Rochelle on HuffPost: LGBT Pride and Prejudice

Pro-Media Founder, Rochelle Lefkowitz has been blogging over at the Huffington Post! Check out Rochelle’s new post, “Code Orange and June Bugs,”a reflection on Pro-Media’s recent event “Witnesses to History: A Conversation with Those Who Saw & Documented Key Gay Rights Moments Since Stonewall.” Feel free to dive in on the debate, comment, share and subscribe to Rochelle’s RSS feed.

Media Days Pay Dividends for Pro-Media Client

The following is praise for a Pro-Media Communications strategy in the May newsletter of Opportunity Finance Network, a Pro-Media Client. To learn more about Opportunity Finance Network, visit their Web site:

Media Days Pay Dividends

OFN and our public relations firm, Pro-Media Communications, continue to champion the opportunity finance field via media placement in mainstream outlets such as Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, and now – USA Today.

In April, USA Today furthered a broader understanding of the role of CDFIs as it reported on how the 2010 stimulus budget “includes more money for the financiers, to help distressed areas hit hardest by the recession.” USA Today featured an in-depth look at OFN Member Community First Fund, and concluded that CFF proves “ lending to poor people is good business.” Read the full article.

The seeds of these stories were planted many months earlier, when Pro-Media Communications arranged a series of Media Days for OFN in the late fall of 2008. Mark Pinsky met informally with high profile journalists at their desks in New York City and Washington, D.C. to explain the vital role of CDFIs in the changing financial system. Pro-Media and OFN continue to field follow-up calls from those original. We expect to see even more exciting press clippings in the coming months.

Reflections of a Life

By Lauren Atieh, Account Coordinator

“However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.” – President Barack Obama

On Sunday, May 31, Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in the foyer of his church, located in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the nation that provided late-term abortions to women seeking them. He had been the victim of several attacks by pro-life radicals throughout his career, including his clinic being bombed in 1986 and being shot in both arms in 1993, but survived. However, this devastating act of public violence caused the pre-mature death of one of America’s biggest advocates for reproductive rights.

Reproductive and women’s rights is something Pro-Media has worked long and hard to preserve. Many of our present and past clients, including Safe Horizon and The Center for Reproductive Rights, have made great strides in furthering women’s rights through strong media campaigns. The murder of Dr. Tiller is a way to remind us that there is a long road ahead of us. It is so important to rely on passionate conversations, rather than violent acts to engage both sides of a debate.

Abortion has, and probably always will be, a very ardent subject. As a pro-choice advocate, these current events have taken a toll on me. And as far as we as a society have come in fighting for equal rights for women, we still have not gotten to the point to accept abortion as a choice. Now that the abortion debate is once again front in center, I truly hope we can work towards understanding and accepting one another’s differing points of view.

The DREAM Continues On

By Jane Chung, Account Coordinator

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore–and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over–like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? -Langston Hughes

According to the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium’s “To Be, We DREAM” fact sheet , there are 1.7 million undocumented immigrants under the age of 18 nationally. 1 in 5 Korean Americans are undocumented, including a significant percentage under 18 years of age

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It was the summer of 2002 when I was first introduced to the DREAM Act, legislation that would grant undocumented immigrant students access to higher education and pathway towards citizenship. I was 23, a sophomore organizer with a non-profit group in Queens, NY, and still learning the ropes of grassroots activism from veterans who were in the field for more than 20 years. It would be at this moment that my life would change forever.

That year, we took a group of 10 undocumented Korean American students from New York (who were joined by 30 other Korean American youth from Illinois and California and hundreds of more immigrant youth from across the country) for a day of legislative action under the United We DREAM Coalition in Washington D.C. The youth I had worked with directly came from all different walks of life but shared a common thread – all were smart, motivated and determined kids. And I couldn’t help but notice then how nice and funny they were. They were your regular kids, joking and laughing but when they situation called for seriousness and focus, they gave me their undivided attention. Some did not fully understand the impact of their undocumented status – they weren’t quite at the age of worrying about college, but others who had hopes of going to college were already anxious about filling out their college application forms.

