often is that Mexicans on both sides of the border are guided by Catholic doctrine on abortion.  While the influence of Catholic leadership must be seriously considered, this blanket assumption needs another look.  A recent poll by the Mexican government found that 62% of Mexicans say they “don’t believe the government should intervene in a woman’s right to choose.”  In Mexico City, a poll commissioned by the Population Council found that  66% of residents “thought the city’s decriminalization laws signaled a step forward for the country”.  In media interviews, Catholic leaders in Mexico bemoaned the practice of Catholics straying from church doctrine and warned healthcare providers that they will go to hell for providing abortion.  In what may be a sign of Catholics separating their decisions on abortion from their religious beliefs, one Catholic abortion provider in Mexico City said she may end up going to hell, but not for providing abortion care.

Recent polls in the United States show some movement in public opinion among Latinos, but more research is needed to fully understand the real views of this demographic. Pew’s latest poll on abortion attitudes found that “while whites have become significantly more pro-life, the movement among Hispanics has been primarily into the undecided camp”.

Sanchez Fuentes described what has – and what has not – been effective in abortion messaging among Mexicans.  Their best message focused on the decision, and who had the right to make it.  This dialogue was grounded in human rights language, connecting human values to the decision-making process.  Rather than focusing on an individualistic perspective, such as the interruption of a life plan, their messages focused on the complexity of the decision, such as when and how to start a family.  They took on opponents with a messaging campaign about “life” and “family”  taking ownership of the complexity of those concepts.

These message strategies are in synch with a recent worldwide survey of attitudes about human rights.  Mexico led the world in support for women’s right to have full equality compared to men as well as the desire to have government play a larger role in preventing discrimination against women.  In contrast, respondents in the U.S. strongly endorsed the concept of gender equality but did not favor greater government efforts to achieve equality.  A survey of attitudes is a great distance from lived realities, but it may demonstrate an opportunity to center reproductive health access in a human rights message model.

Sanchez Fuentes suggests that U.S. and Mexican movement leaders come together to learn from each other.  A cross-border summit on messaging and reproductive health could, among other things, help us deepen our understanding of promoting a values-based discussion in political climates that are deeply impacted by religious doctrine.  As Mexico lurches forward in liberalizing abortion access while the United States teeters on the edge of backsliding, such a cross-border convening could be a powerful strategic investment.

CNN.com exclusive: Latinas Need Voice In Abortion Debate By Silvia Henriquez, NLIRH!

In this exclusive Op-Ed for CNN.com/Opinion, read by 40 million people every month, Ms. Henriquez highlights the growing political power of Latinas and demands reproductive justice for the millions of women across the United States in danger of losing abortion coverage as a result of anti-choice politics in health care reform.
“Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard from Latinas and their families who were outraged by proposed amendments that could potentially roll back our ability to access safe abortion care. This amendment would make a legal medical procedure financially inaccessible for many women – even those who prior to health care reform had abortion coverage through their own insurance if that insurance is then offered in the public exchange.

“Latinas called their senators and wrote letters on behalf of daughters, sisters, aunts and mothers in their communities, urging policy makers to vote for health care reform that includes coverage for abortion, and provides health care access for immigrants.

“Opponents argue that more women will be covered under overall health care reform, as if that should satisfy us. The fact remains: if millions of low-and moderate income women covered under a new federally subsidized health system can’t access abortion care from an insurance plan bought even partly with federal support, policy makers are essentially telling them that they do not matter—that the reality of their lives must be ignored.  The legacy of health care reform should not be to send women back into the shadows for a procedure allowed under U.S. law. We have worked too hard to reform our health care system for women to be worse off than they were before.”

Check out the full piece at http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/11/henriquez.latina.abortion/index.html

CNN.com/Opinion features national voices including Congress members, journalists, and academics.

And last week’s New York Times published a Letter to the Editor from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH)!  In response to Cardinal Mahony’s earlier Op-Ed, Coverage without Borders, Silvia Henriquez wrote, “The lesson learned from the last three decades of misguided federal policy on abortion is that creating a two-tier system of access to health care is unfair, punitive and harmful.”

Here’s the full letter:

To the Editor:

Re “Coverage Without Borders,” by Roger Mahony (Op-Ed, Dec. 8):

Cardinal Mahony’s article in favor of health care access for immigrants is an important message to elected officials grappling with reform legislation. Sadly, I couldn’t help note the irony of advocating on behalf of immigrants, while in the same breath urging policy makers to deny reproductive health care for millions of women. Over half of all immigrants are women.

