Monday, February 20, 2023
Monday, January 16, 2023
Friday, January 13, 2023
Upcoming Citizenship Class
Time: Tues/Thur 9:30-11:30am
Modality: Online
Dates: Jan 24-March 30
Deadline to register is January 13.
For more information, feel free to contact Patty Miele, ESL program coordinator:
pmiele@1199ctraining.org or 267-571-5550.
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Friday, November 11, 2022
November 11th: Veterans Day - Office is closed.
Monday, September 5, 2022
September 5th: Labor Day - Office is closed.
Monday, August 29, 2022
August 29th: Norman Rayford Day - Office is closed
Friday, June 3, 2022
New Normal Graduation, Temple University Hospital’s Erny Auditorium from 2 PM – 4 PM
Monday, May 30, 2022
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Funeral services for our beloved colleague Mr. Stephen Ridley will be held at St. Jude Baptist Church, 632 N. 38th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. The viewing starts at 10 AM and the funeral begins at 11 AM. To send flowers or to leave a note of condolence go to for the
Clarence Johnson, Jr. Funeral Home, Inc.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Financial Management Workshop Buying your first home? Covered against
unexpected events? 6PM – 8 PM. Register by clicking
here or by clicking on the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvf-qurDksH9UYxXU7fQV6fCoi3FlMvsbN
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Financial Management Workshop - Make credit work for you! 6PM – 8 PM. Register by clicking
here or clicking on the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvf-qurDksH9UYxXU7fQV6fCoi3FlMvsbN
Saturday, April 16, 2022
This is the last day to file your taxes at the VITA Tax site. Register at
http://cwfphilly.org
Friday, April 15, 2022
Friday, January 28, 2022
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
VITA Tax site is open Register at
http://cwfphilly.org/
Monday, January 17, 2022
Thursday, November 25, 2021
Friday, November 12, 2021
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Monday, October 18, 2021
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Early Childhood Education (ECE) Apprenticeship Program is still recruiting through the month of June for their Fall Class. Interested – please attend a virtual information session. For more information contact Kristine Scanlon at
kkochel@1199ctraining.org
Thursday, June 17, 2021
National Career Nurse Assistants Day –
On this day, we recognize all nursing assistants who dedicate their lives to the well-being of others. Are you a home health aide looking to become a Certified Nurse Aide? Call Shonna Murphy at 267-469-0677 or fill out the Agency Intake Form
here.
Monday, June 7, 2021
FREE Youth NA Training
For anyone 16 - 24 years old interested in becoming a Certified Nurse Aide, come to the virtual information session which starts at 1 pm.
Zoom Meeting ID: 976 2659 8496
Passcode: J2ph1U
Saturday, May 15, 2021
May 15 - This is the new deadline for getting your taxes done at the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund VITA site. Because the federal government has extended the filing due date for individuals to May 17th - we are open for an additional month to serve our union members, community residents and students.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Looking to become a homeowner? Join us for a FREE virtual homebuyer workshop with Fulton Mortgage Company from 6 - 8pm.
Friday, May 7, 2021
• Early Childhood Education (ECE) Apprenticeship Program is recruiting for their Fall Class. Interested – please attend a virtual information session. For more information contact Kristine Scanlon at kkochel@1199ctraining.org Read more
• Recruiting Home Health Aides Now. Are you a home health aide looking to become a Certified Nurse Aide? Interested: Call Shonna Murphy at 267-469-0677
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Are you a home health aide looking to become a Certified Nurse Aide?
District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund has a new FREE program for home health aides who are out of work or have been negatively impacted by COVID but who want to upskill and get certified as a nursing assistant. The program is called the New Normal Home Health Aide Upskilling Program.
Interested: Call Shonna Murphy at 267-469-0677 or fill out the Agency Intake Form here.
Monday, March 1, 2021
James T. Ryan Full Time Scholarship
Full-time members covered by the Training Fund are eligible for this benefit after one year on the job. The benefit includes a book and uniform allowance, continued health and pension benefits, a cost of living stipend and tuition up to $10,000 per year full-time study. The Fund supports study for up to two years.
To be eligible for the Full Time Scholarship you must be a District 1199C union member employed full time by an employer that contributes to the Training & Upgrading Fund, and have been employed for at least one year. Members interested in applying must attend an orientation meeting.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
To find out more about your Training Fund benefit, join us on zoom at
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6365335982?pwd=amFveURyM1V4N0Q5Yi9sNmo3b1pyZz09
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Monday, December 21, 2020
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Do you want a rewarding career in healthcare?
Do you want a stable career with advancement opportunities?
