Events

Did you ever wonder how the US immigrant population has changed over time?  Are you curious about the history and consequences of our shared border with Mexico?  Do you know how US policy has affected our immigration situation today?

Join us for a presentation and discussion of the history of US immigration, our current laws and procedures, and the national immigration questions we face today.

Alyson Ball is a resident of Charlottesville and spends her winters in Green Valley, Arizona, forty miles north of the Mexican border.   As a member of the humanitarian group Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans, Alyson has talked to deported Mexicans in Mexico, taken Border Patrol classes, and observed federal court proceedings in Tucson that detain and deport unauthorized migrants.

This Club meeting will be held via Zoom, beginning at 5:00pm.  Here is the link for the meeting: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/849144040

Meeting ID: 849 144 040

Corruption affects every single aspect of countries affected by it. Although we all know that corruption is pernicious, we don't often think about it as a violation to human rights.  This session aims to share a bit of my research on the links between these two areas both from the point of view of the violations to human rights but also on the use of human rights-based approaches to identify and address corrupt practices. 

Gabriela Rivera is a lawyer with over nine years of experience in human rights, women’s rights, strategic litigation, and security and justice sector reform. She also has significant experience working with victims of war crimes, women in prison and their children, victims of gender-based violence and people in various vulnerable situations. Garbiela is a participant in the Nobel Women's Initiative Mentorship Program, a professional intern at the Center for Justice and International Law, and a Rotary International Peace Fellow in 2017-2018.

This Club meeting will be the final meeting held via Zoom, beginning at 5:00pm.  Here is the link for the meeting: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/849144040

Meeting ID: 849 144 040

The next Club meeting on Tues, September 8th will return to being held at 6:00pm at the Omni Hotel Charlottesville, 

David Kent has a long background in international education, teaching and directing university English as a Second Language programs both in the US and abroad, operating as an ESL consultant to US and foreign multinationals, serving as a university international director, and working as an international student advisor. David taught at Ferdowsi University in Iran - where he was also Acting and Assistant English Director - and taught ESL to international business people in Ireland. At the University of Detroit Mercy, David was presented the  Outstanding Faculty Award by the International Student Association with the notation: For Outstanding Teaching and Humor.

David will discuss the pleasures and problems of our trans-cultural society, both for those who move here and for those who encounter them as colleagues, employees, bosses, friends, neighbors, and relatives. What can we do to understand each other better? How can we soften cultural bumps? How can we maximize the benefits of having people from other cultures in our workplaces and lives? How can we have fun with all this?

This Club meeting will be our first in-person gathering since the Spring. The meeting will begin at 6:00pm at the Omni Hotel Charlottesville, though we also plan to simultaneously welcome any club members via Zoom who cannot attend in person. Here is the link for the meeting: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/849144040.  Meeting ID: 849 144 040

Name: Richard Morris

Title: UAC, Farm and Foodroots Program Director

Organization: Cultivate Charlottesville

Session Title: Greens-Space: Reimagining Gardens, Parks, and Communities

Session Description: A discussion of the power of urban agriculture to grow communities.

Description of the talk: Urban agriculture often arises as an afterthought on vacant lots of America’s cities. They flourish for a time before being plowed under for new development. But what if urban agriculture was a planned component of urban development? Cultivate Charlottesville is advancing that very idea. Imagine a Greens-Space that produces food, offers park-like amenities, provides job training for teens, develops entrepreneurs, and is a first food responder when the next pandemic hits. That’s urban agriculture 2.0.

Speaker bio: Richard Morris has worked in healthcare as a graphic designer and medical illustrator. He served as an instructor of design in education before moving on to the aerospace industry. There, he developed training software for aircraft personnel. Richard was a Design and User Experience manager for Thomson Financial’s billion-dollar trading desktop for Merryll Lynch. He began a career in agriculture on the Flack Family Farm, in Vermont, before doing a ten-year stint at Polyface Farm. For several years, Richard raised pigs, chickens, and turkeys on a home foodstead in Central Virginia.

Artist, actor, activist, and author of “A Life Unburdened: Getting Over Weight and Getting On With My Life,” Richard has volunteered with local Charlottesville food equity organizations. He was Co-Chair of the steering committee at Bread and Roses, and serves as a board member at Loaves and Fishes. Currently, Richard heads up the Urban Agriculture Collective program of Cultivate Charlottesville.