Institutional Announcements Archives - Page 16 of 24

NAACP Cites Work of College, President

Posted on November 16, 2015March 23, 2022

On any given day you can find a Kalamazoo College student playing ping pong, shooting baskets or serving up a hot meal at the Douglass Community Association.

A center for social, recreational and community development activities in the city’s Northside neighborhood, the Douglass Community Association has served Kalamazoo residents for nearly 100 years.

“For decades, I’ve watched Kalamazoo College students come by the bus full to volunteer at the Douglass,” says Dr. Charles Warfield, president of the Metropolitan Kalamazoo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “As a more than 70-year resident of Kalamazoo, I have consistently seen Kalamazoo College support the efforts of the black community and be front runners in the area of social justice.”

Each week during the academic year, many of the more than 100 K students who work in the local community through service-learning courses or co-curricular programming coordinated by the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement head to Kalamazoo’s Northside Neighborhood, home to many members of the city’s black community. K students work with teachers and elementary age students at Woodward School and with families who are part of Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), a grassroots organization that provides tutoring services to children residing in the Interfaith Neighborhood Housing community. Since its founding in 2001, K’s Center for Civic Engagement, through service-learning courses and student-led programs, has engaged more than 6,500 K students in long-term, reciprocal partnerships to foster academic learning, critical problem-solving, and a lifetime of civic engagement while strengthening the Kalamazoo community.

This long-standing community partnership, in addition to the work of Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Warfield says, contributed to the recognition of both the College and its president with the Vanguard Award at the NAACP’s 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet.

The Vanguard Award honors an organization or group of people whose forward thinking has significantly affected the lives of all people, and specifically people of color in Kalamazoo. Past recipients include the City of Kalamazoo, Sid Ellis and the Black Arts and Cultural Center, and the philanthropists of the Kalamazoo Promise.

“We have outstanding people in our midst who make it their business to make a difference in the lives of those in need,” Warfield says. “We need to honor organizations and people who invest so unselfishly in our community to make this a better place to live now and for the future.”

During President Wilson-Oyelaran’s 10 years at the College, she has worked tirelessly, Warfield asserts, in the name of social justice.

“Kalamazoo College has always been one of the bright lights of social justice,” he says. “Dr. Wilson-Oyelaran stepped in and didn’t miss a beat. I can’t think of anyone or anyplace more deserving of the Vanguard Award.”

During her tenure at the College, President Wilson-Oyelaran has helped the College make its campus and educational experience more diverse—increasing the number of first generation, low-income, international and domestic students of color who study here.

President Wilson-Oyelaran’s commitment to social justice and leadership development, however, may be most evident in the creation of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL), a formal program that integrates the academic experience with social justice activism geared toward helping students make communities and the world more equitable for all.

The ACSJL, opened in 2009, supports initiatives proposed by students, staff and faculty; provides forward-thinking programming; offers fellowships for emerging and veteran social justice leaders; and hosts annual signature events with global reach.

“I am incredibly humbled and honored to receive the Vanguard Award and accept it on behalf of Kalamazoo College,” says President Wilson-Oyelaran. “It is really gratifying to have the community recognize the many years of investment in the Kalamazoo community by our faculty, staff and students and to take note of the College’s efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive community.”

The NAACP’s 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet was held November 7, 2015 at Western Michigan University’s Bernhard Center.

Article by Erin (Miller) Dominianni ’95; photo by Keith Mumma

Kalamazoo College 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership Goes to Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

Posted on October 10, 2015March 23, 2022

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement (Familia), the only LGBTQ Latino organization in the United States that focuses on racial justice through a trans and queer lens, is the winner of the 2015 Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership.

Familia was formed with a mission to work at the national and grassroots levels to achieve the collective liberation of LGBTQ Latinos and their families by leading an intergenerational movement through community organizing, advocacy, and education.

Jennicet Gutierrez, an organizer with Familia, was humbled by receiving K’s Global Prize.

