How is this practice experienced at street level in our communities? Families live in fear. Law abiding high school students with no juvenile or criminal records are being stopped, put up against the wall, and searched, sometimes 3 to 4 times per month, often on their own block on their way home from school. In December 2011, one of our parent leaders saw a neighbor's son being stopped and frisked in front of their own building. When she asked the police what they were doing, and said, "These are good kids," she was forced face-down to the sidewalk, handcuffed, arrested, and charged with obstruction of justice. As such encounters become increasingly common, a state-of-siege mentality sets in. A whole generation of youth and their parents are losing respect for police authority, seeing the NYPD more as an occupying army than as potential helpers and protectors. This mentality, while totally understandable, seems clearly dangerous to both the police and the community.

Yet on March 15, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly angrily defended the stop and frisk practice at a City Council hearing. He got into a particularly heated interchange with our councilwoman from East Harlem, Melissa Mark-Viverito, challenging her to explain what solutions to criminal violence she had to offer that were more effective than stop and frisk. Strangely, the Commissioner seemed unable to acknowledge or comprehend the very real solutions that have been emerging through community driven processes. For example, Councilwoman Mark-Viverito and her constituents have been working since June 2011, when she first formally convened an East Harlem Youth Violence Task Force. The task force focuses not on aggressive law enforcement, but on positive youth engagement, violence prevention, and proactive youth development. The community's preference for strategies that value and nurture youth, rather than control and punish them, also seemed oddly incomprehensible to news media reporting on the hearing. Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is another source for good ideas for practicable policies. CPR is a coalition that includes many current and former North Star grantees, including Picture the Homeless, Make the Road New York, Justice Committee, and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. They are pushing for legislation that would substantially reduce the number of encounters between police and residents that are based on profiling and discrimination.

A similar dynamic exists in current child welfare practice. The Child Welfare Organizing Project is a self-help and advocacy group of New York City parents who have been affected by the NYC Administration for Children's Services (ACS). We have offices in East Harlem and Highbridge, where parents from these and similar New York City communities, comprised largely of people of color living in poverty, work together for system change. In late 2011, we met with recently-appointed ACS Commissioner Ronald Richter, at his invitation. Parents spoke to Commissioner Richter passionately and eloquently about the value of the ACS Community Partnership Project (which is currently marginally resourced), the use of Parent Advocates in foster care, and the importance of repairing the ACS system of community-based Preventive Services, badly damaged by recent budget cuts, bureaucratic errors, and questionable policy decisions.

The Commissioner seemed to listen, and spoke about his own goals and objectives, many of which seemed admirable. A few weeks later, he published his 2011-2013 strategic plan. We read the plan over and over, searching in vain for any evidence of our conversations with the commissioner. Not unlike Commissioner Kelly at the City Council hearing, although he had appeared to be present and listening, Commissioner Richter ignored the voices of the community. Much of his strategic plan focuses on interventions that may be seen as the child welfare equivalent of aggressive surveillance and enforcement: putting more resources into traditional child protection investigations, hiring retired police officers as investigative consultants, use of intensive, intrusive, short-term clinical interventions, expediting termination of the parental rights.

While some of the proposed models of family services, such as Multi-Systemic Therapy do have a documented track record of success, they are all clinical models that identify individual "dysfunctional" parents and families as both primary source of risk to children, and the primary objects of intervention. What is missing from the plan is any fundamental understanding or support for community-led child protection strategies. The plan is unresponsive to parents' self-expressed needs and preferences. It includes no mention of successful models of community engagement such as the Bridge Builders Storefront program in Highbridge, or the use of peer advocates. Services are something to be imposed upon families, often by court order, following an invasive child protective investigation. The plan includes no safe, voluntary pathways to service for families struggling to raise children in challenging, stressful neighborhoods. And it contained no commitment to work with community leaders to relieve some of the stresses that may lead to family dysfunction in the first place.

Not unlike the NYPD, ACS is presented, and perceived, as a powerful outside agent of social control, airlifted into communities whose members it appears neither to fully comprehend nor respect. The agency identifies its primary functions as monitoring and surveillance, but it is constantly poised to strike, sometimes seemingly at random, often with terrifying and damaging results. How can either the police or ACS ever hope to effectively protect communities in which they are hated and feared? Home-grown leaders like Melissa Mark-Viverito, and organizations like CWOP and CPR, are offering, and modeling, constructive strategies and solutions. Yet we are often made to feel marginal and invisible. When will the public agencies that exist to serve us learn to see us primarily as partners, not as perpetrators?

It is a shocking fact that as of March 2012 -- a mere three months before our first major elections of 2012 -- not a single one of New York's political districts have been drawn. We've seen Albany's dysfunction at its worst during this past year of New York's redistricting process. But at the MinKwon Center for Community Action, we believe there's still a chance that we can protect and politically empower Asian Americans, and other communities of color for the next 10 years.

MinKwon Center for Communication Action, which changed its name from Young Korean American Service and Education Center (YKASEC) in 2009, has been a North Star Fund grantee since 1985. Last year, North Star Fund gave them a Rapid Response grant to develop tools to inform and engage the Asian American community in the redistricting process.

