Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. (MULYD)

The statistics are chilling.

In Mexico, six women die every day due to gender-based violence. Two out of three women there have suffered some form of violence. A woman is raped every 4.6 minutes. This in an a nation where only 25 percent of homes are headed by women.

Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. (MULYD), “Women, Struggle, and Rights for Everyone,” is the first organized group led by indigenous women in the Mexican state of Mexico, located in the south-central region of the country, focused mainly on working with the indigenous Mazahua women of that region.

Overall, there is a disproportionate level of violence against indigenous women than women overall in Mexico, MULYD says, while at the same time there is a lack of educational programming and support groups or frameworks for those women to turn to for help.

The group’s mission is to contribute to the knowledge and acknowledgement of women’s human rights by developing community leaders who promote and spread effective and appropriate information, particularly on sexual and reproductive rights to other women so that they may fully exercise their rights. The group is looking to grow the movement by educating and creating leaders to strengthen and perpetuate the movement, leaders say.

Currently, MULYD has organized 26 community alliances in five cities in the state, a figure they are looking to double in two years. The organization is also affiliated with the National Council of Indigenous Women and Human Rights Defenders Network of Mexico, more nationally organized human rights groups, to lobby for policy changes at the federal level.

Says Graciela Cristobal Pacheco, a Mazahua woman and participant in the group, “I believe that together we can teach [in] more places, do more things. And like other organizations reach out to other communities and other women to strengthen the organization in this region.”

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

Trans Women of Color Collective

The brutal murder of Islan Nettles, a 21-year-old African-American transgender woman from Harlem, in August 2013 created a ripple effect in the lives of trans women of color in New York City. Her life and memory acted as the catalyst for the formation of the Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC).

TWOCC is a grassroots-funded global initiative created to offer opportunities for trans people of color, their families, and their comrades to engage in healing, foster kinship, and build community. The collective strives to educate and empower communities most disproportionately impacted by structural oppression through sharing skills, knowledge, and resources that build towards the collective liberation of all oppressed people.

TWOCC’s efforts have quickly grown. In the first six months of 2015, the group’s global initiatives were highlighted in more than 70 articles, and their Healing and Restorative Justice Institute (HRJI) has led multiple events in more than 15 cities in 10 U.S. states, and in Switzerland, and Norway. HRJI has held transformative workshops, lectures and capacity building sessions at colleges, universities and national LGBT Conferences, as well as led National LGBT conventions.

“There is a critical need for more trans people of color led initiatives that create opportunities to engage in healing and restorative justice as trans and gender nonconforming people of color are disproportionately impacted by structural oppression that is inextricably linked to physical violence, said Lourdes Ashley Hunter, a Detroit native and national director of TWOCC.

“By actively engaging in collective healing, cooperative economics, raising visibility and awareness around our lived experiences, educating and supporting the learning and growth of our comrades, investing in lives and legacies of our youth, and working towards dismantling systems of oppression, we are creating the change we seek.”

Hunter has felt first-hand the injustice often poured on trans and gender nonconforming people of color. Hunter has been homeless and been attacked. Having a support network has been incredibly important for Hunter, something they want to extend to all trans and gender nonconforming individuals looking for help navigating through a life sometimes fraught with peril.

“Our comrades – families, parents, friends and partners – all are all impacted by structural oppression as it manifests itself in every aspect of our lives,” Hunter said. “We must invest in healing and restorative justice if we are ever going to achieve collective liberation. That’s what we are trying to achieve, here at home and around the world.”

 

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

Puente Human Rights Movement

The struggle of many Latino migrants to the United States routinely goes unnoticed, due mostly to the undocumented status of many of these new arrivals, who do their best to not draw attention to themselves. But underneath the hardworking veneer, are stories of heartbreak, of families broken apart as immigration officials enact deportation procedures. Migrants come to the United States to fulfill dreams of a better life. Many wind-up living in crippling fear.

Attention on the plight of immigrants, especially Latinos, is becoming more focused as immigration becomes more of a front-and-center issue in the upcoming presidential election. One group has been a helping hand long before the campaign rhetoric. The Puente Human Rights Movement is a grassroots, migrant justice organization based in Phoenix, Ariz., which develops, educates, and empowers migrant communities to protect and defend themselves and their families to enhance the quality of life of community members.

