In 2012, Voices of Hope Productions was contacted by the Culture Unplugged curation team after they reviewed the Reentry Film Series created for American Friends Service Committee. In 2010, the series was developed as a catalyst for dialogue in communities to better understand the human and economic impact associated with incarceration and reentry back into society after prison. The series was originally coordinated with legislative objectives to educate and engage citizens about prison reform in New Jersey where it costs $50,000 per year to incarcerate each prisoner, the same price as attending an Ivy League university, but without the skills necessary to successfully return home and into the workforce. Unfortunately, U.S taxpayers foot the bill for incarcerating people who much of the time need addiction treatment instead, yet often don’t get that either.

The online festival’s audience comprises of not only global citizens – professors, students, activists, journalists, anthropologists etc., but also film-makers/producers who identify talent across borders for collaborations. Culture Unplugged partners include LINK TV, TED, The Story of Stuff, Human Rights Watch and UN Development Programme to name a few.

Please go to Culture Unplugged to explore & contemplate along with film-makers and citizens around the world – our cultures, societies & systems that defines humanity now.

“We’re not going to get there in America on race, poverty, on all of those issues until we come to an understanding that we’re all in it together. There’s only one American destiny, not a Republican destiny or a Democratic destiny just one American destiny, not rich or poor. We’re all in this boat together.” ~ Newark Mayor, Cory Booker

For more about the Engaging People Series go to engagingpeople.tv.