Every 10 years, each state uses new census data and draws brand new political district lines accordingly through "redistricting." These new congressional, New York State Assembly and Senate, and New York City Council lines are supposed to be "contiguous and compact in nature," and should preserve real communities of interest that share social, economic and cultural interests. But both Republican and Democratic state legislators have used redistricting (through the official Legislative Task Force on Redistricting, or LATFOR) to preserve their status as incumbents. In the last decade, incumbents ended up winning nearly 95% of the time.

At MinKwon, we recognize the importance of redistricting for Asian American communities, who historically have been "cracked" and "packed" in ways that diluted our vote. Only 1 of 212 state legislators is an Asian American, even though our community has soared by 35% in the past decade. Last year, we mobilized 14 other groups to form the Asian American Community Coalition on Redistricting and Democracy (ACCORD). Since our founding, we've worked to organize our communities around redistricting through educational forums, grassroots media events, and street outreach efforts, and we gathered our communities' narratives to help develop our own district maps. We also mobilized our community members at hearings to tell their own stories of why they believe they share the same concerns and needs.

On March 11th, LATFOR released revised (and probably final) district lines for the State Senate and Assembly. While not perfect -- and downright ugly in some cases -- LATFOR has clearly responded to our demands in drawing the first Asian-majority Senate District and a total of three Asian majority Assembly districts, in addition to a strong, nearly 40% Asian American Congressional district drawn by Federal Judge Roanne Mann based on ACCORD's input. The future is not yet certain, as Governor Cuomo may veto these lines and put everything in the hands of the Federal courts. But we will continue to fight for even better, more compact and representative districts, and ensure that Asian American communities and other marginalized communities will have a seat at the table -- both in 2012 and for the next 10 years.

Last year, North Star Fund provided a Rapid Response grant to support the May 16th Water Fight! Conference and June 25th Day of Action against Fracking. Both events mobilized statewide opposition to the dangerous process of hydraulic fracturing.

Fracking --- the highly industrialized and polluting process of extracting natural gas from shale up to a mile below the earth's surface -- was already happening in 34 states and as well as many countries around the world. And a gas-rich formation known as Marcellus Shale spreads beneath a vast area of New York's southern tier --- the source of much of our local food and most of New York City's drinking water.

Sadly, Hurricane Irene devastated farms and communities in a portion of the very area the state has suggested it will probably permit fracking. It is imperative that advocates and legislators support the preservation of New York agriculture with economic development incentives, as well as remediation for hurricane damage to farmland and farm structures for production, and roads and bridges for distribution. This support for farmers can play an important role in convincing those who are on the fence to turn away from leasing their land for drilling.

The Baum Forum organizes professionals and advocates in the food movement to stop fracking in New York ever since my eureka moment. We have collaborated with many of the grass-roots organizations throughout New York, working to ban or at least slow down the state issuance of permits for fracking. Together, we produced Water Fight! Fracking, Food, Art & Economy, a day-long educational event. We planned Food Systems Network NYC programs and position papers. We have testified before New York City Council and the New York State Department of Environment Conservation. And we organized A Taste of The Marcellus and planned events at The New Amsterdam Market throughout the fall and early winter of 2011-12.

We helped to build attendance at the June rally by promoting it through our food networks and educational events like Water Fight! That conference, supported by North Star Fund, was the first in the New York City area to highlight the relationship between the shale gas fracking process and the regional food economy, with participants from upstate and down including food, environmental and anti-fracking organizations as well as local student organizers. Presentations by our powerful speakers and a variety of resources can be found in the conference archive.

Our pre-conference and post-conference communications and on-line press linking fracking and food went out to thousands on the internet. In addition, several articles and papers expanding on this linkage were published at the time of the conference. To help readers learn more we've begun a list of links to these at baumforum.org. Please let us know of any others that should be added to the list.

As of mid-December 2011, New Yorkers presented the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation with more than 50,000 comments on the draft environmental impact study and proposed regulations. The DEC is obligated to read every one. For this and other reasons, activists have slowed the process through 2012. However, we cannot stop organizing, raising awareness, and being vigilant. We have to say NO to fracking, and focus on protecting New York's regional foodshed and watersheds throughout the Marcellus area, which includes much of nearby Pennsylvania where produce, dairy and livestock farms, breweries, wineries and food processors that depend on abundant, clean water.

Fracking for natural gas has been labeled by writer and activist Bill McKibben as the "the transitional fuel bridge to nowhere." Recent studies have made clear that the process of drilling releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases that make it as polluting as coal.

The crucial need to say YES to the development of alternative energy sources, YES to resource conservation, and YES to regional agriculture has been the battle cry at anti-fracking rallies like the June 25 State-wide Day of Action rally at Foley Square in lower Manhattan. Baum Forum was a co-sponsor of the Foley Square rally led by United for Action, CDOG and No Frack NY. Watch a video of the rally here. And don't forget, on February 25th, 2012, Baum Forum and Chefs for The Marcellus will sponsor the Fracking Rally at the Cathedral of St John the Divine.

