Tonight’s July AHEAD meeting will be held in Ada in Ohio Northern University’s Meyer Hall of Science, room 107, from 6-8 p.m.
The meeting will include a meet and greet with Democratic candidates for US House of Representatives from District 5, Mike Galbraith and James Neu. The event is also a potluck, so please feel free to bring a dish to share.
Come one, come all!
Members of the public are invited to attend an AHEAD-sponsored open forum featuring Janet Garrett, candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Congressional District 4. The event will be held tonight, Thursday, July 6, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Lima Public Library at 650 W Market St.
Garrett, a Democrat, is running for the seat currently held by Representative Jim Jordan. The forum will allow citizens to learn about Garrett’s positions and share their concerns with her.
This forum is the second in a series of meet-and-greets sponsored by AHEAD. An earlier forum featured Andrew Mackey, another Democratic candidate for the seat. “We believe it’s important for citizens to have the chance to speak directly with those who might represent them,” said AHEAD member Emily Fisher. (For media coverage of Andrew Mackey’s meet-and-greet, please see: WLIO video, Lima News article.)
Janet Garrett is a former Peace Corps volunteer and worked as a teacher in Ohio schools for 35 years. She spent 20 of those years in the Union leadership serving in several offices including president. She has been a political activist all her life and is running for the third time for US House of Representatives in Ohio’s Fourth Congressional District. She passionately believes in the basic American values and is willing to work hard to preserve them. A full biography is available at on her website.
“We encourage all residents of Lima — and District 4 — to take this opportunity to meet with Janet Garrett and find out more about her positions and what she can offer as our Representative,” said Lisa Robeson, also of AHEAD.
Please feel free to share the poster and Facebook event page on social media!
This Monday, June 19th, is our Sherrod Brown ice cream social fundraiser in Findlay. The event is co-hosted with Indivisible District 5. We’ll have a speaker from the Sherrod campaign, many local candidates, and lots of like-minded folks. Pay what you like. Please share the word!
RSVP today for the event: Ice Cream Social Fundraiser For Senator Sherrod Brown
Printable flyer can be found here, and more details can be found in this previous AHEAD post: Sherrod Brown Ice Cream Social Fundraiser on June 19th
Redistricting requires a constitutional amendment, and we will need to gather petition signatures to get the proposed amendment on the ballot. This effort is being led by Fair Districts = Fair Elections, a coalition of many groups. Redistricting for Ohio statehouse seats passed in 2015; now, we are addressing the federal-level seats. Ohio has perhaps the worst gerrymandering in the nation; redistricting is essential to get fair representation.
The goal is to collect 300,000 signatures statewide by July 5, so we’re going to make a big push this month. Reaching that goal would get the proposal on the 2017 ballot; otherwise, it will wait until 2018.
Allen County: Emily Fisher has petitions and Jennifer Robertson has a schedule of events where we can gather signatures. Contact Emily by Facebook or by email; Jennifer by email. We’re going to the Lima Farmer’s Market, Rally in the Square, and more.
Hardin County: Sheila Corresel (419-494-4558) is our lead in Hardin County. You can help Sheila in many ways, including identifying sites and getting access (e.g. can we gather signatures at the library and Community Market), speaking with voters, and actually managing the petitions. Please contact Sheila to find out more.
Now is the perfect time to get involved. Help us put Ohio’s ridiculous gerrymandering in the past!
If you would like to collect petition signatures, be sure to view the online training. To learn more about redistricting and how to explain it to people, see the Fair Districts website.
It is worth mentioning that this is not a particularly controversial issue, so we hope that collecting signatures will not be that challenging. We will try to attend large-crowd events, but also go door-to-door and any place that lots of people hang out — supermarket, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, libraries.
Join AHEAD and Indivisible District 5 for an ice cream social in support of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. The event will be held on Monday, June 19th from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in Findlay at the USW Local 207L. The ice cream social event will be a pay-what-you-can fundraiser and everyone is welcome, so please help spread the word!