“Arizona has been known as ground zero for the right wing anti-immigrant attack since racial profiling bill SB1070 became law in 2010,” said Carlos Garcia, director of Puente. “But the war of attrition waged against our community started long before then. What started in Arizona spread across the country, leading to the Obama administration’s record two-million deportations. In response, we knew we had to make Arizona an epicenter of migrant-led resistance.”

True change comes only when impacted communities organize, act and speak for themselves, the organization says. Puente’s accomplishments are both local and national in scope – they measure their impact through the development of their base, the concrete alleviation of the migrant community’s suffering and the political reach of their demands.

By halting deportations through its “Uno por Uno” (One by One) program, Puente – which translates to “bridge” in Spanish – attempts to transform the immigration debate, build new leaders and challenge the criminalization and mass incarceration of migrant communities.

Stopping deportations, and working to reunite families torn apart by the deportation, is one of Puente’s biggest efforts. Since 2013, Puente has used legal advocacy, storytelling, and community organizing to stop over 150 deportations. Through securing the release of people from immigrant detention and stopping deportations, new leaders emerge with personal experience of how to fight back against criminalization, detention, and deportation and commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind in that struggle.

Noemi Romero, who was arrested by notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio in a workplace raid in 2012 and who know helps stop other people’s deportations with the Uno por Uno project, says, “It was the worst day of my life when the sheriffs showed up at my work. But then my mom found Puente and we learned our rights and how to fight back. Since the day I got out of detention, I have committed to fight for our entire community. I won’t stop until we have justice for everyone.”

Carlos says, “Without the leadership of people who know firsthand the pain of being targeted, incarcerated, and separated from their families, we never would have seen the expansion of deferred action last year, the most important victory for the immigrant rights movement in 25 years. However, many of those who fought the hardest for this relief have been criminalized, like Noemi, and are therefore excluded. Our work is part of the movement against mass incarceration, and we continue to center the leadership of formerly incarcerated people as key to a migrant rights movement that is achieving justice and dignity for everyone.”

With a fist in the air, Puente is working to fight the anti-immigrant stain seen in Arizona in the aftermath of the now-infamous Senate Bill 1070, which was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. With an open hand, Puente organizes and maintains cultural, political, and educational programs to promote and sustain justice.

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grass rootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input received before September 8 will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

Living in the shadows of society. Fearing deportation. Unable to fully immerse in American life. The anxieties experienced by many undocumented immigrants in the United States are real. But for those who identify as LGBTQ, the fear and struggle is sometimes much greater.

Those undocumented LGBTQ members finding themselves in immigration detention centers in the United States often face sexual harassment and mistreatment at the hand of their captors, and abuse from fellow inmates, said Jorge Gutierrez, national coordinator with Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. Many of these people come to the U.S. fleeing persecution and seeking asylum and support, only to find themselves locked-up.

“We want to see all LGBTQ people in detention centers released,” he said. “Detention centers can be incredibly dangerous places for these people. They are stripped of their humanity, their medical care. Many are HIV positive and need drugs for that. ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] may use solitary confinement to protect them, but that has negative psychological effects. This is happening on a daily basis. Ultimately, we’re seeking to end all detentions.”

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement was formed in Los Angeles in 2014 with a mission to work at the national and grassroots levels to achieve the collective liberation of LGBT Latinos and their families by leading an intergenerational movement through community organizing, advocacy, and education. It is the only national LGBTQ Latino organization that focuses on racial justice through a trans and queer lens.

The organization’s work extends across the nation, including California, Washington, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. They are looking to enter several Midwest and southern states.

Another component of the organization is to help the families of those who come out as LGBTQ, providing safe spaces where parents and others can find mutual support to sort out any pain or confusion relating to a loved one coming out. The support garnered in those meetings can then extend out to Latino immigrant communities, growing understanding of LGBTQ Latinos and the challenges they face, Gutierrez said. This support can also help them realize there is a mutual social justice struggle between them – the right of undocumented residents to safety, self-determination, and to provide for their families, as well as the right of LGBTQ Latinos to be supported and protected in who they are.

“When I was 16, my mom asked me if I was gay,” he said. “I told her I was, and she said she loved me and wanted to protect me. That helped me develop self-esteem and a self-dignity that has helped me make healthy decisions through my life. We want that for all LGBTQ Latinos.”

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input received before September 8 will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here

Freedom Inc.: Our Community Is Our Campaign

Trust in people.

