New Voices Awards
Year 2002 Competition

Americans for Indian Opportunity (Santa Ana, NM) - The organization serves as a catalyst for new concepts and opportunities for Native peoples and tribal governments. AIO incorporates traditional tribal values to promote innovative problem-solving, to develop leadership, and to create contemporary institutions for the 21st century. AIO's flagship, the American Indian Ambassadors Program, includes rich experiential learning and mentoring from a network of national and international leaders aimed at nurturing the growth of a new generation of Indigenous leaders. The Fellow, Ron Martinez Looking Elk, will serve as the International Program Development Specialist for the Ambassador Program. He will develop a new curriculum examining the economic and political challenges faced by Indigenous communities, including the effects of U.S. foreign and economic policies and possible responses of Native peoples. His responsibilities will also include planning international Ambassador gatherings and building a network of international program contacts to enhance the organization's work. Mr. Martinez completed an Associate's degree in Fine Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in 1993 and is an award-winning potter. He is of the Isleta and Taos Pueblos.

Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach (San Francisco, CA)- API Legal Outreach's mission is to provide cultural and language-sensitive legal advocacy to underserved Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization provides legal and policy advocacy in the areas of immigrants' rights, elder abuse, family law, and youth law. As the Trafficking Survivors' Advocate/Organizer, the Fellow Mie Lewis, will establish a rapid-response trafficking project which will provide services and broad-based advocacy for trafficking victims, particularly women and children, in the Bay Area, currently a major hub for trafficking in the UnitedStates. She will educate immigration authorities, local law enforcement, social service providers, and the general public about trafficking issues, including possible applications of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. She will also organize a coalition to identify victims of trafficking and forced prostitution and to provide them with legal and social services. Ms. Lewis received her J.D. from Stanford Law School in May 2000.

Chinese Staff and Workers' Association (New York, NY) - The Association addresses the civil and human rights of low-income immigrant workers through community organizing campaigns and confronts the systemic causes of poverty and inequity through several community-based programs: workplace health and safety, restaurant workers organizing, anti-displacement, and three new projects organizing home care attendants and car service drivers. CSWA is a multi-generational membership organization consisting of union and non-union workers, both employed and unemployed. The Fellow, Wei Chen, will serve as Director of the Sunset Park Labor Rights Clinic and Women Empowerment Program. She will spearhead a Labor Rights Clinic in the Brooklyn Worker's Center and design a new program assessing and addressing the needs of immigrant women and girls, drawing on her language skills (Mandarin/Fujianese). Emerging from a courageous struggle through childhood poverty, Ms. Chen completed, in 1996, her B.S.W. in Social Work and her B.A. in Foreign Languages and International Communications at Shih Chien University in Taiwan. She emigrated to the United States in 1999 and is currently enrolled in Cornell University's Labor Studies Certificate Program.

Grassroots International (Jamaica Plains, MA) - GRI promotes social justice through partnerships with social change organizations in Brazil, East Timor, Eritrea, Haiti, Mexico and Palestine. The organization works to advance political, economic and social rights and to support development alternatives through grantmaking, education, and advocacy. For 2002, GRI has established three priorities for its advocacy: 1) supporting popular land reform alternatives and opposing the World Bank market-based land reform plan in Brazil; 2) advancing policy alternatives related to Plan Puebla-Panama; and 3) building new coalitions to examine U.S. Military Aid to Israel. As the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, the Fellow, Nisrin Elamin, will strengthen relationships with and the advocacy work of GRI partners, facilitate GRI's own advocacy campaigns, and take the lead in creating a long-term policy advocacy program building on GRI's current strategic plan. In May 2000, Ms. Elamin received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Socio-political Development Studies from Harvard University. She is originally from Sudan.

Hmong National Development (Washington, DC) - The Hmong are New Americans who came as refugees after the Vietnam War. There are now over 300,000 Hmong Americans in the United States, two-thirds living in poverty. The primary goals of HND are 1) furthering the education of all Hmong people, 2) increasing the economic prosperity of the Hmong community, and 3) developing resources and capacity to strengthen the role and involvement of Hmong individuals and organizations to shape the community's future. As Policy Advocate, the Fellow, Doua Thor will implement education and outreach programs to support and maintain public policies that serve the interest of HND and its constituency. She will develop program objectives and activities to increase community capacity, convene meetings and workshops, and develop new partnerships with individuals and organizations invested in the advancement of Hmong interests. Ms. Thor came with her family as a Hmong refugee to Detroit, and will graduate with a Master's of Social Work with a concentration on Public Policy from the University of Michigan in May 2002.

