We're proud to announce a new initiative through CALEB that looks to intervene directly in support of local families separated by ICE detention. The Immigration Bond Fund is a mechanism to raise money that will be used to post bond for local individuals that have been granted a bond amount by an immigration judge. All the reasons for doing away with the wealth-based detention of cash bail--unequal access to justice, inability to work or act as caregiver, threats to employment, housing, transportation, or necessary medication--are only amplified and extended when dealing with individuals moved to a federal pre-trial detention facility.

Solid community action often comes out of serious social failures and injustices. In Hamilton County, family members are being separated every week; often they're arrested for minor traffic charges like driving on a revoked license even when no probably cause is given for the stop. When undocumented individuals are booked in the jail, ICE is notified and has the ability to place a 48-hour hold that precludes an option to bail out. According to ICE's own website, "If ICE does not assume custody after 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays), the local law enforcement agency (LEA) is required to release the individual. The LEA may not lawfully hold an individual beyond the 48-hour period." Yet in a number of cases that CALEB's Community Bail Fund has been involved with, Hamilton County Jail staff have refused to release individuals well after the hold has expired and bond has been paid.

Along with Tennessee United, we are working to make sure these examples of unjust detentions are changed at the Hamilton County Sheriff's Dept. For those individuals who do find themselves or their loved ones fighting for their freedom to stay in Chattanooga, we are looking to help. We will be coordinating the establishment of a bond fund committee to oversee applications and approvals, but in the meantime we need to gather the funds that can make action a reality. CALEB's goal is to raise $20,000 for the fund by year's end. You can help us reach this goal by donating HERE, as well as sharing this project among your friends and family. CALEB is a nonprofit organization, so all donations will be tax-deductible.

See our video explaining the need for an Immigration Bond Fund below:

Education Task Force: Thursday, August 22nd, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm @ First Centenary United Methodist Church

Economic Mobility Task Force: Thursday, August 22nd, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm @ First Centenary United Methodist Church

Criminal Justice Task Force: Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm @ The Honest Pint

The next CALEB general meeting will be Thursday, Sept. 12th, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm @ First Centenary United Methodist Church.

Mad Priest Coffee Roasters has partnered with CALEB to donate 10% of sales from their "Summer Give Back Blend" to the Hamilton County Community Bail Fund! You can pick up a bag while supplies last at their Southside location (1900 Broad St., next to Koch's Bakery).

Midway through summer, and CALEB's task forces are busy charting a path towards action! Our members are in the initial stages of research and relationship-building around the issues of Education and Economic Mobility. Meanwhile our Criminal Justice Task Force is assessing the financial and volunteer needs of the Hamilton County Community Bail Fund, and developing a plan for broader advocacy against wealth-based detention.

If you're looking for a way to get more involved in community issues, now is a great time plug in!

Education Task Force Meeting
July 25th, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm @ First Centenary United Methodist Church

Economic Mobility Task Force Meeting
July 25th, 6:30 pm-8:00 pm @ First Centenary United Methodist Church

Criminal Justice Task Force Meeting
8/6/19, 5:30pm-7:00pm  @ The Honest Pint

Thanks to everyone who took part in CALEB's Issues Convention on Saturday,! It was a great success! Representatives from thirteen member organizations as well as a large number of individual community members came out to plan for action around our city's pressing needs.

Pastor Charlotte Williams opened up the morning with a celebration of our successes so far: $70,000 raised for the Hamilton County Community Bail Fund, ten participants bailed out over the past two months...three of whose charges have already been dismissed. Sarah Berestecky and Allen Shropshire provided a workshop overview of criteria for what makes a good, actionable issue. We had break-outs for one-to-one conversations with members of different organizations. Then our member organizations caucused to discuss which issues they wanted to highlight based on what they felt were shared values among our partners. Space was open for nonmembers to recommend potential issues and actions. After facilitated group discussion Pastor Josh Woodrow led the group through a voting process on five possible issue categories. With remarkable support, our chosen issues are:

• Economic Mobility
• Education
• Criminal Justice

Campaign development and action steps will be organized by task forces for each issue, and participants were invited to sign up for involvement with their preferred task force.

CALEB's next organizational meeting is Thursday, June 13th from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at First Centenary United Methodist Church. We'll be breaking out into Task Force groups, performing a power mapping exercise around our issues, and beginning the work of identifying campaign goals. We will also be finalizing participants going to 7-day National Leadership Training with the Gamaliel Foundation at the end of the month.

We look forward to seeing you there, and building the actions together that will make real change in Chattanooga and Hamilton County.

Click on the "Register NOW" button below to sign up for our Issues Convention on June 1st!

Tragic Fire at the Highlander Center

In March of 2019 the Highlander Center lost its main office building due to fire. Investigators found “White Power” graffiti spray painted at the site. This is only the most recent of attacks against the historic institution, known worldwide for its importance to racial and economic struggles for justice in the South. First established in 1932 as the Highlander Folk School on Monteagle Mountain, Highlander quickly became a center of social movement activism and education across the region with many connections to Chattanooga. When the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) launched its labor organizing campaign in the southern states, Highlander became a training center for union members. Later, Highlander took on a larger role in the civil rights movement and racial justice work, with notable leaders including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. attending trainings and receiving support. The Citizenship School model used across the South to beat racist literacy tests was initially a project created with activists through Highlander. To this day the Center remains as both a training facility and reverent meeting space for organizers and activists across the country.

CALEB respects the historic legacy and continuing importance of this inspiring institution. That’s why we’re partnering with our sister organizations NOAH and MICAH to help raise funds for the Highlander Center across Tennessee through June 8th.  Whether $5, $10 or $50, your donation will help Highlander continue its work. As the Center noted in a press release after the fire:

"This is a time for building our power. Now is the time to be vigilant. To love each other and support each other and to keep each other safe in turbulent times. Now is not the time to dismiss how scary things are, which makes it even more important to have concrete assessments of concrete conditions, and sophisticated strategies to build a new world."


Just click the button below to donate. Please share this fundraiser, and like Highlander’s Facebook page to stay informed!

This week CALEB members visited Nashville to attend the Board Meeting of our sister organization NOAH - Nashville Organized for Action and Hope. NOAH's success in effective community organizing around affordable housing, economic equity and jobs, and mass incarceration and criminal justice reform has been an inspiration to multiple groups across Tennessee. It was exciting to see the capacity for action that has developed among their 65 member organizations.

NOAH is now undertaking a listening campaign to connect with community members on the issues closest to the heart of the people in Nashville, building to a commitment around potentially new issues this summer. Yet no issue is as important as the capacity of the people to collectively act to produce change.

We look forward to working together as we build power and act on our shared values with organizations across our state! Thanks to NOAH for their hospitality and support.