Thank you for making our Second Annual Community Picnic (Think Gather Feed) in Balboa Park a huge success!  Because of all the support of our amazing volunteers, supporters, performers, speakers, and co-sponsors, we fed 400 people at the picnic and got great input on the needs of folks with inadequate housing in San Diego.  

To celebrate our fabulous volunteers and supporters, we invite you all to a VIP reception on Thursday, November 20th at 6 pm, at the law firm of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, 655 W. Broadway, Suite 1900, in downtown San Diego where we will provide drinks and food.  At 7 pm, we will launch our Winter Survival Pack and Baby Bag project, assembling the packs and bags to help keep folks warm on the streets of San Diego this winter.

If you can’t make it to this assembly, look out for our full schedule for this winter’s homeless outreach project which we will be circulating soon.

Would you be willing to put a bin up at work for donations?  We’re looking for sleeping bags, blankets, backpacks, tote bags, warm clothing, shoes, coats, beanies, gloves, and non-perishable foods. Also we’d appreciate new onesies, undies, diapers, and baby wipes.  Click here for a flyer you can post nearby the bin and/or circulate to your colleagues, friends and families. 

Hope to see you this winter!!

GTT is proud to take on the heart-wrenching issue of trafficking.  Living in a border town, some of our members have been assessing regional needs and discovered AT LAST (Anti Trafficking Litigation Assistance Support Team), which is launching a free online resource for advocates representing trafficking victims through the legal system. 
 
To follow up and finish what we started on August 20th, we are meeting at the law firm of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins at 655 W. Broadway, Suite 1900, 92101, in downtown San Diego at 5 pm.  We will provide pizza and beverages at 5 pm then we’ll start hand redacting at 6 pm (no computers this time).  No special legal skills are necessary to participate; we will just be removing victims’ names from documents to maintain their confidentiality.  For more information, check out AT LAST at http://atlasteam.org/index.html. 

Click on this link to download Civil litigation on behalf of victims of human trafficking, an introductory guide to trafficking civil litigation, complements of AT LAST.  Also check out Rachel Shigekane’s article Rehabilitation and Community Integration of Trafficking Survivors in the United States, which appeared in the Human Rights Quarterly.  Also check out this short Lotus Outreach video on trafficking in southeast asia.

“Election Day is the great equalizer. It is the one day where if all was right in our democracy, it would not matter if a person is rich, poor, black, white, educated or not, we all would have the same amount of power.” — Donita Judge, Ohio staff attorney, Advancement Project, August 13, 2008.

Follow this link to find out where you can vote and happy election day 2008!!  http://www2.sdcounty.ca.gov/rov/Eng/Epolling_query.asp

Start Time: 17:00
Date: 2008-11-10
End Time: 19:00

City councilmember Donna Frye breaking bread at community picnic

Join us for a community picnic on Sunday, October 12, 2008, from Noon to 4 p.m. in Balboa Park (6th Ave north of Laurel Street).  This year’s theme is “Local Voices for Community Solutions” to poverty and homelessness.

At the picnic, we’re gathering our members, families and friends to break bread with our homeless neighbors; hear great speakers like long-time homeless advocate Congressman Bob Filner, street guru “Waterman” David Ross, and Shakti Rising’s Shannon Thompson; enjoy performances by local artists including our own Corina Rose, Terry Matsuoka, the Super Sonic Samba School, and DJ Quist; and participate in family games.  The League of Women Voters will be registering voters for the upcoming elections to get out the “street vote” and we will hold small group “story circles” about the issues particularly affecting the poor and homeless in our community.

Your $10 minimum donation will provide BBQ lunch for you and a person in need.  Every penny raised will go directly toward keeping folks warm on San Diego’s streets this winter.  We’re raising money for our winter survival backpacks, which will be loaded (as they have the past 2 winters) with sleeping bags or fleece blankets, knit caps, gloves, socks, ponchos, toiletries, water, non-perishable foods, and laminated resource and phone cards to put people on the streets in contact with people who can help them get back on their feet.  This year, we are adding GTT baby bags — homemade bags with baby wipes, pacifiers, infant bibs, infant socks, receiving blanket, wash cloths, baby bottles, cream or ointment, baby wash/shampoo and onesies for expectant or new mothers.

Co-sponsoring organizations include Foundation for Change, Shakti Rising, Lotus Outreach, The Resolved Church, the League of Women Voters, Progressive San Diego, and the Isaiah Project.  We’re looking for volunteers to help get the word out on the street and lend a helping hand on the day of, whether it’s flipping burgers (veggy too!), registering voters, or helping to clean up afterwards.  Working together, we can create community-based solutions to poverty and homelessness!

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE TO THE GTT COMMUNITY PICNIC! 

Downloadable 2008 Picnic Flyer

Please rsvp by emailing us at girlsthinktank@gmail.com if you’re planning to attend so we can plan accordingly.  If you need directions, call Audra at 619.793.4668.

Please rsvp by emailing us at girlsthinktank@gmail.com if you’re planning to attend so we can plan accordingly.  If you need directions, call Audra at 619.793.4668.

It’s almost that time of the year again!  We had a great success at our first annual community picnic and can’t wait for our second, which will take place on Sunday, October 12th in Balboa Park from noon to 4 p.m.  Please come help us plan our fall community picnic to benefit GTT’s homelessness outreach project on Wed., September 3rd, at 6:30 p.m., at Farzeen’s place, 1465 C Street, Unit 3418, San Diego, 92101.  Bring food or drink to share, and we will brainstorm how to repeat and even improve upon the success of last year’s community picnic!  Also, if your organization would like to participate as a co-sponsor or supporter of this inspiring event, please contact us at girlsthinktank@gmail.com. 

The GTT will support women in the arts by checking out the San Diego Museum of Art’s exhibitions on Georgia O’Keeffe and Eleanor Antin before picnicking in Balboa Park.  The museum is featuring two exhibitions and a “Screen on the Green” event which will feature the “Shop Around The Corner.”  We’ll meet out on the lawn at 7 pm and eat while collecting donations for the International Rescue Committee/VISTA.  Bring a dish/beverage/snacks to share and a donation if you can! 

DRIVE FOR International Rescue Committee/VISTA: GTT asks folks to donate items for tutoring kits for the IRC’s work  with refugees in San Diego who are learning English.  The IRC suggests donations of pencils, pencil sharpener, pens, glue sticks, scissors, 24 crayon boxes, 3×5 cards, notebooks, rubber bands, name tags & plastic covering, erasers, large Ziploc bags, coloring books, books, construction paper, white board markers, 1 inch binders, 8 pack of binder dividers, backpacks, and first aid kits.

Also click here to see David Ross Proposal for San Diego Homeless Solutions, which asks City Council to approve a budget for downtown temporary water fountains and port-o-johns.