Peacemaker Awards Honor Homey and Others Working for Social Change
Video, YO!TV Crew with footage from Claude Marks and the Freedom Archives,
YO! Youth Outlook , Sep 27, 2007

     • Click here to see streaming mp4 video.

Can we say no to war for 24 hours?

Karen Topakian
Friday, September 21, 2007

When the United Nations declared every Sept. 21 as the International Day of Peace, they asked us all, governments and people alike, to put down our guns for the day. The UN called for a global cease-fire and an observance of nonviolence for just one day, 24 short hours. Will we be able to do it?

     • Click here for full story.

Mission youth hang with HOMEY to quell gang violence

Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2007

Steadily and carefully, Nancy Hernandez and Rafael Moreno turned out one poster after another in a San Francisco print shop. They all said the same thing: "Breakin' Down Barriers."

The words transcend mere sentiment. The people who produced them belong to HOMEY (Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth), a nonprofit organization trying to quell the gang warfare that plagues their neighborhood.

     • Click here for full story.

S.F. Organization Helping High-Risk Youths
Keeping Teens Out Of Gangs In Mission

By Amy Hollyfield

SAN FRANCISCO, Sep. 20, 2007 (KGO) - Two Northern Californians are being honored today for their work toward peace. One of the awards from the Agape Foundation is going to an organization that tries to keep kids from falling into gang violence. The group has made a real difference in San Francisco.

The group is called HOMEY and the guys in the group really have street credibility -- so when they walk the streets in the Mission and tap kids on the shoulder and say 'hey you don't need to be in this gang, come with us' - the kids actually go with them.

     • Click here for full story.

Judge denies Cal Berkeley tree-sitters' request to remove fence

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 1, 2007

UC Berkeley can keep tree-sitting protesters locked behind a chain-link fence for today's nationally televised Cal football game, a judge ruled.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller on Thursday denied the tree-sitters' request to remove the fence, saying in a brief statement that the fence is a safety measure and does not constitute development of the site.

Tree-sitters, who have been perched in the Memorial Stadium oak grove since December protesting plans to clear part of the grove for a sports training facility, argued that the fence violated their right to free speech.

     • Click here for full story. (Note: The Agape Foundation has fiscally sponsored Save
        the Oaks Campaign since April 2007? Let me know if you don't receive it.)

Virginia Resner -- strong advocate for reform of national drug policy

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, July 26, 2007

Virginia Resner, a longtime advocate for drug policy reform and the families of imprisoned drug offenders, died July 18 after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. She was 60.

Ms. Resner was co-author of the book "Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War," which won the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Drug Policy Foundation in 2001. The book documents how families are affected by federal drug enforcement policy.

She was also president of Green-Aid, an Oakland medical marijuana legal defense fund that champions the plight of Ed Rosenthal, a former High Times columnist who twice has been convicted of violating federal drug laws for growing medical marijuana.

     • Click here for full story. (Note: Virginia Resner was a donor to the Agape
       Foundation. She was also a co-author of the book Human Rights and the US
       Drug War which the Agape Foundation funded the production and printing of
       in 1997 and 1999.)

A feisty madam's mansion receives new calling as Meridian Gallery haven

Jesse Hamlin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, July 2, 2007

The stately Perine Mansion at 535 Powell St., a French Second Empire red brick structure adorned with wrought-iron grilles, classical scrolls, cornucopia and a Palladian dormer rising through the mansard roof, was once home to Tessie Wall, the flamboyant San Francisco madam whose classy O'Farrell Street cathouse catered to college boys and other well-heeled customers.

Perched along the cable car line on the west side of the Powell Street hill between Sutter and Bush streets, the house was built in 1911 for a burgher named Perine by architect Conrad Meussdorffer, whose other elegant San Francisco buildings include the Family Club next door and the Tamalpais tower on Hyde Street, from which Agnes Moorehead flew out a window in the 1947 film noir classic "Dark Passage." The mansion was bought for Wall by her husband, Frank Daroux, a Tenderloin gambler...

     • Click here for full story. (Note: The Meridian Gallery received a loan from
       the David R. Stern Fund in 2005.)

Not Your Average Turnip Truck
One Californian food justice group shows that local, healthy eating starts with education and a tricked-out rig.

By Tracie McMillan

The corner of Market and Brockhurst in West Oakland, CA doesn’t look much like a food mecca. A small church, a low-slung YMCA, and an elementary school occupy three corners of the treeless intersection. On the fourth corner sits the only clue: a two-story house converted to apartments, bearing a colorful, graffiti-lettered sign declaring, “Be Healthy!”