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health knows very well the devastating impact of making abortion elusive for those who can’t pay with personal funds. Latinas are among the poorest in this country and tend to lack access to health insurance in higher numbers than other groups. In fact, one in four women living in poverty who wants to choose abortion can’t because politicians prevent federal tax dollars from covering the procedure.

The lesson learned from the last three decades of misguided federal policy on abortion is that creating a two-tier system of access to health care is unfair, punitive and harmful.

To quote Cardinal Mahony: “To allow people’s basic health needs to be trumped by divisive politics violates American standards of decency and compassion.” We couldn’t agree more.

Silvia Henriquez
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
New York, NY

Congratulations to NLIRH and its campaign for real health care reform for women and immigrants.

Camino Client Debuts on Huffington Post

Camino client NLIRH debuts today on The Huffington Post, the most prominent liberal blog in the nation with an estimated  5.6 million visitors.  In 2008, The Huffington Post gained the most news readers of all news outlets.  Sylvia Henriquez made a forceful case in her op ed for changing the national dialogue on teen sexuality.  The article stems from their recently published White Paper on Latina Pregnancy, which makes the case for a reproductive justice framework.  Congratulations  National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health!   Click here for the full article.

Kennedy and Leadership

Senator Ted Kennedy was deeply engaged in civil rights and equal rights. As a man of immense privilege, he uniquely saw the struggles of those whose lives were very different.

Senator Kennedy voted against the nomination of John Roberts as Supreme Court Chief Justice because he was not convinced that Roberts fundamentally understood the role of civil rights and equal rights in this country. Further, he didn’t believe that Roberts would be a leader in this country’s march toward equality. Kennedy’s unfavorable opinion about Roberts was heavily influenced by Robert’s comments about the role of judicial leadership during the Brown v Board of Education decision, when most white Americans were in favor of segregation.

Like Kennedy, last month Senator Graham raised the issue of Brown v Board of Education during a Supreme Court nomination hearing. This time it was Judge Sonia Sotomayor under scrutiny. Senator Graham asked Sotomayor about judicial leadership and the Brown v Board of Education decision. Graham explained to Sotomayor that had he been a Senator at the time of the Brown decision, he probably wouldn’t have been “brave” enough to stand up to segregation like the Justices did. In contrast to Kennedy, Senator Graham expresses a very different view of leadership and its responsibility to civil rights.

Kennedy became a Senator on the heels of the Brown decision and he was a forceful leader in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. After 11 failed attempts, the civil rights legislation finally passed.

Kennedy was right to judge the qualification for leadership through the prism of civil rights and equal rights. He is missed.

Kids on the Border

The Arizona Daily Star printed an article today about Project Libertad, a new media project (supported by CPR!) that amplifies the voices of Mexican adolescents living near the Mexico-Arizona border.  Pablo created this storytelling initiative to give voice to the kids growing up at the center of border wars and wading through gritty realities like family separation, poverty, violence, discrimination, and under-education.

Pablo translates the unfiltered voices of adolescents into fictional narratives.  He first imbeds himself in a community, provides tools for authentic stories to emerge, and turns these stories into a feature film or other digital media product.

His first feature film, Runnin at Midnite, explored the midnight basketball culture of youth in the barrios on the U.S. side of border.  In the development phase of this first effort he established a youth educational program in Tucson’s south side.  Only kids who had been kicked out of many high schools were eligible to study filmmaking with Pablo, with just one catch: they had to show up everyday to work toward their GED.

The teens who shaped Runnin at Midnite were not the  model “at-risk” youth that are the delight of intervention programs.  Pablo’s kids were beyond at-risk, they were post-risk.  In fact, the Department of Labor had classified this community as one of the nation’s neediest in regard to at-risk youth. Many participants were teen parents, most had a history of drug or alcohol use, most had a criminal record, most lived amidst serious violence, all lived in poverty.  These teens were well beyond the No Child Left Behind hype.  But a strange thing happened when Pablo handed them a camera and taught them to tell their authentic stories: they re-engaged high school studies.  Pablo’s high school graduation rate among these youth was so high that it earned him kudos from the White House.

Many of these barrio kids can be seen in the acclaimed Runnin at Midnite.  In this next film effort, Project Libertad, Pablo heads across the border to Mexico.  For the last few years Pablo has been traveling to Mexico to visit with people in the underbelly of border crossing politics: people who wade through sewer tunnels to cross underneath the border, kids living on their own while their families do seasonal work, families living in shacks and whole communities terrorized by cross-border drug wars.

