Grantees: Fall 1999 Grants Pool Awards

Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Little Rock, Arkansas, $8,000
The Arkansas Public Policy Panel organizes around issues of economic justice, social justice, agriculture, government and corporate accountability, public health and the environment. The Arkansas Public Policy Panel will network their computers in their main office to facilitate access to email, increase access to the organizational database and enhance their role as a statewide information clearinghouse. In addition, organizers in the field will receive notebook computers to use for communications and public education.

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, New York, New York, $8,500
CAAAV seeks to build the capacity of poor and low-income Asian immigrant communities to contribute to a broader movement for social justice. CAAAV organizes New York City Asian immigrant communities to advance an anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, pro-working-class, pro-immigrant agenda. CAAAV plans to increase their members' access to information technology by acquiring training and new equipment to be used to enhance their organizing.

Citizenship Project, Salinas, California, $8,000
The Citizenship Project organizes Mexicano and low-wage communities along the California Central Coast to ensure and protect their civil, social, educational, economic, cultural and political rights. The Citizenship Project plans to hire a bi-lingual technology tutor to work with low-wage agricultural and food industry workers and teenage youth in the rural valleys of the California Central Coast. All trainings will be in the context of organizing campaigns, in which computers will serve to help people increase their access and voice to local policy makers.

Community Voices Heard, New York, New York, $8,000
Community Voices Heard (CVH) is an organization of low-income people, predominately women on welfare, working together to improve the lives of families, communities and poor people throughout New York City. Through public and political education, community and legislative organizing, leadership development, and training, CVH helps to ensure that the voices of welfare recipients are included in the welfare reform debate. CVH's project is to build a Worker's Computer Center where community members can learn about the Internet and how to use it for research and organizing efforts. CVH is also working to build their staff and member's capacity to use technology in one-on-one meetings and to use geographic information systems for community mapping.

Farm Labor Research Project, Toledo, Ohio, $6,260
Since 1980, the Farm Labor Research Project (FLRP) has supported the farm labor movement by advancing farm labor reform and promoting self-determination and empowerment among migrant farmworkers. FLRP has used popular education methods to train farmworkers, farmers and companies in the pickle and tomato industries around leadership and conflict resolution, environmental justice and specific problems like pesticide usage. In addition to getting new computers for their offices, FLRP's project will use technology in two ways to support their organizing work. FLRP will continue to develop and refine their geographic and crop-specific database to help plan effective education campaigns for migrant workers. FLRP will also equip their medical mobile clinic with video conferencing equipment for remote sessions when physicians are not available to accompany the unit.

INSIGHT ARTS, Chicago, Illinois, $8,500
Located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, INSIGHT ARTS is a community based contemporary arts organization that develops diverse aesthetic and educational strategies to organize youth and adults in their multi-cultural and multi-lingual community. INSIGHT ARTS offers free arts education classes to youth and adults, presents regular performances, exhibitions and other special events. INSIGHT ARTS will use their PTP award to finish equipping their community computer lab. One project that will make use of this facility is the Underground Philosophy journal, created by young people aged 15 to 25, that explores urban youth culture and organizing in the Chicago area

LIFETIME, Oakland, California, $7,500
Created by student mothers at the University of California-Berkeley who completed college degrees while raising their families on welfare, LIFETIME (Low-Income Families Empowerment through Education) is committed to helping other low-income mothers and fathers do the same. In the past, technology has helped LIFETIME broaden their work from local advocacy to statewide organizing. LIFETIME has three main components to their project. They will conduct member training on how to access and use email to communicate with and mobilize their membership. In addition, LIFETIME will train their staff to build, maintain and monitor a list-serve for sharing strategies and developing a national agenda on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) with students and professional women in seven states. Finally, LIFETIME will design an online community organizing course that will be available over their website.

Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), Berea, Kentucky, $6,260
For 23 years, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) has been engaged in progressive community-based organizing and development in Central Appalachia. MACED's sustainable communities program works with communities to create and support citizen-based action teams that take a comprehensive approach to sustainable development. MACED currently staffs and works with four action teams in Owsley, Letcher, Breathitt and Harlan counties in Kentucky. MACED's plan is to develop video conferencing capability to support the work of the four action teams. With this capacity, MACED will be able to use group conferencing software to facilitate a greater level of cooperation across the wide geographic area in which the action teams operate.

The Sacred Alliances for Grassroots Equality (SAGE) Council, Albuquerque, New Mexico, $8,000
Based in the quickly growing city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the The SAGE Council works to protect the rights and lands of native peoples and people of color. PMPC seeks to build a permanent, people of color, membership organization that can wield power to: protect ancient Native American sacred sites, control rampant urban sprawl, promote responsible development practices, and to hold accountable political parties that have negatively impacted people of color. Through their PTP award, PMPC will begin to use a computer-based system for strategic planning. The system will be able to track the hundreds of individual tasks that constitute an organizing campaign and then collect them into timelines and reports for planning purposes. PMPC will also begin to employ digital video and audio in their marketing and educational materials.

Virginia Organizing Project, Charlottesville, Virginia, $6,000
Founded in 1995, the Virginia Organizing Project (VOP) is a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives. VOP encourages participation by those who have traditionally had little or no voice in society. Through workshops and trainings, VOP has worked with more than 3,400 people from across the state on issues like dismantling racism, sexual orientation, leadership skills and understanding the economic system. Through the Used Computer Project, VOP makes recycled computers and office equipment to low-income community members throughout the state. Last year, VOP gave away over 300 machines to help members and leaders get online and respond to email action alerts. VOP plans to purchase modems and to supplement their parts and shipping budgets. VOP will also develop a pamphlet on how other community groups can use computer recycling for grassroots organizing.