SPRING NEWSLETTER 2002

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Training a Generation of Peacemakers

When two first graders at Lillian Feinstein Elementary School in Providence got into a fight recently, they might have been suspended from school. Instead, they sat down with a highly trained third party--a Peer Mediator from the third grade.

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Peer mediators from the Feinstein High School for Public Service in Providence

The mediator guided each student to tell what happened. It turned out that the fight wasn't over one boy pushing another-it occurred because the pusher laughed when the other boy fell. The mediator had the antagonists think of a solution. In the end, they swapped apologies and agreed not to push each other again.

Mediation is an alternative to court-or to violence-as a way to resolve disputes. The Community Mediation Center was founded in 1996 as a response to violence in the inner city. Today, the Providence Police and the state judiciary routinely call on the Center's 40 trained volunteer mediators to head off explosive neighborhood disputes or avoidable legal battles, according to the Center's Executive Director Sue Welin.

The Center's Peer Mediation program aims to make peace in Providence Schools and train tomorrow's peacemakers in the process. Student volunteers take a 20-hour training course in mediation after school. They learn to listen, think critically and negotiate solutions to problems ranging from teasing to violence.
Kids willingly sign on for the course because, "they like the fact that grown-ups aren't involved," says Virginia Law, who oversees the program. Often, the very kids who caused problems in the past can turn out to be the best mediators. "We help change their leadership into something positive," says Law. "Now they aren't fighting any more."

Peer Mediation has dramatic results: at Feinstein Elementary, suspensions have dropped from 24 by this time last year to just 3 so far this school year. By year end 16 students will have been trained, but all 500 students have learned the principals and vocabulary of mediation through presentations in health classes. The Center also conducts Peer Mediation programs at Gilbert Stuart Elementary and Nathan Bishop Middle Schools in Providence.

One day last month retired Supreme Court Justice Donald Shea donned his black robe to preside over the graduation of eight new Peer Mediators at Nathan Bishop Middle School. "It's important for these kids to feel a little special, a little different," he said.

Justice Shea has been on the Center's Board since it was founded. He estimates that mediation might have resolved as many as half of all the court cases he adjudicated in his career. He's very pleased that Rhode Island's Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams is now embracing mediation in the courts. But the real impact lies in the future.

"It is tremendously valuable to get the idea of mediation across to children," the Justice says, "The potential is incredible."

Consumer Turn-On

When they passed electric industry deregulation in Rhode Island, the payoff was supposed to be competition," says Arline Bolvin, executive director at the Coalition for Consumer Justice. Rhode Island's 1996 deregulation law was also supposed to stimulate investment in non-polluting "green energy" from renewable sources such as solar, wind and water power.

More than five years later, neither benefit has materialized. Soon, however, People's Power and Light, a new nonprofit corporation, hopes to deliver both market choice and a green power alternative to Rhode Island consumers. CCJ and other consumer advocates have worked with leading Rhode Island environmentalists to create the new independent, nonprofit energy company.

Erich Stephens, a longtime renewable energy advocate, is PPL's first Executive Director. He says the key to market power in consumer energy is "aggregation," joining thousands of individual consumers into a single buying unit that can negotiate the price and the renewable quality of electrical power for members. PPL will enlist new consumers throughout the community organizing efforts of groups which share its values such as CCJ. Eventually, PPL hopes to provide a full spectrum of energy services to its customers.

PPL's market studies show that there are now enough consumers willing to pay slightly more to ensure that their power is "green." Each kilowatt of renewable energy purchased by PPL customers will displace a kilowatt of nuclear or fossil fuel energy in New England's electric power pool.

"For low-income consumers, renewables have a long-term payoff," says Bolvin at CCJ. She anticipates that over time, PPL and similar ventures in other New England states will stimulate supply and reduce the costs of green power to the point where true price competition can emerge in the household electrical market. "Meanwhile, PPL helps create investments in clean, green electricity and contributes to energy security in the United States."

R.I. Coalition for Minority Investment's Executive Director Denise Barge joined Rhode Island Housing's Executive Director Richard L. Godfrey, Jr. to present $2,500 to the U.S. Small Business Administration to support the annual Minority Enterprise Development Week. Barge is a Board member of Rhode Island Housing which financed nearly $1.8 million on construction projects of women-owned and minority-owner businesses last year.