Engaging People Trailer – Stories About Citizens Revitalizing Democracy from Lori H. Ersolmaz on Vimeo.

~~~
“Human Beings are Creatures of Meaning, Seeking Ways to Give Our Days Value”
~ Frances Moore Lappe, Yes Magazine

For more about the Engaging People Series go to engagingpeople.tv.

In May 2008, New Jersey became just the third state in the nation to enact paid family leave, a program that provides payments to workers who take time off for the specific purpose of bonding with a new child or to care for a seriously ill family member. While paid family leave in New Jersey has been successful from almost every vantage point, the number of workers who have benefited from the program since its implementation in July 2009 has been curiously low. This short film recommends actions that can be taken to strengthen and improve the Paid Family Leave Insurance program so that it not only fulfills its legislative mandate, but also meets its aspirational goals. Created in collaboration with the Amplification Project.

Lori Ersolmaz is a documentary film maker from the Red Bank area with a passion for telling people’s stories.

Though she excels at telling a visual story, getting filmmaker Lori Ersolmaz to tell her life story in a linear way is no easy task. When she’s not working as adjunct professor at Rider University in the Communications and Journalism Department, she’s out at a labor rally or a neighborhood peace walk, following her passion to tell stories of people who, she says, have no voice. Hence the name of her company, Voices of Hope, which helps non-profits and government agencies build social marketing and issue advertising campaigns through documentaries.     Read full story

Footage Firm is a leading stock footage provider and their award-winning footage has been used on every major network and cable channel including ABC, NBC, MTV, National Geographic, Disney and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The company’s footage is shot on professional cameras and equipment utilizing advanced methods for capturing, storing and distributing their content at the highest quality levels possible. Their footage donation comes with a license that grants the Voices of Hope Youth Media Program with the right to royalty-free material for unlimited use in all media and worldwide distribution, in perpetuity.

Abby Lynch of Footage Firm said of the donation, “I was particularly impressed with the Voices of Hope Youth Media Program and the work the youth are doing and being taught especially since it benefits the community around them as well. The diverse range of skills the youth must learn from all the different aspects of the program are amazing, and I think the awareness it brings to certain issues is also very important. We are so excited to be able to help Voices of Hope in any little way
we can!”

In addition to the stock footage package, Voices of Hope Productions also received a special sponsorship subscription to VideoBlocks.com where 20 clips can be downloaded per day, for a year. VideoBlocks.com is a subscription-based website that provides members with unlimited downloads of stock video, footage, motion backgrounds, production music, sound effects and more. Instead of charging by the download, they allow members to download as much as they want with no limits and the website currently has over 30,000 clips, with new material added daily.

“This is an awesome opportunity for the Voices of Hope Youth Media Program. Youth, especially in inner cities don’t often have the chance to use professional tools and materials, and this donation is an absolute godsend. I can’t tell you how much my students will appreciate using the footage and production music tracks in their projects. I’m sure they’ll have a blast with the time-lapse effects too. I’m so appreciative of the thoughtful donation and sponsorship—it will go to great use,” says
Lori Ersolmaz, President of Voices of Hope Productions.

Asbury Park has seen its share of change over the years. While major boardwalk redevelopments are trying to attract more people to the town’s beachfront, including Convention Hall retail shops and restaurants, there are nonprofit organizations like the Mercy Center focused on building up the town, but especially for west side residents, as well as helping to make it safer.

The Fatherhood Peace and Unity participants walked through the west side of Asbury Park where violence has occurred in past months

The Mercy Center has been in Asbury Park since 1986 helping people through education, emergency, and family services. Veronica Gilbert-Tyson, the Director of the Mercy Center’s Family Resource Center, has been working in Asbury Park for 13 years. Ms. Gilbert-Tyson says there are a lot of problems occurring in Asbury Park, including violence and homelessness. “Asbury Park has almost become a dumping ground for homeless people. Newly released prisoners with nowhere to go are given a bus ticket to Asbury Park and are not being helped.” She says in many ways that is why one homeless shelter that was planned to be built was not, because people stay there for one day and go back on the streets the very next day due to little supportive programming. Affordable housing has been built, but because of the neighborhood’s safety issues many people are afraid to move there.

The Mercy Center has seen first-hand that when there are programs that provide benefits to the community supportive programming thrives. The Mercy Center’s Sisters Academy, a middle school for grades five through eight focuses on educating girls from economically challenged families in order to give them access to private high school and college education. Gilbert-Tyson feels that a similar education opportunity should be provided for boys too, “Young boys living in Asbury need something like the Sisters Academy, especially since they are more at risk.”

Recently, fathers in the community who understand those risks took a stand to improve their Asbury Park neighborhood. They are tired of the violence happening where they live, and want their children to grow up in a safer environment. The Mercy Center’s Fatherhood Empowerment Program held a unity and peace march on Saturday, August 22nd to show other residents, especially youth, that they have a voice and violence is not the way to solve issues. The group held up signs, and chanted sayings like, “Stop the violence now,” “Join the fight for peace,” and “Love yourself and your neighbor.” They also handed out flyers while they walked the eight blocks around their community. All the signs had one clear message, Unity, Peace, and Love. Their objective was to discourage violence and inform people about the numerous activities and events established at the Boys and Girls Club and Mercy Center. Starting at the Boys and Girls Club on 1201 Monroe Street, they purposely marched through the neighborhoods around the same corners that recent violence and gang activity has occurred.

Fathers who say they are taking back their community and neighborhood to provide safe alternatives to gangs and violence

Veronica Gilbert-Tyson also joined in on the march. She felt that the fathers were trying their best and observed that they seemed to feel empowered, “Just to going out and doing this in the community is a big step. This is the beginning of something really dynamic.” The younger generation is the Father’s target audience since they are the future of the community. Kourtney Blackmon, one of the coordinators of the march, said that there are too many young people with nowhere to go so they want to show them that people are there rooting for them and part of a support system for positive minded activities.

Joseph Dunbar and Blackmon are in the community every day speaking to youth and adults as well. Dunbar says it is hard because some of the younger kid’s minds are already and programmed to the streets. “The middle school aged children are the gang member’s primary target because they want to recruit early. Dunbar said, “The earlier the better because just like the army you get raised in rank. We try and catch them just as early as gang members do.”

Joseph Dunbar hands out flyers to passing drivers on the west side of Asbury Park

Everyone at the march had their own personal reasons for participating. Linda Johnson grew up in Asbury Park and has witnessed how everything has changed. She pointed out where she used to live, “The houses aren’t even the same — but every house has a story.” Another participant wanted to get involved because he felt there is too much violence and innocent people are getting killed. He said, “I wanted to join the march for unity to save other innocent people in the community.” Joseph Dunbar pointed out where a group jumped him, and described how one of his close friends was shot and killed on one of the corners. He said, “I lost more friends than a little bit out here because of the violence. We want to take the streets back; we are going to take them back.”

