Hope For The Day Team Attends Summerfest

A longtime resident of Chicago, Sean Tenner is a human rights advocate who serves as president of KNI Communications. Under his guidance, the firm assists nonprofits and foundations. In addition, Sean Tenner has served as a supporter of suicide prevention organization Hope For The Day.

In the summer of 2022, the discerning team of staunch anti-suicide proponents from Hope For The Day took time to attend Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Summerfest is an annual music event that features a large and enthusiastic crowd. The Hope For The Day team were able to spread educational information about mental health at the festival, and also polled a segment of the crowd for “what gives them hope.”

For some participants in the poll, animals (such as birds) helped dispel dejection and bring hope. For many, the answer was music. According to Hope For The Day, it was no surprise that many people picked music, considering that the event was a music festival. Members of the Milwaukee-based music band Keystone also wore Hope For The Day wristbands while they performed at the festival.

UN Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata’s Visit to Mauritania

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Sean Tenner serves as president of KNI Communications, a firm that works with nonprofits, foundations, and advocacy groups. Sean Tenner is the co-founder of the Abolition Institute, which works to end modern-day slavery in Mauritania.

Despite being banned in Mauritania in 1981, slavery still exists in the African country. Earlier this year, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery Tomoya Obokata visited the country and spent 10 days with officials. He praised the country’s leadership for taking important steps in the fight to combat slavery and for its willingness to discuss the problems more openly.

Unfortunately, Obokata reported that slavery still exists, and that those who are enslaved, especially women and children, suffer violence and abuse. In his opinion, the fact that slavery and slavery-like practices still exist shows that anti-slavery laws are not being enforced and the country requires a greater social transformation. He also found that enslaved individuals and their offspring encounter difficulties when enrolling in the country’s civil registry, a necessary first step to gain access to basic services, employment, and education. These hurdles ensure that these individuals remained trapped in a cycle of slavery. Obokata will present a report on this visit to the Human Rights Council in September 2023.

KNI Communications Led Efforts to Pass Impactful Breast Cancer Law

An alumnus of Georgetown University, Sean Tenner has a long history in political advocacy, having successfully worked with dozens of campaigns for leaders including President Barrack Obama. Sean Tenner is the president of KNI Communications in Chicago.

Since its founding in 2008, KNI Communications has successfully led efforts to pass several pieces of legislation in the Illinois General Assembly. One of its early successes was the passage of HB 5192, the Reducing Breast Cancer Disparities Act.

The Illinois General Assembly passed the act in February 2009. Lawmakers wrote it in response to a 2007 report that found huge disparities in access to breast cancer treatment between White and minority women. The report showed that the mortality rate for breast cancer patients in Chicago from 1980 to 2003 was 68 percent higher for minority women than White women. The act sought to bridge the gap in access to breast cancer resources among minorities.

After its passing, the act enhanced access to breast cancer care among minorities in a number of ways. For example, it increased Medicaid reimbursement rates for breast cancer tests such as mammograms, issued bonus payments to Medicaid providers utilizing best practices in breast cancer screenings, and required insurers to cover breast cancer pain medication. The act also enhanced access to screenings and did away with copayments for mammograms.

The Work of Simon Wiesenthal

Sean Tenner is the president of KNI Communications. A resident of Chicago, Illinois, Sean Tenner has worked on policy and communications issues for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an anti-hate organization dedicated to carrying on the legacy of Holocaust survivor and acclaimed nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

Born in 1908 to Jewish-German parents, Simon Wiesenthal survived the Holocaust despite being transferred to a nazi death camp. After the end of World War II, he immediately began gathering and preparing evidence on nazi war crimes to be used in the American zone war crime trials.

In 1947, Wiesenthal and about 30 volunteers opened the Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Linz, Austria, to assemble evidence for trials. However, the intensification of the Cold War discouraged the efforts of the center, and Wiesenthal lost many volunteers.

The center reopened in Vienna, Austria. With the help of the governments of Israel, Austria, and others, Wiesenthal uncovered nearly 1,100 war criminals, including Adolf Eichman and Franz Murer.

In 1967, Wiesenthal published his memoirs, titled The Murderers Among Us, in which he described his search for the administrator of the slaughter of Jews, Adolf Eichman, and the SS officer who arrested 11-year-old Anne Frank. In recognition of his work, Simon Wiesenthal received many honors, including the Dutch Freedom Medal.