The Housing Network of R.I. is cooperating with Rhode Island Housing and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in a program instituted by the R.I. Realtors Association called C.A.R.E., to expand homeownership in under-served neighborhoods across the state. The acronym stands for Community Awareness in Real Estate. The program consists of courses for real estate professionals in diversity, language, fair housing, finances, credit and lead paint awareness.

SWAP and West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation received awards from the U.S. Small Business Administration for minority economic development. SWAP has added a Neighborhood Contractor Mentoring Program and has graduated 28 building contractors over the last three years. West Elmwood has numerous programs in homeownership, leadership development and neighborhood revitalization.

NRI Community Services won accreditation by the United Neighborhood Centers of America, a national organization of settlement houses and inner-city community centers. The accreditation recognizes NRI's role in community revitalization, consumer advocacy and social change.

Childhood Lead Action Project has published "Be Lead Aware," the state's first resource guide to lead poisoning prevention. Copies can be purchased for $3 each. Plans are underway for a mini-conference on lead poisoning prevention in Woonsocket on April 26. Phone 785-1310 for information on the guide or the conference. The Project has received grants from the June Rockwell Levy Foundation, Unitarian Universalist Fund, Juanita Sanchez Fund, Hazard Trust and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Urban Environmental Initiative.

SWAP received two awards for its Friendship-Pine revitalization project in South Providence: the American Institute of Architects-R.I. Design Citation Award and the Affirmative Action Award from Rhode Island Housing.

CHisPA received an award of $75,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation to establish the R.I. Latino Policy Institute. The project will provide statistics and other information on Latinos that can be used to set policy and advocate for Latino issues.

Caption: Richard Godfrey (left), executive director of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, and Denise Barge, a member of the agency's board of commissioners, present Charles Newton with a $2,500 check to support the U.S. Small Business Administration's annual Minority Enterprise Development Week

New Handbook for Activists Helps Level the Playing Field

How can ordinary citizens share equal footing with well-funded corporate and political interests? How can the public interest prevail over private advantage with public boards, commissions and legislatures?

Gayle Gifford

Stakeholder processes, where representatives of different interests are supposed to develop policy together, are very common these days. Gayle L. Gifford's new book on public engagement, Meaningful Participation, An Activist's Guide to Collaborative Policy-Making, says citizens need to differentiate between modern "collaborative" policy-making methods and more traditional "adversarial" processes.

"Often, government agencies and corporations have embraced 'public participation,' only to disarm opposition to plans already made," says Gifford. "True public engagement means that citizens can actually impudence policy when they get involved. My book shows advocates, activists and citizens how to create real collaboration."

Gifford, a consultant to nonprofits, long-time activist in Rhode Island's peace and women's movements, and a former Fund Board member, wrote her book to give nonprofit and grassroots activists some of the same tools that government and private industry use to impudence policy.

Meaningful Participation can be ordered from Cause & Effect, Inc. at (401) 331-2272 or Ceffect@aol.com ($9.95 with discounts on larger orders).

Achieving a Major Victory

The Fund for Community Progress received $45,000 from the Feinstein Family Foundation in December after successfully meeting the Feinstein Foundation's challenge to increase its annual campaign. Contributions to The Fund and its member agencies in 2001 rose by 14 percent over the prior year.

"Thank you for all you do to help those in need," said Feinstein. "Helping to better the lives of others, regardless of race or religion, is the greatest achievement of all."

Since its founding in 1982, The Fund has raised approximately $4.8 million to serve and advocate on behalf of Rhode Island's neediest children and families

Fund Members Fight for Housing

For NRI Community Services, a mental health provider with clinical programs in Woonsocket, Pawtucket and Providence, housing is a therapeutic tool. NRI Executive Director Chris Stephens says, "One of the biggest factors in recovery from addiction and mental health problems is relief from housing stresses. One reason we do housing is that people use fewer of our services when they live in safe, clean, affordable housing."

