Gathering Voices is a live, monthly Zoom conversation series in which FOR-USA engages with activists and faith and thought leaders. This homepage for the live conversation series will include upcoming events as well as recordings of our past live conversations.
SUMMER 2026 PROGRAMMING
July 2026: Gathering Voices with Eyewitness Palestine
Join us for our next installment of Gathering Voices, featuring Nancy Mansour, Executive Director of Eyewitness Palestine, and Dr. Joe Groves, former coordinator of FOR’s Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) program, from which Eyewitness Palestine evolved into its own independent organization. We will also be joined by Georgia 42nd District Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, who recently participated in an Eyewitness Palestine delegation and has been speaking out about what he witnessed.
Joe will open with the origins and evolution of FOR’s IFPB program into Eyewitness Palestine, and how it was designed to send delegations to Israel/Palestine to bear witness, learn, and promote nonviolent solutions — educating U.S. citizens through on-the-ground experience of Palestinian life under occupation and apartheid. Nancy will then discuss recent delegations to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, along with the delegations planned ahead. The program culminates with Rep. Sanchez’s reflections on his recent delegation and how it has shaped his policymaking in Georgia and beyond.
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2026
Time: 4:00 pm Eastern
Location: Zoom
Read the full announcement and speaker bios →
June 2026: Gathering Voices on the Origins of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO
For this month’s “Gathering Voices” conversation, Dr. Linda Alvarado-Arce, FOR’s Interim Co-Executive Director, will be joined by Mr. Baldemar Velásquez, Founder & President of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO.
In the book, The Farm Labor Movement in the Midwest: Social Change and Adaptation among Migrant Farmworkers (1994) by W.K. Barger and Ernesto M. Reza, Baldemar wrote:
Many years of hard work, debate, and caring activity have yielded six master agreements that presently cover five thousand workers on almost 120 different family farms in Ohio and Michigan, representing a significant change in employment practices and putting thousands of extra dollars in workers’ pockets. It is easy to rattle off a long list of accomplishments of the union, some of which are precedent setting and historic. Nevertheless, in this era of union busting, a call needs to be issued to organize for radical changes in the infrastructure of how the agricultural industry does its business.
Today is no different. With the war on immigrants and migration, agricultural workers continue to come under attack.
In this gathering, Linda, a Mexican-American activist and educator, will engage Baldemar in a rich conversation about the origins, evolution, and trajectory of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), especially today when immigrants are being detained and deported at high levels and for just wanting to provide for their families. Baldemar is a highly respected national and international leader in both the farm labor and immigrant rights movements. He, with his family and midwest community founded FLOC in 1967. He describes his strong work ethic and passion for social justice as being tied to his Christian faith, mentors, and personal upbringing.
A discussion will be held around what the current initiatives are for FLOC and how others, like yourself, could build upon them and assist, i.e., the Black/Brown Unity Coalition, Police Code of Conduct, FLOC Identification Cards, the FLOC Homies Union, the Stop Corrupt Contractors Campaign, a pathway to citizenship initiative, and Songs for Justice. Currently, FLOC is calling on volunteers to support a rebirth of the farmworker movement, which has been stagnated since before COVID and is now recovering from the Cesar Chavez controversy. Please join us for this timely discussion around immigration, migration, unity, and compassion.
¡Hasta La Victoria!
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Time: 4:00 pm Eastern
Location: Zoom
Read the full announcement and speaker bios →
PAST GATHERING VOICES CONVERSATIONS