     • Click here for full story. (Note: The Agape Foundation fiscally sponsored People's
       Grocery from 2002 to 2006. The Foundation also awarded them a grant in 2002
       for their People's Grocery Mobile Market.)

OUT OF IRAN
Five extraordinary Iranian Americans love both countries but loathe their leaders' war talk

Bob Cooper
Sunday, July 15, 2007

No one reads the headlines about the U. S.-Iran imbroglio -- which swings wildly between threats of war and flirtations with diplomacy -- more closely than Iranian Americans, who number 50,000 in the Bay Area. For them, Iran is not part of the "axis of evil," it's where a grandmother, brother or favorite cousin lives.

Most arrived here with the late-1970s diaspora, escaping the tyranny of the Ayatollah Khomeini only to face harassment by Americans who blamed them for the 444-day hostage crisis. Years later they were caught in the post-9/11 net of suspicion and scrutiny against all Middle Easterners, despite no hint of a connection between Iran and the tragedy.

     • Click here for full story. (Note: Banafsheh Akhlaghi won the Agape
       Foundation RIsing Peacemaker Award in 2006. She is the founder of
       National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement which Agape
       has been fiscally sponsoring since 2004.)

Feature: So grow the gardeners
Beth Waitkus is helping San Quentin's H-Unit cultivate the garden within

by Tanya Henry.

It's Friday afternoon at 2:30pm. As many as 25 men are meandering in to one of a handful of classrooms that surround San Quentin's medium-security H-Unit (predominantly for repeat offenders and parole violators) to learn about tending the prison's 1,200-square-foot organic garden. Beth Waitkus, founder and volunteer director of the nearly 5-year-old Insight Garden Program has had to turn away inmates from her hugely popular elective, as the maximum number of prisoners she is equipped to teach is 30.

     • Click here for full story (Note: The Insight Garden Program has been fiscally        sponsored by Agape since 2004 and received a grant in Spring 2006.)

SELLING A POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE
Group weighs in on advertising impact

Lisa Hix, Special to The Chronicle
Sunday, June 10, 2007

These days, weight watching has practically become a national pastime.

Take "American Idol." While many believed that Jordin Sparks beat out the more heavyset Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones thanks to her stunning looks, MeMe Roth had a different take. The rail-thin, self-appointed "anti-obesity advocate" appeared on Fox News to hurl insults, couched in unscientific definitions of "health" or "unhealthy," at the normal-size 17-year-old Sparks.

In magazines like Us Weekly, headlines scream that Nicole Richie is an unhealthy 98 pounds, while Jessica Simpson is photographed at an unflattering angle and called "fat" for weighing a mere 130 pounds. Anorexia and bulimia are the subjects of tabloid gossip, as if watching someone waste away of a deadly disease is a sport. Every blogger, commenter and troll has an opinion about what's healthy -- and what's sexy.

     • Click here for full story

Knitting Towards A More Peaceful Afghanistan

May 11 - KGO - More than five years after the overthrow of the Taliban, Afghanistan is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Rebuilding a nation ravaged by three decades of conflict is slow work. In this ABC7 Salutes, we meet Bay Area volunteers trying to make sure the Afghan people know they are not forgotten.

War-torn Afghanistan is half a world away from this San Francisco basement. But these women are trying to bridge that distance, one stitch at a time.

Ann Rubin: "Knitters have traditionally always responded to crisis and war by knitting for refugees and for soldiers. It's a long tradition."

     • Click here for full story (Note: afghans for Afghans has been fiscally sponsored by        Agape Foundation since 2002)

Senders can show support or sympathy with post-abortion e-cards

LISA LEFF
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - A nonprofit that runs a national post-abortion telephone talk line has unveiled a series of electronic greeting cards that concerned friends and family can send to a woman after she chooses to terminate a pregnancy.

"Women having abortions are calling our line because often they don't have someone to talk to - it's a stigmatized issue," said Aspen Baker, founder and executive director of Oakland-based Exhale. "So the chance to honor and acknowledge someone's experience by calling upon something that is within our social practices and social mores seemed important and could go a long way toward supporting people."

Like Exhale's confidential talk line, the six e-cards available on the group's Web site were designed to be nonpartisan and encompass the range of someone's potential responses to going through an abortion.

     • Click here for full story (ON THE NET http://www.4exhale.org )

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Invest in the community, save the youth

Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, February 19, 2007

In 2001, Jakada Imani voted against Proposition 21, the controversial ballot initiative that increased sentences for juvenile criminals. The legislation, which California voters ultimately approved, allowed prosecutors, rather than juvenile court judges, to decide whether youths ages 14-17 should be tried as adults. Activists feared that the new law would introduce more teenagers to an already overcrowded prison system.