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BECOME AN EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN (EMT)
Classes held at 1199C Training Fund
1199C Union Member and Community Classes beginning January 2021
| 1199C Union Member Class |
Community Program |
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Entrance Requirements:
- Must be an 1199C Union Member with the Training Fund Benefit
- Be 18 years of age or older
- Be able to write and read and speak English; Bi-lingual a plus
- Complete a timed reading and math placement test assessment
- Able to participate in either online or face-to-face classes
- Must have a valid driver’s license
- Must have High School Diploma or equivalency
- Must be able to commit to the program
- Willing to participate in entrance interviews
- Must be able to pass criminal background check, child abuse clearances and drug test
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Entrance Requirements:
- Must be able to commit to the program
- Be 18 years of age or older
- Be able to write and read and speak English; Bi-lingual a plus
- Complete a timed reading and math placement test assessment
- Able to participate in either online or face-to-face classes
- Must have a valid driver’s license
- Must have High School Diploma or equivalency
- Willing to participate in entrance interviews
- Must be able to pass criminal background check, child abuse clearances and drug test
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| Training Includes |
Training Includes |
- Academic refresher course
- Medical Terminology
- Customer Service
- Mental Health First Aide
- OSHA Training
- EMT Training
- Emergency Vehicle Operation Course (EVOC)
- Escaping Violent Encounters - Defensive tactics for EMS
- Individual Career Coaching
- Individual Financial Coaching
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- Academic refresher course
- Medical Terminology
- Customer Service
- Mental Health First Aide
- OSHA Training
- EMT Training
- Emergency Vehicle Operation Course (EVOC)
- Escaping Violent Encounters - Defensive tactics for EMS
- Individual Career Coaching
- Individual Financial Coaching
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| Program Costs |
Program Costs |
Tuition: $2735 (tuition reimbursement can be used)
Textbooks $70
Background Checks $55.85
Drug Testing $36 |
FREE to qualified community members |
| Tentative Schedule |
Tentative Schedule |
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Part-time
Evening - 6pm-10pm
Monday - Thursday (some Saturdays possible)
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Full-time
Day - 8am-4pm
Monday - Thursday
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**Note: classes may be offered in-person, online,
or a combination (hybrid) depending on Covid-19 restrictions |
| Download the Union Flyer |
Download the Community Flyer |
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Apply now and choose EMT as the program of interest!
After you apply, you will receive an email
with an invitation to attend an information session.
Be sure to give us a valid email that you regularly check.
For questions, please email Nathanial Dixon, Program Coordinator at
ndixon@1199ctraining.org.
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Friday, August 28, 2020
Dear 1199C Family,
On the night of Wednesday, August 26th, 2020, members of the National Basketball Players Association exercised power over their own labor by refusing to take the court: an illegal, "wildcat" strike forbidden by their contract with the NBA, called in protest against the racist killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin by members of the police force there. This occurred just two days before the 1199C Family's annual commemoration of the life and legacy of union organizer Norman Rayford, who was himself murdered by a private security guard while picketing Metropolitan Hospital on August 28th, 1972.
Though 40 years separate these events, they both represent the ongoing fight of Black and Brown communities for liberation from domination perpetrated by the white power structure in this country through institutional and personal racism and outright violence. Violence imposed by the police, by fascist, white supremacist groups, by individuals and sustained explicitly and implicitly by institutions at all levels of our society.
There is so much still to fight against, and to fight for. It is not just the brutality of white supremacy that must change, but the everyday violence and domination stemming from white privilege occurring in personal interactions between ordinary white people and Black and Brown people. Those of us who are white need to own our white privilege, and be accountable for changing our behavior if anything is really going to change in this country.
Norman Rayford’s and our union’s fight for justice, along with the NBA players' collective action, represent the power of labor in in boldly standing up against racism, white privilege, and white supremacy.
The Training Fund’s existence represents the legacy of our union’s struggle – recognizing that economic racism is perpetrated in part by lack of access to education, credentials, and family sustaining employment. This is the work of the Training Fund. This is our work.
This Friday, the Training Fund and all 1199C offices will be closed in commemoration of Norman Rayford's sacrifice. You can learn more about Norman's life and legacy at https://1199cnuhhce.org/about-district-1199c/who-was-norman-rayford/. Please remember him, alongside Jacob Black, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the thousands of other Black and Brown Americans who have lost their lives unnecessarily to the forces of state violence.
In solidarity,
Cheryl Feldman
Executive Director, District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund
Monday, July 20, 2020
Updated July 20, 2020 at 12:00 PM.
We are currently accepting applications for our training programs and Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language Classes.
New Students: Interested education and training applicants who want to apply for upcoming programs should please complete an interest form. We will be reinstating our assessment schedule and TEAS testing when we re-open the agency. Interest forms are available at 1199ctraining.org/get-started.
Existing Students: Many classes and programs are being continued online or as limited face-to-face classes. Please remain in touch with your program coordinator about your particular schedule.
Please review the new Student Protocol which you will be required to follow while attending in-person programming at the Training Fund. You will be required to complete a short questionnaire, and program coordinators will conduct virtual orientations via Zoom.
To ensure your safety and ours, we also encourage all students, applicants, partners and others to read the City of Philadelphia's Safer at Home guides, available at https://www.phila.gov/guides/safer-at-home/
Please review the new Student Protocol which you will be required to follow while attending in-person programming at the Training Fund. You will be required to complete a short questionnaire, and program coordinators will conduct virtual orientations via Zoom.
• District 1199C union members ONLY: https://1199ctraining.org/MemberIntake
• ALL OTHER community members: https://1199ctraining.formstack.com/forms/general_intake
Training Fund staff will continue checking their voicemail and email throughout this emergency. You can find contact information for all staff here: https://1199ctraining.org/staff-listings
Dear Training Fund Students, Friends & Members of the 1199C Community,
The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted communities all over the world, the United States, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. We hope that during this time all of your loved ones remain safe and well, and we extend our profound gratitude to the 1199C union members and other health workers putting their lives on the line to care for and heal our friends and neighbors.
The Training Fund program coordinators and instructors have worked hard to convert classes to an online format where possible and made alternate plans where online options were not possible. We are also providing services to union members as staff work remotely from home. Classes will also be extended as necessary to make up course work and clinical experiences to ensure students have all of the necessary knowledge and skills to qualify for program completion and preparation for credentialing examinations.