Chefs for The Marcellus has given us an opportunity to reach out to hundreds of chefs, restaurateurs, producers, and other food professionals and share our commitment to keeping our regional foodshed and watersheds safe from fracking. We are pleased to see that food and agriculture are becoming more and more associated with the subject of fracking in NY and elsewhere. In fact, we just signed on to a new state wide coalition formed by Josh Fox and others, NYSAFE -- for sustainable agriculture and frack-free energy. Please join us! 

"An AIDS-free generation would be one of the greatest gifts the United States could give to our collective future," Secretary Hilary Clinton proclaimed in her speech at the National Institute of Health in November of 2011. One month after Clinton declared it an official United States policy to work towards an "AIDS-free generation," President Barack Obama announced on World AIDS Day that the U.S. would commit to putting $16 million towards AIDS treatment by 2013.

North Star Fund gave QUEEROCRACY a Grassroots Action grant as part of our Fall 2011 grant cycle. We are the group's first foundation funder.

These were both pivotal moments after a series of small victories (and of course, some failures) for QUEEROCRACY. We have made it one of our many missions over the past year to pressure our government and elected officials to recognize that with their support we truly can end AIDS.

We know from U.S.-funded studies published in The Lancet and other medical journals (also seen printed in The Economist's June 2011 issue) that this commitment to full-funding would not only provide treatment for those 15 million currently in immediate need of AIDS meds, but would also serve as a form of prevention in the spread of the virus. Science has proven that putting HIV positive people on ARV (Anti-Retroviral) treatments prevents new infections. QUEEROCRACY recognized that this information meant that President Obama, the person many of us celebrated in 2008, could be the President to put the world on track to truly ending AIDS--and that we could see it happen.

Working in coalition with Health GAP (the national coordinators of what became the "We Can End AIDS Campaign") and many other organizations, QUEEROCRACY was responsible for mobilizing New Yorkers to hold Obama accountable to the promises he made us during his Presidential election. "Yes We Can," a slogan Obama used widely in his campaign, became the backbone of our own. Yes, we can end AIDS-- and QUEEROCRACY has made it our job to continuously remind Obama of that.

In April of 2011, QUEEROCRACY members were among a small group of activists to interrupt President Obama while he spoke at a fundraising event. Holding a banner that read "Six million people on AIDS meds by 2013" and chanting the same slogan, Obama responded coldly to the series of interruptions as the activists were removed from the event. This chilled response was not uncommon for QUEEROCRACY and was a continued experience for us over the past year. Even so, it remained important to us that we raise our voices and sustain our campaign to show President Obama that the young people who had brought him into the White House were going to continue to hold him accountable to the promises he made us throughout his election.

The following summer, QUEEROCRACY joined Health GAP and others in organizing a series of protests around the kick-off of the G8 Summit meetings where World Leaders would announce their commitments to the fight to end AIDS. The June 8 March to End AIDS was one of many attempts to get a response from Senator Schumer. Every time he and his staff ignored our calls and requests to meet with them about this issue, we protested. Unhappy with the results we were seeing from flooding his phone lines and occupying the public streets outside his Midtown office, QUEEROCRACY and members of ACT UP paid a visit to Schumer's Park Slope home where we staged a luau, demanding that he stop "taking a vacation" from the issue of AIDS. A meeting was scheduled with his staff shortly thereafter. Continuing to feel as though Senator Schumer was failing to represent his New York constituents however, and after his refusal to initiate the "Dear Colleague letter" that we had asked of him, QUEEROCRACY decided to take a fresh approach.

Two members traveled to Fire Island where Senator Gillibrand was speaking to a small group of people. During the Q&A portion of her presentation, QUEEROCRACY "bird-dogged" her by publicly asking whether she supported ending AIDS, informing her of the new science that proves there is in fact an end in sight for the pandemic. Knowing that Gillibrand was unlikely to say she did not support seeing the end of AIDS, particularly given that her audience was largely a demographic that had been directly and devastatingly affected by the pandemic from its first discovery, we also took the publicized opportunity to ask her to do something about it by writing the "Dear Colleague letter" Schumer had denied us. Her response was, "Absolutely," and with the work of QUEEROCRACY and AIDS activists around the country, 18 Senators signed on to the letter which voiced support for President Obama to scale up AIDS-related commitments. We have been told that many large, well-connected Washington D.C. based AIDS advocacy organizations had tried but been unable to get a "Dear Colleague" letter written. QUEEROCRACY was grateful to be the ones to prove, once again, that grassroots activism and direct action can be extremely successful tools.

Over the course of a year, the work of QUEEROCRACY, Health GAP and AIDS activists across the country led to a ground-shifting announcement from Secretary Clinton, and then another from President Obama. Less than one year after dismissing the activists who protested at his Town Hall event, our President was declaring his commitment on behalf of the United States to exactly what we had been demanding.

Our AIDS-related work over the past year has led us on a sometimes discouraging, but always evolving path that we will not stop marching down until we see the end of this pandemic. 2010 was the 30th anniversary of AIDS. We know now that there does not have to be another 30 years and that in 2040 we can, instead, celebrate the end of AIDS. We can end AIDS in our lifetime and QUEEROCRACY is determined to be part of making that happen.

Robert Tolbert is a board member of VOCAL NY (formerly New York City AIDS Housing Network), a North Star Fund grantee since 1999.

