Grantees: Spring 2002 Grants Pool Awards

Action Communication and Education Reform, Inc., Duck Hill, MS $10,000
Action Communication and Education Reform, Inc. strives to create quality educational opportunity for low-income African-American families in Montgomery County and as well as provide technical assistance. By using GIS (computer aided mapping) technology, they hope to track and analyze drop out rates and test scores in their community. Additionally, by training leaders to use video, they intend to document and process past, present and future history of Montgomery County.

Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment, Greenville, SC $10,000
CAFE uplifts families by building a democratic and multicultural organization that increases the power of working families to win fair treatment. By purchasing needed equipment and software, CAFE will train low-income African American, Asian, and Latino youth to use technology for organizing purposes such as member tracking with database technology.

Colorado Women's Agenda, Denver, CO $10,000
Colorado Women's Agenda champions economic security, social justice and political power for all women through public education, advocacy and grassroots activism. PTP's grant will be used to expand and evaluate its Women's Voices popular education curriculum to strengthen local direct action on welfare policy implementation and women's health policy. They work with technical assistance providers; offer technology trainings and purchase hardware and software.

Community Farm Alliance, Frankfort, KY $8,000
Through community organizing and leadership development Community Farm Alliance helps members change basic power relations that shape the poverty and marginalization of rural economies. With PTP's support, CFA will continue to develop their website and program specific chat rooms, as well as expand their members' skills, hire temporary staff to perform data entry and purchase equipment.

Contact Center, Cincinnati, OH $10,000
Contact Center works to unite low and moderate-income people to fight for decent and viable neighborhoods, welfare rights and a better life through leadership training. They will use PTP's grant to improve equipment and training, build a membership-based database, enhance their web site for campaign and educational purposes and to produce a documentary film.

Environmental Health Coalition, San Diego, CA $10,000
EHC organizes and advocates for the protection of public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. They support efforts that create a just society and foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life. To build a stronger base of members and donors, EHC will assess and create a plan to develop and identify databases that meet the needs of constituents and organizers to advance their organizing efforts.

Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, San Antonio, TX $10,000
Anchored to create bridges between people by the exchange of ideas, education and empowerment, Esperanza advocates for those wounded by domination and inequality - women, people of color, lesbians and gay men, the working class and poor. They will use their grant to build an office network to strengthen internal systems and further their own scope and scale as a resource provider for progressive activists in South Texas.

Families United for Racial and Economic Equity, Brooklyn, NY $7,800
FUREE is a multi-racial, woman led membership organization made up of low and no income workers organizing to change the system so that all work is valued and all people earn the economic means to live out their destinies. PTP's funding will assist FUREE in creating a comprehensive organizational database, and identify technical assistance and training for staff and leaders.

The Gamaliel Foundation, Chicago, IL $10,000
Gamaliel works to create a more just and democratic society by allowing ordinary citizens to participate in political, environmental, social and economic decisions affecting their lives. The network helps create and sustain organizations to work nationally and internationally. Gamaliel will provide technical assistance to local affiliates, assess and recommend technology solutions, and carry out a webmasters' and an organizers' training customized to each local organization's needs.

Land Stewardship Project, Minneapolis, MN $10,000
The Land Stewardship Project fosters an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop sustainable communities. To make rural organizing more effective LSP will use funding for equipment purchases and train their members and leaders. The goal is to improve communications capacity and outreach to members, press agents, to communicate between distant offices and build mobile capacity for key leaders.

Louisiana Bucket Brigade, New Orleans, LA $10,000
LABB is an environmental health and human rights organization led by communities that neighbor the state's oil refineries and chemical plants. PTP's grant will be used to supply video cameras to community members and provide training on how to effectively monitor and document industrial pollution. The images will be uploaded to the LABB's web site and the data used to achieve organizing demands.

Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Columbia, MO $10,000
By building unity and mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban, the Missouri Rural Crisis Center preserves family farms, promotes stewardship of the land and environmental integrity, and strives for economic and social justice. MRCC will use their grant for staff and membership training and development, technical support and hardware and software purchases. It will enable them to more effectively communicate with members to shape public policy, increase fund-raising, attract new members and articulate issues to a wider audience.

Oregon Human Rights Coalition, Portland, OR $6,640
Through education and community organizing, OHRC helps low-income people influence decisions that impact their lives and organize to create social change. The implementation of a membership-based database, training of staff and key volunteers and maintenance of their web site will significantly increase their capacity to organize for change.

Peace through Interamerican Community Action, Bangor, ME $10,000
PICA prevents oppression of human rights, state-sponsored terror, economic and social injustice and environmental violence by resisting government's oppression of people and building supportive communities locally and beyond. In order to have local, state and national impact PICA, in collaboration with other groups, seeks to implement a web-based Clean Clothes Resource Center to support community anti-sweatshop organizing.

Sista II Sista, Brooklyn, NY $10,000
In order to bring about concrete social/political change, Sista II Sista promotes the holistic development of young women of color and inspires them to take strong leadership roles in their local communities. To combat violence against women both socially and institutionally grant money will be used to improve Sista II Sista's technology infrastructure. They will purchase hardware and software, establish an anti-virus and backup system, network computers and contract for technical support and training.

Southern Organizing Committee for Economic & Social Justice, Atlanta, GA $10,000
SOC's multi-issue, multi-racial network of people works in communities against racism, war, economic justice and environmental destruction. They build campaigns to diversify governing bodies and agencies to reform and enforce local, state and national public policy, procedures and programs. SOC will develop a web database to cultivate members and maintain individual donors. Through the use of digital recording technology they will also record living organizational histories and tactics used to achieve environmental, economic and social justice.

Texas Fund For Energy & Environmental Education, Austin, TX $10,000
TFE3 shapes a healthier and more sustainable Texas by implementing policies that create long-term solutions to critical environmental problems using grassroots activism designed to overcome the influence of special interest groups. They will train and enable a low-income community neighboring an oil refinery in Texas to use a Web Cam to monitor pollution and accidents as part of larger organizing efforts.

Virginia Organizing Project, Charlottesville, VA $10,000
By building relationships with individuals and groups throughout the state, VOP strives to get them to work together, democratically and not violently, for change. VOP empowers people in local communities to address issues that affect their quality of life with the participation of individuals with little or no voice in our society. With PTP's support, VOP will hire a GIS expert to train their leaders and staff, and to produce critical documents such as computer-aided maps for statewide campaigns efforts.

Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition, Seattle, WA $7,651
Through public speaking training, storytelling, media events and numerous others organizing tactics, WORC empowers low-income parents, especially those who receive public assistance to effect positive changes in their lives and their communities. By providing technology training and purchasing necessary equipment, WORC will communicate effectively with its members, use a database to target activists and donors, and use their web site to ensure parents have clear information on the welfare system and other political issues.

Workplace Project, Hempstead, NY $10,000
The Workplace Project fights the exploitation of Latino immigrant workers on Long Island and works to achieve social justice through the full political, economic and cultural participation of the workers. With its grant the Workplace Project intends to create an office network, establish internet access and obtain training technical assistance for the staff and the membership. This will enable to them to carry out issue research, inform committees and disseminate information to other groups.