North Star Fund News

Activists Fight for Fair and Just Immigration Reform Bill

2013-05-09T18:38:27Z

"I have a 7-year-old daughter that is an American citizen and even though I am here with her, we could be separated at any moment because of my undocumented status...The time is now for immigration reform but we can't do it without your help."
- Rodrigo, member of North Star Fund grantee El Centro del Inmigrante accepting the Frederick Douglass Award at the 2013 Community Gala.

In April a bipartisan group of senators referred to as the "Gang of 8" introduced a broad, sweeping immigration reform bill. If passed, this historic bill would provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, allow some deported immigrants to return, provide modest checks on racial profiling, and speed up the process for "Dreamers" (those who came to the US before age 16).

Despite these advances, there are some real problems with the bill. It emphasizes border tightening and enforcement that will never work, a lengthy and cost-prohibitive process to apply for citizenship, and a shift away from family reunification to a merit-based system that delineates "good" and "bad" immigrants. It also does not include the ability to sponsor same-sex partners.

North Star Fund grantees have been working on the forefront of immigration reform for years. They've knocked on doors, organized meetings large and small, and broadened the boundaries of public discourse on this hot-button issue. They've shown that immigrant communities are a force to be reckoned with at the ballot box. And they've forced elected officials to take notice.

To cite more specific examples, undocumented youth from the New York State Youth Leadership Council who were at risk of losing their right to stay in their homes held "coming out" demonstrations to boldly declare that they are "undocumented and unafraid." They've also pushed for the New York State Dream Act. The MinKwon Center for Community Action and New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) registered immigrant voters and had real impact in the turn out for local races.

Last month our grantees took to the streets of Washington DC to bring their message of reform directly to Congress, and they've followed it up with rallies, press conferences and actions throughout the five boroughs. With the Right now trying to link immigration reform to public assistance through a specious report put out by the Heritage Foundation, this struggle may get ugly before it is over.

Through North Star Fund, donors who care about human dignity, fairness, and equality have had a huge impact on the capacity of grassroots activists to fight effectively for comprehensive immigration reform. And as a result, the broader movement advocating that we live up to the best traditions of our immigrant history is on the cusp of an unprecedented victory.

There is more to be done as Congress continues to debate these issues and make decisions about the immigration bill. We invite you to take a moment to learn more about these issues by reviewing the work of the grantees and leaders you've helped support [see resources below].

And help us by taking a stand for comprehensive reform by keeping the resources flowing to our outstanding activist groups organizing in neighborhoods across the city.

Resources:

New York Immigration Coalition summary of the bill
Brooklyn Food Coalition position paper
Colorlines.com in-depth analysis on the bill
Colorlines.com article on the impact of immigration reform on women

Take Action:

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be kept in the loop about petitions and actions in support of immigration reform. (Watch for our grantee MinKwon Center's online petition!)
Donate to North Star Fund to help support groups fighting for fair and just immigration reform

Activism's Impact on Bloomberg's Legacy

2013-04-29T14:56:45Z

Let's picture the last twelve years without community organizing. High-end housing developments would still punctuate the skyline, but the workers building them would not have been paid prevailing wage. Over 70,000 home health aides would still be taking care of our city's elderly for near poverty salaries and no benefits. The after-school and child care systems would be gutted. Immigrants would be at the mercy of hospital officials for medical information in the languages they speak. And countless public schools would have been shuttered by the Department of Education.

The untold story of Michael Bloomberg's three terms as mayor is the significant influence of the activist community on the policies coming out of City Hall. In some cases, grassroots organizing protected vulnerable communities by derailing the mayor's most misguided proposals. Just as often, it was activists who came up with ideas to confront the city's problems and created the momentum to turn those ideas into policy. The imprint of grassroots organizers is everywhere. And, where we see this imprint, we see the North Star Fund, investing in causes before they are popular and even when success is far from assured.

From the start of Bloomberg's tenure, activists advanced an economic opportunity agenda in the face of development strategies that dismissed the rights or needs of workers and their communities. By the end of his first year, the mayor signed a law guaranteeing more than 70,000 home health aides a living wage. In 2012, the City Council overrode a mayoral veto, extending the living wage to workers employed by recipients of economic development subsidies. Bloomberg signed prevailing wage bills into law, protecting building service workers.

More noteworthy is that activists have advanced protections for the most vulnerable workers in the most punishing sectors where there were no unions. New York City has become a hub of effective and strategic organizing among child care and domestic workers, those employed in restaurants and food manufacturing, street vendors, and exploited immigrants laboring for less than the minimum wage. North Star Fund has been an essential part of this movement, providing early grants to organizations like the Restaurant Opportunities Center and Domestic Workers United, who taking their model national, are changing the work conditions for vulnerable communities across the country.

A recent victory illustrates the power of North Star Fund donors investing in organizing. Street vendors are often an invisible workforce made up almost entirely of people of color and immigrants who are regularly taken for granted. Despite how integral street vendors are to city life, City Hall been issuing exorbitant fines for minor infractions. Mayor Bloomberg and his team were giving millions in subsidies to keep wealthy corporations in New York while fining street vendors out of existence. But, in 2013, activists at the Street Vendor Project and VAMOS Unidos won passage of a bill halving the fines that can be levied on vendors. North Star Fund has supported the work of these two organizations for a decade, providing funds for organizing, capacity building, and research to make the economic case for a fair and just policy.

