2008 Grassroots Exchange Fund Grants

In 2008, the Grassroots Exchange Fund awarded 53 grants totaling $43,950.

 
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice • Oakland, CA • $800
ACRJ is a grassroots community-based organization that works with communities and organizations to advance reproductive justice on a local, state and national level through core strategies of community organizing and movement building.  Support from GXF enabled the organization to send an organizer to the national convening of the National Organizers Alliance to participate in discussions on cross-sector movement building and cross-region partnership.

Border Action Network • Tucson, AZ • $800
Border Action Network formed in 1999 and works with immigrant and border communities in southern Arizona to ensure that human rights are respected, human dignity upheld and that local communities are healthy places to live.  Support from GXF enabled the organization to send a staff member to the SPIN Academy strategic communications workshop.

California Partnership • Los Angeles, CA • $2,000
California Partnership (CAP) is a statewide coalition of community based groups, organizing and advocating at the local, state and national levels for the programs and policies that reduce and end poverty.  Support from GXF helped the organization to send low income leaders to "Realizing the Promise: A Forum on Community, Faith and Democracy."

Catalyst Project • San Francisco, CA • $750
Catalyst Project is a center for political education and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Funding from GXF helped support the newly-launched Anne Braden Anti-Racist Training Program.

Center for Third World Organizing • Oakland, CA • $700
The Center for Third World Organizing is a racial-justice training and resource center dedicated to building a social-justice movement led by people of color.  This grant enabled CTWO to provide travel scholarships to support the Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program (MAAP).

Charlottesville Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR) • Charlottesville, VA • $700
PHAR's mission is to empower low income residents to protect and improve their communities through collective action.  GXF provided support to send a group of staff and member leaders to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition's Housing Policy Conference in Washington, DC.

Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center • Cincinnati, OH • $700
The Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center (CIWC) was established in March 2005 to help mobilize, educate and organize low wage and immigrant workers.  This grant helped three low wage immigrant workers to attend a week-long community organizing training at the Midwest Academy.

Community Alliance of Lane County • Eugene, OR • $800
CALC is a multi-issue community organization whose work ranges from racial justice and LGBTIQ rights to immigrant rights and organizing against the war in Iraq.  Support from the GXF will enable two staff, one board member and one intern to attend the Western States Center's Community Strategic Training Initiative.

Critical Resistance • Oakland, CA • $2,000
Critical Resistance is a national organization based in Oakland dedicated to opposing the expansion of the prison industrial complex.  Funding from GXF supported the attendance of community members impaced by the prison system at the CR 10 Conference.

Desiree Alliance • Henderson, NV • $1,000
The Desiree Alliance is a diverse, volunteer-based, sex worker-led network of organizations, communities and individuals across the US working in harm reduction and advocating for sex workers.  Support from GXF enabled sex workers and sex worker rights advocates to attend the US Harm Reduction Conference in Miama, FL.

Dine CARE • Durango, CO • $700
Diné CARE is an indegenious rights and environmental justice organization working to protect and preserve Diné (Navajo) lands, resources and life ways.  Support from GXF enabled the organization to travel to New York City to meet face to face with executives from the lead partners in a proposed power-plant development on Navajo Nation land.

Domestic Workers United • Bronx, NY • $500
Domestic Workers United [DWU] is an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers in New York, organizing for power, respect, fair labor standards and to help build a movement to end exploitation and oppression for all.  Support from GXF helped to enable a member leader to attend Enlace's Team Leader Series Training.

El Quinto Sol de América (EQS) • Lindsay, CA • $500
El Quinto Sol de América is a non-profit, community-based environmental health and justice organization in the Central Valley region of Tulare County.  Support from GXF would enabled the Organization to work with the Centro Binacional Para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO) to build capacity in the Farmersville/ Exeter areas of Tulare County to address the issue of pesticide exposure and health, and build community leadership for pesticide policy change.

