Press Contact:
Vanessa Daniel
Tides Foundation
415-561-6302
vdaniel(at)tides.org

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – June 26, 2008 - This year's winners of The Colin Higgins Youth Courage Awards have shown remarkable bravery throughout their young lives, facing down the range of problems confronting LGBTQ youth of color in the United States. Devon Bearden, Kyle Rapinan and Perre Shelton are three young people who have transformed their adversity – displacement from their homes, confrontation with the foster care system, violence from family members and peers – into inspiration for their art, activism and advocacy. Named for the acclaimed writer/director of Harold and Maude and Nine to Five, the Colin Higgins Foundation was established in 1986 to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. The 2008 awardees represent a new generation of peer activists, working to create safe spaces for fellow queer youth while themselves facing the extreme hardships.

Recipients of the 2008 Colin Higgins Youth Courage Awards each received a grant of $10,000 and will be honored at The Trevor Project Awards Gala in New York City on June 30th (www.trevorproject.org). The Trevor Project operates the nation’s only 24/7 suicide and crisis prevention helpline for gay and questioning youth. The recipients will also be awarded an expense-paid trip to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change Conference” in 2009.

Of his work with Chicago's Youth Pride Center, winner Perre Shelton says, "I see the kinds of choices young people are confronted with and the love they are looking for. I want to teach people to love themselves so they can make healthy choices."

Colin Higgins Foundation's Youth Courage Awards program is administered by Tides Foundation which partners with donors and institutions by offering donor-advised funds, philanthropic advice and management services for progressive social change philanthropy. Since the year 2000, Tides Foundation has served as one of the nation's leading funders of LGBT and AIDS / HIV activism nationally and globally. Tides has granted more than $7 million to LGBT issues and more than $21 million to AIDS / HIV issues. Tides LGBT work also includes the Out of Home Youth Fund which focuses on improving the lives of LGBT youth living in foster care, in the juvenile justice system and on the streets.

The 2008 Colin Higgins Youth Courage Award winners include:

DEVON BEARDEN, 15. Devon has spent her life moving between relatives in Florida, South Carolina and Arkansas because her chronically ill mother was unable to care for Devon for extended periods of time. While living with her grandmother, an out lesbian and activist, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Devon searched in vain for resources for LGBT youth. Her grandmother told her "this is something you have to do for yourself." Devon founded a Gay Straight Alliance at her high school, organized the school's first "Day of Silence," and mobilized a youth contingent to oppose a law that would have barred LGBT people from becoming adoptive or foster parents. She participated in the ACLU's Freedom Files documentary about the fight for LGBT equality and was recently awarded the Arkansas ACLU's Champion of Liberty Award for her advocacy. Recently Devon moved to Greensville, South Carolina to take care of her mother and started the first GSA at her new high school there. Devon wants to "live to see the day when people realize how backwards it was to treat queers the way they do now." In all her work, Devon is purposeful about making the connections between racism, classism and gender identity and in stressing the importance of reaching youth of color.

KYLE RAPINAN, 17. Raised in Seattle Washington, Kyle ran away from home his freshman year of high school to escape his older brother, whose beatings were so severe that Kyle - whom he called "little faggot" - was hospitalized several times each year. While homeless and fighting in the courts to gain protection from his brother and an agreement from his mother to allow him to transfer into foster care, Kyle began working for the rights of LGBT youth. During this time, school was a safer haven for Kyle and he began working to ensure that all LGBT students could enjoy a safe school and learning environment. Kyle leads his high school's Gay Straight Alliance, which provides training for teachers and administrators, organizes dances and safe spaces for LGBT youth. He is the Washington state representative for GLSEN National and a member of Safe Schools Coalition with American Friends Service Committee. He has advocated for LGBT youth in his home state and in others, such as Florida, where he collected signatures for a commitment for safer schools. Kyle says it has been important for him to bring his full experience as someone who grew up poor and as a person of color, into discussions of LGBT rights. Kyle is exploring a career in politics to advance social justice.