That’s the idea that the leadership of Freedom Inc. had when looking at ways to lift up the community members they were trying to empower in Madison, Wisconsin, and is summed-up well in the moniker for an ongoing project helping Black and Southeast Asian transgender and gender non-conforming folks: “Our Community Is Our Campaign.”

“The traditional model of mainstream social justice groups is to focus on the issues first and the people second,” said M Adams, co-executive director of the group. “For us, it’s not issues first, it’s people first.”

FI is a grassroots collective of inter-generational Black and Southeast Asian women queer folks, and youth whose work is to end violence (both interpersonal and systemic) within and against low-income communities of color. That includes a large contingent of Hmong people living in the Madison area, Adams said.

Members of that ethnicity who are transgender or gender nonconforming need special help; the Hmong don’t even have a word for being trans, not to mention some have trouble with English, Adams said. Black folks who are trans or gender nonconforming also need some special assistance, having to deal with the legacy of racism, or being shunned by their families, in addition to how they personally identify.

“This (the trans and gender nonconforming) movement is a relatively young one here,” Adams said. “Many Hmong are here as a result of secret wars in 1970s and 80s. What does it mean for them to build a movement? How does the broader society relate or understand their leadership? It’s a unique challenge.

For Hmong women and queer folks operating in their patriarchal system, organizing themselves and taking leadership is a big thing. For the black community, it’s a challenge for us, too, on how to build a new black liberation movement that also centers those who are often shunned even by their own racial community, like trans folks. I’m working with people at the margins, in the margins.”

Freedom Inc. works directly with 300 low-income folks of color a year, working on culturally specific intimate partner services, gender justice organizing, political education and leadership development and direct action. Programming designed for youth and older folks alike seek to help them realize that their socioeconomic, racial and other struggles tie them to others around the world suffering the same kinds of injustices. It’s a way, Adams said, of building community across the globe.

“We’re working on building a world where we can live as our full selves,” Adams said.

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input received before September 8 will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

The Icarus Project

In the hustle and bustle, dog-eat-dog, success-driven culture in which we live, those who struggle with depression, anxiety, or a host of other mental health issues are often stigmatized as weak by a society that almost demands a person toughen-up and trudge through their personal struggles.

But the issues are real, and those who struggle with a mental illness need to be supported in developing a self-determined path of healing and acceptance that helps them realize they are normal in a world they often view as anything but.

That’s where the The Icarus Project comes in, a support network and media project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness.

The group advances social justice by fostering mutual aid and organizing practices that reconnect healing and collective liberation, transforming participants through altering the world around them.

“The work of being well in the face of madness is a revolutionary process and empowering change against unjust policies is a daily struggle,” says Maryse Mitchell-Brody, development coordinator and ally liaison for the organization.

The project does this work through education, visibility and international exchange. Workshops, an online and social media presence, and a wide array of resources provide individuals and communities with frameworks for radical healing. The group was formed 12 years ago and operates nationwide and in several countries.

Their work shifts conceptions of mental wellness and directly impacts how psychiatrists, therapists and institutions address emotional distress around the world.

The organization’s ‘Mad Maps’ project provides people with tools to transform themselves and their cultures and communities, tailoring content to the needs of specific constituencies that are often doubly stigmatized for their race or how they identify, such as people of color, LGBT folks, and immigrants.

“We aim to ensure this is participatory endeavor with all involved,” says Mitchell-Brody. “We are continuing to build experience. So many peoples’ lives are at stake in this struggle.”

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input received before September 8 will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

Bavubuka Foundation

A Ugandan organization working to empower youth in the east African nation is using several elements of modern, popular arts and culture to reunite younger generations with their pasts.

For ten years, the Bavubuka Foundation has been exposing youth to music and the arts as a way to transform lives and unify diverse communities. The organization does this by reconnecting young leaders to their authentic indigenous roots and developing their understanding of the value of their culture and heritage.

“Many in the younger generations have left the villages and the countryside for the cities, and in the process have become disconnected from their heritage,” says Silas Balabyekkubo, aka, ‘Babaluku,’ founder and executive director of the foundation.

“Modern culture has uprooted the old ways. But we are turning that on its head, using modern culture as a vehicle to enable youth to get back in touch with their roots and express the newfound pride they have in their indigenous communities and pasts.”

Uganda has one of the world’s largest youth populations, many of whom have minimal resources and few platforms to be heard.

