2009 January - March
I am pleased to share with you this newsletter for the first quarter of 2009, detailing many of the program activities emerging at the Resource Center. I promise not to be this long-winded all the time, but there is so much good happening, I thought you should know.
Below you’ll encounter examples of compelling progressive outreach and education that will foster informed views of the many contributions of immigrants to Minnesota and create a stronger, more powerful progressive community.
Individual contributors are incredibly important to sustaining our work. Approximately 150 of our former members re-invested in the Resource Center since December, 2008. We need another 150 individual members to join with us in 2009.
I hope the effort we’re putting into rebuilding the Resource Center in a meaningful way is beginning to shine through. From the perspective of Foundations that are now aggressively refining and tightening their investments, community support is a key ingredient. With your help we’re working to build a sustainable mix of community support, earned income (Spanish, classes, curriculum, etc) and grants.
THANK YOU for your support, your interest and I hope you’ll continue to share your feedback and ideas! Enjoy the news and updates below!
Best wishes,
Jason Stone
Executive Director
612-276-0788 x3
INDEX
(1) Latino Voices: Examining Immigration in Our Community
(2) Immigrant Nation: An Immigration-Themed Cartoon Series Developed by the Resource Center
(3) Summer Service Learning Course
(4) Roundtable Facilitation
(5) Harmony Beyond Boundaries - A Spring Concert Benefit 4/24/9
(6) Resource Center Staffing
(7) Business Sponsorship
(8) Internship and Volunteer Opportunities
(9) Featured Board Member - Meredith Sommers
1. LATINO VOICES: EXAMINING IMMIGRATION IN OUR COMMUNITY
(formerly “Minnesota/Mexico Connection”)
The “Latino Voices” program consists of a cohort of Latino immigrant speakers sharing their experiences and perspectives with interested faith communities. The panelists are assisted by a trained facilitator that grounds personal, and sometimes poignant, stories, with facts intended to break down stereotypes and myths.
Using direct outreach in this way, we will connect with over 1000 people in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota by 2010 and foster a view of immigration and immigrants that is rooted in fact and accurate historical context.
If you would like to help with this program, or wish to involve your organization, contact Stephanie.Bates (at) americas.org.
2. IMMIGRANT NATION
Partnering with award-winning cartoonist, Kirk Anderson, we’re flexing our creative muscle, developing immigration-themed political cartoons to market to publications across the country.
By emphasizing shared “Heartland” values such as hard work, opportunity, family and sensible economic policy, we want to connect with mainstream america, creating a more positive outlook for immigrants and a sensible, humane immigration policy.
According to most experts, including MN State Economist, Tom Stinson, immigrants are crucial to the state’s economic future. While the current economy poses serious problems, it does not change the underlying demographic trends that clearly point to a need for non-U.S. born workers and consumers.
Despite the valuable contributions of immigrants to our society, humane immigration policy reform has failed to pass mainly due to misunderstandings and a lack of political will. We aim to change that!
So far we’ve developed these two prototype cartoons with Kirk. I hope you enjoy them and that you see the value in getting these into mainstream publications. We need your help to compensate Kirk for the serious time he is investing and to support our marketing of the cartoons!
Learn more about Kirk Anderson (and his new book, Banana Republic!) at http://www.kirktoons.com
The Resource Center has adopted AFFIRM’s principles for immigration reform. Learn more about AFFIRM at http://affirmcoalition.org/reformprinciples.aspx
3. SUMMER SERVICE LEARNING COURSE (Req. Intermediate Spanish)
We are pleased to announce the development of a summer service learning course at the Resource Center!
Course Description: Students learn through classroom discussion, volunteer work in the Latino community and class visits to community organizations. Each week in class, students will examine a topic and discuss how it affects the community with whom they are working. Topics may include: the relationship between the global economic system and emigration from Latin-America, human rights issues along the U.S./Mexican border, federal immigration reform, language issues, and Latino contributions to U.S. culture and economy.
Instructor Bio: Kathleen Ganley has been teaching courses on service-learning and Latino immigration at the University of Minnesota for 13 years. She has worked with 15-20 organizations and placed nearly 2000 students in community service positions. Kathleen has lived in Spain, Peru and Mexico and has been involved in the Latino immigrant community in Minnesota for 24 years.
Goals: Students will become familiar with root causes of why Latinos leave their homelands and with some of their challenges and successes in Minnesota.
Dates and Times: To be determined! But we’re considering mid-June to late-July; a 5-6 week course running approximately 3 to 4 hours each day (depending on the day’s activities). Add your name to the waiting list by e-mailing stephanie.bates@americas.org.
4. ROUNDTABLE FACILITATION
With our great intern support, we’re planning to host two distinct roundtable discussions, helping participating non-profit organizations to learn from each other and collaborate where possible.
The first roundtable is for leaders of organizations involved in Immigration Advocacy. Through coordination and sharing of information, we are more likely to achieve a positive, humane comprehensive immigration reform.
The second roundtable is for leaders of organizations involved in Community Development in Latin-America. Our desire is to create an opportunity for organizations to share ideas on best practices, strategies and how they will confront new economic conditions.
