Social Justice Service Learning Organizations
All students complete 30 hours of community based learning in select Twin Cities-based social justice organizations.
Here are several of the organizations we work with:
The Aurora Center recruits, trains, and supervises volunteer peer advocates to staff a 24-hour crisis line and provide peer education training programs. Major collaborative efforts with the University Police, University Hospital and residence hall staff created a trusting and effective team relationship, which has become a model for campus sexual violence programs across the country. A cooperative emergency response policy with University Hospital's Emergency Room established a procedure for medical staff to contact The Aurora Center, dispatching volunteer advocates to the hospital when a sexual assault or domestic violence survivor comes into the emergency room.
In 1992 AVID Center was established as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization and the program has evolved into a fifth through twelfth-grade system that successfully prepares students in the academic middle for four-year college eligibility
BIHA: Black Indian Hispanic Asian Women in Action
Black, Indian, Hispanic and Asian Women in Action (BIHA) was established in March 1983 in recognition of a lack of communication and information sharing within and between Communities of Color regarding family violence. The unveiling of the size and growth of the tragedy of family violence in our society had resulted in the coming together of battered women from all comers of Minnesota. During the process of working on law changes and building a financial base to provide services to the victims of family violence, Communities of Color remained untapped and unassisted. BIHA was created to provide education, information and advocacy for and by Communities of Color and to serve as a forum for translating current concerns (family violence, racism, ageism, AIDS, chemical abuse) within communities of color for presentation to society as a whole.
Communities United Against Police Brutality
This organization was created to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis. Their overriding goal is to create a climate of resistance to abuse of authority by police organizations and to empower local people with a structure that can take on police brutality and actually bring it to an end. They provide support for survivors and families of victims.
We are a group of girls and adults who are interested in improving girls rights all around the world. We are based in the United States, and we aim to improve girls' rights worldwide. We want to create partnerships to share ideas, exchange stories and advance girls rights all over the world through our actions in our own communities.
A national grant-making foundation and advocacy organization that supports front line Native environmental work. Using music, the media, and the arts, we seek to increase funding and public support for Native communities protecting the Earth we all share. Honor the Earth supports work in 2 key areas: Environmental Justice & Indigenous Knowledge.
Jane Addams School for Democracy
The Jane Addams School works within its community to advocate an understanding of democracy that is work-centered. We draw heavily upon concepts of democracy which see citizens as engaged in creating a commonwealth; as co-creators of their communities and citizenship in terms of the down-to-earth labors of ordinary people who create goods and undertake projects of public benefit — what we call public work.
Jewish Community Action's mission is to bring together Jewish people from diverse traditions and perspectives to promote understanding and take action on social and economic justice issues in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network’s mission is to fix the broken immigration system in this country. We will achieve this through grass-roots organizing, immigrant leadership development, legislative victories, using art as a catalyst for social change, community education, and civic participation. Our aim is to be a multi-ethnic, state-wide, grass-roots organizing group. We also maintain strong ties with the national groups who organized the Freedom Ride, and participate fully in the agenda for federal immigration reform.
The state's largest GLBT direct service & political advocacy organization. Provide legal direction to victims of discrimination, advocacy to victims of domestic violence & hate crimes. Perform trainings on GLBT sensitivity around the state to workplaces, schools, churches, etc. We lobby state legislators to preserve the MN tradition of strong civil rights protections for all people.
MN Public Interest Group (MPIRG)
MPIRG has a dual mission. The first part of this mission is to advocate for social justice, good government, consumer rights, & environmental protection. Training & teaching students in the skills of activism accomplishes this advocacy work & is the second part of MPIRG's mission. The goal of MPIRG is to reach students in constituency groups on nine different campuses & non-student community members from across the state of MN. As activists, these students then work as field organizers in the greater MN community, public policy analysts, and lobbyists to affect statewide social policy on a variety of specific issues.
A collective organization that uses art to build unions and social movements as well as providing custom service.
Empowers young people to engage with their communities through learning, teaching, and making media. Since its inception in 1992, PCTV has enabled inner-city youth, ages 9-21, to create their own television programs, magazines, photography exhibits, web pages, and personal projects focusing on youth, family, and community issues. Besides providing a way for youth to creatively express themselves, these projects are a way in which young people can make a civic contribution to their neighborhoods.
Founded in 1967 by a group of volunteers and clergy, Pro-Choice Resources has remained one of the leaders in the struggle to ensure reproductive rights for all women. We are a statewide, nonprofit organization combining the strength of dedicated volunteers and trained professional staff in this fight. The mission of PCR is to provide financial resources for women who choose abortion, but cannot afford one; to educate youth and the larger community about the full range of reproductive health issues; and to expand access to safe and legal abortion for all women. PCR's current programming includes the Education and Outreach Program, the Abortion Provider Expansion Program, which includes a medical scholarship, and the Hersey Abortion Assistance Loan Fund.
St. Paul Central Touring Theatre Company
For the past 27 years, the Central Touring Theatre Program at Central High School in St. Paul, under the direction of Jan Mandell, has maintained a safe space for youth to create, perform, & tour original theatre to diverse audiences throughout the Twin Cities area. The foundation of this program is the belief that artistic expression can be a powerful & positive force in the lives of young people. In that spirit, students from a variety of racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds are engaged in a vigorous & unique training program that results in students creating quality original theatre. Their performances make visible the all too often invisible voices of urban youth.
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM)
Students worked on a conscientious objector training program that WAMM is bringing into local high schools. Students prepared the materials for distribution and will meet with high school youth.
Witness for Peace (WFP) is a politically independent, nationwide grassroots organization of people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. WFP’s mission is to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.