New Voices Awards
Year 2006 Competition

African American Women Evolving (Chicago) – promotes reproductive justice for all women and girls. The organization has three goals: empowering Black women and girls with information about reproductive and sexual health; identifying, developing, and supporting the activism and leadership of Black women around reproductive justice; and creating a direct response from Black women at the grassroots level to the social and economic policies that impact their reproductive and sexual health. As Senior Policy Associate, the Fellow Tamarra Coleman-Hill will help formulate the organization’s positions on legislative and policy issues such as access to emergency contraception, new reproductive technologies, and family planning; lead the organization’s efforts to seek public and private solutions to the barriers Black women face realizing reproductive justice; and help develop and implement the organization’s strategic communications plan. Ms. Coleman-Hill graduated with a M.A. in English from DePaul University.

Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (Oakland) – promotes and protects reproductive justice through organizing, building leadership capacity, developing alliances, and education to achieve community and systemic change. ACRJ’s vision of reproductive justice exists when all people have the social, political, and economic power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction for ourselves, our families and our communities. As Alliance Building Project Coordinator, the Fellow Maria Nakae will build alliances, conduct trainings and develop tools, and write papers and advocate for policies that move a reproductive justice agenda. Ms. Nakae graduated with an M.P.H. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP) (Los Angeles) – is an innovative and catalytic organization dedicated to training and mobilizing the next generation to recognize its capacity to fight HIV/AIDS. The organization fights for sound HIV/AIDS prevention policies while initiating and strengthening campaigns led by people with HIV. CHAMP links HIV/AIDS activism to broader campaigns for community health, while drawing attention to key HIV/AIDS issues within other struggles. As Los Angeles Organizer and Prevention Policy Associate, the Fellow Pedro Soto will open a West Coast office of CHAMP; create and lead seminars to develop new HIV prevention activists; and lead prevention policy work related to HIV positive individuals and immigrant Latinos. Mr. Soto is a painter and sculptor and graduated with an L.C.C. in Mass Communications from the University of Guadalajara.

Florida Legal Services (Miami) – provides direct legal services to poor communities in the areas of public benefits, immigration, housing, and community economic development. In response to the increasing severity and frequency of hurricanes, the organization established the Disaster Recovery Project to address the impact of hurricanes on poor communities of color in Florida. As Legal Organizer for the Disaster Recovery Project, the Fellow Purvi Shah will be responsible for: 1) community legal education trainings on disaster relief and the right to housing /shelter; 2) policy advocacy to ensure affordable housing is a central component of "disaster prevention;" 3) affordable housing litigation; 4) advocating for sustainable affordable ownership alternatives to public housing; 5) strengthening the capacity of local and regional community networks to respond to hurricanes in times of crisis, and 6) building a regional movement to address the impact of hurricanes on poor communities of color across the South. Ms. Shah received her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in May 2006.

Labor/Community Strategy Center (Los Angeles)- is a multiracial "think and action tank" working to impact national and international policies and mass movements from a regional base of 10 million people. The Center builds multiracial social movements and develops publications at the intersection of ecology, civil rights, public health, mass transit, workers and immigrants' rights, and the "criminalization" of urban life. The Center launches campaigns to train long-term organizers and members to challenge the ideology and power of transnational corporations and government elites and mobilizes voters to advance the interests of low-income people, women, immigrants and people of color. As an Organizer, the Fellow Lisa Adler will work on two campaigns: 1) Taking the Initiative: the Voter Education and Mobilization Project which confronts rightwing racist ballot initiatives and 2) the Bus Riders Union Project, "Fight Transit Racism - Billions for Buses," that conducts voter registration and education on the buses and leadership development activities with BRU members. Ms. Adler, a white Jewish woman, graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University with an M.A. in teaching Social Studies.

New York City AIDS Housing Network (New York) – is a membership organization comprised and led by low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to empower its members to advocate for more and better housing and sound public policies. As Housing Organizer/Coordinator, the Fellow Amos Hough will organize low-income HIV positive individuals to develop their leadership abilities and to advance their eligibility for increased rental assistance and welfare benefits. He will also contribute assistance to the organization’s voter education campaign and Parolee Human Rights Project. Mr. Hough received his organizing training from the Center for Third World Organizing in Oakland and the POWER Academy of Brooklyn and graduated from the John F. Kennedy High School in Tenafly, New Jersey.

