VOTE

FAREEDA MABRY

Candidate for Pennsylvania

185th Legislative District

**APRIL 2012**

WHY AM I RUNNING?

If communities do not have strong representatives that listen to the voice of the people, you end up with representatives that dictate their own goals and agendas, represent special interest groups that give them money, or worse yet ineffective representatives that are controlled by stronger political wills, not the best interest of the community they serve.

Home is where my heart is! The same issues that affect everyday people are the same ones that affect me...job loss, transportation, health care, affordable housing, high utility cost, accessibility to resources, cost of food, crime, business and economic development...the list goes on!

Fareeda works to move society ideals forward while working to make her community a better place for all people to live in, no matter their pockets or political affiliation.

RESPECTING THE PAST.

WORKING FOR THE PRESENT.

AND REACHING FOR THE FUTURE...

We need Progress...

We Need Fareeda Mabry

THE PLATFORM:

Education:

Child care and early childhood education can be burdensome for many working families and a hindrance to low income and single parents from re-entering the workforce.

Investing in workers by investing in their children.

• Increase funding, resources and support for the School Districts.
• Increases in early childhood education subsidies.
• Support Increased training opportunities and resources for Teachers and Administrators.
• Increase incentives for teacher and student retention.
• Provide additional support to students with learning, physical, mental and/or emotional disabilities.
• Provide additional support to low income and single parented households.
• Support programs that are focused on assisting children who have been in the foster care system, whose parents are incarcerated and also those who have lost a parent to a violent crime.
• Support a Curriculum change to ensure our children are able to compete in the global economy.
• Investing in community colleges, and technical schools, with focus on developing and sustaining their connections with the business community to ensure employment after training.
• Funding needs to be restored to education programs that have been proven to be successful, give Pennsylvania students a head start.

Business & Economic Development:

Pennsylvania needs to be able to compete globally. My focus for Pennsylvania is business expansion and job creation. Focus needs to be on easing the financial burdens to PA families and businesses. Pennsylvanian workers should enter the workforce with the skills, training and resources needed by employers in this high tech world. There must be targeted and strategic development and incentives to get Pennsylvania back to work.

• Enact incentives for entrepreneurs, small businesses and inventors to keep their products produced in Pennsylvania.
• Tougher laws that increase protection for displaced workers from discrimination.
• Increase sustainability efforts.
• Market and Promote Community & Historical Value with the goal in mind to bring more homeowners and entrepreneurs to live, work and play.
• Increase accessibility to professional licenses and permits.
• Encourage minority and women business owners.
• Partner with Community and Commercial Development Corporations.
• Partner with the Small Business Development Organizations.
• Build resources for training, employment, mentor ship, apprenticeship and entrepreneurs.
• Develop specialized task force that provide employment information and training opportunities, also building relationships with businesses and trade organizations that can support a specialized population. The team would be focused on targeting under-trained, laid-off, unemployed, under-employed, previously incarcerated, and youth.
• Working with established businesses, corporations and community colleges to create summer youth employment programs an initiative to combat flash mobs and recidivism in the juvenile justice system.
• Strategies to encourage trade and focus on bringing industry back to Pennsylvania and restoring the working class.
• Create Home ownership programs and incentives.
• Enact laws that prohibit the use of credit scores in employment decisions.
• Establish new Job Creation Tax Credit programs and Job Training tax Credits
• Targeting Veterans, Displaced Workers, Men and Women who return from incarceration, Recent Graduates and Job Training Opportunities.

Community Revitalization:

Pennsylvania needs a long term and comprehensive transportation and roads plan, this would also create jobs for Pennsylvania.

• Pennsylvania is the nation leading in bridges. We have 5200 bridges that are structurally deficient; more than 7,000 miles of state roads are in unsafe and hazardous conditions.
• Partnering with the local streets and highway departments.
• Build more supermarkets in the area.
• Create Community Gardens where the community can come and grow their own food.
• Create More Parks and Playgrounds and other recreational opportunities.
• Increase sustainability efforts.
• Work with developers and investors to make sure Seniors have access to supermarkets, transportation, businesses and health care professionals.
• 
  

Crime & Gun Violence and Recidivism:

• Create more youth programs, focusing on stopping problems before they start.
• Create more venues for recreation and for youth to get involved.
• Open Licenses for low level and first time offenders- Nursing etc.
• Focus on Pre-Release Issues.
• Focus on cracking down on straw purchasers.
• Provide additional resources and support for those who have been incarcerated, or those who have drug and alcohol abuse.
  
