The Good News for Immigrants Looking to Become the Country’s Future Leaders

Most immigrants only know what it’s like to be a newcomer to a country once. But for Sayu Bhojwani has done it twice.
Immigrant leadership advocate Bhojwani was born in India in 1967, then moved to Belize with her parents when she was four-years-old. She spent the remainder of her childhood in the Central American country, learning the Catholic traditions and the Spanish language, which most of the population speaks despite English being the official language of the country, along with her own family’s heritage.
Then in 1984, she went to college at the University of Miami and moved to New York City after she graduated where she was struck by the vibrant mix of different ethnicities living side-by-side.
Working with Asian immigrants and Asian-American communities through the Asia Society, she soon noticed that there were few elected representatives of this community. So in 1996, she created the nonprofit South Asian Youth Action! (SAYA!), which helps young Asian-Americans feel more at home in their country — connecting kids from immigrant families to tutoring, mentoring, internships and jobs. In other words, the sorts of opportunities American kids from non-immigrant families can take for granted.
“I’m restless,” Bhojwani tells NBC News. “For better or worse I get bored with what I’m doing and I start thinking about what problem I can solve.”
Bhojwani went on to tackle many other problems. In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the persecution many immigrants experienced as a result, Bhojwani was named the first New York City Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. In that role, she pressed for policy changes, such as ensuring that immigrants could maintain their confidentiality when reporting crimes or receiving healthcare. “Really what we did,” she says, “was serve as a pain in the ass, to getting these things through city bureaucracy.”
Then Bhojwani decided she wanted to look beyond New York City and get Americans all over the country to view immigrants in a more positive light and treat them with respect. To do this, she founded the New American Leaders Project (NALP) in 2010, through which she works to foster leaders in immigrant communities and supports representatives of these communities running for public office.
Bhojwani is an inveterate helper and problem solver. “I feel like if I see something, I have to do something about it,” she tells NBC. “As I get older, I am working on this — if I see something, I should point it out to someone else.”
Still, it’s clear the 47-year-old Bhojwani plans to keep solving problems for immigrants for years to come.
MORE: This Immigrant Turned Fast-Food Franchise Owner Has Been Serving Free Thanksgiving Dinner for 23 Years

The State That’s Prioritizing Residents’ Safety Over Natural Gas Profits

New York is telling the oil and gas industry to get out.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration recently announced that hydraulic fracturing has been banned in the state, as the process “could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose inestimable public-health risks,” the New York Times reports.
“I cannot support high volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York,” says Howard Zucker, the acting commissioner of health.
Fracking, which involves shooting a highly pressurized mixture of water and chemicals into shale formations to release natural gases, is currently driving a drilling boom across the country and is a big reason why your gas is so cheap.
MORE: Meet the 70-Year-Old Lone Star Who Polices Fracking Waste
New York has long been resistant to the process. The state already had a de-facto moratorium on fracking for several years, and as we reported in July, New York’s top court upheld Home Rule, which gave municipalities the right to apply its zoning laws to oil and gas wells. The latest decision is just a final blow to the state’s natural gas industry.
Mother Jones notes that New York isn’t the first state to ban fracking — that honor belongs to Vermont, which banned it in 2012 (but since it doesn’t have natural gas, the move was mostly symbolic). Because New York sits on the gas-rich Marcellus shale formation, “this is the first state ban with real significance,” Kate Sinding, a senior attorney in New York for the Natural Resources Defense Council, tells the publication.
Proponents of the process cite its potential to bolster the economy and create tens of thousands of jobs. That’s why, as Capital New York reports, Gov. Cuomo is already anticipating “a ton of lawsuits” in response to the decision.
Still, it’s a major victory for our health and the health of the planet. Actor and prominent eco-activist Mark Ruffalo (who recently wrote a Huffington Post article about the many dangers of fracking) posted an Instragram video about the decision and thanked Cuomo, Zucker and Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner Joe Martens for their work.
He also gave a shout-out to “all the beautiful, dedicated people on the anti-fracking movement who used science, their guts, their brains and their hearts to make this day a reality.”
Let’s hope this this movement catches on country-wide.