The mayor has been appropriately heralded for his leadership on the issue of national immigration reform. In New York, a robust organizing community got early and ongoing support as they pushed him to codify his commitment into law here at home. The mayor signed several laws proposed and advocated for by North Star Fund grantee partners, including the New Sanctuary Coalition, Families for Freedom, Make the Road New York, the New York Immigration Coalition, and the Immigrant Defense Project, that have protected immigrants and eased their integration into New York City's civic life.

Thanks to grassroots organizers, the Mayor signed language access laws, requiring government agencies to translate materials and provide oral interpretation on-site. And in 2011, after much opposition, the Mayor signed a law limiting the collaboration of the city's correctional facilities and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), preventing the deportation of undocumented immigrants who pose no threat. He extended this to the NYPD, limiting their communication with ICE. Without the pressure of an organizing sector Mayor Bloomberg's legacy on immigration would consist solely of well-regarded speeches and advocacy for national reform.

As with immigration and worker advocacy, much has happened on the housing front that would not have been possible without grassroots mobilization. Rafael Cestero, Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2009 to 2011, and 2013 North Star award winner, says that, "Any success we had in housing, advocates helped drive." The relentless push of advocates from the Legal Aid Society and New York Communities for Change led to a deal between HPD, New York State, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that allowed 2,500 low-income New Yorkers to keep their NYCHA Section 8 housing subsidy. Activists have pushed for inclusionary zoning requirements leading to construction of affordable housing, and a building preservation program where the housing collapse was most evident. And organizations including Community Voices Heard, Good Old Lower East Side, FUREE and Mothers on the Move--all North Star grantee partners--have put public housing back on the mayor's agenda, providing critical support for efforts to get more money for NYCHA from the state and federal government and to prioritize the significant backlog of repairs. Meanwhile, organizations like VOCAL-NY are organizing for a law that would ensure that low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS who already qualify for rental subsidy pay no more than 30% of their disability income towards rent. Mayor Bloomberg has been the chief opponent but all of the Democratic mayoral candidates support passage of the bill, signaling a victory in the near future.

It is one thing to propose legislation and apply pressure, it is quite another to challenge fundamental policies. Yet, activists have succeeded here as well, questioning the fairness, effectiveness, and legality of Bloomberg's "stop and frisk" policing--a policy that disproportionately targets Black and Latino men for stops, a very small percentage of which yield an arrest or summons (10% of 700,000 stops in 2011). While many organizations have questioned the policy, the decision to form Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) drove the issue to the forefront. CPR, fiscally housed by North Star Fund, has made stop and frisk a key issue in the 2013 mayoral election, and their proposed legislation for an independent Inspector General within the NYPD could become law by the end of 2013.

Insiders often dismiss the steps of City Hall as a place of political theater. Advocates and community members armed with homemade signs give testimonials in front of TV cameras while city officials simply pass them by on the way to their offices. But this hides the power in that exchange, and all the years of planning, meetings with legislators, growth in leadership and membership, and coalition building that preceded it. The last 12 years have shown that effective organizing can drive real change. We shall see if the next mayor heeds these lessons on his or her own, or is forced to by the "New Majority." North Star Fund will be ready for either scenario, prepared to make unprecedented investments through the Activism's Future campaign in a robust grassroots sector that is supported to take on the big challenges that lie ahead.

$100,000 Challenge Match Announced at Community Gala

2013-04-25T21:07:48Z

Tuesday night was an amazing evening for North Star Fund and our diverse community of philanthropic and grassroots activists.

We are pleased to share that our 2013 Community Gala raised $662,710, which broke every previous record!

And we were so proud to publicly launch our largest ever fundraising campaign, Activism's Future, announcing that we've raised $5.8 million to date. This $7 million campaign will enable us to double North Star Fund's grantmaking, as we also invest in the organization and the growth of our programs.

Four North Star Fund donors, led by honoree Lorna Brett Howard, issued a $100,000 challenge from the stage that will match dollar-for-dollar the next $100,000 in campaign pledges made before June 30, 2013.

We're excited to announce that we've already raised $46,680 toward the match!

It was an evening of inspiration, fun, and celebration. Our honorees' commitments to making New York a more fair and just city came through with every word. Our grantees, donors, and colleagues mixed and mingled for social justice, reminding us that "We are all Activism's Future."

You can join us in keeping the excitement going by checking out our Activism's Future video, visiting our website regularly through June to see our progress toward the campaign challenge match, and making your own contribution to ensure Activism's Future.

Thank you so much for being part of the North Star Fund community. We would not be where we are without you, and we're proud to have your ongoing support.

And, if you haven't already, check out the photos from our Activism's Future photobooth on our Facebook page.

All photos ©North Star Fund / Gerard Gaskin

Activist Victories Blossom: North Star Fund Donors Help Make it Happen!

2013-04-09T15:42:47Z

It's been a busy and exciting few months for New York City's activists. Across the five boroughs they've been organizing and achieving victories on everything from fair wages to discriminatory police practices. Thanks to your commitment to North Star Fund and grassroots change, we funded these intrepid grassroots organizations making a real difference in New York City.

