            
Ben & Jerry's Foundation |
. |
Grant Recipients List for the 2nd Cycle, 2000Atlanta/Fulton Commission on Children and Youth $8,500100 Edgewood Avenue, NE Atlanta, GA 30303 This organization is a partnership of metro Atlanta adults and young people working together to improve the quality of life of children and youth in our community through leadership, collaboration, advocacy and service. Funds provided will be used for the "Checking Game" initiative. Interpersonal violence is a serious problem among African American youth in Fulton County. Twelve young men and boys (14-26) want to identify the factors in the community which encourage young African-American males to engage in violence in their relationships. They hope to make recommendations about reducing those factors and develop strategies to resist them. The idea for the initiative came directly from the young men as they seek alternatives to the power and domination they see played out around them. The project is called the "Checking Game" because the participants are the perpetuators of the problem AND the source of the solution. CATA - Farmworker Support Committee $10,000 PO Box 510 Glassboro, NJ 08028 CATA is a migrant farmworker organization governed by and comprised of farmworkers who are actively engaged in the struggle for better working and living conditions. Farmworkers mandated that CATA work towards enabling a transition process of forming a farmworkers union as a natural progression of their organizing efforts. Funds will enable CATA's transition from being the Farmworker Support Committee to the Farmworker Action Committee as the farmworker leadership establishes the Mushroom and Agriculture Workers Union. Center for Popular Economics $10,000 PO Box 785 Amherst, MA 01004 This volunteer organizations mission is to teach economic literacy to activists and educators who are organizing for progressive social change, to provide tools and resources for participants of their programs to develop their own economic analysis with relying on "experts." Funding will be used to revise their curriculum. Citizens Coal Council $10,000 1705 South Pearl Street #5 Denver, CO 80210 Citizens Coal Council works to protect water, land, air and communities from harmful impacts of coal mining and coal fired power plants, the dumping of coal ash and the extraction of coal bed methane gas. Their work consists of strengthening member groups through organizing and technical support, training, and assistance with local campaigns and coordination of regional and national campaigns. Funding will support the Appalachian Organizing project which includes two components, the Jobs & Justice campaign to create jobs cleaning up abandoned coal mines and the campaign to halt the harmful impacts of mountaintop removal strip mining. Both these campaigns work well together; the success of the mountaintop removal campaign has triggered attacks by the coal industry saying that citizens are trying to destroy jobs. Members are using the Jobs & Justice campaign to prove they are working hard to create good jobs that build communities. COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) $5,000 3543 18th Street #17 San Francisco, CA 94110 Founded by six young people with lesbian and gay parents COLAGE exists to ensure that the children in question have a voice and are not simply spoken about, but allowed to speak for themselves. The organization was created to give support and education in dealing with homophobia directed at them and their families. Their office receives more than 200 requests for help and support each month. Funding will be used to increase the number of chapters throughout the US by 10 with a focus on rural and under served areas, develop a network and support among chapters, organize specific leadership development workshops and develop areas of their newsletter that will provide tips on organizing. Conception Coast Project $10,000 32 West Anapamu Street #331 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 The name of this project is "Raising Awareness and Protecting Ecological Integrity in the Conception Coast Region: The Utilities of Geographic Information System and Conservation Science." The goal of this project is to create and provide tools that enhance the land management process, increase awareness about the need for science and cooperation to balance ecological and human requirements of the landscape, and create a vision map for the region. These tools include a regional GIS database, education materials, and a Regional Vision Map. These will be presented to stakeholders in the land planning process and the community through workshops, informal meetings and formal presentations. Greater Laurentian Wildlands Project $10,000 4 Laurel Hill Drive So. Burlington, VT 05403 The Wildlands Project (TWP) mission is to help protect and restore richness and native biodiversity of North America through the establishment of an interconnected system of reserves. TWP functions as a network of collaborating scientists, conservationists, agencies, indigenous peoples, and landowners working toward a long-term vision of a biologically healthy continent. Funding will be used for a regional effort, the Greater Laurentian Wildlands Project (GLWP), that will focus on efforts throughout New England, New York and southeastern Canada to restore and protect biodiversity. International Indian Treaty Council $15,000 2390 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110 This organization works for human rights and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of their treaties, traditional cultures and sacred land. The project: The Bay Area Urban Indian Youth Mentorship Program was implemented in 1997 to provide training, leadership development, educational and activism opportunities for high school and college-age Indian youth in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has the 3rd largest urban Indian population in the US. Funding will support coordination on intensive, hands-on training experience for youth mentees in the areas of skills-building in community advocacy and organizing; alliance building and networking with Indigenous youth from international to local levels. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) $12,500 310 Eighth St., Suite 307 Oakland, CA 94607 NNIR brings together grassroots community, religious, labor, civil rights and legal organizations to help build a social movement in support of the rights of immigrants and refugees. Through campaigns and projects they provide training and experience on issue analysis, campaign development, organizing methods, education work and legislative action. Funds will support their BRIDGE Project - Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in a Global Era. Addressing the controversial issues that range from racial attitudes among immigrants, the cost of the immigrant population to our public benefits system, the impact of immigration on job availability and wages, and how immigration growth affects the environment. Neighbors for Neighbors (NFN) $14,000 Rt. 1, Box 252 BB Lexington, TX 78947 NFN is a coalition of farmers, ranchers, small town residents and environmentalists who live in two largely rural central Texas counties. NFN are citizens working together to protect the lands, economy and quality of life in Bastrop and Lee counties. Funds will support their opposition to an arrangement between Alcoa Corp and the City of San Antonio, to strip mine for lignite (used to fuel the states biggest single source air polluter). Newtown Florist Club $10,000 PO Box 908403 Gainesville, GA 30501 This organization was formed 50 years ago in Gainsville, Georgia when a group of African American women came together to provide financial and emotional support to families in time of bereavement. Later they expanded the role to social justice, racial violence, police brutality, and deplorable living conditions. Funding will be used to support their Dioxin Education Campaign and Urban Sprawl Initiative. Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society $13,000 9824 79th Street, SE Fullerton, ND 58441-9725 The Farm Breeding Club Project is designed to bring farmers together to share knowledge and seed stock for seed saving and breeding. The goal of this project is to empower farmers to develop and trade seed varieties that are suited to low input agriculture in the Northern Plains, thus giving them an "out" from dependence upon corporate controlled seeds. The Farm Breeding Project will strengthen a growing network worldwide of organizations working to conserve biodiversity and oppose the harmful effects of genetically modified food and corporate control of genetic resources. People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights (PODER) $10,000 474 Valencia Street, #155 San Francisco, CA 94103 As an environmental justice organization, PODER works to develop leadership from within communities to demand a safe, healthy environment for the thousands of families who reside within the Mission District and other San Francisco areas. Funds were provided in support of the Common Roots: Summer Youth Organizer Program who's goal is to establish a model for youth leadership development and cross-cultural communication, information exchange and collaboration of activities amongst two neighborhood based groups working in San Francisco's low income communities of color. This summer youth organizer program has brought tighter Chinese American and Latino/a American youth to learn organizing skills and work on grassroots environmental and economic justice campaigns in Chinatown and the Mission District. Powder River Basin Resource Council $10,000 PO Box 1178 Douglas WY 82633 An organization working on multiple issues of concern in Wyoming including sustainable agriculture, energy development, water development, accountable government and ground water protection. Funds were provided for the Casper/New Castle Organizing Project. Powder River Basin Resource Council will work with citizens in these communities that have been affected by pollution from outdated and closed refineries. Both communities face similar problems of migrating pollution and a "jobs first" mentality. Casper is known as the "oil capital of Wyoming" and the consequence has been an economic roller coaster of oil boom and bust cycles. Pollution from refineries has resulted in a superfund site. Rock Creek Alliance $7,500 1319 N. Division Sandpoint, ID 83864 Sterling Mining Company wants to build a huge copper/silver mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area in northwest Montana. To access the ore body, Sterling would tunnel 3 miles beneath the wilderness. To process the ore, an industrial mining complex would be constructed adjacent to the wilderness in the Rock Creek drainage of the lower Clark Fork River Valley. Operating 24 hours a day, every day, for the next 30 years, the mine poses unacceptable risks to wilderness, water quality and wildlife. Funds for general operating support will be used to stop the proposed Rock Creek mine. Solutions to Issues of Concern to Knoxvillians (SICK) $15,000 3204 East Magnolia Avenue Knoxville, TN 37914 A member run organization whose primary work focuses on attacking oppression and low wages as underlying causes of poverty. Their main focus is on changing Tennessee Department of Human Service's childcare policies that unfairly target the poor and people of color and winning a living wage for Knoxville city and contract employees. Funds were provided for general support. Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, Inc. $5,000 PO Box 1312 Middlebury, VT 05753 A grassroots coalition of individuals and associations in Vermont whose goal is to educate Vermonters about the injustice of excluding same-sex couples and the families they form from the myriad legal protections, supports and obligation of civil marriage. General support provided to expand grassroots work throughout Vermont , focusing particularly on the organization and reinforcement of a dozen regional chapters and the promotion of public forums, speaking engagements and other educational outreach efforts. Women, Food and Agriculture $15,000 59624 Chicago Road Atlantic, IA 50022 The mission of Women, Food and Agriculture is "to link and amplify women's voices on issues of food systems, sustainable communities and environmental integrity." Funding for this project will be used to connect potential women farmers with established farmers to ultimately place women on the land as tenants or owners. Women's Project $15,000 2224 Main Street Little Rock, AR 72206 A multi-issue community based organization which uses community organizing, public education and coalition work to work for social change. Funding will support the Women's Watchcare Network whose focus will be to strengthen the community organizing component in rural areas to allow them to raise public consciousness of the connection between intolerance and hate crimes in Arkansas. The Network was initiated in 1989 to document hate crimes, monitor the activities of hate groups in Arkansas and to hold community actions (i.e. Clowns Against the Klan) to counter the activities of far right groups such as the militias or the Ku Klux Klan or individual acts of violence against people because of their race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, class or gender identity. Greater Dallas Community of Churches$2,500 624 N. Good-Latimer Dallas, TX 75204 The Dismantling Racism Initiatives rooted in the Community of Churches' historical efforts to advance racial justice in the Dallas metropolitan area. In the struggle to replace an unfair system of citywide elections for council members, the Community of Churches collaborated with other organizations to successfully support a plan for 14 single member districts with the Mayor elected citywide. Funding will support training, analysis and outreach of this initiative. Women's Center $1,000 1425 Aurora Road Melbourne, FL 32935 The Women's Center addresses numerous social problems including domestic violence and social issues including pregnancy testing, mental health and employment. Funds were provided in support of the Club Esteem Project. Through education and participation, it addresses issues of self-esteem, healthy relationships, physical changes, goal setting, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy decision making skills and leadership among its participants between the ages of 10 and 15. The goal of this project is to instill a sense of self-worth and hope within these children, thus decreasing unwanted pregnancy, the transmission of disease and drug usage. |