Moving forward, our challenge will be to continue to deliver high quality programs while maintaining safety as our highest priority for students, staff and visitors. To accomplish this, we will use a combination of traditional and distance learning approaches using online technologies to maintain social distancing guidelines. This will involve some retooling of staff, instructors and students to adapt to the new environment. The agency’s goal is to ensure students can engage fully in their education in a healthy and safe environment.
As always, students with questions should reach out to their program coordinators and/or instructors. Program coordinators can be reached by email as follows:
Addictions and Behavioral Health
Penn State Addictions Counselor
Jefferson (Philadelphia University) Health and Human Services AA Degree
Stephen Ridley – sridley@1199ctraining.org
College and Career Readiness/High School Equivalency/Pre-Nursing
Michael Westover – mwestover@1199ctraining.org
Computer Classes for Retirees
Jim Keller – jkeller@1199ctraining.org
Culinary Training
Stephanie Webb – swebb@1199ctraining.org
Erika Shearlds-Hill – ehill@1199ctraining.org
Nathaniel Dixon – ndixon@1199ctraining.org
Direct Support Professional Pre-Apprenticeship
Mark Karcz – mkarcz@1199ctraining.org
Early Childhood Education
CCP Early Childhood Development AA Degree
Child Development Associate for Child Care Staff
Family Child Care
Teresa Collins – tcollins@1199ctraining.org
English for Speakers of Other Languages
Arlyn Freed – afreed@1199ctraining.org
Emergency Medical Technician
Stephanie Webb – swebb@1199ctraining.org
Erika Shearlds-Hill – ehill@1199ctraining.org
Nathaniel Dixon – ndixon@1199ctraining.org
GED and Beyond
Roland Williams – rwilliams@1199ctraining.org
Yattah Jones – yjones@1199ctraining.org
Home Health Aide/ESOL and IELCE
Carol Bloom – cbloom@1199ctraining.org
Nurse Aide for Youth
Kristine Scanlon – kkochel@1199ctraining.org
Sherette Campbell – serwin@1199ctraining.org
Opioid Crisis Training and Certified Recovery Specialist
Kehinde Whetstone – kwhetstone@1199ctraining.org
Pharmacy Technician
Jim Keller – jkeller@1199ctraining.org
Practical Nursing
Karen Poles – kpoles@1199ctraining.org
Shona Murphy – smurphy@1199ctraining.org
Roxborough High School "STEAM Scholars"
Brittany Grabois – bgrabois@steppingstonescholars.org
Vaux High School "STEAM Scholars"
Ellisiah Hall – ehall@1199ctraining.org
Vocational Skills Training
Behavioral Health Technician
Child Development Associate
Nurse Aide
Dawn Johnson – dwjohnson@1199ctraining.org
Renee Orgill – rorgill@1199ctraining.org
Jewel Crafton – jcrafton@1199ctraining.org
Please be safe and practice good personal hygiene by washing or sanitizing hands, avoid large gatherings and confined spaces, and avoid social interaction altogether if you are sick. For a full list of recommendations for avoiding COVID-19 exposure, please visit The City of Philadelphia’s COVID-19 resource page, http://www.phila.gov/COVID-19
To find free meals and safe spaces for students while schools are closed, you can go to https://www.phila.gov/2020-03-14-find-free-meals-and-safe-spaces-for-students-while-schools-are-closed/
Thanks very much for your understanding and patience during this challenging time. We appreciate your support and send well wishes for your health and safety.
Sincerely yours,
Cheryl Feldman, Executive Director (cfeldman@1199ctraining.org)
District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund
***
Anyone concerned about COVID-19 should visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health's website for the latest news and advice from our state's scientific authorities: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/Pages/Coronavirus.aspx
Healthcare and human services workers: PhilaPOSH, the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety & Health, has information and resources to help you stay safe and protect your OSHA rights at work, available at https://philaposh.org/coronavirus-resources/
Friday, July 3, 2020
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass (July 5th, 1852)
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable — and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. As with rivers so with nations.
Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. The style and title of your “sovereign people” (in which you now glory) was not then born. You were under the British Crown. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper.
But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried men’s souls. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. But, to proceed.
Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however, did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. Yet they persevered. They were not the men to look back.
As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of.
The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler.
Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it.
Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor.
These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians.
Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it.
On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. “Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.”
Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation’s history — the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.
Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day — cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight.
The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness.
The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime.
The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. The country was poor in the munitions of war. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed.
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too — great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.
They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settled” that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final;” not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.
How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! How unlike the politicians of an hour! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Mark them!
Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you.
Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. The din of business, too, is hushed. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest — a nation’s jubilee.
Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. Many of you understand them better than I do. You could instruct me in regard to them. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. They have all been taught in your common schools, narrated at your firesides, unfolded from your pulpits, and thundered from your legislative halls, and are as familiar to you as household words. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence.
I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. This is esteemed by some as a national trait — perhaps a national weakness. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! will be found by Americans. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands.
I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine!
My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now.
Trust no future, however pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead;
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within, and God overhead.
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. But now is the time, the important time. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. You live and must die, and you must do your work. You have no right to enjoy a child’s share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. This truth is not a doubtful one. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have “Abraham to our father,” when they had long lost Abraham’s faith and spirit. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abraham’s great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout — “We have Washington to our father.” — Alas! that it should be so; yet so it is.
The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft-interred with their bones.
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”
Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery — the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. — There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year, by dealers in this horrid traffic. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) “the internal slave trade.” It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa! It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable.
Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They inhabit all our Southern States. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States.
I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot Street, Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming “hand-bills,” headed CASH FOR NEGROES. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness.
The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed.
In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.
Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave-markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight.
Is this the land your Fathers loved,
The freedom which they toiled to win?
Is this the earth whereon they moved?
Are these the graves they slumber in?
But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that act, Mason and Dixon’s line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the sportsman’s gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your President, your Secretary of State, our lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a man’s liberty, hear only his accusers!
In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select.
I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.
At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. Did this law concern the “mint, anise, and cumin” — abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! — And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. A John Knox would be seen at every church door, and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox, to the beautiful, but treacherous queen Mary of Scotland. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem “the Fugitive Slave Law” as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as “scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.”
But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.
For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! welcome atheism! welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done! These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. It is not that “pure and undefiled religion” which is from above, and which is “first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation — a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, “Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea! when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow.”
The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that “There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.”
Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive.
In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. From what quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared — men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority of Him by whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teach that we ought to obey man’s law before the law of God.
My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the “standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ,” is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slave’s redemption from his chains.
One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. The anti-slavery movement there was not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the church took its full share in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable, instead of a hostile position towards that movement. Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation — a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. You profess to believe “that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth,” and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you “hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, “is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose,” a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.
Fellow-citizens! I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! be warned! be warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!
But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic.
Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped
To palter with us in a double sense:
And keep the word of promise to the ear,
But break it to the heart.
And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length — nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.
Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. These rules are well established. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. I hold that every American citizen has a right to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument.
Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.
I have detained my audience entirely too long already. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion.
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.” In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o’er
When from their galling chains set free,
Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom’s reign,
To man his plundered fights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end.
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower;
But all to manhood’s stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house, the thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I’ll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive —
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate’er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.
Monday, June 15, 2020
Updated June 15, 2020 at 9:30 AM.
Please Note: This announcement previously, incorrectly identified the starting date and class times for the Direct Support Professional Registered Apprenticeship Program, coordinated by Mark Karcz. In-person classes are not currently scheduled to resume. Please continue attending classes online, and contact Mark for more information. We apologize for any confusion.
The Training Fund is resuming limited in-person classes on Monday, June 15, 2020. All other ongoing classes will continue remotely. The following classes will resume in-person:
Please review the new Student Protocol which you will be required to follow while attending in-person programming at the Training Fund. You will be required to complete a short questionnaire, and program coordinators will conduct virtual orientations via Zoom.
New Students: Interested education and training applicants who want to apply for upcoming programs should please complete an interest form. We will be reinstating our assessment schedule and TEAS testing when we re-open the agency. Interest forms are available at:
• District 1199C union members ONLY: https://1199ctraining.org/MemberIntake
• ALL OTHER community members: https://1199ctraining.formstack.com/forms/general_intake
Training Fund staff will continue checking their voicemail and email throughout this emergency. You can find contact information for all staff here: https://1199ctraining.org/staff-listings
Dear Training Fund Students, Friends & Members of the 1199C Community,
The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted communities all over the world, the United States, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. We hope that during this time all of your loved ones remain safe and well, and we extend our profound gratitude to the 1199C union members and other health workers putting their lives on the line to care for and heal our friends and neighbors.
The Training Fund program coordinators and instructors have worked hard to convert classes to an online format where possible and made alternate plans where online options were not possible. We are also providing services to union members as staff work remotely from home. Classes will also be extended as necessary to make up course work and clinical experiences to ensure students have all of the necessary knowledge and skills to qualify for program completion and preparation for credentialing examinations.
Moving forward, our challenge will be to continue to deliver high quality programs while maintaining safety as our highest priority for students, staff and visitors. To accomplish this, we will use a combination of traditional and distance learning approaches using online technologies to maintain social distancing guidelines. This will involve some retooling of staff, instructors and students to adapt to the new environment. The agency’s goal is to ensure students can engage fully in their education in a healthy and safe environment.
