Compelling Clips
This CD has exclusive new tracks by Bruce Springsteen & Pete Seeger, Jon Bon Jovi, Mario Frangoulis, Buffalo Tom, Natalie Merchant, & more in collaboration with currently or formerly homeless musicians on benefit CD to fight homelessness.
Stay up-to-date with current news, events, concerts, promotions, merchandise, countrywide stats, stories, and more. Everything you need to stay on point with Give Us Your Poor.
Staff/Core Volunteers
Executive Director
John McGah, MSPA, is the founder and Executive Director of Give US Your Poor. A former Senior Research Associate at UMass Boston’s Center for Social Policy, he is an acknowledged expert on issues of homelessness. John is a 2002 International Eisenhower Fellowship recipient which allowed him to study homelessness in Eastern and Western Europe. He speaks nationally on homelessness issues at conferences and community groups. John has worked closely with community leaders in Massachusetts and across the United States developing relationships with national homeless organizations; shelter directors and staff; homelessness advocates; nationally known scholars; city, state and federal policy makers, and homeless people. In 2009, he spent a year in Mexico with his family focusing intensely on issues of leadership, sustainability, and systems-thinking. He has developed and teaches a Master's level seminar on Systems Thinking at UMass Boston's McCormack Graduate School of Policy & Global Studies.
Assistant Director
Jeffrey Range, MSPA – International Relations, began with Give US Your Poor in the fall of 2007 and sadly is about to leave us to move to Colorado. Jeffrey’s interest and awareness in structural connections to social justice (and social injustice) derived from working, studying, and traveling abroad in countries throughout East Asia and Latin America, notably barrios in Caracas, Venezuela and with campesinos and massacre survivors in rural Guatemala. Jeffrey is particularly interested in Give US Your Poor’s usage of Systems Thinking to address homelessness and presented an original paper utilizing Systems Thinking Theory at a Dispute Resolution conference in October, 2008. Jeffrey is about to leave UMass Boston for a move to Colorado. We wish him all the best with sincere thanks for all his contributions to Give US Your Poor!
Development Director for Legal Affairs
Vincent Flanagan has over thirty years of high level legal and executive management experience. He served in various senior level legal and managerial positions during his twenty-five year career with the federal judiciary. In 1988, Mr. Flanagan was appointed Circuit Executive (Chief Executive Officer) for the United States Courts for the First Circuit. During his career with the judiciary, Mr. Flanagan published numerous scholarly articles and served as a special advisor to the Federal Court Study Committee, established to examine and propose changes to the work and structure of the federal court system. In 1993, Mr. Flanagan was the recipient of the Director's Award for Outstanding Leadership, the highest honor given to a non-judicial officer in the federal judiciary. In addition to his work in the federal court system, Mr. Flanagan has provided pro bono legal services and worked for non-profit organizations in New York and Boston. Mr. Flanagan joined Give US Your Poor in 2003, serving as a member and chair of the Development Board. Mr. Flanagan is presently working with Give US Your Poor on a project for providing pro bono legal services for the homeless and for the education of judges and lawyers in dealing with legal issues concerning the homeless.
Development Consultant & Strategy Advisor
Laura K. Vannah has spent the past fifteen years focusing on developing and enhancing her passion for the Arts and brings her well-honed production and event management skills and her development and marketing expertise to Give US Your Poor. As the Founding Executive Director of the Native Circle Touch the Earth Festival, Laura has spent the past five years cultivating the festival and enlightening the community to the diversity of the Native American Arts and Culture. She has grown and expanded it from a single two-hour event with one Native American Music Award (NAMMY ™) winning performance into a two-day festival, this year hosting five NAMMY ™ nominated and award-winning performers together with hours of interactive and educational teachings. In addition to these tasks she worked on two two-year nation-wide service delivery projects in Canada, revised learning materials of the Calgary Health Region’s pregnancy manual Best Beginning to be more culturally appropriate for Aboriginal women in Canada, and designed and edited The Ten Grandmothers, a book by Linda Many Guns. As the President of Bright Star ProductionZ, Laura has produced, managed and directed over 70 public and private corporate murder mystery dinner theater performances since 2004 at multiple venues throughout Central NY. Not only does Laura bring in Nationally Recognized and Award Winning Artists, she too is a 2009 Native American Music Award Winner for Best Historical Recording on Native Pride as a member of the Thunder Hawk Singers, and was nominated again for a 2010 Native American Music Award for her participation on the CD Rise Up. The Thunder Hawk Singer’s music was featured on Primal Quest Badlands, a documentary film by Randy Ericksen, which has just been nominated for a 2011 Native American Music Award. In addition to being a talented artist she continues to challenge herself to reach out and give back to the community.
Gabriel Miller brings nearly twenty years of business, legal and non-profit experience building successful organizations. Mr. Miller is the COO and General Counsel of STORS Digital Retail Network, a Show & Tell company. STORS is a media company providing digital signage management and content solutions to retailers across the country. Prior to joining STORS, Mr. Miller was at Captivate Network, a media company, as General Counsel, while also serving as the chief Human Resources, Facilities and Insurance/Risk Management. He spent almost a decade at Fleet Bank serving as General Counsel of Fleet Real Estate Capital, a servicer and originator of commercial loans with over $2 billion of assets under management. While at Fleet, Mr. Miller also served as Senior Vice President/Senior Counsel, responsible for all legal issues related to Fleet’s several thousand domestic and international facilities. Mr. Miller is an active volunteer and fundraiser for various non-profits.
Information Director (Volunteer) - OPEN
We are currently seeking a volunteer to help write and design our regular Give US Your Poor e-newsletter. In interested please call 617-287-4044 and ask for Jeffrey. Must be organized and a good writer.