New York Taxi Workers Alliance (New York/Philadelphia) – strives to transform the taxi industry by improving working conditions through organizing, political and media advocacy, litigation, and direct legal services. The organization has over 7,000 driver members. Foci of its work include economic justice, civil and privacy rights, safety, health care, and unionization. As Organizing Director, the Fellow Ronald Blount, will build a Taxi Workers Alliance chapter in Pennsylvania working to win the rights of 5,000 Philadelphia taxi workers to services when injured on the job, to unionization, and to health care services. He will further develop the International Federation of Taxi Workers Alliance. And he will further the work of the organization in New York City through outreach to drivers, testimony at public hearings, and meetings with elected officials. Mr. Blount received his education from the Community College of Philadelphia.

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (Seattle) – advances the dignity and legal rights of low-income immigrants in Washington state and acts as the principal advocate for immigrant rights in the Northwest, serving over 300,000 asylum seekers, battered immigrant women and children, those seeking to unify their families, and those struggling to attain U.S. citizenship. As Immigrant Leadership Fellow, Angelica Chazaro will organize a state-wide campaign to address the challenges immigrant survivors of violence face in accessing immigration status and other benefits. She will work to train and develop the leadership opportunites of the organization’s alumni (i.e., former clients) to advance immigrant interests. Ms. Chazaro holds a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Woodburn, OR) – is Oregon’s farmworker union dedicated to empowering workers to understand and take action to transform the agricultural labor system in a manner that institutionalizes better working and living conditions, addresses the power imbalance between growers and workers, and establishes respect, fairness, and dignity as the bases for the employment relationship. As KPCN-LP Co-Director for Programming and Volunteers, the Fellow Oscar Morales will oversee recruitment, training and performance of volunteer programmers, establishing and building the organization’s new low-power FM radio station as a powerful outlet for community expression, political consciousness raising, and community organizing. Mr. Morales graduated from Woodburn High School and has taken courses at Chemeketa Community College.

ProLiteracy International Programs (Syracuse) – sponsors community-based education programs and services which empower adults and their families by assisting them to acquire the literacy practices and skills they need to function more effectively in their daily lives and participate in the transformation of their societies. The organization collaborates with a global network of 106 grassroots non-governmental organizations worldwide, providing small grants, training, and technical assistance. As African Advocacy Project Coordinator, the Fellow Kofi Addai will work to develop and implement an advocacy training project for African partner organizations and to foster greater cross-cultural understanding and advocacy for Africa in the U.S. He will identify new potential partnership organizations and provide networking and training to existing African partner organizations. Mr. Addai graduated from Le Moyne College with a B.S. in Business Administration.

Queers for Economic Justice (New York) – is committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. The organization aims to challenge and change systems that create poverty and economic justice utilizing the methods of advocacy, grassroots organizing, popular education, and coalition building. It also works to increase the visibility of poor queers in gay rights and economic justice movements. As Immigration Policy Analyst, the Fellow Debanuj DasGupta will build a coalition of immigrant rights, LGBT rights, anti-poverty, and social change organizations. This coalition will work to monitor and advocate for LGBT immigrants to have access to benefits and social services and will fight for just immigration legal reform. Mr. DasGupta will conduct research of existing literature on queer immigration issues and a survey of the economic impact of current immigration policy on LGBT immigrants. He will organize “Know Your Rights” trainings specific to LGBT immigrants receiving public benefits and/or in shelter systems. He will write fact sheets, policy papers, and op-eds. And he will work with various coalitions to advocate for immigration policy reform at the federal and state levels. Mr. DasGupta finished graduate coursework from the University of Akron in Urban Planning.

Tahirih Justice Center (Falls Church) – Tahirih Justice Center (Falls Church, VA) enables immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence to access justice under US law. Through direct litigation services and public policy advocacy, Tahirih protects women and girls seeking protection from a wide range of forms of gender-based violence including forced female genital mutilation, torture, rape, trafficking, honor crimes, gender apartheid, forced marriage, and domestic violence. As Staff Attorney, the Fellow Mazna Hussain will lead an effort to comprehensively address domestic violence within the D.C. metropolitan area Muslim community. The project will focus on three central components: (1) providing direct legal services to Muslim women fleeing gender-based violence; (2) community outreach to the local Muslim community; and (3) engaging in public policy advocacy to improve the protection of women from Muslim societies facing gender-based persecution. Ms. Hussain has a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.