As always, students with questions should reach out to their program coordinators and/or instructors. Program coordinators can be reached by email as follows:
Addictions and Behavioral Health
Penn State Addictions Counselor
Jefferson (Philadelphia University) Health and Human Services AA Degree
Stephen Ridley – sridley@1199ctraining.org
College and Career Readiness/High School Equivalency/Pre-Nursing
Michael Westover – mwestover@1199ctraining.org
Computer Classes for Retirees
Jim Keller – jkeller@1199ctraining.org
Culinary Training
Stephanie Webb – swebb@1199ctraining.org
Erika Shearlds-Hill – ehill@1199ctraining.org
Nathaniel Dixon – ndixon@1199ctraining.org
Direct Support Professional Pre-Apprenticeship
Mark Karcz – mkarcz@1199ctraining.org
Early Childhood Education
CCP Early Childhood Development AA Degree
Child Development Associate for Child Care Staff
Family Child Care
Teresa Collins – tcollins@1199ctraining.org
English for Speakers of Other Languages
Arlyn Freed – afreed@1199ctraining.org
Emergency Medical Technician
Stephanie Webb – swebb@1199ctraining.org
Erika Shearlds-Hill – ehill@1199ctraining.org
Nathaniel Dixon – ndixon@1199ctraining.org
GED and Beyond
Roland Williams – rwilliams@1199ctraining.org
Yattah Jones – yjones@1199ctraining.org
Home Health Aide/ESOL and IELCE
Carol Bloom – cbloom@1199ctraining.org
Nurse Aide for Youth
Kristine Scanlon – kkochel@1199ctraining.org
Sherette Campbell – serwin@1199ctraining.org
Opioid Crisis Training and Certified Recovery Specialist
Kehinde Whetstone – kwhetstone@1199ctraining.org
Pharmacy Technician
Jim Keller – jkeller@1199ctraining.org
Practical Nursing
Karen Poles – kpoles@1199ctraining.org
Shona Murphy – smurphy@1199ctraining.org
Roxborough High School "STEAM Scholars"
Brittany Grabois – bgrabois@steppingstonescholars.org
Vaux High School "STEAM Scholars"
Ellisiah Hall – ehall@1199ctraining.org
Vocational Skills Training
Behavioral Health Technician
Child Development Associate
Nurse Aide
Dawn Johnson – dwjohnson@1199ctraining.org
Renee Orgill – rorgill@1199ctraining.org
Jewel Crafton – jcrafton@1199ctraining.org
Please be safe and practice good personal hygiene by washing or sanitizing hands, avoid large gatherings and confined spaces, and avoid social interaction altogether if you are sick. For a full list of recommendations for avoiding COVID-19 exposure, please visit The City of Philadelphia’s COVID-19 resource page, http://www.phila.gov/COVID-19
To find free meals and safe spaces for students while schools are closed, you can go to https://www.phila.gov/2020-03-14-find-free-meals-and-safe-spaces-for-students-while-schools-are-closed/
Thanks very much for your understanding and patience during this challenging time. We appreciate your support and send well wishes for your health and safety.
Sincerely yours,
Cheryl Feldman, Executive Director (cfeldman@1199ctraining.org)
District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund
***
Anyone concerned about COVID-19 should visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health's website for the latest news and advice from our state's scientific authorities: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/Pages/Coronavirus.aspx
Healthcare and human services workers: PhilaPOSH, the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety & Health, has information and resources to help you stay safe and protect your OSHA rights at work, available at https://philaposh.org/coronavirus-resources/
Friday, July 5, 2019
Thursday, October 27, 2016
INCOME INSECURITY & HEALTH: Policy Implications for Communities &Policymakers (HPRC Fall Policy Forum)
Thursday, October 27, 2016
10:00 AM-12:00 PM (lunch will be served)
District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund
100 South Broad Street, 10th floor
Philadelphia, PA 19110
Registration is required at hprcoctober2016policyforum.eventbrite.com
Click here to download event flyer
FALL POLICY FORUM sponsored by the Health Policy Research Consortium (HPRC) with the cooperation of District 1199C, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Guest Speakers include:
- L. Toni Lewis, M.D
Immediate Past Chair, SEIU Healthcare
Justice Change Agent
- Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H.
Internist and Past President, American Public Health Association
Former Health Commissioner, City of Philadelphia
- Henry Nicholas
President, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees
- Carol Rogers
Director of Healthy Philadelphia
The mission of the Health Policy Research Consortium (HPRC) is to promote policy and behavioral outcomes that will improve the quality of health care in Region III (DC, MD, VA, DE, WV, and PA) in general and in Prince George's County, Maryland in particular. HPRC is funded by a U54 grant through the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).
Phone: 301-375-2021
Email: Info@hprc.info
Address: 6401 Golden Triangle Drive, Suite 310, Greenbelt, MD 20770
HPRC, a CTIS Inc. division, is supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award number #1U54MD008608-01. This content does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
10:00 AM-12:00 PM (lunch will be served)
District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund
100 South Broad Street, 10th floor
Philadelphia, PA 19110
Registration is required at hprcoctober2016policyforum.eventbrite.com
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
NOW RECRUITING: Free Home Health training for English language learners!
FREE ESL Home Health Aide training for learners of English as a second language, preparing students for employment in healthcare.
This is a 12-week program beginning October 2016, with classes Monday to Friday 9:00 AM–1:00 PM.
You must test before applying:
- Tuesday, September 27th at 8:30 AM
- Thursday, September 29th at 4:00 PM
- Monday, October 3rd at 12:00 PM
- Tuesday, October 4th at 8:30 AM
- Thursday, October 6th at 4:00 PM
You've been waiting for this opportunity: call 215-568-2580 today!
Eligibility requirements:
- Pennsylvania resident
- Attend all scheduled classes
- 5th grade reading level or higher
- Social security number
- No felonies or disqualifying misdemeanors
- Satisfactory medical clearance
- High school diploma or GED preferred, but not required
If you are interested: call Arlyn Freed today at (215) 568-2580 to apply!
CLICK TO VIEW INFORMATIONAL FLYER
This program is sponsored by the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Message from our partners at District 1199C National Union of Hospital & Health Care Employees AFSCME AFL-CIO:
Join Us for the 29th Annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade & Family Celebration
Sponsored by Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO and Tri-State Labor Day Parade Committee
Attention All 1199ers! Join Us for the 29th Annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade & Family Celebration:
Labor Day - September 5, 2016
Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 19 Union Hall
1301 South Columbus Blvd and Washington Ave - Philly 19147
8:30 AM 1199C Gathering at Sheet Metal Workers’ Hall
9:15 AM Rally & Program
10 AM Parade to Penn’s Landing Great Plaza (Columbus Blvd. and Market St.)
11 AM – 2 PM Family Celebration at Penn’s Landing Great Plaza - Food, Refreshments, Kids Activities, Live Music
Join All Labor on Labor Day – Our Day! You, your family and friends - All Welcome!