Below is just a sampling of recent grantee victories that North Star Fund donors helped make possible:

DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association Halts Labor Trafficking
Damayan educates, organizes, and mobilizes low- wage Filipino workers to advance their labor, health, gender, and civil rights. This includes assisting workers who are escaping exploitative situations, providing emergency housing, and aiding in the recovery of stolen wages. In 2011, Damayan launched "Baklas" (Break Free), a campaign to fight labor trafficking and modern day slavery by diplomats. This year, two members won their cases, including Daedema Ramos who worked for a Kuwaiti diplomat for as little as 69 cents an hour - 20 hours a day! Damayan continues to push for a taskforce at the Philippine Consulate to create permanent protocols to address labor trafficking of domestic workers.

Brandworkers Wins Back Wages
Brandworkers is a not-for-profit organization protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees. The organization's members recently won a major wage theft victory. After a group of Latino warehouse workers and truck drivers brought a class action lawsuit against Beverage Plus for years of disrespect and systematic violations of state and federal law, a federal judge awarded workers over $950,000 in unpaid wages. Individual workers are set to recover as much as $169,000 in addition to an award of punitive and compensatory damages.

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) Protects Civil Rights
CPR, an innovative coalition of dozens of social change organizations, is waging a campaign to end discriminatory policing in New York, and the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policies. In early 2013, CPR won its first victory when a Federal District judge ruled that the NYPD was illegally stopping people in public outdoor areas in the Bronx - violating their Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure - and ordered the NYPD to immediately cease its unlawful trespass stops. More recently, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced that city lawmakers agreed to install an inspector general to oversee the NYPD. CPR's campaign is bringing real accountability to the NYPD, just as the landmark class-action stop-and-frisk lawsuit Floyd et al. v. City of New York is in trial this spring.

VOCAL-NY Safeguards Public Health
VOCAL-NY, a grassroots membership organization building power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, and mass incarceration, organized a Hepatitis C Legislative Awareness Day in March to call for pharmacy choice in managed care plans. As a result of ongoing pressure from grassroots activists, Governor Cuomo signed a budget agreement giving access to hepatitis C medication for New Yorkers enrolled in managed care plans, including Medicaid recipients, and eliminating the requirement to use mail order pharmacies. Over 200,000 New Yorkers living with hepatitis C now have the ability to receive life-saving medication from a local pharmacy, fostering positive patient-pharmacist relationships, and helping to educate and support hepatitis C patients.

El Centro del Inmigrante: Frederick Douglass Award Honoree

2013-04-03T15:46:22Z

After Hurricane Sandy, the day laborers with El Centro on Staten Island came together and gathered supplies, and headed out to give people assistance," says Gonzalo Mercado, executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante. "They were in the storm's path and in many ways the first responders, and they provided one of the things they can do best, which is work with their hands, their labor. This is the pattern every time we have a natural disaster. But it's never really understood how essential these workers are. It's important to acknowledge their role in going in there and dealing with the worst of the worst." North Star Fund has been a supporter of El Centro since 2003, and recently awarded two grants for the organization's Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

El Centro was founded in 1997 in Port Richmond as a storefront center to address the needs of thousands of immigrant workers and their families. "El Centro started as a place where day laborers on Staten Island could come and get a cup of coffee before going out to work in the morning, and once a week an attorney would come for a legal clinic. We have evolved to become a dignified space for raising awareness about the lives of day laborers, providing quality services to them and their families, and making a space for them to organize, to develop their voices and leadership. We work not only to make sure that workers get paid and do not have a disproportionate number of accidents in the workplace, but also to lift up the voices and the profiles of day laborers and domestic workers across the city," Gonzalo says.

Through immigrant and labor advocacy, educational workshops, leadership training, legal and health services, and cultural programs, El Centro furthers economic empowerment, community-building, and organizing. El Centro provides everything from English as a Second Language and General Equivalency Degree (G.E.D.) classes, to health education and screenings, family and immigrant rights services, and legal assistance. El Centro also operates the largest food pantry on Staten Island, a volunteer brigade that performs community service and organizes cultural events. "We provide the tools laborers need to develop as leaders and to understand that collectively we have power. As workers and as community members we can raise voices and bring about change regardless of our immigration status, our various language barriers, or our cultural barriers."

Though day laborers often do the most dangerous jobs, work the longest hours, and are paid little or in some cases denied wages for their work, most are ineligible for unemployment, food stamps, or health insurance. Many have lived here for many years with their families and are contributing members of their communities. New York City's economy, and that of other cities and towns across the country, depends on their efforts. "We need to connect the dots about how essential low-wage workers are," Gonzalo says, "instead of treating them as disposable. We need to provide the respect and the protections they need."

"As a North Star board member and as the leader of a grantee organization, I identify myself wholeheartedly with the mission of North Star Fund," Gonzalo says. "The issues I work on are not only about immigrant workers, but are really about justice and equality and peace, which cut across sectors and colors and cultures. In terms of understanding what's really happening on the ground, how communities are being adversely affected, and then creating opportunities for organizers to get the resources they need to answer those challenges, North Star is truly a model. I will go as far as to say that nobody does it better than North Star here in New York City."

El Centro del Inmigrante will be honored with a Frederick Douglass Award at the 2013 Community Gala on April 23rd. Click here to find out how to support the Gala.

Victory for New Yorkers With Hepatitis C

2013-04-02T20:26:58Z

Clara is a homeless Bronx resident living with hepatitis C. After being diagnosed and electing to start treatment, her only option was to participate in a mail order pharmacy program. Because she had to change shelters every few weeks, it was difficult for her to keep track of where her medication was being sent. No matter how much she wanted to take charge of her health, the mail order pharmacy program was so burdensome she had to stop her treatment.

