On September 8, thousands of rallies will be held in cities and towns around the world to demand our local leaders commit to building a fossil free world that works for all of us.
Join us as we hold our local leaders to account and demand that they walk the talk on climate action.
Taking place (usually) the first Saturday of every month, and open to the public, is HPJC’s Executive Committee meeting. However, voting only takes place at our Quarterly Board Meeting, which is also open to the public.
The Interfaith Environmental Network of Houston invites you to explore spirituality in nature with those of other faiths, using the documentary The National Parks – America’s Best Idea, as a source of inspiration.
The Vote Smart: 2018 Facts Matter Tour will be hosted on September 9th at First Congregational Church in Houston. This is the only Houston presentation on the national tour of this voter education program.
The Facts Matter Tour will address Voter Self-Defense strategies that help us
· Learn how to view entertaining but dangerous political commercials that manipulate us instead of informing us
· Take actions to defend our right to the facts, the truth, and the reality that our democracy depends on
“Will we be Ready for the Next Harvey? Innovative Funding Strategies and Opportunities for Community Resilience”
On Wednesday, September 12, HARC will continue its People & Nature Speaker Series hosting an evening conversation with six national thought leaders on the topic of innovative resilience financing and the role that the public and private sectors can play to develop new community partnerships and diversified resilience funding mechanisms in Greater Houston.
The MFAH hosts the Houston stop on the state-wide tour of this new documentary. Run Like the Devil chronicles the energetic and impassioned 2018 race for the U.S. Senate between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas). Filmmaker Steve Mims takes a nonpartisan look at the candidates and their tireless efforts to communicate with voters across the Lone Star State. Campaign-trail interviews with Cruz and O’Rourke—interwoven with stories from political insiders including Mark McKinnon and Evan Smith—create a vivid, timely, and exhausting account of a uniquely Texan campaign.
Dinner and conversation with Douglas Blackmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II."
The first ever Houston Youth Voters Conference will take place on Saturday, September 15th at Rice University from 9am-4pm! We will be bringing together 5 Houston-area universities: Rice, UH, UHD, TSU, and Lone Star College to talk about the importance of voting, how to vote, how to get other students on our campuses to vote, and how to mobilize around specific policy issues that we care about. You will get to hear from some awesome guest speakers about youth voting and empowerment and meet with other passionate students from all over Houston!
Come to our discussion group on how the crisis of poor health and costly health care is exacerbated by inaction on climate change, climate denial, poor air quality, fossil fuel dependence and forced car dominance, especially in low income areas and communities of color.
Valero has asked the TCEQ(Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) for an increase in the level of HYDROGEN CYANIDE emissions they can release, specifically 512 tons. Valero also wants to stop tracking its BENZENE emissions reductions, makes no sense right?
So then let's show up in solidarity with Manchester residents and tell TCEQ and Valero that we're sick(literally) of disgustingly rich corporations killing everything on the planet in their pursuit of more wealth and power.
For the fourth year, the Peace and Justice Network of Montgomery County, Inc. is organizing a children’s art project for the International Day of Peace. Groups of children from various organizations and churches in the county are making art pieces with peace as the theme.
The art will be displayed in several community locations including the South County, Mitchell, and Conroe public libraries, the Conroe Chamber of Commerce office, the South County Community Center, and the South County and Conroe YMCAs. Additionally, art will be exhibited in the churches and other facilities where children created it including the Oscar Johnson Community Center, the Congregation Beth Shalom in the Woodlands, the Al-Ansaar Mosque, Trinity Episcopal Church, and Children’s Books on Wheels.
SAYHU is inviting all Southern folks interested in change, social justice, local activism and those who want to build a community.
The Center for the Healing of Racism will presentDialogue: Racism, a two-day intensive workshop that educates participants about racism and facilitates the process by which they can begin to counter the effects of racism on their lives, empowering them to interrupt the cycle of racist attitudes. The workshop provides a safe, respectful and loving atmosphere for a diverse group of people to learn new information, share experiences, dispel fears and guilt, and get to know each another.
