WHY ADVOCATE? A DOCUMENT ON BUILDING INTERDEPENDENT SOCIAL ADVOCATES

 Why Advocate?

Getting Involved: How you can be part of a growing group of nation-wide advocates

1. Host a Trunk show using iSanctuary jewelry (and receive 1 survivor-made gift as Host)

2. Subscribe to our blog, http://thecollectiveA.blogspot.com (It’s Free!)

3. Retweet and share our messages on Twitter,  www.Twitter.com/@thecollectiveA;  and Facebook; www.Facebook.com/TcaSCd

4. Share our educational materials to raise awareness with your professional and social networks

5. Assist at special events with the Board and high school student interns in raising social awareness 

6. Become part of our Community Outreach Team

7. Refer new advocates to 1 of our Committees

8. Refer people to support our Curriculum Development by referring them to our online campaign, www.GoFundMe.com/CurriculumDevelopment

9. Provide a special skill towards building our programs such as writing or media e.g. photography, video or blogging

Give & Take: What we offer you by joining us

1. Support in training and educating you on human trafficking

2. Support in hosting a Trunk show by supplying the jewelry, receipts, educational information at the event(s)

3. Assistance in the community outreach by going out in the community with you to distribute information

4. Support at community events to provide experiential training in speaking to people in the community

5. Opportunities to develop new skills such as sitting on a Committee

6. Opportunities to network with people from various industries

7. Free marketing/advertising of your participation in community awareness activities and events

Our Accomplishments: Here is a brief summary of some of our accomplishments to date:

1. Human Trafficking awareness campaign & special events in NY and beyond (photos are available via the website and Facebook)

2. Development Weekend 2013, an annual all- day training for Board Members and Social Advocates on community & team building

3. Traveled with advocates to Washington, D.C. to march to raise awareness about human trafficking

3. Conducted classroom screenings of a human trafficking film & discussion at City College, Bronx Community College, Columbia University, Black & Missing Foundation's 5 K Run

4. Co-hosted a monthly segment on Blog Talk Radio

5. Created Health Awareness Campaigns for prostate and triple negative breast cancer and collaborated with community organizations on social issues e.g. Social Therapy and mental health in minority communities

6. Held our 1st annual fundraiser Monologue Slam

7. Created our 1^st Crowdfunding campaign (available now; www.GoFundMe.com/CurriculumDevel

www.TheCollectiveAdvocates.com

A Monologue Slam: We Raised Awareness As They Brought Tears to Everyone's Eyes

On Saturday, October 19^th some of the most brave and awe-inspiring actors and poets engulfed a room full of curious spectators with their words and enactments of human trafficked survivors. Performance art as education, it was for me a dream come true. To actually sit in a room where someone from the front of the theatre to the back of the theatre came to be shaken to their core by such moving portrayals was an experience I will never forget.

From the commanding introduction of “America” by poet Tony Vozzo to 1^st place winner Denise Scott’s screaming outcries of “where were you?” in her portrayal of a brutalized prostituted child, the message of human trafficking continued to be brought to light as a worldwide issue. Not only did the perpetrator and victim played by Samuel LeSane, III really help shape the message of victim and victimizer but also the unfilled dreams of the kids in the hood who never realize their dreams received its voice through poet, Will Dennis. It brought chills to my spine and our audience to tears.

Every month, every week and sometimes every day it feels like the Collective Advocates is evolving in new and powerful ways as social advocates. We have been pushing through those social media doors and stretching out as far as Florida to find new advocates. As we grow, we continue to discover more possibilities into our future as leaders of a new social era.

At the close of the day we want to leave people feeling inspired by our work. We want people to know that advocating is possible even in the smallest ways. A little commitment and an honest desire to make lasting, positive change a reality is for me, one of the best things about living this life.

Asha…

MONOLOGUE SLAM: RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT DOMESTIC HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The Collective Advocates for Social Change & Development, Inc. is holding its 1st annual fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 from 3-5p.m. at Brooklyn Music School and Playhouse. It's located at 126 St. Felix St. in Brooklyn, NY.

It will be a very special afternoon showcase and competition of various talented performers.

Each year, 300,000 or more people are trafficked in the United States for sex and labor. Children as young as 5 years old are sold for sex. Newborn babies are sold in exchange for drugs and money. Minor children are prostituted and men and women from around the globe are forced or coerced into labor with little to no pay, no medical benefits, no days off and often, without seeing their families.

These practices are inhumane and many violate human rights laws.

Additionally, so many people a year in the United States go missing. 

Annually, 60% of African Americans and Latinos go missing; some even trafficked; yet their story often does not make it to the airways.

