             Unilever Gift
Ben & Jerry's Foundation |
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Grant Recipients List for the 1st Cycle, 1999Alternatives for Community & Environment $5,0002343 Washington Street Roxbury MA 02119 ACE works in partnership with low-income communities and communities of color to achieve environmental justice by providing legal and technical support, by offering educational programs and organizing assistance to solve environmental problems. The Clear the Air II campaign will continue to train and work with Roxbury youth to organize and advocate for cleaner public transportation and healthy air quality through the Clean Buses for Boston Coalition. Arc Ecology $7,500 833 Market Street San Francisco CA 94103 Arc has formed the National Military Base Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) Caucus Organizing and Support Project. RABs are established by the Department of Defense as the official forum for grassroots input into military base cleanups. Unfortunately, most RABs are technically undersupported and politically isolated. As a united, technically-abled national force, RABs have the potential to improve military toxic cleanup, in individual bases and nationally. Arc has created a national network of RABs working to advocate for responsible and accountable military base clean ups on a national level. Asociacion de Pequenos Agricultores de Rabanal, Inc. (Empresas APARI) $7,500 PO Box 4952 Caguas PR 00739 APARI is a rural development corporation dedicated to promoting environmentally-sound, locally-based economic development opportunities in Rabanal, Puerto Rico. Funds were provided to support their efforts to educate and train small farmers to eliminate the indiscriminate use of pesticides in their day to day work. Ultimately, they hope to institutionalize sustainable agriculture practices. Citizens Environmental Coalition $7,500 339 N. Main Street Medina NY 14103 CEC is a statewide, grassroots organization of community, environmental and labor groups and individuals working to address environmental pollution and to affect systemic environmental change. Funds were provided in support of the Corporate Environmental Accountability Campaign, which seeks to hold Eastman Kodak Company accountable for it egregious environmental liabilities, lack of adequate pollution prevention measures, and exorbitant executive compensation. Coalition of Immokalee Workers $5,000 215 F West Main Street Immokalee FL 34143 The members of this community-based workers' organization are largely Hispanic, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working low-wage jobs throughout Florida. Through analysis, coalition-building, and leadership development, they strive to win fair wages, better and more affordable housing, the right to organize on the job without fear of retaliation, and an end to the abuse of undocumented workers. Funds were provided in support of their ongoing work providing popular education, community organizing, leadership training and labor rights action. Community Coalition for Environmental Justice $5,000 105 14th Avenue Seattle WA 98122 CCEJ is a multiracial, grassroots organization formed by Seattle residents concerned about pollution and health issues in their community. Funds were provided in support of their leadership development program for women, and for their campaign to bring the Long Painting Company into compliance through air quality testing and community organizing. Concerned Citizens Committee of Southeast Ohio $5,750 13744 CR 11 Caldwell OH 43724-9537 The Committee was formed to prevent a parcel of reclaimed strip-mined land from being turned over to a 2400 sow confined animal feed lot and breeding facility. The proposed facility threatens the already vulnerable aquifer below the strip-mined land as well as the economic viability of the surrounding area. The manure lagoons and dead swine composting pile present an ecological disaster waiting to happen should the county experience another flood similar to the one that devasted the area in 1998. With public education and by networking with statewide environmental groups, this small group of local residents is attempting to stop the facility through regulatory and legal means. Gulf Restoration Network $7,500 PO Box 2245 New Orleans LA 70176-2245 The GRN was founded in 1994 to address an identified need for communication among groups working in the Gulf of Mexico region and to raise common issues to a regional level. The network members comprise 41 environmental and social justice groups working to protect the public health and environmental resources of the Gulf. Member groups develop issue strategies and actively participate in campaigns. Among key campaigns are the Greening of the Corps of Engineers, working to address misguided Army Corps of Engineers projects which benefit few and cause serious environmental damage; The "Dead Zone" campaign which is working to reduce coastal polluted runoff from the Mississippi River, resulting in a dead zone where marine life cannot survive; and implementing sustainable fisheries management. Louisiana Labor-Neighbor Project $5,000 8841 Bluebonnet Road Baton Rouge LA 70810 LLNP is a unique partnership between organized labor and community activists in which both have committed themselves to a common goal of organizing individuals and communities in order to improve the quality of life in these communities. LLNP provides research, organizing and technical assistance to grassroots community groups, labor union locals and churches. Funds were provided specifically in support of organizing around local environmental issues and to expand the work into regional