ONE DC's Annual Membership Meeting & A Follow-Up On Kelsey Gardens

Diverse City Fund

Join ONE DC's Right To Housing Meetings!

Organizing Community Power!

Empower DC's Ninth Annual

CELEBRATION!

Saturday, April 20 2013

6:30-8:30 PM

Guildfield Baptist Church - 1023 Otis St, NE

(Brookland Metro, onsite parking)

Featuring...

Performance by Poet/Hip-Hop Artist

BOMANI ARMAH

Keynote Address by the "People's Attorney"

JOHNNY BARNES

Awards & Recognition to our outstanding

MEMBERS & LEADERS

Pot-Luck Meal - Please bring something to share!

Family Friendly * Positive Entertainment * Community Awards * Door Prizes

ONE DC Protests, Makes News

On March 21st, the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association and Empower DC were joined by ONE DC members and staff in protest. WJLA wrote an article about it here: Groundbreaking for Barry Farm Rec Center Met With Protests.

The Politics Of Public Housing

Don't Close the Barry Farm Recreation Center!

ONE DC and other advocacy groups in DC are fighting to keep the Barry Farm Recreation Center open and available to families and children who rely on the center for needed community and play space!

The Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association (BFTAA) have sent a letter to the DC Department of Recreation requesting a meeting, and the BFTAA is currently organizing to keep the center open. The BFTAA is a newly developed, resident-led tenants' association formed by residents focused on fostering their collective power in Barry Farms. For more information on what ONE DC and other groups are doing, please contact Schyla with Empower DC ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Dominic at ONE DC ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Co-op Pilot Program for Youths

This month, Reverend M. Dele and Ms. Kaifa Anderson-Hall kicked off the Nature's Friends Sunflower Field School in D.C., a program that trains teen gardening groups to take a crop from field to market as a farming cooperative. This workforce development program also orients urban teens to environmental stewardship and their role in mitigating climate change. This pilot program teaches students to grow and process sunflower seeds, budgeting, marketing, and cooperative business principles. By learning together and pooling their resources, these students will be able to grow a stronger business than if they each started one on their own.

On March 9, I joined the orientation seminar to share about cooperatives and cooperative principles. The training also involved a break even analysis of a few scenarios of sunflower seed orders. After just two hours, many of the participants who originally shied away from these calculations were doing them on their own and with more confidence. Everyone left the seminar excited about working together to effect a powerful change for themselves, their communities, and the environment. They will put the first sunflower seeds in the ground in May!

ONE DC is sending members to the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy, July 26 to 28th at Drexel University in Philadelphia. This year's conference, titled "Growing our Cooperatives, Growing Our Communities," will examine strategies to maximize growth and development inside of cooperatives and in the cooperative movement while maintaining cooperatives' democratic values. For more information, visit http://east.usworker.coop/. Please contact Dominic at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested in attending with ONE DC members.

University of the District of Columbia PATHS Program Hospitality Training!

UDC's PATHS Program is offering six-week training programs for those interested in taking classes for a range of hospitality jobs, including front-desk receptionists, housekeeping services, host/hostess positions, tour guides, shuttle bus drivers. For more information, call 202-274-5103. The classes take place on the UDC campus, 4340 Connecticut Ave. NW (Van Ness Metro stop).

Attend "Race -- From Hurt to Healing," a Course led by Milagros Phillips

February 27-April 24. It is not too late to register and beginning attending the class.

For the course, Ms. Phillips uses the book Racial Sobriety by Father Clarence Williams and assists participants in exploring the various stages of healing we need to go through in order to get to a place of empowerment in dealing with racism.

Dawn Longenecker, the director of the Discipleship Year Program and a member of the Racial Justice & Healing Mission Group, attests to the power of this class, writing, "What was so powerful for me about this class was the correlation between Racism and other types of addictions (personal and systemic). I was helped in dealing with my depression and anger around this issue but also with depression and anger more generally. I doubt if I would feel as empowered as I do today, to continue addressing Racism and other Injustices, if I hadn't taken this class."