“It’s an honor to work on behalf of the undocumented immigrants who are suffering,” they said. “We’ll work tirelessly to stand up for the dignity of these brave people.”

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement National Coordinator Jorge Gutierrez — Familia National Coordinator Jorge Gutierrez

The Global Prize, the second such award given since the biennial competition was born in 2013, was announced Saturday evening. It came after a two-day competition where the 10 finalist organizations engaged in social justice work from around the globe presented their projects to a panel of judges comprised of social justice advocates from Kalamazoo College, the local Kalamazoo community, the United States, and abroad.

Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. (MULYD), “Women, Struggle, and Rights for Everyone,” a Mexican-based organization that works to educate and empower indigenous women about health and reproductive rights, and The Association of Injured Workers & Ex-Workers of General Motors Colmotores (ASOTRECOL), a group working to draw attention to the plight of employees injured at a GM plant in Colombia, each won an Audience Choice Award of $2,500 each.

Jorge Gutierrez, national coordinator with the Los Angeles-based Familia, said the $25,000 prize, awarded by K’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, would help Familia sustain its current work and grow its influence into much needed areas.

Alicia Garcia and Guadalupe Garcia Alvarez outside the Arcus Center — Alicia Garcia and Guadalupe Garcia Alvarez of MULYD

“I am a mixed bag of emotions,” said Gutierrez. “All of us who do social justice work deserve resources, and we are grateful for this prize. We don’t take this lightly. We would continue doing what we’re doing if we had won or not.”

The organization’s work extends across the nation, including several Western states, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. They are looking to enter the Midwest and many southern states as well, which the prize money will help them do – among other things, Jorge Gutierrez said.

“We can now pay some volunteers, and devote our energies in areas we’ve always wanted to,” he said, adding some of the money would be given to the MULYD group, with which Familia is planning to collaborate.

All ten finalist groups were awarded a plaque in recognition of their work by Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran.

Paige Shell-Spurling and Jorge Parra outside the Arcus Center — Paige Shell-Spurling and Jorge Parra of ASOTRECOL

“We’ve spent 48 hours together, and come to appreciate each other in deep ways,” she told members of the ten finalists. “We here at the College are touched by your collective work. Know that you are loved, affirmed, and empowered.”

Lisa Brock, academic director of the Arcus Center, gave a closing remark to finalists.

“When we began this in 2013, it was never about competition,” she said. “It was a way to get all of you amazing people here and to lift you up, praise you, and say we are in solidarity with you.”

Meet the finalists for the 2015 Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership

Posted on October 10, 2015April 18, 2022

Meet the finalists for the 2015 Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership. Learn more about each finalist here: https://reason.kzoo.edu/csjl/prize/finalists. One finalist in this juried competition will receive the $25,000 Global Prize. The recipient will be announced by Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran at 8:00 p.m., Saturday Oct. 10, in a celebration open to the public at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 205 Monroe St., on the K campus.

At a Crossroads: Forest Dwellers of India
Location: villages in Madhya Pradesh, India; communities in Canada and USA
The project empowers the hope of forest-dwelling tribal communities in India to reforest barren lands, convert wastelands into healthy eco-systems, and return identity, livelihood, sustenance, and rootedness to tribal communities.

Bavubuka: Transformative Voices of Justice
Location: Kampala, Uganda
The Bavubuka Foundation believes that the use of music and the arts can transform young lives and unify diverse communities. Through the use of hip hop culture, they work to create and connect young Ugandan leaders to their authentic indigenous expression and to develop their understanding of the value of their culture and heritage, thus helping to rebuild, heal and restore the spirits, hearts and souls of the community.

Black on Both Sides
Location: Chicago, Ill., USA
Black on Both Sides is a project that highlights the voices and experiences of Black youth who have experienced both the foster care system and the juvenile or adult justice system, while launching a direct action organizing campaign to address the root causes of the foster care to prison pipeline.