Clara is one of more than one hundred VOCAL-NY members who traveled to Albany for Hepatitis C Legislative Awareness Day last month to call for pharmacy choice in managed care plans. VOCAL-NY is a statewide grassroots membership organization building power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, and mass incarceration.

As a result of ongoing pressure from grassroots activists, Governor Cuomo recently signed a new budget agreement giving access to hepatitis C medication for New Yorkers enrolled in managed care plans, including Medicaid recipients, and eliminating the harmful requirement to use mail order pharmacies.

Clara and the over 200,000 New Yorkers who are living with hepatitis C will now have the choice to receive life-saving medication from a local pharmacy or a mail order pharmacy. This agreement fosters positive patient-pharmacist relationships and will help educate and support hepatitis C patients in adhering to treatment.

Funded by North Star Fund since 1999, VOCAL-NY, who played a lead role in ensuring this public health victory, was also an inaugural recipient of our Movement Leadership program in 2010. This included two years of general operating support and a year-long peer learning program through which they deepened their already effective campaign planning.

Thanks to North Star Fund donors support of the Activism's Future Campaign, we were able to expand the Movement Leadership program this year, and as a result, North Star Fund was able to award VOCAL-NY a Movement Leadership renewal grant.

Rafael E. Cestero: A 2013 North Star Award Honoree

2013-03-29T15:06:19Z

As part of a Cornell University summer field study for his major in public policy, Rafael Cestero spent a semester at the Enterprise Foundation in New York City (now Enterprise Community Partners). "Bill Frey, who ran the office, threw me a bag of subway tokens and said 'Go out and meet community leaders all over the city,'" Rafael says. "The Bronx was burned out. People were fighting to prevent their neighborhoods from being abandoned. A light bulb went on for me, and I've been involved in preserving communities ever since." Finishing his degree at Cornell, he returned to Enterprise as a Project Manager, working with grassroots nonprofits to enable community members to become homeowners.

Rafael earned his Master's degree in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, heading a team of undergraduates assisting grassroots groups struggling to hold on to their communities. "My reliance on people in the neighborhood to guide public policy direction started there."

At Enterprise Rafael rose during his 15-year tenure to become Director of New York Programs and Chief Program Officer for the national Enterprise Community Partners. In 2004 he became Deputy Commissioner of Development at the New York City Housing and Preservation Department (HPD), and in 2009 was appointed Commissioner of HPD, serving for two years following the financial collapse that jeopardized the city's ability to create and preserve affordable housing. At HPD, he was instrumental in the implementation of Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace Plan to finance the creation or preservation of 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014, as well as HPD's $750 million initiative to stabilize distressed multifamily properties across New York City. "Having seen the impact of the financial crises and disinvestment of the late 70s and 80s--what that meant to people living in the neighborhoods--I felt it was my responsibility to make sure we never go back to where we were then," he says of his decision to lead HPD.

"The thing I'm most proud of in my tenure is having moved the agency to a place where the code-enforcement teams at HPD were working in concert with the development and finance side of the agency. Our code-enforcement officers who were out every day in the neighborhoods inspecting buildings used the information to say, 'Wait a minute, here's a pocket of disinvestment,' and this drove how we allocated what were increasingly scarce resources. This approach has been incredibly successful at stemming the tide of disinvestment in the smaller, multifamily housing stock in the outer boroughs."

In 2011, Rafael became Managing Director of L+M Development Partners, and in 2012 he became the President and CEO of The Community Preservation Corporation and its for-profit development subsidiary, CPC Resources, Inc. Since its founding in 1974, CPC has financed the preservation and development of more than 145,000 residential multifamily units in NY State, involving public and private investments of approximately $8 billion.

"New York City may be one of the largest and greatest metropolitan areas in the world, but it's made up of very small and unique neighborhoods," Rafael says. "What I have the opportunity to do at CPC is to ensure that our communities have the financial resources they need to meet the growing need for affordable housing."

When he was asked to be honored by North Star Fund, Rafael reached out to friends in the activist realm. "Working on 'change from within' as I do, I rely on people at the grassroots for advice and strategy. I was amazed at how many of these folks have been helped directly or indirectly by North Star Fund. "

Rafael E. Cestero will be honored with a North Star Award at the 2013 Community Gala on April 23rd. Click here to find out how to support the Gala.

A Tree Grows in Queens: North Star Fund Announces Final Grants From Greening Western Queens Fund

2013-03-28T19:16:20Z

North Star Fund donated $3,038,807 to 15 organizations in Western Queens in the final round of a three-year $8 million initiative to reshape Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria and Long Island City as environmentally sustainable neighborhoods and to bring green jobs to these communities. By the end of this year, Western Queens will have 830 new trees, 23 new school and community gardens, dozens of green internships, and educational programs that reach over fifty thousand people a year.

"We focused on grants that will allow the work to continue when the funding ends. When this program is complete, Western Queens will become a model for what happens when communities and their allies in the activist and non-profit space work together," said North Star Fund executive director Hugh Hogan.

