Resource Center of the Americas
from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base
The Resource Center of the Americas or RCTA, is a large non-profit research and education organization with a membership base in south Minneapolis. About 20 paid staff members work in three-story center, which includes a restaurant, four ground level classrooms that are rented out to local organizations for various activities, a bookstore, library, and office space that is shared with Proyecto Minnesota León, Eureka! Recycling and Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition
Address: 3019 Minnehaha Avenue, Minneapolis MN map
- How to get here
- driving from Macalester
- bus from Macalester, Hamline, St. Thomas Line 21 and 53
Website: www.americas.org
RCTA was initiated in the early 80's as a hub for churches and refugee organizations nationwide that provided means for asylum to individuals from Central America who were denied political asylum under the Reagan administration. It then developed into a comprehensive educational organization that engages in Human Rights activism. RCTA has news providing contracts with several agencies in Latin America. It moved to its current building in Minnehaha and Lake Street in September of 2001.
[edit] Work
It provides spanish classes, Youth Organizers or YO! program, the Centro de Derechos Laborales, runs saturday morning Coffee Hours and friday Movie Nights. Its quarterly publication, with news briefs on the Americas and several featured articles - Connection to the Americas - is another main task at RCTA.
RCTA is often the site of various group meetings, in which RCTA is variously represented. These include PACE, MAPA, AFFIRM, IWFR, among others.
[edit] Volunteers
Approximately 40 students volunteer at the RCTA every academic semester, mostly from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Macalester College, University of St. Thomas, as well as many other Colleges and Universities in the Twin Cities.
During summers, students from other regions come to the RCTA to volunteer. Recent interns came from Middlebury College, Carnegie Mellon University
[edit] Membership
About 1,500 and annual fundraising drives.
[edit] Budget
Distribution of budget to programs, personnel,
[edit] Staff
- Irene RodrÃguez, Executive Director
- Jodi Williams, Development Director
- Lee Wallace, Associate Director
[edit] Previous directors
- Christine Jennings, Interim 2004
- Frank Vardeman, 2002-04
- Pamela Costain
[edit] Mission Statement
The Resource Center of the Americas informs, educates and organizes to promote human rights, democratic participation, economic justice and cross-cultural understanding in the context of globalization in the Americas.
The nonprofit Resource Center of the Americas (of which Americas.Org is a program) is devoted to the notion that everyone, everywhere is entitled to the same fundamental human rights. Our starting point for promoting these rights is learning and teaching about the peoples and countries of the Americas—their history, culture and politics. We focus especially on the global economy, a system in which a minority flourishes while millions of people lack adequate food, shelter and employment.
Every Resource Center program embodies the principle that education and action go hand in hand. Our educational activities and classes combine with our news coverage to provide the public with an alternative source of information. Armed with that as a tool, our organizing programs work to educate and activate the community around key issues. In this way we empower others to work collectively to create social change both in the United States and Latin America. Template:Media Organizations
[edit] info
Resource Center of the Americas - 2002 Program Accomplishments
El Centra de Derechos Laborales (Labor Rights Center)
• More than 1,625 individuals participated in CDL programs and activities during the year.
• Presented 3 workshops on workers' rights and employment issues.
• Co-sponsored an immigration forum attended by more than 200 people.
• Established a street theater program focused on experiences of immigrant workers.
• Joined with Centra Legal in presenting periodic legal clinics for immigrant workers.
• Conducted year-round ESL/worker rights classes.
• Assisted an average of 25 people per week with labor and immigration issues.
News & Information
• Published three-dozen original investigative reports and analytic essays on human rights and social
justice issues in the Americas.
• Working with two-dozen volunteer news editors, we compiled a record average of 75 stories per month in
our monthly digest of news from across the hemisphere.
• AMERICAS.ORG offered Web visitors more than 7,000 news reports and more than 4,000 links to news
reports, action alerts and analysis on hundreds of alternative Web sites.
• During the year, visitor requests for pages totaled more than 456,000.
Educating AlwutIheAmericas !!/;,:l,,':—:„,il i^'- '^^-"^ :„::,, "'^ - :::::::^^1:, ::! / ^:1^ -'—.^-^ :••- : "- '1::1 ' ::::
• Our education programs and activities reached more than 4,100 people in 2002.
