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Grant Recipients List for the 4th Quarter, 20051000 Friends of Iowa $10,000Clive, IA 1000 Friends of Iowa works to promote responsible land use. Funds were given in support of their efforts to prevent construction of a sprawl-inducing beltway through prime farmland, and advocate for a more balanced transportation system. Arkansas Public Policy Panel $5,000 Little Rock, AR The Arkansas Public Policy Panel is developing a model of progressive change in the south by organizing low-income communities, networking them with each other and with institutional organizations, and building a multi-issue coalition. It is a strategic model, consisting of local, regional and state-level organizing that produces new community groups with savvy grassroos leaders and the capacity to work long term on deeply rooted social justice problems. General support funding was provided. Communities First! $12,000 Sewickley, PA Communities First! works through collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to enhance the livability and natural beauty of 20 Ohio River communities. Their goal is to encourage sustainable development that promotes sound economic growth and protects community and environmental assets. Funding was provided in support of a campaign to oppose the development of a Wal-Mart super center and adjacent strip mall which would threaten the small downtown centers of several communities. Community Coalition for Environmental Justice $7,500 Seattle, WA CCEJ organizes low-income people and people of color to fight for environmental, economic and social justice. Funding was provided in support of organizing to preserve a public housing development and working in collaboration with stakeholders to reduce diesel emissions in Seattle. Community Youth Organizing Campaign $15,000 Philadelphia, PA CYOC Chinatown Project engages recent immigrant, working class Chinese youth in working for change around labor issues in Chinatown. While developing their skills as community organizers, youth investigate community conditions through house visits, building relationships of trust with workers, and using popular education methodology to facilitate collective discussions with and develop leadership capacities of workers to address issues of exploitation and oppression. Dignity Village $10,000 Portland, OR Dignity Village is a tent city/alternative housing community of homeless persons helping homeless persons. Dignity Village is working to create a permanent, green, sustainable urban village dedicated to helping homeless persons resolve the issues and problems that resulted in their homelessness, and to foster self-empowerment and dignity. Funding was provided in support of the Tent Cities Toolkit, a computer-based, interactive organizing tool for creating tent cities and alternative housing nationwide. Forest Guardians $7,500 Santa Fe, NM Forest Guardians is a regionwide membership organization working to preserve and restore native wildlands and wildlife in the American Southwest through fundamental reform of public policies and practices. Funding was provided in support of the innovative “Pristine Waters and Wild Forests” campaign, which will use the Clean Water Act's provision for the designation of Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRWs), as an untapped tool in the effort to protect America's roadless forests and pristine waters. International Indian Treaty Council $10,000 San Francisco, CA The IITC is an organization of Indigenous Peoples working for the self-determination and the full recognition and protection of treaties, traditional cultures, community health, ecosystems and sacred lands. IITC provides a link for grassroots Indigenous Peoples to voice their human rights and environmental protection concerns internationally, and to integrate opportunities for international activism, advocacy and diplomacy into strategies for social change, community organizing and justice. Funds were provided in support of the Mercury Tribal Health and Environmental Justice Program, which empowers communities through a “Right to Know” educational, organizing and coalition building campaign for cleanup of the mercury contamination left over from the California Gold Rush. Kingsport Citizens for a Cleaner Environment $12,000 Kingsport, TN KCCE is a grassroots membership group concerned about the amount of pollution in their communities. They organize citizens to confront and work with local leaders, regulators and manufacturers to put the goal of a cleaner environment and better regional jobs on the front burner. Organizing strategies include empowering residents in redevelopment zones to be active players as the city and developers employ eminent domain rights, mobilizing senior/youth arts and culture task teams working around local environmental threats and strengthening the community and membership by offering workshops and public forums on “power tools”. Latinos en Accion de C C I $12,000 Marshalltown, IO Latinos en Accion CCI is an organization focused on