(In many ways, this prefigured the Occupy Wall Street encampment, which began six weeks later, on September 17.)

We originally planted to protest in front of the Republican National Club, hoping that influential Republicans would be in attendance. On arrival to D.C., we determined that we would have a greater impact by going to the debate and expressing our views there. Knowing that there was a risk of arrest, five participants were still willing to unveil a banner reading "Boehner, GOP, create jobs not drama. Tax the super-rich and make Wall Street pay!" The job of the other 22 people was to be present and observe the proceedings on the floor. My particular job was to be a media spokesperson for the group.

Upon entering the Capitol Building, we were escorted to Gallery 10, in the rear of the arena. We noticed that Capitol Security profiled us the moment we entered, and put us through security measures that no other visiting group had to go through. The ladies were not allowed to carry their handbags and no one was allowed to carry a cell phone or camera. When we were seated, we noticed that other groups were allowed to bring their personal articles. Sitting in the last two rows, the 26 of us were watching the proceedings when the five designates stood up, unfurled the banner and started to chant "Boehner, get off it! Time to tax those corporate profits!"

At that point, security personnel tried to wrest the banner from the protesters' hands. While doing so, an officer yanked the banner and flipped one of the protesters, Jaron Benjamin, over a row of seats and on to the floor. The rest of the contingent was told to exit the gallery, and while complying with the order, our 22 observers were arrested, too. I sat in the corner of the gallery and did not move or speak during the entire action, but after everyone was escorted out of the gallery, another security officer pointed at me and said "Take him, too. He was one of them."

While being processed at the D.C. Metro Police station, the arresting officer, Michael Fox revealed that he had profiled the entire group when we came to the floor saying he thought he recognized us from another action. (The nerve!)

The group hereto known as "The Catch 22," was arraigned on August 19 and were offered a diversion program that included community service and, get this, three negative drug screens! Stay tuned to see if the "sacrificial lambs" will be slaughtered or vindicated.

Chris B.: It's not often that I have the captive attention of a district attorney unless I've fallen asleep again with Law and Order on in the background. But a few months ago, my organization Streetwise and Safe was one of a handful of organizations working with LGBT youth that held court with Manhattan District attorney Cy Vance. We were rightfully alarmed about his office's misguided practice of using condoms, which the city spends millions to saturate the city with, as evidence against sex workers, in often flimsy cases.

This catch 22 always struck me as disingenuous in a city with one of the highest HIV infection rates, where almost every surface is plastered with AIDS prevention posters, where it's hard not to step on trademark NYC condoms that are as common as abandoned McDonald's cups.

How can something so commonplace and sponsored by the city health department to save lives, end up inadvertently destroying those lives? That's the question I raised with Mr. Vance's office. I have yet to hear a satisfactory response or see an actual policy change - or even the facade of one. This fall, SAS will be stepping up the pressure to stop this practice!

Peter G.: The act of using condoms as evidence of engagement in prostitution is unfair and unsafe. Many New Yorkers carry condoms for many different reasons. This year I met with a representative of my community, Senator Adriano Espaillat, to introduce him to effects of this practice and share with him how many organizations support the use of condoms and provide them to young New Yorkers.  We also met with our Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance and presented him with petitions signed by people across New York City, from northern Manhattan to Harlem, and from Queens to Brooklyn.

As a member of Streetwise and Safe, I reached out to my community to get these petitions signed. When I brought them to my high school, students agreed that condoms shouldn't be used against someone as evidence of prostitution and signed the petition. They also told me reasons they thought this was important: condoms decrease the chance of pregnancy and abortions, and our clinic and special programs in our school encourage us students to have safe sex providing us with special kits that of course have condoms. So students see it as an act of stereotyping when condoms are used against some people to say they did something wrong. Teachers as well were amazed and asked if they can be part of supporting change to this practice.

Around my neighborhood there were many supporters who were shocked and actually not even aware of that condoms could be used against them like this. They explained that condoms prevent the spread of infections and diseases and we should not be afraid of holding condoms. I felt really good spreading the knowledge of a law--SB 323--that could stop condoms being used against people. The experience behind all of this personally for me is an opportunity to be heard and change policies that affect your daily life. We are all from different backgrounds and lifestyles but this cause is one everyone can relate to.

Luis, an immigrant from Mexico, was still in high school when New York City Police officers arrested him. Luis was charged with a crime he didn't commit, fingerprinted, booked, and detained at Rikers Island. When the prosecutor dropped his case, Luis was released directly into the hands of the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). ICE sent him to Texas for deportation proceedings, far away from family, support networks, and his lawyers.

Deportations of innocent people from Rikers Island are not unusual; the Department of Corrections allowed ICE to detain immigrants at Rikers after they would have been released by New York City authorities. It has been reported that between 2004 and 2009, more than 13,000 inmates at Rikers have been placed in deportation proceedings. This policy has separated parents from children, eroded trust between the police and immigrant communities, deepened racial profiling and blurred the lines between the immigration and justice systems.

Immigrants like Luis won an important victory Tuesday when Mayor Bloomberg signed new legislation that restricts federal immigration officials from detaining Rikers inmates who have never been convicted, have no outstanding warrants and are not in the terrorist screening database.