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
Location: Los Angeles, Calif., USA National
Familia: TQLM is the only national LGBTQ Latina organization that focuses on racial justice through a trans and queer lens in and for the Latina community. Through an intergenerational community organizing, advocacy, and education movement, TQLM works on immigration, trans justice, and family acceptance.

Justice for Injured Colombian General Motors: ASOTRECOL
Location: Bogota, Colombia
The injured Colombian GM workers organized an association, ASOTRECOL, after developing injuries on the job that left them disabled. They have been camped in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia for nearly four years and have used a series of creative actions to bring visibility to their struggle.

Mujeres, Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. (MULYD)
Location: Región Norte del Estado de México, México
Mujeres, Lucha y Derechos para Todas is the first organized group led by indigenous women in the northern region of Mexico state. Their mission is to contribute to the knowledge and acknowledgement of women’s human rights by developing community leaders who promote and spread effective and appropriate information, particularly on sexual and reproductive rights to other women so that they may fully exercise their rights.

Our Community is Our Campaign: Freedom Inc.
Location: Madison, Wisc., USA
Freedom Inc. is a grassroots collective of intergenerational Black and Southeast Asian women queer folks, and youth whose work is to end violence (both interpersonal and systemic) within and against low-income communities of color. FI works to build the leadership and community organizing capacities of low-income women, queer folks and youth.

Radical Mental Health: Paths for Individual & Collective Liberation: The Icarus Project
Location: New York, N.Y., USA
The Icarus Project is a support network and media project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness. Through workshops, online and media presence, and other resources, their work shifts conceptions of mental wellness and directly impacts how psychiatrists, therapists, and institutions address emotional distress and provides people with tools to transform themselves and their cultures.

Trans Women of Color Collective: Shifting the Narrative
Location: Washington, D.C., USA Transnational
Trans Women of Color Collective is a grassroots global initiative created to offer opportunities for trans people of color, their families and comrades in order to heal, foster kinship, and leverage resources to dismantle systems of oppression. Their mission is to uplift the narratives, lived experiences and leadership of trans and gender nonconforming people of color.

Uno por Uno: Puente Human Rights Movement
Location: Phoenix, Ariz., USA
Unfortunately, Uno por Uno [Puente Human Rights Movement] was unable to attend the Global Prize Weekend.
The Puente Human Rights Movement is a grassroots migrant justice organization that educates and empowers migrant communities to protect and defend their community members and improve their quality of life. By stopping deportations Uno por Uno (One by One), Puente attempts to transform the immigration debate, build new leaders, and challenge the criminalization and mass incarceration of migrant communities.

Medea Benjamin Kicks Off a Global Prize Weekend at Kalamazoo College Dedicated to Grace Lee Boggs

Posted on October 10, 2015March 23, 2022

Medea Benjamin kicked-off her keynote speech during the first night of the 2015 Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership with an ironic quip.

“It’s interesting to celebrate social justice at a competition,” said Benjamin, also a juror for the Global Prize, from K’s Dalton Theatre stage. “But in reality, what we are looking to do is not say we are better than anyone else, but that we look to emulate each other out of admiration and inspiration.”

Clad in her trademark pink, Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war, social justice organization Code Pink, spoke to an audience of K students, faculty, staff, and community members and members from the ten finalist organizations vying for the Global Prize.

“We are healers, the visionaries, the transformers,” she said to the finalists sitting close to the stage. “We transform what does not work into what can work for the whole world.”

It was the opening celebration of a two-day Global Prize weekend hosted by K’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. The night also featured music by Yolonda Lavender and Scarlet, with vocalist Abbie Maikoski, poet Denise Miller, and vocal drummer Dan Davis.

Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran welcomed audience members with the news that the 2015 Global Prize competition would be dedicated to the memory of social justice leader activist and scholar Grace Lee Boggs who died this week at the age of 100. Boggs received an honorary degree from K in 2007 and was a frequent visitor to campus in the last ten years of her life.

