Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

"Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake." 
Sara Raasch (b.1989)
American author of young adult fiction. She wrote the fantasy New York Times Bestselling trilogy Snow Like Ashes as well as a forthcoming untitled fantasy series

     We hope you and yours have a fantastic week of comfort, contemplation, and cheer, WeCAN Family. Happy Holidays, Happy Solstice, and Happy Winter to all and we look forward to continuing to connect Windham County residents to local justice events in 2020. Have a wonderful week and we hope to see you at a meeting or event soon. 

HAPPENING THIS WEEK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 23rd, 2019-SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29th, 2019

Protest Vigil at TD Bank
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions
Friday, December 27th, 2019 (and every Friday) at TD Bank Brattleboro (215 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT). In front of the building. 12pm-1pm. Signs will be provided
TD is a major investor in Tar Sands. TD helps to fund the Dakota Access Pipeline. What You Can Do (besides attending the vigils): If you’re a TD depositor, change banks! Founded in 2005, Post Oil Solutions is a 501c3 community organizing project in Southeastern Vermont whose mission is to help empower the people of the Central Connecticut River Valley bioregion in this era of global warming and climate change to develop sustainable, resilient , collaborative, and socially just communities leading to a self- and community-sufficient post petroleum society.

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Critical Mass Ride: The Rise of Bikers & Walkers
hosted by 350 Brattleboro, 350 VT, Brattleboro Community Bike Clinic, and VBike; Image credit: Hugh D'Andrade
Friday, December 27th, 2019 at The Brattleboro Common (Park Place, the intersection of routes 5 and 30, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 5:30pm-6:30pm. 
We're continuing with our monthly rides on the last Friday of each month. Kids and families welcome! Critical (and "Kidical") Mass rides have a unique way of energizing folks around bike mobility, transportation solutions, and amplifying our collective ability and power to begin reclaiming our streets and communities. We need this, and we need YOU!
Agenda:
5:30pm: We'll be starting AND ending at the Brattleboro Common. We'll begin by getting organized, signing in, decorating bikes, and going over our route.
6:00pm: Begin Critical Mass ride. This will be a high-visibility downtown route!
6:30pm: End ride back at the Brattleboro Common OR continue to the Latchis Theatre to attend a 7 pm viewing of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" with other Critical Mass riders.
Help us spread the word & make this another successful critical mass ride!

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UPCOMING EVENTS

LGBTQIA+ Allies Youth Yule Dance
sponsored by Outright Vermont
Friday, January 3rd, 2020 at The Root Social Justice Center (The Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7pm-11pm.
Like in Goblet of Fire, but with fewer straight/cis people. 

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Healthy Communication Lab
presented by the Brattleboro Community Justice Center and facilitated by Emily Megas-Russell of With Great Heart
Monday, January 13th, 2020 in the Brooks Memorial Library Community Room (224 Main St, Brattleboro, VT 05301 ). 6pm-8pm. The Community Room can be accessed via a ramp from the street level to the main entrance; an elevator will take you to the third floor and there is a ramp from the Municipal Parking Lot to the third floor entrance as well. There are single-use, gender neutral bathrooms available and light snacks will be provided.
In this lab you will be experimenting with how you can communicate your needs in a way that is authentic and non-violent. Test out identifying, expressing, and
putting boundaries around your needs and feelings while respecting others' right to do the same. 
It's a part of Community, Accountability, Safety, and Harm (CASH) Labs, a series of "labs" put on by the Brattleboro Community Justice Center that seek to build the skills folks need in order to prevent, respond to, and heal from instances of interpersonal harm while addressing the harm's systematic roots. 

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Refugee Theater: Kurdish and Yazidi Women Speak Out
hosted by the Vermont Humanities Council and Brooks Memorial Library
Wednesday, February 5th, 2019 at Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7pm-8:30pm. Free.
Rojava, a revolutionary experiment in Kurdish Syria, attempts to create an inclusive democracy safe from ISIS, Turkish incursion, and Syria’s civil war. Smith College professor Ellen W. Kaplan discusses the process of interviewing women, activists, refugees, and fighters from the Rojava region, and transforming their experiences into theater. Part of the Vermont Humanities First Wednesdays free lecture series.