North Star Fund sees community and citywide partnerships as a key to long term success. For example, Sunnyside Community Services will train student interns to care for the new trees, planted by the City Parks Foundation, as part of its green jobs internship program. Against a backdrop of draconian cuts to urban forestry services in New York City over the last decade, Trees New York is also training local residents to care for the existing and newly planted trees. Queens Library Foundation is expanding their multi-lingual environmental resource centers, called "Greening Libraries," and local groups like Asian Americans for Equality are reaching out to low income immigrant communities to promote the resource centers and other projects activities funded over the last three years.

The new partnerships are already affecting life in Western Queens. "It's like rain in a desert. Life is blooming in unexpected ways, and places and people are responding with love and gratitude. It is a wonderful thing," said Alyssa Bonilla, founding member Western Queens Power for the People Campaign, and an Advisory Board Member of North Star Fund's Greening Western Queens Fund.

Several projects already are destined for long term impact thanks to grants from the Greening Western Queens Fund. The BIG!NYC compost initiative has grown from a small, volunteer-run operation is 2009 to the largest local organics recovery program in the city. They currently compost 1.5 tons per week and will expand significantly this year. "We are expanding our reach through convenient drop-off sites throughout all of Western Queens," said Gina Baldwin, program coordinator at BIG!NYC

BIG!NYC has been able to leverage its Greening Western Queens grant to secure ongoing funding from the New York City Department of Sanitation.

To select the grantees, North Star Fund brought together an advisory board that included both community members and experts in green infrastructure and urban forestry. Click here for a full listing of year three grantees.

The Greening Western Queens program is supported by an $8 million fund from the New York State Public Service Commission. North Star Fund was selected to be the distributor of funds because the foundation is skilled at working in partnership with diverse New York City communities.

Get Involved: Landmark Stop-and-Frisk Trial Starts Today!

2013-03-18T16:58:18Z

On March 18, 2013 the landmark class-action stop-and-frisk lawsuit Floyd et al. v. City of New York et. al. filed by Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) member the Center for Constitutional Rights, finally goes to trial in Federal Court! The trial represents an historic milestone in the movement for NYPD reform and accountability. Floyd challenges the NYPD's racial profiling practices and the constitutionality of stop-and-frisks.

Communities United for Police Reform, for which North Star Fund is the fiscal sponsor, and its members and allies will be in the courtroom every day of the trial to send a message to Mayor Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly, and the New York Police Department that the abuses of stop-and-frisk and other discriminatory policing must end.

Here is how you can support their efforts:

Attend the trial starting on Monday, March 18th and show that New Yorkers want to end discriminatory NYPD practices.
Follow the action on twitter using #changethenypd and via North Star Fund's Twitter feed and Facebook page.
Help spread the word! Download this flyer to help mobilize people in your community to help pack the court.
If you belong to an organization, faith institution or labor union and would like to organize groups to attend the proceedings on one of the trial dates, email Priscilla Gonzalez at CPR.

More information:

What: Floyd v. City of New York

Where: Southern District of New York Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, Manhattan. The trial will take place before Judge Shira Scheindlin in Courtroom 15-C.

When: The trial will start Monday, March 18, 2013 and is expected to continue through much of April. CPR is encouraging people to be in court on the opening day and any other day they can come. Court is expected to be in session from 10am - 4pm on most days. Court will NOT be in session on: Monday, March 25 - Tuesday, March 26; Thursday, April 11 - Friday, April 12. Court will be a half-day session on Friday, March 29th. Please read here for expectations of the public while attending court proceedings.

North Star Fund Grantee Involvement:

On Tuesday, March 19th, CPR members New York Communities for Change and North Star Fund grantee VOCAL-NY are coordinating a day of Brooklyn community members coming to pack the court. They will hold a press conference near the Courthouse with clergy, community members, and elected officials.
On Wednesday March 20th, North Star Fund grantees and CPR members Arab American Association of New York and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice will be packing the court.

Be sure to visit CPR's website for updates and special events being organized as the trial progresses.

Mallika Dutt: A 2013 North Star Award Honoree

2013-03-15T14:01:39Z

Mallika Dutt is the founder and CEO of Breakthrough, a global human rights organization that spurs social and behavioral change through a mix of multimedia campaigns, social media, cutting-edge pop culture, and on-the-ground community engagement. Her work inspires millions to take bold action, challenging deeply entrenched norms and attitudes to bring dignity, equality, and justice into their own communities.

In India, Breakthrough's television ads and community education campaigns on violence against women, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS have sparked an unprecedented national dialogue on women's rights. They include What Kind of Man Are You?, a multimedia campaign that held a spotlight to HIV/AIDS transmission within marriage; Is This Justice?, a multimedia campaign bringing public attention to the stigma and discrimination faced by women living with HIV/AIDS; and Bell Bajao, a multimedia and community education campaign calling on men and boys to bring domestic violence to a halt.

In the U.S., Breakthrough's innovative campaigns include America 2049, a Facebook game exploring assumptions about racial justice, human rights, migration, and democracy; Restore Fairness, a multimedia initiative reframing public dialogue about U.S. policies on immigration, criminal and racial justice, and national security; and I Am This Land, a youth-focused online space asking participants to share views on diversity, pluralism, identity, gender and sexuality, immigration, and racial justice.

Building on the success of its Bell Bajao campaign, Breakthrough launched a global multimedia campaign, Ring the Bell: One Million Men, One Million Promises to End Violence Against Women, with partner events in Rio, Johannesburg, New Delhi, and New York on March 8^th, International Women's Day.