In the wake of the election, Imani, along with a handful of other youth activists in Oakland, founded Books Not Bars, a nonprofit dedicated to ending youth incarceration.

     • Click here for full story (Notes: Jakada Imani serves on the Agape Foundation
       Peace Prize Awards Committee and emceed the 2006 event.)

Norman Frank Beville -- longtime peace activist

Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 27, 2007

Norman Frank Beville, a deacon, prison chaplain and peace activist who gave sanctuary to families fleeing El Salvador's brutal civil war in the 1980s, died of respiratory failure on Jan. 18 at a hospital in Oakland. He was 70.

Mr. Beville died of multiple organ failure after nine hours of open-heart surgery, said his wife, Sherry Larsen-Beville.

A memorial service will be held today at 10 a.m. at St. Leander's Church, 550 W. Estudillo Ave., San Leandro.

     • Click here for full story (Note: Frank and his wife Sherry have been longtime
       donors to Agape and fellow peace activists.)

Is There a Post-Abortion Syndrome?

By EMILY BAZELON
Published: January 21, 2007

Early on a windy Saturday morning in November, Rhonda Arias drove her Dodge Caravan past a Wal-Mart at the end of her block and onto the Interstate. She was beginning the 50-mile drive from her house in southwest Houston to Plane State Jail, where she is, as she puts it, an “abortion-recovery counselor.” To Arias, that means helping women at the prison who have had abortions to understand how that procedure has stained them, and how it explains what has gone wrong in their lives. The prisoners’ abortions, she told me, “have a great deal to do with their pain.”

     • Click here for full story (Note: Exhale has been fiscally sponsored by the
       Agape Foundation since May 2002.)

Kabul's orphans:
Part one

Sun Media's Doug Beazley talks to Fauzia Assifi of International Orphan Care about the plight of thousands of children in the Afghan city of Kabul.

     • See video clip (Best viewed with Flash Player 8 or higher)

Mosaic Comes to the Big Screen

The popular East Bay movie theaters, the Parkway and the new Cerrito Speakeasy, have offered Mosaic Project the opportunity to screen a short Mosaic video before every movie shown at the theaters. They will also have Mosaic information tables at each theater. Watch the video online at:

http://web.mac.com/randomorder1/iWeb/Mosaic_parkway/2ndRevison.html

And/or check it out at the Speakeasy Theaters on the big screen!

     • www.mosaicproject.org (Note: Mosaic Project is the 2005 Agape Foundation        Peace Prize winner.)

Give peace a chance; give peace some cash

TIS THE season for charitable solicitations.

Inspired by the spirit of holiday giving and spurred by tax incentives, many people wait until the year's end to make donations. Since most nonprofits receive at least half of our annual donations during this time of year, it is not surprising that we back-load our requests and reminders.

With so many worthy and needy organizations asking for your help, how do you choose where to donate?

The Agape Foundation is challenging individuals and foundations to turn your seasonal wishes for peace on earth into reality by funding peace and social justice work.

We are asking you to think about making your dollars go farther by investing in organizations that target the root causes of social problems. Shift your giving this year, or match your donations to traditional charities that offer palliative care with gifts to organizations that seek to heal our whole social body.

     • Click here for full story

Peace center director helps soldiers opt out
Forestville activist honored as nonviolence champion

By KATY HILLENMEYER, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Monday, Sep 25, 2006

Active-duty soldiers trying to sever their military ties have penned Elizabeth Stinson's phone number on their arms. One Georgia man contacted her after seeing it scrawled on a bathroom wall in an Oklahoma City Greyhound bus station.

"We quit counting at 472," said Stinson, when asked how many servicemen and women she's helped opt out after deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Okinawa and elsewhere. "We get contacts from all over the world through our Web site."

     • Click here for the full story about Agape's 2006 Long Haul Peace Prize winner,
       Elizabeth Stinson.

De-recruiter wins Long Haul Prize

Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 16, 2006

When military recruiters set up a table at a high school in Sonoma County, chances are Elizabeth Stinson is taking a seat right next to them, to try to urge youngsters not to enlist.

The director of the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County counts at least 400 people she's "de-recruited" from the military, a statistic that helped her win this year's Long Haul Prize, given to the most active activist in politically active Northern California.

"Teenagers are trying to separate from their parents as individuals, so they're vulnerable to a recruiter," said the 57-year-old Forestville mother of three, surrounded by posters of Malcolm X, Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in her Santa Rosa office.