Good Jobs First • Washington, DC • $800
Good Jobs First is a national policy resource center for grassroots groups and public officials, promoting corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families.  Support from GXF enabled representatives from low-income groups to attend the third national Good Jobs First conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Grass Roots Organizing (GRO) • Mexico, MO • $800
The mission of GRO - Grass Roots Organizing is to create a grassroots voice to win economic justice and human rights for all Missourians.  Support from GXF allowed the organization to send two member-leaders to the National People's Action Neighborhood Conference in Washington, DC.

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance • San Pedro, CA • $2,000
Grassroots Global Justice is an alliance of U.S.-based grassroots groups who are organizing to build an agenda for power for working and poor people.  GXF provided  support for the Inter-Alliance Dialogue, an effort to bring together grassroots leaders from 5 networks and alliances to develop grassroots strategies in response to the current economic crisis and the changing political climate following the elections.

Green for All • Oakland, CA • $500
The mission of Green for All is to help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty, by advocating for a national commitment to job training, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy - especially for people from disadvantaged communities.  Support from GXF helped to enable community-based organizations to attend the Dream Reborn conference in Memphis, TN, a conference linking racial and economic justice with the growing green economy and the imperative for climate sustainability.

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice • San Francisco, CA • $500
Greenaction's mission is to mobilize community power to win victories and change industry and government policies and practices to protect health and promote environmental justice.  Support from GXF enabled Greenaction's Executive Director to travel to Florida to provide technical and strategic assistance to grassroots Florida activists to help them build a statewide network to oppose numerous proposals for new garbage incinerators.

Gwich'in Steering Committee • Fairbanks, AK • $800
The Gwich'in Steering Committee is an Indigenous rights and environmental justice organization from north-eastern Alaska working to protect the caribou birthing grounds on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).  Funding from GXF helped the organization to attend a strategy session on the protection of ANWR under the new administration and legislative climate.

Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN) • Boise, ID • $500
Idaho Community Action Network provides a voice for Idahoans to create progressive social change by building power through public education research, lobbying, direct action, and community meetings.  Support from GXF helped the organization to atttend the 2008 Northwest Federaton of Community Organizations' (NWFCO) Summer Conference in Seattle.

Just Cause Oakland • Oakland, CA • $800
Just Cause Oakland (JCO) is a membership-based organization building a powerful voice for Oakland's low-income tenants and workers. Its mission is to create a just and diverse city and region by organizing Oakland residents to advocate for housing and jobs as human rights, and to mobilize for policies that produce social and economic justice in low-income communities of color.  Support from GXF helped the organization attend a meeting in New York to discuss mergers of community organizations.

Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance • Los Angeles, CA • $800
KIWA's mission is to empower Koreatown low-income immigrant workers and to develop a progressive constituency and leadership in the Koreatown community that can struggle in solidarity with other underrepresented communities for positive social change and justice.  GXF support enabled the organization to attend a training on staff leadership and strategy development.

Louisiana Bucket Brigade • New Orleans, LA • $800
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is an environmental health and justice organization supporting community grassroots action to create informed, sustainable neighborhoods free from industrial pollution.  Funding from GXF went to support a conveneing of the Fenceline Neighbors Network, a network of residents throughout New Orleans and others statewide that live adjacent to industrial hazardous sites.

Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) • Jackson, MS • $1,000
MIRA is a membership-based alliance which educates, organizes and advocates for the human rights and dignity of immigrants and all workers in Mississippi.  Funding from GXF went to support the 3rd Annual Black-Brown Unity Conference on the Gulf Coast.

Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) • San Francisco, CA • $1,000
MUA is a  grassroots organization led by and for Latina immigrant women whose issues include domestic violence, homelessness, domestic workers' rights, childcare, healthcare, and economic security.  Support from GXF helped the organization send staff and member leaders to the first National Domestic Worker's Congress.

Nashville Homeless Power Project • Nashville, TN • $500
The Nashvill Homeless Power Project is an organization of homeless and formerly homeless people confronting the root causes of poverty and oppression.  This grant helped four community leaders to participate in two, week-long exchanges with Kalamazoo Homeless Action Network and Picture the Homeless in New York.

