Spring 2009 Grants

Ensuring Economic Justice

  • Adelante Alliance $5,000
    Students of Mexican origin have the lowest educational attainment among New York City racial and ethnic groups. Forty seven percent of high school age students aren't in school or did not graduate. Latino parents face obstacles navigating the public education system and advocating for their children, as traditional channels of parent participation often exclude Spanish-speakers. Adelante Alliance organizes and develops the leadership of Latina immigrant women from Sunset Park, Brooklyn to demand basic rights, equal opportunities and resources for their children's education. Through their Education in Action program, Adelante informs mothers how to navigate the education system and members then organize parent leadership committees at several public schools.

  • Brandworkers International NY $15,000
    Despite working for some of the world's most profitable enterprises, retail and food workers are paid wages too low to live on, and face insecure work schedules and unaffordable health care. The economic crisis has made work conditions even more precarious by creating mass layoffs without adequate notice or severance, and reduced work hours. Brandworkers International was founded to train workers in the retail and food industries to organize workplace justice campaigns. They are currently focusing on completing the Wild Edibles campaign, targeting injustices in the City's food processing sector. They also aim to involve more workers in the Legal Defense-Plus program, an initiative that identifies collective organizing opportunities for retail and food workers.

  • Eye Openers: Youth Against Violence Organization $5,000
    Tensions on the North Shore of Staten Island are increasing between youth from different immigrant and ethnic groups. Immigration status, limited English proficiency and economic demands make it difficult for immigrant youth to remain in school. Eye Openers was founded in response to the violence, educational challenges and financial struggles of teenage immigrants. This youth-led group organizes other immigrant youth to combat racism, discrimination, violence and limited educational and employment opportunities. They run know-your-rights programs for immigrant youth in local high schools and community centers, and recently held their fifth EyeOpeners Leadership Youth Summit to train young people to become anti-violence and racial justice educators.

  • Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project $10,000
    Immigrant students who are learning English have the highest drop-out rate, almost 32%, in the New York City public school system. Limited English proficiency, high illiteracy levels, and differences between the school systems in the U.S. and Haiti create educational challenges for young Haitian immigrants.  Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project is a youth-led organization that works with immigrant students and families to advocate for educational programs that better meet the needs of immigrant youth. By developing literacy campaigns Flambayan organizes the Haitian community to support youth to succeed academically and complete high school.  

  • Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition $10,000
    The low-waged worker population is primarily immigrants and people of color who face un/under-employment, harassment, union-busting, political marginalization and anti-immigrant attacks. The Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition addresses critical issues facing low-waged workers and the working poor, with a particular focus on economic exploitation and workplace discrimination. The Coalition is made up of faith-based groups, unions and worker organizations who work together to educate and mobilize the religious communities on issues affecting low-wage and immigrant workers rights. Their current work focuses on building the New Sanctuary Movement to fighting against deportations and passing a City Council resolution to recognize two Muslim holidays in the New York City schools.

  • Green Worker Cooperatives $5,000
    The South Bronx is an area plagued by environmental degradation and poverty. It is the poorest Congressional district in the United States, with rates of unemployment as high as 27%, the highest in New York City. One of the factors that led to this situation is the loss of the area's once-vibrant manufacturing sector, and its associated jobs, over the past four decades. Green Worker Cooperatives is dedicated to creating worker-owned cooperatives in the South Bronx that can improve environmental conditions and foster local economic development. In the spring of 2008, they launched their first cooperative, ReBuilders Source, that specializes in salvaged building materials.

  • Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association $5,000
    Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association (KHNIA) in the Bronx organizes neighborhood residents to work on issues of affordable and adequate housing and to reduce school overcrowding. KHNIA supports community members to form tenant and block associations that pressure landlords to respond to building maintenance issues. They are also working to save the Kingsbridge Armory and make its space available for public use. KNHIA members take on leadership roles in community affairs by meeting with representatives from City agencies and law enforcement officials to address local traffic and policing problems.