searching for solutions to the problems facing the Latino community in Marshall and Tama Counties in Iowa. By buiding more Latino leaders and developing organizing campaigns, they hope to improve the working conditions at Swift and Company meat packing plant, address local issues, and work for needed immigration reform. Patuxent Riverkeeper $7,500 Upper Marlboro, MD Patuxent Riverkeeper works to protect and restore the Patuxent River, a Maryland tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Patrolling the river by boat, car and airplane the Riverkeeper investigates citizen complaints of watershed pollution. Their strategy is to bring together stakeholders in disputes over pollution sources and attempt to come to a resolution. Funding was provided in support of development of a media-based citizens’ monitoring network for the Chesapeake Bay. This network of monitors will photograph and videotape sources of sediment and nutrients throughout the watershed. The imagery acquired will be used in a three-pronged publicity campaign - via website, news media and visually enhanced testimony at hearings - to expose the negligence of state and county legislators and regulators and force them to control the nutrification and sedimentation that are destroying the Bay. Sistas on the Rise $12,000 Bronx, NY Sistas on the Rise, led by young mothers, works with young mothers in the South Bronx to support their personal, educational and emotional development and build their capacity to move forward together as critical and active mothers, leaders and organizers of the community. Concerned about the alarming dropout rates among teen mothers, Sistas on the Rise empowers young mothers to organize for more responsive and appropriate educational services for themselves and their constituency. Student / Farmworker Alliance $12,000 Immokalee, FL The Student/Farmworker Alliance grew out of the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Southwest Florida-based immigrant farmworker organization that is challenging exploitive wages and working conditions in the Florida Tomato Industry. SFA is a diverse national network with members at over 300 universities and 50 high schools. SFA mobilizes students and youth to boycott fast food establishments in solidarity with the farmworkers. CIW and SFA have been at the forefront of the U.S. global justice movement, building a campaign to pressure the corporate fast food industry to accept responsibility for the abysmal working conditions for farmworkers in its agricultural supply chain. Funding will support SFA's continued partnership with CIW in their struggle to end sweatshop conditions in the agricultural fields that supply the fast food industry. Talking Eyes Media $5,000 Montclair, NJ Talking Eyes Media is a multi-media public interest organization that creates and distributes compelling visual materials that advocate for positive social change. Funding was provided in support of “Denied: The Crisis of America’s Uninsured” a one-hour documentary film which will be used as an organizing tool by health care advocates across the country who are organizing for health care reform. Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment $10,000 Livermore, CA Tri-Valley CAREs seeks to end all nuclear weapons development, achieve full cleanup of toxic and radioactive contamination at DOE nuclear weapons facilities, convert the DOE nuclear weapons labs to environmentally-beneficial, peaceful research, and promote greater citizen participation in nuclear weapons policy issues. Funding was provided in support of their work to stop the development of new nuclear weapons at the DOE’s Livermore Lab and across the U.S. Western Shoshone Defense Project $12,000 Crescent Valley, NV WSDP is an indiginous organization working to defend Western Shoshone land rights and homelands. Their work falls within three primary areas: Cultural Preservation and Mining & Environment Project Land Rights Advocacy and Land Recognition, and Organization Development. General support was provided to help continue their work building capacity in the communities to increase W.S. participation in the areas of land protection, corporate engagement and international human rights. Women, Food and Agriculture Network $7,500 Atlantic, IA WFAN is a regional membership organization that links and mobilizes women to create a sustainable and just food and agriculture system, recognizing that women, worldwide, are the primary producers and providers of food and therefore poised to be at the forefront of a new agricultural movement. A general support grant was provided in order to enable the organization to create a three-year strategic plan. Transportation Action Team of Kansas City $1,000 Kansas City, MO The Transportation Action Team is a grassroots organization concerned with advancing transit options for the Kansas City Region. A small grant was provided to help print and expand their successful and slightly irreverent “Explore the Core” brochure, encouraging people to use public transit to visit places of interest. |