PEACE Celebration and Congregational Drive

On Tuesday, May 27th, PEACE will hold its 4th big Assembly of the year – our Justice Ministry Celebration!  It is the time of year to work to own our own power. We are each determining the financial investments we can make in PEACE to assure that it is a healthy organization that is independent, and able to address issues of justice in Palm Beach County. All Network Members should be in attendance, as this is the 4th of the 4 big Assemblies you committed to attend when you agreed to be Network Members.  The Assembly is being held at 7 pm @ Holy Name of Jesus: 345 S Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL, US, 33415. As in previous years, a wonderful dinner will be provided.

• first and foremost – our TURNOUT!  The total count curently stands at 2,584 — by the time we are done, we may have broken (or be pretty close to) 2,600.  This is 600 more than our goal, and 1,200 more than we had last year!  This increase of 1,200 is the single greatest increase achieved by a DART organization from one year to the next EVER.  2,600 also represents the 3rd highest turnout in DART history.

• With our Criminal Justice issue, first of all – here is a clarification  on just what it is that we were and are asking the Sheriff to do, and what has been achieved since the Action –

• With Jobs / Unemployment in the Glades – the day after our Nehemiah Action, they had a County Commission Meeting.  The Commissioners did as they had committed to do, and asked staff to look into the data around locals being hired / Glades businesses getting work on County contracts for projects in the Glades.  In fact, many of the Commissioners were essentially “falling all over themselves” to make sure they were on record as doing what PEACE wanted them to do (saying things like “PEACE had 2,000 people out last night who were very concerned about unemployment in the Glades, and I want to make sure we’re doing what they want …”).  The lesson here?  AGAIN – Getting out 2,600 people makes a big difference.

• Finally, our power-building of previous years leading up to this point has also resulted in some pretty exciting results in the areas of Out-of-School Suspensions and Wage Theft.  Out-of-School Suspensions is down by 40% district-wide, and approximately $200,000 has been put into the hands of 170 victims of wage theft in Palm Beach County.  None of this would have been remotely possible without PEACE, without the hard work of building powerful justice ministries on the part of clergy, Team Members, and Network Members.