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News from OWOF – October 2025

One World One Family

October 2025 Newsletter


October is an important month this year.
Please plan to participate!   

A convenient calendar of activities is listed at the end.


KNOW YOUR RIGHTS TRAINING!
Friday, OCT 10 @ 6PM in Chelsea
OWOF and Grassroots Chelsea are co-hosting an immigrant rights training aimed at businesses.   A leader from the Jackson County for Immigrants Coalition will conduct the training.   Trainees will be expected to form teams to approach area businesses to be sure they know the legal responses to being approached by ICE.  RSVP Required.  Location will be provided upon registration.   owofchelsea@gmail.com

IMPORTANT COMMUNITY DISCUSSION!
5th Session in our Series – Making Sense of the Unprecedented

A US citizen’s right to vote comes from a combination of constitutional amendments and federal laws that have expanded and contracted voting eligibility over time. We will explore some of this history in our state, the challenges we are facing, and current ballot initiatives. A representative from Voters Not Politicians will lead the discussion, held at City of Chelsea’s Council Chambers (co-located with CPD). The background readings are timely and consist of articles and videos available at the One World One Family website.


Join us for Pilar’s famous tamales!  Eat in or take-out.  What could be better on a busy weekday? And for an important cause.  Proceeds will go to the emergency fund for Jackson County for Immigrants Coalition.  Stop by for live entertainment, a 50-50 raffle and some information about their activities.  Each tamale dinner includes  (1) tamale of your choice, casamiento (Salvadoran black beans & rice), fried plantains & curtido (special cabbage slaw).  Choices of tamales are Chicken, Black Bean & Vegan Bean.
PRE-ORDERS ARE REQUIRED by Tues, Oct 21 at 5pm – Click HERE
Please let us know if you are available to help with the dinner, set-up and clean-up.

Chelsea is joining many other cities across the country on October 18!  It is even more critical now
to stand up and be counted!!  

Helpers are still needed with safety & security.  ALSO can you help staff the OWOF table?  Let us know.  owofchelsea@gmail.com


Big THANK YOU to the speakers at last week’s Financing 101 panel – the 3rd event in the WWRAG’s Housing Solutions Series! Great Lakes Housing Solutions, Michigan Community Capital, Chelsea State Bank, and National Coalition for Community Capital shared GREAT info about how to get housing projects financed in Michigan communities! The video is now live on city-chelsea.org

 

Two new housing projects are in progress in Chelsea. These are both aimed at workforce housing to allow more people who work in Chelsea to live here. Currently only 12% of people who work in town live here. The Chelsea Housing Commission meets regularly and quarterly in a joint meeting with the Washtenaw Area Regional Advisory Group (WWRAG). Wed, Oct 8 is the housing focused quarterly joint meeting. Meetings are public and are held at Chelsea Council Chambers at 7:00 pm. Housing is truly a regional issue!


From our friends at Equality Chelsea.
Join us for a family-friendly picnic to celebrate our LGBTQ+ community.
Refreshments provided.


This workshop prepares community allies to act when they see ICE or other law enforcement detaining our immigrant neighbors. Learn about ways to respond in helpful, non-violent but effective ways. Workshop location will be provided with registration. Contact mirawashtenaw@gmail.com


October 2025 Calendar of Events
Weds, 10-8  WWRAG/Housing Comm. Joint Meeting – Chelsea Council Chambers
Friday, 10-10 Know Your Rights Training – RSVP Required
Saturday, 10-11 OUTober – Pierce Park
Sunday, 10-12 Community Response to ICE – RSVP
Saturday, 10-18  NO KINGS RALLY!  – Pierce Park
Sunday, 10-19  Discussion on Voter Suppression – Chelsea Council Chambers
Thursday, 10-23  Fundraiser Dinner – Chelsea Train Depot, Pre-order required
All event details in stories above

OUR MISSION is more important than ever
One World One Family is committed to justice and equity for all*. We work to be anti-racist and to oppose discrimination in any form. We engage and empower people to have an impact and change systems to ensure everyone can participate fully in a diverse society.
* all / “ahl” / Noun 1.The whole human family, regardless of actual or perceived age, color, disability, familial status, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, height, disability status, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, source of income, veteran status, or weight. Are you represented?

The Tamale Dinner Fund-Raiser for Jackson County for Immigrants Coalition was a huge success. $1800 was raised through a combination of dinner sales, a 50/50 raffle, and cash/ check donations. Pilar's Tamale's in Ann Arbor kindly provided 189 tamale dinners. Customers could "dine-in" or "take out". A traditional Mexican playlist accompanied dinner. Kitchen volunteers worked tirelessly to get meals plated. A Jackson group member brought along a Mexican vendor cart with authentic Mexican candy to sample for a suggested donation. OWOF Board Member, Christa Williams MD, thanked and welcomed guests, and introduced Gayla Ignacio and Amador Ybarra, two of the representatives from Jackson County for Immigrants Coalition. They spoke about their group and its efforts to support and protect immigrants in Jackson County during the heightened, warrantless, ICE arrests of community members and the effect this is having on community members, local businesses and families. A question and answer-session followed, allowing for further discussion of how their group is responding to the situation, and how concerned Chelsea residents may be able to assist. The generosity and caring community spirit of Chelsea was evident throughout the evening. Many excellent conversations were had. More than one OWOF member heard "I hope you will be doing this again". And at the end of the evening, when volunteers were pitching in to clean up, we drew the winning 50/50 raffle ticket, which had just one word on it: "donate". OWOF definitely looks forward to doing a similar fundraiser in the future.

After the rally on Saturday, come hear from Voters Not Politicians on Sunday.

Great event coming! Pilar’s famous tamales to support Jackson Immigrant Rights activities. They are doing good work with very few resources. Get your orders in now before 10-21.

Voter rights/voter suppression! Important conversation - 5th in our series of Making Sense of the Unprecedented. Sunday 10/19 - 3pm Council Chambers

Sunday, Oct 5. 5pm at First United Methodist Church in Chelsea. Important work!

Reminder for Thursday. Attainable housing basics. A chance to understand how solutions are crafted. Thursday, Sept 25 a 7pm in Council Chambers

We've got alot to talk about!! Let's start with Emergency Powers and Executive Orders and go from there... Sunday, Sept 21 at 3pm at The Chelsea Depot Readings (articles & videos) available at https://owofchelsea.org/resources/community-discussion/ If you run out of time to read or watch, COME ANYWAY!

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