Born in India, Mallika came to the U.S. at age 18 to study at Mount Holyoke College. She earned an MA in International Affairs and South Asian studies from Columbia University, then a law degree from New York University. She co-founded Sakhi for South Asian Women, providing community support to end violence against women of South Asian origin. She began her career at Debevoise & Plimpton, leaving the corporate arena to work as a director at the Norman Foundation, Associate Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University, and later Program Officer for Human Rights at the Ford Foundation, before founding Breakthrough in 2000. She has served on the boards of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Human Rights, the Open Society Institute's U.S. Programs, the Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project, and WITNESS, among others.

Mallika first encountered North Star Fund when she was a co-founder of SAKHI for South Asian Women. "North Star Fund was among our first supporters, at a time when these issues were just not on people's radars," she says. "There are very few foundations that do the kind of work that North Star does, and provide the kind of resources that it makes available. It is so absolutely critical. Support from North Star enabled us to get going, and SAKHI is still strong today.

"It is an enormous privilege to be recognized by North Star Fund and its community of advocates and organizers who are at the frontline of social change in this city which is my home."

Mallika Dutt will be honored with a North Star Award at the 2013 Community Gala on April 23rd. Click here to find out how to support the Gala.

DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association: Frederick Douglass Award Honoree

2013-03-12T15:26:32Z

DAMAYAN educates, organizes, and mobilizes low-wage Filipino domestic workers to fight for their labor, health, gender, and immigration rights. Founded in 2002, the organization now has over 800 dues-paying members in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

About 4,300 people leave the Philippines every day to find work in other countries. Of these, 70% are women who leave their children and families, seeking to provide needed income as primary breadwinners. The money they send back is the single largest source of revenue of the Philippines. Though the majority have earned college degrees and worked as professionals, they have become domestic workers here, working as babysitters, cooks, housekeepers, and caregivers. Their work remains largely unregulated, undocumented, and unprotected. They often suffer inhumanely low wages, extremely long hours, and no days off. Wages may be withheld, with complaints resulting in threats of deportation or harm. A significant number become victims of labor trafficking through fraudulent agencies and false promises. Damayan assists workers with escapes, emergency housing, job search, legal referrals, counseling, and recovering stolen wages, and has helped retrieve over $500,000 in wages.

"When women come to us, often they are in really difficult situations," says Linda Oalican, Overall Coordinator, co-founder, organizer, and board member of Damayan. "All they may have in mind is to retrieve their wages or get health services. But Damayan is determined to really connect with them, to listen to them, and build their leadership. We want them to know that they can change not only their own lives, but the community, and can be a strong voice in the workers' movement. When you relate in this comprehensive way to a worker, she realizes that her interest to this group is not just about a stolen wage, but it's about her life. Our members think of us as family, as a community, as sisters."

Damayan was a lead organization with Domestic Workers United, which passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York State--the first in the nation--in 2010. Damayan is active in the national leadership of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and a board member, connecting with 33 domestic workers' groups across the country.

In November 2011 Damayan officially launched "Baklas" (Break Free), a campaign to fight labor trafficking and modern day slavery by diplomats, having worked on this issue since 2007. This year, two of its members won their cases. "This was very significant for us," Linda said. "It takes a lot of courage to fight the diplomats that traffic workers because they have immunity, and the workers know that." Damayan is now pushing for the creation of a taskforce at the Philippine Consulate that would include Damayan worker representatives, to create permanent protocols to address labor trafficking of domestic workers.

Since 2005 North Star Fund has been a proud supporter of Damayan. They recently received a North Star Fund Movement Leadership grant--a highly competitive, two-year, $50,000 grant that helps established organizations with a strong record of success take their work to the next level.

"The Movement Leadership program is pioneering work for North Star Fund," says Linda. "Although there is a lot of talk about connecting work at the grassroots and developing a movement, it is North Star that put the program together and provided resources to make it happen, so that different organizations at the grassroots can share experiences and identify how to make our work more effective."

"I think more funders should support the power-building of the grassroots and collaboration and movement building in the city, so that our voices can be heard, and deeper, larger solutions to workers' problems can be achieved."

DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association will be honored with a Frederick Douglass Award at the 2013 Community Gala on April 23rd. Click here to find out how to support the Gala.

Lorna Brett Howard: A 2013 North Star Award Honoree

2013-02-28T17:47:39Z

The daughter of parents who emigrated to the U.S. when Great Britain's economy was devastated after World War II, Lorna Brett Howard grew up in northern Michigan. "I never heard any talk at the table about politics, liberal or conservative," she says. "I was a blank slate."

Lorna remembers exactly when she became political. "At age 21, I was a single parent trying to finish my college degree. I lived in government-subsidized housing and I worked full-time. And Ronald Reagan declared ketchup a vegetable and decided to cut my student loans. That's when I realized, at the national level, how important it was who was president."

In 1989 Lorna moved to Chicago. "You can hardly live in Chicago, and breathe, and not be political. I was suddenly aware of politics as a local force," she says. She was soon involved with the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women--first as a volunteer, then as a board member, and finally as board president from 1995-1999--while holding a full time position in public affairs and crisis communications with Hill & Knowlton. "I used everything I learned in my professional career, and applied it toward my activism," she says.