We want to do something about the lack of information that's available which leads people to believe that human trafficking is only an international problem. That's only partly true. It is also a huge domestic problem! 

This industry is the 2nd leading criminal industry behind the illegal sale of drugs and guns. And it has enslaved up to 27 million people; making $32 billion dollars a year for traffickers and its cohorts.

At our Monologue Slam, you will experience the transformation of performance artists and poets into some of the voices of the most challenged communities who have been affected by human trafficking. All works from the performers will be original pieces. And prizes will be given for the best performances!

There will also be a cocktail and networking hour. You can purchase your tickets now at: www.Eventbrite.com/event/8476229631.

If you would also like to make a donation, please feel free to at: www.TheCollectiveAdvocates.com.

We appreciate your support and hope to see you there!

The Collective Advocates

Categories, Check Here

Photo by: League of Women Voters of California

I was reading one of my psychology books when the word “category” suddenly popped into my head. I considered how many categories we are put in everyday, starting at birth. Before you ever leave the hospital you’re assigned at least 2 or 3 categories: gender, race/ethnicity. You don’t have any say so in it. Boom! it’s just attached to you by someone with the authority to do so and follows you throughout life.
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New Jack Nino Browns

I was watching one of my favorite urban films the other night, New Jack City, and I still remember the sensational energy surrounding the film 20 years ago as if it were just released. There’s the element of power that a lot of us feel when watching these type of gangster/action films that for fleeting moments we almost think we know these characters or could live like these characters live, in our minds. Or do we actually know some young people already living out these characters in real life?
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Blog Talk Radio

Guest: Dr. Sidney Hankerson

Segment: "Inter-generational Depression Among African Americans"
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What The History?

It's a few days into Black History Month or as the Obamas call it, African American History Month, and I'm wondering what history we're really telling this month and the months thereafter. Not long ago, Black History Month was a week-long celebration of black history and culture, students may have crammed book reports and class presentations into that one week as if the three most popular African Americans all kids learn about in school--Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Martin Luther King--came to life all over again. But then what happened following that week?
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Human Trafficking Campaign

This year, The Collective Advocates for Social Change & Development, Inc., is creating a yearlong campaign to raise awareness on domestic human trafficking. We need your support in helping to create nationwide attention and discussion of this devastating social issue. 

As many people know, human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, exists around the globe. But what most people don't know is that human trafficking also exists in a large part right here in the United States. Human beings as young as 12 years old are trafficked regularly into commercial sex trafficking, prostitution, domestic servitude and forced labor. Many people don't make it out of the modern slave trade psychologically or physically well, if they make it out at all. This is where you come in!

You can get involved in our campaign from anywhere in the United States. Simply complete an Advocate form through our website and we will be in touch to share the many ways you can help Take Action! TheCollectiveAdvocates.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+.

We Celebrate!: Classic & Radical/ Contemporary & Not-So...

Listen to segment from a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech we don't often hear. He highlights an important anniversary on POTUS' 2nd inauguration and so much more!

How Ethnic Are We..Or Do We Know?

Photo by Hanumann

If you call me "Sis" without knowing my name or assume that we are all "brothas" and "sistahs" because we carry some version of the hue of the same genealogy should I trust that you understand me? Right now I think I woke up in a new day and the day says that so-called black folks are the same, but not the same. We are one but we're different. We have a range of ethnic characteristics, languages and dialects, cultural variances and upbringings but we're still and are so-called "black."  Falling in line with the new-month question of "What Is Black?"--well, what is it? Is black something you call someone who is anywhere from the palest of brown hue to the bluest of ebony and everything in between including a straight nose, light eyes, thin lips, wide nose, tiny squinted eyes and thick lips and then all the hair textures we can throw up in between? Is black also the context from which all humankind first existed but stayed connected to its roots through other things like political and social partisanship, suffering, sacrifices and the like? Because it seems like that's what we're talking about now--today--last week--next year at the panels during the year-long celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation and bet I still will walk away from 2013 asking what the hell "black" is! Is black different from being African American or the same?

And if I go along with the new-age new-day talk about Latinos being black too (and I'm supposing we're only talking about the brown ones and not the blue eyed pale ones that I notice are never a part of the conversation) and the 1 drop rule applying still to all the people from the diaspora who that once (and still) applied to tell me how I'm free and what do I call all the people who feel like me--like us--like those who still don't know?

Asha...