PERRE SHELTON, 20. Hailing from Calumet City, Illinois, Perre was a three sport athlete his freshman year of high school when he became the target of a group of ten boys, who began regularly "bashing" him on his way home from school, leaving him bruised and bloodied. Not ready to be out to his family, Perre hid his injuries, telling his mother they were from sports. Chicago became Perre’s home as an activist and artist, and has deeply informed his growth in both areas. At 15 Perre came out and began entering slam poetry competitions. He quickly rose to the top of the local slam scene, winning Chicago's citywide "Louder than Bomb" competition and becoming the youngest Def Jam poet featured on HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry". Today Perre works with the Youth Pride Center, chairing the youth council that shapes programs, leads writing workshops, and mentors young poets. He is supporting YPC's move to Chicago's South Side, where there are few resources for African American LGBT youth. Perre is a student at Harold Washington College and plans to teach high school English after graduating and to someday operate his own youth center. He also currently works with Taproots Inc., traveling to colleges, high schools and churches spreading HIV/AIDS awareness through poetry and interactive conversation with young people.

The winners of this year's Colin Higgins Courage Awards join a stellar group of previous winners, all of whom have demonstrated the capacity to inspire others to discover their own value through their example, their tenacity and their leadership. A list of previous winners can be found at www.colinhiggins.org.

About Colin Higgins Foundation
Colin Higgins, acclaimed screenwriter, director and producer of films such as Harold and Maude and Nine to Five, established the Colin Higgins Foundation in 1986 to further his humanitarian goals. In addition to the Youth Courage Awards, Colin Higgins Foundation supports organizations that build the power and leadership of LGBT youth (ages 13-24) through grassroots organizing and/or comprehensive leadership development to bring about institutional change in the legal, political, economic, or cultural structures that impact their lives. The foundation focuses on historically underprivileged constituencies including, youth of color, transgender, immigrant, low-income or rural youth and/or youth in reservation communities. To learn more, please visit www.colinhiggins.org.

About Tides Foundation
Tides actively promotes change toward broadly shared economic opportunity, robust democratic processes and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected. Tides is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 and provides an array of services that amplifies the efforts of forward-thinking philanthropists, foundations, activists and organizations to make the world a better place. Tides Foundation, Tides Center and Tides Shared Spaces have collaborated with over 15,000 individuals and organizations that have touched millions of lives across the country and around the globe. With offices in San Francisco and New York City, Tides provides fiscal sponsorship for over 200 groups across the country, operates and supports green nonprofit centers and has granted more than $600 million since 2000 alone. For more information, visit www.tides.org.

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Copyright © 2008, Colin Higgins Foundation, Tides, Tides Foundation. Other names used in this press release may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Action Aid, Amnesty International, EarthRights International, Friends of the Earth International, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, Oxfam International, Rights & Accountability in Development, and Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) submitted the following written statement for the eighth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council:

We thank the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises (SRSG) for the extensive work done to produce his third report. The report emphasizes three key principles: the state duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect, and access to remedies for victims. We appreciate the emphasis given in the report to the state duty to protect human rights in the context of corporate activity, and the recommendation for urgent action by governments to fulfil this duty, particularly in light of escalating reports of business-related human rights abuses. We also welcome his confirmation of the corporate responsibility to respect all human rights, and the corresponding requirement for concrete action by companies to discharge this duty. As work carried out under his mandate (and annexed to his report) confirmed, allegations of abuse by business affect all human rights and all business sectors, and arise in all parts of the world. The SRSG’s report also recognizes the inadequacy of existing mechanisms to address business-related abuses and ensure justice for the victims.
For more information on Tides Center project ESCR-Net, see www.escr-net.org.
We agree with the SRSG that the “international community is still in the early stages of adapting the human rights regime to provide more effective protection to individuals and communities against corporate-related human rights harms”. It is therefore imperative that this issue remains on the United Nations (UN) human rights agenda, and we urge the Human Rights Council (HRC) to establish a follow-on mandate on business and human rights that builds on what has been so far achieved, clearly relates it to the realities faced by those who are directly affected, and helps to chart a way forward that will give results for those facing abuses.