• Focus on job development & specialized training

Temple News: Warm Hearts offers help, warmth for the homeless

Warm Hearts offers help, warmth for the homeless

October 31, 2011 by Dominique Johnson
Filed under Opinion

Leave a Comment

Fareeda Mabry, founder of Operation Warm Hearts, recognizes the need to keep Philadelphia’s homeless warm this winter through organizing blanket drives.

Last year, Philadelphia native Fareeda Mabry, 33, started a grass-roots organization known as Operation Warm Hearts with a simple goal in mind: Help those who cannot help themselves. The organization is seeking to collect and distribute 1,701 blankets across the Philadelphia region for those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves trapped in the cold this coming winter.

The organization was formed by Mabry with the help of Justina Shaw from the nonprofit organization, OPPORTUNITIES, and friends Carl Daniels, Nakisha Peterson and Tarisse Iriarte.

“They helped pushed this initiative on the ground by taking donations and playing a major role in the street team,” Mabry said. “We meet people where they are. If they are living on the streets, we go to them.”

Currently Operation Warm Hearts is looking to maintain the relationship that they have with Shaw, by working with OPPORTUNITIES. They also plan to build partnerships with other organizations.

Mabry is a product of Philadelphia’s Olney High School, graduating in 1997. Attending Peirce College and the University of Pennsylvania later, Mabry considers herself a “maverick,” and a community leader who is “from the people and for the people.”

“The same people we elect, some turn to elitism and it is hard for people to relate to them,” Mabry said. “I want people to still relate to me as a sister, a cousin, a daughter, a niece and a friend.”

As housing and social service cuts decrease and the economy continues to pull itself out of a recession, it is estimated that across the country there are approximately 200,000 to 500,000 Americans who are currently homeless. It is estimated that there are approximately 4,000 homeless people in Philadelphia on any given day. This includes those who are in shelters or on the streets.

As a result of the economic downturn, Mabry and her team wanted to address this particular need. Starting out at first by accepting only blankets and comforters, Operation Warm Hearts now accepts items such as soap, toothpaste and shirts.

“We are looking to do a blanket drive every year from [Oct. 1] until March 1,” Mabry said. “As we collect, we give to folks who are in need and also receive requests from low-income families to provide support.”

Last year Operation Warm Hearts serviced more than 800 homeless families and individuals. Mabry hopes to partner with more organizations and political leaders as the organization moves forward, so that they may continue to have blanket drives.

Although its initial goal is 1,701 blankets, Mabry said that she is looking to collect double that number since Operation Warm Hearts is also supporting the Occupy Philly protestors camping outside City Hall.

“Philadelphia grew from a few hundred inhabitants in 1683 to over 2,500 in 1701,” Mabry said, on why the organization chose that number for its goal. “Before William Penn left Philadelphia for the last time on Oct. 25, 1701 he issued the Charter of 1701.”

William Penn envisioned Philadelphia as a ‘City of Brotherly Love,’” Mabry added. “He was realistic enough to know that law, not love, is the mechanism that regulates the interactions of men.”

Currently, Operation Warm Hearts is not holding any blanket drives. Mabry said that she is looking to students, volunteers and others who may be interested in doing them while also increasing Operation Warm Hearts capacity to service more individuals.

“Operation Warm Hearts knows that it is the simple things that can help keep a person going when they are losing everything,” Mabry said.

Anyone interested in volunteering time or donating to Operation Warm Hearts can contact Mabry at 267-707-8979 or email fareeda@fareedamabry.org with the subject line: Operation Warm Hearts.

Dominique Johnson can be reached at dominique.johnson@temple.edu.