• We created a new workshop, "Mi Cultum, Tu Cultura," a bi-lingual exploration of cultures.
• We offered nine classes on political and social topics which included timely issues such as Demystifying
Colombia, How the Media Shapes our Understanding..., and Globalization 101.
• Presentations in the community and weekly Coffee Hours at the Resource Center during the year
addressed close to 1,7 00 people on topics such as Working for Justice in Guatemala. Cuba Today, Latinos
in Minnesota, and the School of the Americas.
Labor, Globalization, and Human Sights
• In 2002, the Labor, Globalization and Human Rights project made 46 presentations to more than 1,800
people on trade policy, sweatshops, and other aspects of globalization. Over half of these presentations
were to student groups.
• Our YO! project made an additional 152 presentations to more than 5,046 students during the year.
• We also helped establish a national SweatFree Communities network focused on leveraging the
purchasing power of public institutions to stem the tide of products produced under sweatshop conditions.
• The local manifestation of the SweatFree Communities network—SweatFree Minneapolis—was successful
in urging the Minneapolis School Board to adopt a SweatFree purchasing resolution.
Bookstore of the Americas
• We expanded our collection in 2002, particularly Spanish-language titles and books from Latin America.
Other areas we expanded were globalization, immigration, and activism.
• With Birchbark Books we co-hosted a reading with Winona LaDuke. We also hosted readings by poet Ray
Gonzalez, contributors to The Zapatista Reader, women from Las Mujeres in Accion, and Mary Losure.
• Overall, we increased sales by 12%.
Cafe of the Americas
• The Cafe promoted education about Fair Trade coffee practices.
• The Cafe hosted neighborhood breakfasts with Councilmember Gary Schiffand monthly meetings of local
clergy and social justice groups.
• The Cafe achieved a 13% growth in sales in 2002.
Current Work: Since working with Minneapolis Public Schools in the fall to pass a "Sweat Free" Resolution, our Youth Organizers YO! Program are currently involved with campaigns in St. Paul, Stillwater, and Benilde-St. Margaret to encourage similar resolutions. The proposals have been well received, thanks to the support of many local high school students. Our Workers Rights Center (Centre de Derechos Laborales) is involved in the effort to separate the INS from the Minneapolis Police Department, a proposal that is a direct result of Homeland Security. The effort is supported by the police and many civil rights groups. CDL is a sponsoring organization of the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride. Inspired by the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights Movement, immigrant workers and their allies will set out from eight major U.S. cities and cross the country in buses in late September 2003. They will converge on Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress and then travel to New York City for a mass rally on October 4. Our Education Team is organizing our first ever Spanish Language and Human Rights trip to Guatemala in August. The trip is being planned for August 1 to 17 in Guatemala with language classes at Casaxelaju in Quetzaltenango/Xela in the Western Highlands. Participants will leam about social justice issues by talking directly with people who have suffered directly from oppressive and corrupt governments. There are two events around the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting of trade ministers in Miami on November 20-21. The agreement, proposed by the Bush administration and opposed by labor, environmental, family farm, and social justice groups, would expand a NAFTA type agreement to 31 countries in the Americas.
• A contingent of Resource Center (Labor, Globalization & Human Rights Program) and Minnesota Fair Trade
Coalition groups hope to send 150 people to Miami to demonstrate against the agreement. Minnesota had the
biggest contingent east of the Rockies at the WTO demonstrations in Seattle in 1999, and we hope to have
another large, supportive contingent in Miami.
• The Resource Center and Witness for Peace are co-sponsoring a delegation to Mexico to explore the effects of
free trade on Mexican fanning communities and labor unions. The delegation will travel directly from Mexico
to Miami on November 19.
Resource Center Fall Conference, October 18, 2003, New Activism for the Americas: The NAFTA after NAFTA: This activist conference focuses on looking back at the past 20 years of the Resource Center to analyse what we learned from the U.S. military involvement in Central America in the 80s and the subsequent economic wars that further eroded sustainability, human rights, and a decent standard of living. It also focuses on Looking forward to analyze the core values and principles we can support for our "pro-global justice" work and further develop the strategies to accomplish this work. We are currently redesigning our Web site, AMERICAS.ORG, both technically and visually to be able to provide more up to the minute news, action, and analysis from Latin America. We will be expanding the original content on the Web and providing additional action alerts online.
