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Legislative Advocacy Training to be Offered in Blacksburg |
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EverythingNRV
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The New River Valley chapter of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy will sponsor a free legislative advocacy training, Social Justice U, on Sept. 28, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, on the corner of Tom’s Creek Road and Price’s Fork Road in Blacksburg.
Social Justice U will begin with an introduction to the Interfaith Center’s 2008-2009 priority issues by Executive Director, the Reverend Doug Smith. A panel of public policy experts will address three issues the Center will be tracking during the upcoming Virginia legislative session: humane treatment for immigrants, reform in the criminal justice system, and new jobs for a green America.
Panel members will be LaTonya Reed, an attorney with a special interest in reform of the criminal justice system; Ali Faruk, whose public policy experience includes immigration, housing, and homelessness; and Ms. Tyler Edgar, Director of the Climate and Energy Campaign for the National Council of Churches. Ms. Reed and Mr. Faruk are on the staff of the Interfaith Center.
The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide organization bringing together people of all faiths to advance the social justice teachings they share. The Interfaith Center advocates with our state legislators on behalf of those whose need for social and economic justice would otherwise go unnoticed and unheard. For 25 years, the Center has been the voice for Virginia’s most vulnerable, including the working poor, the homeless, and at-risk children and youth. In the 2008-2009 General Assembly session, in addition to the topics to be addressed in the Social Justice U, the Center will focus on health-care access, housing, and ending usurious lending practices that target the poor.
The New River Valley Chapter of the Interfaith Center includes residents of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski counties, and the City of Radford. Other chapter events during 2008 and 2009 include visits to legislators district offices, ongoing discussion groups about the Center’s priority issues, a November 18 forum featuring area legislators, a January bus trip to Richmond for the Center’s Day for All People of Faith, and the local chapter’s annual meeting in late April.
The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about Social Justice U or other of the Center’s statewide and local activities, please call Stephanie Gilmore, Chapter Chairperson, at 540-552-3988.
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