Support Protections for Children

From: Episcopal Public Policy Network


Children in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are fleeing their homes to escape deadly violence and extreme poverty. Often traveling alone, they are seeking protection in neighboring countries, including the U.S. The UN Refugee Agency reports that at least 58% of those unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the U.S. are likely to qualify for international protection.

In order to uphold international law and human rights standards, the U.S. must employ careful and lawful screening processes for children seeking asylum. Unfortunately, this is not the reality. Many of these children face trial without representation and a clear understanding of the asylum process. The Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2016 (S. 2540/ H.R. 4646) is a bill that would address this issue by ensuring access to counsel, legal orientation programs, and post-release services for children and other vulnerable individuals while they are in immigration court proceedings.
As people of faith, we are called to strive for justice and peace, and Episcopal policy passed by General Convention calls on Episcopalians to advocate for a just system of asylum for persecuted persons. The Fair Day in Court for Kids Act would ensure justice for children who have been forced from their homes and are seeking safety and opportunity.


Contact your members of Congress today to tell them to support S.2440 and H.R. 4646!

From the Montana Food Bank Network:

​The Congressional Budget Office has reportedly finalized their scores for the Senate Agriculture Committee CNR bill, paving the way for full Senate action. The Senate Agriculture Committee is hoping to use an expedited process with limited debate to bring the bill to the Senate floor before Congress leaves for the July 15th summer recess.

The Senate Ag Committee’s CNR bill is a strong, bipartisan compromise that would strengthen the Summer Food Service Program, WIC, CACFP (the Child and Adult Care Food Program), and Farm to School Programs. In particular, the bill would improve access to the Summer Food Service Program in rural areas by strengthening the Summer EBT provision, allowing additional non-congregate options, and streamlining SFSP with At-Risk Afterschool Meals for community sponsors. 

Please take a moment to review the two pdf files below for more information on specifics associated with this bill.

Please call or email THIS WEEK to encourage both of Montana's Senators to support the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016 when it comes up for a floor vote.

• Senator Daines: (202) 224-2651, email at http://www.daines.senate.gov/connect/email-steve
• Senator Tester: (202) 224-2644, email at https://www.tester.senate.gov/?p=email_senator

Sample message:

Hello, I am a constituent from (town/city), Montana. I would like to urge Senator (Daines/Tester) to support the Senate Ag Committee's Child Nutrition bill when it comes up for a floor vote. One in five children in our state live in homes that struggle with hunger, putting them at risk of health problems and lower educational attainment. The Child Nutrition programs are crucial resources for Montana's families and important investments in Montana's kids. The Senate CNR bill is a strong, bipartisan compromise that makes notable improvements to the Summer Food Service Program, WIC, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. In particular, the bill includes important provisions to improve access to the Summer Food Service Program in rural states like ours. Please vote to support the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016.

Thank you for speaking out for Montana's children. Please contact Tirza Asbell from the Montana Food Bank Network at tasbell@mfbn.org or (406) 215-1771 if you have any questions.

Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger has grants of up to $1,000 are now available! The grant criteria changes quarterly and focuses on different steps in their 10-Step Plan.This quarter, they will be funding programs focusing on Step 8, improving emergency food systems, and Step 9, nutrition education. If your organization could benefit from this funding, you can find the grant application HERE. Applications are due by August 1.

The Northern Rockies Institute of Theology, a continuing education ministry of the ELCA is entering the world of digital education. Our first digital offering is now available on our website. When you purchase the class, you will have access to it throughout 2016 so can offer the class as a multi-session adult study or watch it on your personal computer at your convenience.

DIGITAL EDUCATION CLASSES

Learning Our Place: Wilderness and Wonder from a Biblical Perspective
Taught by Dr. Kathryn Schifferdecker, professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary
This course explores the book of Job and several biblical texts for insights about God, creation and humanity. What kind of world is this? What is our place in this world? How does the Bible speak of wilderness and wild creatures? What about “acts of God?” Cost of 12 months of access to the class is $40.