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Tabling Opportunity for Windham County’s Social/Economic/Environmental Justice Workers
MLK Day Event at the Brattleboro Food Coop
contact Ruth at [email protected]
The Brattleboro Coop is beginning to plan their fourth-annual MLK Day tabling event, and yet again want to invite Windham County’s social/economic/environmental justice workers to the store to set up a table and let people know what you’re up to. The Coop wants to help increase our customers’ awareness of this area’s incredible network of organizations, and encourage Co-op Shareholders to do community service work. 
As you may know, the Coop offers an 8% discount to Co-op owners for volunteer service in the community for up to four months per year, so it’s a great incentive for people to learn about your work and consider lending their time to helping your organization in exchange for this benefit.
Some details:

• If you could give the Coop a general yes or no at some point before December 24^th , that would be very helpful; the finer details will be sorted out as the day approaches.
• This message is going out to about 30 organizations, and they have around 7 tabling spots and 8 hours in the day. In the past some organizations have stayed for the whole day, but depending on how many tablers we have they may not be able to do that this year. 

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RESOURCE FOR WeCAN: Rapid Response Text Alert System
When WeCAN began, Song & Solidarity set up a Rapid Response Text Alert System for WeCAN Groups. Directions for signing up are on WeCAN's website, here: https://www.wecantogether.net/rapid_response. We are grateful to Song and Solidarity for providing this service.

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STANDING REGULAR MEETINGS  

Women Veterans Weekly Coffee and Tea Social
Thursday Mornings at Brattleboro Legion Post 5 Inc. (32 Linden Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 9am-10am.
All female veterans are invited to join in the Women Veterans group coffee held at the American Legion.  All women veterans are welcome. You do not need to be a Legion member.

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Youth 4 Change
Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month from 5:30pm-8pm. 
For more information please contact Youth 4 Change at [email protected].
Agenda:
5:30pm: Drop in homework time and art making
6:00pm: Food
6:30pm: Meeting and Organizing
Youth 4 Change is for local-area youth 12-22 interested in political organizing around local/state/national social justice issues that are important to them. Brattleboro area advocates and educators are holding a space, and assisting youth in building a strong personal tool kit to organize for change. Using a variety of creative methods, we aim to enable youth with tools for resilience, courage and compassion, while fostering their ability to speak up about issues that matter to them, and to take action in the name of love and liberation for all people.  Come explore issues of racial, economic and gender justice through art, movement, first-hand accounts and contemplative practices. Connect with area youth around the issues that matter to you and strengthen your tool kit for action! 

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Windham County NAACP Regular Meetings
Monthly community meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month at The Root Center for Social Justice (The Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) on the First Floor from 6pm-7pm. For more information please email [email protected]. All are welcome. 
The meetings are open to anyone interested in racial justice. The Mission of the NAACP is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

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Brattleboro Common Sense Open Meeting and Orientation for New Volunteers
Every Sunday at 16 Washington Street (Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10:30am. For more information please call 802.490.9363 or go to www.BrattleboroCommonSense.org.
Come and check out Brattleboro's kick-ass group that makes global issues local. 
This summer our proposal for renewable-sourced municipal electricity and our petition for a sustainability coordinator were approved, but other terms of our Climate Crisis forum and common sense conservation lost their first vote in March. Brattleboro voters also approved our Youth Vote Amendment in March.
CURRENT AGENDA :
We are very glad to improve our unique and aggressive DECLARATION of CLIMATE EMERGENCY with Selectboard input that sets all Americans equal across the political divide, establishing compassion and unity for the sake of climate rescue; Local Wall Street Tax; police safety; basic social research
BACKGROUND : in 2010 EMDOVY v Brattleboro: Superior Court order that ends censorship of petitions by the Selectboard; in 2014 We promoted Brattleboro's Declaration that climate change is a real and human-made, and that carbon be listed as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

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ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 

Indigo Radio
Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FMTo stream live: Visit www.wvew.org 
Indigo Radio, deepening understanding and making connections! IndigoRadio is a group of area educators seeking to learn through engaging with others in our community and throughout the world. We will be talking about educational and social issues both globally and locally and connecting them to our lives and Brattleboro community. Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indigoradiowvew/. For archive recordings of past shows: https://soundcloud.com/user-654648353. 

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     Thank you, WeCANners, for your unwavering commitment to your community. We look forward to connecting with you in the coming months at an event or meeting. 


Joanna and Leslie
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