DON’T MISS: Watch How This Little Town Stood Up Against a Gas Giant

Minorities Should Want To Be Police Officers

One of the first facts people noticed after a white police officer killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., was that only three of the 53 cops on the local force were black. That’s nowhere near the city’s racial composition, where two-thirds of residents are African-American.
Though the number of minority cops has grown over the past two decades, this lack of diversity is the norm in hundreds of departments across the country, while the key to recruiting and retaining minority officers remains elusive for most departments. As demands for reform echo across the country, we examined the latest research and contacted experts to find the best methods for hiring police forces that better reflect the neighborhoods they serve.
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DON’T MISS: This Is What Community Oriented Policing Looks Like
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Why New York is Encouraging Teens to Get Involved in Local Government

Every election politicians chase the young vote, yet most of the time, youngsters are among the fewest to turn out. In fact, in November’s midterm election young people under 30 cast just 12 percent of the votes.

But a new law in New York is encouraging young people to not only get involved in the election process, but to go after community board positions themselves. The state is among several communities across the country that are giving young people — who may not be old enough to vote — a chance to have a say on neighborhood issues, the Associated Press reports.

The City Council passed Resolution 115 to amend the Public Officers Law and City Charter to lower the age of eligibility to become a full voting member of the council, according to a press release, allowing teenagers as young as 16 and 17 to become a part of the decision-making process on anything from small business permits to city budgets.

“It helps young people get invested in their communities . and I really believe that 16- and 17-year-olds have a lot to contribute,” says state Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, a Democratic former community board member who spearheaded the law with Republican state Sen. Andrew Lanza.

The new law is not the first of its kind. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer became a community board member in 1977 at the age of 16, and said the experience “has stayed with me my entire career.”

While some critics argue whether teens are responsible enough to give input on major community issues, supporters contend the policy could help prepare young people to become future leaders.

“I have worked with hundreds of interns over the years and have seen first-hand the meaningful role that young people can play in shaping policy and enhancing our neighborhoods,” says Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. “Allowing young people to become Community Board members would benefit the Boards by adding a youth perspective, diverse skills sets and by increasing the breadth of community representation. It would also promote civic participation among our youth.”

Elsewhere in the country, the Los Angeles school district is planning to implement a non-voting student representative, while San Francisco allows young people from age 12 and up to participate in a youth advisory commission. As the AP points out, both Hillsdale, Mich., and Roland, Iowa, have elected mayors who are 18-years-old.

Still, the opportunity may not be for every teen, but giving minors a voice on issues that shape their neighborhood has the potential to energize the nation’s most important voting bloc.

The new law means teens can begin applying for seats on one of the 59 boards across the city early next year, with terms beginning in April.

MORE: Better, Faster, Stronger: Why Ohio is Sending Government Officials to Boot Camp

7 Things Every Protester Needs to Know

Taking to the streets in protest — bullhorns or banner in hand — is an American tradition. Whether marching for the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street, each demonstration has added to the history of free speech and assembly that began in the Boston Harbor in 1773 and continues today with protests taking off across the country in response to grand jury decisions on Staten Island, N.Y. and in Ferguson, Mo.
Peaceful protest is a right that’s broadly protected by the First Amendment, but recent events serve as a tangible reminder of the difference between protest and riot — one democratic and productive, the other anarchic and devastating. Here, some key tips that every protester should keep in mind before taking to the streets.

1. Know your rights.

Thanks to the Bill of Rights, you have the right to gather and peacefully protest. You don’t need a permit to protest in a public space like a park, sidewalk, street or plaza, the American Civil Liberties Union reminds activists. However, law enforcement may limit a person from protesting on private property (like an abortion clinic or power plant) unless its owner gives their consent. You’re also allowed to pass out pamphlets, as long as pedestrians are free to pass by without being “physically and maliciously detained” and no building entrances are blocked, the ACLU says.
Additionally, “you never have to consent to a search of yourself or your belongings,” the group adds. An officer may pat you down to search for a weapon or search your belongings if you are under arrest, but otherwise a warrant is required.
If you witness someone else being arrested, don’t interfere or threaten the officer. That will only escalate the conflict and could land you in a pair of handcuffs, charged with obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct or interference with an arrest. Instead, write down the officer’s badge number and photograph or videotape the incident to document any misconduct. (You have the right to photograph anything “in plain view” from a public space, according to the ACLU.) Police officers may not confiscate or delete anything from your camera, nor can they demand to see your images without a warrant. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) offers the free Stop and Frisk Watch app for both iPhone and Android that allows bystanders to document an arrest with video or a written survey that is immediately sent to NYCLU’s offices.

In Oakland, Calif., a man sits in the street after being blocked by a line of police officers following a New York grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, Dec. 4, 2014.

