Special Announcement: Newly Added Recordings to Our Archives of Past Featured Speakers

Due to technical difficulties, we have been unable to post several of our archived recordings of past Breakfast presentations until now. Thanks to those who have been so patient in awaiting these updates. 

Of special note are the Nola Timebank presentation with Gretchen Zalkind from September 8, 2012, our Post Election Roundtable discussion moderated by Maureen Shea on November 10, 2012, and our December 8, 2012 presentation about Human Trafficking with Lindsey Boettinger and Sue Weishar. These are the latest additions to the archive. 

  

Be sure to check the sidebars where you can search for recordings  by name, date, presenter(s), or labels/keywords. 

You can visit our archive website by using the link on our home page, or by clicking HERE. Enjoy and share!

Btw, the announcement of our upcoming January breakfast will be out shortly. You won't wanna miss it!

Human Trafficking is Modern Day Slavery: Greater New Orleans, United States, and Global Manifestations

Saturday, December 8, 2012
Listen to the recorded presentation HERE

Featuring:

Lindsey Boettinger

Case Manager for the Catholic Charities Refugee Services Program, and an Outreach Specialist for the Rescue and Restore Human Trafficking Program

and

Sue Weishar

Migration Specialist, Jesuit Social Research Institute of Loyola University

Lindsey Boettinger has worked with the refugee population from various countries since she lived in Cairo, Egypt in 2006.  After returning to the United States in 2007, she has worked in differing capacities with survivors of foreign conflict, natural and man-made disasters, and survivors of human trafficking in Washington, DC, Silver Spring, MD,  and New Orleans, LA.  She is a member of FreeNola and the New Orleans Human Trafficking Working Group, and is dedicated to spreading public awareness about human trafficking in order to engage the community on ways to identify and prevent it. 

Lindsey led discussion about disturbing current trends in human trafficking with the assistance of Sue Weishar who is currently a Migration Specialist/Fellow with the Jesuit Social Research Institute. 

Sue previously spent fourteen years as Director of Immigration and Refugee Services with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (1991-2005) and earlier worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa and as a teacher in Guatemala. Most recently, in the years since Katrina, she served as project manager for the Louisiana Refugee Services Collaborative to implement a new state-wide refugee services collaborative, administrator for the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA), Gulf Coast Coordinator for the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits, and Director of Development for UNITY of Greater New Orleans.

Also, Sue and programs which she directed have been honored by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (for Alternatives to Detention), the National Crime Prevention Council (for the Asian Youth Services Program), and the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement (for the Immigrant Domestic Violence Services Program). 

2012 Post Election Roundtable Forum

SATURDAY November 10, 2012 

Moderator:

Maureen Shea

Associate Professor, Tulane University 

A discussion of the 2012 elections in a moderated, roundtable format. We welcomed all political persuasions, all parties, the unaffiliated, and the conscientious abstainers.

Listen to the recorded presentation HERE

Kids Get Poisoned on Playgrounds with Costly, Lifelong Consequences – But There is a Cheap and Long-Lasting Solution

SATURDAY October 13, 2012

Featuring:

Howard Mielke

Research Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Tulane University School of Medicine

We learned of our speaker's startling findings which correlate violent assaults with lead exposure in many arenas, some dating back to when gasoline was leaded. He also shared his ideas on how to prevent children from being exposed on the city's old playgrounds. And in case you didn't know, he's the guy who helped 'get the lead out' of our gasoline way back in 1984!

TimeBanking in New Orleans: the Nola TimeBank Community -An Alternative Economy

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Featuring: 

Gretchen Zalkind

Coordinator, Nola TimeBank

Originally from Portland, OR, Gretchen spent 20 years in Los Angeles before moving to New Orleans last summer. According to her, she "was a very happy member of the Echo Park Time Bank in Los Angeles and (is) happy to be helping the NOLA TimeBank get up and running."

Timebanking is an alternative economy which has no monetary basis and instead values all labor equally so that an hour of any service is valued the same as any other service, which is then "banked" upon completion into a pool of service hours from which one can withdraw when necessary.  

Gretchen elaborated on this concept as well as on the local chapter in New Orleans, and informing us of how to become a member and where and when upcoming workshops will be held. 

Several of our Community Breakfast attendees are Nola TimeBank members already, and several others have expressed an interest in learning more, so this was a chance to find out all about this exciting movement for community building. 

Listen to the recorded presentation HERE

The Insanity of Mental Health Care

Featuring:

Cecile Tebo, LCSW

Crisis Intervention Specialist
SATURDAY AUGUST 11, 2012

Join us as Cecile talks about the current state of mental health treatment in New Orleans and across Louisiana. From her recent op-ed piece on Nola.com: 

"Chronic mental illness demands a combination of support systems for stabilization. One piece taken out, such as hospitalization, wreaks havoc on the rest.

The state's decision to repeatedly place the burden of budget shortfalls on the shoulders of those with chronic mental illness is truly insane. There are no savings in this decision. The cost of managing these folks through repeated emergency service and incarcerations will far exceed the reported saving of $1.9 million, as well as the fact that the cost of life is priceless." 

 (You can read the full text HERE. Or watch a video HERE.)

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Agenda:

9:30Am – Coffee, Juice And Light Breakfast Pastries*

10:00Am – Progressive & Social Justice Community Networking

11:00Am – Featured Speaker's Presentation and Discussion
*donation welcomed

Meeting Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans

☜See map in the Right Sidebar☜ 

(Meeting will be in the Church's main sanctuary on Claiborne- Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

For more information, contact us: admin@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee since May 1983.