Benjamin touched on current-day issues that highlight the need for social justice activists to remain vigilant in fighting – including class, wealth, and racial disparities, as well as climate change, LGBTQI issues, and more, including ongoing wars across the globe.

“For a lot of young people here, war is all they’ve known.”

Through the hard work of organizers and advocates such as the Global Prize finalists in the room, said Benjamin, the needle is moving in the direction of justice on a myriad of issues.

“We’re at the tipping point on so many issues,” she said. “All because of the work of people like you. We don’t do this (work) because it’s easy, we do this work because we have to.”

Benjamin praised the cooperation between what is seen by some as disparate groups – the LGBTQ and black communities, Palestinian rights groups and the Black Lives Matter movement. The shared urge and passion for equality and justice is what the overall movement is all about, she said.

“Love is the essence of what we do,” she said. “It is love that moves us and love that will ultimately win.”

The Kalamazoo College Global Prize continues today with presentations from the finalists to a seven-member juror panel and the general public in the Connable Recital Hall in K’s Light Fine Arts Building.

One finalist will be selected to receive the $25,000 Global Prize. The announcement of the winner will be made tonight at 8:00 p.m. by President Wilson-Oyelaran at a closing celebration in the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (205 Monroe St.). Today’s presentations and tonight’s closing celebration are open to the public.

Visit here for information about the Global Prize, the ten finalists, and a schedule of Global Prize weekend: https://reason.kzoo.edu/csjl/prize.

Kalamazoo College Global Prize Weekend Kicks Off with Finalist Presentations and Opening Celebration

Posted on October 8, 2015April 5, 2023

FREE EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Kalamazoo College invites the public to participate in activities this weekend (Oct. 9-10) for the 2015 Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership. Ten groundbreaking activist organizations from around the world present their work this weekend to the public and to a jury that will award one $25,000 prize. Each finalist receives $1,000.

Organized and hosted by K’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the Global Prize Weekend will include public presentations by finalists and think tank discussions between finalists and members of the Greater Kalamazoo community. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and author of eight books, including “Drone Warfare,” will deliver the keynote address during an Opening Celebration, Friday Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m., in Dalton Theatre (Light Fine Arts Building, 1140 Academy St.). The opening celebration will also feature live music by local artists Denise Miller, Scarlet, Yolonda Lavender, Abbie Maikoski, and Dan Davis. See the full schedule for the weekend.

The Prize Weekend features a range of engaging events including a Community Box Lunch, inspiring presentations from on-the-ground activists, and a celebratory Global Dance Party (Saturday, 8:00 p.m. in the Arcus Center at 205 Monroe St.) when Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran announces the recipient of the $25,000 Global Prize.

The 22-member jury that determined the finalists included Kalamazoo College faculty, staff, and students, as well as social justice advocates from the Kalamazoo region. All have worked on relevant social justice issues represented in the applicant pool. K received 87 entries—in the form of eight- to ten-minute videos—from 22 nations and 18 states within the United States.

Finalists’ projects collectively address economic justice, cultural and environmental preservation, immigration, mass incarceration, reproductive justice, racial justice, gendered violence, trans and queer liberation, workers’ rights, and issues specifically impacting people with mental illness, youth, indigenous communities, and children in the foster care system. The scope of each project varies, some focusing on local communities, others looking at national or transnational issues.

“We believe these ten projects provide outstanding examples of transformative thinking and practice on both personal and systemic levels,” said ACSJL Executive Director Mia Henry. “The Global Prize weekend promises to be both inspirational to our community and pivotal for finalists. Leaders from all ten projects will have opportunities to learn from one another, as well as receive capacity-building support.”

Here are the ten projects, listed in alphabetical order with their location.

