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SUMMER 2014 Thank You, Summer Interns! Kelsey Howard will be starting her Ryan Murphy is a rising junior sophomore year at Mount Saint at Xavier University, majoring Joseph University in the fall major- in Business, and is the co- ing in Social Work and Criminology with minors in Socio-Psychology as president of Boyz II Men Men- well as Leadership and Civil En- toring and Tutoring Program. gagement. While in school she He is interning at IJPC this plans on joining AmeriCorps Sum- summer through Xavier’s mer Associates Program and joining AmeriCorps Summer Service Internship VISTA upon graduating. She began interning at IJPC as part of MSJ’s summer employment pro- Program. He has been focus- gram and works with Nathan Ruggles on Peace ing on IJPC’s Immigration Program this sum- and Nonviolence focusing on the Dialogue Pro- mer, particularly working to compile college gram. Though Kelsey has only been with IJPC a application information for DACA students in short amount of time it has made a large impact Cincinnati. on her life views and she hopes to continue Inside this issue… working with IJPC in the future! Flying Pig 2014 = SUCCESS! Thank You, Summer Interns. …. You may have already heard the news, but we are so excited 1 we just have to share it again; IJPC not only reached, but surpassed Flying Pig 2014 Success!. 1 our $10,000 Flying Pig fundraising goal! We’d like to take this moment to publish a great big THANK YOU to all of our participants, sponsors Letter from Sr. Alice. .. 2 and supporters; we couldn’t have done it without you! Letter from Sr. Monica. 3 Immigration Program Update…….. 4-5 Human Trafficking Report……. 5 Death Penalty Program . .. .. 6 Peace Program Update. .7 News from Northern KY. Back cover Relay runner Dan Dery passing the torch off to Penny Tullis. 1 2 Founding Sponsors: A Letter From Sisters of Charity Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille Sr. Alice Gerdeman Sisters of Mercy When I hear someone say “twenty-two” Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur years it seems like a long time and it is a Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg long time by some perspectives. But sit- ting at my desk during these final days at Sponsors: IJPC, twenty – two years doesn’t seem so Anawim Community long. In many ways, I don’t feel all that Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship different from what I did in July of 1992. Maybe a bit older! Surely much richer! At this point in life, as I move Cincinnati Friends Meeting on to a very different position, my overwhelming sentiment is that of Comboni Missionaries gratitude. Dominican Sisters of Hope Every year, every month, everyday has been full and filled with di- Franciscans, St. John the Baptist verse experiences and simply phenomenal people. It is true, there Province are many more good people trying to make the world better than there are hurting folks causing discord and violence. Without doing Glenmary Home Missioners real research I can recall people from 51 one countries who have Institute of Secular Missionaries passed through IJPC’s door or I met somewhere along the way – all Sisters of Divine Providence good. Right here in Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky there are thousands of IJPCers of all faiths, all races, all neighborhoods, all Sisters of Notre Dame of skills, all ages, diverse philosophies and theologies and all have Covington blessed my life. St John Unitarian Universalists I’ve talked and laughed and shouted and sung and clapped and New Jerusalem Community marched and walked and stood together and sat in circles. I mourned friends that moved on or died and welcomed new friends Ursulines of Brown County and new lives. All of this is blessing. Together we wore out two bull- Ursulines of Cincinnati horn systems and carried hundreds of signs. So blessed am I. Staff: Even when the events aren’t about positive things – war, KKK on Maggie Behan Fountain Square, TransAtlantic Business Dialogue in town, execu- Sarah Madrigal tions, immigration raids, etc. – wonderful people, thousands of us, collaborated and some good came of it. This I trust. Monica McGloin, OP Nathan Ruggles Will I miss IJPC? Oh Yes! The staff, volunteers, board members, com- mittee members, colleagues, and visitors are friends. But I’m not go- Interns: ing away. I’ll see you at Fountain Square, Washington Park, Garfield Kelsey Howard, MSJ Place, The International Friendship Park, at your church, at a meet- ing. I must admit, I am addicted to peace and justice and the people Ryan Murphy, XU determined to make it our reality. Contact Us: 215 East 14th Street The staff at IJPC thanks Sr. Alice for everything she has Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 done, and wishes her all the best as she continues on to a Phone: 513.579.8547 new chapter as Provincial for the Congregation of Divine E-mail: info@ijpc-cincinnati.org Providence! 