Issue 62, July 2020
If you’ve been to Friends Center recently, or follow our social media accounts, you may have seen that we recently put up two #BlackLivesMatter banners, one on the Race Street fence and one on the 15th Street fence near the entrance.
Sadly, someone stole the one on 15th Street soon after we put it up. So we immediately ordered two more from the Black Lives Matter organization store. We then placed one in the display window on 15th Street.
Also, the Mary Dyer statue is wearing a face mask. As a Quaker, I do wonder how the historic Mary Dyer would feel about this symbolic gesture—or even having a statue to her at all!—but as long it’s here, the statue can help set a good example for all of us.
Please stay safe and healthy, we miss you, and we look forward to seeing you more often in the future—gradually and when it is safe to do so.
– Chris Mohr, Executive Director
AROUND FRIENDS CENTER
CRIMINAL RECORD-CLEARING CLINIC
Is an arrest holding you back? Start the process for erasing conviction information from your record. Speak directly with a lawyer from Philadelphia Lawyers For Social Equity for free!
Date: Tuesday, August 11, 3 PM On Zoom: https://buff.ly/2WpxM5X
Meeting ID: 819 2198 3503
The Scattergood Foundation
celebrates its 15th Anniversary!
CASA Philadelphia is now taking applications for our October 2020 virtual training class. If you are looking for a significant volunteer opportunity, consider joining us! Read more about it: http://casaphiladelphia.org
EQUITY PARTNER NEWS
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE (AFSC)
Note to self: White people taking part in #BlackLivesMatter protests
“I am a white person who recently participated in #millionsmarchnyc as part of #BlackLivesMatter. As a queer, gender-queer person, I know about some forms of oppression, but I didn’t want my own unconscious racism, entitlement, and unexamined privilege to perpetuate the pathology and systems we were there to protest. So I came up with some guidelines for myself while participating in public demonstrations against racism and police violence.
One thing I’m figuring out is that it is important for me as a white person showing up in support to engage in anti-racism work with other white people. Racism is a white person problem, not a Black person problem. We as white people need to be talking to each other about it. So with that in mind, I feel led to share my personal guidelines and am open to any feedback.”
– Vonn New, Author and a member of
Bulls Head-Oswego Friends Meeting
in New York Yearly Meeting
PHILADELPHIA YEARLY MEETING (PYM)
Congratulations to PYM on recently completing their 340th Annual Sessions—their first-ever online Sessions!
CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA MONTHLY MEETING (CPMM)
History of CPMM:
Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting was formed in 1956 when two city meetings — 12th Street Meeting and Race Street Meeting — were united. Our building, however, is 100 years older, and has served as a Quaker meetinghouse since it was built in 1856. Learn more here.
NEWS
Recommended!
Two recent articles from Generocity.org:
Uprising in Philadelphia: A to-do list for the next six months:
18 of Philadelphia’s best and brightest tell us what they think needs to happen next—individually and collectively—to address the longstanding structural inequities in the city.
Looking for a nonprofit job? Looking to hire? 5 tips from Omar Woodard and Farrah Parkes
Farrah Parkes is executive director of New Century Trust, a Friends Center tenant organization. Omar Woodard, executive director of GreenLight Fund Philadelphia, is a former tenant.