New in Resources:

• Building a Foundation to Support a Movement
  
  
• Southern Echo Case Study
  Jackson, Mississippi. Building a movement in the rural south: a challenging backdrop.
  
  
• Labor/Community Stategy Center Case Study
  Los Angeles, California. 15 years of overcoming organizing challenges in L.A.
  
  
• Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool
  The Marguerite Casey Foundation Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool is a self- assessment instrument that helps nonprofits identify capacity strengths and challenges and establish capacity building goals. It is primarily a diagnostic and learning tool. Results from the Assessment can also help grantmakers deepen their understanding of the current capacity of their grantees as well as track their growth in capacity over time.
  To read more about the tool, or to download a copy, click here

• Convenings: Why a Non-grantmaking Strategy is So Important
  Grantee convenings have been an important non-grantmaking strategy for Marguerite Casey Foundation since its inception in 2001. Convenings provide grantees an opportunity to collaborate, enable grantees to build stronger networks and improve their capacity to contribute to Movement Building. Five regional grantee convenings were held in 2006 and early 2007; this report presents an overview of the proceedings and the key lessons learned about Movement Building. To download a copy - click here.

New in News Room:

• Marguerite Casey Foundation Intensifies Support for Broad-Based Efforts to Mobilize Families - SEATTLE, WA (July 28, 2005) – In an effort to infuse necessary funding into the fight for basic human needs for safety, economic opportunities, the Marguerite Casey Foundation announced $1.38 million to organizations spanning four counties in the Rio Grande Valley.
  
  
• Marguerite Casey Foundation Intensifies Support for Educational Equity in Mississippi Delta - SEATTLE, WA (July 28, 2005) – In an effort to infuse the fight for quality education with necessary funding, the Marguerite Casey Foundation announced $420,000 to four Mississippi Delta community-based organizations.
  
  
• ACORN Calls Attention to EITC Dollars Unclaimed by Low-Wage Workers and Drained by Predatory Tax Preparers - September 1, 2004 - ACORN - New Orleans, LA
  The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) today released a new report documenting that as many as seven million U.S. low-income working households may be missing out on more than $12 billion in Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) refunds to which they are entitled. The report – titled “Increasing Incomes & Reducing the Rapid Refund Rip-Off” – also shows that tax preparers siphon off over one billion dollars per year from low-income working families through the sale of unnecessary bank products such as Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs).
  
  To download a pdf of the full press release please click here.
  To download a pdf of the full report please click here.
  
  
• Marguerite Casey Foundation Announces More Than $4 million in New Grants to Encourage and Support Community Activism Among Low-Income Families.
  SEATTLE, WA (August 26, 2004) – Marguerite Casey Foundation today announced more than $4 million in grants to 24 organizations working to promote activism among low-income families and communities throughout the United States. Nearly three-quarters of the Foundation’s grants were made to groups advocating for social change in the Deep South and Southwestern United States. The remaining quarter went to organizations based in California and the Foundation’s home state of Washington.
  
  To read more about Marguerite Casey Foundation's latest grants, click here.

New in Stories:

• Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Women, Chicago, IL (July, 2005)
  Mothers with children under age 18 are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population, with few groups reaching out to them. When women go to prison, their children suffer mightily, sometimes irreparably. Women, who lose custody of their children, even if they go straight after release, may return to crime and addiction out of grief and despair. In l985, Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Women began to inform imprisoned parents of their rights such as mother-child visits, guardianship options, and public benefits while mothers are incarcerated. Staff provides legal counseling, and makes knowledgeable referrals to services including substance abuse treatment, education; help with domestic violence and job training. Yearly, CLAIM serves more than 2000 women and girls, aiming to prevent prison time from causing permanent destruction of their families and to change policy to support those families.

• The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Immokalee, FL (July, 2005)
  In 1993, farm workers calling themselves the Coalition of Immokalee Workers began meeting in a borrowed room in a local church. Facing a time honored tactic of local bosses of divide and conquer, Haitian, Mexican and Guatemalan farm workers refused to take the bait of working against each other. Within five years members had used work stoppages, a hunger strike, a 230-mile march and alliances with supportive groups to win raises and respect for indigent farm workers. Egalitarian and rooted in non-violence, members expect attention from top industry executives to abuses by their suppliers such as withholding wages, deplorable living conditions, and involuntary servitude, and they are receiving it. The CIW is growing and receiving enormous attention, especially after its recent hard-won victory over Taco Bell. CIW’s agreement with the fast food giant is a model of private enterprise collaboration with a group that stands for grassroots social justice.

• Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA (July, 2005)
  The city of Santa Ana has the third highest rate of uninsured families in California, mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants. Unfamiliarity with a new culture, lack of transportation and childcare and concern about the authorities keep residents deeply in the dark about available health services. Through health promoters, trained community members who are managing or have experienced the same chronic health and well-being concerns, Latino Health Access helps bring education and services directly to patios, street corners and homes. LHA uses the activities, classes and services as entry points to promote wellness as a basic civil right.

• Parent Institute for Quality Education, San Diego, CA (July, 2005)
  Hidden from the glitter of this city’s yacht basins and fine homes, communities of low-income immigrants raise children in scrappier pockets of the greater San Diego area, often befuddled or intimidated by an unfamiliar system of education. Most poor youngsters simply don’t make it to college, and many fail to finish high school. Aiming at deep social change, in l987 founders of the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) began providing tools for connecting immigrant parents to adolescent children and their classrooms, demystifying education in America, and insisting that schools, parents, business and community must act as equal partners in the education of every child. Today PIQE is a statewide program in California, and in 2003 expanded to Texas and Arizona. More than 300,000 parents and more than 1,000,000 youngsters have been served, one child at a time.

• Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, Chicago, IL (October, 2004)
  In l996, the effects of the federal Welfare Reform Act began to rain down on immigrant neighborhoods in Chicago, frightening newcomers and restricting access to services. More than a dozen community groups speaking a medley of languages banded together, constructing a first line of defense with education, shaping local leaders, citizenship classes and mutual solidarity. When the wave of immigrant bashing hit after 9/11, the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois decided to change the way citizenship classes were taught, emphasizing links to constitutional rights and community participation, and successfully began to push for immigration reform. Today, partner groups cherish homeland memories while combating isolation among immigrants. It helps them build a feeling of ownership of their new communities, paving the way for social change.

• Clinica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero, Los Angeles, CA (September, 2004)
  In l983 survivors of mass killings of civilians in El Salvador’s civil war arrived in west central Los Angeles with little besides their lives. Many were startled and amazed to find a clapboard house hung with a picture of San Salvador’s assassinated archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who had spoken out for them against the violence. “This must be a safe house,” they said. Inside they found volunteer medics who treated families without regard for ability to pay, and heard they had certain rights, no matter what their immigration status. Today Clinica Monsenor Oscar A. Romero has grown to 100 providers and tens of thousands of medical and dental patient visits per year, but remains rooted in the same spirit, serving the neighborhood’s multiple poor communities while nurturing civic activism.