If you would like more details or would like to register for the class, please contact Karen Mohr at (240)705-3084 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Scholarships are available to some, upon request.

A Note to Our Readers, Members, and Donors

Your support is critical. If you believe in our mission and work and if you believe we are making change, then put your belief into action and support us! Show ONE DC that you are committed to ensuring that our work continues! Your gift will help build a movement for equity in the District!

Want to donate and/or pay your membership dues online?

• Go to the ONE DC Homepage : http://www.onedconline.org/
• Click on the "Donate Now" button on the right-hand side.
• Enter the amount as $20.00 and the frequency as "one-time."
• Select "Membership Dues" as the program designation.
• Fill out your contact and billing information and click continue.
• Confirm on the next page.

Thank you,

The ONE DC Shared Leadership Team

ONE DC to Recruit DC Residents to Fill 350 New Jobs at Marriott Marquis Hotel

In 2006, the District of Columbia and ONE DC agreed upon legislation regarding the financing and development of the new Convention Center hotel, currently under construction. DC residents who receive community and hotel training will be given first consideration for hire at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, which is set to open in late spring 2014. ONE DC will act as the primary recruiter for these jobs to ensure that District residents are informed about and prepared for these new job openings.

ONE DC is currently awaiting a decision on which community organization will be chosen to conduct the community training required by Marriott. Once this decision has been made, ONE DC will establish a working relationship with the community organization to ensure that our referrals are successful in the training program.

In the coming weeks, ONE DC will create an outreach strategy to begin recruiting unemployed and underemployed DC residents with special consideration to city wards 5, 6, 7, and 8. ONE DC aims to reach out to at least 3,000 residents in order to refer enough people to full the 350-500 hotel and hospitality job openings that will be available at the Marriott Marquis. ONE DC encourages its members to spread the word about this work opportunity to friends and acquaintances and welcomes any members who are interested in volunteering on our Right-to-Jobs campaign to contact ONE DC for more information.

ONE DC Annual Meeting & Board Election March 16

ONE DC will hold its Annual Board Election and Meeting on Saturday, March 16, 2013. The event will take place at the Festival Center at 1640 Columbia Road NW in Washington DC. We encourage attendees to arrive by 1 p.m. for food, drink, and socializing before we start business around 2 p.m. Members must pay their annual membership dues in order to eligible to vote. Those dues can be paid online at http://www.onedconline.org/ or by mailing a check or cash to ONE DC's office.

You can RSVP for this event by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or through the online invitation: http://new.evite.com/l/UJLRBI5JOM

A Path Forward: Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment in Abandoned Communities

Save the Date: March 9, 2013, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland   

The book Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore: Rebuilding Abandoned Communities in America boldly documents the displacement of more than 1,000 low-income and poor African American families through eminent domain. This book reveals the rebuilding an abandoned community in Baltimore while also drawing upon the community's compelling history.

Join panelists and members of the community at this one-day symposium that envisions a path forward to more equitable and sustainable redevelopment practices. The symposium will:

•  highlight successes/striving/limitations that comes from grassroots and research-based rebuilding projects;
• create a space for listening to the community's and attendees' experiences and ideas;
• reframe and envision more transformative models of people- and place-based community rebuilding strategies;
• grow future leaders in more comprehensive, sustainable, and equitable rebuilding practices; and
• strategize for actions that can be adapted into local rebuilding processes.

The symposium will focus on this newly released book, using it as an example of "what not to do" in community rebuilding and will gather presenters and audience members to strategize from their own experiences of what can be done better moving forward.

Details:

When: March 9, 2013,  9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Where: Sojourner-Douglass College, 200 N. Central Avenue (enter from rear of auditorium on Aisquith St), Baltimore, MD 21202

How much: $40.00 (sliding scale) and includes a light breakfast and lunch.

RSVP: socialhealthconcepts@gmail.com 

Registration:www.mariselabgomez.com-symposium 

Registration is limited and will end on March 2, 2013.

