We hope you all are safe and have access to critical resources and healthcare during these trying times.
Steering committee members have continued to meet via video chat to develop ideas and programs to be implemented in the near future.
We will monitor the State of Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and use them to inform our decisions on meetings, gatherings, and any and all safety matters or measures that pertain to the reopening of the Peace & Justice Center.
For more information regarding community and statewide resources, please visit the links below:
This February, we will be celebrating one of the many beautiful figures and stories of Black excellence. We are hosting a virtual discussion on the classic American novel: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. We invite you to join in and experience the incredible world created through Hurston's storytelling. Our book discussions will be held through Zoom and streamed to our Facebook page.
All sessions will start at @ 6:00PM EST on:
February 14th (Chapters 1-4)
February 21st (Chapters 5-10)
February 28th (Chapters 11 to finish)
On February 21st we will be lucky enough to have Lucy Hurston, the niece of Zora, to help us deep dive into the subtleties and little known background of the author and book.
We are so excited to have you join us in reading and feeling this incredible piece of work. Please register below for the zoom link and updates on the program. Click here for some free audio versions of the book.
Photo Credit: Sam Bullard
Our first set of food boxes came in from the Ecumenical Food Cupboard and they looked fantastic!
We are still taking nominations for our food pantry! We are looking to sponsor 10-20 local families in need to deliver food weekly to, and we hope to do so for at least half the year. You can anonymously nominate a family (including your own) here on our Google Form here.
We started deliveries this month and have six families we are currently supporting. Thanks to the efforts of many, we were able to provide these beautiful boxes to the families. The Ecumenical Food Cupboard has been doing the box arrangements and will continue doing so for us in the coming months.
Racial Equity & Justice was kind enough to contribute some fresh produce towards our community food efforts. The large donation of veggies came from Greenlaw Gardens, a farm in Maine. With their help, we were able to distribute some of this food to the families we have sponsored so far.
We have also been using some of our food pantry to feed our homeless community in Bangor every Saturday at the Greater Bangor Housing Coalition meetings. This is an effort many of us are passionate about, and we are happy to be serving our community in this way.
We also put out a flyer for volunteer drivers and got some amazing responses. Please let us know if you want to volunteer with us on our food pantry efforts too!
Thanks for your support, and please be sure to share our form so we can help out our community!
Open Committee Positions
We are still in search of some wonderful volunteers to join our team! We are hoping to fill out our Fundraising & Membership Team, Education Committee, and "Peacekeeping" Team, our general group of volunteers.
Each of these teams play an essential role in the functionality of the Peace & Justice Center. We couldn't do all this amazing community work with help from people like you, and we would love to have you as a part of our organization. See the flyer above for who to contact about each position. We look forward to meeting you!
Greater Bangor Housing Coalition
Photo Credit: Sedum Jackson
A still from one of GBHC's first meetings.
The Greater Bangor Housing Coalition (GBHC) is a collection of local activist organizations and community members that have come together to reach out to Bangor’s houseless community and work collaboratively to address their issues. This group was established in late October 2020 as a support group, which then transformed into a coalition focused on addressing “systemic problems contributing to houselessness in the Greater Bangor area, creating demands for change, and building community power.” Needlepoint Sanctuary Bangor, Mindful Queer Collective, Poor People’s Campaign Maine, Racial Equity And Justice, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, and The People ~ Streetlight Outreach Mission are the current supporting organizations.
Since establishing this group, GBHC has taken on a few different issues and networked with various groups and people to help support the houseless community. They have met with the majority of Bangor’s City Councilors and used this time to uplift the voices of the houseless and their demands to the city. Some of the group’s major demands include accessible public bathrooms, safe needle deposits, more warming centers, and inclusive housing. The group also focuses on providing food and other resources like clothes, hygiene supplies, and more.
Although GBHC is only a couple of months old, the group certainly has its hands tied with time-sensitive needs and direct community demands. There are a lot of plans in progress. Some include regular meetings between houseless community members and city officials, converting abandoned spaces into housing, collecting a community fund for bail and down payments, and expanding public transport vouchers and operating hours. The group is also looking to focus and contribute towards local and state legislation that center on issues of houselessness, such as SMARTER NOT HARDER policing.
The group meets every Saturday at 1PM in Pickering Square, with a warming center at the Unitarian Universalist Church connected via Zoom. If you want to be part of this vital work you are welcome to join us at either location or virtually. Email us at peacectr@gmail.com if you want the link, and follow the group’s progress on their Facebook group page.
No Penobscot County Jail Expansion
The No Penobscot County Jail Expansion has embarked on a storytelling project to gather the stories of community members who have spent time in Penobscot County Jail from 2018 to the present. Each participant also has the opportunity to have their portrait painted by a Maine artist. The group will be sharing these stories and portraits in a variety of ways to help create change inside the Penobscot County Jail and in the community.
People who have spent time in PCJ and are willing to tell their story are invited to contact storytelling project organizer Dylan Moore at zeraph.moore@gmail.com. Participants can be anonymous if desired. For more information on the project, check out this Google Doc here.
The group continues to meet virtually every few weeks to address a variety of problems in the criminal legal system. They seek solutions to problems, so fewer people face incarceration, and those who end up in jail are treated much better. These meetings are open to all who believe the criminal legal system needs reform. They happily welcome newcomers.
Looking to get involved again in a safe, socially distanced way? Kevin continues to meet every Tuesday at noon with other activists for the weekly Peace Vigil. The group meets across the street from the Peace & Justice Center on the corner of Harlow and Central Street. We hope to see you there masked up and ready to demonstrate!
Find Us on Social Media
We will be sharing more of our ongoings on our website and all of our media platforms. Follow us here on Facebook and Instagram.