At a Crossroads: Forest Dwellers of India. Madhya Pradesh, India.
Bavubuka: Transformative Voices of Justice. Kampala, Uganda.
Black on Both Sides. Chicago, Ill.
Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. Los Angeles, Calif.
Justice for the Injured Colombian General Motors Workers. Bogota, Colombia.
Mujeres, Lucha y Derechos Para Todas Región Norte del Estado de México, México.
Our Community Is Our Campaign. Madison, Wisc.
Radical Mental Health: Paths for Individual & Collective Liberation. New York City.
Trans Women of Color Collective: Shifting the Narrative. Washington, D.C.
Uno por Uno: Puente Human Rights Movement. Phoenix, Ariz.

Kalamazoo College’s inaugural Global Prize for Social Justice Leadership, now a biennial event, was held in 2013. Jurors for that competition chose to split the prize among three projects.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the ACSJL will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

College Breaks Ground on New Wellness Center

Posted on September 24, 2015March 23, 2022

Kalamazoo College celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony the beginning of construction of its new fitness and wellness center. The ceremony took place at the building site at 4 p.m. (September 24). The approximately $9 million project is funded by gifts made to K’s recently completed fundraising drive, The Campaign for Kalamazoo College.

President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran said that the center is germane to the College’s liberal arts mission. “We focus on the whole student; we focus on the balance of mind, spirit and body.” The center, she added, would be “a common space in which the entire campus community–faculty, staff, students and retirees–can develop healthy life styles through participation in fitness and wellness programs.”

Grace Smith at a podium — Grace Smith ’17 explains what the fitness and wellness center will mean to students.

The 30,000 square foot, two-story center will house the following:

– a weight room and cardio fitness area of sufficient capacity to meet the needs of all students and employees;

– five multi-purpose rooms, as flexible in function as the liberal arts to which they are dedicated;

– two racquetball courts;

– expanded lockers for both the Hornet tennis teams and for general use;

– an office and health assessment room for the campus wellness director; and

– space for the George Acker Tennis Hall of Champions.

The building provides an example of excellence in sustainability. “Our building is designed and will be constructed to the high standards of energy efficiency and resource conservation explicit in a LEED silver rating,” said Wilson-Oyelaran. “And our efforts in this area will be audited by two students who have been hired and trained in LEED certification.”

(Photo by Jessie Fales ’18)

Kalamazoo College 2015 Global Prize Finalist: Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C.

Posted on September 24, 2015March 23, 2022

Kalamazoo College has announced the ten finalists for its 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Finalists will present during a Prize Weekend, Oct. 9-11, and one project will receive a $25,000 prize. Below is one in a series of profiles on the ten finalists.

We invite individuals who are familiar with this project to use our Community Input form to comment on its “grassrootedness” and transformative leadership practices. Input will be submitted to our jurors. Please see videos submitted by each finalist, as well as our rubric and other information about the Global Prize here.

Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. (MULYD)

The statistics are chilling.

In Mexico, six women die every day due to gender-based violence. Two out of three women there have suffered some form of violence. A woman is raped every 4.6 minutes. This in an a nation where only 25 percent of homes are headed by women.

Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. (MULYD), “Women, Struggle, and Rights for Everyone,” is the first organized group led by indigenous women in the Mexican state of Mexico, located in the south-central region of the country, focused mainly on working with the indigenous Mazahua women of that region.

Overall, there is a disproportionate level of violence against indigenous women than women overall in Mexico, MULYD says, while at the same time there is a lack of educational programming and support groups or frameworks for those women to turn to for help.

The group’s mission is to contribute to the knowledge and acknowledgement of women’s human rights by developing community leaders who promote and spread effective and appropriate information, particularly on sexual and reproductive rights to other women so that they may fully exercise their rights. The group is looking to grow the movement by educating and creating leaders to strengthen and perpetuate the movement, leaders say.

Currently, MULYD has organized 26 community alliances in five cities in the state, a figure they are looking to double in two years. The organization is also affiliated with the National Council of Indigenous Women and Human Rights Defenders Network of Mexico, more nationally organized human rights groups, to lobby for policy changes at the federal level.