2. Realize when you’re on the wrong side of the law.

Legally, an officer can arrest you for not following orders. If you are asked to keep clear of a certain area, for example, it’s in your best interest to cooperate with the order — even though you may legally have a right to be there. You won’t find out if you were correct until you’re before a judge.
That’s not to say that civil disobedience — for refusing to get up from a sit-in at an intersection or disobeying a command — is not a powerful symbol. But you need to be aware that you could be putting yourself in danger.
“We go into a protest knowing that there is a chance that we will get arrested, tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, or billy clubbed,” says a protest guide written by students at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. “This isn’t to be dramatic, but realistic. Fear will make the streets anxious and we probably won’t accomplish much.” In case of a confrontation with riot police, you may want to carry a plastic bag with bandanas soaked in vinegar or lemon juice to neutralize tear gas, the guide suggests. Don’t rub your eyes or panic, it adds; instead, rinse your eyes with water until the burning passes.

3. Have a backup plan.

During the Occupy Wall Street protests, Brooklyn software designer Jason Van Anden developed a free phone app called I’m Getting Arrested, which sends a prewritten text message to friends and family if, you guessed it, the cops are threatening you with arrest. The app, which was named by PC Magazine as a top app of 2011, is only available to Android users. (Due to Apple policy, the app won’t function on iPhones.)
Once you’re in a jail cell, you won’t be allowed to use your cell, so make sure to take other precautions. Write the number for a pro bono attorney on your arm and on a piece of paper so you can call once you are at the precinct. Take advantage of your Miranda rights to know the charges against you, to speak to your attorney or have one appointed and to appear before a judge to ask for your release until the trial.

4. Be respectful.

“Stay calm, be polite, and don’t run,” the ACLU recommends. When thousands (or more) of fed-up protesters crowd into a public space, the situation can rapidly get out-of-hand. Cops want to keep order, and sometimes a few rogue troublemakers don’t have the same intentions. Treat officers with respect, and you’ll likely receive the same treatment. Most importantly, never physically resist an arrest.

5. Come prepared with supplies.

Protests are all about making your voice heard. Drawing a quick sign on poster board or printing out a slogan from your computer can amplify your message. Whistles, pots and pans, drums, tin cans, sticks, a megaphone or even coins in an empty bottle will all help you literally increase your volume. Wear shoes you can walk in, comfortable layers of clothes and sunscreen. Avoid items that could be interpreted as a weapon, like a Swiss army knife or any blunt object, and leave all alcohol and drugs at home.

6. Find fellow activists on social media.

Twitter and Facebook are now the places where movements coalesce. Over the past month, hashtags like #EricGarner, #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe proliferated across the web, accompanied by calls for demonstrations. Those tweets organized like-minded activists to meet at New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza in an effort to shut down the annual Christmas tree lighting and to clutter the floors of Grand Central Terminal with a “mass grave” of bodies within a few quick hours.
Be sure to tweet your whereabouts and why you’re out. After all, there’s no use holding a demonstration if no one hears you. “You can see that it’s not just five people standing in Times Square — it’s people marching throughout the city,” Marcus Messner, a journalism professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, tells the Wall Street Journal. “The immediate visuals we’re seeing on Twitter and Instagram help people overcome that barrier to getting out and protesting.”
If there’s action rising up at multiple spots across a city, stick to one trusted source for location information or you may find yourself fruitlessly chasing different marches.

Sophia Smith (C) of Oakland chants with a crowd of protesters, in Oakland, Calif., Dec. 4, 2014.

7. Channel the momentum.

The weeks after a protest can feel like a letdown. Nothing’s changed, you might say, but remember that social progress moves at a glacial pace. (Case in point: Seven decades passed between the convention in Seneca Falls and the day women finally gained the right to vote.) Maintain your involvement through letter writing campaigns or boycotts; study the cause you’re fighting for. And keep marching.

The City That’s Turning Old Pay Phones into Wi-Fi Hotspots

New York City has a plan to revamp the antiquated pay phones dotting city streets throughout the five boroughs.
Mayor Bill De Blasio unveiled a plan to transform thousands of public phones into information booths that provide free Wi-Fi access, free calls to anywhere in the United States, complimentary phone charging and a touchscreen featuring access to city services. Dubbed LinkNYC, the nearly 10 feet tall booths will provide Wi-Fi range from 150 feet in any direction for up to 250 devices, according to the New York Times.
But don’t expect the typical slow, public Wi-Fi. The network will be 100 times faster than average municipal systems and more than 20 times faster than average home internet service in the city, according to the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. That means a two-hour movie could be potentially downloaded in about 30 seconds.

“It’s going to help us close the digital divide,” says Maya Wiley, counsel to Mayor De Blasio.