While these roundtable discussions are not open to the general public, we hope you see the benefit in creating opportunities for these organizations’ leaders to share knowledge and network effectively.
5. “HARMONY BEYOND BOUNDARIES” - A SPRING CONCERT BENEFIT 4/24/9
Distinguished Resource Center member Don Irish is your Host for an exciting concert at Hamline Methodist Church, featuring the musical stylings of Carlos Diaz (guitar), Miriam Larson (flute), Nick, Carter (harp), and Russell Packaged (children’s chorus). Admission is free, but personal contributions are welcome. Sponsored by Friends School of Minnesota, Friends for a Non-Violent World, and The Resource Center of the Americas.
Friday, April 24, 2009 at 7:00 pm Hamline Methodist Church 1514 Englewood Ave St. Paul
6. RESOURCE CENTER STAFFING
Beginning in March, I advanced from Part-Time to Full-Time. So we now have 2 Full-Time staff, a wealth of Interns and Volunteers, and a motivated Board of Directors driving our mission forward full steam!
7. BUSINESS SPONSORSHIP
We recently initiated a Business Sponsorship program to generate needed revenue during challenging economic times. By promoting socially-aware businesses and good community partners we, in turn, gain needed support in the form of in-kind or charitable donations.
We want to acknowlege the following businesses for their continuing, and very much appreciated, support:
Glacier’s Cafe
http://www.glacierscafe.com/
A casual dining restaurant known for award winning Frozen Custard, with a full menu of healthy and delicious fast food including sandwiches, salads, soups and chilies. Inside or patio dining available.
Northern Sun
http://www.northernsun.com/
An independent, locally-owned national mail-order business and retail store providing “products for progressives” since 1979.
8. INTERNSHIP AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Coffee Hour Programming: We always appreciate help in programming interesting and relevant Coffee Hours.
Curriculum Development: Enhance our Spanish Language curriculum, and develop new curriculum, including a Latin-American “Holiday Kit” to help schools thoughtfully adopt new holiday celebrations.
Graphic Design Help re-design our written material including program brochures, organizational brochure, fliers, etc. Create banners , t-shirts and a media kit.
Web Developer: Develop a “Latin-American Events” web portal and list-serv for use by the Twin Cities community in posting events. Must be familiar with Ruby on Rails and Radiant CMS experience would be helpful.
Program Working Groups: “Latino Voices” program or “Immigrant Nation” cartoons program.
9. FEATURED BOARD MEMBER - MEREDITH SOMMERS
[JCS: Meredith Sommers, with the Resource Center since its origins 25 years ago, still serves on the Board yet stepped down as Chair in January. She led the intense volunteer effort that saw us through our recent restructuring.]
I was born in 1938 into a St. Paul family where women were actively engaged in reforming the world around them, and the bug bit me at an early age. My interest in Latin America began when I was a four-year old child. My Grandparents had traveled to Guatemala, and brought to me a hand woven skirt. I believed that I had a sister somewhere in Guatemala, and someday I would find her. Many decades later, I did find her, in the spirit of the girls and women who live in the highlands of Guatemala. This incident helped form my approach to education that is based on personal and tangible experience, inside and out of the classroom.
University of Minnesota, then marriage and soon three sons, all by the time I was 30, then my husband, Jay Dregni, was transferred to Europe for four years and my questions took a leap forward. I observed different ways of dealing with major issues, such as hunger and poverty, and realized the importance of political will in solving social problems. Upon return, in 1975, I worked with others to create the Hunger Action Coalition whose mission was to educate church and community members in order to work toward alleviating the causes of hunger.
Through this work, in 1982, I was invited by the National Council of Churches to participate in a delegation to Nicaragua. Our purpose was to observe how the new Sandinista government was working on behalf of the poor, who were the majority of the population. This trip inspired me, as nothing else had, and I made a commitment to myself to work for justice on behalf of those whom I met.
My education continued when I worked for the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College, leading travel seminars to Mexico and Central America in the 1980s. Our teachers there did not hold college degrees; they were campesinos, unionists and mothers who had learned about the world through their experiences of living in the world, and often a hard world of poverty and war.
As one of the founders of the Resource Center of the Americas in 1983, I worked on the board with others who had had similar experiences and wanted to extend our knowledge to the general public. We believed that an organized cadre of people could change U.S. policies in Latin Americas, beginning with stopping the U.S. from invading Nicaragua. We needed to be strategic and skilled with our limited resources, so we developed curriculum and taught courses, collected books and periodicals for a lending library, and offered speaker training classes to multiply our effort. From 1990 to 2000, I joined the staff, and worked closely with Mary Swenson and Pam Costain to develop the educational programs at the Resource Center that would lead to action.
When the Resource Center suspended operation in August 2007, I was serving on the board. A small group of board members believed that the Resource Center was too vital to let die, so we kept the flame going. In one of my greatest challenges, I became chair during the year of revival, and today, the organization is back with skilled staff and exciting programs that are critical and relevant to the our times.
The Resource Center of the Americas is a non-governmental, 501(c)(3) organization that informs, educates and organizes to promote human rights, economic justice, democratic participation, and cross cultural understanding in the context of globalization in the Americas.
