The Northern Kentucky KFTC Chapter is proud that this Wednesday they will be the 'Charity of the Month' at Oakbrook Cafe in Burlington, Kentucky! In recognition of KFTC's work to help register and inform voters across northern Kentucky, the restaurant and bar has selected the chapter to receive 10 percent of all proceeds sold on Wednesday February 29th. 

Northern Kentucky members are excited about this possibility to support a local business, raise awareness about our work, and also to raise some funds to continue our work both here and across the state.

To celebrate the honor, one member has taken it upon himself to host a team trivia show at the Oakbrook Cafe that night about Kentucky. Teams who participate can win gift cards of $15, $10, $5, or a single dollar to the restaurant if they come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or last place. 

Oakbrook Cafe will be open from 11 AM til 1 AM, and there will be KFTC members there all day. If you can, we hope you can stop by!

In delivering the commencement address to 56 Berea College graduates on Sunday, KFTC Executive Director Burt Lauderdale talked about the power of “organizing community” to achieve change.

“Community organizing is essential to the success of our democracy and our economy; it empowers us to participate in the often messy give and take of our system of government. Community organizing changes the world.

“And yet, over the past thirty years, I have borne witness to a deeper, even more profound pursuit of transformative justice when our members and leaders, through their aspiration and their love, have transcended the boundaries of traditional community organizing – and practiced organizing community,” he said.

Burt noted several Berea College graduates who became active KFTC members and made a difference by organizing community.

When Megan Naseman, class of 2007, used her botany skills to help a community in Floyd County protect their land from mountaintop removal mining, she was organizing community.

When Patty Tarquino, class of 2004, arranged for Eastern Kentuckians to travel to her native Colombia to visit coal-impacted communities, she was organizing community.

And when Patty Wallace, class of 1952, successfully prevented a hazardous waste incinerator from locating in her community and then helped a West Virginia neighborhood do the same, she was organizing community.

Though Berea College honored Burt by inviting him to speak and naming him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, he gave the credit for his accomplishments to KFTC members.

“I would not be here were it not for the thousands of members and leaders of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. KFTC is where I learned that, while we don’t accomplish anything as individuals, together anything is possible,” he said.

If you, like Burt, believe in the power of organizing community, you can honor him by making a gift to KFTC during our fall fundraising campaign. Join him in honoring our members – you – who have accomplished so much together.

As Burt said, “Organizing community means contributing instead of acquiring, sharing instead of conquering. It means making a commitment to the most powerful organizing force we’ve ever known – love.”

To give online, click here.

To watch the video of Burt’s speech, click here.

To read the Berea College press release, click here.

After the election join us at Al's Bar in Lexington to celebrate our people power and demand of the newly elected that KENTUCKY DESERVES BETTER!

Performances by: Madeline Adams Reva Williams Warren Byrom and Small Batch.

$5 cover, all ages. Proceeds from the door benefit the work of KFTC.

During their monthly chapter meeting, KFTC members used their time to focus on the Kentucky Deserves Better campaign and mobilizing voters to the polls.

Eight members wrote letters about how Rep. Hal Roger's actions in congress are ruining any possibility of a bright future for Kentuckians. The focused on his actions to cut Pell Grants, access to Head Start Programs and to limit the EPA's authority in protecting our air and water.

During the second half of their meeting members divided into groups to plan for mobilizing voters to the polls. On group focused on distributing the KFTC voter guides out to the community, another on letters to the editor, and the third group actually called KFTC members to remind them to get out and vote on Nov. 8th.

The Northern Kentucky chapter of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth held a Singing For Democracy of their own Sunday at Madison Avenue Christian Church. The event, which was attended by over 40 people, featured Mike Barry and Tayna Fogle as masters of ceremony, discussed the issues of voting rights for former felons, and featured regional Gospel performers.

The event was a collaboration between People Advocating Recovery and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and featured speakers from recovery programs in Lexington, Louisville, Covington, and Florence. Their stories, which dealt with their own personal relationships with addiction in their lives and the lives around them, served as a reminder of the inequities and stereotypes people who suffer from the disease face.