and statewide grassroots campaigns. Massachusetts Neighbor to Neighbor $7,000 678 Massachusetts Avenue#303 Cambridge MA 02139 A statewide grassroots organization fighting for economic and social justice, Massachusetts N2N develops volunteers, leaders, and organizations in low-income communities. At the same time, they are building a statewide coalition of low-income people, labor, seniors, and others who share their vision of a society that meets the needs of families. These include: jobs at a living wage and job training, access to affordable housing, child care and health care, good education for their children, and a welfare safety net for those who cannot or should not have to work. Funds were provided to develop volunteers into community organizers, hire and train organizing interns, and assist local leadership in six communities. Mutual Housing Association of New York, Inc. $7,500 88 Third Avenue Brooklyn NY 11217 MHANY was formed in 1987 after a squatters campaign in East New York highlighted the irony of the simultaneous existence of blocks of abandoned residential structures in a city with a 50 year housing shortage. Today, MHANY continues to work for the preservation, reclamation and expansion of affordable housing controlled by the low income families who live in it. Moreover, MHANY works to develop the leadership and organizing capacity of its residents, who then go on to organize their neighborhoods around the continued shortage of affordable housing, improving local schools, and holding public officials accountable for providing the same level of public services found in more affluent communities. National Mobilization Against Sweatshops $7,500 PO Box 130293 New York NY 10013-0995 NMASS emerged two years ago from the local organizing work of the Chinese Staff & Workers' Association (CSWA) against sweatshop conditions in the Chinese community of New York City. As students and young workers from outside Chinatown became increasingly involved in supporting the campaigns of Chinatown workers, these young people began to personally identify with these workers and their battles. NMASS is an outgrowth of this work and recognizes the fact that in order to end these exploitative conditions in Chinatown, it is necessary to challenge the sweatshop system and economy of this country. NMASS strives to engage young people and others by helping them to personally understand how situations they face in the working world are related to sweatshop situations. Okanogan Highlands Alliance $5,000 PO Box 163 Tonasket WA 98855 Founded in 1992, OHA has grown from a group of concerned neighbors to a broad based organization advocating the protection of our natural resources. Organizing around the slogan, "Pure water is more precious than gold!" they are successfully stalling a proposed cyanide-leach gold mine on Buckhorn Mountain. They have been able to create legal, educational,and political frameworks for community resistance of this and other mining projects in the region. OHA has become a nationally recognized citizen activist force. Police Barrio Relations Project $7,500 2828 N. 5th Street Philadelphia PA 19133 This community-based civil rights organization is working to improve relations between the Latino community of Philadelphia and the police by addressing police misconduct and the delivery of public safety services to the Barrio. The Mutual Respect Handbook and the Bridge Building Program are two programs that bring young people, their parents, the schools, and members of the law enforcement community together to create a curriculum and then work together to increase understanding and respect for one another. Sweatshop Watch $7,500 310 Eighth Street Oakland CA 94607 Sweatshop Watch is a coalition of labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights and women's organizations committed to eliminating sweatshops in the garment industry. Programs include coalition building, public education and public policy advocacy. Funds were provided in support of the Sweatshop Accountability Campaign which is focusing on the California garment industry, the nation's largest, to ensure that retailers and manufacturers are legally responsible for the conditions of workers who sew their clothes. Greater Laurentians Wildlands Project $5,000 4 Laurel Hill Drive So. Burlington VT 05403 The mission of the Wildlands Project is to help protect and restore the ecological richness and native biodiversity of North America through the establishment of a connected system of reserves. TWP functions as a network of collaborating scientists, conservationists, agencies, indiginous peoples, and landowners working toward a long-term vision of a biologically healthy continent. GLWP is working throughout New England, New York and Canada's eastern provinces to design and implement a regional reserve network that will one day be part of a contiguous North American protected wilderness system. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School $1,000 Sixth St. & Alabama Avenue, SE Washington DC 20032 "WMLK, News in the Making" is an innovative activity that integrates a contrastive analysis approach to language instruction and developmental writing. Developed by an African American teacher for her largely African American fourth grade students, it consists of a monthly news program produced, written and staged by the students. The activity of producing and then analyzing this and other news programs will provide the students the opportunity to learn Standard English while honoring the rich verbal traditions of the African American community. It is an authentic forum in which to interchange the different forms of English. |