Dialogue: Racismwill be on two consecutive Saturdays, September 22 & 29 from 9 AM to 4:30 PM at 3412 Crawford Street, Houston, TX 77004.
The Climate Action Team of First Unitarian Universalist Church will host Traveler in a concert on Saturday, September 22, 7:30pm at the Church at 5200 Fannin. Proceeds will be donated to Clinic Access and the Malala Fund, both of which combat climate change by helping to stabilize the population. Traveler is a well-known three member group of local folk/rock/blues singer songwriters.
If you are not registered to vote, or if you have moved & need to update your registration, you can do so at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston on Sept. 9 & 16. To check if you are registered, and at what address, see https://www.hctax.net/Voter/Search. Bring your TX driver’s license, or state-issued i.d. to register. Or, if you don’t have these forms of identification, you can register using the last 4 digits of your social security number. Get ready to vote in September! Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church is located at 2353 Rice Blvd. Metro buses 41 and 27 stop nearby. For more information, contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com.
In American Hate: Survivors Speak Out, Arjun Singh Sethi, a community activist and civil rights lawyer, chronicles the stories of individuals affected by hate. In a series of powerful, unfiltered testimonials, survivors tell their stories in their own words and describe how the bigoted rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration have intensified bullying, discrimination, and even violence toward them and their communities.
For months we've discussed a variety of campaigns that our working group could potentially take on and at last month's meeting we finally decided that our focus should be on targeting a source of carcinogens being emitted by a local company.
Texas is at risk. Communities across the state are coming together, concerned about an issue that will affect our communities, our future generations, and the wonderful state we call home. We are concerned about high-level nuclear reactor waste that could come through our communities and be dumped on Texas for decades to come.
Deadly radioactive waste could come through our cities and rural lands, headed to two proposed sites. The Consolidated Interim Storage project of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) and ORANO seeks to store 40,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste in Andrews, Texas. Holtec proposes a similar high-level radioactive waste storage project for 173,000 tons of spent fuel just a short distance from Texas, across the New Mexico border.
The public comment period ends October 19th. Learn more and discuss options for action at a community meeting
Learn how your spending and environmental impacts are connected, so you can save money. Develop strategies to build your personal resilience and preparedness for the future. Participants report saving an average of $2,700 per year and up to $20,000 per year. The average participant drops their electricity use by 15% and 5 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
Under Jim Crow segregation laws, African-Americans were often met with discrimination and intimidation as they traveled across the United States. Victor Green, a black postal worker in New York, published the first Negro Motorist Green Book in 1936 as a guide to businesses that would serve African-American travelers; over the next 28 years, the annual publication helped scores of motorists find hotels, tourist homes, restaurants, barber shops, beauty parlors, service stations and taverns across the country.
Green wrote that the Green Book would not be necessary “when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges.” He died in 1960 and the last edition of the guide was published in 1966. By that time, the development of the national highway system had decreased the chances of discrimination against African-American motorists. The passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made the Green Book and similar publications obsolete, just as Green had predicted.
Houstonians Toya and Reuben Levi organized the Green Book Project to document African-Americans’ experiences traveling across the U.S. under Jim Crow through photos, interviews and documentation of existing sites listed in the Green Book. The Levis will discuss the history and legacy of the Green Book, as well as some of the Houston locations listed in the guide through the years, in this illustrated lecture.
This event will feature artwork from local refugee and immigrant artists at the YMCA's third annual art show and auction.
Proceeds from the sale of all artwork will be shared equally between the artists and YMCA International Services, where the funds will be used to support programming.