Each of the speakers on the program spoke about what made them become an activist on voting rights and recovery. Charlotte Wethington recounted her loss of her son Casey, and how she was able to memorialize him through working to enact reforms in drug treatment laws; Tayna Fogle told her story of not only fighting to recover, but then having to fight to get her voting rights restored twice due to a clerical error; and Kim Moore of CHANGE Recovery House for Women spoke of the difficulty of dealing with reentry for one of your children after fighting for your own recovery so hard.

Members and attendees were hopeful that Northern Kentucky politicians would take notice of the movement in Northern Kentucky, and realize the resource that many people who are in long term recovery are for the community. The organizations hope to work together again soon to continue to highlight the need to expand and protect Kentucky's democracy.

You can also find more pictures of this event on KFTC's Flickr site. 

KFTC opposes discrimination of any kind, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. That is why the Madison County chapter KFTC is joining with the Fairness Campaign in their fight to end discrimination against members of the LGBT community by passing a fairness law in Berea that would make it a crime to discriminate against gay or transgendered people in employment, restaurants, housing, or other businesses.

Berea has historically been progressive in terms of the implementation of equal rights. Berea College, and the town that settled around it, was founded in 1855 in the years leading up to the Civil War. John Fee, the founder of the College, was a radical abolitionist who not only believed that African slaves should be freed, but that they should live alongside white Americans as equals. Another of his principles was the equal rights of men and women, a concept that was almost unheard of in his time. Berea College, despite opposition from the state of Kentucky and the Supreme Court of the United States, has maintained its commitments to equal rights from the beginning.

Bereans For Fairness -  which local KFTC members are active in, want to see the continuation of this tradition of the recognition of human rights. Bereans For Fairness formed to fight for the adoption of a fairness ordinance by Berea’s city council. Despite the broad support for the bill in Berea, which has been evidenced by the hundreds of Berea residents that have voiced their support for a fairness ordinance, some members of the city council have completely refused to vote for such a measure. Despite paying lip service to the idea of equality and human rights, several members of the city council have refused to take a step towards the defense and implementation of these principles.

Support for the fairness ordinance continues to grow in Berea, however. Students at Berea College have become concerned with the issue, and several student activists have rallied to form the Harvey Milk Society, a group committed to the recognition of rights for gay and transgendered people in Berea. Named for the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, the Harvey Milk Society hopes to help the Berea Fairness Coalition in their attempt to pressure the Berea city council to adopt the fairness ordinance. Although just starting out, the students in the group are drawing upon Berea’s rich heritage of support for equal rights as they fight for fairness. Jordan Engel, a student who attended the first meeting, said “Berea has a tradition of fairness in every social aspect. The fairness movement is just the continuation of that tradition.”

Silas House, prominent Kentucky author, a professor at Berea College, and active KFTC member, helped to put together the Harvey Milk Society and supports fairness in Berea. “It’s important for students to be involved in this,” he said. “This is their generation’s civil rights movement.” His words help to frame the issue, and illustrate what is at stake. Discrimination is a daily reality for gay and transgendered people, and to truly support equal rights means support for fairness as well. On September 20^th, the Berea Fairness Coalition will be staging a rally in support of the fairness ordinance on the steps of Union Church in Berea. Afterwards, supporters will go to the Berea City Hall to encourage the city council to vote to support equal rights in Berea. Come show your support for the fairness movement in Berea, and join the fight against discrimination in all its forms.

For more information on the fairness movement, visit:

http://fairness.org

Kentucky Habitat For Humanity, a KFTC ally in the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance, will host an amazing 2-day conference on green housing at the Fayette County Extension Facility in Lexington on June 13th and 14th. The special cost for KFTC members and allies is $25 for the two days, which includes all meals. Scholarships for travel costs and fees are also available. 

