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2011 Funding Schedule
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2010 Grants - $66,000
In 2010 the DMF continued its tradition of funding projects that further community and labor organizing. A complete list of all projects including amount awarded can be found at our LINKS section. We are proud of all our grantees and the amazing work they are doing ranging from fighting for the right to housing, organizing restaurant workers , supporting farmworkers in Florida, taking on giant corporations like Rio Tinto at Boron, and training a new generation of working class leaders. Take a minute to click on to their websites (addresses at LINKS) and read all the details.We are highlighting just a few of these projects below.The DMF has now funded a total of 219 different projects in the amount of $619,400. We look forward to hearing about the work you are doing and how we can support you.
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(Restaurant Opportunities Centers)
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles (ROC-LA) is a multi-racial restaurant worker organization that organizes restaurant workers for improved wages and working conditions and increased opportunities for advancement in the restaurant industry.
ROC's model is to 1) help workers confront abuse in high-profile fine dining restaurant companies, 2) promote responsible employers who want to "take the high road" to profitability by improving conditions for restaurant workers and 3) do research that will lead to policy initiatives that lift conditions industry wide.
The DMF awarded a grant of $3,000 to ROC-LA for a Leadership Development program.
In February 2011, ROC-LA hosted a summit meeting and introduced their report on the restaurant industry in L.A.
We applaud this amazing group that has taken on the task of reaching out to over 300,000 restaurant workers in LA.
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The DMF awarded Homies Unidos a grant in the amount of $3,000 to train young people to work as community organizers fighting for progressive change within the struggles for criminal justice and immigration rights. The DMF arranged for our ally, the Harry Bridges Institute, to take the graduates on a political boat tour of the LA Harbor.
June 1, 2011
Ms. Diane Middleton
On Sunday April 17 ten young men and women graduated from Homies United Youth leadership Training course. Family, friends, and community leaders like Oscar Domínguez of The Salvadoran Business Corridor and Raul Claros of Latino Coalition were there supporting these young people who underwent 16 weeks of training two times per week. This could have not been able to have happened without the support of the Diane Middleton Foundation and The Solidago Foundation whose support provided the stipend for the youth and expenses.
Youth were able to learn how to organize in their communities. They did outreach for a seminar on immigration and criminal justice. They were able to provide participants with free legal consultations, services which were donated by the attorneys Alan Diamante and Gordon Turner. Part of their training was to be able to be exposed to civic participation that included a field trip to Los Angeles City Hall were they sat with city council staff and had a tour, they were able to speak to them about issues that affect them in the community like; Gang injunctions, immigration, mass incarceration and support for teen parents. They also learned the importance of getting an education with field trips to the universities of UCLA and UCSB. Every field trip was a learning experience. We were giving the treat to go on a boat trip through the Harry Bridges Institute. In which as Elizabeth Ulloa put it “I didn’t know there was a recycling factory and how workers have been replaced by machines, a Federal Prison, how the fright ships carrying hundreds of containers came from all over the world mostly from China and the U.S. had only one dock for exports. All I knew about the Harbor was the Ports O’ Call Village in San Pedro and that was only to go eat, I will never look at the Harbor the same way” she finished. Ely like the other youth learned about who Harry Bridges was and what he stood for. No better way but to teach our youth to continue to fight for the rights of our community members through the rights for immigrants, for youth incarcerated, for the workers, women’s rights, for those most unfortunate who have been disfranchised.
The participants of the youth leadership program are mainly young people between 15 and 19 years of age of the immigrant community of Pico-Union and Westlake in Los Angeles neighborhoods. They are young people who have had problems in schools, with the law or young girls are already mothers. These young people have to have graduated from our Epiphany Project program, a 12 weeks life skills program, workshops includes; HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, gang violence awareness and we address issues such as poverty, racial discrimination. Youths applying to the Youth Leadership Training need to have completed the Epiphany project program in order to participate in the Youth Leadership Training course.
The young graduates have a better understanding of the political system works from local government to the national impact that policies have in our communities. They now know how to engage with their representatives or how to call them when they have a concern in their community. The training of the leadership youth mission is to educate, train and motivate young people involved in civic responsibility and community service. For the most part, this will be their first job they will be able to put on their resume. Youth were compensated for their participation. This training is the first in a series that we will be conducting in our community.
We give thanks to the Mr. Wolff from the Harry Bridges Institute for the educational tour through the Harbor which connected the dots as to why we can’t stop fighting to the rights of our people.
Thank you,
Alex SanchezExecutive
DirectorPhone: 213-383-7484
Cell: 213-268-6987
www.homiesunidos.org
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The DMF awarded the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) $3,000 for their Summer School and a separate grant of $3,000 for the National Youth Organizing Institute. The articles that follows from SOUL's Spring Newsletter describes what they have accomplished as they look back on 15 years of training hundred of progressive young leaders.
read more...
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(People Organized
to Win Employment Rights)
People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) applied for funding to educate students about the devastating impact of California's Proposition 13 and train them to take action to increase state funding for education. We reprint below a letter from one of these student organizers, Che'Graftanay Mims.....