When NOW undertook its "Women-Friendly Workplace" campaign, Lorna led the fight to ensure women at a regional grocery store chain received equal pay and opportunity. As President of Chicago NOW she worked with an investigative reporter to expose rampant and systemic sexual harassment efforts at two Ford Motor Company plants, and organized a class action lawsuit brought by women at its Chicago plants. Ford was ordered to pay nearly $8 million to female employees at two plants in the Chicago area, in addition to $7.5 million to be distributed among other female employees who complained of harassment. "NOW changed the way Ford did business," Lorna says. In the meantime, she was nearly fired from her day job at H&K. "I was asked, 'Are you an activist or an employee? Make a choice.' "

Lorna worked on many campaigns as a paid and volunteer advisor and in 1999 ran for Alderman in Chicago (the equivalent of City Council in New York). "It was a great, brutal political experience," she says. "Local action and politics is every bit as important and sexy as the national scene. More important in most ways." In 2004, she married John D. Howard, a New York City private equity executive who is founder CEO of Irving Place Capital. Lorna is the director of philanthropic and political giving for the household.

In New York City Lorna continued her activism, becoming Chair of the C-4 board of New York National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL NY) and its Political Action Committee, and Executive Director of the New York Fund for Public Advocacy. She now serves on the boards of the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, and RefugePoint International.

When she was asked to accept this award from North Star Fund, Lorna realized, "I've always been cast as 'the feminist activist' or 'the pro-choice activist.' But so much of the work I've done--the less well-known work, whether it's choice, refugee resettlement, housing, or education--it's all for social and economic justice, which is at the heart of North Star's mission."

Addressing the importance of grassroots activism, Lorna says, "I've learned that big things happen from small movements. The grassroots is where the grass is really close to the mud, and as an activist, I don't mind a good mud fight!"

Lorna Brett Howard will be honored with a North Star Award at the 2013 Community Gala on April 23rd. Click here to find out how to support the Gala.

Modern Day Slavery: A Recent Video Sheds More Light

2013-02-26T17:20:17Z

Imagine working nineteen hours a day with no days off. Or, your employer takes your passport and you live in constant fear of deportation. Such is the plight for many Filipino domestic workers brought to the United States to work as nannies, housekeepers, cooks, and elder caregivers.

Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a North Star Fund Movement Leadership grantee which educates, organizes, and mobilizes low wage Filipino workers to fight for their labor, health, gender, and im/migration rights, recently created a video to focus attention on this crisis affecting their community.

This video is part of Damayan's campaign to end the trafficking of domestic workers from the Philippines, especially by diplomats. You can read more about a recent victory for a trafficked Filipino domestic worker on our blog, and about the larger anti-trafficking campaign as a whole on Damayan's website. You can also join in a celebration of Damayan's work when they are presented with a Frederick Douglass Award at our 2013 Community Gala on April 23, 2013.

Work Forced from the Center for Urban Pedagogy on Vimeo.

North Star Fund Leads Funder Tour on Community Responses to Hurricane Sandy

2013-02-20T18:56:51Z

On January 30th, 35 foundation leaders and community activists joined staff from North Star Fund and the Ford Foundation for a first-hand look at the work being done by community-based organizations in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. North Star Fund organized this tour-which took funders out of the office and into affected communities-to foster dialogue and understanding about what happened to people in some of the hardest hit neighborhoods, and how they immediately turned to local organizations for help. Participants learned how people came together during the crisis, what the needs are now, and what funders-and all of us-can do to help meet those needs.

The group's first stop was St. Margaret Mary Presentation Hall, an Occupy Sandy hub in Midland Beach, Staten Island. As the bus approached the site, evidence of the destructive power of the storm surge was still clearly visible. Piles of water-logged flooring and sheetrock lined sidewalks as homeowners continue the task of cleaning up and rebuilding.

"The Funder Briefing was a great opportunity to learn more about the work of grassroots organizations and left me with a lot to think about. I am excited to begin thinking about how the Neighborhood Funders Group might partner with North Star Fund to support Sandy relief and rebuilding work moving forward."
- Lorraine Ramirez, Membership & Communications Coordinator, Neighborhood Funders Group

At the Presentation Hall, funders heard from Nadia Marin Molina of National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON); Gonzalo Mercado of El Centro del Inmigrante; Ligia Guallpa of the Worker's Justice Project; and Byron Silva of Local 10-Laborers International Union of North America. These leaders shared the unique experience of day laborers and immigrants, many of whom, though Sandy victims themselves, have been volunteering and working in affected areas like Midland Beach since the storm hit.

Discussion ranged from health and safety protocols needed to protect day laborers rebuilding after the storm to the need for stronger enforcement of regulations. Workers need access to the 10-hour OSHA Outreach Training Program to become more knowledgeable about workplace hazards and their rights, as well as need to be outfitted with proper safety equipment including High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) approved masks.

The group learned that NDOLON members met in November to establish a minimum wage standard for the employment of day laborers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants with limited power to ensure how much, and even if, a contractor pays them. This is a key step to ensure workers receive fair pay, especially since unscrupulous contractors have been known to receive FEMA aid to repair a home and will pay workers with carpentry and electrical expertise just $10/hour, when they have been provided up to $55/hour to hire these more skilled workers. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is supposed to monitor these abuses, but often contractors are called before an inspection visit and workers are told not to come to work that day. Led by groups like El Centro del Inmigrante and Worker's Justice Project, local organizers are working to enforce established wage standards to prevent such abuses. Funders learned how resources have helped so far and what more is needed to further this work.

