Dear ,  

The General Assembly began today. We’re off and running, with our N95 masks on! This month is always a bit challenging for our staff, but it is especially so this year, given COVID and the need to switch our Day for All People “day” to a virtual advocacy week, 17 new delegates, a new administration scheduled to take charge on Saturday, and many new House committee assignments. We will all need to put on our seat belts for the roller coaster of the General Assembly. 

 
If you have not yet done so, register HERE for our Days for All People virtual advocacy week. Registration ends at 5 p.m. this Friday, January 14 so do it today! 

If you participated in our 2021 advocacy week, the registration is the same. After you complete your event registration, you will receive a confirmation email that contains a link to the Session Sign-up Page. There, you will find our full agenda, with Zoom links to register for each session that you want. You will be able to register just once on Zoom to receive a meeting link that you can use to join all three morning plenaries. Schedule and event details may change slightly but updated details will be provided with registration details.  

  
We’ve got lots of exciting plenaries and workshops planned: 

Monday: A plenary on Solitary Confinement with Delegate Cliff Hayes and Senator Jill Vogel and people who have been in solitary confinement. 

Tuesday: A plenary on Racial Equity with Navajo activist Mark Charles followed by workshops on Solitary Confinement, Equitable Transportation, Becoming a Congregational Liaison, Farm Worker Justice, Community Health Models, Utility Disconnections, Advocacy 101, and Affordable Housing Solutions. Quite a selection!  

Wednesday: During the morning plenary, we will delve into a few fundamentals of civic engagement – protecting voter access in Virginia and amplifying our agenda, followed by an inspiring keynote by former Delegate Lashrecse Aird. We hope you will take the morning excitement into the virtual legislative visits that will immediately follow. Scheduling all these virtual meetings and getting everyone in the right spot at the right time is worthy of prayers. In the afternoon, we’ll have workshops on the Living Wage Program, Chapter and Campus Organizing, Wage Theft, Pre-Trial Detention, Social Media, and Paid Sick Days. The closing plenary, themed “A Vision for an Interfaith Beloved Community,” will explore the concept from the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives to cap the day in unity.  

Thursday: Regional meetings held at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. will be facilitated by VICPP Board Members to discuss how to implement VICPP’s Strategic Directions for the next five years (2022-2026). Then there will be a legislative visit debrief for the meeting leaders, an interfaith dialogue, and an evening film screening and discussion.   

Friday: You are invited to join an in-person prayer vigil on solitary confinement in congregational parking lots (with your mask on, of course): 

Charlottesville:
Church of the Incarnation (1 p.m.) 

Northern Virginia:
Annandale United Methodist Church (10 a.m.) 
Temple Rodef Shalom (12 p.m.) 

Richmond:
Centenary United Methodist Church (10 a.m.) 

Roanoke: 
Christ Lutheran Church (10 a.m.) 

Tidewater: 
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Peninsula (10 a.m.)

If you’d like to hold a prayer vigil in your own congregation’s parking lot instead of driving to one of these, we can send you the litany and how-to-guide. Email Salim@virginiainterfaithcenter.org if you’d like to host one. 

  
All our fact sheets are up-to-date and available online HERE, as well as the summary of our priority issues. Please note that many of the bills have not been assigned numbers yet. We will update the fact sheets with the numbers as soon as we have them. 

Buckled up,

Kim Bobo 
Executive Director

Tomorrow, Jan. 13 at 10 AM -- VICPP & Leaders in the Faith Community to Hold Virtual Press Conference on Limiting the Use of Solitary Confinement in Virginia

“In short, solitary confinement can significantly damage and worse, destroy a human.”
National Prison Project, ACLU Briefing Paper: The Dangerous Overuse of Solitary Confinement in the United States

REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM PRESS CONFERENCE HERE!

THE MESSAGE:
Solitary confinement is a relic of slavery and a reminder of Virginia’s dark history. According to the Virginia Department of Corrections’ own numbers, more than 7,000 incarcerated persons were placed in solitary confinement units known as “restrictive housing” between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019. That number does not include people placed in solitary confinement conditions through other types of housing units in Virginia prisons, let alone Virginia jails or juvenile detention facilities. Solitary confinement should be prohibited except in rare circumstances and only for as little time as necessary. VICPP supports Senate Bill 108 and will be advocating for its passage this year.

THE PROBLEM:
The studies are clear -- just 15 days locked up in solitary confinement can be enough to cause permanent psychological damage. It’s a dehumanizing and barbaric practice that is proven to exacerbate and even cause serious mental illness, and an “increased risk of mortality after release into the community,” as noted in a scientific study published in the JAMA Network Open in 2019.

