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Refusing to ‘go back to normal’: Addressing structural racism in policing, healthcare, and other institutions

by hreusaSeptember 4, 2020

EVENT DETAILS:
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Time: 1:00-2:15 pm CT / 2:00-3:15 pm ET
Where: Live Stream on Zoom
Cost: FREE

Description:
This session builds upon our previous event, “Addressing Racial Inequities in Health Outcomes During COVID and Beyond,” by delving further into the impacts of systemic racism, and suggesting alternative social and policy paths for improving lives and health by respecting the rights of Black people in the United States.

Distinguished presenters include Dr. Tendayi Achiume, U.N. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Dr. Rachel Hardeman, from the University of Minnesota and Dr. Sirry Alang from Lehigh University. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Shailey Prasad, Director of the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility.

>> Register

Amid Crises, UNICEF USA Launches Program to Help Kids in US

by hreusaAugust 24, 2020August 23, 2020

NEW YORK (August 12, 2020) – on August 12, 2020, International Youth Day, an annual observance to celebrate young peoples’ voices, actions and meaningful, equitable engagement, UNICEF USA announced the launch of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) in the United States. Houston, TX; San Francisco, CA; Minneapolis, MN and Prince George’s County, MD will serve as the first cohort of cities and the first country to implement an ambitious, two-year process toward recognition as a UNICEF Child Friendly City.

Originally created in 1996, UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative uses a child rights-based framework to build a roadmap for establishing safer, more just, equitable, inclusive and child-responsive cities and communities around the world. Since its inception, CFCI has been adopted in over 3,000 municipalities in 40 countries. UNICEF USA applauds these municipalities for their commitment to using this framework to build better communities for children.

“This year has seen so many challenges that have deeply impacted children and families, and also shown the important role that local governments play in supporting them,” said UNICEF USA President and CEO Michael J. Nyenhuis. “As an organization that has dedicated nearly 74 years to protecting and supporting children around the world, UNICEF USA is proud to use this moment to help build better communities for children here in the United States alongside Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Prince George’s County.”

In its pursuit of recognition as a Child Friendly City, government officials and community leaders in Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Prince George’s County will conduct a situational analysis of child well-being in each city. Based on these findings, the cities will implement an action plan that prioritizes the best interests of children and youth within their local policies. CFCI will empower leaders to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and systemic racism on children, work to combat discrimination and elevate their voices in local governance and decision-making.

>> Read full article
For more information about Child Friendly Cities Initiative in the Unites States, visit www.unicefusa.org/mission/usa/childfriendlycities.
To take action and encourage cities across the United States to become more child friendly, visit act.unicefusa.org/childhood.

Support the Breathe Act

by hreusaAugust 18, 2020July 26, 2020

The BREATHE Act is the modern-day Civil Rights Act that we deserve. The Act offers a radical reimagining of public safety, community care, and how we spend money as a society. We bring 4 simple ideas to the table:

Divest federal resources from incarceration and policing.
Invest in new, non-punitive, non-carceral approaches to community safety that lead states to shrink their criminal-legal systems and center the protection of Black lives—including Black mothers, Black trans people, and Black women.
Allocate new money to build healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities.
Hold political leaders to their promises and enhance the self-determination of all Black communities

Get to know and share out the 17 demands by Black Lives Matter that address COVID-19’s disproportionate effect on black and brown communities. Study and support the Breathe Act authored and organized by the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives and over 150 organizations.

>> Learn more and take action

The Conscious Kid

by hreusaAugust 13, 2020July 26, 2020

The Conscious Kid is an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth. They support organizations, families, and educators in taking action to disrupt racism in young children. They equip parents and educators with tools they can use to support racial identity development, critical literacy, and equitable practices in their homes and classrooms. The Conscious Kid is an exceptional resource for teachers across the country who are aspiring to build more inclusive classrooms by including books that affirm diverse identities.

The Conscious Kid was recently asked by Google to curate a list of teacher-facing reading materials as well as evaluation criteria to consider when bringing new resources into the classroom. Suggested by grade level, these resources are intended to help facilitate important conversations about racism, equity, and belonging. The Conscious Kid’s selections are informed by intersectional race-centered approaches including Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Media Literacy, which examine representation in the content, as well as the power dynamics behind the ownership, production, and creation of it.

