Fordham University in Partnership with United Neighborhood Houses and the College of Mount Saint Vincent Presents
a community forum on economic justice
Thawing the American Dream
You are invited to the Emmy-Nominated documentary " American Winter" a poignant and moving portrait illustrating the economic struggles of American families.
Join us for the post-film solutions focused panel discussion where you can join with experts in identifying and engaging in ways to be part of what's next in cultivating a green and growing future for our country
SPEAKERS
HOST
Dr. Elaine Congress (Fordham University)
Elaine P. Congress, DSW, ACSW, LCSW is professor and associate dean at Fordham University
Graduate School of Social Service. She is on the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) United Nations team and serves on the executive committees of the NGO Committee on Migration and the NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. In addition she serves as the North American representative on the IFSW Permanent Committee on Ethical Issues.
Dr. Congress has many publications on cultural diversity and ethics in social work. She is the author of seven books including Social Work with Immigrants and Refuges: Legal Issues, Clinical Skills, and Advocacy, three editions of Multicultural Perspectives in Working With Families, published by Springer Publishing Company; Social Work Values and Ethics, published both in English and Korean by Wadsworth Publishing Company; and two editions of Teaching Social Work Values and Ethics: A Curriculum Resource, published by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). She has been the editor of a special issue on cultural diversity for the journal, Crisis Intervention and Time Limited Treatment.
MODERATOR
Hugh Hamilton ("Talkback!", WBAI)
Hugh Hamilton is a public-interest advocate and professional journalist of wide-ranging experience spanning more than three decades in broadcast (radio) and print media. Most recently, he was until August 2013 the executive producer and host of “Talkback!”, an interactive news-talk-analysis program specializing in political discourse and public policy on WBAI, Pacifica Radio, in New York 99.5 FM. Since 1993, he has combined his extensive journalistic experience with a parallel interest in legislative analysis and advocacy, serving in related capacities for two members of the New York City Council.
Hamilton has covered extensively the impact of public policy on the African American and other “minority” communities, in areas ranging from politics and voting rights to issues of economic parity, public funding of social infrastructure (health, education), and the environment. He is currently an independent editorial consultant and writer, policy analyst and media relations adviser to various community development organizations.
PANELISTS
Harry Gantz (Producer and Co-Director/ American Winter)
Harry Gantz is the Producer and Co-Director of American Winter, the Emmy nominated feature documentary film about families in economic crisis who are seeking social services . American Winter had a successful premiere on HBO in 2013 and has screened in communities across the country as part of a nationwide outreach and engagement campaign to create impact and social action. Harry and his brother, Joe, are best known as the creators of “Taxicab Confessions”, the Emmy Award-winning documentary series featuring real-life interactions between cab drivers and their passengers that has been broadcast on HBO for more than fifteen years. Joe and Harry also executive produced the CBS drama series, “The Defenders”, starring Jim Belushi, based on a documentary pilot they created about the lives of two Las Vegas defense attorneys and the cases they defend.
The Gantz brothers have distinguished themselves as filmmakers with their unique approach to capturing the most intimate moments in real people's lives. Their first documentary film "Couples Arguing" captured couples in the midst of actual arguments filmed in progress in their own homes. The film was broadcast and distributed around the world, and was honored at the Edinburgh Television Festival. Also included in the Gantz brothers’ body of work are critically acclaimed docu-series for Showtime, The Sundance Channel, and for Channel 5 in the UK.
Donald Garner (New York City Department of Education)
Donald C. Garner currently serves as a Teacher Recruitment Manager within the New York City Department of Education. In this capacity, he recruits traditionally certified candidates to teach in NYC public schools and assists principals to staff public schools in the South Bronx. Additionally, he is a Doctoral Student & Adjunct Professor in Social Work at Fordham University. Donald is a Research Assistant with the Beck Institute for Religion and Poverty, where he collaborates in research, evaluation, and training with faith and community-based organizations that serve vulnerable adult populations.
In the community, he is a mentor with the Children of Promise Program, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit for children of incarcerated parents and also holds board membership with the Pentorship Program; a national program whose mission is to provide entrepreneurial education to inmates prior to release through mini-correspondence and business mentoring as well as junior board membership with the Eagle Academy of Young Men-NYC’s first public high school for Black and Latino males. Donald is a member of Greater Allen Cathedral AME where Dr. Rev. Floyd Flake serves as the pastor and is active on the Young Adult Ministry and founding member of the Criminal Justice ministry.
Cheri Honkala (Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign)
2012 Green Party Vice-Presidential Nominee Cheri Honkala was born into poverty in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For the past 25 years she has been a leading advocate for poor and homeless. She co-founded the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. She has organized tens of thousands holding marches, demonstrations and setting up tent cities. Honkala was included in Philadelphia Magazine’s list of 100 Most Powerful Philadelphians and was named Philadelphia Weekly’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997.
In 2001 Ms. Magazine also named her Woman of the Year and she's since been the recipient of numerous awards including the Bread and Roses Human Rights Award, Public Citizen of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of Social Workers, and the prestigious Letelier-Moffitt award from the Washington Institute for Policy Studies. In 2000 Honkala addressed 148 governments at the United Nations on poverty, and in 2004 she spoke at the World Social Forum in India. Honoring the legacy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People's Campaign of 1967-68, Honkala inspires a new generation of leaders working to end poverty.
Ken Walters (United Neighborhood Houses of New York)
Ken Walters, C.S.W., M.Ed., has over thirty-five years of clinical, administrative and community development experience in human services. Since October 1999,Ken has been the Director of Member Services at United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH). In this position, Ken oversees UNH’s capacity building initiatives, including the provision of technical assistance and other resources to UNH members, leadership and professional development initiatives for staff within the UNH network, and UNH’s Membership Review process.
Prior to his position at UNH, Ken worked as a senior administrator for eleven years at Henry Street Settlement and The Hudson Guild, two of the oldest settlement houses in the United States. In these positions Ken provided administrative oversight of programming in a variety of areas, including youth development, workforce development, homeless families, arts and culture, and afterschool.