Make the Road by Walking
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make the road by walking ANNUAL REPORT 2001 Dear Friend, We look back on 2001 as a year that has presented special challenges to Bushwick and to many communities around the world. Notwithstanding the terrible violence we have witnessed, both at home and abroad, and the opportunistic use of the tragedy of September 11 to promote a far right-wing domestic agenda that attacks civil liberties, environmental protections, and vital social services, 2001 has also been a year of continued success in our grassroots struggle for equal rights, participatory democracy, and social and economic justice. For Make the Road by Walking, 2001 brought a significant increase in our mem- bership base, now over 600 community members strong; a tripling of our office space; an expansion of our programming to include the Education Justice and Public School Accountability Project, a new parent organizing initiative working with neigh- borhood mothers to promote educational equity and opportunity for Bushwick youth; and a steadily growing community resolve to organize for change. In 2001: After five years of persistent direct action organizing and legal work, our Economic Justice and Democracy Project has forced New York City to comply with federal civil rights law and provide equal access to subsistence government benefits for tens of thousands of non-English-speaking residents of New York City. Our Environmental Justice Project acquired a previously trash-strewn vacant lot up the block from Make the Road by Walking’s offices and has begun the exciting process of converting the land into a community-accessible park that will provide much needed open green space for thousands of local children and families. Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered (GLOBE) has continued providing the only safe space in the Bushwick community for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgen- table of contents der (GLBT) youth and young adults and has conducted successful outreach to increase our GLBT membership. Letter from the Board of Directors 1 The workers in our Workplace Justice Project have won over $100,000 in back pay Who We Are 2 and overtime wages and have succeeded in involving local politicians and the PROJECTS Department of Labor in the fight against sweatshop abuses and for the right of all Economic Justice and Democracy 4 workers to have a safe and non-discriminatory workplace. Education Justice and Public 6 Our Youth Power Project has increased its programming for community youth ages 5 School Accountability through 21 and is gaining increasing recognition for our work in a citywide campaign Environmental Justice 8 which eliminated 53 million dollars in the New York City budget that had been allocated Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick to the expansion of the City’s youth jails. Empowered (GLOBE) 10 Workplace Justice 12 As members of Make the Road by Walking’s Board of Directors, it has been our Youth Power 14 pleasure to provide leadership to this organization as we have built power for our Supporters 16 community, continued to grow, and catalyzed new grassroots leadership. Our work to Budget 17 envision and to create a healthier, safer, and more politically powerful low-income community depends on our collaboration with many allies and the support of thou- sands of members, community residents, and donors. We hope that 2002 will see continued progress towards creating equal opportunity, justice, and community. ENRIQUE RIVERA LESLIE MONROY Chairperson, Board of Directors Secretary, Board of Directors Make the Road by Walking Make the Road by Walking a2 || make the road by walking || annual report 2001 make the road by walking || annual report 2001 || 1 make the road A Community of Support to provide essential services to residents in order to affirm an WHO WE ethic of cooperation, mutual help, dignity, and animo. In 2001, Make the Road by Walking secured hundreds of thou- sands of dollars owed to community residents in back wages and unlawfully withheld government benefits. This legal inter- ARE vention is often vital to helping our low-income members keep a roof over their families’ heads or food on their tables. Make the Road by Walking is a not-for-profit, membership-led organization based in Additionally, we have assisted a growing number of neighbor- hood tenants in forcing their landlords to address housing code Bushwick, Brooklyn. Our members are low-income Latino and African-American resi- violations, securing heat for freezing families in the wintertime, dents of Bushwick and surrounding neighborhoods. Working within these economi- and repairing leaking ceilings. Our computer classes and poetry cally marginalized neighborhoods, Make the Road by Walking fights for justice and workshops offer vital literacy-development opportunities to com- munity youth in a neighborhood where schools consistently per- opportunity through community organizing on issues of concern to our multi-gener- form far below average, and our weekly food pantry and season- ational membership. al vegetable-buying cooperative provide nearly 200 community residents each month with assistance in meeting basic nutri- Organizing and Activism to build a stronger community and make govern- tional needs. ing institutions subject to democratic community control. In the past year, our membership grew to over 600 strong. Make the Road by Walking’s membership worked with our full-time staff of 12 to secure numerous organizing victories. As a result of the pressure from a direct action campaign led by the members involved in our Economic Justice and Collaborative Learning that enables people to advocate effectively Democracy Project, as well as a successful federal class action lawsuit filed by Make the for themselves, analyze the root causes of problems, and strate- Road by Walking staff, the Human Resources Administration of New York City has agreed to end decades of illegal national origin discrimination and make comprehensive changes to gize about how these problems can be collectively resolved. ensure equal access to benefits for non-English-speaking Food Stamps and welfare recipi- Each year Make the Road by Walking trains hundreds of new grassroots community lead- ents that will positively affect over 100,000 New York City immigrants. Two vacant communi- ers. Nearly 100 members have graduated from our regular Encuentros de Líderes ty lots that were being used for illegal waste dumping have been cleaned and reclaimed (Leadership Workshops). These training seminars for community residents help participants because of a direct action campaign led by members of our Environmental Justice Project. collaboratively develop community organizing and advocacy skills, and plan and implement The Project is now converting one of these lots into a community-accessible park that will be organizing campaigns. The Encuentros de Líderes also provide participants with a frame- enjoyed by thousands of Bushwick families and children. In 2001, our Workplace Justice work within which to see the organizing work they are doing. Additionally, through weekly Project helped low-wage immigrant workers recover over $100,000 in unpaid wages from meetings in each organizing issue area, members dialogue about issues critical to our cam- sweatshop employers, and has forced one local factory to implement new safety and health paign work and the governance of the organization. Members elect Make the Road by measures. The workers in the Project created a cooperative fund for workers who are fired Walking’s Board of Directors from within their own ranks, and participate in regular member- by their employers in retaliation for fighting for their rights. This fall our Youth Power Project expanded its ship meetings at which the goals and operation of the organization are discussed and col- programming to include enrichment and leadership development activities for children ages 5-10 as well lectively refined. as for youth ages 11-19. Our youth organizers published Word on the Street, a literacy-building community youth newspaper, trained the local police precinct about respectful treatment of neighborhood youth, and worked with City officials to create more just and effective policing and truancy policies in Bushwick. 2 || make the road by walking || annual report 2001 make the road by walking || annual report 2001 || 3 project member profile ECONOMIC Josefa Marin justice& I was born in Mexico and came to Bushwick in 1988. I have lived here with my three DEMOCRACY children ever since. I only recently became a member of Make the Road by Walking, but I In 2001, the Economic Justice and Democracy Project has had have been coming to the Economic Justice a citywide and national impact on welfare public policy. and Democracy Project meetings and partici- As a result of pressure from a direct action cam- protect the civil rights of non-English-speaking pating in events since paign led by the 400 strong Comité de Igualdad para immigrants within New York City. We worked to last April. la Comunidad (Committee for Equality for Our draft innovative local civil rights legislation entitled I came to Make the Road by Walking initially because I had problems with my welfare case. They had shut off my public Community), as well as a federal class action law- the Equal Access to Health and Human Services assistance and food stamps for no reason. I had had the suit filed by Make the Road by Walking staff, the New Act, and we have worked same problem before, and I ended up having to pay for a York City Human Resources Administration has to assemble a coalition of professional translator to help me because my case worker agreed to make comprehensive changes to ensure over one hundred unions, did not speak Spanish. Even after Make the Road by Walking helped me re-open my case, I continued to attend meetings equal access to benefits for non-English-speaking community groups, and and demonstrations. I feel that it is very important to sup- welfare recipients.