Update on Barry Farm Tenants & Allies Association

By Kalfani N. Ture'

In 2005, then-Mayor Anthony Williams designated five public dwellings to receive redevelopment funds through a local version of the HOPE VI grant called New Communities Initiative (NCI). The NCI's redevelopment plan for Barry Farm, funded through the District of Columbia's housing trust fund, was adopted a year later by the District government.

At the time, residents of Barry Farm enthusiastically embraced the proposed redevelopment plan and, in earnest, participated in its design to ensure the plan's appropriate implementation. Yet, after three mayoral administrations and numerous staff changes in the Deputy Mayor's Office of Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), which is responsible for overseeing the redevelopment plan, cracks in the cement of lies spewed by various district government agency representatives revealed the government's real interest in redevelopment. Last summer, a District professional conducted a series of development workshops for Barry Farm residents and stated during these meetings that the city's principal concern in redevelopment was economic capital. This priority would mean generating new tax revenues through the land conversion of Barry Farm Public Dwellings into a mixed income and mixed use development.

With this stance, the DC government steers away from the NCI's top values -- the most important of which is improving human capital. DC's current plan adversely impacts the residents' human condition by failing to cure current and chronic disrepair to the infrastructure; disregarding the dangerous, local, and toxic environmental degradation; escalating the community evictions through spurious lease violation charges; failing to create temporary replacement housing that matches current family sizes; dissolving family and social ties and generating increased fear against taking action; denigrating local cultural heritage and history, increasing police harassment to support claims of high crime; rapidly relocating new families, which further destabilizes the community; and stripping the community of assets such as local elementary schools and recreation. Ostensibly, resident complaints are dismissed and the community resident council is encouraged in its disorganization, dysfunction, and misrepresentations of community matters.

By the close of 2012, residents, seemingly exhausted with the conditions of their community, formed the new Barry Farm Tenants & Allies Association (BFTA&A). In only two months, they have won the faith and support of fellow residents and, most important, have convinced residents that they must do more than passively demand decency; rather, they must actively fight for it. BFTA&A intends to document the conditions and seek redress in the local court; generate a sense of community; protest a local store who sought to take advantage of the food desert conditions within the community in an exploitative fashion; and much more.

BFTA&A has already begun to face pressures from the District government. The new chapter in Barry Farms is underway, but it appears that if the BFTA&A can keep such momentum, they can push to develop their community and reconstitute the redevelopment plan in their favor. 

For the Love of Black Womyn: Reclaiming the Radical Tradition of Black Feminism 

This event will showcase the long history of Black women in activism and struggles for liberation through different means of organizing and educating. The event will be a combination of a roundtable and panel discussions and will incorporate media and live performances to give a context to the historical movements and work led by Black women.

ONE DC Donor and Supporter to Discuss New Book

Barbara Ransby, a ONE DC donor and supporter, is coming to DC's Busboys and Poets (the 14th and V Streets NW location) on Tuesday, March 12, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Barbara will discuss her new book, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson, in an interview with Dr. Clarence Lusane (author of The Black History of  White House). Dr. Greg Carr (of Howard University) will introduce the book and the authors.

ONE DC, Institute for Policy Studies, Teaching for Change, and Busboys and Poets are sponsoring the event. For more information on Barbara's book, visit the site: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300124347

ONE DC's Upcoming Events:

Progression Place Meeting - Parcel 33 CBA Agreement

When: February 19th at 11 a.m.

Where: ONE DC's office, 614 S Street, NW, Conference Room

Right to Income Meeting - Workers' Rights and Jobs Organizing 

When: February 25th at 6 p.m.

Where: PR Harris Educational Center-CHOICE, 4600 Livingston Road, SE, Room 313

ONE DC and the Georgetown Center for Social Justice Present: Workers' Equity Workshop 

When: March 4th at noon

Where: the New Community Church (by ONE DC's office), 614 S Street, NW