2009 Grassroots Exchange Fund Grants
In 2009 the Grassroots Exchange Fund made 45 grants totaling $36,700.
Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras • Tucson, AZ • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: Seventh Generation Fund
The Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders is an Indigenous grassroots organization committed to promoting respect and protection of Indigenous rights, including Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, rights of mobility and passage for Indigenous members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Indigenous workers’ rights and environmental protection of Native lands and sacred sites. The organization received support to attend the North & South Indigenous Border Consultation Gathering to meet with Indigenous communities from the northern US border region and bring attention to southern Indigenous border issues.
Allgo, Inc (Austin Latino/a Lesbian Gay Organization) • Austin, TX • $1,200
Allgo works to create and sustain a statewide network of queer people of color activists, groups, organizations and allies, to work on issues of reproductive justice, anti-violence, immigrant and refugee rights, and sexual freedom. The organization received support for a conference to build relationship among queer people of color activists and organizations and to create strategies that build and sustain a queer people of color movement across the state of Texas.
Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy & Leadership • Oakland, CA • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: Asian Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS)
AYPAL organizes and builds the power of low-income Asian and Pacific Islander youth to fight social inequities and to advance an agenda for progresive social change. GXF support made it possible for the organization's co-director to attend the Rockwood Leadership Program, a five-day training to refine and strengthen leadership skills. The training is also a great space for people to connect with other social justice organizaitons and leaders doing similar movement work.
Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN) • Oakland, CA • $1,000
PLAN's mission is to build a powerful base of low-income families that can take effective action to improve the lives of Bay Area children and families. GXF support was used to send community leaders to Sacramento for an educational justice action titled "Don't Pink Slip Our Education" and push for adequate funding for education.
Central Labor Council of Alameda County • Oakland, CA • $1000
Fiscal Sponsor: Urban Strategies Council
This grant made it possible for a dynamic group of working people, labor actvists, community allies and advocates to train for community leadership positions as appointed officials on local decision-making bodies that set policy agendas in economic development, health care, education, services and land use.
Chinese Progressive Association • San Francisco, CA • $1,000
The Chinese Progressive Association educates and organizes the low-income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to build collective power with other oppressed communities to demand better living and working conditions and justice for all people. GXF support made it possible for CPA to attend the API Movement Building Organizational Exchange and Convening in New York and Boston, with the goal of developing a common analysis on the implications of the economic crisis and current political moment for Chinese immigrant communities and exploring the possibilities for developing joint strategies.
Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center • Cincinnati, OH • $600
The mission of the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center (CIWC) is to help mobilize, educate and organize low-wage and immigrant workers, and strengthen capacity to challenge the power relationships with their employers and improve their working terms and conditions. The organization received support to attend the annual Interfaith Worker Justice Conference.
Colonias Development Council • Las Cruces, NM • $800
The Colonias Development Council engages in community organizing, leadership development, and community services to improve living conditions in colonia-designated communities along the Mexico-New Mexico border. The organization used GXF funding to make it possible for 12 resident leaders from under-represented colonias of southern New Mexico to attend “Colonias Day” at the 2009 Legislative Session in Northern New Mexico to experience the power of collective voice through civic engagement and participate in the collaborative and ongoing policy change initiatives that affect their communities and quality of life.
Community Media Organizing Project • Knoxville, TN • $1,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Save Our Cumberland Mountains, Inc.
The Community Media Organizing Project works to advance the use of media to support and improve the art of community organizing in the South and aid the building of a movement for social change in the region.
Domestic Workers United • New York, NY • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities
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. DWU received support to send five DWU leaders nominated to attend the Poverty Scholars Leadership School along with 150 other low-income organizers from poor communities throughout the country seeking to reignite Dr. Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign.
Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) • Brooklyn, NY • $800
Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) is a Brooklyn-based, multi-racial organization made up of almost exclusively women of color organizing low-income families to build power to change the system so that all people's work is valued and all people have the right and economic means to decide and live out their own destinies. GXF support was used to send four members and two staff to attend the National Peoples' Action Conference in Washington DC.
Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project • Brooklyn, NY • $1,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project (Flanbwayan) founded in 2005 is a youth membership based organization serving newcomer and young adult Haitian immigrant students in New York City who are English Language Learners (ELLs) between the ages of 14 to 21. Flanbwayan's mission is to create an alternative response to a marginalized group of students, raise awareness in immigrant communities, increase organizing and advocacy efforts around educational issues for ELLs for both newcomer and young adult students to enter a world of opportunities, education and transformation. GXF support went towards the Impact Conference, which was the first conference to bring together the Hatian community in New York to strengthen their voice in the movement for educational justice.
Grass Roots Organizing (GRO) • Mexico, MO • $800
The mission of Grass Roots Organizing(GRO) is to create a grassroots voice to win economic justice and human rights for all Missourians. Support from GXF made it possible for the organization to take part in the annual conference of the National People's Action, a national coalition of direct action, community-based organizations who meet annually in Washington D.C. to bring campaign demands to congressional leaders.
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance • San Pedro, CA • $300
Fiscal Sponsor: Southwest Community Resources, Inc.
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. The group received support to develop grassroots strategies in response to the economic crisis and the changing political climate following the November elections. This was a partnership between the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and the School for Unity and Liberation (SOUL).
Hope Street Youth Development • Wichita, KS • $500
Hope Street is a youth empowerment and youth organizing group working to engage young people in opportunities where they gain leadership skills and build power in order to reach their full potential and contribute to positive social change. The organization used GXF support to send students to the National Peoples Action conference in Washington, DC.
INCITE! Denver • Longmont, CO • $1,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence is a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities through direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots organizing. INCITE! Denver is dedicated to the transformation of society by working toward policy change and promoting principles of fairness and equality resulting in freedom for all oppressed peoples. The organization received support for an annual gethering titled Ending Colonial Legacies: Healing & Activism. The purpose of the gathering is to develop a regional grassroots strategy, celebrate successes from the prior year, examine new challenges, and to connect with grassroots organizers from outside organizations in the area in order to extend the INCITE! Denver organizing base.
Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida • Immokalee, FL • $800
Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida is a broad-based network of people of faith - both in South Florida and throughout the U.S. - who work in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as they struggle for human rights in the fields. The organization received support to send two staff members to do an exchange with the No More Deaths organization in Arizona to learn about their solidarity organizing model along the US/Mexico border.
Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) • Chicago, IL • $2,000
Interfaith Worker Justice was formed in 1996 to educate and organize the US religious community on issues and campaigns to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially workers in low-wage jobs. GXF support made it possible for organizers from member groups to attend IWJ's Organizing for Worker Justice training, which strengthened and built skills in community organizing, leadership development, and fundraising. This training was held over five days for IWJ affiliate staff, leaders, and volunteers.
LaStraw (last straw), The • Greensboro, NC • $800
The mission of The LaStraw is to eliminate the systemic causes of poverty and create an accessible network of human and social services empowering low-income individuals to improve their quality of life in the low-income areas of Greensboro, North Carolina. The organization received support to attend a capacity building course on nonprofit management.
LGBTQ Womyn of Color Conference • Swarthmore, Pa • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: Resources for Human Development
Through positive and loving interactions, the LGBTQ Womyn of Color Conference works to create and sustains a safe space in which LGBTQ womyn work towards increased visibility, wholistic healing, addressing key issues within their communities and ultimately moving towards a more just society. They received support for the first annual LGBTQ Womyn of Color Conference in Philadelphia, PA, which convened a group of more than 140 LGBTQ womyn of color between the ages of 16 and 65+ for a weekend of workshops and seminars.
Media Mobilizing Project • Philadelphia, PA • $800
The Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) exists to build the community media infrastructure for a movement to end poverty led by poor and working people united across color lines. MMP received support to send ten members to participate in the Poverty Scholars Leadership School sponsored by the Poverty Initiative.
Movement for Justice in El Barrio • New York, NY • $500
Fiscal Sponsor: St. Cecilia's Church
Movement for Justice in El Barrio is a multi-issue, membership-led community organization dedicated to organizing the immigrants, people of color, and low-income residents of El Barrio (East Harlem, NYC) to lead the way to social justice. GXF support was used to help members attend a media training conference. For members of this social- and economic-justice group in East Harlem to attend a media training conference.