The foundation, which takes its name from the Luganda word for ‘youth,’ provides spaces, education and opportunities for youth to express their indigenous heritage in several ways. Their expression takes the form of storytelling through music, photography, journalism, dance, fashion, sustainable agriculture, and entrepreneurship.

The most popular form of expression is urban hip-hop, with the country becoming a wellspring of young emcees utilizing a type of rap called “Lugha Flow,” Swahili for ‘language’, to vocalize community issues and solutions, celebrate the wisdom of their elders and encourage the preservation of native languages.

“Regardless of what it is, the message from the youth is the same: that the truth of my past comes from my land, my culture and my language,” says Babaluku. “Youth are recognizing that, even though they may not live in their indigenous communities, they take the wisdom of their elders with them. They don’t disregard where they came from just because times have changed.”

The movement has seen a merging between old and young, an acceptance between the generations as they share an appreciation for a shared cultural experience and identity, the traditional both respected and remade within new, progressive art forms, Babaluku says.

“We are seeing kids doing some really inspiring work, and in the case of music, using indigenous hip-hop as a tool to tap into untapped leadership potential. “Theirs is a new, authentic voice that is being used to advocate for solutions, while breaking tribalism and other stereotypes, through the passion of hip-hop and other arts. The message is reconnection, restoration, healing and awakening to their authentic, true selves. It’s spreading everywhere. We are galvanizing multitudes because of the appeal of the arts.”

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input received before September 8 will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

Black on Both Sides

The foster care system in the United States has a darker side to the benevolent image it tries to portray to the public, according to one social justice organization trying to demolish foster care altogether.

What hides in the shadows of this child care and rearing model is a kind of unofficial pipeline to the prison industrial complex, says Charity Tolliver, founder of Black on Both Sides, a project working to build a new generation of Black organizers towards the abolition of the foster care and prison systems.

Studies have shown that 80 percent of the prison population had spent time in the foster care system when they were younger, Tolliver says.

“That is not just surprising, it’s indicative of a messed up system,” she says. “It’s a dysfunctional system for those it’s supposed to serve.”

The majority of foster care children are removed from their biological homes for neglect – which really means poverty, Tolliver says. But instead of providing additional resources to struggling families to keep children with their parents, benefits – WIC, food stamps, and other assistance measures – are being cut, while at the same time, foster families are being paid to care for these kids.

“It’s hypocritical,” Tolliver says.

These young, mostly Black youth are taken away from their mothers, who are negatively stereotyped as abusive, loud, oversexed and unruly, set into the foster care system, where they are more likely to wind-up immersed in the juvenile justice system and, eventually, the prison system at-large, she says. This model eerily resembles the slavery-era practice of slave masters removing children from their mothers, treating the mothers merely as aspects of production and their children as commodities, she adds.

“It’s got less to do with money and more to do with disposable black bodies and create places to put them, to confine them in a post-slavery, neo-liberal society,” Tolliver says. “This pipeline, starting when a person is young, ensures a policy of sequestration of disposable, black bodies from the rest of society, while the increasingly for-profit foster care and prison industrial complex is able to increase profitability with a steady stream of new inmates.”

Although this issue hits poor white and Latino families, it impacts – indeed, targets – the Black community especially hard. Take New Mexico for example. Blacks make up 1 percent of that state’s population, but represent 5 percent of the foster care cases, Tolliver says. In Arizona, where blacks comprise 3 percent of the population, they make up 10 to 12 percent of the foster care population. Finally, in Illinois, where the organization is based, blacks make up 16 percent of the population but 54 percent of children in foster care and 32 percent of Chicago’s population but 95 percent of new foster care cases in the city.

The project highlights the voices and experiences of Black youth who have experienced both the foster care system and the juvenile or adult justice system, while launching a direct action organizing campaign to address the root causes of the foster care to prison pipeline.

Blacks on Both Sides pushed for a foster care bill of rights for foster kids in Illinois, which has passed through the state’s Senate and House, as well as a restorative justice model to deal with non-violent issues in a foster home, like arguments, stealing money or running away, problems where law enforcement is routinely called. Studies show that a foster child who is arrested – even for these minor offenses – is 15 percent more likely to wind up in prison, Tolliver says. The organization is looking to move nationwide with its restorative justice efforts and push for a national bill of rights for foster kids.

“We all know that children are best kept with their parents,” she says. “All of our work is focused on righting these injustices and reuniting families, where kids are their healthiest.”