The same logic applies to all of the Fund's member agencies, whether they serve the elderly, consumers or families with children. Six Fund agencies work directly to expand the stock of affordable housing in Rhode Island, but all 24 have a big stake in the issue.

That's why The Fund opposed the Governor's freeze of $5 million in Neighborhood Opportunity housing grants. The surprise action threatened to derail progress toward placing every Rhode Islander's right to safe shelter firmly on the list of state government's obligations to its citizens.

Last year, the Legislature adopted the recommendations of the Housing Network of Rhode Island, a Fund member, and created the Commission on Housing. The activists and experts on the Commission, like Chris Stephens, who represents disabled citizens on the Commission, work together to identify annual statewide housing priorities, helping ensure that state appropriations are both sufficient and effective. This year's $5 million appropriation followed the Commission's first recommendation to focus on housing and related services.

The Governor's decision had severe ramifications. Grants had already been awarded through Rhode Island Housing. Several nonprofits, including NRI, made plans and commitments based on those awards. While NRI has the financial resources to proceed with its project for now, some nonprofits will be forced to cancel construction of their housing projects, leaving clients without homes for another year.

As this newsletter goes to press, it appears that the General Assembly may choose to support a $10 million bond issue for affordable housing.

"You just can't find a place"

No matter which bill he paid first, Matthew Cote's take-home pay from a $12-per-hour job just wasn't enough to cover rent, food, day care and other essentials for himself and his nine-year-old son. About the time he finally earned his GED degree last summer, he fell behind on rent and was evicted.

Cote needed more education to get a better job. But as long as he was working, the state wouldn't help with tuition. In frustration, he quit his job and enrolled at Rhode Island College. He and Matthew stay with friends in North Kingstown most of the time, but also stay with other friends in West Warwick some weeks. Fund member agency Rhode Island Parents for Progress helped make Christmas a little brighter with food and gifts.

"You just can't find a place. Even the cheapest apartments go for $600 to $700 per month," Cote explains. He and his son, also named Matthew, receive $449 in family assistance and another $200 worth of food stamps while he studies to prepare for a job that pays enough for him to support a real home. Residency rules and long waiting lists mean the Cotes can't get into one of Rhode Island's relatively few subsidized apartments.

"I'm trying everything I can," Cote says. He's very hopeful that new training will lead to a job in the field of lead abatement soon. Meanwhile, he and his son remain without a house of their own. "These cutbacks in housing aren't right. The state puts you in this situation. It ought to help you get out of it, too."

Agencies Cast Historic Vote

A significant milestone in The Fund's history occurred with the election of Marsha Rice, Benefits Program Manager, Brown University, as Chair of the Board of Directors at its annual meeting on January 19. This is the first time in its 20 years that The Fund will be led by an At-large Board member, not an agency representative. Other new officers are Henry Shelton (George Wiley Center), Vice-chair; Chris Stephens (NRI Community Services), Treasurer; and Heidi Keezer (R.I. Parents for Progress), Secretary who will serve two-year terms. Besides 14 agency representatives, eight At-large Board members will continue to serve. The latter are H. Peter Olsen, Esq.; John Savage, Ph.D.; Sister Judy Soares; Robert L. Stout, Ph.D.; and Peter Walsh. The other agency representatives on the Board are Joann Leonard (Alliance for Better Long Term Care), Roberta Hazen Aaronson (Childhood Lead Action Project), Luisa Murillo (CHisPA), Brenda Clement (Housing Network), Charlie Kettlety (Mental Health Association), Sue Welin (Community Mediation Center), Denise Barge (R.I. Coalition for Minority Investment), Vivian Weisman (R.I. Parent Information Network), Catherine Channell (Shelter Services), Carla De Stefano (SWAP), Connie Lyons (West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation), Elaine Coderre (Westminster Senior Center), and Joe Garlick (Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation) who is past Board chair.

PROGRESS is published to inform friends of The Fund for Community Progress about the activities and concerns of its member agencies. Gifts to The Fund have a definite impact on solving problems of poverty, hunger, homelessness, mental illness, housing, discrimination and other issues of injustice. PROGRESS stresses the importance of your continued support as together we "build a better community."