It's also a win for New York's community of social justice activists. Anyone who questions whether social justice movements make a difference now has an answer -- it works.

But legislation that protects the rights of our most vulnerable residents doesn't just happen. It comes after years of strategizing, campaigning and organizing in the affected communities. It is informed by on-the-ground experiences of activists who are affected by the issues and deeply committed to reform.

North Star grantees, including Make The Road New York and New Sanctuary Movement, spent years marshaling support for the ICE Out of Rikers Campaign. They found partners in City Council President Christine Quinn and Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, who sponsored the legislation. It's been a long campaign, with incremental changes, ongoing actions, and compromise leading to this new legislation.

The ICE Out of Rikers Campaign offers three important lessons about community change.

First, the best ideas don't come from scholars, think tanks or policy wonks. They come from people like Luis, for whom these aren't policy issues, but rather the difficult reality of their lives. Only when people have experienced problems first hand can they propose truly effective solutions.

Second, ideas are translated into action when the affected people organize into a movement, find strong leaders, build skills, raise money to sustain their work, and keep at it day after day after day. Several North Star grantees have been fighting against the criminalization and unjust treatment of immigrants for years. That's how Make The Road New York and New Sanctuary Movement and their partners won. This effort required resources from inside of the community, but it also required resources from outside. Social justice activists need more than commitment; they need stable funding to maintain a staff, an office and volunteers.

Third, action becomes lasting impact when these movements stick around to make sure that policy changes are enforced, evaluated and improved. The groups that that pushed for this legislation will need to monitor its implementation. Any law is only as good as its enforcement. And already, many activists are suggesting that this law could be stronger.

The ICE Out of Rikers campaign should make New Yorkers proud to live in a city that is becoming a bit more welcoming to its 2.9 million immigrants. And New Yorkers should translate that pride into impact by supporting the many organizations that make our city more equitable and just.

Like so many others who believe deeply in the movement for equality, economic justice and peace, we at North Star Fund have been inspired by the activists organizing and participating in Occupy Wall Street (#OWS).  In speaking to allies and our grantee leaders in recent weeks, it's clear that many OWS folks have traveled from outside our great city of New York. WELCOME, stay, occupy and proudly pronounce that social change needs every strategy we can muster!

We have been elated that the work of Occupy Wall Street has also captured the attention of mainstream media-- and the world.  And thank you USA Today for your reasoned story of the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon, in which I'm quoted along with the accomplished Left historian Michael Kazin, and believe it or not, Sal Russo, one of the founders of the Tea Party. 

OWS has focused new attention on issues that many of our grantees have been working on for years, particularly for economic justice.   Five years ago, we funded a very smart researcher/activist named Kevin Connor who published the first comprehensive money trail of the three-card monte known as "credit default swaps." These financial instruments were, in fact, packaged predatory loans with inflated values behind them, and led directly to the speculation that caused the collapse of our economy.   Upon the report's release, North Star Fund staff  joined with NEDAP, CHANGER, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and National People's Action in a protest action that involved singing rewritten Christmas carols to staff at Goldman Sachs and next to the bull on Wall Street. We demanded that the private sector and our government right the wrongs and hold people accountable for the predatory lending and foreclosure crisis. 

I am enthusiastic about Occupy Wall Street, but I want the world to know that  #OWS is not separate from the work of our grantees; it is one expression of a much broader movement for progressive economic justice, created and nourished by generations of activists.  Indeed, many of our grantees have been participating in #OWS activities since its inception on September 17. 

Brian Palmer, North Star Fund's photographer-in-residence, has been documenting the work of VOCAL-NY for the past couple of months. He was with VOCAL on Wednesday October 5th  to photograph their participation in the Community/Labor March.  Brian's images capture the energy and the determination of the thousands of activists who've made their way to downtown Manhattan over the past weeks.

We are in talks with our grantees about how we can support them in further connecting to and building on the Occupy Wall Street moment to make the broader movement that existed before it become even stronger, clearer, more effective and determined.  For those interested in making a donation to this ongoing work, please do so on North Star's website.  There will be much more to come.

Click on any image to enlarge.

As a part of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Adhikaar members spent a whirlwind two-and-a-half days in Washington, DC, learning about the five-point policy goal of the CARE campaign, also known as "Five Fingers of the Caring Hand," -- quality care jobs, training and career ladders, quality jobs and path to unionization, pathways to citizenship, and support for individuals and families in need of care. In sweltering heat, we also went to the Senate for an action to protect Medicaid and Medicare during budget/debt negotiations.

At workshops, and in between, we shared our personal stories and organizing strategies -- the topics were complex and often emotional. In much of our conversations, "family" featured prominently-- our own and the one for whom we provide care. We spoke about the challenges domestic workers face as the line between the employer and employee gets blurred in the intimate, familial workplace. We also talked about the challenges in providing care for the caregivers' families. The domestic workers, most of whom are immigrant women of color, were also worried about who would care for them when they grow old without any safety nets.

