2006 Grassroots Exchange Fund Grants
In 2006, 81 grants totaling $42,950 were made to the following organizations:
A Better Way Foundation, Hartford, CT • $500
To enable representatives to attend the National Harm Reduction Conference where trainings and networking will help strengthen their efforts to pass drug policy reform in their home state of Connecticut.
ACTION Network, Gainesville, FL • $400
To send ten member-leaders to the PICO (Pacific Institute of Community Organizing) Southeastern Leadership Conference to exchange information, ideas and strategies around shared issues that affect working families in North Central Florida.
ACORN Southern Region, Washington, DC • $1,200
For the Southern Regional Leadership Training and Environmental Justice Action convening of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, Tucson, AZ • $500
For two or more representatives to attend the Southern Border Social Forum in Texas where they would educate over 300 activists from both sides of the US-Mexico border on indigenous human/civil rights and self-determination issues.
Appalachian Women's Alliance, Floyd, VA • $500
For members to take part in a Rural Women's Exchange, where participants shared strategies on how to better use the arts to communicate and take action around grassroots community issues.
Black Mesa Trust, Kykotsmovi, AZ • $500
For a staff representative to participate in the Tribal Lands Climate Conference and in a funder conference, both in Arizona.
Central Labor Council of Alameda County, Oakland, CA • $1,000
To help send two community leaders through a community college training on labor studies to prepare them for serving on local commissions or boards.
Centro Macehualli-Tonatierra, Phoenix, AZ • $500
To convene day labor representatives from around the US for the Macehualli Peace and Dignity Exchange, and to exchange strategies for resisting anti-immigrant efforts both locally and nationally.
Chinese Staff & Worker's Association, New York, NY • $500
To support a delegation of CSWA members traveling to Mississippi and Louisiana to learn about the organizing efforts of community groups there, post-Hurricane Katrina, and to share lessons learned from post 9/11 organizing in New York City.
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, Merrimac, WI • $450
To send the Executive Director to the First National Conference on Precaution, where organizations share models of applying the precautionary principle, which urges policy makers to act immediately to stop a harmful practice or use of a toxic substance in any given environment, even when there is insufficient data at the time to prove related health or environmental risks.
Coming Clean Collaborative, Berea, KY • $1,000
To enable grassroots environmental justice organizers to participate in a groundbreaking tour that is linking together communities fighting environmental injustices to impact national chemical policy reform debates.
Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Seattle, WA • $500
For travel scholarships to bring speakers and organizers to a conference on environmental health and justice in Seattle.
Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, San Jose, CA • $500
In support of CHAM representatives' participation in the National Truth Commission and Leadership School where they will learn how to frame their work as human rights work, particularly around economic human rights issues.
Community Media Organizing Project, Lake City, TN • $750
To cover travel costs for two trainers who are facilitating communications and strategic visioning workshops for this coalition of grassroots organizations working for social change in the South.
Community to Community; De Comunidad a Comunidad, Bellingham, WA • $300
To help support a Legal Observer program on the US/Canadian border to oppose the growth of a new branch of the National Minuteman Project, which aims to deter undocumented immigrants to the US with armed vigilantes and other intimidation tactics.
Critical Resistance, Oakland, CA • $250
To help send members from throughout California travel to Sacramento for the Coalition for Effective Public Safety's "Grassroots Visiting Day", during which they will meet with legislators about criminal justice issues.
Desiree Alliance, Los Angeles, CA • $500
To provide travel funds for a delegation of sex workers to attend the National Organization for Women National Conference and Young Feminist Summit.
Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM), Jackson Heights, NY • $600
To underwrite the costs of sending an organizer and a volunteer to the Border Social Forum in Texas and Mexico to link South Asian Muslim migrant issues in New York and the Canadian border to Latino migrant issues at the US-Mexico Border.
Diné CARE (Citizens Against Ruining our Environment), Durango, CO • $700
An emergency grant to support the efforts of Dine/Navajo youth and elders to block the unpermitted construction of a power plant on sacred native lands in the four corners area.
Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable (ECRR), Kingwood, WV • $350
For ECRR representatives to attend the River Network's National River Rally-- a unique training opportunity for community-based watersheds and river conservation organizations.
Ecological Farming Association, Watsonville, CA • $600
To enable three representatives of organizations that serve immigrant farmers to attend the Ecological Farming Conference and share insights on how the conference can better serve the needs of refugee and immigrant farmers in the future.
El Paso ACORN, El Paso, TX • $800
To send 20 emerging leaders to the ACORN National Convention in Ohio.
Enlace, Portland, OR • $500
To defray travel costs of staff who will be leading a Coaches Program workshop in New York City, where they will be training key leaders of worker justice organizations in strategic planning and decision-making.
Esperanza del Barrio, New York, NY • $500
To send a community organizer to an immigrant and refugee rights training hosted by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in Oakland, California.
Fair Shake Network, Institute, WV • $375
To send the director to a leadership training in Kentucky to help further organizational efforts to bring about policy change on behalf of people with disabilities.
Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Oakland, CA • $300
For a convening of Filipino worker centers and advocates to network, share best practices, and celebrate the centennial anniversary of formal Filipino migration to the United States.
Friends of Allegheny Wilderness, Warren, PA • $400
To bring a speaker from North Dakota to Pennsylvania to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the 1964 Wilderness Act author Howard Zahniser, as a way of inspiring locals to support wilderness preservation at a time when the Allegheny National Forest is due to revise its long-term management plan.
Global Justice Ecology Project, Hinesburg, VT • $500
To help underwrite travel expenses for grassroots activists from around the US to attend an annual strategy meeting to address the growing threat of genetically engineered tree plantations.
Grass Roots Organizing, Mexico, MO • $800
To attend the National People's Action Neighborhood Conference in Washington, DC.
Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, Denver, CO • $800
To provide travel funds for staff, board and alumni to attend a historic grassroots fundraising conference that will explore the political and practical realities of building a movement today.
Grassroots Leadership, Charlotte, NC • $675
To participate in a learning exchange with Free Speech TV, to learn how television can be used as an effective medium for public education and issue-based organizing campaigns.
Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington, Seattle, WA • $400
For a staff person and a community member who has been affected by deportation to take part in a Washington DC event aimed at protecting immigrant rights.
Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN), Boise, ID • $500
To bring ICAN members to the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations conference.
IMPACT Silver Spring, Silver Spring, MD • $300
To bring a West Coast trainer to Silver Spring, Maryland, to lead a workshop for staff and parent leaders on organizing for education reform.
Instituto de Educaçon Popular del Sur de California, Los Angeles, CA • $375
For a lead organizer for IDEPSCA's Day Laborer Project to participate in a supervisor training led by Enlace International.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Des Moines, IA • $400
To help 13 rural members participate in the National People's Action Annual Neighborhoods Conference in Washington, DC to work together with urban leaders to bring community issues to national decision makers.
Just Cause Oakland, Oakland, CA • $350
For three staff to travel to Los Angeles for a meeting with other economic and housing justice groups to discuss organizing models and campaign development.
Kentucky Jobs with Justice, Louisville, KY • $400
To send two representatives to participate in the Southern Empowerment Project's Community Organizing Leadership Training, in order to prepare for a new statewide campaign to protect existing wage legislation and worker's right to organize in Kentucky.
Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Ashland, OR • $500
To host a two day summit in Medford, Oregon to address the federal administration's current plans to increase old-growth logging on Bureau of Land Management lands.
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, Los Angeles, CA • $500
To send the director and a community organizer to an international strategy session on harnessing the economic power of immigrants who send millions of dollars to their home countries each year, with the end goal of building power for immigrant communities in the US and improving conditions in their home countries.
Leaders for Equality and Action in Dayton, Dayton, OH • $500
To send two members from this congregation-based community organization to the semi-annual Direct Action and Research Training Center introductory workshop in Florida.
Low-Income Families' Empowerment Through Education, San Leandro, CA • $400
To help send a parent-leader to a convening of women-led welfare rights groups at the national African American Healthy Marriage Initiative Conference in North Carolina.
Louisiana Bucket Brigade, New Orleans, LA • $800
To bring together members of various neighborhood groups that are engaged in local environmental justice struggles throughout Louisiana, to plan for a Fenceline Neighbors Power Conference in 2007.
Louisville ACORN, Louisville, KY • $500
To help send emerging member leaders of this growing organization to the ACORN National Convention to gain further organizing and leadership skills.
Lyn Roc Tenant Association, Rocklin, CA • $500
For two leaders of a new low-income tenants association to learn about tenant organizing from peers and experts at the National Alliance of Housing and Urban Development Tenants Conference.
Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio, New York, NY • $500
For members of this social- and economic-justice group in East Harlem to attend a tech training camp in California on using technology for more effective organizing.
Mujeres Unidas, Coalinga, CA • $400
To allow ten women farmworkers and wives of farmworkers from Fresno County to begin networking and applying their new organizing skills in three other counties, where they will meet with peers to exchange ideas about solving social justice problems in their own communities.
Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, Cambridge, MA • $350
To help bring board and staff members to a training on using human rights principles in their organizing work.
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Oakland, CA • $1,000
To provide travel scholarships for grassroots groups to attend the National Immigrant and Refugee Rights Training Institute.
National Organizers Alliance, Washington, DC • $500
To offer grassroots organizers in the Gulf States a way to recover from challenging post-Hurricane Katrina organizing work by subsidizing their travel costs to a donated retreat site.
Neighbors and Concerned Citizens of Northwest Ocala, Ocala, FL • $500
To help support the group's participation in the National Bucket Brigade Conference in San Francisco, California.
New Mexico Alliance/Product of Atzlan Youth Group, Santa Cruz, CA • $400
To help send two youth from low-income Chicano and indigenous families in New Mexico to participate in the National Latino Congreso conference, where they will continue building their leadership skills, and learning about environmental and criminal justice issues.
North Fork Watershed Project, Thomas, WV • $300
To send representatives to the National River Rally to network with and learn from other river conservation groups from around the United States.
Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Cleveland, OH • $500
For a staff person to visit and network with the staff of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to gain exposure to new program ideas, and to exchange best practices for the enhancement of current service and advocacy models.
Not in Our Name, Oakland, CA • $300
To assist a member from South Carolina to attend the annual steering committee of Not in Our Name.
Oakland ACORN, Oakland, CA • $500
To help 50 members of this member-led organization attend the ACORN National Convention in Ohio.
Oregon Action, Portland, OR • $500
To send 25 emerging healthcare leaders to a leadership conference.
Oregon Rural Action, La Grande, OR • $250
To send new staff and board members who are working on immigrant rights issues in Eastern Oregon, to an organizer training of the Western Organization of Resource Councils.
Organize! Ohio, Cleveland, OH • $600
For a statewide gathering of community organizers from mostly low-income citizen groups from across Ohio, to identify ways in which the groups can strategically work together on immediate critical issues.
Organizers' Forum - West, Stinson Beach, CA • $500
To bring 40 long-time community and labor organizers together for a dialogue on "Political Methodology" in Chicago to discuss "best practices" of voter registration and other aspects of electoral organizing.
Peace Development Fund, Amherst, MA • $1,000
To help bring 30 criminal justice organizers to the National Network of Grantmakers Conference in Chicago, where they will have the opportunity to educate funders on criminal justice issues in their communities and around the nation.
Pilipino Worker's Center, Los Angeles, CA • $675
For staff and organizers to participate in a supervisor training led by Enlace International.
Priority Africa Network, Berkeley, CA • $500
To conduct an immigration and advocacy training specific to "Black immigrant" populations in the Bay Area, which will address the need to provide information to and build alliances with groups that are not currently included in the debate on immigration.
Project South Inst. for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide, Atlanta, GA • $700
For a youth delegation to participate in and lead workshops at the first-ever Southeast Social Forum in Durham, North Carolina.
Rubbertown Emergency ACTion, Louisville, KY • $300
To enable REACT members to participate in a national Environmental Justice Tour, which will help the group build its membership locally and forge relationships between urban and rural communities who are battling environmental justices across the state of Kentucky.
Rural Ethnic Institute, Rapid City, SD • $500
To bring a veteran Native American organizer from Montana People's Action in Montana to speak at a public forum in South Dakota, in order to encourage the local Native American community to support union organizing.
Safe Streets Strong Communities, New Orleans, LA • $500
For criminal justice organizers to attend the Southeast Social Justice Forum to build alliances with other organizers fighting for economic and social justice in the Southeast.
Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, Inc., Arcata, CA • $700
Toward the costs of travel, supplies and coordination of delegations and caucuses designed to support the involvement of US-based indigenous groups in the 5th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
SF Day Labor Program Women's Collective, San Francisco, CA • $500
For a staff member of this immigrant rights group to participate in a supervisor training and for a member-leader to take part in an organizer training.
South Brevard Area Inter-faith Sponsoring Committee, Melbourne, FL • $400
To convene member-leaders of four community and interdenominational faith-based groups (affiliated with Pacific Institute of Community Organizing) in Florida to exchange information, ideas and strategies around shared issues.
Sunflower Community Action, Inc., Wichita, KS • $400
To help transport members from Southwestern Kansas to the state capitol, to educate legislators about immigrant rights.
Tennessee Alliance for Progress, Nashville, TN • $500
To provide travel and scholarship money for low-income and young Tennesseans to participate in the Compass II Conference and learn about progressive issues and ways to get involved.
The Fairness Education Fund, Louisville, KY • $500
For a volunteer coordinator to attend the Southern Empowerment Project's organizer training.
The Ordinary People Society, Dothan, AL • $500
To enable representatives to attend the National Harm Reduction Conference where trainings and networking will help strengthen their efforts to pass drug policy reform in their home state of Alabama.
The Southern Empowerment Project, Maryville, TN • $800
To bring in facilitators from Kentucky to run a workshop that openly addresses the barriers and alienation between African-American and new immigrant communities (especially Latino communities), and to help build some bridges.
Virginia Organizing Project, Charlottesville, VA • $300
For a VOP Project Leader to attend the Annual Housing Policy Conference of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, in order to be more effective in advocating for affordable housing on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities.
West Virginia Wilderness Coalition, Masontown, WV • $400
To convene volunteers of several organizations that protect West Virginia's last remaining natural areas on public land, and engage them in advocacy skills training.
Working for Equality and Economic Liberation, Helena, MT • $600
To send six low-income parent leaders and staff to a leadership and organizing training in Oregon.
Y-CAT Youth Civic Action Team/New Pathways, Inc., Memphis, TN • $500
To support the exchange of information between youth organizing groups in Memphis and Los Angeles, around youth-led community revitalization efforts.
Young Workers United, San Francisco, CA • $400
For staff to participate in Coaches and Directors Training offered by Enlace International.
Youth Media Council, Oakland, CA • $500
To exchange media advocacy skills and strategies with grassroots groups working with Hurricane Katrina survivors in New Orleans.