Tags: 11-1-11, Fareeda Mabry, Operation Warm Hearts, Philadelphia’s homeless

Exposure: Memoirs of a Maverick Part: I: Where I am From

Fareeda C. Mabry was a little girl born at Temple University Hospital to Jeanetta and Matthew Mabry, June 25th, 1978 at 5:30pm. Yet my recollection of becoming Fareeda Mabry the woman begins at age 7.

When I look at my parents I see how opposites attract. My mother comes from a family rooted in entrepreneurship, she a student, later a Nursing Assistant and my father from the rougher side of the tracks…Richard Allen Projects, nicknamed “Brain”, because he was so intellectual, street wise and school wise,who later became a Chef.

Prior to my brother Matthew Mabry Jr and I being born and into the early 80’s my father became abusive mentally, spiritually and physically towards my mother. My mom left with no other choice, saving her soul and saving her children. I remember her dressing and grooming us extra special when we went to court with my father. It was a MAJOR offense to her to accuse her of not taking care of us.

Needless to say, the court granted my mother custody and we moved on and up like the Jeffersons. As a child, I never knew what asserting yourself meant, empowerment, struggle, women’s rights or poverty was until later on in life. Buying her a new home, and never looking back, only to watch her back from my fathers violent behaviors.

Although I have heard of him being physically abusive, I do not remember my father being directly physically towards my mother, I do remember him harassing her with the court system, over custody. I felt in my life, it was never about my brother and I, it was about control for him and he never really wanted custody of us.

As I matured, I never really got a chance to know my father completely. Yet, I know my father loves me. I never knew him as a man. That distance and disconnect is what hurt his character in my eyes. I see him as most men, challenged by emotions and struggling with his brokenness, selfishness, and control issues. My mother wanted only the best for us. Always has and always will. What mother doesn’t?

We were the first black people on the block. My mother got the best paints, fixings and trimmings on the house. It was her own...home. For myself, I made many friends at Olney Elementary which many I still remember and am still friends with today. Others I have sadly seen perish by the code of the streets, and there are others who I have seen their struggles, maturities, growth, learning lessons and life change for better or worse.

When we moved there, Olney as a neighborhood was predominately white. I spent almost 20 years in Olney, watching its transitions and demographic shifts. From a middle class Caucasian neighborhood to one mixed with Hispanics, Asians and African Americans. We became the target of racism many times; however we never let that deter us from living there. It adds to the layers of hurt and anger, yet never a deterrent. The very first time of being called a "nigger" as a child, you may not know what it is, yet you know its a hurtful word. There was a time when there was black paint thrown on the front of the house and my mother and I cleaned it off in the early morning. What was such an innocent place to live through the eyes of a child, became a harsh reality. As a child, its amazing when you find out, people really do not like certain people for the color of your skin. Everything in life is not "peaches and cream"...

I clearly remember my moms struggles as a single young African American mother of two. She has experienced abused, has fears of failing, yet still determined to survive for the sake of her children. As a kid you think all moms are like yours. I never saw any woman as dedicated to the well being of her children. So when people say you only get one mom, its true...appreciate her.

She taught us most importantly, how to survive in a cold world. It didn’t make a difference if my father was there; my mom became the Alpha and Omega, the mother and the father. She struggled and made sacrifices to make sure we had even when she didn't have. My mother is the backbone, always worrying over us. Her children were her life. She made sure my brother and I went to school, had food, clean clothes and basic utilities to survive. It wasn’t easy.

Times we went without heat, food or basic essentials. I’ve seen my mother cook a full meal consisting of meat, vegetables and a starch…Yet she would only eat the vegetables and starch and save the full course meal for my brother and me. I remember my mother boiling water for us to wash because our hot water tank had been busted and she could not afford a new one. Yet she made sure she always respected herself, we went to school, fed and clean. As a woman today, I can remember as a child seeing the pain in her eyes, yet her love for and from her children is what kept her going.

My father, he would relentlessly try to locate my mother although she never wanted to be located. He threatened her life, and vowed to kill her. Putting on a different face for us, so we as his children could not see the monster within. Children are very perceptive. And I know at that age, I couldn’t imagine for any woman…Running from and hating someone you once were madly in love with and to top it off, have children by. In my mother’s eyes, my father turned into a different individual. I always wonder if my relationship or lack thereof with my father has an effect on my relationships today with men.