Says Graciela Cristobal Pacheco, a Mazahua woman and participant in the group, “I believe that together we can teach [in] more places, do more things. And like other organizations reach out to other communities and other women to strengthen the organization in this region.”

Successful Campaign Closes and Exceeds Expectations!

Posted on September 22, 2015March 23, 2022

Participants in the Campaign for Kalamazoo College hold up signs indicating $129,140,336 was raised — The Campaign for Kalamazoo College raised $129,140,336!

Kalamazoo College made history today.

At a special celebratory gathering of students, faculty and staff, the College announced the completion of The Campaign for Kalamazoo College, which surpassed its $125 million goal by raising more than $129 million and, in so doing, became the most successful fundraising campaign in K’s history, generating more financial resources than the last two campaigns combined.

“We are grateful to the thousands of alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends who made contributions and volunteered time and talent to make this campaign a success,” said President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran.

“We also celebrate the deeper meaning of this campaign,” she added, “that a liberal arts education is the best education to enrich a life, in the fullest sense of that word, and the best education to provide lessons that go beyond just employment. There are centuries of evidence to support that notion and now a successful Kalamazoo College campaign to affirm it. And, by the way, a liberal arts education also happens to be the best education not for one job but for multiple jobs, which is likely to be the future for current students.”

President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran gives two thumbs up — President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran

Campaign participation was widespread. More than 17,000 donors have made gifts and pledges. Twelve donors committed to gifts of $1 million or more. Sixty-three percent of faculty and staff participated in the campaign.

The ultimate beneficiaries are K students, current and future, who do more in four years so they can do more in a lifetime. The campaign funded five capital projects and seven new endowed faculty positions. Capital projects include the renovations of the Weimar K. Hicks Center and the athletic fields complex and the construction of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership building. Ground has been broken on the new fitness and wellness center, and fundraising will continue for the planned renovation of the College’s natatorium.

The campaign created 30 new funds to support Senior Individualized Project research opportunities for students (the SIP is a graduation requirement at K) and created 35 new permanently funded student scholarships.

“This campaign is about much more than numbers,” said Wilson-Oyelaran. “This campaign is an affirmation of the liberal arts. This campaign is about alumni, parents, and friends who continue to give to Kalamazoo College so that others can benefit from the way that K practices the liberal arts.”

Photos courtesy of Jessie Fales ’18

Kalamazoo College 2015 Global Prize Finalist: Trans Women of Color Collective

Posted on September 16, 2015March 23, 2022

Trans Women of Color Collective

The brutal murder of Islan Nettles, a 21-year-old African-American transgender woman from Harlem, in August 2013 created a ripple effect in the lives of trans women of color in New York City. Her life and memory acted as the catalyst for the formation of the Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC).

TWOCC is a grassroots-funded global initiative created to offer opportunities for trans people of color, their families, and their comrades to engage in healing, foster kinship, and build community. The collective strives to educate and empower communities most disproportionately impacted by structural oppression through sharing skills, knowledge, and resources that build towards the collective liberation of all oppressed people.

TWOCC’s efforts have quickly grown. In the first six months of 2015, the group’s global initiatives were highlighted in more than 70 articles, and their Healing and Restorative Justice Institute (HRJI) has led multiple events in more than 15 cities in 10 U.S. states, and in Switzerland, and Norway. HRJI has held transformative workshops, lectures and capacity building sessions at colleges, universities and national LGBT Conferences, as well as led National LGBT conventions.

“There is a critical need for more trans people of color led initiatives that create opportunities to engage in healing and restorative justice as trans and gender nonconforming people of color are disproportionately impacted by structural oppression that is inextricably linked to physical violence, said Lourdes Ashley Hunter, a Detroit native and national director of TWOCC.

“By actively engaging in collective healing, cooperative economics, raising visibility and awareness around our lived experiences, educating and supporting the learning and growth of our comrades, investing in lives and legacies of our youth, and working towards dismantling systems of oppression, we are creating the change we seek.”