THE SOLUTION:
As the Virginia General Assembly kicked off its 2022 session today, we are working to get this legislation passed. VICPP supports SB 108, patroned by Sen. Joseph Morrissey (D) and Co-Patroned by Sen. Jill Vogel, and a House bill patroned by Del. Cliff Hayes (D). The bill will make Virginia safer and more just by requiring Virginia prisons and jails to consider humane alternatives before implementing solitary confinement.

Read the FULL MEDIA ADVISORY HERE.

CLICK HERE to SIGN THE PETITION. 

AND click the button below or CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ZOOM PRESS CONFERENCE!

Please share!

This week, VICPP joined faith leaders and organizations from different religious traditions in Virginia to stand together in solidarity with our Muslim friends and partners – and all people of faith and goodwill – to condemn Senator Amanda Chase’s recent Islamophobic remarks, and call for her to apologize. “Virginia prides itself on freedom of religion – allowing people to worship and practice their faith as they choose,” said Hurunnessa Fariad, VICPP Board member and Head of Outreach/PR & Interfaith at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS Center). “Senator Chase’s disrespectful statements demean Muslims and Islam, the chosen faith of many in her district and across the Commonwealth. The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy urges the Senator to learn more about Islam and apologize for her hurtful inciting comments.” CLICK HERE to read the full statement, which included the Islamic Center of Virginia, the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, the Richmond Council of Congregational Rabbis, the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, and historical context provided by two prominent Muslim American women scholars.  CLICK HERE or the button below to access our petition that allows you to send an email using our template or edit to write in your own words. And please share!

To kick off 2022 Days for All People, VICPP encourages you to safely participate in a community service project or event to commemorate the 27th anniversary of MLK Day of Service, observed on January 17, 2022. The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebrates the civil rights leader’s life and legacy. It is observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off” and is the only federal holiday designated by Congress as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. Check with civil rights groups, civic organizations, or county agencies to find opportunities to serve your community. Some opportunities across the Commonwealth are listed at the bottom of our 2022 Days for All People dedicated webpage.  

Research is increasingly providing more evidence of the negative impacts of unconscious bias on health outcomes and patient care. During a 2020 joint meeting between ASTRO (Advances in Radiation Oncology) and the National Cancer Institute to address the effect of implicit bias in cancer care, they characterized unconscious bias as “the most insidious and least recognizable mechanisms that can cause inequity and disparities.” For a local view of the issue, listen to the eye-opening episode, Giving Birth While Black, of the With Good Reason podcast aired by Virginia Humanities this past June with University of Virginia Health System’s Dr. Rochanda Mitchell. Then, visit our PUSH campaign webpage to sign and share our public petition, clergy letter, and health care organizational sign-on letter.

We're still seeking Zoom-savvy volunteers who will be able to support VICPP staff in their virtual workshops during Days for All People advocacy week, and for legislative visits on Wednesday, January 19. You will admit people into the workshop from the virtual waiting room, monitor the chat box for questions, and coordinate interaction between the presenter and virtual attendees to ensure the workshop is truly an engaging virtual experience. If you can be the wind beneath our cyberspace wings, please let us know in an email to office@virginiainterfaithcenter.org

Join our team! VICPP is seeking to hire someone passionate about social justice and experienced in organizing to support our 2022 focus on engaging seminary and college students. The person hired will also assist the executive director in foundation grant work. See full job description HERE or by clicking the button below.

VICPP’s Dora Muhammad joined a panel with four other policymakers convened by the National Women's Political Caucus of Virginia for its Virginia Legislative Advocacy for Women's Day Event on January 11. The program was an opportunity for members and supporters to listen and get involved to advocate and pass the 2022 legislation that the Caucus is passionate about adopting to advance women’s rights – one of which is VICPP’s unconscious (implicit) bias training bill.

You're invited to join the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy for its annual advocacy event. This is an opportunity to act on our faith by standing up for justice, advocating against solitary confinement and in favor of affordable housing and paid sick days. The schedule for the Days for All People event spans the week of January 17-21. People of faith will gather virtually on Wednesday, January 19 for amazing speakers and to meet via Zoom with state legislators at the Capitol. Interfaith prayer vigils/actions focused on solitary confinement will be held outdoors in person and socially distanced in congregational parking lots, using one parking space as the mock cell space. Virtual plenaries, workshops, meetings, and a film screening will be held on the other days.  Visit www.tinyurl.com/dfap2022 or tinyurl.com/dfap2022espanol to sign up. Make plans now to join advocates from all faiths across the Commonwealth!  

Click the graphic above to enlarge it if you'd like to print and include it in your newsletter or congregation's bulletin along with the above text.

Fauquier Times, Jan 6, 2022

Op-Ed by Scott Christian

Image: Fauquier Times/Stock