I do not doubt his love. What I saw in my father was a conflicted, bitter, and controlling man. His anger stemmed from his loss of control. He did not realize that has been the best situation for us. I to this day know many of the issues of my father stemmed from lack of control of his own emotions, immaturity, fear of loss and insecurity. In order to remove the hurt, I had to look at my father as a man and not as my father to better know him as an individual and as a human being.

Although I love my father dearly, I had to understand him as a man, I believe was and still is broken emotionally and spiritually. My mom, taught me to be independent, industrial, determined, feminine, bossy, feisty, loving, caring, compassionate, sexy, motherly, and domesticated. I remember going to buy my first bra, and me talking to her about having sex or not. I must say, the safest place after school, was next to mom on the couch after homework, watching television waiting for dinner.

I’m blessed to have never been in foster care or in the system; my mother took care of us to the best of her ability. She thought of herself as weak at times, and despite the pain from life’s disappointments…she is the strongest woman I know.Always she was hard on us about homework and education. Her saying, “Education is the best to make you a success”…she never lied, the only knowledge that can hurt you, is the knowledge you do not have.

I want to thank my mother for her sacrifices, and her struggles. I am proud of her for taking her life in her own hands. I thank God that he allowed me to meet and know her while spending some of my most precious memories, experiences, and life lessons with her. I am proud to have her as an extention of me. My hurts, pains, loves and my life…I wouldn’t change for anything in the world. Because It made me "the Maverick" I am today. Im not afraid of hard work.

Please stay tuned as we move into the next chapter of my life. I am proud to be a boot strap kind of person...I know what hard work is. I like for people to relate to me as a human being and not some novelty. I never grew up rich or with some designer labeled last name.

I am Fareeda Mabry, from the people and for the people. I am writing this because I want people to know where I am coming from in order to understand where I am going.

Stay Tuned: Exposure: Memoirs of a Maverick Part II

Adolescent: " What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise" O. Wilde

OPERATION WARM HEARTS—BLANKET DRIVE WARMING HOMELESS AND LOW INCOME HEARTS IN PHILADELPHIA

OPERATION WARM HEARTS—BLANKET DRIVE

WARMING HOMELESS AND LOW INCOME HEARTS IN PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia, PA October 18, 2011— Operation Warm Hearts is a grassroots organization seeking to collect and distribute 1701 or more blankets across the Philadelphia region. Its going to be a brutally cold winter.

As housing and social service cuts increase and the economy deteriorates, it is determined across the country that there is somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 Americans homeless. It is estimated that there are approximately 4,000 persons who are homeless on any given day in Philadelphia. This includes only those who are in the shelters or on the streets. This does not include those who are in transitional housing, low-demand residences, or in substandard/unfit living conditions.

Operation Warm Hearts is looking to help those who cannot help themselves. This 2^nd year for Operation Warm Hearts! Last year Operation Warm Hearts serviced over 800 homeless families and individuals. This initiative will be happening every year from October 1 until March 1.

Available Drop Off Locations:

(Walk In)

· Rondney Harris Splitten Wigz Barbershop—48 North 52nd Street M-Sunday 8am until 8pm

· Bluford Elementary —5801 Media Street M-F 8am until 4pm Telephone# 267-707-8979

(By Appointment)

· Kartrina Dear/Girl Scout Troupe 93414—5621 Stewart Street, Philadelphia PA Telephone# 215-906-7591

We are now accepting other items such as cases of water, soap, tooth paste, tooth brushes, clean socks, clean t-shirts, and other toiletries.

For donations, drop offs, pick-ups or partnership, sponsorship, donations and volunteer opportunities please contact Fareeda Mabry 267-707-8979

Email using the subject: OPERATION WARM HEARTS fareeda@fareedamabry.org

# # #

Philadelphia Police…Hero or Gestapo? Please don’t taze me bro

Philadelphia Police…Hero or Gestapo?