In the midst of these intense conversations, we also took time to sing and dance, and celebrate our sisters who often work in shadows caring for others. Adhikaar members came back from Washington, DC with new friends, a better understanding of the campaign and political landscape, and renewed energy to dedicate to the domestic workers movement locally, nationally, and internationally

In response to mounting pressure, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told police officers last week to follow the law and stop making costly and racially biased marijuana arrests, now the number one arrest in New York City. This could translate into tens of thousands of fewer arrests among Black and Latino youth each year.

VOCAL-NY led the grassroots effort to end these arrests in collaboration with our allies at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives (IJJRA).

Although marijuana use is higher among whites, 86% of those arrested for marijuana possession last year were Black and Latino youth. The NYPD's aggressive use of stop-and-frisks in communities of color, along with unconstitutional searches that often follow, have largely driven these arrests. Being arrested can mean more than a night in jail too. It can make it difficult for people to find housing, get a job, take care of their family and apply for tuition assistance.

While we need to applaud and celebrate this victory, there is much, much more work to be done. This page of maps and graphics from the New York Times shows the disproportionate use of the stop-and-frisk policing tactic in communities of color. For instance, even though New York City's Black population represents 23% of total residents, they bear 55% of police stops. In many communities, being thrown up against a wall or laid down on the pavement with a police boot on your head--just for walking down the sidewalk-- has become rite of passage for too many young men.

North Star Fund was proud to be asked by a coalition of grassroots leaders to  become the fiscal sponsor for the Campaign for Fair and Just Policing. This is a stellar new coalition of New York City research, activist and advocacy groups, including Make the Road New York, Center for Constitutional Rights, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/Center on Race, Crime & Justice, Justice Committee, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The campaign's goals are to  continue gathering facts on racial profiling, conduct community outreach, and undertake broad public education efforts to reduce New York City's reliance on zero tolerance and bias-based policing.

This is exactly the kind of diverse movement coalition that North Star Fund is committed to supporting. We look forward to a day when all of our city's youth can go about their business without the fear of being stopped and humiliated by police from outside their neighborhood, with little or no sense of local accountability.

The program kicked off with a three-day retreat in upstate NY. The retreat brought together members and staff of the first five recipients of the new Movement Leadership grants: VOCAL NY (which I belong to), Families for Freedom, New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), Brandworkers International, and Domestic Workers United. We convened for three days of team-building exercises, interaction and fun. The perspective offered by each different organization was enlightening to all the other attendees. Through it all, I experienced a great camaraderie. The specific issues may have been different for each organization, but even still solutions were  put forward that had similar tactics and/or strategies. Throughout the weekend, not only did organizations better understand the assets and shortcomings of themselves, but they also got insight on the operations of other organizations and the general consensus was that we are more similar than not.

Through leadership development, organizations can grow to exercise their power. For instance, VOCAL NY has a program called 'Power Academy,' where our members are trained to communicate with all levels of government and corporate officials in terms that they can understand. VOCAL NY sent three representatives to the retreat -- one from the membership: Jim Lister; one from staff: Jaron Benjamin; and a board member: myself. By this representation, VOCAL is able to transmit its leadership skills to even the newest members. By the end of the retreat, even the most shy attendees opened up and spoke with voices that were strong as lions. Through education, strategizing and the implementation of various tactics, all invitees went away with an elevated level of empowerment.

The Movement Leadership program did not end at the retreat. All organizations involved have since been attending follow-up sessions that chart the progress of the one-year plan that we created at the retreat to collaborate with each other. And each organization also made its own individual work plan for the year. North Star Fund has provided a leadership "coach" to help us navigate our organizational map. The ability to set short- and long-range goals and achieve them has been key to the success of VOCAL as an organization and pivotal to our individual development as leaders. Training people in one issue area -- for instance, housing -- is challenging. But to have the lessons learned from multiple issue areas come together into one curriculum is a major feat.

When you get down to the bottom line, you measure success by results. For instance, the qualities I emphasized to develop for myself leading by example, showing self-control, and speaking to the media -- were put on public display. I was appointed to key leadership positions at the Showdown in Ohio (that's me at 0:30 in the video link), which was a direct action against JP Morgan Chase Bank in conjunction with the National People's Action (NPA).  I also took on a leadership position in the On May 12 Coalition which mobilized over 20,000 people in a direct action against the unfair financial policies of Wall Street brokers. These actions, along with battling against budget cuts in the New York State and New York City budgets, have been another feather in my cap. Quality training and preparation, like the kind provided through North Star Fund's Movement Leadership program, create quality leadership.

On July 7, a federal appeals court rejected the FCC's attempt to revoke broadcast ownership rules meant to protect media diversity in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. This was the second time the court blocked the FCC from deregulating ownership, and a major victory for everyone who cares about a diverse, accountable media system. At issue was the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban, a rule that prevents the same company from owning the newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market.

The ban has been in place for 35 years, but Rupert Murdoch has a waiver in the New York market -- where he owns the NY Post, the Wall Street Journal, and a slew of TV stations, including WNYW, where he launched the Fox Network. Last week's court ruling prevented the FCC from lifting the ban and allowing companies like News Corp to grow even larger and less accountable.