This is an interactive community event that begins with a conversation between physicians and faith leaders. The conversation will focus on the dehumanization and deprivations of children in immigration detention, that compounds the trauma from the conditions from which they flee and the harrowing journey towards the specter of freedom that follows.
in people of good conscience, physicians and faith leaders bringing visibility to the human rights violations of the 134,000 children detained in 2017 by immigration (we have already exceeded this number for 2018). Come as a volunteer in a caravan of cars filled with relief supplies, including bottled water (no sparkling or flavored), easy open and individual sized fruit, peanut butter, veggies, protein snacks, cereals, crackers, natural juices, bags of dry rice, canned beans/soup, and blankets. We are heading to Ursula CBP detention facility in McAllen, Texas to bear witness to a system that has for too long ignored the basic needs of migrant children in immigration detention.
John Kerry will appear at The Progressive Forum September 29. All attendees will receive a free copy of his memoir, Every Day Is Extra. Kerry was a decorated Vietnam War veteran but returned disillusioned and became a leader of the anti-Vietnam War veterans movement which led him into public life. He is a former five-term U.S. Senator, Democratic presidential candidate, and the 68th Secretary of State.
Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church invites you to attend an Adult Forum that addresses scripture and science. Lisa Brenskelle & Elmer Ledesma, leaders of the Creation Care Team at Christ the King, will consider: Is there conflict or connection between scripture & science? If there is connection, what connection exists? If a connection exists, then scientific understanding matters for people of faith - but, how can they distinguish good science from “fake news”? Join us for this insightful Adult Forum! Christ the King is located at 2353 Rice Blvd. in Houston. Metro buses 41 and 27 stop nearby. For more information, contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com.
Mahatma Gandhi, apostle of peace and non-violence, demonstrated to the world the effectiveness of non-violent means for bringing about profound social changes and lasting peace.
Mahatma Gandhi Library is pleased to announce the Kick-off event of the yearlong celebration of Gandhi Sesquicentennial (150th birthday) which falls on October 2, 2019!
Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church invites you to a monthly environmental education web meeting series whose theme in 2018 is Stewardship. In September, we welcome Jordan Fengel, Executive Director of STAR (State of Texas Alliance for Recycling). For nearly 50 years, recycling has been a staple practice throughout many American communities. A recent policy change by the Chinese government in 2017, enacted in 2018, banning many recyclable materials from being imported, has created a conundrum in the recycling industry. The US has relied on China to process our mixed plastic and mixed paper recyclables for the last 20+ years. With China set to eliminate all imports of recyclable materials by 2020, Jordan will discuss what STAR is doing to turn the tide.
The Interfaith Environmental Network of Houston invites you to join their team for this year’s Eco-Challenge. This online event offers you the opportunity to care for our common home, the earth, by taking on a challenge in: waste, food, health, transportation, energy, community, nature, water, simplicity, or a custom challenge of your own. Create a new eco-habit over the course of the 3 weeks of the challenge
Day Retreat focused on educating the community on plant based nutrition and mindfulness. The event will feature yoga classes featuring different styles of yoga, introduction to different types of meditation and nutrition talks which discuss the benefits of plant based nutrition. Plant based lunch is included in the price of attending the retreat. The retreat will also feature cooking demonstrations on preparing plant based meals.
Camp Congress for Girls Houston Fall 2018 is a leadership program that introduces girls ages 9 to 15 to politics. Camp begins with a lesson on the structure of our political system. Each girl will choose to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives, the US Senate or for the presidency. She will create her own campaign with a platform, campaign slogan, campaign finance plan, campaign marketing materials and a political ad for YouTube. All campers will register to vote and then vote in an election. Once elected to Congress and sworn in, the newly installed members of Congress will learn how to introduce a bill, debate the merits of the bill, lobby fellow legislators, collaborate with the Executive branch and finally vote on the proposed bill. Camp will culminate with a ceremonial signing of the bill by our Ms. President. Girl Scouts participating in Camp Congress for Girls Houston will earn a Citizen Legacy Badge for participation. All participants will receive Certificate of Completion.