The overwhelming sense of responsibility I had for those students really hit me after our legislative visits. They had shared their personal stories and their dreams with the legislative directors at offices of Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer, as well as to a folks at the offices of members of the House of Representatives. Walking back to the van that took us miles away from home to a place where the hopes of these students rested, one small-voiced student whispered in my ear. “Jane, is the DREAM Act going to pass? Now that we all came and shared our stories, it will pass right?” The question was expected, but her innocence struck me dumbfounded. My mind was ready to answer her with long-term organizing and education plans on the DREAM Act but my heart hurt. Here I was able to cruise through high school and graduate from college and enjoy privileges that come second nature to me, standing at the nation’s capital with a student whose dreams hung on a piece of legislation we were unsure would pass at the time.

Throughout my time in the non-profit field, I had the opportunity to be part of an ambitious social justice agenda and witnessed hundreds of amazing youth who were in the forefront of organizing on the DREAM Act. We formed an amazingly diverse group fighters and conducted every possible action imaginable – rallies, marches, call-ins, fax-ins, petition drives, mock graduation ceremonies and fasting. While we had victories, the DREAM Act failed to pass several times since it was first introduced in 2001. As a direct result, thousands of dreams of these students have been deferred.

But it’s a new dawn, I am amazed at how the movement has grown and gotten stronger. Each passing moment, the students are more determined and there is a profound sense of hope that the DREAM Act will become a reality. What I can continue to do is follow the lead of these talented youth and do my part – whether it’s calling or helping spreading the word. And each time I do, I think of those 10 students I traveled to Washington D.C. back in 2002, and know that their efforts will come to fruition soon.

If you would like to join in the journey of making the DREAM Act a reality for the 65,000 undocumented immigrant students that graduate from high school each year, call your members of Congress and urge them for their support. If they are already a co-sponsor, call them any way and thank them for their support. Thanking is just as significant as urging.

For more information about the DREAM Act, please go to:

DREAM Activist

Center for Community Change

Russell Sage Foundation’s books on immigration:

Achieving Anew by Michael J. White & Jennifer Glick

Inheriting the City by Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf, Mary C. Waters, Jennifer Holdaway

New Faces in New Places by Doug Massey

Webcast to feature how CDFIs help economically distressed areas

Pro-Media Client and Opportunity Finance Network President Mark Pinksy will join columnist Byron Williams on his June 19 show at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) Tune in here to find out what Community Development Financial Institutions are doing to help economically distressed areas. It’s never too early to plan ahead!

Real-framing the immigration debate

By Yamil Anglada, Account Manager

With the news media’s understandable focus on the Iranian election and its aftermath, I was slow to learn about Brisenia Flores.

Nine-year-old Brisenia lived with her parents in rural Arivaca, Arizona. According to local police, on May 30th, three members of the Minuteman American Defense charged into the Flores home dressed as law enforcement officers and shot the family, killing Brisenia and her father, Raul. Of the family members there that night, only Brisenia’s mother (whose identity is not being released) survived.

The Minuteman American Defense is a known anti-immigrant organization with a dangerous violent contingent. Although acts of violence against immigrants, especially along the border with Mexico, are not unheard of, I can’t help but think that the timing of this particular act of violence was no accident. President Obama and key members of Congress have made it clear over the last couple of months that addressing immigration reform is a government priority. Just a few weeks ago, individuals and grassroots organizations came together under Immigration Reform FOR America to keep pressure on elected officials and inform the public about the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Unsurprisingly, anti-immigrant forces have stepped up their game.

Groups who oppose amnesty for undocumented workers, family reunification and other proposed measures have already begun lining up their supporters and have been taking advantage of the current economic crisis to fan the flames of intolerance and hatred. They argue that immigrants take work away from those born in the U.S. and worse: that they undermine American values and society by failing to assimilate into our culture and instead becoming an underclass that is over reliant on public services and programs. But, as sociologists Michael J. White and Jennifer E. Glick remind us in their book Achieving Anew (Russell Sage Foundation, May 2009), immigrants may start out behind others on the ladder of success but they climb at a similar pace. As they compete in school and in the labor force with others from similar backgrounds, there is little prospect for an immigrant of second-generation underclass.