Please don’t taze me bro

Who moved my McGruff? And who in the hell polices the police? Like many of you I grew up with the images of police as heroes. Our “boys in blue” are here to help people, protect and serve the community and educate with honesty and integrity. As a kid…who was more up standing than an officer? In movies the good guy always wins…McGruff the Crime Dog’s motto was to “take a bite out of crime”…

McGruff image indicated that the police mean a safe refuge. However as time has changed, the role, image and what it means to some to be a police officer has drastically changed from hero to Gestapo.

In recent news, we see many police officers being reprimanded on all sorts of corruption, brutal/terrorist acts, and misconduct. What creates a corrupt cop? Where is the accountability? The police it seems are the only ones who police themselves.  Well, why doesn’t the community trust them? Is there a reason for fear of the police? The many minority and ethnic communities have become a place where trust of the police is obsolete and the code of the streets is “stop snitching”. There is a disconnect between the two.

The community has been victimized by the same people who are sworn into oath under God to protect and serve. Stop snitching is a major unspoken campaign not to mention the aggression and backlash. Stop snitching is a way for the community to protect and serve itself. The people’s revolution will not be televised… For every action there is a reaction. I feel the community reacting to being victims.  No one wants to be targeted, or enslaved. Snitches are the lowest form. A rat, a snake is what they call it. 

Power and the hunger for it corrupts even the most innocent. There is no justification for crime. Crime is merely reactionary. When we look at Marlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, if any of these needs are not met, all hell breaks loose.

We're not anti-police... we're anti-police brutality. 

Al Sharpton

A recent incident that drew national attention, a young man Askia Sabur, brutalized by the Philadelphia Police Department The video link provided captures the violent arrest of Sabur outside a takeout restaurant at Lansdowne Avenue and Allison Streets. This neighborhood although has turned around in many years, is no walk in the park.

Sabur, outside of the restaurant he reminded officers he was “waiting for his food”….how do you go order 3 chicken wings, and some shrimp friend rice and end up your skull cracked open? Sabur was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and resisting arrest.

The Beating of Askia Sabur

Not sure if Sabur was also charged with robbery…because police claim, Sabur reached for an officer’s gun. When has anyone in African American history seen or heard of a black man who reached or had any kind of weapon and is still alive to speak about it?  The other officers would’ve filled him full of bullet holes.

If you do not believe me, ask Amadou Diallo… There was no justification in the increased level of force and the level brutality taking Sabur into custody…

Police brutality is an international human and civil rights crises, so much bigger than Philadelphia. From Nigeria to New York, police brutality is an issue. Let’s take Oakland, CA…Oscar Grant, who was shot dead by a transit officer, doing his job a bit too much if you ask me.

The Shooting of Oscar Grant

Not sure why a person would shoot an unarmed person who was not resisting. Grant was faced down and shot in the back…execution style, by the same man who was hired to serve and protect his life. I mean…If you cannot trust the police to protect you…Who can you trust?

Danroy Miller, 20, equally as sad. Promising college student “he was killed by police in Mount Pleasant, N.Y., located about 35 miles north of New York City, according to police and university officials. Henry was behind the wheel of a parked car when police arrived at Finnegan's Grill, in a neighborhood called Thornwood, police said. He allegedly attempted to flee in the vehicle when officers breaking up a nearby brawl approached him”.

Danroy Miller Article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/10/massachusetts_m_2.html

Miller’s friends where even beaten when they tried to administer CPR to save his life: http://jonathanturley.org/2010/10/21/new-york-police-accused-of-assaulting-college-students-trying-to-give-cpr-to-friend/.

The police have created an image of brutality, and domestic terrorism. Invoking resistance and fear in the community. Protect and serve or alienate and exterminate? The systematic heavy handed violence of police targeted towards poorer, under resourced and under serviced communities is out of control.

Amnesty International (AI) on American Police Brutality: On its web site, AI says "Police brutality and use of excessive force has been one of the central themes of (AI's) campaigns on human rights violations in the USA," launched in October 1998. In its "United States of America: Rights for All Index," it documented systematic patterns of abuse across America, including "police beatings, unjustified shootings and the use of dangerous restraint techniques to subdue suspects."

Little is done to monitor or constrain it the brutality that is dished out…Racial and ethnic minorities are the ones who are disproportionately harmed by the harassment, false arrest, beatings and terrorism.