Please RSVP in advance so that we know how many to expect. RSVP today at the Facebook event page, and feel free to share this event on your own page. To RSVP by email, please send a message to ahead.oh@gmail.com.
Ways to donate towards the Sherrod Brown fundraiser:
Please view the event flyers for additional details regarding the ice social and contact/donation information. Event flyer available in JPG and PDF formats. Please feel free to print and share!
“The Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition is hosting a speaker’s bureau training on Thursday, May 18 at 7 pm in Perrysburg. We need speakers to get the word out about congressional redistricting reform and educate others about the Fair Districts = Fair Elections proposal. We will give you the tools you need to be comfortable talking about congressional redistricting reform in front of small and large groups. Sign up today and bring a friend!” –Event description
Event registration (RSVP required): Toledo Area Redistricting Speaker’s Bureau Training
Event location:
Way Public Library
101 East Indiana Avenue
Perrysburg, OH 43551
HOLA Ohio (Facebook page and website link) is a grassroots organization based in NE Ohio that focuses on Latino advocacy, outreach, community organizing, and civic engagement.
HOLA has reached out to AHEAD and asked us to visit Jordan’s Lima office May 15th and 19th to advocate for immigrants in Ohio. They are scheduling visits every hour, on the hour.
HOLA Ohio is currently working with more than 30 US-citizen children whose parents are scheduled to be deported within months. With the Trump administration’s hardline policies leaving them no options for relief, their parents now must choose between leaving their children behind or bringing them to a country where some will not be able to attend school or access greatly needed medical care.
HOLA’s focus:
One woman’s story:
“Maria” from Norwalk has twin US-citizen daughters, age 5, including one with Spastic Cerebral Palsy, and a 3-year-old daughter. She has been in the US for nine years, since the age of 16. While at a mall with her children, she inadvertently left her car door open. When she returned to her car, the police were waiting. They reported her to ICE. She now must leave the country by June. Maria’s daughter receives therapies which are not available in Mexico. She must now decide if she will take her daughters with her to Mexico, or leave them with her partner.
Sign up now and let’s help HOLA Ohio protect all Ohioans!
We are now regularly adding content to the Take Action section of the AHEAD website!
Please explore the Resources section of the AHEAD website to find information pertaining to our districts as well as the State of Ohio, who represents us, and who else is taking action. The Resources menu contains a calendar of upcoming events, information about identifying and contacting your local, state, and federal representatives, Ohio resources by topic (page still being developed), Ohio groups that align with many of the same issues as AHEAD, and much more.
If you have information that could be added to any one of these pages, or a story for the AHEAD blog, please forward it to us at ahead.oh.web@gmail.com.
We had a riveting presentation at the April AHEAD meeting by Rosie and Lynda of ONU. They spoke about the economic impact of international students on Hardin County, Ohio, and the US. They also spoke about the ways that Trump administration policies hostile to international visitors and residents are affecting students and the university. Some insights:
International students have a positive economic impact. Ohio ranks in #8 among states in receiving international students. For 2015-2016, international students had these impacts locally:
As a result of the President Trump’s travel ban and related policies, ONU and other Ohio universities are seeing these challenges:
What can we do? Monitor immigration action happening locally, and when possible, identify opportunities for international students to present to communities.
More than 200 people attended the 2-hour AHEAD-sponsored town hall with Rep. Jim Jordan this past Monday at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center in Lima. Questions for the 4th District’s Congressman covered a range of topics including health care, insurance, immigration, environmental policy, and the opioid crisis, among others.
A huge thanks to the AHEAD members that made this event a reality! Emily and Beth and others in the Political Action Committee for planning the town hall, Lisa for moderating, and Kerry for photographing the event and writing the press release.
Below, please find several news articles covering the event, as well as an archived Facebook Live stream of the town hall.
AHEAD 