Development of Social Policy by Young Leaders

Welcome new JALSA board members: Alexandra Zaltman, Susie Davidson, Chuck Colbert, Adam Kessel.   Continuing members representing our young leadership include Nicole Horberg Decter, Nicole Gann, Emma Smizik, Emily Shield.  Ben Healey – who has returned to New Haven (Yale) for graduate school has now moved to the Advisory Committee.  Gavi Wolfe is a new member of the Advisory Committee.   We continue to highlight our interest in new younger board members.  Please let us know of your interest.

JALSA has created a series of events to attract young leaders to political issues and encourage them to be actively involved encouraging progressive solutions to public policy issues. Meetings address cutting-edge social justice issues such as state budget cuts, health care access, housing and the foreclosure crisis, hunger and poverty. Recent activities have included distribution of Valentines cookies in February to emphasize the need for paid sick days and delivery of egg timers to state legislators to illustrate that time was running out on the Same Day Election Registration.  We joined with several groups for an evening Debate Party during the presidential election campaign and hosted an evening program on the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Some examples of the many stimulating speakers and topics featured at forums:

Special Response to Issue Raised by Our Young Leadership.  Two programs on Food Justice and Food Sustainability.    See events this week with Nigel Savage

• Progress by Pesach: Effort to Encourage development of Comprehensive Immigration Policy. Film and Discussion
• Environmental Justice for All Communities: Confronting Power and Demanding Change, by presenters Klare Allen, co-director of the Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project and community organizer, and Eugene Benson, staff attorney for Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE).
• Legal Marriage: Ending The “Gay Exclusion” by presenters Karen Lowey, Esq., Staff Attorney, Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) Holly Gunner, Board Member, American Civil Liberties Union.
• A Place to Call Home: Meeting the Challenge of Housing People in Massachusetts, presented by Chris Norris, Assistant Director, Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.
• Supper in the Sukkah. Hunger in our House: Combating the Problem of Hunger in Our Community, presented by Susan Schrader, Marketing Director of the Greater Boston Food Bank.
• The Massachusetts Health Care System: On the Verge of a Breakdown?by presenter John McDonough, then – Executive Director, Health Care for All, now Senior Health Care Advisor to Senator Ted Kennedy.
• How Low Can We Go?: The State Budget and Tax Policy by presenters State Representative Ruth Balser, State Representative Frank Smizik, and Noah Berger, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.
• The Balance Between Liberty and Security by Presenter Harvey Silverglate, Partner, Silverglate & Good.