Idaho Women's Network Research and Education Fund (Boise, ID) - The Fund is a coalition of women and men of diverse racial backgrounds, ages, income levels and sexual orientations. Through advocacy, organizing, and citizen action, IWN-REF promotes justice, diversity, and equal rights. Organizational goals include: 1) increasing participation at all levels of the democratic process by women, low income people, and people of color; 2) developing, promoting, and implementing positive values-based public policies to improve the quality of and opportunity in lives of Idaho women and their families; and 3) ending institutionalized oppressions including racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism. The Fellow, Wendy Morgan, will serve as the Project Organizer for the Idaho Reproductive Rights Project to promote and protect reproductive rights and health for all women. She will be responsible for a campaign to convince Idaho policymakers of the need for state-funded family planning services. With its conservative political environment, Idaho is one of four states nationwide lacking these services. Ms. Morgan's primary duties will be to plan and implement the initiative through research, coalition building, and grassroots organizing. She will graduate with a Master's in Social Work from Boise State University in Spring 2002.

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (New York, NY) - The Project provides legal support to immigrants accused of crimes, incarcerated, or detained by the government and placed in removal proceedings, and educates the public about the poorly understood yet often devastating immigration removal system. Over 23,000 immigrants are locked up daily in detention facilities, and eighty-five percent of those facing removal from the United States lack legal representation. As an Organizer/Advocate, the Fellow, Aarti Shahani, will build self-sustaining, grassroots efforts to educate both immigrant communities and the public about the immigration removal system and to reform the system. She will produce written educational materials, coordinate legal clinics for families facing removal and detention, develop media pieces, and facilitate liaison work with policymakers. She draws on her personal experience of seeing her uncle deported and her father temporarily imprisoned by immigration authorities. Ms. Shahani will graduate with a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in May 2002.

Institute for Southern Studies (Durham, NC) - The Institute is a research, media, and education center, working in collaboration with disenfranchised communities for social and economic justice in the South. Core programs include the Southern Voting Rights Project, the Environmental and Economic Justice Program, and the Farmworker/New Immigrants Program. The organization publishes the award-winning Southern Exposure magazine and released the Gold and Green report in 2000 aimed at debunking the "jobs vs. environment" myth. The Fellow, Rania Masri, will serve as Director of the Environmental and Economic Justice Program. Her primary responsibilities will be conducting community-based policy research, organizing public forums in low-income communities to share Institute research, and developing collaborative and constructive working relationships around common issues of environmental and economic justice. Ms. Masri received her Ph.D. in Forestry from North Carolina State University in May 2001. She holds dual citizenship from the United States and Lebanon, and is recognized for her advocacy to improve U.S. foreign policies affecting Iraq and Palestine, as well as environmental management policies in Lebanon.

International Possibilities Unlimited (Silver Spring, MD) - IPU seeks to build a global network linking people of African descent in the United States to social justice struggles throughout the world. The organization mobilizes national and international networks, advocates for social justice, conducts research, and provides information, technical assistance, and avenues for experiential learning. As Director of the Young Adult Leadership Development Program, the Fellow, Shani O'Neal, will develop and lead a cross-national initiative targeting students at DC/Maryland area Historically Black Colleges and Universities and young adults associated with partner organizations in Africa and the Caribbean. She will develop resource materials, facilitate on-line work groups, and utilize cultural expressions to organize human rights training workshops. In addition, she will make interventions at the UN Commission on Human Rights based on collaborative work by the three organizations. Ms. O'Neal is a Fulbright Scholar who graduated with a Masters degree in African Area Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in September 2000.

Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates (Los Angeles, CA) - Situated in the heart of Los Angeles' Koreatown, KIWA is working to build a grassroots community base of Korean and Latino immigrant workers. The organization's mission is to empower low-wage immigrant workers and to develop a progressive constituency and leadership in Los Angeles' immigrant communities to struggle in solidarity with other underrepresented communities for social justice. Major programs include 1) Worker Organizing, with an emphasis on restaurant workers, and 2) a Worker Empowerment Clinic, providing legal advice and organizing assistance to workers in garment, janitorial, grocery, electronic and various other industries. As an Organizer, the Fellow, Vy Nguyen, will conduct corporate research, policy advocacy, community organizing, and media outreach to support ongoing campaigns to help low-wage immigrant workers win improved working conditions. She will also publicize KIWA campaigns beyond local Korean ethnic media into other ethnic and mainstream outlets. Ms. Nguyen holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. She serves as Editor of gidra magazine, a non-profit Asian American community publication.

