Nonprofit Mission Award for
ANTI-RACISM INITIATIVE
 |
Nonprofit
Mission Award for Anti-Racism Initiative Criteria:
The Anti-Racism Initiative Award recognizes an organization
that actively engages audiences in anti-racism activities.
Nominated organizations should:
- Work to eliminate
prejudice and racism in society;
- Demonstrate a commitment
to pluralism and inclusively; and
- Develop unique and
thought-provoking strategies to combat racism.
|
Finalists
|
|
Read
more about the finalists:
ANTI-RACISM
STUDY-DIALOGUE CIRCLES, St. Paul
Antiracism
Study-Dialogue Circles (ASDIC) are designed to reduce
racism by bringing people together across racial and cultural
boundaries, encouraging the exploration of the structures
of racial domination that create our differing life experiences.
Through workshops that are meant to deepen community and
transform participants, ASDIC facilitates highly interactive
groups of 12 to 15 people that meet once a week for 12
weeks. Workshops vary in format and are specialized for
both adult and young people ages 12 to 18. The forty trained
ASDIC facilitators represent a broad range of racial backgrounds
and cultural traditions. During meetings, participants
are encouraged to analyze the social problem of racism
and to develop community-based responses. They are able
to gain and analyze new knowledge, explore self-understandings,
propose questions, and share and reflect on their own
stories and experiences.
  
Developed
by Herbert A. Perkins, PhD and Margery K, Otto, JD in
2004, ASDIC was a response to a request from Hamline University
staff personnel to design an educational curriculum that
promoted racial justice and cross-cultural communication.
With selected readings, powerful video selections and
interactive exercises, Antiracism Study-Dialogue Circles
provokes deep thinking by its participants. It also encourages
participants to move outward into their own communities
with knowledge, conviction, and strength of relationship
to further the dismantling of racism.
Participant
involvement does not end when the workshops end. All graduates
of ASDIC are invited to gather quarterly to continue to
understand and support each other through their work.
Selected participants are also invited to attend Facilitator
Training Workshops and to assist ASDIC facilitators in
leading the Dialogue Circles. As a result, these trainees
then move on to become co-facilitators of new ASDIC circles
throughout the state, thus enhancing the organic growth
of ASDIC itself.
Other
leaders and organizations have used ASDIC as a jumping
point for their own anti-racism programs. For example,
Hamline University’s Graduate School of Education
makes an ASDIC course a core curriculum in its Urban Teaching
Program. Faith communities have offered dozens of community-based
ASDIC circles in Rochester and the Twin Cities, and organizations
across Minnesota host shorter ASDIC workshops. Close to
600 people in Rochester, Duluth, and the Twin Cities have
explored their own social behaviors and identities, forming
the context of race and how it is related to racism in
the United States.
Visit
the Anti-Racism Study Dialogue Circles: www.asdic-circle.org
COUNCIL
ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS, MINNESOTA, St. Paul
The
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota (CAIR-MN)
is currently the state’s only Muslim civil rights
organization, which serves Muslims and those perceived
to be Muslim. With a mission to enhance the understanding
of Islam, CAIR-MN encourages dialogue, aids in the protection
of civil liberties, empowers American Muslims, and helps
build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
With over 170,000 Muslims in Minnesota, including a Somali
population estimated to be around 80,000, CAIR-MN furthers
its mission by taking in legal cases from clients who
are in need of representation or attorney referrals, providing
legal trainings for employers, civic and media relations
trainings for communities, and participating in meetings
with elected officials, government agencies, youth civic
engagement programs and community leaders.
One
of the most difficult parts of facing discrimination is
not the acts themselves, but the feeling of disempowerment
from those who suffer. CAIR-MN strives to show people
that there are ways to stop discrimination and offers
free services to empower these individuals by advocating
for victims of bias. Working directly to deter hate against
Muslims and other minorities in Minnesota, CAIR-MN promotes
education and tolerance and engages the community in constructive
dialogue, helping to build relationships between Muslims
and the greater non-Muslim community.
  
More
specifically, the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
Minnesota implements various tactics to battle discrimination.
One core element of their mission is mediating and advocating
on behalf of Muslims and others who experience discrimination.
By protecting and defending constitutional rights of American
Muslims, they act to preserve the rights of all Americans.
CAIR-MN
also empowers American Muslims to combat racism in the
community by facilitating education, such as “Know
Your Rights” training and media training, where
Muslim leaders learn how to engage the media in a way
that positively reflects Minnesota Muslims. CAIR-MN also
organizes an annual Media Breakfast where media representatives
are given the organization’s “A Journalist’s
Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims.” Furthermore,
it also offers individual trainings to corporations and
works with elected officials and law enforcement to address
issues of anti-Muslim bias. Other CAIR-MN programs include
its co-sponsorship of Muslim Day on the Hill, Young Muslim
Professionals Coffee Hour, and Muslim Youth Leadership
Symposium.
By
promoting education and tolerance, the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, MN gives Minnesota’s Muslim community
a voice helping deter hate and bias against Muslims and
other minorities within the state.
Visit
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota:
www.cairmn.com
THE
LOFT LITERACY CENTER, EQUILIBRIUM SPOKEN WORD SERIES,
Minneapolis
As
the nation’s largest independent literary center,
The Loft Literacy Center strives to maintain and improve
the art and success of writing by supporting local authors
through competitions, grants, and honoraria. Furthering
its commitment to literature and the literary community,
The Loft has been able to turn its efforts to anti-racism
through their program Equilibrium Spoken Word Series (EQ).
As
the brainchild of Bao Phi, The Loft’s associate
program director, the Equilibrium Spoken Word Series was
developed by and for young artists of color, facilitating
a forum where young people (ages 18-30 years of age) are
able to freely express themselves around challenging subjects
that affect their lives and shape their experiences. Artists
and audiences are able to participate in this series with
a sense of expression while maintaining respect for divergent
opinions and views. By engaging communities of color across
the board, EQ creates an environment where unity is natural.
  
Now
in its eighth year, EQ has gained a devoted and active
following of spoken word fans. In 2008, it recorded and
released its first spoke word CD, “¿Nation
of Immigrants?”, that features 16 local spoken work
poets. The CD facilitates discussion and arguments on
immigration and identity while focusing on the role that
people of color have in transforming American Culture.
With critical acclaim, the CD has received recognition
from educators who are starting to use it as a part of
their curriculum to look at diverse cultural perspectives.
The
Equilibrium Spoken Word Series also reaches out to marginalized
populations in Greater Minnesota such as Willmar, East
Lake, Saint Cloud and Fargo-Moorhead, where audience members
are encouraged to openly discuss social issues affecting
their own communities. As a result, these audience members
were able to constructively address issues of concern
to them on topics of race, human rights, discrimination
and cross-cultural understanding.
Overall,
the Equilibrium Spoken Word Series covers a range of topics
from social justice concerns, discrimination, exclusion,
racism, classism, and homophobia, with an emphasis on
the validation and support of its performers and audiences.
Spoken word artists are now finding an audience for their
art form while simultaneously engaging people from diverse
cultural and socio-economic backgrounds in open dialogue
about social issues affecting their communities.
Visit
the The Loft Literary Center: www.loft.org
|