For Philadelphia police excessive force seems to be the norm: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/07/philadelphia-police-caugh_n_100569.html.

Looking at west African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, shot at 41 times by four New York policemen, struck 19 times and killed while he stood in the vestibule of his apartment building, unarmed and nonviolent, another life snatched….a victim of police brutality. Sabur unlike Miller, Diallo and Grant, he may have gotten his skull cracked open…yet he still has his life.

The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) is the nation's fourth largest police department, with over 6600 sworn members and 800 civilian personnel. The PPD is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for serving Philadelphia County, extending over 140 square-miles in which approximately 1.5 million reside. Geographically, the Department is divided into twenty-two police districts (each headed by a captain), which comprise six police divisions (Northwest, Northeast, East, Central, Southwest, South - each headed by a Divisional Inspector), into two major sections of the city, Regional Operations Command North (ROC North) and Regional Operations Command South (ROC South), each headed by one Deputy Commissioner under Field Operations. Personnel are assigned to work in 55 different locations throughout Philadelphia, with Police Headquarters located in the 6th Police District, in Center City, at 750 Race Street. http://www.phillypolice.com/about

Brutal men with unlimited power are the same all over the world.

Mary Chesnut

In Philadelphia since 2009, “11 officers have been arrested on charges including murder, rape and drug dealing. They are among 51 police officers fired for misconduct since May 2010. Brutal beatings and assaults by Philadelphia police continue particularly in African-American and Latino/neighborhoods”. http://www.workers.org/2011/us/philadelphia_1027/

I thought the idea was to stop and prevent crime before it happen and not perpetuate it. There is a long legacy of brutalization in the community stemming from excessive force from the Philadelphia Police Department.

“Most people are aware of the recent police beating of Thomas Jones here in Philadelphia, but fewer people remember the police beating of Delbert Africa in 1978 caught on videotape and broadcast worldwide. This incident prompted the Department of Justice to file the first ever lawsuit against a city for police brutality. In 1985, the police dropped C-4 plastique from a state helicopter on the MOVE house resulting in the death of eleven people including five children. Sixty-one homes were burned to the ground.”

http://www.democracynow.org/2000/7/31/philadelphia_a_legacy_of_police_brutality

To me a police officer who abuses his badge is no different than a priest who shames the church. Shame...All cops are not bad, and all people are not good. Many victims eventually become victimizers.  The psychological affects of brutality is worse than the beatings. For those who are not killed, some are paralyzed, and suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, aggression, emotional disturbances, drug abuse, suicide and paranoia. Its historical, it’s generational? Brutality, bullying and Gestapo tactics are modern day lynching.  Most importantly what are we teaching our children and our next generation of law enforcement? 

fareeda@fareedamabry.org

www.fareedamabry.org

267-243-1468

Our national deficit is projected to grow at an unsustainable rate over the next 10 years. Come Discuss on 6/26! Our Budget Our Economy" 18 Days Left!!!

Philadelphia Town Meeting: Our Budget, Our Economy

Our national deficit is projected to grow at an unsustainable rate over the next 10 years. This threatens our ability to fund what’s most important to us. We remain deeply divided over what our national priorities are and what we, as a people, are prepared to do to support them. Clearly we need to do something and let our leaders know what we will support. It's time to come together as a country to make the tough choices that will ensure America's future.

Sign Up Online today!

www.usabudgetdiscussion.org or call toll free at 866-755-6263

Join Americans at meeting halls across the country linked together by satellite and the Internet! This is a chance to:

-Learn About the Issues
-Find Common Ground
-Present priorities to leaders in Washington

WILL YOUR VOICE BE COUNTED!!!!

AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy and the National Town Meeting provide an opportunity for Americans to share their perspectives and listen to the perspectives of others to create solutions for our nation’s economy. By registering for the National Town Meeting you agree to thoughtfully share your views, respectfully listen to others, and fully engage in dialogue to find common ground and shared priorities. The recommendations that come from your participation will help the country and our leaders move forward on these difficult and critical issues.

