Community Change & Activism Links
Anti-Racist Action http://www.aranet.org
ARA started in 1987, first in Minneapolis and then dozens of other cities. They grew out of the punk/hardcore music world, in response to the sudden appearance of racists in that scene. ARAs approach to anti-racism is very direct. ARA volunteers follow neo-nazi groups, and demonstrate next to them in order to decrease racism, sexism, anti-gay bigotry, and anti-Semitism.
Appreciative Inquiry Commons http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu/
'AI Commons' is devoted to the sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. The site is hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. Appreciative Inquiry is the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them.
At The Table www.AtTheTable.org
Connect with others, share information, and help build the worldwide movement for youth participation at this online clearinghouse featuring everything you need to know about effectively involving youth in your organization and community. Hosted by the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development.
The Center for Community Change www.communitychange.org
CCC helps low-income people improve their communities and change policies and institutions that affect their lives by developing their own strong organizations. CCC helps people to develop the skills and resources they need to improve their communities as well as change policies and institutions that adversely affect their lives.
The Center for Third World Organizing www.ctwo.org
CTWO (pronounced 'C-2') links communities of color with organizing skills, political education, and visions of a just society. The Center's programs include training of new and experienced organizers, establishing model multi-racial community organizations, and building an active network of organizations and activists of color to achieve racial justice in its fullest dimensions.
Changemakers www.changemakers.net
Changemakers, an initiative of Ashoka - Innovators for the Public, focuses on the rapidly growing world of social entrepreneurship by providing inspiration, resources, and opportunities for those interested in social change throughout the world. Includes the vast Changemakers Library, which offers a plethora of social change tools and resources, categorized under such topics as Effective Governance, Children/Youth and Conflict Mediation & Resolution.
Chardon Press www.chardonpress.com
Develops resources on fundraising for social change, community organizing, race and education, public policy, etc.
CIVICUS http://www.civicusassembly.org
CIVICUS is an international alliance dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. CIVICUS holds and annual World Assembly. The theme for the 2001 assembly was "Putting People at the Centre: Voluntary Action Shaping Social and Economic Change."
The Community Based Collaboratives Research Consortium www.CBCRC.org CBCRC is a network of researchers, mediators and facilitators, government agencies, community groups and environmental groups which seek to understand and assess local collaborative efforts involving natural resources and community development. CBCRC provides a venue for the sharing of research, evaluation and case studies; emerging stewardship issues and practice and policy outcomes concerning community based collaborative processes.
Housing Activist News from Across the Nation www.housingamerica.net
A great resource for people organizing for safe, affordable housing. The Housing America site provides examples of successful housing activism, facts on the housing crisis, and a means for publicizing your housing-related action. Housing America also provides twice-monthly housing updates gleaned from thousands of sources to help inspire and inform activists.
IGC Internet www.igc.org
The nonprofit Institute for Global Communications (IGC) offers activists in the areas of peace, environmentalism, feminism, and anti-racism a place on the Internet to learn, meet, and organize. Click here to go directly to the AntiRacismNet.
Initiatives of Change www.initiativesofchange.org
Initiatives of Change is an international network open to people of all cultures, nationalities, religions and beliefs, who work towards change, locally and globally, by starting with change in their own lives. Founded in the 1930s as Moral Re-Armament, Initiatives of Change supports such programs as Hope in the Cities and Agenda for Reconciliation.
Loka Institute http://www.loka.org
The Loka Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making research, science and technology more responsive to democratically-decided social and environmental concerns.
National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention
www.peacebeyondviolence.org
NFCVP is a partnership among public and private funders, community collaborators, and experts in violence prevention and other disciplines. It was developed to address violence and its related problems in a coordinated way, and to nurture a national violence prevention movement through advocacy, action, public awareness and a focus on prevention. The Collaborative raises public awareness that violence is preventable and empowers citizens to tackle violence in their communities.
National Organizers Alliance www.noacentral.org
NOA's mission is to advance progressive organizing for social, economic and environmental justice and to sustain, support and nurture the people of all ages who do it. Their members are organizers who are responsible to a defined constituency and who help build that constituency through leadership development, collective action and the development of democratic structures.
Pew Partnership for Civic Change www.pew-partnership.org
The Pew Partnership is a civic research organization which identifies and documents promising solutions crucial to building strong communities. Resources on the website include the publications What We Know Works (an overview of research about what works - and doesn't work - in social service programs), Ready, Willing and Able: Citizens Working for Change, and Civic Partners: the Search for Solutions.
Pioneers of Change www.pioneersofchange.net
Pioneers of Change is an emerging global learning community of committed, young people in their 20's and early 30's, from diverse cultural, social, and professional backgrounds.
Pop Sustainability, Inc. http://www.thinkpop.org
Pop Sustainability has created a global youth culture campaign to promote a more humane, ecologically sound and economically just society through the arts, Internet and live events. By using the industries of popular culture, the means of mass media and the modern codes of advertising, Pop Sustainability is selling an ethic of awareness and personal responsibility to people to effect positive change. Pop Sustainability intends to build momentum to become a worldwide social movement.
Southern Catalyst Network www.southerncatalyst.org
SCN is a regional alliance devoted to combating prejudice and bigotry in the Deep South. SCN links activists and organizations working to promote democratic values and organizing against prejudice and hatred. Their website is designed as an information clearinghouse for activists and provides a wide range of material that can be used by progressive non-profits to strengthen their work for social justice. SCN offers free resources and materials such as a newsletter highlighting models of effective social justice organizing and an on-line newsletter highlighting diversity resources and news items.
Southern Empowerment Project www.southernempowerment.org
SEP is a multi-racial association of member-run, member-based organizations. SEP challenges racism and social injustice by recruiting and training community leaders to solve community problems in the South and Appalachia.
SpeakOut.com www.speakout.com
This site provides U.S. Americans with information about important issues and the opportunity to react to them by contacting decision makers. The site provides chats and debates, online surveys, and petitions.
Steps Toward an Inclusive Community Across America
www.jointcenter.org/Publications/clarksburg.html
This 2001 book by Maggie Potapchuk of NABRE begins with the story of how Clarksburg, a moderately-sized community in West Virginia, responded to a KKK rally by conducting a counter-rally which, in turn, led to the Clarksburg Unity Project. The latter part of the book includes a tool to help predominately white, moderate-sized towns assess their process of becoming inclusive.
Taos Institute www.taosinstitute.org
The Taos Institute is a community of scholars and practitioners working to explore, extend and share the view that, through human relationships, we construct our realities, moralities and aspirations. Participants collaborate to design and promote creative, appreciative, and relational practices in families, communities and organizations around the world.
United for a Fair Economy www.ufenet.org
Founded in 1994, United For a Fair Economy is a Boston-based independent national nonprofit organization that spotlights the growing economic divide. UFE has illustrated the economic divide in dramatic and funny ways, such as appearing at Steve Forbes' presidential announcement with signs saying "Billionaires for Forbes - Because inequality isn't growing fast enough." One of the most ground-breaking projects of UFE is Responsible Wealth, a network of business people, investors, and other affluent people in the top 5% of income or wealth, who challenge the policies that favor wealthy people like themselves.
World Alliance for Civic Participation www.civicus.org
CIVICUS is an international alliance dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world.