The next stop on the tour was Red Hook, Brooklyn where the group visited the Red Hook Initiative (RHI), a youth service organization adjacent to Red Hook Houses, one of the largest public housing complexes in the U.S. RHI became a center for relief and recovery efforts following the storm. They heard from its Executive Director, Jill Eisenhard, as well as Ian Marvy of Added Value, Bre Lembitz of Occupy Sandy, Joseph McKellar of Queens Congregations United for Action (QCUA), and Ilana Berger, a consultant with the Center for Popular Democracy who is helping coordinate the Alliance for Just Rebuilding, a coalition of organizations working for a just recovery and a equitable development agenda that integrates climate, racial, and economic justice.

"The tour was the first chance I had to visit affected areas and hear first-hand from activist leaders helping their communities recover. I appreciated being able to talk with these leaders directly, as well as network with my foundation peers."
- Mason Granger, Director of Grants, Hearst Foundations

These leaders spoke about their shared experience of becoming "first responders" when city, state, and federal agencies, as well as large nonprofit relief agencies, didn't react fast enough. They all highlighted the unique flexibility that community-based organizations have to immediately respond to community needs, especially for those who are most vulnerable, including seniors, people with disabilities, the homebound and families with young children.

RHI had been an organization solely focusing on youth development, but after the storm they were one of the only buildings in the area that didn't lose power, and so became a center for coordinated relief efforts. Added Value, which operates an urban farm, and also promotes a renewed vision for urban agriculture and food justice, similarly turned into a de facto emergency food relief center bringing fresh produce into a flooded, "power-outed" Red Hook.

Next, Bre Lembitz, a key Occupy Sandy organizer, inspired the crowd with how, in the course of a week, Occupy Sandy activists mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers, set up feeding centers in the hardest hit areas across the city, and established an online registry that distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of donated goods.

Rounding out the panel was QCUA Executive Director Joseph McKellar and his colleague Minister Valerie Close who are leaders of this faith-based community organizing group, which unites people of different faiths and social classes into a stronger voice fighting for the needs of everyday Queens residents. They have been at the forefront of responding to the "humanitarian crisis," as they called it, in the Rockaways. Today, thousands of families are still without power, heat, and hot water, and many are beginning to suffer from respiratory issues as a result of mold infestation and the increased use of diesel fuel for generators and heavy equipment employed in the clean-up. Ilana Berger then outlined how the Alliance is seeking to identify how communities can get to the tables of power where decisions about how the $50 billion in recovery and rebuilding dollars will be allocated. Up to now, Ilana reported, the public input process has lacked meaningful opportunities for people in hard hit communities to have a say in what will happen with the federal money.

The discussions with these courageous organizers and seasoned community leaders helped the funders understand the critical role that grassroots organizations have played in relief and recovery, a viewpoint that doesn't always make it into philanthropic boardrooms. Many of those on the tour are still grappling with how their foundations will respond to Hurricane Sandy, and being able to hear directly from activist leaders was an opportunity to bring this often overlooked voice into their decision-making.

North Star Fund brought this group together as part of our work supporting community-based organizations post-Sandy. We have raised $422,000 for hurricane relief and recovery so far. Thanks to the commitment of our individual donors and foundation peers, in the immediate aftermath of the storm, we were able to quickly and efficiently get nearly $110,000 in needed resources to 23 community-based groups working with our most vulnerable and marginalized neighbors. Most recently, Atlantic Philanthropies recognized our leadership in this arena with a $250,000 grant for groups leading advocacy efforts monitoring how the $50 billion in federal aid will be distributed, continuing the recovery efforts in the hardest hit communities, raising the environmental justice issues that the storm brought to the fore, and protecting the rights of low-wage workers who are employed in the clean-up and rebuilding post Sandy. We continue to provide grants with the money we have raised, and are also working on a longer-term vision to ensure communities are prepared for future disasters, as well as that newly released federal dollars are spent equitably and support sustainable rebuilding efforts.

To see more pictures from the funder tour, please visit our Facebook page.

The Year of NYPD Accountability?

2013-01-24T15:32:25Z

2013 is starting to look like it could be the year of NYPD accountability after a key ruling this month challenged the legality of stop-and-frisk.

A Federal District Judge recently ruled that the NYPD was illegally stopping innocent people in public areas outside thousands of private apartment buildings in the Bronx - violating their Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure - and ordered the NYPD to immediately cease its practice of unlawful trespass stops.

These buildings are enrolled in the Trespass Affidavit Program (TAP), whereby police routinely patrol buildings and arrest trespassers. The simple act of leaving a building could arise suspicion of trespassing, and as Judge Scheindlin wrote in her decision, "attempts at explanation are met with hostility; especially if the person is a young black man, he is frisked, which often involves an invasive search of his pockets; in some cases the officers then detain the person in a police van."

This is the first victory in 2013 for Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), a major grassroots organizing campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York. CPR members New York Civil Liberties Union, Bronx Defenders and Latino Justice PRLDEF all litigated this case and were integral in its successful outcome. CPR brings together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change, and this victory showcases the power grassroots activists can have to change public policy.

Judge Scheindlin will be presiding over two other major stop-and-frisk lawsuits against the NYPD in the coming months, which will also be litigated by CPR members.

North Star Fund is CPR's fiscal sponsor and proud to do our part to support this vital campaign to end discriminatory and abusive policing. To learn more about the upcoming lawsuits, as well as other activities CPR and it members are organizing, visit their website.