Hunter has felt first-hand the injustice often poured on trans and gender nonconforming people of color. Hunter has been homeless and been attacked. Having a support network has been incredibly important for Hunter, something they want to extend to all trans and gender nonconforming individuals looking for help navigating through a life sometimes fraught with peril.

“Our comrades – families, parents, friends and partners – all are all impacted by structural oppression as it manifests itself in every aspect of our lives,” Hunter said. “We must invest in healing and restorative justice if we are ever going to achieve collective liberation. That’s what we are trying to achieve, here at home and around the world.”

Kalamazoo College 2015 Global Prize Finalist: Puente Human Rights Movement

Posted on September 16, 2015March 23, 2022

Puente Human Rights Movement

The struggle of many Latino migrants to the United States routinely goes unnoticed, due mostly to the undocumented status of many of these new arrivals, who do their best to not draw attention to themselves. But underneath the hardworking veneer, are stories of heartbreak, of families broken apart as immigration officials enact deportation procedures. Migrants come to the United States to fulfill dreams of a better life. Many wind-up living in crippling fear.

Attention on the plight of immigrants, especially Latinos, is becoming more focused as immigration becomes more of a front-and-center issue in the upcoming presidential election. One group has been a helping hand long before the campaign rhetoric. The Puente Human Rights Movement is a grassroots, migrant justice organization based in Phoenix, Ariz., which develops, educates, and empowers migrant communities to protect and defend themselves and their families to enhance the quality of life of community members.

“Arizona has been known as ground zero for the right wing anti-immigrant attack since racial profiling bill SB1070 became law in 2010,” said Carlos Garcia, director of Puente. “But the war of attrition waged against our community started long before then. What started in Arizona spread across the country, leading to the Obama administration’s record two-million deportations. In response, we knew we had to make Arizona an epicenter of migrant-led resistance.”

True change comes only when impacted communities organize, act and speak for themselves, the organization says. Puente’s accomplishments are both local and national in scope – they measure their impact through the development of their base, the concrete alleviation of the migrant community’s suffering and the political reach of their demands.

By halting deportations through its “Uno por Uno” (One by One) program, Puente – which translates to “bridge” in Spanish – attempts to transform the immigration debate, build new leaders and challenge the criminalization and mass incarceration of migrant communities.

Stopping deportations, and working to reunite families torn apart by the deportation, is one of Puente’s biggest efforts. Since 2013, Puente has used legal advocacy, storytelling, and community organizing to stop over 150 deportations. Through securing the release of people from immigrant detention and stopping deportations, new leaders emerge with personal experience of how to fight back against criminalization, detention, and deportation and commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind in that struggle.

Noemi Romero, who was arrested by notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio in a workplace raid in 2012 and who know helps stop other people’s deportations with the Uno por Uno project, says, “It was the worst day of my life when the sheriffs showed up at my work. But then my mom found Puente and we learned our rights and how to fight back. Since the day I got out of detention, I have committed to fight for our entire community. I won’t stop until we have justice for everyone.”

Carlos says, “Without the leadership of people who know firsthand the pain of being targeted, incarcerated, and separated from their families, we never would have seen the expansion of deferred action last year, the most important victory for the immigrant rights movement in 25 years. However, many of those who fought the hardest for this relief have been criminalized, like Noemi, and are therefore excluded. Our work is part of the movement against mass incarceration, and we continue to center the leadership of formerly incarcerated people as key to a migrant rights movement that is achieving justice and dignity for everyone.”

With a fist in the air, Puente is working to fight the anti-immigrant stain seen in Arizona in the aftermath of the now-infamous Senate Bill 1070, which was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. With an open hand, Puente organizes and maintains cultural, political, and educational programs to promote and sustain justice.

News and Events

Category: Institutional Announcements

College Breaks Ground on New Wellness Center

Successful Campaign Closes and Exceeds Expectations!