25 Years of Achievement

Fair Trade and Worker’s Rights

• The Resource Center sponsored many, many projects on labor, human rights and globalization.
• Moved 5 local school boards including Minneapolis Public Schools to adopt sweat-free purchasing policies, reducing dependency on products made in sweatshops.
• The Café of the Americas operated as a fair trade café and was an important community space for several years.
• The Centro de Derechos Laborales (Workers’ Rights Center) helped Latino workers gain their rights and continues to operate as part of the Worker’s Interfaith Network (WIN).
• Fair Trade work continues with the Globalization with Justice project at Bethany Church.
• The Fair Trade Coalition, initiated by the Resource Center, continues as an independent entity.

Youth and Family Development

• Padres Bien Informados, now a program in Minneapolis Public Schools, helps Latino parents participate in their children’s education.
• YO! performed successful youth organizing on sweatshops and child labor, including the passage of a resolution by the Minneapolis School Board in 2002 to purchase only sweat shop free athletic apparel.

Publishing- Information and Advocacy

• We published Connection to the Americas, the largest online service addressing human rights and globalization in Latin America, receiving an Utne Reader 2003 Independent Press Award.
• Unique academic curricula developed by the Resource Center, such as Many Faces of Mexico, are still requested by college professors and available for purchase.

Urban Revitalization

• The acquisition and renovation of our facility at 3019 Minnehaha, and creation of the breathtaking Mosaic of the Americas on the side of the building, sparked a major urban transformation in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Watch a brief video on the mosaic narrated by one of the artists, Gustavo Lira

Cross-Cultural Education

• We held hundreds of lectures and professional development workshops on issues related to globalization, immigration and general Latin American topics.
• We instructed many hundreds of students in Spanish, Portuguese and ESL, and have resumed our Spanish program.
• The Bookstore of the Americas was the largest Spanish-English bookstore in the upper Midwest.

Leadership Development

• The Resource Center has fostered the growth of numerous community leaders. Former staff members have joined Wellstone Action, Community Shares of Minnesota, the Minneapolis School Board and the office of Keith Ellison.