National Action Network Civil Rights Film Festival 2012

(Click to Enlarge)

When Tragedy Strikes

Photo From Wiki CC

 When I sat down to write this blog I thought about what to title it. In the end, I came up with what you see. Mostly because there is no easy way to talk about tragedy nor get around it. I suppose when any one of us is confronted with this type of devastation a loss of words is not the only thing we're gripped with. Sometimes a loss of rationale trails right behind. At what age does anyone prepare for tragedy? Is there any? And when do any of us have the words to describe how we feel about it when it happens?
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I Am...More

Since 2000, I've been listening to songs that use phrases like "I Am Not My Hair" or "I Am Not This Skin" as antithetic lyrics to the saturated, popular songs by  musicians who espouse the complete opposite of the empowering aforementioned anthems. But at a time too, when women are cutting off their hair or wearing naturals, do we need anything else to partialize the aspects of our being that does make us unique and identifiable? I know why songs written by India.Arie  and others like her are important (and I am a big fan of her music) but whether we shave our heads or lighten our skin doesn't change really that much about who we are on the inside.  That's really the point of it all. Those songs are also not just written for those of us who know that.
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We Require Perspective, II: Past, Future, and Present

Guest Blogger:
Rosechell Spencer III

On the first day of trial, Cinquẻ tells the court about his journey through the Middle Passage and then aboard La Amistad…

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Women Of A Certain Class

238 East 50th Street, New York City, NY: this is the address of one of several apartment buildings in a few upper class New York City neighborhoods that maintained a prostitution ring for the past year. This location was seized last month by undercover detectives who had been investigating  a 42 y.r. man from Brooklyn, NY who arranged and maintained it. The ringleader, William Thomas, had kept two websites advertising sex with Asian women. The price for sex: $200. The men who bought services: wealthy businessmen from Wall St. The women who were using their bodies for sex were photographed in ads as sex objects who dressed in play clothes that portrayed them as maids and school girls.
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Where Is Your 40 Acres?

Photo by Poster Boy NYC

Election Night I was home trying my best to stay up as several U.S. states lagged behind so many others, counting the votes for our next President. In the end, it was all worth the wait, Barack Obama was re-elected. Four years earlier, a lot of us were more worked up and excited hoping, praying that we would see the first African American president win the election. This time around I think we were still quite excited, but possibly more worried that the win would go to Mitt Romney and not Barack Obama.

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What Will You Remember?

Photo by Tiffa130

Ok, Readers! This one may be a blatant no holds barred read, but I have to put it out there. What is BET doing with it's programming? The more I think I want to support their shows and sit down to some hip hop and R&B entertainment, I'm instead thrusted into the back of some hip hop or R&B artist's behind. I care very little about the tattoos I can hardly read on their bodies. I care even less about if their underwear are Calvin Klein or Hanes. I do, however, care about the tiny boys and girls I heard the other day reciting hip hop lines of rappers who, at some point, are going to refer to themselves and these kids as niggahs and bitches.
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Who Gets To Choose Who's Beautiful, Who's Not?

When I was 6 or 7 years old I had hair that hung in ponytails past my shoulders. As I grew up, my hair grew longer. So did my sister's. So did a lot of women in my family. When I entered middle school most of the minority girls didn't look like me nor I, them, but we were all beautiful, in different ways, in various shades of brown.

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Slavery By Any Other Name

Guest Blogger:
Rosechell Spencer III

I have a passion and a mission to serve minority communities. My calling is intimately linked to my cultural heritage including my ancestry, history, and upbringing (my mostly being raised by two fearfully creative, undoubtedly powerful, and decidedly beautiful black women). I aim to unite minority communities in an effort to reach a more positive future. My driving force, in turns of the African-American (A.A.) community, has been the atrocities of slavery. I often talk about the methodology used and lasting effects of slavery. I equate modern jail systems to new-age slavery, but this weekend I was formerly introduced to a more precise and simple answer to the equivalent of modern-day slavery; human trafficking. 

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We Require Perspective

Guest Blogger:
Rosechell Spencer III

La Amistad, a Spanish trade-ship, set sail in 1839 from Cuba to The United States. Her cargo was slaves.On the night of a storm, Cinquẻ, a slave releases himself from his shackles and leads a murderous revolt. The slaves kill most of the ship’s crew and then ordered the remaining two crewmen to sail to the sun, to their mother-land Africa. Six weeks later, La Amistad encounters a ship bearing the American flag. The two crewmen actually lied to Cinquẻ, sailed directly to the United States, and ran into the American Navy. The slaves were recaptured, jailed, and placed on trial. They are charged of insurrection, but the court is most concerned with claims of property and property damage. Three parties fight over the ownership of the slaves: Spain, The United States, and the surviving crewmen/traders.
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