The city awarded the bid to build the kiosks to CityBridge, a conglomerate of companies, including Qualcomm and Titan, and plans to roll out the hotspots beginning of next year. Approximately 10,000 will be installed across the five boroughs, with a weekly check-in to ensure they haven’t been vandalized.
The city plans to pay for the program through advertising revenues from digital displays featured on the booths. De Blasio says, the program will come at “no-cost to taxpayers and generate more than $500 million in revenue for the city over the next 12 years.” CityBridge is planning to create a local agency for maintenance and repair, which will add to the 100 to 150 new full-time jobs expected to come with the LinkNYC program.
For those who still rely on old-fashioned pay phones, CityBridge said it plans to keep three existing “Superman pay phones” along the West End Avenue, where some traditional phone booths have endured.
“With this proposal for the fastest and largest municipal Wi-Fi network in the world — accessible to and free for all New Yorkers and visitors alike — we’re taking a critical step toward a more equal, open and connected city,” De Blasio says, “for every New Yorker, in every borough.”
MORE: The Amazing New Way You’ll Be Able to Charge Your Phone Outside

These Special Writing Workshops Are Geared Towards Caregivers of Vets

With organizations like The Telling ProjectThe Combat Paper Project and The Art of War Project, art has helped many veterans cope with returning to civilian life. But there’s another group that can struggle as much as vets: their caregivers. So a writing workshop program is offering classes and mentorship for military family members to turn their experience into poetry and prose as well.
The Helen Deutsch Writing Workshops, sponsored by the New York-based Writers Guild of America East Foundation, were initially offered to wounded veterans in 2008 and 2009, kicking off with meetings in Columbus, Ohio and San Francisco. Starting in 2011, the organization partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project to sponsor writing classes taught by professional writers (some of whom are veterans) for the caregivers of permanently injured veterans.
The workshops are not therapy — they’re focused on teaching the participants how to craft stories, essays and poems, but many participants find that the writing process helps ease their suffering and sense of isolation.
Sandra Hemenger, whose husband was injured in Iraq, attended a New York City caregivers workshop. “I began to write a book about everything that has happened to us in the past four years,” she tells the Writers Guild of America. “Although I still do not have a lot of time to write, I have a new found love for writing that I never knew existed. For some, they would say our story has taken a bad turn but to us it feels as if the bricks were taken off our chest and we can breathe again. My husband has sensed a change in me since I have been writing. I am no longer keeping everything bottled up inside and I have become a better person because of it.”
Andrea W. Doray of the Denver Post spoke to one of the mentors in the program, Seth Brady Tucker, an Iraq veteran and author of the memoir “Mormon Boy” and the poetry collection “We Deserve the Gods We Ask For.” Tucker led a workshop this month in Denver for participants from around the country, and for the next six months, he’ll continue to assist them with their writing projects.
Tucker tells Doray that as he worked with the caregivers, he struggled “not to break down and cry every 10 minutes,” but he’s hopeful that the writing process that’s helped him since serving as an airborne paratrooper will also enhance the lives of his students.
MORE: How Storytelling Can Bridge the Military-Civilian Divide

Meet The Photographer That Captures Veterans’ Emotions About Returning to the Civilian World

We’ve heard about how difficult the transition from the military to the civilian world has been for many post-9/11 veterans. But sometimes statistics and unemployment percentages don’t convey the grave situation to others the way that a work of art can.
For the past eight years, Brooklyn-based photographer Jennifer Karady has been traveling throughout the United States to capture arresting images of soldiers returned from combat. She spends time with each veteran to learn his or her story and then composes a scene that conveys their emotions. As Karady’s website notes, “she works with real people to dramatize their stories through both literal depiction and metaphorical and allegorical means.”
When Karady spent time with former Marine Corps Sergeant Jose Adames, for example, she learned that he was struck by a mortar when he was in a convoy — resulting in shrapnel wounds, plus 17 fellow Marines in his unit also sustaining injury. When he returned home to Brooklyn, Adames found he was terrified of garbage trucks because they sound similar to exploding mortars. Karady depicted Adames in his uniform on the streets of Brooklyn, crouched and covering his ears as a garbage truck rumbles along behind him.
Karady spoke about her project, “Soldiers’ Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan,” with the PBS NewsHour. She says that she interviews the veterans extensively before photographing them: “through those interviews, we are looking identify a moment from war that’s come home with the person into the civilian world. So we talk about both that memory of war and then also the way that memory manifests itself in the present.”
She continues, “In each photograph, the veteran is in uniform and we’re restaging this memory from war, but that moment is recontextualized in the civilian world. So you get this sense of a collision or collapse between these two worlds, and trying to represent something that’s invisible, something that’s unconscious, something that’s emotional, so what it feels like for the veteran to come home and sometimes experience two different realities at once.”
Karady travelled to the Omaha Nation reservation in Nebraska to photograph Shelby Webster, a single mother who left her kids to serve in Iraq. Her first convoy was attacked, which caused her to worrying about her kids. But she heard her deceased grandfather say, “Well, you’re going to be all right,” and she smelled burning cedar. She later learned that the Omaha people held a prayer meeting for her at which they burned cedar. In the photograph, Webster is on the ground, pointing her gun, while her children cling to her and her brother performs a cedar ceremony in the background.
In the coming years, Karady plans to publish photos from her project in a book and exhibit the portraits in galleries, accompanied with text or recordings of the soldiers telling their own stories.
Through Karady’s images, we can understand a little better the haunting memories that run through veterans’ minds when they return home.
MORE: Meet A Veteran That Uses a 19th-Century Art Form to Capture Today’s Soldiers