See your District 1199C Union Delegate to sign up your commitment to be there.
Friday, August 19, 2016
NOW RECRUITING: Youth Nurse Aide Training!
Free Nurse Aide job training for Philadelphia residents between the ages of 17 and 24!
Program includes/you will receive:
- Free Nurse Aide occupational training, including clinical placement
- Monetary incentives
- Monthly transportation
- Career coaching and job placement assistance
- Financial coaching
Eligibility requirements:
- Philadelphia residents
- 17 to 24 years old
- High school diploma or GED required
- Not currently enrolled in any post-secondary institution
- Ability to pass admissions test
- Ability to attend all scheduled classes
- Satisfactory physical on medical clearance form
- No felonies or disqualifying misdemeanors
- Meet income eligibility requirements
If you are interested: all students must attend a Testing/Information Session.
Testing begins every Friday morning at 8:30 AM - please arrive at least 15 minutes early.
CLICK TO VIEW INFORMATIONAL FLYER
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Monday, February 1, 2016
LISC, Social Innovation Fund and District 1199C Training Fund join forces to open new opportunities for lower skilled workers in Philadelphia
New ‘Bridges to Career Opportunities’ addresses crippling education gaps — will support additional new services for Training Fund students in Occupational Bridge classes
Philadelphia, PA - January 21st, 2016 - Text by LISC:
A federal program that fuels grassroots solutions to community challenges is helping close the skills gap that traps millions of people in poverty, even in a growing economy.
The Social Innovation Fund (SIF)—part of the federal Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)—has awarded funding to the new Bridges to Career Opportunities program at The District 1199C Training Fund in Philadelphia. Coaches at the organization will teach core skills like math, reading, and English as a second language in combination with “soft skills” like interviewing, teamwork and conflict resolution—all contextualized to specific industries or sectors.
It's part of an $11.3 million SIF grant to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which developed the skills program and began piloting it last year through Financial Opportunity Centers (FOCs). There are 80 LISC FOCs across the country providing integrated services and long-term financial coaching that helps low-income families expand their income, credit, savings and job opportunities. Philadelphia has three FOCs so far, including University City District's West Philadelphia Skills Initiative, People's Emergency Center's Center for Employment and Training, and the FOC at Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha.
LISC recently awarded The District 1199C Training Fund $170,000 for the first of a three year contract to become Philadelphia's fourth FOC, build the Bridges program here, and reach 120 people over the next 3 years.
“It’s clear that many hardworking families continue to struggle, because they have fallen through the cracks of our educational system and aren’t able to move up the economic ladder,” said Andrew Frishkoff, executive director with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Philadelphia program (Philadelphia LISC). “This program offers people a path to living wage jobs in healthcare and opportunities to advance their careers.”
“The District 1199C Training Fund is excited to become Philadelphia’s fourth LISC Financial Opportunity Center,” said Cheryl Feldman, Executive Director of The District 1199C Training Fund. “SIF funding will enable us to train people to enter healthcare career pathways that pay a living wage, investing in local talent by strengthening transferrable skills and providing credentials.”
These local challenges are not unique: an estimated 36 million American adults have low literacy skills and 62 million have low numeracy skills.
“We can’t ignore this skills gap if we care about our national economic health,” said Kevin Jordan, LISC senior vice president who oversees national programs. “It’s a fundamental part of helping unemployed and underemployed workers take advantage of the good jobs that are out there.”
SIF funded LISC’s initial expansion of FOCs back in 2010 as a promising new approach to addressing economic mobility issues. The $21 million it has provided since then—along with funding from foundations and corporations and organizations like The District 1199C Training Fund—has helped more than 23,000 people annually tackle their financial challenges through FOCs.
“The Social Innovation Fund is changing the way the government serves the public by using rigorous evidence evaluations to find what works and make it work for more people,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of CNCS. “I am proud that CNCS is supporting LISC’s Bridges to Career Opportunities program, which will take an inventive approach to one of today’s most pressing social problems – building opportunity for the unemployed in low-income communities. Congratulations to the District 1199C Training Fund in Philadelphia on being selected by LISC to continue this work.”
To learn more, please visit:
http://programs.lisc.org/
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About Philadelphia LISC:
Philadelphia LISC is the local office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national nonprofit community development organization that has invested $14.7 billion in 30 cities across the United States.
Philadelphia LISC is a catalyst for community change, working with partners to strengthen neighborhoods and improve the lives of residents. Philadelphia LISC combines corporate, government, and philanthropic resources to help community-based organizations revitalize underserved neighborhoods. Since 1980, Philadelphia LISC has invested $385 million to build or preserve 8,075 affordable homes and apartments and develop 1.8 million square feet of retail, community, and educational space.
About Social innovation Fund
Representing a new way of doing business for the federal government, the Social Innovation Fund unites public and private resources to evaluate and grow innovative community-based solutions that work. These solutions must have at least preliminary evidence of results in low-income communities in three priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures and youth development. The program will also capture and share best practices and lift-up models with potential for replication.
The Social Innovation Fund is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency that engages more than 5 million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more, visit www.nationalservice.gov.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
New Annie E. Casey Foundation Investment in Philadelphia Aims to Improve Job Prospects for Young Adults
Nearly $1 million to be awarded over four years to strengthen the next generation of workers and meet employer demand
Philadelphia, PA: The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced today that it will award $6 million in grants over the next four years to increase job opportunities for America’s young adults in five cities, enabling them to begin building careers and develop the skills employers need. Nearly $1 million will be invested in Philadelphia through a new, nimble, initiative called Generation Work.