  • La Union $15,000
    Language barriers, immigration status and limited access to quality educational and job opportunities leave low-income residents of Sunset Park, Brooklyn vulnerable to various forms of exploitation and discrimination. La Union develops the leadership of over 600 members, primarily Mexican immigrants living in Sunset Park, to develop campaigns that address unsafe housing conditions, unlawful eviction, exploitation in the workplace and under-resourced schools. La Union has successfully reclaimed over $30,000 in back wages for immigrant workers, protected over 200 families from displacement, and advocated for policy changes that improve working conditions and the health of immigrant communities. They are currently organizing youth throughout the city to improve the quality of education for Mexican-American, Latino and immigrant students.

  • New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) $15,000
    Recent immigrants who are unaware of their legal rights are vulnerable to exploitation by employers and predatory financial companies, and miss out on basic educational and health services. New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) works with immigrants from Central and South America living in Queens to organize around hate crime prevention, language access, and voting and workers' rights. Their membership of primarily low-wage immigrant workers is currently leading four main campaigns: advocating for national comprehensive immigration reform, pressuring New York City elected officials to reject budgets that disproportionately cut services to immigrant communities, supporting the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, and organizing day laborers in Queens.

  • Public Housing Residents of the Lower East Side (PHROLES) $10,000
    Reduction of federal funds and the budgetary shortfall of the New York City Housing Authority will affect more than 400,000 public housing residents throughout the City. Coupled with pressures of gentrification and rent increases, thousands of families will be forced to leave their homes and community networks. PHROLES, with a membership of 800 public housing residents, works to ensure stability and affordability of public housing in the Lower East Side. GOLES develops the leadership and organizing skills of residents of 17 housing developments to mobilize their community members and advocating for city, state and national policies that protect housing for low-income people.

  • Queens Congregations United for Action $10,000
    Job losses and reduced wages, high rents and overcrowded homes, low-performing schools, gang violence and a lack of positive activities for youth all create challenges for the primarily low-income, immigrant residents of Eastern Queens.  Queens Congregations United for Action (QCUA) connects individuals and the faith community in the most diverse region of New York City to create solutions to problems with housing, education, employment and violence. QCUA has expanded affordable housing in their community, secured financial resources for local schools, and improved safety and sanitation services. Currently, QCUA is developing the skills of local leaders to create and preserve more affordable housing, expand educational opportunities for youth and enhance access to employment.

  • Street Vendor Project $10,000
    Approximately 20,000 individuals sell merchandise and food on the streets of New York City. Vendors deepen the cultural richness of New York City, create jobs and spur economic development, yet continue to face numerous obstacles to their businesses. Street Vendor Project is a grassroots, vendor-led group that organizes vendors to stand up for their rights and develop the skills to tackle common problems such as limits on vending licenses, police harassment, and displacement by big business and the real estate industry.

  • Teachers Unite $10,000
    The most pressing problems facing teachers in New York City - the downgrading of their jobs, the scarcity of resources, and the dangerous and heavily policed facilities - also affect the communities that they serve. Teachers Unite educates and organizes teachers to get involved in social justice campaigns that impact the schools where they teach, and to fight for a more democratic teachers union. This year they are deepening teachers' analysis through educational forums, developing a campaign for Mayoral Partnership and participating in campaigns led by community organizations on issues like gentrification and police presence in the schools.

  • Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) $5,000
    TLDEF is a legal services organization. When accessing healthcare services, transgender individuals face humiliation, refusal of service, and harassment. Its Transgender Health Initiative of New York (THINY) is the community organizing arm, focused on improving access to healthcare for transgendered people.  

  • Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action New (TIGRA) $5,000
    In many developing countries, remittances (money sent home from relatives living and working in the United States) are a major source of income for low-income families. Meanwhile the remittance industry is a multi-billion dollar industry with profit margins as high as 30%. TIGRA was started in December 2004 to reform the remittance industry. TIGRA NY, formed in 2007, has developed partnerships with the foremost community-based organizations who serve or are led by immigrants. They provide financial justice trainings, launched a national boycott of Western Union, signed the first corporate accountability agreement with a money transfer company, and are building a transnational network of immigrants and their relatives to use remittances as a source of social change.

  • VAMOS Unidos $15,000
    Due to a cap on vending licenses, less than 4,000 of the approximately 20,000 street vendors in New York City are licensed. This leaves the rest open to arrests and harassment by police, with regular fines and confiscations of merchandise. VAMOS Unidos organizes street vendors throughout New York City to increase access to permits and monitor abusive behavior of law enforcement officers. 80% of its members are women, and 20% are representatives of indigenous groups. Focussing on the long-term improvements in members quality of life, VAMOS works with Teachers Unite, another North Star Fund grantee, to create free English classes for members.

Ending Institutional Racism and Discrimination

  • Critical Resistance -- New York City $10,000
    Youth of color make up 95% of the population in detention centers, and it costs an average of $201,115 per year to house a youth in juvenile detention center. Critical Resistance-NYC is a grassroots organization working to end society's reliance on prisons and policing. Their strategies include organizing for fewer prisons and promoting access to food, housing, education and healthcare.

  • Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment (FREE!), $10,000
    Low-income people of color neighborhoods face a complex web of institutional and social disenfranchisement, including being targeted by policing, unfair parole practices, and mistreatment of the mentally ill. FREE! organizes people directly impacted by mass incarceration (those with imprisoned loved ones, formerly incarcerated and living in communities disproportionately targeted by policing) to improve the quality of their lives and challenge unjust systems and institutions. They won a reform in unfair telephone policies in prisons and took the lead in the campaign to reform the harsh "Rockefeller" drug laws.

  • Justice Committee $10,000
    More than 140 cases of police brutality occurred in New York City between Amadou Diallo's death in 1999 and Sean Bell's in 2006. The Justice Committee organizes to end systemic forms of racial violence through organizing and training communities affected by endemic police violence.

  • NorthEast 2-spirit Society $5,000
    Few people realize a majority of Native peoples in the United States are now living in cities and not on reservations. Even fewer recognize that New York City has the largest number of Indians living in any city in the country. Despite this reality, there are no agencies, programs or services targeting the Native two spirit community. Two Spirit is a contemporary term that refers to those traditions where some individuals possess a blending of male and female spirit. NE2SS works to increase the visibility of the two spirit community and advocates on their behalf to provide social, traditional and recreational opportunities that are culturally appropriate.

Securing Peace and Justice

  • Biko Transformation Center $5,000
    The eastern end of Bushwick and Ocean Hill is home to a predominantly African-American, Caribbean and Latino population. In addition, there are approximately 20,000 Garifuna, an endangered Afro-Caribbean culure recognized by UNESCO. Biko Transformation Center nurtures local leadership through educational and cultural programs that bring together community members across racial and ethnic lines.

  • Mass Transit Street Theater & Video $10,000
    High school and middle school students in the Bronx and Harlem face poverty and increasing violence in their every day lives. Mass Transit Street Theater uses political theater to increase understanding and motivate youth to action to address these conditions. Their current production, a play called "Ain't Easy" tells the real-life stories of 5 Bronx teens, their attraction to violent responses, the pain they experience and how they opt to "cool" alternatives. Mass Transit Street Theater organized a conference around the play that has brought together a coalition of youth organizing and service organizations to reduce violence in Bronx communities and schools.

Protecting Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights

  • Families for Freedom $15,000
    In the U.S., two million people are at-risk of deportation, many of whom have families in this country. Their deportation would emotionally harrowing for them and their loved ones. Families for Freedom (FFF) members include current and former detainees as well as family members and individuals at risk of deportation. Through community organizing and advocacy, they are working to roll back laws that lead to abrupt, unconstitutional detention and deportation.