White and Glick also point out that while the US is admitting an unprecedented number of immigrants, the scale of immigration is not out of historical scale. In fact, during the great “Ellis Island” wave of the early 20th Century the U.S. admitted more immigrants per U.S. residents than is now the case – a challenge to the absurd mentality that the country is being overrun by the foreign-born. Even more damaging to reactionary claims that immigrants are a drain on public resources is the fact that the U.S. government has usually provided more modestly for “immigrant policy” than some other wealthy nations. That’s right, immigrants are succeeding within the conventional U.S. context: up by their bootstraps.

Reading Achieving Anew I was struck with the urgent need for clear heads when it comes to the debate on immigration reform. It’s clear that we need comprehensive immigration reform, and it’s encouraging that the government seems committed to tackle the issue this year. If fears that immigrants fail in the U.S. and therefore become a burden to the rest of society are at the heart of calls for restrictive policies, then it’s crucial to set the record straight before we get started.

Opportunity Finance Network’s Mark Pinsky responds to Bernanke’s speech today

Statement by Mark Pinsky, CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network on Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)

Below is a statement released by Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) from Mark Pinsky, President and CEO of OFN in response to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech, “Community Development Financial Institutions: Challenges and Opportunities” at the Global Financial Literacy Summit in Washington, D.C.

“Even as the President unveils his financial recovery plan, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has recognized the importance of the role community development financial institutions (CDFIs) play in the financial marketplace,” said Mark Pinsky, CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network, a national association of CDFIs. “We expect to achieve what the Chairman expects from us.”

“CDFIs work just outside the margins of conventional markets, opening doors for the opportunity markets we serve,” he added. “Today, in a real-world, real-time stress test, CDFIs are recognized as knowing how to lend in distressed markets in turbulent times. Chairman Bernanke made that point emphatically this morning. CDFIs are proving ‘good money’ can drive ‘bad money’ out of the marketplace.”

BLOG: In Iran: overpowering your political opponents, one Internet connection at a time

By Michael P. Falco, Account Assistant

I, like so many over the weekend, was gripped by the coverage coming out of Iran. The mass rallies that have intensified in the wake of the presidential election, in which supporters of Mir-Hossein Moussavi claimed the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a farce, shows firsthand the triumphs and pitfalls of new media.

Buried in the comments section of a story on FiveThirtyEight.com was a comment from Darius, a person claiming to be based out of Iran. He displayed the animation and anger that most of us have possessed at one time or another in the wake of bitterly contested political battles. He ends the piece by pointing out that his Facebook and YouTube did not work — social networking was being blocked throughout the country.

The passion that built up in the weeks leading up to the election was a evidence of many things: including the power of new media to mobilize people. In countries with an authoritarian streak, social media is a powerful weapon that provides refuge from often state-dominated media, which is more dedicated to propping up the powers that be than being a reliable, unbiased news source.

Unfortunately, nations have come to recognize this. It occurred during the Myanmar uprisings in 2007, when the regime shut down cellular and Internet communication. The actions had two effects: it smothered outside interest in the story, because the dramatic images were no longer accessible to the world and it stymied the ability of those within the country to organize.

As the New York Times’ online news source The Lede pointed out in its tremendous coverage over the weekend, the difference between the Orange Revolution and Iran’s uprising may very well be the peoples’ ability to access and communicate through new media.

Web 2.0 tools allow us to interact in ways once unimaginable, they, in essence, give all of us a megaphone. I am confident some of the most important and lasting social movements of our time will arise from social media. But some governments, the ones desperately clinging to power and used to censoring the flow of information, are doing everything within their power to encompass, overpower and subordinate emerging media. I am still formulating opinions about what this all means, but rarely have I ever been hit with such conflicting doses of optimism and pessimism at once.