Organized by AmericaSpeaks, the Our Budget, Our Economy meetings will take place on Saturday, June 26th in twenty cities simultaneously, including Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Grand Ballroom, 3rd Floor
First District Plaza, 3801 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
11:30 am to 6:00 pm



The initiative will bring together demographically diverse groups in the 20 cities and invite volunteers to convene smaller conversations in communities across the nation. The forums will be held simultaneously and linked together by satellite and the Internet for a truly national discussion, which will be the largest and most comprehensive opportunity to date for Americans to deliberate on our federal budget.

Participants will weigh in on the policy options framed by a diverse, bipartisan group of experts. The resultant recommendations, reflecting priorities from a broad cross-section of the America public will be shared with policymakers as America’s solutions for a sustainable fiscal future.

To participate, you MUST register.

There is no fee to register and lunch and snacks will be provided free. Where possible, childcare, transportation assistance and translation services will be provided.

Participants in the Town Meeting will reflect the political, socio-economic, and ethnic diversity of the United States. After June 26, AmericaSpeaks will present the priorities that emerge from the National Town Meeting to Congress and President Obama, as well as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and the Bi-Partisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force.

The results that emerge from the discussion will have credibility with policy makers because they will reflect the authentic views of a large, informed, and representative group of Americans. The discussion will not be manipulated by any side or point of view, and will give the American public a real chance to find common ground.

For additional information, visit our website at: http://usabudgetdiscussion.org

AmericaSpeaks Presents: Philadelphia National Town Hall Meeting: Our Budget, Our Economy

Philadelphia National Town Hall Meeting: Our Budget, Our Economy

HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!!

Space is limited for this Town Meeting site. Registrations to attend will be considered on a first come, first serve basis. If registrations for this site are reaching capacity and not representative of the demographics of the local community, some participants will be invited to host or attend a nearby Community Conversation (a smaller meeting near you).

AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy and the National Town Meeting provide an opportunity for Americans to share their perspectives and listen to the perspectives of others to create solutions for our nation’s economy. By registering for the National Town Meeting you agree to thoughtfully share your views, respectfully listen to others, and fully engage in dialogue to find common ground and shared priorities. The recommendations that come from your participation will help the country and our leaders move forward on these difficult and critical issues.

Organized by AmericaSpeaks, the Our Budget, Our Economy meetings will take place on Saturday, June 26th in twenty cities simultaneously, including Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Grand Ballroom, 3rd Floor
First District Plaza, 3801 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
11:30 am to 6:00 pm

The initiative will bring together demographically diverse groups in the 20 cities and invite volunteers to convene smaller conversations in communities across the nation. The forums will be held simultaneously and linked together by satellite and the Internet for a truly national discussion, which will be the largest and most comprehensive opportunity to date for Americans to deliberate on our federal budget.

Participants will weigh in on the policy options framed by a diverse, bipartisan group of experts. The resultant recommendations, reflecting priorities from a broad cross-section of the America public will be shared with policymakers as America’s solutions for a sustainable fiscal future.

The Philadelphia Town Hall meeting will be held at the First District Plaza, 3801 Market Street in West Philadelphia, from 11:30am to 6pm. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, click REGISTER NOW!

To participate, you MUST register.

There is no fee to register and lunch and snacks will be provided free. Where possible, childcare, transportation assistance and translation services will be provided.

To register

Log on to: http://usabudgetdiscussion.org

Click on Participate found at the top of the page.

On your right, in the vertical menu, under ‘Join the Discussion’ click on Philadelphia. This will open up the Registration form.

Complete and submit the Registration form.

You can also register by calling toll-free at 866-755-6263

Space is limited so register now !

Your voice will be heard !

Participants in the Town Meeting will reflect the political, socio-economic, and ethnic diversity of the United States. After June 26, AmericaSpeaks will present the priorities that emerge from the National Town Meeting to Congress and President Obama, as well as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and the Bi-Partisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force. The results that emerge from the discussion will have credibility with policy makers because they will reflect the authentic views of a large, informed, and representative group of Americans. The discussion will not be manipulated by any side or point of view, and will give the American public a real chance to find common ground.

For additional information, visit our website at: http://usabudgetdiscussion.org