The Johnson Family Foundation Fund for Community Media at North Star Fund is one of but a few funders that are engaged in media justice work and their support has allowed Prometheus to join with other public interest allies to fight the kind of ownership consolidation that allows giant corporations to slash jobs, shutter newsrooms, silence dissent, and feed their bottom line. We beat the FCC in the same court eight years ago, and after a protracted fight, we did it again. It's a historic moment that freezes the deregulation that has unraveled protections for the public in every aspect of our government.

But stemming the tide of consolidation alone isn't going to change our media system. We also need alternatives. The scandal-obsessed status quo doesn't work -- we need media that will help our communities solve problems, address issues constructively, and build for our shared future.

That's why Prometheus fought for over ten years to pass the Local Community Radio Act, and again, at last, we won! The Local Community Radio Act will expand opportunities for local, community-based low power FM (LPFM) radio to cities and towns nationwide. We expect this to be the largest expansion of community radio in U.S. history, doubling or tripling the number of low power FM stations. And community radio allows organizations working for social change to have a voice on the airwaves, to skip the Murdochs altogether, and share to their stories directly with their neighbors.

It's a tremendous opportunity, and at Prometheus we've been fortunate enough to lead a diverse coalition of organizations nationwide fighting for this chance. Without the support of our allies, volunteers, and donors, this victory would not have been possible.

We are still working with the FCC to implement the bill, and as they say in DC, implementation is everything. The Our Cities, Our Airwaves campaign is a chance to tell the FCC that we want community radio in all our cities and towns. So far, it's working. The FCC just released proposed rules that could ensure channels nationwide.

With everyone's help, we will keep it up until all of us have access to the airwaves. We deserve to hear much better things when we tune in than Murdoch -- whether it's his news network or his latest scandal.

On June 24, 2010, 200 residents from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx came together to say to the Department of Treasury that we need to make changes to the Homeowner Assistance Modification Program so that our neighbors can stay in their homes. Brooklyn Congregations United, the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition provided the research to show that we are a hard hit community and that people have provided the needed documentation to the banks and are still not getting the help they deserve. We have asked the U.S. Department of Treasury to commit to making changes so that there is transparency and accountability in the process. We raised up that unemployment and underemployment has made it impossible for many people to pay their mortgages and we must recognize that there are local areas that need assistance for unemployed homeowners. We will continue to press for financial reform legislation to include protections for homeowners and renters in foreclosed properties. We asked Treasury official Mark McArdle to set up a meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner so that we can talk with him directly about the plight of homeowners in our communities.

On November 4, 2010, forty members of a nationwide coalition of clergy, struggling homeowners, housing counselors and community groups -- including Michael Hickey and Jennifer Murphy from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods at BCU's invitation, John Kemp and myself of Brooklyn Congregations United -- met face-to-face with Treasury Secretary Geithner and other senior Treasury officials to present specific proposals for how the Administration can take a new, practical approach to fighting foreclosures and increasing the number of loan modifications.

Coalition members, including homeowners who are in danger of losing their homes, presented a series of practical proposals on how the Administration could: 1) implement a targeted pause on owner-occupied foreclosures, 2) compel servicers to do more principal reductions, 3) extend help for unemployed homeowners and, 4) hold servicers accountable to complying with HAMP.

I found Secretary Geithners sympathetic to our analysis, and it was clear that Treasury is trying to figure out its capacity to compel servicers to do more loan modifications and that's where we may disagree. We think Treasury has much more power to hold the banks accountable than they've been willing to use.

On April 1st, 2011, I learned that Treasury Secretary Geithner has agreed to increase forbearance for unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure from the current three months to six months. I am also pleased that the The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provided $1 billion to the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program (EHLP). $111,649,112 will come to New York homeowners. The program is designed to provide mortgage payment relief to eligible homeowners experiencing a drop in income of at least 15 percent, directly resulting from involuntary unemployment or underemployment due to adverse economic conditions and/or a medical emergency. The mortgage relief covers past-due mortgage payments, as well as a portion of the homeowner's mortgage payment for up to 24 months (up to $50,000).

Applications were due by July 27 and must be filed with a set of nonprofits in your state that will administer the program (see links below). There's funding for a specific number of homeowners in Colorado to get up to 2 years, forgivable, no interest loans to save their homes from foreclosure.

Key things to qualify were:

• Must be 3 months or more behind on the mortgage
• Must have lost more than 15% of income since the Recession began due to unemployment and/or cut in wages

EHLP Links:

• Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program Main Site
• Application & Pre-Screening Guidelines (see checklist & other links on right side-bar)

What's new in the housing movement? The title says it: Tenants have started to win. It's been nearly 20 years since New York City's tenants could say this: We've begun to turn the tide in the fight for stronger rent protections.

Rent regulation laws provide security to over 2.5 million mostly low-income tenants by guaranteeing their right to renew their leases with modest rent increases -- even when market prices are skyrocketing. The system is twice as large as all other affordable housing programs combined, and it's the primary defense for low-income tenants resisting displacement in rapidly gentrifying areas. But landlords spend millions per year on legislative campaigns and on lobbying to undermine these laws, and have succeeded in weakening them every time they've come up for renewal since the early 1990s.