La Mujer Obrera (El Paso, TX) - La Mujer is a community-based organization dedicated to improving the economic, political, and social status of low-income women of Mexican heritage and their families. The organization works to develop economic alternatives for women, helps women develop new leadership skills and organizational structures, and facilitates a continual process of consciousness-raising through the use of popular arts, culture, and political education. La Mujer addresses seven areas of basic need: employment, education, health, housing, nutrition, peace, and political liberty. In 1998 La Mujer launched El Puente Community Development Corporation to provide new sources of social, educational, and economic opportunity and to promote community revitalization. As the Border Women's Development Coordinator, the Fellow, Anayanse Garza, will be responsible for developing the organization's regional initiative with grassroots women's organizations from both sides of the US-Mexico border. She will organize the network, convene sessions to develop analyses regarding and strategies to improve women's conditions, and raise funds to sustain the initiative over the long term. Born and raised on the US-Mexico border, Ms. Garza attended Smith College and has served as an AmericorpsVISTA volunteer.

Mental Disability Rights (Washington, DC) - MDRI is an advocacy organization promoting international recognition and enforcement of the rights of people with mental disabilities worldwide by documenting human rights abuses and supporting development of mental disability advocacy efforts in other parts of the world. The organization has published reports on conditions in the mental health systems of Mexico, Russia, Hungary, and Uruguay, with a forthcoming issue on Kosovo. Its work on Mexico was featured in the January 2000 issue of the New York Times Magazine The Fellow, Alison Hillman, will serve as Director of the Americas Advocacy Initiative. She will design and implement the organization's advocacy support programs, human rights monitoring, and litigation in the Americas. Her responsibilities include leading in-country fact-finding missions, writing reports to publicize existing abuses and encourage reform, and training and supporting grassroots advocacy organizations. She will also advocate for the rights of people with mental disabilities at the United Nations, Organization of American States, and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Hillman is currently a candidate for a J.D. degree from American University.

Miami Workers' Center (Miami, FL) - The Center addresses the fundamental problems associated with the rapid expansion of low-wage work and the reduction of public services to low-income communities of color. The organization conducts its work by: 1) initiating and developing democratic grassroots organizations such as Low Income Families Fighting Together (LIFFT); 2) helping those organizations engage effectively in community organizing campaigns, and 3) developing the strategic and technical capacity of worker leaders through hands-on organizing and intensive political education. Issues addressed include child care, health care, housing, transportation and welfare reform. MWC increases the voice, participation, and leadership of no- and low-wage workers of color and their representative organizations in policy-making, community initiatives, and the broader social justice movement. The Fellow, Sushma Sheth, will serve as the Media, Research, and Policy Director. She will conduct research and analysis on legislative/public policy changes affecting the Center's constituency and develop policy proposals to win resources and concessions for the community. She will also coordinate media training for grassroots members and organize media events to increase the Center's visibility. Ms. Sheth graduated with a Bachelors degree in Development Studies from Brown University in 2001. She has previously organized Indian youth to address the spread of HIV/AIDS among Indian youth in three Indian cities.

Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project (Grand Rapids, MI) - The Project's mission is to provide systemic aid and legal services to migrant farmworkers and their families across Michigan, with special emphasis on services not provided to undocumented workers under the Federal Legal Services Corporation. An estimated 160,000 migrants and farmworkers (and their families) reside in Michigan at least part of each year. The organization has prevailed in class action litigation and helped put an end to large-scale fraud committed by non-lawyer immigration groups practicing law without a license. The Fellow, Mariza Gamez-Garcia, will serve as the Legal Service Coordinator for Indigenous Populations. She will be the primary outreach person, spokesperson, and legal advocate for the growing number of indigenous persons brought to West Michigan to work in fields under conditions approaching slavery. She will also be responsible for raising the awareness of the larger community regarding the plight of indigenous workers. Ms. Gamez-Garcia is a daughter of migrant farmworkers and grew up living and working in farm labor camps in Florida and Michigan, harvesting oranges and blueberries. In September 2000, she received a J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

Women of Color Resource Center (Berkeley, CA) - The Center aims to develop a firm, institutional foundation for social change activism by and on behalf of women of color, by bringing together women across lines of class, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. WCRC creates and distributes educational and information resources, while challenging deeply-rooted beliefs and practices that keep women of color marginalized. As the Director of the Welfare Policy Program, the Fellow, Kaaryn Gustafson, will be responsible for researching and developing education and advocacy tools related to welfare legislation's impact on women of color. She will focus on the exclusion of children born into families receiving Temporay Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the exclusion of immigrant families, the exclusion of women convicted of drug felonies, and the criminalization of women on welfare. Ms. Gustafson completed her J.D. at the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law, in 1997 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at U.C. Berkeley. She previously conducted legal research that contributed to prisoners' class action victory against the California Board of Prison Terms for noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.