National Coalition for Burned Churches & Community Empowerment • Gainesville, GA • $500
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 participation of five members to attend the National Coalition for Burned Churches Regional Planning Meeting.
National Day Labor Organizing Network • Los Angeles, CA • $1,000
NDLON received support for a national convening in Phoenix, AZ to organize against the anti-immigrant actions of Phoenix Sheriff Arpaio, who has been working for years to set a national precedent for the engagement of local law enforcement in immigrant round-ups and detention.
New York State Prisoner Justice Coalition • Albany, NY • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: Social Justice Center of Albany
The mission of the New York State Prisoner Justice Coalition is to convene a New York State Prisoners Justice Conference to bring together the varied and diverse organziaions working for prisoner justice in New York State. GXF support went towards helping to organize the conference, including providing stipends for attendees' participation and printing and copying costs.
North San Diego County Sponsoring Committee/dba: Faith Works • Escondido, CA • $700
The Mission of Faith Works is to empower everyday people to become effective leaders that collectively identify and solve community-level problems, and positively shift statewide and national policies toward the common good. GXF support made it possible for members to attend the PICO Summer National Community Organizing Leadership Training.
Nuestro Centro • Asheville, NC • $500
Fiscal Sponsor: Asheville Buncombe Community Relations Council
Nuestro Centro's mission is to unite, empower, and serve Latinos in Buncombe County, North Carolina in order to create a stronger community. GXF funding supported community defense trainings to deal with police and immigration raids, racial profiling, deportation of family members, and other abuses by law enforcement officials.
Oregon Action • Portland, OR • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: The Fair Share Research and Education Fund
Oregon Action works to organize and develop increased leadership and social capacity among low-income families and people of color in Oregon. Oregon Action is a membership-led and membership driven organization. The members make up the board of directors, are the spokerspersons for the organization and carry out the primary roles of social justice advocacy for the organization. A GXF grant helped to send 20 Oregon Action leaders from Medford and Portland to attend the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO) Summer Conference in Seattle, Washington.
People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) • San Francisco, CA • $800
POWER works to build the power of low-income people in San Francisco to improve the conditions in their communities and in their workplaces. The organization received support to make it possible for their new youth organizer to meet with and exhange lessons learned, strategies and challenges with more experienced youth organizers from the Labor Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, Padres y Jovenes Unidos in Denver, and Youth Ministry for Peace and Justice and FIERCE in New York.
PODER (People Organized to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights) • San Francisco, CA • $600
Fiscal Sponsor: Tides Center
PODER is a grassroots, membership-based organization in San Francisco's Mission District, a predominantly working class, low-income neighborhood, with a large population of Latinos and Latino immigrants. PODER organizes members of the inner and outer Mission District neighborhoods to come together to work on local solutions to issues facing low income and communities of color. PODER received support to send 9 youth organizers to continue to build their leadership and organizing skills by attending the Youth Organizing Training Institute, and sharing and learning from over twenty youth from all over the southwest, who like themselves are organizing for environmental justice in their neighborhoods. All the youth organizers have been involved with the organization for at least two years in the Common Roots Youth Organizer Program, a joint collaboration between PODER and the Chinese Progressive Association.
Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) • Cleveland, OH • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP)
PPEHRC unites the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. They work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job. GXF support made it possible for four PPEHRC members to attend a conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The conference was organized by PPEHRC and the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA).
Prometheus Radio Project • Philadelphia, PA • $800
The Prometheus Radio Project builds, supports, and advocates for participatory, community radio stations that bring together and empower local voices and movements for social change. GXF supported the launch of an outreach tour focused in the South and West called Making Waves: Transmitting Popular Power to foster the creation of bilingual participatory radio stations by connecting and empowering Latino immigrant communities, social justice organizations, and community media advocates.
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. GXF support was used to organize actions promoting and speaking out for immigration reform.
Seattle Young People's Project • Seattle, WA • $500
Seattle Young People's Project (SYPP) is a youth-led, adult supported organization that empowers youth (ages 13-18) to express themselves and to take action on the issues that affect their lives. GXF support made it possible for a delegation of youth organizers to attend the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, where they learned how to make their own media to advance their campaigns, mobilize their existing base and attended popular education workshops.