Generation Work will bring the best efforts of employers, funders, policymakers and practitioners together to match training and education with the skills needed in the workplace. This project leverages the collective expertise of four nationally-recognized core partners in Philadelphia -- the Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN), Philadelphia Youth Network, YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School, and District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund – and connects Philadelphia to a national learning community for four years of investment by the Casey Foundation in building the infrastructure needed to get more young adults working.
“Our future workforce is one of our nation’s greatest assets, and we cannot compete globally unless it is strong,” said Allison Gerber, a senior associate who oversees the Casey Foundation’s investments in improving job opportunities for low-income individuals and families. “The next generation is eager to work, but we must create more avenues for young adults to develop the knowledge and experience they need to succeed in the job market.”
While the Great Recession hit many hard, teens and young adults have experienced the most drastic drop in employment, data shows. In Philadelphia the need for action and change is urgent; nearly one in five young Philadelphians is disconnected – out of work and out of school. Across the country, millions of young people — particularly young people of color and from low-income families — face obstacles to employment or education, and the percentage of young people ages 18–29 in the job market has steadily declined in recent years. At the same time, employers often struggle to find workers with the right set of skills for available positions.
Generation Work aims to combine building relationships with businesses, factoring in their needs in the local economy, with youth development strategies to prepare young people for work, such as mentoring and on-the-job learning opportunities.
“Through Generation Work, we aim to transform Philadelphia’s skill development landscape so that all young adults (18-29) have access to relevant, engaging careers and employers have access to strong, productive talent pipelines,” said Jennie Sparandara, Director of JOIN.
“We can only do this through partnerships with employers, funders, practitioners and policymakers that share the same commitment to strengthening our workforce,” added Jim Cawley, president and CEO, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey (UWGPSNJ), the managing partner of the JOIN funders collaborative.”
Philadelphia was selected for funding because it has demonstrated a promising approach to young adult employment, with a particular focus on those facing some of the greatest obstacles to getting a job; the ability to effectively implement services for young job seekers and employers; and the potential to help foster broader uptake of their approaches in their respective geographic areas, among other strengths.
“Partnership is the key to success when it comes to aligning all of our best strategies, citywide, to ensure young Philadelphians are able to reach the next level in their professional and personal goals,” said Chekemma Fulmore-Townsend, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Youth Network. “We are able to reach higher, and achieve greater results when we grow together as a team. I look forward to working with 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund, YouthBuild and other leaders to combine our collective efforts and systemic tools to expand opportunity so that access to employment and education are no longer hurdles to jump, but doors to open.”
JOIN, housed and managed by UWGPSNJ, will serve as the grant manager. The Foundation’s award will be used in the first year to engage key stakeholders and plan the implementation and evaluation of strategies to increase young adults’ access to job opportunities. Funding in subsequent years will support documenting the impact of their efforts and promoting the use of these strategies on a broad scale in the public, private and nonprofit sector.
###
The Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN) is a partnership between philanthropy, government, community organizations and employers that develops and supports innovative efforts to eliminate the mismatch between the level of skill required for high growth jobs and the much lower skill level of many working age Philadelphians. JOIN is housed and managed by United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. For more information, visit www.joincollaborative.org.
The Philadelphia Youth Network is an intermediary organization dedicated to equipping young people with the skills necessary to accomplish academic achievement, economic opportunity and personal success. To succeed in this mission, we bring together cross-sector partners from around the city to expand access to services for underserved youth and young adults ages 12-24. For more information, visit www.pyninc.org.
The District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund, a labor management partnership comprised of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees AFSCME and 50 healthcare employers, serves as a healthcare workforce intermediary and an educational institution. Since its creation in 1974, the Training Fund has built the capacity of the Delaware Valley's healthcare industry to create a highly-skilled workforce through on-the-job training opportunities and the development of an education pipeline of skilled talent that matches the workforce needs of Delaware Valley healthcare employers. For more information visit www.1199ctraining.org.
The mission of YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School is to provide out-of-school youth in Philadelphia with the broadest range of tools, supports and opportunities available to become self-sufficient, responsible and productive citizens in their community. The first year of our program offers high school dropouts a second chance to earn their diplomas while developing vital job skills through rigorous academics, vocational training and community service; the second year supports them towards success in employment or postsecondary education. Learn more at www.youthbuildphilly.org.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the nation’s children by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity and transform struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work and grow. For more information, visit www.aecf.org.
Friday, November 6, 2015
DISTRICT 1199C TRAINING & UPGRADING FUND
2015 HEALTHCARE CAREER FAIR
November 6, 2015 | 100 South Broad Street, 10th Floor | Philadelphia, PA
Over 170 students from 10 Philadelphia public high schools attended the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund’s Healthcare Career Fair, an annual career exploration event at the Training Fund’s Breslin Learning Center in Center City Philadelphia.
The 2015 Career Fair celebrated Healthcare Apprenticeships, and helped bring the US Department of Labor’s inaugural National Apprenticeship Week — and Philadelphia Apprenticeship Week, as a proclamation from Mayor Michael A. Nutter declared it — to a close. During the Fair’s opening session, students heard from healthcare union and employer representatives working on new apprenticeship programs, a Community Health Worker Apprentice and her supervisor at Philadelphia FIGHT, and John Ladd — administrator of the US Office of Apprenticeship since 2008.
