By Liane Scott, on October 19th, 2011 Grace Ebiasah is an organizer for Different Avenues, a DC nonprofit working to change, improve, and protect the health, rights, and safety of women and girls in the region. She spent an afternoon at the Boys and Girls Club of Washington, Number 14 on Benning Road in Northeast. While there, Grace took the opportunity to survey some of the program participants about the budget cuts to social services that the city and federal government have been making in response to the down economy. One of the questions explored was why the government continues to cut programs such as for mentoring and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) that would help young people while continuing to increase funding for policing and youth rehabilitation. Results of that portion of her survey are in the following video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn4uaoX05w4
In the video, one of the participants asks, “Why is the government putting more money into locking up youth? How does that help our economy?” I asked Different Avenues director Kelli Dorsey if indeed locking up youth helps or hurts our economy. Her response was that it depends where you fall in the economy. Progressive organizers like Dorsey claim that the commonly-held belief that imprisonment will fix problems brought on by a lack of positive opportunities in low-income communities of color encourages government to put more money into policing those communities than it does in providing for their needs. Companies like Victoria’s Secret, which uses cheap prison labor to produce their products in California, or Bob Barker Company, Inc., America’s leading detention supplier, make plenty of money via the prison industrial complex. Youth and others who are locked up in prison do not profit from these relationships.
While Different Avenues works to change a system that would use youth in communities of color as a potential source of profit rather than as citizens worthy of support, they are also aware that young people need direction to help them keep from getting caught up in the prison-industrial complex. To that end, Different Avenues organizer Jasmine Archer has created a guide for youth who are stopped by the police. HEY GRRL! What Time Is It? Time To Know Your Rights!!! is geared toward youth but is useful for anybody who gets stopped by the police. Different Avenues is currently looking for funding to publish and distribute this guidebook. In the meantime, feel free to download and distribute it at will.
By Liane Scott, on July 26th, 2011 
If the Congress and President Obama cannot agree on a plan to raise the debt limit then the Federal Government will go into default. There have been all kinds of dire predictions about what will happen to the US economy should this happen. The financial industry claims that Congress not only needs to raise the debt ceiling but they also must cut the deficit by something like $4 trillion if the US government’s credit rating is to remain in good order. In response, the Democrats have advocated raising taxes on the wealthy which, naturally, the Republicans refuse to do. So, What does all this mean for those of us whose incomes are low?
However this gets resolved, you can be sure that Congress will do it’s best to close the deficit by cutting programs that help the poor. It won’t work of course as those programs don’t make up enough of the budget to make a substantial difference in the deficit even if they were entirely eliminated. The axe will fall next on entitlements like Medicaid and Social Security which also have a disproportionate impact on low- and moderate-income folks. So, as usual, the wealthy will do fine and the rest of us will continue to struggle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6hD5A4tquk
Jasmine Archer of Different Avenues, a DC Nonprofit working for reproductive justice by and for girls and women of color, examines how the budget cuts will affect youth in the above digital story. Here’s her introduction: I did a digital story on the budget cuts and talked a little about how it’s going to affect us as a people. Image if they cut WIC (Women Infant Children) how many mothers and children will be hungry, or image if they cut health care, how many people wouldn’t be able to afford their medication. I wonder do they imagine how it will affect us as a people mentally, physically, and emotionally, or how the budget cuts can create violence and depression.
By Liane Scott, on April 26th, 2011 
The Grassroots DC offers digital storytelling workshops to community-based social change organizations. Here’s one that was produced by Skytrinia Berkeley, a member of Different Avenues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNAnj-38qY
Hi, my name is Skytrinia Berkeley. I volunteer at Different Avenues, where our mission is to build and share leadership skills as well as to organize to make change and improve and protect the health, rights and safety of women and girls in this region and thus nationally. One of the ways we do this is by making digital stories.
This digital story that I created helped me to come to terms and grasp with who I am as an individual. I believe it’s important for all people including youth to be allowed to come into terms and in touch with themselves. Even if they’re not ready to face themselves, I would hope that my story will give them an insight into a person who also was not able to face themselves, but now is ready. This story may impact you in ways that you may not be aware of. So please take the time to take a look at it and come into touch with yourself. I hope my shared experience will allow you to do that.
By Liane Scott, on March 25th, 2011 
The Grassroots DC offers digital storytelling workshops to community-based social change organizations. Here’s one that was produced by Grace Ebiasah, a member of Different Avenues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teFD1L9pYz0
Hi, I’m Grace and I work with a non-profit organization called Different Avenues. The mission of Different Avenues is to build and share leadership skills as well as to organize to make change and improve and protect the health, rights and safety of women and girls in this region and thus nationally. One of the ways we do this is by making digital stories.
I think creating a digital story could be of a help to Different Avenues because most people in my community have different views and perspectives of different sorts of things that can have an effect on there everyday living and there daily life. Most people that I have run across in my 19 years of living on this earth have not discovered a reasonable way to cope with there anger and frustration and to get their points across. Some people feel as if they’re all alone and that they have no one to call on and that their voices and actions are never heard. I truly believe creating a digital story can help them find out who they truly are inside and also help people to make a difference.
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