>> Learn more
>> Bookshop
>> Resource: Books to Build Inclusive Classrooms

FREE Human Rights Yes! Training Manuals

by hreusaAugust 13, 2020August 12, 2020

Human Rights Educators USA and Gleason Printing have teamed up to help offer two free human rights education training manuals:

Human Rights Yes!: Action and Advocacy on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a comprehensive human rights curriculum on the rights of persons with disabilities developed by leading experts in the fields of disability rights, international human rights law, human rights education, and grassroots advocacy. Human Rights. Yes! is Topic Book 6 in the Human Rights Education Series published by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center. It draws on the full body of international human rights law, with a focus on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The book utilizes an active learning approach and is intended to serve as a resource for disabled people’s organizations, human rights advocates, national human rights institutions, governmental human rights focal points, and international development and humanitarian assistance organizations.

These manuals are FREE with the exception of paying the shipping & handling charge.

While shopping, please check out our UDHR posters and our Human Rights booklets on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk Series

by hreusaAugust 11, 2020July 26, 2020

Teaching for Change has just launched a new series entitled, Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk. The series is a collection of short videos that give caregivers, parents, and educators the tools to evaluate children’s books using an anti-racist and anti-bias lens.

In Freedom Reads, associate director of Teaching for Change, Allyson Criner Brown, spends ten minutes examining a different children’s book, offering a synopsis, relevant resources, and four to five key points from an anti-bias, critical literacy perspective.

“In years of working with parents, caregivers, and educators, we’ve seen that taking a deep dive into children’s books is one of the best ways to teach adults how to apply an anti-bias, anti-racist lens to books and other children’s media,” says Criner Brown.

Designed with parents in mind, Freedom Reads intends to take viewers on an extended journey through some of the best anti-bias and anti-racist books out there. The series appears on Teaching for Change’s YouTube channel and Social Justice Books website.

>> Learn more and watch episodes

Free Course on Use of Deadly Force by Police in the U.S.

by hreusaAugust 3, 2020July 26, 2020

Police violence is a human rights crisis. We must step up to protect our communities across the U.S. against excessive use of force. In order to promote action against police violence in the United States, Amnesty International USA has developed a FREE micro-learning course on the use of deadly force by police in the U.S. By the end of this course participants will be able to:

Define the Use of Force and articulate under which circumstances authorities are allowed to use it
Understand how racist and discriminatory ideology has shaped the history of policing in the USA
Outline how U.S. police use excessive force and describe how it threatens human rights
Take action by organizing and mobilizing your community to support systemic reform of USA policing to end racism and stop human rights violations

>> Start course

International Journal of Humane Education

by hreusaJuly 30, 2020July 26, 2020Leave a comment

The inaugural issue of the International Journal of Humane Education (IJHE) is now available from the Humane Education Coalition through their new parent organization, the Academy of Prosocial Learning!

As the first peer-reviewed journal of its kind, IJHE strives to build a scholarly community, expand a collective knowledge base, and validate the quality of research within all sectors of humane education. The first issue of IJHE includes scholar-practitioner articles and an invitational essay on various aspects of humane education in practice and theory.

>> Read the first issue

Fund a Voter Registration Drive With a Grant from TT

by hreusaJuly 29, 2020July 26, 2020Leave a comment

To help encourage voters to register in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, TT is offering grants ranging from $500-$2,000 for educators in these states. These funds support school community members and students to host voter registration drives at their schools and in their communities.

DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

>> Learn more and apply

Tactical Mapping Tool Webinar

by hreusaJuly 27, 2020July 26, 2020

EVENT DETAILS:
When: Thursday, July 30
Time: 11:00 am – 2:00 pm ET
Where: Live Stream on Zoom
Cost: FREE

Description:
New Tactics in Human Rights invites you to register for the Tactical Mapping Tool (TMT) webinar. This time the intro and intermediate webinars have been combined.

The TMT allows activists to work collaboratively on a secure platform to build their map and a database of key actors, assess where those actors sit on a spectrum from ally to opponent, and track and plan direct action. Centered around the idea of mapping the relationships that emanate from a human rights abuse, the Tactical Mapping Tool is intended to assist activists in better understanding and assessing power dynamics and the impact that targeted action would have on individuals and their relationships. The TMT uses New Tactics’ Five Steps to Strategic Effective Method, which helps activists to be more strategic and effective in their advocacy work, as a foundation of the web tool.

This User Webinar will cover an introduction to New Tactics in Human Rights, our Strategic Effectiveness Method, and the Tactical Mapping Tool. The webinar will also delve into a discussion on the features of the Tactical Mapping Tool and provide guidance on how to use the TMT to get more from your planning and organizing. More details will be provided upon acceptance to the webinar.

>> Learn more and apply