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Kitchen Table Activism

Background: Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly project of the Rural Organizing Project. Often building on quarterly themes, short actions are described in each KTA. The theory is that basic steps and tasks can lead to powerful collective results as small groups of people gather to complete the same action throughout the state of Oregon.

ROP works to keep the basic tasks easily achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still manage to complete the KTA each month.

 


 

Rural Organizing Project
PO Box 1350,      Scappoose, OR 97056 

(503) 543-8417              Fax: (503) 543-8419

office@rop.org

 

January 2008 Activity

Responding to the Cost of War: County Homelessness Count

 WHY THIS ACTIVITY? 

For the first quarter of 2008, ROP will put out a series of KTAs about Responding to the Cost of War.  Local groups see little progress in dismantling the war at home and abroad at the federal level.  Elected official’s lack of effective action has lead to a sense of demoralization and fatigue.  Is your group experiencing this? 

Responding to the Cost of War KTA series asks us to roll up our sleeves and make a difference at the most local level – exposing the cost of war and boosting our collective sense of power. 

January:  Provide volunteers for your communities’ Count of the Homeless.

February:  Host a living room, coffee shop, or library gathering to strategize in response to a current essay by Naomi Wolfe.

March:  Schedule a team of community service, human dignity, and other selected folks who have helped with January and February KTA activities to meet with the local paper or radio station to discuss the impact of war and how the media sees their role in exposing it.

WHAT IS THE ACTIVITY?   

In a month when we celebrate the vision of MLK, exposing poverty and exposing war is a meaningful way to honor a hero.  One result of the cost of war is the growing number of homeless people in our country, including many veterans.  Community Action Agencies (CAA) will be counting the numbers of homeless people in each county in late January.  This is a huge job requiring volunteers.  Let’s offer the services of our human dignity groups to assist in this counting process.  We see this as a way to connect the dots for social service workers and county leaders to make the political connection between homelessness and the cost of war.  The needs in our communities are growing, the funding is reduced, and the war continues.  Let’s directly support the folks tasked with counting the homeless and bring our analysis of poverty along with us. 

Please Note:  If working on the Homeless Count is not needed, the same lead agencies coordinate local food banks and other programs.  Be creative, but get hands on!

STEPS TO COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY:

  1. Read the paragraph below that summarizes the One Night Homelessness Count process.
  2. Decide which person in your group will be the lead contact with your Community Action Agency (CAA) for the One Night Homelessness Count.  Contact your CAA to get full details on the plan.  For contact information go to: http://www.cado-oregon.org/members.htm or email marcy@rop.org.
  3. Develop a plan to recruit volunteers for this event: Send out an email.  Divide up a list of potential volunteers & make personal calls to invite them.  (Remember this might be just the kind of event that will bring in folks beyond your usual suspects.)
  4. Develop your “language” around why your group is participating in this event.  You can pull from the above information or reword for yourself.  To really bring our cost of war analysis into offering our support to social service efforts, we need to be able to connect the dots.  For your outreach email and phone calls, develop a few sentences that explain why your social justice/anti-war group is participating in this and make the links between the cost of war and homelessness.  (For help on developing this language, email marcy@rop.org).
  5. Carry this one step further and write an op-ed before or after the homelessness count focusing on the connections between the cost of war and homelessness.

ONE NIGHT HOMELESS COUNT

DEPT OF HOUSING/ COMMUNITY SERVICES, SALEM  

Contact: Rainy Gauvain, Rainy.Gauvain@hcs.state.or.us, (503) 986-6702

 The one night homeless count takes place in all counties in Oregon during the last full week of January. The homeless count is one of the factors used by Oregon Housing and Community Services to determine the amount of funding a county receives to provide services to homeless people. For the purpose of the count the definition of homeless includes anyone living in places not meant for permanent habitation. So it covers couch surfers, car sleepers, tents, encampments and those staying at shelters, with relatives or in transitional housing. Each county selects it’s own date. Due to the inaccuracy of counting only those who are sheltered, some have a plan to do both the sheltered count and a street count. Street counts require lots of volunteers. Some have set up central locations in outlying areas and will be sending teams out to some of the local camps. Many will be giving out socks, gloves, hats and hygiene products as well as hot food. Many of the folks we need to count may be people you already know and they may really appreciate seeing you. Please join us your local effort by contacting your local community action agency. Here is a link to the Community Action Director’s webpage where you will find a map with contact information: http://www.cado-oregon.org/members.htm