What's Happening

September 8, 2015, Adrian, Michigan – The public is cordially invited to attend all or part of a special Education Day, offered by the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB). The program will open with a welcome by PAB Chair Dee Joyner, an Adrian Dominican Associate, at 9:00 a.m. and end at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, September 10, 2015. It will be held in the auditorium at Weber Retreat and Conference Center at the Motherhouse Campus, 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive and also livestreamed through our website at www.adriandominicans.org/LiveStream.aspx.

The program will involve presentations by guest speakers on a variety of issues and social service programs.

Sarah Power will speak from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m., addressing the issue of human trafficking. She is the corporate citizenship manger of Con-Way, a leader in freight transportation and logistics.

Pat Zerega will speak about climate change from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. She is the senior director of shareholder advocacy for Mercy Investment Services, which addresses environmental, social, and governance issues through shareholder advocacy.

Charles Hammerman, president and CEO of Disability Opportunity Fund (DOF), will speak from 1:00 to 1:45 p.m. on supportive housing. DOF, which receives a low-interest loan through the Community Investment Committee of the PAB, in turn finances creative solutions for people with disabilities and their families.

James Balmer, president of Dawn Farm, and Charles Coleman, coordinator of the Chapin Street Project, will also speak on supportive housing and programs from 2:00 to 2:45 p.m. Chapin Street Project is a transitional home for recovering addicts who have completed the recovery program at Dawn Farm in Ann Arbor. Dawn Farm is also a partner with the PAB.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the PAB, established as an enactment of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 1974 General Chapter. The PAB was initiated to help the Adrian Dominican Congregation to align its investments with Gospel values and to monitor those investments.

The PAB works for economic justice through two components. Corporate Responsibility uses shareholder advocacy to ensure that corporations adopt business practices that work toward the common good in such areas as just labor practices and environmental sustainability. Since 1976, the Congregation has collaborated in this area with other faith-based organizations through the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility.

Through its Community Investments arm, the PAB makes low-interest loans to non-profit community organizations that benefit low-income people and underserved communities. During the past 40 years, the PAB has made loans totaling $28 million – at a 98 percent return rate. In many cases, the PAB’s faith in untried community organizations has encouraged other faith-based organizations to invest in them.  

View/print a flier for the event (pdf)

September 2, 2015, Adrian, Michigan – Adrian Dominican Sisters were among more than 4,100 U.S. Catholic Sisters – including 300 from Michigan – to sign a letter encouraging Senators and Representatives to support the Iran Nuclear Deal when they return to Washington for business after Labor Day.

“While imperfect, the deal provides an extraordinary opportunity to risk peace in a region that continues to witness the ravaging effects of violence and war as a modus operandi for addressing conflict,” the letter states.

In the letter, the Sisters note that critics of the deal “have failed to proffer the details of an alternative approach that stands as a chance of winning the support of China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom… as well as of Iran and the United Nations Security Council.” They point out that while there are risks inherent in the pending agreement, there are also risks in maintaining the status quo.

Read the letter to Congress.