The biggest weakening amendment they got was vacancy decontrol, which allows landlords to entirely deregulate apartments when tenants move or are pushed out. Over the past 18 years, we've lost approximately 300,000 affordable apartments this way. Met Council on Housing has organized to end this loophole and reform our rent laws ever since the loophole was first created. When a similar measure was enacted to phase-out rent control in the early 1970s, we played a key role in mobilizing tenants to win an expansion of the rent-stabilization system to take its place.

We significantly escalated our campaign to win stronger rent laws in the past three years by leading efforts in the Real Rent Reform campaign, a broad-based coalition we helped to form in 2007. Our members engaged in typical legislative campaign activities, including press conferences, rallies, lobbying trips to Albany, canvassing events, and phone banks. But we also took the lead in pushing more radical tactics than the tenant movement had recently seen in years - such as culminating weeks of neighborhood canvassing with a controversial protest at the home of a top state legislator, and spearheading civil disobedience protests in both of the last two years.

This year, rent regulation laws were set to expire mid-June, and landlords again poured millions into lobbying efforts to weaken them, including a new loophole to permit the deregulation of tens of thousands of units in buildings receiving tax breaks. Our fight carried on nine days past when our existing laws expired, but we emerged with an extension of our laws that -- for the first time in 18 years -- contained no landlord givebacks at all, and some improvements for tenants that will make deregulation schemes more difficult.

We're still fighting an uphill battle to preserve the affordability of our diverse neighborhoods for the coming generation, but we've started to see the payoff of our years of organizing.

During the last week of June, hundreds of immigrant youth from across the country filled the halls of Washington, D.C. to call on Congress and the Obama administration to stop the deportation of immigrant youth and pass the DREAM Act. Dreamers, as the DREAM Act activists call themselves, held the Education Not Deportation Graduation Ceremony as a follow up to the first ever Senate subcommittee hearing solely on the DREAM Act earlier in the week. As they have done before, immigrant youth filled the hearing room to capacity with their stories and hopes.

This  symbolic graduation has become a yearly ceremony in which the dreams and aspirations of immigrant youth from all around the country are conveyed to lawmakers in D.C. as an urgent call to action for Congress to pass the DREAM Act. Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who caused quite a splash last week when he came out as a Dreamer, addressed the crowd, adopting the role of a colleague and fellow alum to the immigrant youth movement, rather than a valedictorian.

I was at the April 2004 graduation ceremony. I was 19, and this was my very first action for the DREAM Act. I was just beginning to internalize what it meant to be an undocumented college sophomore. And it was the first time I realized I was not alone and that there were youth with a similar story and drive to change this injustice all around the country.

It's been less than 10 years since then, and the connections we built at the ceremony of 2004 flourished into the foundation of the movement that has grown beyond my wildest imagination. The United We Dream Network, the national network of immigrant youth organizations, convened a national congress in March to plan this week's mobilization. More than 200 immigrant youth leaders from 22 states came together in Memphis, Tennessee to develop a shared strategy to continue building the movement. As a co-founder of United We Dream Network, the wide participation was very gratifying to see -- further proof of how far we've come.

As with almost all activities of the immigrant youth movement, leaders were involved in everything from fundraising for the event to the facilitation of essions and workshops. At the Congress we all shared our stories as undocumented immigrant youth  continuing to build our shared identity and narrative. From there we returned to our communities energized to build grassroots power by convening regional retreats and trainings where we could train each other to sharpen our organizing skills and figure out how our communities will be part of the national plan of action.

We are also celebrating the victories of bills  in Maryland and Connecticut that allow immigrant youth to pay in-state tuition rates. Dreamers and our  allies also stopped efforts to repeal existing in-state tuition provisions for immigrant youth or proposed bans on immigrant youth access to higher education in California, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah. Other reasons to celebrate are the expansion of opportunities for immigrant youth in Illinois by creating access to privately funded scholarships offered by the State of Illinois.  A similar bill is currently facing procedural hurdles in California. Perhaps the boldest state bill for immigrant youth is being promoted by North Star Fund grantee New York State Leadership Council to provide drivers licenses, state financial aid programs, and even a special work permit for immigrant youth who have grown up in the state.

With an ever-emboldened spirit grounded in the experience of belonging and justice, there has been a major escalation of civil disobedience by immigrant youth including leadership from the New York State Youth Leadership Council and other immigrant youth leaders from around the country. Most recently it took place in Georgia after the Board of Regents there banned undocumented students from its top five public universities and inside the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC.

There are also individual victories. According to Carlos Saavedra, national coordinator of the United We Dream Network, dreamers have stopped dozens of Dream Act eligible youth from being deported in recent months. The effort which has been coined 'END' (Education Not Deportation) has focused on stopping the deportations of individual DREAM Act eligible youth while pushing the Obama Administration to halt detentions and deportations of DREAM Act youth by executive order. Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued new guidelines on immigrants not prioritized for detention and deportation, listing undocumented youth among them. Despite these gains, Carlos noted they are working on over 60 deportation cases of DREAM Act eligible youth from around the country.

Although when the DREAM Act will pass remains unknown, it is unquestionable that the immigrant youth movement continues to grow in numbers and influence, and with it, the strength of the entire social justice movement in the U.S.