When you Wake up I Hope you Stay Woke: The Supreme Court's Hearing on One Person One Vote....All Residents or Eligible Residents

People are expressing their outburst over what Trump is spewing out of his mouth. Most are talking about his radical malicious views; his continuous hatred toward Muslims and Immigrants. While we agree with you all TRUMP IS CRAZY out of his mind we want to shed light on what is going on in the “real world”….. the world of policy and the Supreme Court. Trump has taken over all of the newspaper outlets and he has somehow invited himself in our home on our televisions with our permission. While Trump has taken over media the Supreme Court has been going to work on two MAJOR cases that can affect United States citizens even more than Trump! The first case we will discuss here deals with one person one vote. The main question before the court in the case of Evenwel v. Abbott is who should be counted in voting districts……all residents or eligible residents?

What’s the difference you might ask? All residents include everyone who lives in the area outlined by the district. “Eligible Residents” on the other hand are people who are deemed fit to vote. So whom does that exclude? Unauthorized immigrants, felons, current prisoners, children, authorized immigrants who are here legally but not allowed to vote.

This shouldn’t matter much right? Or better yet you might be asking yourself “what does that have to do with me?” EVERYTHING. Look in your community, lets use the urban communities for example, who are the residents of urban communities? Now ask yourself are all the residents in urban communities “eligible” under the definition we just gave? This law has the power to shift the country with the change of ONE word “All” to “Eligible”. Urban communities will shift, as they will lose their district numbers because the populations in the community encompass MOST of the folks who are deemed “ineligible”.

Let us break this down for you even further since you all were so concerned about Trump and his insidious statements……..If the Supreme Court votes in favor of “Eligible Residents” this will shift the power dynamics increasing the amount of republican voters and decreasing the amount of democratic voters. It wont matter how CRAZY Trump is….If districts are being reorganized to disqualify “ineligible” voters then Republicans will have higher numbers since most people who are deemed “ineligible” associate themselves with the democratic party.

Lets take this a step further….. what group of people are included in “eligible voters”. What they mean are non-WHITE voters. Texas is proposing that their voters of color do not matter especially because they can’t vote anyway so why should they be counted in the population?

This is what Social policy looks like. Breaking down the issue to the core and figuring out how major case decisions and policies will affect the country.

We live in a country that continues to denounce the humanity of people of color and people in vulnerable positions. This case is asking us NOT to count the amount of children in our communities which will the shift the amount of funding our children will get for education. What’s even more disappointing is that we have been spending most of our time looking at TRUMP when Trump is no different from the lawyers who are bringing this case before the court. While we are outraged by Trump’s remarks, we should show the same outrage for the current case amongst the Supreme Court, which can alter democracy indefinitely.

It is time to wake up………….pay attention to what matters..........and when you wake up....I hope you STAY WOKE.

To check out more about the one person one vote article go here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/us/politics/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-on-one-person-one-vote.html?_r=0

-Social Change Agents Team

Have questions or comments please email us at scaiglobal@gmail.com 

Visit our website at www.scaiglobal.com

Expand your Mind, Expand Your Social Net worth: What's all the hype about these Social Change Trips?

            I Have been receiving messages from people regarding the Social Change trips. Why do I have them? What are they about? Are they missionary trips? Are they service trips?

First, thank you for your interest. I am grateful for any inquiry when it comes to our social change trips. Each change agent invests their personal finances into this experience rather than writing a check to a global organization. My belief is that money will run out, but people will never forget what you taught them. US Change Agents choose to go abroad and teach skills development courses while also learning the social order of partnering countries. Expand your mind, expand your social NET WORTH.

1. Social Change Trips are NOT missionary trips nor are they Service trips. While both missionary and service trips are powerful and necessary, I created the social change trip experience because I was intrigued with social order. Moreso, I continue to ask the question: why?

What is social change?

Social Change is an overview of social order. With a focus on the WHY?

What do Change Agents do on Social Change trips?

It depends on their career and skill. Most trips consist of US professionals teaching workshops in developing countries based on their expertise. Some trips consist of Change Agents working on the ground with people, organizing, drawing attention to social issues through art and expression.

Is it all work?

NO! While this is a Social Change Trip social order occurs outside of work. Change Agents explore parts of the country we are partnering with. However, this is NOT a vacation.

Special Shout out to Social Change Trip Team South Africa Fall 2015! They were a POWERFUL, UNITED Team! They used their creative skills to jumpstart young adults in South Africa!

Interested in joining our next Social Change Trip to Brazil? Please email scaiglobal@gmail.com

A Time for Leaders to Wake Up.

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            I spent most of my 20's sleeping. My day-to-day life felt as if I was on a treadmill. While I was "performing" a career that was service orientated after a while I disconnected. I say perform for a reason, because sometimes our work becomes too comfortable that we are performing our duties not fully living in them. Sleep at work.....not physically, mentally.

            I was tired of what the world had to offer as a career option for me. I spent most of my career in the nonprofit world and also working in Government. Last year I was in a rigorous graduate program studying Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. While my fellow classmates started looking for jobs in policy, I began searching for a job that would fit my desire (travel, work with people hands on, provide opportunities to developing communities).  At the time, the #BlacklivesMatter movement was pivotal and the recent killings of black ad brown bodies were on the rise. I felt both helpless and angry. I also knew that the struggle of my people stemmed from  slavery and poverty played a starring role. I sought to join the movement, but by equipping people with the knowledge necessary to organize effectively but also by asking the right questions to our elected officials. Lastly, from my studies at Penn I knew advocacy without policy was useless.

I knew I didn’t attend this rigorous privileged program at Penn to acclimate and work in policy as a regular staffer(there is nothing wrong with the job it just wasn't for me).  In addition, I spent the year critiquing other organizations throughout my masters program and on my personal time. What I found was that I was spending a lot of time critiquing other programs and to be honest, I was tethering the line of hating and critiquing. How many times do we sit back and look at other people’s lives via social media and judge? As if we know them personally. Let me be honest, it is easy to talk behind a computer screen and judge! Seriously, we can easily look at someone’s life and decide we have all the information. We can also look at an organizations program and think, “they are not doing enough”.

            So part way through my program at Penn I decided to stop being a spectator and I started to participate. I also knew that my contribution to the world and society was beyond what I could do behind the desk in Senate or in the White House. The fact is this: one organization cannot solve the social issues of the world such as racism, gender inequity , and classism. Every social organization has a mission and vision and as global active citizen, we should learn to RESPECT other organizations mission and vision and when we feel like something is missing we can insert it into the world. Sometimes that’s in the form of creating our own program; however, I challenge you to work with existing organizations to help strength their day to day programs. That is what the Social Change Agents Institute (SCAI) is: a place where people can add to the world despite their career, upbringing, or socio-economic status.

What is the Social Change Agents Institute?

The Social Change Agents Institute (SCAI) is an interactive think-tank, which aims to prepare individuals to transform both their lives and their community through advocacy, policy and social entrepreneurship.

The institute seeks to address poverty by working with people who are already addressing issues of poverty and development through trainings, social change trips, research and social enterprise development.

SCAI is a place where people can come to contribute to the world no matter the location and learn new tools in order to address poverty and development.

All in all, it is time to STOP sleeping and it is time for us to come ALIVE and contribute.

For more information on how you can get involved in the Social Change Agents Institute Please email Scaiglobal.com.