The Career Fair also featured healthcare and human service professionals from across the Greater Philadelphia region, whose generous donations of time and expertise helped make the Fair a success. Speakers at this year’s event included EEG technicians, Community Health Workers, therapists, social workers, dentists, hospital system and insurance company administrators, behavioral health specialists, and others. This range of speakers helped student attendees at the Career Fair widen their perceptions of what it means to work in the local healthcare sector, and begin to grasp the huge range of employment opportunities open to students with almost any set of skills, interests and aptitudes.
In addition to Career Panels, the Fair included interactive occupational health-and-safety training led by peer trainers from Lincoln High School. Lincoln students, who received their training through an OSHA-funded worker education program operated by the Training Fund, led their peers through hands-on, interactive educational presentations on disease transmission/prevention, dealing with hazards in the workplace, and other important occupational safety and health topics.
Training Fund Executive Director Cheryl Feldman stressed the importance of the Fund’s commitment to supporting the School District of Philadelphia and its students: “This is one of the most important events the Fund organizes each year,” she explained. “As the healthcare system expands its use of Registered Apprenticeships, it's important that Philadelphia's young people understand that Apprenticeship isn't just about the building trades; it's a pathway to good, middle-class jobs in many different industries.”
UPDATE: WTXF Fox 29 News Philadelphia was on-hand to document the Career Fair!
For a complete listing of events around the nation and for more information on National Apprenticeship Week, please visit doleta.gov/oa/naw/, and join the conversation online by tweeting #NAW2015.
Friday, October 23, 2015
In Loving Memory:
Arlene Johnson (1952-2015)
Memorial Service at the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund scheduled for Friday 10/23
Arlene Johnson, dedicated educator and inspiration to generations of Training Fund students, sadly passed away on the morning of September 18th.
A Memorial Service has been scheduled for 6:00 PM on October 23rd, at the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund (100 South Broad Street, 10th Floor). To RSVP, email scampbell@1199ctraining.org or call 215-568-2220.
Arlene was the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund's assessment coordinator, an instructor, and an integral part of the adult basic education team for approximately 20 years. Perhaps more than anything else she was an enduring support to the thousands of students she saw each year, spending an incredible amount of time encouraging each of them to persist in pursuing their educational goals.
Arlene became very ill in April after a long battle with cancer. She celebrated her 64th birthday last week, and went into the hospital earlier this week. She was moved to hospice care on Wednesday.
We fondly remember Ms. Arlene and her dedication to our students. We will truly miss Arlene and the great strength and compassion that she shared with students and staff alike.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Training Fund "watch party" to celebrate White House Summit on Worker Voice
Open live-streaming sessions to be held at 10:30AM and 4:30PM
Please join us in the District 1199C Training Fund Auditorium at 100 South Broad Street, 10th Floor, this Wednesday, October 7th for the White House Summit on Worker Voice Watch Party.
We will be streaming this event live at 10:30am and also at 4:30pm. President Obama will be speaking at both times about the value of worker voice for workers, businesses and our economy.
Please bring students and encourage others to come. This is a great opportunity to kick start a conversation about ways that a voice at work helps businesses success and workers thrive!
Monday, September 21, 2015
Now Recruiting!
Youth Nurse Aide Occupational Training
Get Your Nursing Career Started as a Nurse Aide!
If you are a Philadelphia resident, 17 to 24 years old, a high school graduate or GED recipient, & want FREE Nurse Aide training, this is the program for you!
If interested, please attend one of the following scheduled info/testing sessions:
NEW SESSIONS SCHEDULED:
Due to high demand from prospective students, we have scheduled two additional info/testing sessions for our upcoming Youth Nurse Aide Occupational Training program:
Friday, October 16, 23, 30
Friday, November 6, 13
9:30AM-12:00PM... Please be PROMPT!
Testing begins at 9:30 AM sharp. For more information, contact Kristine Kochel (215-568-2220 ext. 5504).
CLICK TO VIEW INFORMATIONAL FLYER
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Training Fund among
American Apprenticeship Leaders represented at first-ever White House Summit on Apprenticeship
VP Biden, Commerce Sec Pritzker and Labor Sec Perez welcome Training Fund and other American Apprenticeship Leaders to White House Summit
Washington, DC - September 8th, 2015:
As part of its growing leadership role in the national Apprenticeship movement, the District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund participated in the September 8th, 2015 White House Summit on Apprenticeship.
“Today was a great day for Apprenticeship,” said Training Fund Executive Director Cheryl Feldman. “Secretary Perez stated his very inspiring intention to build a movement for Apprenticeship throughout the country, and I am proud that we are a part of it – and a leader in this national movement.”
Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, US Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) and other officials helping to spearhead the Obama administration’s drive to grow Apprenticeship as a core American job training strategy spoke to a gathering of Apprenticeship leaders from across the country, including representatives from labor-management partnerships like the Training Fund. The first-ever White House Apprenticeship Summit, the event was committed to advancing job-driven training initiatives for American workers.
In addition, the White House and the Department of Labor also released a Progress Update on Job Driven Training and Apprenticeships, detailing the success of the Administration's jobs-driven training efforts, which have directed more than $1.2 billion in competitive grants – including several million dollars awarded to the Training Fund through two highly-competitive H-1B funding rounds – and $8 billion in non-competitive formula funding for training investments into job-driven strategies.
The Training Fund will also be playing a key role in Philadelphia’s celebration of the US DOL’s first annual American Apprenticeship Week this November. Please continue following our preparations at www.1199ctraining.org, and @1199CTraining on Twitter.