Pax Christi's Role in Opposing the Current Trend of U.S. Militarism

Featuring:

Kevin Cahalan

Former Peace Corps Volunteer and U.S. Marine, 

now a  Pacifist with Pax Christi (link)

SATURDAY JULY 14, 2012 

Kevin  discussed how Pax Christi's endeavors to end war and nurture peace among nations contrasts with current U.S. militaristic policies
or, in his words, 

"...the folly of current American military adventures in light of their guarantee of failure, their cost when weighed against what we must sacrifice in terms of human lives destroyed and the economic trade-offs we must make, and our dismal current economic situation." 

We thoroughly enjoyed Kevin's presentation and a lively discussion on where we can go from here and how we can combine our efforts on behalf of both peace and greater citizen involvement in all aspects of public dialogue. 

A RELATED NOTE:

News Flash!!! Ecuador Quits the Infamous School of the Americas!!!

(click HERE to read more)

Solidarity Economy Committee of New Orleans Explores Local Alternatives to the Dominant Economic Model

Featuring:

Jordan Bantuelle
For more info, you can visit the Solidarity Economy Facebook Page HERE

SATURDAY JUNE 9, 2012

9:30am to 12:00pm

Listen to archived recording Here

Voter Suppression in the 2012 Election and the Curious Case of Waterproof, LA

Featuring:

Ronald L. Wilson

Native New Orleans Attorney and Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Advocate

(click HERE to view his bio)

Ron represented one of the defendants whose conviction was recently reversed by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the Waterproof, Louisiana case, where the black mayor and police chief were arrested and jailed by the white Tensas Parish sheriff, tried by the white district attorney, and convicted by a predominantly white jury (only one black juror) of malfeasance in office and felony theft.

Last year he filed a federal case along with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Project Vote to ensure that federal voting registration mandates are met by the State of Louisiana, and will speak to us about concerns that voter's rights are being consciously supressed.

SATURDAY MAY 12, 2012

9:30am to 12:00pm

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

9:30am – Coffee, juice and light breakfast pastries

10:00am – Progressive social justice community networking

11:00am – Keynote presentation

$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact Brad Ott: (504) 269-4951

or you can always reach us HERE

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee since May 1983.

The Need for Social Justice to Embrace a Black Agenda

Featuring: 

W.C.Johnson

Several concerned citizens of the black community in New Orleans have come together to form the United New Orleans Front and will be presenting their agenda to the city's power structure. (See their flyer "March Against Injustice" on our new Poster Page.) 

Mr Johnson, a founding member, spoke to us about the concerns of the Black Community and  social justice platforms affecting a black agenda.

SATURDAY April 14, 2012


We have to apologize because our recording equipment failed to capture this keynote speech.


Tentative Title of our next Keynote:


"Voter Suppression in the 2012 Election"


announcement following shortly...

The Advocacy Center: Protect, Empower and Advocate

Featuring:
Linda Kocher

Past Vice President, Advocacy Center

Pamela Fisher

Director of Development, Advocacy Center

The Advocacy Center serves people in Louisiana who have mental or physical disabilities, and those over the age of sixty. Too many are being denied their rights. They are being neglected and abused. They are voiceless. Since 1977, the Advocacy Center has worked to change their lives.

SATURDAY MARCH 10, 2012

******************

Big Oil in Louisiana: Make ‘em Pay!

Featuring: 

Anne Rolfes

Founding Director

Louisiana Bucket Brigade

Iris Brown Carter

Community Liaison

Louisiana Bucket Brigade

Together they spoke about Iris's own experiences with Shell Oil and her exodus from Norco, plus ongoing campaigns of the Bucket Brigade in its efforts to force oil companies to be more accountable and responsible to their neighboring communities, while holding the EPA and DEQ accountable for enforcing their mandates.

Saturday February 11, 2012

Another Chance to Listen to Our Keynote Presentation from Saturday, 1/14/2012: "Voice of the Ex-Offender: Challenges and Opportunities"

Our featured speaker on Saturday, Norris Henderson, Executive Director of V.O.T.E. (Voice of the Ex-Offender) spoke about the difficulties faced by ex-offenders after serving their sentences and upon returning home. He also told of us various programs and efforts to help them ease back into society and become productive citizens, including registering to vote. Of course, he talked about a lot more...

So, In case you wanted to attend but just couldn't make it; or, if you want to hear what you missed, visit our new Podcast Archive site: Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast Podcasts (http://gmcbpodcasts.blogspot.com/) While there, you can subscribe to receive a notice when new recordings are posted, usually a few days following the presentation.


Please note: If you are now subscribed to receive our announcements of upcoming keynotes, you must subscribe to our archives separately on our archive site. This notice is only a courtesy reminder of our NEW SITE.

Voice of the Ex-Offender: Challenges and Opportunities

featuring:
Norris Henderson   

Executive Director, V.O.T.E.

(Voice of the Ex-Offender)

Long time activist and advocate for ex-offenders, Norris talked about the difficulties facing people after being released from prison, and the programs and efforts to help them make the transition. He also discussed the role politics and other agendas play in the perpetuation of obstacles and prejudices facing ex-ofenders. 


SATURDAY JANUARY 14, 2012

Click to Listen to this Keynote Presentation