“Autism in Love” a First of Four

"Autism in Love"
A scene from “Autism in Love”

Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) will partner with Media Arts Academy of Kalamazoo to host free community sneak previews and discussions of films to be aired on the award-winning weekly PBS series Independent Lens, beginning with “Autism in Love” on Wednesday, November 11, at 5:30 p.m. at the Center (205 Monroe Street).

Formerly known as Community Cinema, the national screening series was recently re-launched as Indie Lens Pop-Up, a title that better underscores the relationship between the project and its sponsor, Independent Lens. “Indie Lens Pop-Up creates a warm, welcoming and enjoyable space for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together and develop a deeper understanding of issues that face our community,” said Mia Henry, executive director of ACSJL. “The powerful line up of films will focus on the history and context of issues in which struggle for social justice continues.” Kalamazoo is one of 75 U.S. cities where the program will occur. During the past decade, screenings of Independent Lens films have brought more than 331,000 participants together at more than 5,700 events to discuss issues that affect local communities. Kalamazoo screenings will include dinner and will be followed by a discussion led by youth participants from the Media Arts Academy and event co-sponsors. Events are free; please RSVP to acsjl@kzoo.edu.

“Autism in Love” (by Matt Fuller) follows four adults at different places on the autism spectrum who open up their personal lives as they navigate dating and romantic relationships. The first-person portrayals show that love finds a way in spite of the challenges faced by persons with autism.

Three other films are planned for the 2015-16 academic year. “In Football We Trust” (by Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn, Tuesday, January 26, 5:30 p.m. at the ACSJL, 205 Monroe Street) follows four Polynesian high school football players in Utah struggling to overcome gang violence, family pressures and poverty as they enter the high stakes world of college recruiting and the promise of pro sports.

“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” (by Stanley Nelson, Thursday, February 11, 2016, 5:30 p.m., venue to be determined) tells the story (and suggests the emerging current-day relevance) of a group of people that helped lead the new revolutionary culture that emerged in the turbulent 1960s.

“Peace Officer” (by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber, Tuesday, April 26, 2016, 5:30 p.m., venue to be determined) explores the increasingly tense relationship between law enforcement and the public through the eyes of someone who’s been on both sides–a former sheriff who established Utah’s first SWAT team, a unit that 30 years later killed his son-in-law in a controversial standoff.

K Expert on Anti-Semitism and the EU Addresses Colloquium in England

Amy Elman, the Weber Professor in Social Science, traveled to Bristol, England, in September as an invited speaker at an international colloquium on contemporary anti-Semitism. Her talked was titled “The Enduring Significance of an Abandoned Definition: the EU’s Working Definition of Anti-Semitism and its Foreign Policy Ambition,” and it focused on the the past year’s developments in the European Union. The paper builds on Amy’s recently released book The European Union, Anti-Semitism and the Politics of Denial (University of Nebraska Press, 2014). Amy also wrote the chapter “The EU’s Responses to Contemporary Anti-Semitism: A Shell Game,” which appears in the book Deciphering the New Anti-Semitism, edited by Alvin Rosenfeld (Indiana University Press, 2015)

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

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement (Familia) group photoFamilia: 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

Global Prize finalists on stage
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.

Global Prize Finalists Forest Dwellers of India
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.

Global Prize Finalists Bavubuka: Transformative Voices of Justice
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.

Global Prize Finalist Black on Both Sides
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.

Global Prize Finalist Trans Queer Liberation Movement
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.

Global Prize Finalist ASOTRECOL
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.

Global Prize Finalist MULYD
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.

Global Prize Finalist Freedom Inc
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.

Global Prize Finalist Radical Mental Health
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.

Global Prize Finalist Trans Women of Color Collective
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

Medea BenjaminMedea 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.

Global Prize Social Justice Leaders on stageKalamazoo 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.

Presenters discuss Grace Lee Boggs“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

Advertisement for global prize weekendFREE 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.

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

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.

Global Prize Finalist: Mujeres Lucha y Derechos Para Todas A.C. 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.”

The Importance of Diapers

Advertisement for 2015 St. Luke's Community Diaper DriveA person may be more inclined to think of diapers as a nuisance, but in fact they are a need and, for many in Kalamazoo, an unmet need. Jax Gardner, departmental coordinator for history and social sciences at Kalamazoo College, is working to address that need through her other coordinator role: that of managing the St. Luke’s Community Diaper Drive.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, with support from the Arcus Center for Social Justice at Kalamazoo College, is holding a community diaper drive through October 14.

For low-income families, purchasing diapers can be a challenge. SNAP and WIC benefits do not provide diapers, and adequately providing diapers for a child can cost more than a $1,000 per year.

“More than one in three Kalamazoo families struggle to provide adequate diapers for their children,” Jax said. “It’s an unconscionable gap in how we care for the young children of our community because diaper need can affect maternal/child bonding, childcare accessibility, and infant health.”

The drive is collecting disposable diapers in all sizes, along with wipes and creams; all donated items will be distributed through local charitable organizations including Loaves and Fishes, Ministry with Community, the YWCA and St. Barnabas Diapers.

Financial donations can be made payable to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, with “Diaper Drive” in the memo line, which will be used to wholesale purchase diapers in needed sizes.

Donations can be made at the following locations:

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 247 W. Lovell St.
St. Luke’s Thrift Shop, 432 S. Burdick St.
Kalamazoo College (1200 Academy Street) at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the Hicks Student Center and Dewing Hall.

“We hope that this drive will generate interest and conversation toward addressing diaper need in Kalamazoo with a long-term, sustainable plan,” Jax said.

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

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.

Trans Women of Color CollectiveTrans 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

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.

The Puente Human Rights Movement started in 2007Puente 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.
in response to attacks against day laborers in our community
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.