Learning Networks
Forum on Race and Democracy
Our Organizations
The Advancement Project
http://www.advancementproject.org/
We are an innovative civil rights law, policy, and communications “action tank” that advances universal opportunity and a just democracy for those left behind in America. We believe that sustainable progress can be made when multiple tools—law, policy analysis, strategic communications, technology, and research— are coordinated with grassroots movements.
Advancement Project was founded in 1999 in Los Angeles and Washington DC by veteran civil rights lawyers who were looking for new ways to dismantle structural barriers to inclusion, secure racial equity, and expand opportunity for all.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles
http://apalc.advancingjustice.org/
The mission of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice - LA is to advocate for civil rights, provide legal services and education, and build coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Pacific Americans and to create a more equitable and harmonious society.
Advancing Justice - LA was founded in 1983 with broad community based support and is now the largest organization in the country focused on meeting the legal needs of one of the nation’s fastest growing populations. Advancing Justice - LA serves more than 15,000 individuals and organizations each year through direct services, community education, training, and technical assistance.
Advancing Justice - LA is a unique organization that merges the work of a traditional legal service provider and a civil rights organization. To achieve its goals of justice and equality, Advancing Justice - LA draws on four strategies: direct legal services; impact litigation; policy analysis and advocacy; and leadership development.
Bill Lynch Associates, LLC
http://www.bill-lynch.com/
Founded in 1999, Bill Lynch Associates, LLC (BLA) uses the experience and knowledge of its diverse staff to consult with individuals and organizations in the corporate, political, labor and nonprofit communities. We work in partnership with our clients to achieve results that are in harmony with their aspirations and guiding principles by using strategies that enhance their capacities to meet their objectives and goals. Bill Lynch Associates is a certified New York State Minority Owned Business Enterprise.
Alvarez Porter Group
http://www.alvarezporter.com/
Alvarez Porter Group provides results focused consultant services to social change leaders and organizations in the areas of strategic planning, leadership development and facilitation of meetings and retreats.
Joe Alvarez and Allison Porter formed Alvarez Porter Group in 2009 to help leaders and organizations succeed in creating a just, equitable and sustainable world. They joined forces to build a community of practice that would deepen their learning and increase their impact.
MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
http://dusp.mit.edu/
The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) is a department within the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. It is comprised of four specialization areas (also referred to as Program Groups): City Design and Development; Environmental Policy and Planning; Housing, Community and Economic Development; and the International Development Group. There are also three cross-cutting areas of study: Transportation Planning and Policy, Urban Information Systems (UIS), and Regional Planning.
Since its inception in 1933, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning has consistently remained one of the top planning schools in the country. Now totaling close to 60 teaching faculty members (more than half of whom are full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty), it has the largest planning faculty in the United States.
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)
http://www.ndlon.org/
NDLON aspires to live in a world of diverse communities where day laborers live with full rights and responsibilities in an environment of mutual respect, peace, harmony and justice. The organization is committed to improving the lives of day laborers in the United States. To this end, NDLON works to unify and strengthens is member organizations to be more strategic and effective in their efforts to develop leadership, mobilize, and organize day laborers in order to protect and expand their civil, labor and human rights. NDLON fosters safer more humane environments for day laborer, both men and women, to earn a living, contribute to society, and integrate into the community.
Pitzer College
http://www.pitzer.edu/index.asp
Pitzer College produces engaged, socially responsible citizens of the world through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary liberal arts education emphasizing social justice, intercultural understanding and environmental sensitivity. The meaningful participation of students, faculty and staff in college governance and academic program design is a Pitzer core value. Our community thrives within the mutually supportive framework of The Claremont Colleges, which provide an unsurpassed breadth of academic, athletic and social opportunities.
PolicyLink, Inc.
http://www.policylink.org/
PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by Lifting Up What Works.®
Founded in 1999, PolicyLink connects the work of people on the ground to the creation of sustainable communities of opportunity that allow everyone to participate and prosper. Such communities offer access to quality jobs, affordable housing, good schools, transportation, and the benefits of healthy food and physical activity.
Guided by the belief that those closest to the nation’s challenges are central to finding solutions, PolicyLink relies on the wisdom, voice, and experience of local residents and organizations. Lifting Up What Works is our way of focusing attention on how people are working successfully to use local, state, and federal policy to create conditions that benefit everyone, especially people in low-income communities and communities of color. We share our findings and analysis through our publications, website and online tools, convenings, national summits, and in briefings with national and local policymakers.
Their work is grounded in the conviction that equity—just, fair, and green inclusion—must drive all policy decisions.
Serrafix
http://www.serrafix.com/
Serrafix is an innovative hybrid of venture capitalist, project manager, systems integrator, strategy consultant, and efficiency analyst — all devoted to one thing: making the best self-sustaining investments to transform the energy profiles of our clients.
Serrafix specializes in helping diverse clients position themselves for the energy and development scenarios of the 21st century. They work with cities, businesses, non-profit organizations, and all levels of government. Their specialty is working with complex systems, such as cities, to craft strategies, target savings, define roles and forge the plans and partnerships that result in meaningful energy savings, better planning, and mobility.
Service Employees International Union
http://www.seiu.org/
We are the Service Employees International Union, an organization of 2.1 million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society.
SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. Focused on uniting workers in three sectors to improve their lives and the services they provide, SEIU is:
- The largest healthcare union, with more than 1.1 million members in the field, including nurses, LPNs, doctors, lab technicians, nursing home workers, and home care workers.
- The largest property services union, with 225,000 members in the building cleaning and security industries, including janitors, security officers, superintendents, maintenance workers, window cleaners, and doormen and women
- The second largest public services union, with more than 1 million local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and child care providers
UCLA Labor Center
http://www.labor.ucla.edu/
The mission of the UCLA Labor Center is to promote research, education, and policy change to improve the lives of workers, students, and our communities. The Center plays a unique role as a bridge between the university and the labor community in Southern California. This role has grown in the past few years with the dramatic changes that have overtaken the Southern California workforce and economy.
As part of the university, the Labor Center serves as an important source of information about unions and workers to interested scholars and students. Through its extensive connections with unions and workers, the Labor Center also provides labor with access to UCLA's resources and programs. An advisory committee comprised of about forty Southern California labor and community leaders (representing more than one million members in the public and private sectors) provides advice and support for the center.
The Labor Center also has a vibrant outreach office just blocks from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, dozens of major union headquarters and worker centers, and in the heart of a diverse immigrant community.
The Labor Center is a vital resource for research, education, and policy development to help create jobs that are good for workers and their communities, to improve the quality of existing jobs in the low-wage economy, and to strengthen the process of immigrant integration, especially among students and youth.