[edit] board candidates
Call to the Annual Meeting of the Resource Center of the Americas
December 29, 2003
Dear Members: The Annual Meeting of the Resource Center of the Americas will be held from 1:00-3:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, 2004, in the Community Room at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 2730 East 31st Street in Minneapolis (just around the comer from the Resource Center). Business to be conducted at this meeting includes the election of members to the Board of Directors and the consideration and approval of an amendment to the Bylaws of the Resource Center. There will also be opportunities to leam about the programs of the Resource Center for 2004, to meet with staff and board members, and to visit with other members of the Resource Center. Each type of membership (Individual, Household or Organizational) is entitled to one vote per membership. In order to vote at this meeting, you must be a member as of January 9, 2004. The following materials for your review and consideration are included in this mailing:
• Biographies of candidates for the Board of Directors (see reverse)
• The proposed amendment to the Bylaws of the Resource Center of the Americas
• A ballot for your use. Please return it by mail, drop it off at the Resource Center, or bring
n wiih you to the Annual Meeting
The Board is proud to recommend the proposed candidates for the Board of Directors and feel that they will serve you well. The amendment to the Bylaws will make Article 4, Section 5 conform to the removal process for the Executive Director found in Article 6, Section 7 that specifies that a 2/3 vote of the board is required to remove the Executive Director. Please review these materials carefully. Ballots may be mailed, dropped off at the reception desk or brought to the Annual Meeting. Ballots must be marked and turned in by 1:15 p.m. on the date of the Annual Meeting. We hope that you will make every effort to come and participate ir, this Annual Meeting of the Resource Center of the Americas. Our mission is to inform, educate and organize to promote human rights, democratic participation, economic justice and cross-cultural understanding in the context ofglobalization in the Americas. Our strongest asset is our membership. Please come, support and participate in your organization. For the Staff and Board of Directors,
RESOURCE CENTER OF THE AMERICAS
2004 Board Flections—Candidate Biographies
Lauriana Alonzo is a Mexican'Brazilian immigrant, who grew up in Mexico and is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. She serves on the advisory board for the Centre de Derechos Laborales, and also works with Sin Fronteras Video Production, Solidaridad Para Mujeres, Projecto Dignidad Latina, and Jovenes Autonomos. She brings to the Resource Center a commitment to organizing and activism. Emiliano Chagil currently serves as chair of the Resource Center's board, and is seeking a third two-year term on the board. In 1980 Emiliano left Guatemala to escape the repression there and moved to Minnesota. He has been a member of the Resource Center for several years and served as a board member in the middle eighties. He is Director of Hispanic and Latino Student Services at Augsburg College and previously worked for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Lorena Duarte, editor of La Prensa de Minnesota, is a Salvadoran native v^hose family immigrated to the United States due to war. While studying Latin American history, literature, culture and economics at Harvard University, she v/orked in the legal department of Centre Pre.sente, mostly with recent Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants. She is deeply involved with the local Latino community and is committed to human rights and Latin American issues. Rafael Espinosa is a member of the Centre de Derechos Laborales and a labor organizer at United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. His experience in working with unions and Latino immigrants and his commitment to human rights has led to his involvement with La Raza at the University of Minnesota and vv'ith AFFIRM. Jeff Martinka is director of marketing and development for the Family Support Network (horns of Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota), and has worked as board and staff of nonprofit organizations since 1984. He managed an adult basic education program offering free ESL tutoring and assistance on immigration and citizenship issues to immigrants, many from Latin America. He brings skills in marketing, public relations, fundraising, fiscal and management oversight, strategic planning and special events. John Pegg is a regional organizer for Witness for Peace-Upper Midwest, a national board member for Witness for Peace, and a member of Veterans for Peace, and is active with School of the Americas Watch. He has traveled extensively in Latin America. He brings knowledge of economic and political issues, connections to legislative advocacy groups, and grassroots connections throughout the Midwest, as well as fundraising experience. Dave Zimmerman is a teacher and board member of Southside Family School—a Community Solutions Fund member with social justice issues as its focus—-where he serves on finance and development committees. He devotes much of his time connecting students to needed community agencies. For 22 years he has been a Minneapolis teacher, work coordinator and steward with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59.