3 “Chaos really is a saving grace…” -Ilia Dio Monica McGloin In the book Presence, co-author C. Otto time, in light of our new understandings, our re- Scharmer recounts his experience as a sixteen sources and the needs of the universe? The year old of seeing the 350 year old farmhouse board has delegated the task of designing a pro- where his family had lived for 200 years re- cess to engage our sponsors, supporters and, co duced to ashes. He remembers how his initial -workers in this re-visioning to a committee com- sense of devastation was transformed to a reali- posed of Louise Lears SC, Carren Herring, RSM zation that all the things he had become at- and, Wes Ernst. tached to over the years had weighed him down. The Board has also hired Kay Brogle and He experienced a feeling of release which set Monica McGloin OP as interim co-coordinators. him free to encounter the future that would un- Kay has been the executive director of Healthy fold through his life. Otto also recalled the ad- Moms and Babes for the past 25 years. She has vice his 87 year old grand father gave to his son, also served on the IJPC Board and been in- “Keep your head up, my boy. Look forward”. This volved in many local activities. Monica has been experience evoked a question in him that re- involved with a number of organizations all fo- mained with him throughout his life: What does cused on justice and empowering the poor. it take to connect to that other stream of time, Most recently she has been working with the the one that gently pulls me toward my future Cincinnati Interfaith Committee for Worker Jus- possibility? tice. Both Kay and Monica are part of the Nuns The changes that have occurred at IJPC on the Bus Ohio. Kay, Monica and Nathan along (Kristen and Eunice taking on new positions, Al- with volunteers and interns are available to an- ice being elected as her Congregation’s Provin- swer your questions and respond to requests for cial, Sarah receiving a scholarship and, Maggie services. leaving AmeriCorps) though not as disastrous as the fire Otto described, have the capacity to ei- ther unsettle and de-energize us or to invite us Stay Tuned to hear how you can be involved in to, “keep our heads up and look forward”. The this stage of IJPC’s development. good news is that the IJPC Board has decided to see this moment as an opportunity to re-build or re-imagine IJPC. Who are we called to be at this Thank you, Sarah Madrigal! Maggie Behan will also be taking her leave from After two wonderful years working with the YES IJPC. Having started at IJPC during the summer of Committee and the immigrant community, I will be 2012 as a student intern, she realized just how stepping down as Immigration Program Coordina- much she had to learn about social justice issues tor. I will be focusing more fully on the remaining and how much IJPC had to offer. After her sum- year of my MSW program and working within the mer was up, she decided to stay and volunteer College of Social Work at UC. My live has been during her senior year at Xavier University, eventu- made richer by all of the wonderful people that I ally taking over as the Notre Dame AmeriCorps full have had the pleasure of working with, and I am time volunteer after graduation. IJPC has given her confident that I will take all that I have learned and so much by way of knowledge, experience, friend- put it to good use wherever I end up after gradua- tion. Thanks to everyone for the wisdom, laughter ship and growth. She is so grateful to everyone and passion you have shared with me. she has met throughout her journey with IJPC, and wishes everyone the absolute best! 4 Immigration Programs “You tell us that to love God and neighbour is not something abstract, but profoundly con- crete: it means seeing in every person the face of the Lord to be served, to serve him con- cretely. And you are, dear brothers and sisters, the face of Jesus.” (5/21/13) Pope Francis In the past few months, much of what When 20% of people living in Lebanon has been reported in mainstream media has are Syrian refugees, one would hope that the pertained to the increased number of unac- United States, as the leader of the free world, companied minors coming to America. Most would could show similar compassion. Espe- of these children are coming from Latin Amer- cially because the unaccompanied children ican countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, that came to the U.S.