Tracy, another participant was determined to be out there. She saw the flyer and thought it was great because she also is tired of the violence. She sees most of it unraveling right outside of her home. She felt that more people should join the march for peace, “Not a lot of people would show up for something positive like this, but the minute there is a gang fight a whole lot of people show up.” The size of the group did not stay the same throughout the whole march. One observer, Ninja the Unknown Prophet, wanted to share a poem to support the theme of unity called “Together Forever”.

There were mixed reactions about the march from people in the community. Marcher Ronald Chancey said the reactions were both positive and negative, “Those who were in favor of it showed support by raising their hands waving at us and honking their horns. Those who didn’t want to be a part of it just turned and walked away.” “Some people were shocked, Blackmon said, “but I feel good about it. I’m glad I got a chance to do it, so hopefully others will step up in the future too.”

The Fatherhood Empowerment Program plans to continue to march for unity and peace at least once a month. They know that the only way this will truly make a difference is by staying persistent and showing people that they will not tolerate the violence in the community any longer. “These marches will wake people up little-by-little. Our hope is to have people that are considering joining gangs really think about other options available. Blackmon said, “It will also hopefully get people involved in the violence think twice about whether they really want that lifestyle for themselves and their children.”

Veronica Gilbert-Tyson and Joseph Dunbar speak with Asbury Park resident about the Mercy Center's Fatherhood Empowerment Program

The Fatherhood Empowerment Program was started this year. The group plans to have chess tournaments, hoops for peace, and homework programs. One of the first steps the fathers took was to connect with Brookdale Community College so they could bring the GED program to the community. “Now they have two full classes, it’s a positive thing, says Gilbert-Tyson. “That’s one of the ways they can start changing their lives, through education, it’s a stepping stone for anything.” Members of the Fatherhood Empowerment Program also recognize the redevelopment by the beach. Compared to where they live it looks like a completely different town. Blackmon said the redevelopment will not be beneficial to them if people on his side of town do not wake up and start doing the right thing. “We can’t keep pushing ourselves in a hole. We have to do the right thing for our households and our community.”

For more information or to join the Fatherhood Empowerment Program contact:
Joseph Dunbar at 732.774.9397 x20
Visit their Facebook Page: Fatherhood Empowerment Program

Previous award honorees have included Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Bill Moyers and NOW, Howard Kurtz for his Washington Post columns and CNN show, NPR’s “On the Media”, Van Jones, Esq., Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford, founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, and Chair of the Creative Commons Project, and Linda Ellerbee, Nickelodeon and Lucky Duck Productions.

Voices of Hope Productions was selected from the nominees by an awards committee of NAMLE members and ratified by the NAMLE board of directors. “I couldn’t be more excited or appreciative of this award, as well as NAMLE’s recognition and support of my work engaging youth and adults in media-making and civic engagement. It’s also a great thrill to be honored with highly recognized media professionals such as Jon Stewart, Bill Moyers, Lawrence Lessig, and Linda Ellerbee, all whose work I admire,” says Ersolmaz.

In its most global sense, media literacy education privileges diversity among media forms and educational constituencies. The 2011 NAMLE Conference created a global vision of media literacy education—a vision that acknowledges all forms of media as relevant, including (but not limited to) object, print, radio, photography, television, film, video, internet, and other digital devices. The 2011 Conference also commemorated the tenth anniversary of NAMLE and celebrated its growth as a professional development organization for an increasingly broad constituency of media literacy educators.

Voices of Hope Productions, a woman-owned creative services and multimedia production company dedicated to community-based social issues and documentary film-making as a means to educate, engage, empower and entertain while fostering leadership, citizenship and inspiration in adults and youth to make a difference in our society.

See acceptance speech presentation:

Voices of Hope NAMLE Presentation on Vimeo.

Fatigue from Lori H. Ersolmaz on Vimeo.

Ensures Healthy Sea and Economy for Future Generations

Today is a great day for the ocean!

Demonstrating his commitment to protect New Jersey’s coastal waters and natural resources, Governor Chris Christie today invoked his authority under the federal Deepwater Port Act, vetoing a proposed deepwater liquefied natural gas operation 16 miles off the coast of Asbury Park. The action prevents Liberty Natural Gas from constructing and operating its proposed offshore port to receive foreign vessels transporting liquid natural gas (LNG) to the U.S. for regassification.

“I take very seriously our obligation to protect the environmental health of our coastal waters,” said Governor Christie. “Offshore LNG poses unacceptable risks to the State’s residents, natural resources, economy and security.  We must ensure that our 126 miles of shoreline remain an economic driver for tourism and that our fishing and shellfish industries remain healthy and productive now and for future generations.”

“This is a clear victory for the ocean,” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director of Clean Ocean Action. “It is our most treasured natural resource and it will now be free from harmful industrialization.”

“The ocean is the backbone of our state’s economy, it sustains and supports a multi-billion dollar tourism industry, provides endless hours of enjoyment on the beach and in the sea, and hosts a rich diversity of marine life. If we abuse it and put it in harms way our economy and way of life will diminish and ultimately collapse” furthered Zipf.

“The Governor’s veto today keeps New Jersey’s eye on the prize — environmentally and economically, we need to be developing clean renewable energy and becoming more energy efficient instead of relying on dirty and dangerous options like liquid natural gas on the Jersey Shore,” said Dave Pringle, Director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

“The decision to veto the Liberty natural gas project protects the Jersey shore and decreases our reliance on fossil fuels. New Jersey is a leader in the renewable energy industry and the Governor’s veto today helps us maintain this leadership position,” said William Schulte, an attorney with the Eastern Environmental Law Center.

The next step, now that this latest battle is over, is to call upon our federal officials to step up and act to permanently protect our waters. They must pass federal legislation permanently protect our ocean waters off the New Jersey and New York coast from these and other types of harmful activities by making it a Clean Ocean Zone.

Offshore Liquified Natural Gas Project Background: Three liquefied natural gas import facilities were pending off the Jersey Shore: Liberty Natural Gas, four snake-like buoy/turret moorings off Asbury Park; Atlantic Sea Island Group, which proposed to build an island in the ocean off Sea Bright, NJ; and Exxon Mobile’s Blue Ocean Energy project which was planning to install an experimental massive storage facility off Sea Girt. Following the Governors announcement, and changes to the global LNG market, the latter two companies withdrew their plans last year. Only Liberty Natural Gas proceeded, taunting the Governor’s promise of a veto.

Resources and Links

Governor Christie’s Release

Governor Christie’s Statement

Thank Governor Christie and DEP Commisioner Bob Martin for keeping their word and stopping Liberty Natural Gas and all LNG projects off NJ and NY.

Email

By mail or phone:
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000

Bob Martin, Commissioner
401 E. State St.
7th Floor, East Wing
P.O. Box 402
Trenton, NJ 08625-0402
609-292-2885

Find out more about Clean Ocean Action

Keep our ocean wild & industry free!

Stay informed and involved in future Clean Ocean Zone activities.