{"id":247069,"date":"2014-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/interfaith-worker-advocacy-group-expands-with-new-north-park-location\/"},"modified":"2014-03-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T07:00:00","slug":"interfaith-worker-advocacy-group-expands-with-new-north-park-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/interfaith-worker-advocacy-group-expands-with-new-north-park-location\/","title":{"rendered":"Interfaith worker advocacy group expands with new North Park location"},"content":{"rendered":"

By B.J. Coleman | SDUN Reporter<\/p>\n

An established organization has landed in North Park to promote worker’s rights throughout the city, and they bring some religion to the discussion as well. <\/p>\n

The Interfaith Center for Worker Justice (ICWJ) advocates for the same initiatives as before, but under a new name. The organization\u2019s banner used to fly as the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, with its members working out of a Mission Valley office shared with the Center on Policy Initiatives; however, the Foundation for Change, another sister group, decided to vacate its storefront offices at 3758 30th Street. The Foundation\u2019s first offer to transfer of the facility went to the ICWJ, which subsequently moved to the North Park site in mid-September. They immediately laid plans for enlarging its operational scope and outreach, becoming the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice at the end of January.<\/p>\n

The newly reinvigorated ICWJ initiated its first-ever \u201cLunch & Learn\u201d seminar series on March 4th, opening the first discussion of five weekly sessions on \u201cFaith and Social Justice in Diverse Traditions,\u201d with a joint presentation by Reverend J. Lee Hill, Jr. and Reverend Wayne Riggs. These ministers were on hand to outline the perspectives of Protestant and Evangelical Christianity. The new offices have made such talks possible.<\/p>\n

\"Rabbi<\/a>
Rabbi Laurie Coskey, executive director at the ICWJ, in front of the center’s new location in North Park (Photo by Hutton Marshall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ICWJ\u2019s executive director, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, started the meeting by teaching participants how to sing \u201cAmen\u201d in response to blessings and prayers. She noted that the meeting\u2019s goal was to \u201cdelve more deeply into faith traditions and their link to social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial gathering drew an unexpectedly large crowd of approximately 40 attendees, who spanned such diverse occupations as pastors, psychologists, church planters, and social workers, and who derived their religious views from a variety of faith traditions. Riggs spoke of how \u201ctheology does and should affect behavior,\u201d describing his early ministerial work in an African-American prison cell block and his military service as a Navy chaplain. Hill remarked that Jesus was among the marginalized of his day, comparing the execution method of crucifixion then with lynching in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

The ministers\u2019 presentation included a lengthy passage from the Poverty and Justice Bible. Riggs said the mission of evangelism should be to \u201cinvolve and engage everyone for their own personal good and the good of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill concurred, \u201cOur responsibility is to get out of the churches and into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coskey, known around the group as \u201cRabbi Laurie,\u201d has been with the organization since 2001. She is enthusiastic about the ICWJ\u2019s new \u201csafe space\u201d where people of varied backgrounds and cultures can learn together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have renewed energy to stand in solidarity with working families,\u201d Coskey said. \u201cHaving our own space has expanded our ability to fulfill the mission of connecting working people and people of faith, with the goal of ending poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted that the new offices unite individuals from notably different faiths around a \u201ccenter\u201d of caring action. As one seminar attendee from the religiously divided Belfast, Ireland put it, \u201cCommon ground is sacred ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Residents<\/a>
Residents and member of various faith organizations gather for the “Lunch and Learn” series at ICWJ on March 4. (Courtesy ICWJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ICWJ was established in San Diego County in 1998. The center\u2019s new slogan is \u201cChanging the future for workers and their families!\u201d The center invites attendees to bring \u201cinquisitive minds\u201d along with their brown bag lunches every Tuesday at noon through April 1 for its ongoing five-part winter session, with subsequent presenters discussing the views of Catholicism, Islam, Judaism and Unitarian Universalism on fairness for workers and related social-justice concerns.<\/p>\n

The center adopts campaigns so as to \u201cwalk the mission\u201d and put \u201cfaith on the streets.\u201d Among other ongoing activities is participation in \u201cRaise Up San Diego,\u201d which kicked off with a gathering on Wednesday, March 12th, at the Downtown Civic Center Plaza, urging support for earned sick days and increase in the minimum wage for workers.<\/p>\n

Other current campaign action deals with immigration reform. The organization is also available to provide information to other groups about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). The Golden State\u2019s \u201cinsurance exchange\u201d under the ACA is called Covered California, and the ICWJ can educate audiences about choices in the exchange\u2019s insurance options.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By B.J. Coleman | SDUN Reporter An established organization has landed in North Park to promote worker’s rights throughout the city, and they bring some religion to the discussion as well.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":247070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Interfaith worker advocacy group expands with new North Park location","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}