The conference, entitled "Beginning With The End In Mind," will feature a wide range of speakers, including policy-makers and technical specialists from in and out of state. This conference focuses completely on the use of sustainable energy and green building techniques in ways that maintain housing affordability. As many know, Habitat For Humanity works successfully with thousands of low-income families each year to provide sustainable, affordable housing.  

Visit www.kyhfh.org or contact Ginger Watkins (ginger@kyhfh.org) to learn more or register for the event.

The central Kentucky chapter's economic justice work team has been surveying Lexington residents to get a sense of what they feel would make their communities better and how KFTC might be able to organize locally around economic justice concerns. The committee chose 13 precincts throughout the city to go door to door. They prioritized them by median income starting with the lowest income areas and working upward. So far they've surveyed folks in the Ohio-Walnut, Ayelsford and Fairlawn precincts.

Some of the questions on the survey are broad such as, "What do you think your community needs to make it better?" and "What do you look for in a good job?" Others get more specific about the cost of household utilities and whether they're registered to vote.

In Ohio-Walnut we heard a lot from folks about the problem of crime and the lack of positive activities for young people. One woman on Ohio St. talked about how terribly blessed she was that her 22-year-old son never got involved with drugs and crime because it seems like most of the young people in the neighborhood do. In the Ayelsford precinct, which is predominantly made up of UK students, we heard a lot of complaints about absentee landlords and run-down rental property. Last Sunday we walked the Fairlawn precinct which is off of N. Limestone near La Roca United Methodist Church and folks had a lot of complaints about people driving dangerously around kids and flying down the street at 50+ mph.

In addition to these (likely not so) unique problems, just about everyone we've surveyed so far regardless of which neighborhood they're in is struggling with extremely high utility bills (i.e. $500 per month electric and gas, $300 water bills) and feel like it's nearly impossible to gain access to the few good paying jobs that are left. Also, interestingly enough, when we asked people what they felt the role of city government was most folks seemed like they either weren't exactly sure but whatever it was it didn't seem to happening. One lady in the Fairlawn precinct told us that she'd voted for most of her life but three years ago stopped because she felt like politicians were out for themselves and for wealthy people and didn't have her or her family's interests in mind.

The work team plans to get together in the next couple of weeks to discuss their findings and to schedule their next walking days. If you're interested in participating, please contact the local organizer, Ondine Quinn, at 859-276-0563 or ondine@kftc.org

 The Central Kentucky chapter's fairness work team has been very busy over the last couple of weeks surveying restrooms and getting petitions signed. Last Saturday three teams of four walked around downtown Lexington w/ a checklist and surveyed restrooms in the Carnegie Center, the Living Arts and Science Center, the Main Library, Third Street Stuff, Doodles, Giacommos Deli, The Marathon station on MLK and 3rd St, Alfalfa restaurant, Jonathon's at Gratz Park and the Lexington History museum.

Members used a checklist developed by a student group at UC Santa Barbara called P.I.S.S.A.R (People In Search of Safe and Accessible Restrooms) to conduct the survey. The checklists are broken down into three sections. The first addresses access for people with disabilities. This requires the person doing the surveying to measure things like the width of the bathroom door, the distance from the grab bar to the floor and height of the sink. The second section of the checklist is regarding transgender and gender variant folks and asks questions like "Is the restroom in a safe and well lit area?" and "Are the doors marked with gender specific signs or gender neutral ones?" The last section of the checklists pertains to childcare and aims to find out if there are changing tables in the restroom (regardless of whether they're male or female restrooms).

The teams also carried with them petitions they'd designed and asked folks they met to support their efforts, which resulted in several really great conversations. You can view the petition by clicking here: Safe restroom petition

The rain this Saturday made is so we couldn't go out and do more surveys but we were able to have a really good meeting where we talked about how this campaign fits into KFTC's overall goals to challenge and change unjust institutions, overcome discrimination, help people to participate and to communicate a message of what is possible.

For more information about this campaign you can download our brochure: Safe restroom trifold brochure or go to www.kftc.org/safe