Pablo starts this next film project by teaching border kids in Mexico about the art of storytelling.  His workshops are in formation now; more kids in need than he can ever serve are anxiously hoping to participate.  If you’ve got any inclination or ability to sponsor some of these kids, please send a donation.  Or if you can’t donate, please become a fan of Project Libertad on Facebook.  This story will unfold over the next few years and I guarantee you will be fascinated to watch it from the inside.

Goodbye Ghost Fly

Inevitably we would leave the Camino PR starter office.

Our basement office was once a stable for the work-horses that carted baked goods through Manhattan.   In the first weeks we hauled out debris and installed large bamboo mats and oversized desks to create a comfortable but frugal workspace.   We sanitized everything, but still I was so convinced that rats and roaches would make their appearance that my mother shipped us a diaper-genie type trash can that tightly  seals any evidence of food.  I was wrong to be afraid, only two living creatures emerged: a horse fly that periodically buzzed through the office like a Blue Angel air show, and a gigantic wasp that spontaneously reproduced and then flew away.  I don’t know why the wasp visited, but I believe our supersize fly held the spirit of horse flies past, reminding us to recognize those things upon which we build our future.

Our carriage house was the kind of office where you could sketch on the wall and spill paint on the floor.  One day Woody Allen and Larry David showed up and turned the carriage house into a temporary movie  set.  Many Tuesdays we ended the day with creative hour, when Tomas and Sean would practice guitar and Mary would bring in a bag of sweets from the Donut Pub.

But there were downsides too.  It’s the kind of office that makes you worried about getting your nice suit dusty from crumbling pillars.  The air was stale and smelled vaguely of horses, despite our abundance of aromatherapy and the constant whir of the air purifier.  The original window and door could not be sealed, and on frigid days the narrow stone stairwell created a wind tunnel that swept directly into our meeting area.   Cell phones sputtered as if we were in a bunker and every evening we wrapped our computers in colorful silk scarves to prevent them from taking in too much dust.

“We aren’t a typical corporate office” Loretta often says, words I soothe myself with when we are doing other-duties-as-assigned like pouring animal-friendly salt on the icy stone steps.   I have known many lovely typical corporate offices but we’ll always be a little quirky, like our carriage house roots.  We have moved just two  blocks.   We now work on the floors above a poster store that houses the largest collection of movie posters in the world.   Oversized double doors in our top floor open onto a large wooden deck that gives us a rooftop view of Chelsea.

After working hard underground we are taking in deep breaths of  fresh air.  I am grateful for our roots and for the friends who give us momentum.  Goodbye first Camino home.  Thank you and goodbye, ghost fly.

Smart Judges

This has been a good week for women in Washington DC.

Yesterday President Obama announced two important federal judicial appointments.  Judge Emily Hewitt, nominated to the U.S Court of Federal Claims, began her career as one of the first group of women ordained to Episcopal priesthood in 1974.  Prior to her judicial career, Judge Hewitt was among the religious leaders who led the effort to open the priesthood to women.  Obama also announced the nomination of Marisa Demeo to the DC Superior Court.  Judge Demeo formerly headed the D.C. office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and was one of the most prominent and powerful civil rights advocates in Washington D.C.

Putting smart people on the federal benches is always a cause for celebration.  Nominating judges with a history of leadership on social justice issues makes this a major celebration.  These are just two of many high quality appointments coming out of the Obama administration.  Congratulations to these nominees!

PR Exec Joins Camino!

Monica Contreras (and her two beautiful Daschunds) have joined the Camino PR family!  Monica is one of the nation’s leading communications executives in the areas of social marketing, research-based communications, emerging market development, and corporate/media/non profit promotional strategies.  She is widely recognized as a young emerging superstar in the global public relations profession.

Monica truly loves her dogs.  She successfully pitched Otto, the youngest one, to become the cover model of a lifestyle magazine (see below).   Monica has a huge heart, sharp communications insight, and a fierce determination to make the world a better place.   She is located in CPR’s New York office.  Camino PR is grateful and energized to have Monica’s talents.

CPR and Facebook: Together At Last

As the world becomes more open and connected, so does our commitment to enable our friends and colleagues to join in the conversation. With that in mind we have launched CPR’s Facebook Page today, enabling friends and colleagues the opportunity to participate in our ongoing engagement with social justice causes around the world.

What type of things will you find on our Facebook page? For starters our blog, including ET’s Daily Digest, will now appear in the News Feed, as well as current videos, photos and events. We are excited to take advantage of Facebook’s real-time updates to extend our ability to interact with you.

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