| De: |
Daniel Roth [ Profil ] |
| Sujet: |
Hold the date : Transformative Action Discussion
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| Envoyé: |
Sep 6th, 2006 - 21:25:41 |
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>
> Hi everyone,
>
> CRESP has invited Dr. Scott Sherman, Professor in the Political Science Dept
> at UCLA, to come visit us in October. Dr. Sherman and his colleague Randy
> Parraz recently won a $90,000 seed grant to train students in "transformative
> action". Please read more about their work below.
>
> Dr. Sherman will be in Ithaca from October 24-26. We have set aside the
> afternoon of Wednesday, October 25th, for him to speak with the CRESP
> Leadership about the central components of transformative action , and how to
> put it into practice.
>
> Please block off the afternoon of Wednesday, October 25th , from 4-7pm to
> attend this discussion with Dr. Scott Sherman. This conversation is an
> essential step to enhancing our work at CRESP with the tenets and techniques
> of transformative action.
>
> Also, invite friends and colleagues you believe will be interested in hearing
> more about this innovative model for social activism.
>
> I have attached a chapter from Scott Sherman's dissertation on transformative
> action for those of you who are interested.
>
> Please RSVP so that I can plan for refreshments.
>
> Thank you!
>
>
> best,
> Anke
>
>
>
> Activist-Educators with New Model for Social Change Named Among World's 'Best
> Emerging Social Change Entrepreneurs'
> Scott Sherman & Randy Parraz receive $90,000 seed grant to train students in
> more effective strategies for social change and spark a new era of student
> activism
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES - The global nonprofit organization Echoing Green
has named Scott Sherman and Randy Parraz among the world's "Best Emerging
Social Change Entrepreneurs" for their bold plan to train new leaders to
address Southern California's most pervasive problems by applying their
innovative model for social activism, called "transformative action."
Through their more than 25 years of combined dedication to social change,
Sherman and Parraz have found, from both experience and academic study, that
traditional social activist strategies of protests, boycotts and strikes
have limited lasting impact on Southern California's labor, immigrant and
environmental issues. Despite the committed efforts of hundreds of
organizations pursuing these issues through traditional methods, the
problems persist: A 2001 survey found that 67 percent of garment workshops
in L.A. violate wage and labor laws, and 98 percent violate health laws;
many of the immigrants who comprise 36 percent of all L.A. county residents
fear to speak out for their rights; and L.A. suffers the worst air pollution
in the United States, in addition to traffic congestion, water shortages and
environmental racism.
As winners of the prestigious 2005 Echoing Green Fellowship, Sherman and
Parraz will receive $90,000 in seed funding, as well as two years of
technical support, leadership training and strategic counsel, to develop the
Transformative Action Institute (TAI) in Los Angeles, California, for
training college students in innovative social change strategies that break
the "us versus them" model to turn adversaries into allies, competition into
cooperation and anger into goodwill.
"Transformative action goes beyond fighting problems," said Sherman. "It
initiates the process of social transformation and wins over those who
traditional activism views as the enemy. It begins with a vision of the
future and then creates broad and inclusive partnerships consisting of other
nonprofits, government officials, corporations and small businesses."
"Our goal is to become the 21st-century, West Coast version of the
Highlander Center, the social change school in Tennessee where Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and their peers learned more effective activism,"
said Parraz. "We've chosen to train students in transformative action
because they have proven time and again to have the energy, enthusiasm and
motivation to spark important social change."
TAI will begin by offering a class, for credit, at UCLA to the most
promising social activists, and will continue as an incubator for social
innovation that will offer ongoing support for its graduates. As the course
is being offered, students will be required to intern with a social justice
organization or initiate a project on campus or in the surrounding
community. Ultimately, the goal is to identify, develop, train and equip a
new and younger generation of leaders with the most effective and powerful
strategies and methods for social change AND to inspire them to take action.
Parraz and Sherman have been dedicated to social change since each
experienced violence and tragedy in their own lives: Parraz's father, a
deputy sheriff in Sacramento, was killed when Parraz was 11, and Sherman was
beaten and nearly murdered in the midst of gang warfare at age 17.
Parraz, a graduate of University of California Berkeley, earned a Master's
degree in Public Administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University and a J.D. at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. In
1995, he started his career as an organizer with the Industrial Areas
Foundation, and soon thereafter continued his work in social justice with
the AFL-CIO.
Sherman has been teaching and lecturing in universities since 1990. A
graduate of University of California Berkeley, he earned a J.D. at the Boalt
Hall School of Law and a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan School of
Natural Resources and the Environment, where his dissertation focused on
strategies for success in the environmental justice movement. Sherman
received Berkeley's outstanding teaching award and was rated by a 2001 UCLA
student survey as the best professor on campus. His recent nationwide study
of 60 successful social activists and their campaigns helped to shape and
clarify the TAI model.
The Transformative Action Institute is one of ten organizations to receive
the 2005 Echoing Green Fellowship from 700 applicants in 28 countries. From
healthcare to human rights and education to economic development, Echoing
Green's 2005 Fellowship recipients represent a cross-section of new leaders
committed to using smart business principles to right seemingly intractable
social wrongs. The rigorous six-month selection process included the
submission of detailed start-up plans and a series of in-person interviews
before panels of veteran business and nonprofit leaders in New York City.
Judges evaluated applicants' leadership and entrepreneurial skills,
creativity and the potential of their ideas to deliver long-term social
change.
"Our fellowship is designed to provide critical support to bold leaders like
Scott Sherman and Randy Parraz when they need it most," said Dr. Cheryl L.
Dorsey, Echoing Green's president (and a 1992 fellowship recipient for The
Family Van, a mobile health unit for inner-city Boston neighborhoods).
"These visionaries are not afraid to think big, and they need an investor
with a strong track record to pave the way for future support. But that
alone is not enough," she said. "That's why Echoing Green also provides
strategic counsel, technical support and access to an extensive networking
community."
About Echoing Green
Founded in 1987, Echoing Green identifies, funds and supports the world's
most exceptional emerging social leaders and the organizations they launch.
Through a two-year fellowship program, Echoing Green helps these leaders
develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems in diverse fields
including education, healthcare, housing, civil and human rights, the
environment, economic development and the arts. With the support of
co-founder General Atlantic, LLC (GA), a private equity firm, foundations
and individual donors, Echoing Green has invested over $22 million in
start-up funding to nearly 400 social change entrepreneurs. For more
information, visit http://www.echoinggreen.org
, call 212.689.1165 or email
info (at) echoinggreen.org. Applications for the 2006 cycle will be accepted in
September 2005.
# # #
--
Anke Wessels, PhD
Executive Director
Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy
117 Anabel Taylor Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-5027
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