Ending poverty: Waterspirit joins Poor People’s Campaign for June 21st assembly

Waterspirit joins diverse coalition building a 3rd Reconstruction to end poverty; uniting for a major in-person & online assembly on June 21st: The 2021 National Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly kicks off a 365-day campaign leading to a massive march & assembly in DC in 2022

WHAT: Waterspirit is joining the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival for a Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly that is both in person in Raleigh, North Carolina, and online from across the country. The PPC’s demands include: updating the country’s antiquated poverty measure; the expansion of voting rights and the Voting Rights Act; a living wage and the guaranteed right of workers to form and join unions; healthcare for all; infrastructure improvements that build from the bottom up; a guarantee of safe and quality housing; reparations for Indigenous people; a guaranteed adequate income; making public welfare programs available to all immigrants and guaranteed high-quality pre-K-12 education for all, along with free higher education.

Currently, 44 million people are living with water systems that have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act, and approximately 540,000 households lack access to complete, adequate plumbing. To address this problem, this June 21 event will demand clean, safe water for all through ending utility shutoffs and by improving water and sanitation infrastructure. It will also call on the US to embrace a bold, equitable climate agenda, ensuring a livable future for our planet. By working at the intersection of poverty and environmental injustice, Waterspirit and the Poor People’s Campaign seek to lift all boats with this rising tide.

WHO: Waterspirit is joining this call to action by the Poor People’s Campaign national co-chairs, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. Waterspirit’s community of spiritually-attuned water protectors will join poor, low-wealth and other impacted people and religious, moral and labor leaders along with economists, musicians, cultural artists, Hollywood actors/activists, lawyers and public health experts. The hybrid online/in-person mass assembly also will include activists from Poor People’s Campaign coordinating committees in 45 states, 200 organizing partners and over 1,500 clergy members of the PPC Prophetic Council.

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30p.m. Pacific on Monday, June 21

WHERE: In person: Halifax Mall, 300 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, North Carolina. Online:  www.3rdReconstruction.org

WHY: On June 21, the Poor People’s Campaign will launch a campaign to fight forward for 365 days toward a massive, generationally transformative Moral March on Washington and Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly on June 18, 2022. ** The June 2021 event will be Spanish-language interpreted, ASL interpreted & captioned. **

BACKGROUND: Nationally, more than 140 million poor and low-income people live in the United States, or 43% of the country’s population, and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 250,000 die each year from poverty. Among those 140 million people are: 52.2% or 39 million children (below 18);  41.9% or 21 million elders (above 65); 42.6% or 65.8 million men; 45% or 74.2 million women; 60.4% or 26 million Black people; 64.1% or 38 million Latinx people; 40.8% or 8 million Asian people; 58.9% or 2.14 million Native/Indigenous people;  33.5% or 66 million white people. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, with organizing committees in 45 states, is building a moral fusion movement to address the five interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.

 For additional information:  

Twitter: @unitethepoor / Instagram: @poorpeoplescampaign / Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ANewPPC

Waterspirit is a nonprofit center for spirituality and ecology based on occupied Lenni Lenape land in Rumson, NJ. As a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, we are called to respond to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. To get involved with our advocacy work, email: water@waterspirit.org

Bring Waterspirit to Your Community

The Waterspirit team loves to bring our educational programming to schools, community groups, and more. Whether you’re looking for eco-spiritual programming, more information about water, or ways to take action in your community, Waterspirit can create a program that is appropriate for you. Programming can be in-person or virtual. Click here to download a pdf highlighting some of our offerings. Write to us at water@waterspirit.org to learn more.

Waterspirit is a Proud Partner of the First National 'Mental Health Action Day'

First National ‘Mental Health Action Day’ to Drive People to Take a First Mental Health Action for Themselves or Others

More than a year into COVID-19 and amidst a most dire mental health crisis Waterspirit and more than 900 organizations team up to plan inaugural ‘Mental Health Action Day’ on May 20

Rumson, New Jersey –Waterspirit today announces its participation in the first-ever Mental Health Action Day, to be held on Thursday, May 20 in partnership with more than 700 leading brands, nonprofits, government agencies and cultural leaders.

Over the past two decades, suicide rates have risen, particularly among young adults. “From Covid-19 to economic struggles and the continuing fight for racial justice, the other half of the twin pandemic is the rise of our mental health challenges,” said Erika Soto Lamb, Vice President of Social Impact Strategy at MTV Entertainment Group. “This is a critical moment to shift our culture from mental health awareness to mental health action and MTV is proud to come together with diverse cross-sector leaders on this inaugural day to encourage and empower people to take action -- for themselves, for their loved ones or for the systemic changes needed to improve our social and emotional wellbeing.”                                

Waterspirit will showcase its FREE weekly program called Meditation for Earth, which moved online at the onset of COVID19. There are 55 videos, 35 minutes each, recorded on the nonprofit’s YouTube channel for people to access at no cost. Waterspirit’s Executive Director, Blair Nelsen, shared, “Spiritual ecology helps individuals deepen their awareness of the interconnectedness of all Creation. Meditation for Earth is a practice that reminds us that when we heal ourselves, we heal our communities.”

Mental Health Action Day is an open-source movement of brands, organizations and cultural leaders to drive culture from mental health awareness to mental health action. Mental Health Action Day is being planned in partnership with TaskForce, a cultural organizing agency that builds capacity for those taking on the most pressing challenges facing our communities, our nation and our world. Additional participants and more information about how each partner will activate on May 20 will be forthcoming. www.MentalHealthActionDay.org A full list of partners is available here.

Waterspirit is a nonprofit center for spiritual ecology, sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. Founded in 1998, Waterspirit is currently headquartered on occupied Lenni Lenape land in Rumson, New Jersey. Through programs, learning, reflection, and ritual, we help connect to meaningful actions on behalf of water.

Harriet Shugarman is the Inaugural Suzanne Golas, CSJP Award Recipient!

Rumson, New Jersey – Waterspirit announced Harriet Shugarman, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Mama, as the inaugural recipient of the Suzanne Golas, CSJP Award created to honor the legacy of the organization’s founder.  The intergenerational community gathering breathed new life into the enduring effort of caring for Creation.  Harriet exudes what Suzanne Golas, CJSP envisioned early on could be possible with leadership and support for people of all walks of life, for progress toward peace for future generations.

Captain Hugh Carola, Waterspirit Board Member and Hackensack Riverkeeper Program Director who voted for Harriet, referred to her as our “sister in struggle.” Harriet shared the moment with the Waterspirit community by saying, “We recognize what’s at stake and what the future is if we don’t. We envision the future we want and we do what we can to change that and we do it because we know we need to. It is very special to be the first honoree of the Suzanne Golas, CSJP Award. Recognition, taps on the back and kind words are very meaningful.”

Before delivering her keynote she pointed to Waterspirit as being uniquely special. She talked of learning to hone her heart vision, which she learned about from LaUra and Aimee of the Good Grief Network. The community gathered with smiles and reflection as well as trivia and an auction that resulted in fun bidding contests on items such as a beach cruiser, local handmade jewelry and framed close-up photographs of Hawaiian sea life. The full recording of the Joys of the Sea gala may be found  on Waterspirit’s YouTube channel, here. Harriet can next be seen on May 8th for the fifth annual (virtual) Mother’s Day Climate Rally.