Welcome to the Dignity For All campaign!

Dignity For All is a campaign designed to involve all community members in a process of personal and organizational reflection leading to a commitment to treating oneself and others with dignity.  We are working throughout our region to promote the following guiding principle, outlining the rights and freedoms we believe all people should have.

We believe that all people in our community should have civil rights, equal rights on the job, equal treatment by police and the courts, access to essential medical, educational and social services, and the right to be treated with dignity. 

With so many Maine workers finding themselves out of work or in low paying jobs, and with laborers from Central and South America seeking employment in the U.S., but finding little in the way of individual rights or worker protection, more and more people are forced to live lives devoid of independence and dignity.  It is PICA’s conviction that in the face of global economic forces, new alliances and organizations can be built from common experiences of loss and displacement, to improve the lives of individuals, and in turn, strengthen our communities. As the global economy has worsened, we have begun to see race-baiting and scapegoating of immigrants and non-immigrants alike. Those who see themselves as middle-class are being pitted against the displaced and the poor and workers, and the unemployed are pitted against immigrants.  PICA’s Dignity For All campaign aims to counter these dividing forces. 

We are in the process of gathering thousands of endorsements from individuals and organizations, throughout our region and the state supporting the Dignity For All statement of principle.  Won’t you join us?

Now  Two Ways to Promote Dignity for All in April!

For more more information about the training or the campaign, please write to us at dfa@pica.ws or call the office at (207) 947-4203.

You may think you've seen this invitation before but you haven't, quite.

 You now have a choice of two Saturdays in April, not just one,  to help jumpstart the petitioning and table phase of the Dignity for All Campaign.  The first is Saturday April 9, 8 AM at the PICA office (with coffee and snacks to perk you up).   By 9:30 you'll be “trained up” to be able  to petition in the Walk for the Homeless at one of its starting points in Bangor, Brewer, Hampden and Veazie  Or, you can take a break, then join the petitioning where those marches converge,  at the Bangor waterfront at around noon.  An alternate petitioning option for that day will be at the Bring Our War Dollars Home Rally at Bass Park at 1 PM. 

The second date remains Saturday April 16th, with a training at the PICA office at 9:30 AM (again, coffee and snacks even though you won't have gotten up quite so early), with petitioning to follow in the crowds gathered for the Kenduskeag canoe race."  We’ll be collecting signatures for this statement:          

"We believe that all people in our community should have civil rights, equal rights on the job, equal treatment by police and the courts, access to essential medical, educational and social services, and the right to be treated with dignity."            

We call on our elected officials to affirm and implement this principle of “dignity for all” as a basic community value.”   As we’ve said, the Dignity for All Campaign is not only as a defense of the most vulnerable among us, but a defense of us all.   It’s both an exercise in common decency, and also strategic.  It enables a major city in Maine to offer a model of community resistance not only to proposals from Augusta but to a concerted and well funded right wing national campaign.  Dignity for All is predicated on the belief that large numbers of people will sign on to the principle that some people matter more than others, that some people belong in our communities and others don't.

Please come help us make it happen.  It should be fun, productive and energizing. RSVP's are not essential but would help, if you know you can come: contact Tom Grogan at tgrogan@pica.ws or at 947 4203.  Thanks again. 

PICA’s Dignity for All Committee

 The complete Dignity for All statement can be downloaded here. 

For more information please call the PICA office at 207-947-4203 or email us.