Southeast Indigenous Peoples' Center • Jacksonville, FL • $700
Fiscal Sponsor: Community Futures Collective
SIPC's mission is to protect the rights to culture, subsistence, heritage, and ancestral lands needed to preserve and restore the land and Peoples' continued existence. The organization recieved GXF support to testify at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice • Albuquerque, NM • $1,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Community Networking Resources
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. The organization received support for the annual Environmental Justice Day at the New Mexico State Legislature where the organization brings representatives from economic justice communities throughout the state to build alliances and bring their issues before state representatives.
Street Academy Foundation • Oakland, CA • $500
The Emiliano Zapata Street Acadmey is an alternative high school which for 36 years has been serving a population of urban, multicultural youth, many at risk of failure in school, providing them with a college prep education while emphasizing community service, diversity appreciation, and a strong commitment to social justice. GXF supported a collaborative effort between the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy and the Data Center, introducing the Street Academy seniors to the vital and empowering role of participatory research in community building.
Texas Media Empowerment Project (MEP) • San Antonio, TX • $600
Fiscal Sponsor: Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ (OC, Inc)
Texas Media Empowerment Project is comprised of diverse media justice organizers collaborating with communities, advocating for social justice and providing support to organizations; strategically using all aspects of media, music and technology at the grassroots. GXF support helped to send MEP members to the 11th annual Allied Media Conference.
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 sent community group representatives from across Southern New England to attend the Toxics Action Center's 2009 Citizens' Conference.
Transit Riders for Public Transportation • Los Angeles, CA • $1,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Labor/Community Strategy Center
Transit Riders for Public Transportation brings together bus riders, public health providers, community organizations, environmental and civil rights advocates and organizers, scientists and all others to move the political center of gravity in federal and regional transit policy away from suburban commuters and towards low-income and working class people, communities of color, the transit dependent, those who have no choice but to use public transit and who are its strongest advocates. The organization received support for its founding meeting, which helped to launch its national network.
Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) • Oakland, CA • $800
TIGRA is a movement center for transnational organizing that promotes social justice through the economic power of immigrants. GXF support helped to strengthen the organization's relationship with Latino organizations throughout the United States and to enlist the National Latino Congreso to suppport and endorse the group's call for national consumer protection policies for immigrants who are victims of the abuses of the reimttance and phone card industry.
Western Shoshone Defense Project • Spring Creek, NV • $1,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development
The Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) is an Indigenous rights and environmental justice organization working to protect, preserve, and restore Newe (Shoshone) rights and lands for present and future generations based on cultural and spiritual traditions. The organization received support to send Western Shoshone grandmothers to attend and participate in the Indigenous women's caucus and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to meet with other indigenous representatives, and to continue to build on previous work of the WSDP in solidifying a global Indigenous network on extractive industries.
Women for Genuine Society • Oakland, CA • $800
Fiscal Sponsor: The Agape Foundation
Women for Genuine Society (WGS) is the US-based group of the international Women's Network Against Militarism. It was started 12 years ago to address negative effects of US military operations on local communities. The network is a collaboration among women active in their own communities who share a common mission: to build and sustain a network of women to promote, model, and protect genuine security in the face of militarism. GXF support madeit possible for members to attend a gathering in Guam for Bay Area activists to learn how U.S. military policies are impacting far-flung U.S. territories like Guam, Hawai'i and Puerto Rico;
Women of Color Resource Center • Oakland, CA • $800
The mission of the Women of Color Resource Center is to promote the political, economic, social and cultural well being of women and girls of color in the United States. GXF support made it possible to bring together twelve women of color veterans for a digital storytelling workshop and share testimonies that were incorporated into a documentary titled "Do Tell, Untold Stories of Women in the US Military." This documentary will be used to raise awareness about the unique issues impacting women in military service.
Workers' Rights Center, Inc., The • Madison, WI • $800
The mission of the Workers' Rights Center is to give low-wage workers in South Central Wisconsin a greater voice in the workplace and the community. The Workers' Rights Center provides education on employment rights, training in self-representation, leadership skills, and provides support for individual and collective action. Activities primarily include rights education, leadership training, and referrals. The organization utilized GXF support to attend the Interfaith Worker Justice Leadership Summit.