Syria in the Bible and in the Early Church: A Heritage at Risk
Taught by Dr. Thomas Lee who served for many years as Lutheran campus pastor at the University of Montana, Missoula, where he also—as a faculty affiliate—taught biblical Hebrew and Aramaic in UM’s Religious Studies Department. During the 1980s and into the 1990s he served on the staff of two archaeological projects in the Kingdom of Jordan and one in the Republic of Syria.

 In recent months we’ve become aware as well of the tragic loss of Syria’s rich cultural heritage at the hands of ISIS and by those who profit from the looting and sale of antiquities. This loss of antiquities and the humanitarian tragedy are not unrelated. As Dr. Amr al-Azm, a former official in the Syrian Ministry of Antiquities who now teaches Middle Eastern History and Archaeology at Shawnee State University in Ohio, reminds us: “A people without a history is a lost people . . . and history without people is meaningless.”

Conservative Organizer
Job description
2016-2017
 

The Montana Abolition Coalition is a collaboration of organizations and individuals that value justice and are committed to repealing Montana’s death penalty. The Coalition continues to successfully bring together a wide range of people from across the political spectrum for a common cause. While this diverse group may disagree on a number of issues, we stand united in our commitment to abolishing the death penalty.
 
About the job:
The Conservative Organizer is a full-time position working out of the offices of the Montana Catholic Conference. Office location /home office is negotiable; however working in Helena full time is expected during the legislative session. This position will include working flexible hours, evenings, and weekends. Statewide travel is required.

The position will report to the Coalition Director. Salary will be $2,300-2,600 per month, commensurate with experience. The contract will be for the time period of August 1st, 2016 through April 30th, 2017; with an option to extend the contract as funding allows. Employee will receive a monthly allowance to purchase or be reimbursed for health insurance benefits.

Target start date for this position is August, 2016, negotiable.
 
Qualifications:

• Personal commitment and enthusiasm to end the death penalty
• Self-motivated and able to work with a team of diverse people and organizations.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, both written and oral.
• Comfortable with analyzing and articulating complex issues and communicating them to a variety of audiences.
• Experience with grassroots organizing, online organizing and/or communications.
• Basic computer competency.
• Direct or personal experience with Republican or conservative individuals or organizations a plus.

 
Responsibilities:
 
Coalition

• Participate in Steering Committee meetings, sharing work, coordinating tactics, and evaluating strategy.
• Assist with and attend large Coalition events such as speaking tours and the Annual Meeting.

 
Conservative outreach and organizing

• Arrange dialogues about the death penalty at small gatherings of conservatives, including Pachyderm Clubs and local Tea Party groups, sharing information about how abolishing the death penalty fits with conservative values, identifying grasstops individuals that the Coalition can work with to advance our work.
• Reenergize Montana Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, building a solid group of committed participants and creating a strong presence for the group at conservative events and in media, including social media.

 
Republican Party organizing

• Gather intelligence on potential candidates for election and meet with candidates before they stake out a position on the death penalty, preventing them from pinning themselves in a corner.
• Participate in Party events that foster relationships with individual party members and legislators/candidates specifically.
• Facilitate a Republican Advisory Group of key legislative leaders in the Republican Party who support abolition and who can further our cause in the legislature and in the Party.
• Coordinate efforts with the Coalition lobbyist to ensure coverage of target legislators and candidates. 

 
Evangelical and Religious outreach and organizing

• Set up dialogues about the death penalty with individual members and pastors of evangelical churches.
• Help mobilize the members of the Montana Catholic Conference (MCC) and the Montana Association of Christians through communications, publications, and events in churches, coordinating work with the Coalition board members.

 
To Apply: Email cover letter, resume, and three references to: JenK@mtabolitionco.org; incomplete applications will not be considered. Applications will be reviewed beginning July 15th, 2016.