     • Click here for full story

Dr. Frederick Pratt

Dr. Frederick Pratt was a dedicated physician, local and international volunteer, and peace activist who above all else gave himself entirely to the service of mankind. On the beautiful morning of August 25, 2006, Dr. Pratt died in his home surrounded by family. In addition to his wife Patricia M. Pratt, who shared with him his passions and work, Dr. Pratt is survived by his children Gwynne Pratt, Daryl Pratt and wife Alison, Marcelle Pratt and husband Dr. David Koster, Serena Pratt and fiance John Robinson, and Dr. Dyveke Pratt; grandchildren Kelan Pratt and wife Jeannette, Carin and Jennifer Pratt, Arthur, August and Arie Koster; great-grandchildren Sydney and Lauren Pratt and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased in death by sister Elizabeth, and brothers Robert and Arthur Pratt.

     • Click here for full story (Note: Dr. Fred Pratt was a longtime donor to the Agape
       Foundation, the Emmy Lefson Memorial Fund for Peace, Social Justice and Human
       Rights and the Wayne R. Hultgren Memorial Fund for Peace and Social Justice.)

New Leaders Council | One Year Anniversary
With Our Featured Speaker
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
House Democratic Leader

Food provided. No-Host Bar. Join the Host Committee
(write or raise) New Leader $1000 and up Adam Borelli, Anthony Sisneroz Mentor $500 Amber Maltbie, Leighton Woodhouse, Nicole Rivera, Nancy Bui, Owen Jackman, Devin Lavelle Progressive Entrepreneur $250 Sam Arons, James Joun, Amy Weiss, Denise Heitzenroder, Gautam Barua, Francisco Cendejas, Hillary Sledge, Armando Pastran, Jr., Sarah Hersh, Winston Bonnheim, Shantha Susman, Pamela Bachilla, David Bluestone, Courtney Mayeda, Jonathan Elkin Ticket $50
Students $20 with ID Thursday, June 1, 2006

5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Bambuddha Lounge
601 Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

To join the Host Committee or to RSVP, e-mail Adam Borelli

Please make checks payable to "Agape Foundation" with "New Leaders Council Project" in the "memo".

The New Leaders Council is an organization that advances progressive causes by recruiting a diverse group of young progressive leaders, training them through a comprehensive leadership development program, matching them with mentors, and executing a job placement program. For more information, visit www.newleaderscouncil.org.

Posted on Mon, May. 22, 2006

Providing support after an abortion
Emotional needs afterward are often overlooked. It is critical that they be addressed.

By Aspen Baker

The Guttmacher Institute, the nation's premier research agency on reproductive and sexual health, just released its report, "Abortion in Women's Lives," a detailed account of the circumstances and decisions leading to abortion.

What the report lacks, however, is something commonly overlooked in the debate about abortion: an understanding of the emotional needs and coping strategies of women after they undergo an abortion.

Since 2002, my organization, Exhale, has operated a talk line for women and men to call after an abortion. The line is staffed by trained volunteers and offers nonjudgmental peer counseling, information and referrals in five languages. The cornerstone of Exhale's service is respect for the belief systems - religious, social and political - of all callers.

You Shouldn't Have!
On the NEA's 40th, the Art of Politics

By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 15, 2006; Page C01

An interesting convergence will occur Wednesday, when the National Endowment for the Arts begins a three-day celebration of its 40th anniversary at American University's Katzen Arts Center. Inside the impressive new facility, commandingly perched on Ward Circle in Northwest, is an exhibition of political art, or "Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement," as it is called by the curators. This is art as provocation, political commentary, utopian imagination, protest and, sometimes, pure unmitigated rage. It deals with gender, race, war and imperialism.

It is, to its core, exactly the sort of art that got the NEA into so much trouble more than 15 years ago.

Nearly 10,000 anti-war protesters gather for march through S.F.

Carrie Sturrock and Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writers

Saturday, March 18, 2006

More than 10,000 enthusiastic anti-war protesters filled the streets of San Francisco this afternoon as they trekked through the city to mark the third anniversary of the war in Iraq.

The colorful crowd of protesters was boisterous but well-behaved as they made their chanting, sign-waving way through the city. About 400 police officers turned out along the parade route, but most had little more to do than traffic control.

Organizers were both surprised and excited by the unexpectedly large turnout. By 1 p.m., the march stretched for blocks along Mission Street. It took nearly a half-hour for all the varied groups of protesters to pass through the intersection of Fifth and Mission streets.