After America Was Attacked, These Veterans Were Inspired to Protect and Serve

At a Google Tech Talk yesterday, held at the company’s New York City offices, a panel of veterans recalled where they were on Sept. 11, 2001 — a date that motivated so many service members to join the Armed Forces.
In attendance was Joe Quinn, now the Northeast Director for Team Red, White & Blue, whose brother was one of the 658 employees at Cantor Fitzgerald who died when Flight 11 hit One World Trade Center. Former Green Beret Mark Nutsch told the story how he had to explain to his boys and his wife (seven months into her pregnancy) that he would soon have to deploy to get the bad guys. And Master Sergeant Eric Stebner spoke about earning the Silver Star for braving enemy fire to carry the bodies of fellow U.S. Army Rangers — including that of his best friend — in the battle of Takur Ghar in Afghanistan.
Carrie Laureno, founder of the Google Veterans Network, moderated the panel and emphasized the need to acknowledge these “achievements and contributions on behalf of all of us who have not served.”
Laureno led her team at Google Creative Lab to produce “The Call to Serve,” a temporary installation at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City to recognize the stories of Quinn, Nutsch and Stebner, among others. Reacting to the museum lacking any recognition of military accomplishments in the permanent exhibit, Laureno developed this tribute to the untold stories of military members who have served since 9/11.
Touch screens in the exhibit draw you into these stories using Google Tour Builder technology that integrates Google Earth imagery with personal photos and anecdotes provided by nine veterans.
While the exhibit will only be on view this week, as part of the 9/11 Museum’s “Salute to Service,” the tribute will remain online indefinitely.
Browse through the stories of the responders whose stories and service deserve recognition and thanks, then spread the word with the #ThankAVet hashtag.

How This Company is Combatting Unemployment Among Millennial Vets

Young people have long been struggling with soaring unemployment rates. But veteran millennials between the ages of 18 and 24 are grappling with a 21.4 percent unemployment rate, according to the Bureau Labor of Statistics. That’s because the skills that vets acquire in the military are difficult to transition to some of the high-tech jobs available in the United States.
Sharp Decisions, a business and technology consulting firm, is focusing on changing that statistic in New York City, one of the top 10 American cities with regards to veteran unemployment rates.
Through its Vocation, Education and Training for Service members (V.E.T.S.) Program, Sharp Decisions hire former service members as full-time employees and then trains and deploys them to clients in teams including other vets. The company puts each vet through an intensive training boot camp before outsourcing them to companies such as EmblemHealth, Experian and Freddie Mac.  The program, entirely funded by Sharp Decisions, never uses the GI Bill or asks for government assistance.
Karen Ross, CEO of Sharp Decisions, founded the program not only because it was morally right, but also because it was a smart business decision. With expertise military training, vets are often efficient at completing a task. Under the pilot V.E.T.S. program, teams often completed projects in only two weeks, compared to the three months it would take an average civilian consultant, according to the company. In situations such as this, vets remain on Sharp Decision’s payroll when finishing a project early.
More recently, Sharp Decisions was one of three companies honored by the Rockefeller Foundation for innovations in hiring companies across the country.

“These three small businesses have developed business models that leverage the unique advantages that youth bring to a business. In doing so, they have achieved positive financial returns that make their strategies attractive for other businesses to replicate. As a result, they have benefitted their communities by creating sustainable social change,” according to the Foundation.

MORE: This Innovative Car Company Makes Employing Veterans Part of Its Mission