For more information visit Johnny Cash Tribute & Silent Auction

On Feb. 4, 2016, the Economic Affairs Interim Committee voted to create an Air Ambulance Working Group to identify possible solutions to the decreasing the burden of air ambulance costs on Montanans.  The group is comprised of air ambulance providers, insurers, hospitals and consumers. The working group is responsible (via the State Auditor’s office) to report back to the Economic Affairs Interim Committee on the status of their work.

The Air Ambulance Working Group met on May 25th to continue discussions on the following proposed solutions:

1. Transparency/Disclosure: providing air ambulance provider fees/cost for out of network providers.
2. In-Network/Provider Data: fee data for in-network providers provided by BCBSMT and Allegiance (additional fee data is provided on the Montana State Legislature’s website)
3. Definition of Emergency: EMTALA definition of “emergency”
4. Hold Harmless: review the Hold Harmless laws of Florida and New York, and discuss binding arbitration.
5. Emergency Room Doctor (in replace of Hospital Panel): the working group listened to input from an emergency room physician from Bozeman Deaconess.
6. Provider Skill Set: Reviewing the nature of care based on air ambulance scenarios, and establishing fees based on the type of service provided.
7. Air Ambulance Billing Codes: Multiple billing codes were proposed to the working group.  This discussion will be continued in the next working group meeting.

A subcommittee/working group was established to begin drafting legislative language for a hold harmless statute. They will provide an update to the working group at the July 8th meeting. The Air Ambulance Working Group needs to have proposed solutions to the Economic Affairs Interim Commission Committee by end of August.  The working group will also continue discussing establishing cost based on provider skill sets and establishing a set of proposed billing codes.
​
Though it was not on the agenda, membership (to air ambulance providers) programs, their cost and transparency was discussed at length during the first part of the meeting.  The group learned that many of these membership programs are operated from an organization that is “separate” from the air ambulance provider. Several within the group continued to have concerns over the lack of transparency with the memberships, the cost, and the lack of patient choice to call upon a flight within their membership.
Overall, while the meeting at times became heated and emotional, the level of discussion moved the group towards consensus on a possible short-term solution, particularly regarding a hold harmless statute/legislative change. 

For additional information, please visit click on the Air Ambulance Working Group

Bipartisan Congressional action is vital to catalyze the necessary national and global solutions to climate disruption. FCNL's Call to Conscience on Climate Disruption seeks to dissipate the partisan logjam through a faith-filled, non-partisan moral call, led by concerned citizens across the nation, dialoguing directly and constructively with legislators. Faith-based approaches to contentious issues – when grounded in concern for the most vulnerable peoples and recognizing the Light within all people – can dissipate divisiveness and focus on values of fellowship, redemption, and a shared purpose.

For the past 3 years, we have adopted this approach with key legislators from both parties, asking that they come together to publicly declare that climate disruption is real, is primarily caused by human activities, and is inflicting great harm on present generations and our beloved Earth. This modest yet significant first step is necessary before solutions can happen: for Congress to solve a problem (climate disruption and partisan paralysis), it must first admit it has one.

We are pleased that after three years, the tone of Congress on climate disruption is indeed changing.

The Republican Climate Resolution

On September 17, 2015, a week prior to Pope Francis’ address to Congress, Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) and 10 fellow House Republicans introduced a climate resolution – House Resolution 424 – the first formal and affirmative statement on climate disruption by a group of elected Republicans in Congress since 2008. It is the beginning of a new bipartisan spirit in Congress for meaningful legislation that can address the root causes and impacts of climate disruption.

The following programs are offered by the Institute for Peace and Dialogue, shared by the National Council of Churches Interreligious Relations office.

International Summer Academies
http://www.ipdinstitute.ch/Summer-Academy-3-Month-CAS-Research-Program-2016/

3 Month Research Program 2016
http://www.ipdinstitute.ch/Summer-Academy-3-Month-CAS-Research-Program-2016/

1 Year Visitor Research Program
http://www.ipdinstitute.ch/1-Year-Visitor-Research-Program,-VRP/