Save the Date - PROOF's Annual Benefit November 2nd

Stand UP for PROOF! 

The Moral Courage Project launches “Ferguson Voices: Disrupting the Frame.”

The people of Ferguson have a story to tell – and one that the majority of those in the United States have not heard or fully understood. This story is even more urgent today.

PROOF: Media for Social Justice has collaborated with the University of Dayton's Human Rights Center on a new exhibit for the Moral Courage Project titled “Ferguson Voices: Disrupting the Frame.” The exhibit, which will be housed in the Roesch Library first floor gallery, will be open to the public from the 17th of January to the 3rd of February.  

A collaboration between students engaged with the University of Dayton's Human Rights Center and PROOF, Ferguson Voices is an attempt to spotlight and honor those who responded to the August 9, 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The death of Michael Brown sparked outrage and launched a movement due to what many have known to be true throughout America’s history: For too long people of color have been systematically targeted and criminalized.

Ferguson isn’t the only community where disenfranchisement and inequality is manifest, but it has become a symbol. “Ferguson is everywhere” became the rallying cry in the days, months and years since Michael’s death.

Unwarranted traffic stops, fines and arrests of people of color are a regular experience for those who either grew up in or still live in the area. But these truths are not unique to Ferguson; they are replicated across the country.

The stories and images captured in Ferguson Voices: Disrupting the Frame are a testament not only to the systemic discrimination that the Ferguson protests laid bare, but also to the power of transformative action taken to foster community, accountability and justice.

Location: University of Dayton, Ohio, Roesch Library first floor gallery, 300 College Park, Dayton, Ohio 45417

Dates: January 17th, 2017 - February 3rd, 2017

Times: Monday-Thursday 7:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.,

Fri 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.,

Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

For more information about the Moral Courage Project, please visit our program page - Moral Courage Project

Executive Director Leora Kahn Presents at IASFM Conference

PROOF Executive Director Leora Kahn presented a paper on the findings and experiences of PROOF's signature Witnessing: Working with Testimony for Refugee Advocacy workshop with Anita Fábos of Clark University at the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) Conference. In its 16th year, the IASFM Conference was held from July 12-15, 2016 at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. 

Refugee and migrant testimonies have helped stimulate and shape social change, and have on occasion been an effective tool for policy change and social transformation. But while advocacy on behalf of refugees often demonstrates the best of intentions, many social advocates grapple unsuccessfully with the power differentials at all stages of the process. Using techniques derived from drama and experiential learning, practitioners learn to recognize narrative strategies and ethical dilemmas inherent in sharing, choosing, and representing the difficult subject matter produced by many refugees. By developing an embodied understanding of power relations, advocates struggling with the ethics of representation of refugee and forced migrant narratives can identify strategies for producing alternative narrative frames. Drawing from the results of a series of workshops provided to a mixed group of refugee service professionals, community leaders, journalists, artists, and academics, Ms. Kahn and Dr. Fábos' paper reflects upon our use of these practices as a way to encourage empathetic listening and develop strategies of narrative disruption for refugee advocacy.