In the News

As a result of building critical relationships with area hospitals and taking action to pressure the Health Services Cost Review Commission to increase hospital reimbursement rates to fund community health positions, Turnaround Tuesday has placed 79 individuals in three new positions: Community Health Workers, Peer Recovery Specialists, and Certified Nurse Assistants/General Nursing Assistants. None of the Turnaround Tuesday-trained individuals have lost their jobs and all positions pay between $15-17/per hour with full benefits. 129 positions still remain to be filled.

125 Pima County Interfaith resident leaders of Ward 3 Tucson assembled and secured commitments from primary candidates Felicia Chew, Paul Durham and Tom Tronsdal.  The session was organized by Pima County Interfaith Civic Education Organization, Southern Arizona Interfaith (SAI) and Literacy Connects.  All three candidates pledged to support keeping Tucson an Immigrant Welcoming city, to support PCI efforts to fight SPICE and other drugs in Ward 3, and to meet with the organizations if elected.

Candidates Chew and Tronsdal committed to increasing funding for KidCo and JobPath, keeping low-income bus fares at their current level, and protecting the number of bus routes.

Attendees committed to vote, get others to vote, and to knock on doors in Ward 3 neighborhoods.  Two “Neighbor to Neighbor – Walk & Call” sessions have already been scheduled.

In Washington, D.C., 300 workers and riders turned out to the latest hearing on budget cuts to tell the WMATA Metro Board to 'leave the bus lines alone."

Metro IAF has been working in collaboration with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) to increase public investment in the DC region's metro transit system.

An entire generation of union leadership has been forced to play defense.  But now, standing before the 2016 Convention of the Amalgamated Transit Union, I am here to tell you that this is the time to start playing offense.  Yours is the union to show the rest of us how to do it.  Your leadership is the leadership best equipped to throw the ball far down the field and score.

After a campaign that included educating County Supervisors about the economic (and life) impact of JobPath workforce development program, leaders of Pima County Interfaith won a 16% increase in funding for the program, from $423 thousand to $500 thousand.  Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 for the increase after Pastor Steve Springer of Dove of Peace Lutheran Church and Lindsay Leonard, a JobPathgraduate, spoke.

Former students like Patty Popp

From the Washington Post:

As the news conference ended at Zion Baptist Church in East Baltimore, Bishop Douglas Miles stepped forward and grabbed the mic to say, “This is historic.”

He shared a memory from the late 1960s: A young woman on a bus asked him what school he attended, and when he replied, “Hopkins,” she stopped talking to him.

That was the distance, he said, between the city and the university.

“I stand proudly today as a Hopkins alumnus,” he said, “because my institution is taking the lead in something major in this state.” God doesn’t call us to be the richest or the smartest, he said, but to step forward. Miles closed with a prayer, and shouts rose: “Amen! Amen!”

"We really see systemic challenges in Baltimore, and someone just saw the ability to address it," said Andrew Foster Connors, senior pastor at Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church. "It's less than the number of jobs we wanted, but it's a great start."

The pastor is also co-chair of the interfaith community organization Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, or BUILD, which had rallied for the jobs and brought supporters to meetings of the state Health Services Cost Review Commission, which sets hospital rates and approved the jobs plan Wednesday.

BUILD officials said they hope other businesses in Baltimore follow suit and create the other 625 jobs.

For years, Rackspace co-founder and Chairman Graham Weston heard complaints that San Antonio’s growing data storage company had to search far and wide for qualified talent. He and others thought, “These were jobs that should have been taken by San Antonians.”

An “aha” moment happened one day when he went to...

Bishop Kicanas fires off a powerful volley in a friendly competition between Pima Community Colleges and religious leaders of PCIC-CEO in Arizona....

COPS / Metro Alliance, Austin Interfaith, Border Interfaith & EPISO, and Dallas Area Interfaith leaders are deservedly getting statewide recognition for their work in support of living wages in San Antonio, Austin, El Paso and Dallas.

More than 400 people have been helped by Skill QUEST since it was launched by Dallas Area Interfaith in late 2010.

A subcommittee of the interfaith group did extensive research among 3,500 people in its 40 member congregations, schools and community organizations in Dallas and Collin counties. It found workforce issues...among the biggest concerns....