National Coalition for Burned Churches and Community Empowerment • Gainesville, GA • $1,000
The mission of the National Coalition for Burned Churches is to protect the right of congregations to worship in peace; free from the threat of arson, bombing and vandalism through programs in victim support, research, public policy, youth development, rebuilding and capacity building.  Funding from GXF supported the launch a National Youth Campaign during the National Church Burning Status Conference.

New Mexico Alliance/ Youth Group • Chimayo, NM • $800
The New Mexico Alliance Youth Group is a grass roots membership organization of local indigenous and community youth in Northern New Mexico, working to develop leadership within the youth community and to empower young leaders.  Funding from GXF went to support the Chimayo Environmental Adventure Camp (CEAC).

New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) • Santa Fe, NM • $800
NMELC's goal is to protect NM's natural environment and communities through legal and policy advocacy and public education.  Support from GXF helped leaders from Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) to testify in the Law Center's  lawsuit against proposed uranium mining operations.

Nodutdol for Korean Community Development • Woodside, NY • $800
Nodutdol is a grassroots organizing and community development organization that bridges divisions to empower the Korean community to address the injustices faced by communities of color and immigrants in the US and abroad.  Funding from GXF helped enable 30 Korean activists  to attend a "Korean Activist Moim" (gathering).

Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition • Seattle, WA • $800
The Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition works to connect with and empower communities impacted by toxic waste and to share resources, information, and support for toxic clean up efforts throughout the Northwest.  Support from GXF helped the group to organize and host a regional summit of grassroots environmental and social justice organizations and tribal nations from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana.

Organizers' Forum • Stinson Beach, CA • $800
The mission of the Organizers' Forum is to strengthen grassroots organizations by increasing the capacity and stability of these democratic structures, to link organizing networks, and to improve on the skills and strategies employed by both community and labor organizers.  Funding from GXF went to support a Dialogue on “Regime Change”, looking at the issues and campaigns conducted by both community and labor organizations in this election season.

Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action • San Francisco, CA • $700
Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action (PILA) works to increase immigrant civic and political activism to strengthen democracy and advance social justice.  This grant helped to send a local member-leader to a special spanish-language training organized by the Progressive Technology Project to learn about technological tools that support community organizing.

Peace and Dignity Journeys • Phoenix, AZ • $500
This grant supported the 2008 Peace and Dignity Journey, a trans-continental spiritual run that is organized every four years, where Indigenous spiritual leaders, organizers and activists walk/run from Alaska in the north and Argentina in the south and meet up in Panama.

Picture the Homeless • Bronx, NY • $500
Picture the Homeless was founded and is led by homeless people, and works to change the "quality of life" laws that criminalize homeless people in any form by the city, state and national governments.  Support from GXF enabled the organization to help organize two week-long exchanges with leaders of grassroots led homeless organizations in three other cities.

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) • Woodburn, OR • $1,500
PCUN is Oregon's farmworker union empowering farmworkers and Latino immigrants to understand and take action against poverty, systematic exploitation and all of its effects.  Support from GXF helped to send key leaders of the Oregon farmworker movement to Fresno, California to meet with counterparts in the United Farm Workers movement for an urgent strategizing and information exchange addressing the drastic effects of the housing and credit crises on low-income immigrant workers.

Proyecto Del Valle • Bakersfield, CA • $500
Proyecto Del Valle works to provide environmental awareness and education and supports leadership development for rural low income latino communities in California's Central Valley.  Support from GXF allowed the organization to conduct a training with its advisory board to strengthen organizational capacity.

Pueblo Education Fund • Santa Barbara, CA • $1,000
Pueblo Education Fund (PEF) is a multi-issue community-based social, economic and environmental justice organization building the power and leadership of low-income Santa Barbara County residents.  Support from GXF helped the organization send members to attend a conference for the California Dream Act and to attend and advocacy and lobby day in Sacramento.

South Dakota Peace and Justice Center • Sioux Falls, SD • $400
The South Dakota Peace and Justice Center is an interfaith grassroots network of approximately 1,000 households, institutions, and congregations, working for peace and social change through advocacy, education, and action.  GXF provided support for a summit examining food sovereignty and food distribution networks in economically disadvantaged communities in South Dakota.

Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice • Albuquerque, NM • $1,000
The Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice exists to bring together activists and grassroots organizations from across the Southwest, West, and border states of Mexico to develop and broaden collective regional strategies and perspectives on environmental degradation and other social, racial, generational, economic, and gender injustices.  This grant went to support the Youth Organizing Training Institute.

St. Peter's Housing Committee • San Francisco, CA • $600
The mission of St. Peter's Housing Committee is to help low and moderate income tenants, primarily immigrant, working-class, Latino/a tenants to build tenant power, preserve and expand affordable housing, and improve living conditions through legal counseling, political organizing and the development of leadership within the communities they serve.  Support from GXF helped the organization attend a meeting in New York about mergers of community organizations.

Student Action with Farmworkers • Durham, NC • $700
Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) develops the leadership and organizing skills of students to improve the lives of farmworkers through education, policy and organizing. Support from GXF enabled four student interns to attend the final three-day summit that ends their internshiop with SAF and prepares them for continued work on behalf of farmworkers.

Tennessee Alliance for Progress • Nashville, TN • $500
To fund scholarships, travel and accommodations for low income people and young people from around the state of Tennessee to attend the Compass V Conference to learn more about social, economic and environmental justice issues and learn how they can participate in building a statewide progressive movement.

Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) • Nashville, TN • $500
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration working to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee.  Support from GXF enabled two TIRRC volunteers to travel to the Flatlander popular education center in Austin, TX and attend a community organizing leadership development training.

Toxics Action Center • Boston, MA • $800
The mission of the Toxics Action Center is to work side by side with communities to develop the skills and strategies needed to clean up and prevent toxic pollution.  Support from GXF helped community group representatives from across Southern New England to attend the Toxics Action Center's 2008 citizens' conference.

Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) • Oakland, CA • $800
TIGRA works with grassroots migrant organizations representing migrant communities from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East in a collaborative effort  to build multi-racial, multi-national alliances with migrant rights organizations in countries of origin.  Funding from GXF helped send a representative to the National Oargnizer's Alliance Conference.

UE Research and Education Fund • Pittsburgh, PA • $800
The United Electrical Worker Research and Education Fund is the 501(c)3 education arm of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE).  Funding from GXF enabled the organization to bring four representatives of the North Carolina International Worker Justice Campaign (IWJC) to participate in the UE National Public Employee Conference and Convergence.

Western Regional Advocacy Project • San Francisco, CA • $1000
The Western Regional Advocacy Project works to expose and eliminate the root causes of civil and human rights abuses of people experiencing poverty and homelessness. GXF support enabled four organizers from Portland, Los Angelees, and Seattle, to attend the Critical Resistance tenth anniversary conference.

Western Shoshone Defense Project • Crescent Valley, NV • $1000
The Western Shoshone Defense Project, an Indigenous rights and environmental justice organization.  Funding from GXF went to support the 15th annual Protecting Mother Earth conference, an annual gathering of the Indigenous Environmental Network

Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike (WOC/GWS) • San Francisco, CA • $800
Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike is a grassroots network of Black and Brown women working against sexism, racism poverty, corruption and police illegality.  Support from GXF helped the organization to send three women to attend and present at the State of the Black World Conference.

Women's Collective of the San Francisco Day Labor Program • San Francisco, CA • $1,000
The Day Labor Program and Women's Collective, led by immigrant workers, combine services with community organizing, education, and leadership development.  Support from GXF helped to send member leaders to the first National Congress of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Working for Equality and Economic Liberation (WEEL) • Helena, MT • $800
Working for Equality and Economic Liberation works to hold those in power accountable to families instead of profits.  Support from GXF enabled the organization to send a representative to the annual conference of the Community Food Security Coalition in Philadelphia, PA.

Young Workers United • San Francisco, CA • $800
Young Workers United (YWU) is a multi-racial, membership organization dedicated to improving the quality of jobs and increasing political power for young and immigrant workers and students.  Support from GXF helped the organization bring staff and member-leaders to a national community forum organized by the Center for Community Change in Washington DC.