While we consider that the broad framework of “protect, respect, and remedy” is valuable and merits further attention by the HRC, we would wish to underline the importance of undertaking complementary work to ensure that the views and experiences of those affected by business-related abuses more fully inform the effort to identify appropriate solutions.

In defining the scope of a follow-on mandate we therefore urge the HRC to broaden the focus beyond the elaboration of the “protect, respect, and remedy” framework, and to include an explicit capacity to examine situations of corporate abuse. A more in-depth analysis of specific situations and cases is needed in order to give greater visibility and voice to those whose rights are negatively affected by business activity and to deepen understanding of the drivers of corporate human rights abuses. Both elements should underpin the elaboration of the framework and proposed policy responses. For example, the modalities of corporate impunity and its impact on the enjoyment and protection of human rights need greater scrutiny as an integral part of the effort to identify solutions. A cornerstone of human rights is combating impunity. To date the mandate has placed relatively little emphasis on the means of holding companies - including those that operate trans-nationally – to account. But for victims of human rights violations, justice and accountability can be as important as remedial measures.

Broadening the scope of the mandate to include the capacity to reflect more fully on instances of business abuse is, we believe, vital to ensuring the proposed framework is robust and credible and also that other critical recommendations are identified by the mandate. This in turn is critical to ensuring the work of the mandate can better aid states, companies, and the UN to effectively prevent violations involving companies and hold those responsible to account.

Finally, we urge the HRC to ensure that the complex issue of business and its impact on human rights remains a Council priority. While it is important to build on proposed policy-based solutions, this focus should not close doors to other necessary analysis and action at the UN level, including, ultimately, the need for clear global standards adopted by governments.

We thank the HRC for its attention to this matter.

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Overview

Watch a video or listen to audio from a May 12th Alliance for Health Reform/Commonwealth Fund briefing, Racial and Ethnic Disparities: States and Feds to the Rescue?

Millions of people in the United States—principally racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and those who lack proficiency in English—face barriers to high-quality health care. Such problems are largely due to high numbers of uninsured individuals among these groups, though it persists even when they are insured. By expanding health insurance coverage and addressing issues of access to care, quality of care, patient empowerment, infrastructural reforms, and social and community-level determinants of health, states have the potential to achieve equity. This report seeks to identify state policies that promote equitable health care access and quality and to evaluate existing laws, regulations, or reform proposals in five states—Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and California. These states' initiatives, all of which move toward universal health insurance coverage, also address other innovative strategies such as improving health care provider diversity, distribution, and cultural competence.

Executive Summary

Background

Rapidly escalating health care costs, a rising number of people without health insurance, inconsistent health care quality, and a paucity of federal action to address these problems have prompted legislatures and governors in nearly two dozen states to consider significantly changing their approaches to health insurance coverage and health system regulation. Few of these reforms, however, have focused on inequality. Millions of people in the United States—principally racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and those who lack proficiency in English—face barriers to high-quality health care.

Such problems derive largely from the high rates of uninsurance among these groups, but it persists among them even when they are insured. They simply tend to receive a lower quality of health care. But by expanding health insurance coverage and addressing issues of access, quality, and cost, state-level health care reforms have the potential to address inequality—that is, to achieve equity.

The analysis in this report seeks to:

1. Identify state-level policies that promote equitable health care access and quality for all populations (equity benchmarks).
2. Evaluate existing laws, regulations, or reform proposals in five states—Massachusetts and Washington, which have already enacted sweeping health care reform legislation; and California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, where legislators are considering similar programs—to determine whether they address health care disparities relative to these equity benchmarks.

Several key findings emerge from this analysis:

3. To promote health care equity, universal health insurance coverage is necessary but not sufficient. States can and should attend to health care access, quality, and infrastructure, particularly in underserved communities, and help patients become educated and empowered—able to advocate for their needs. But states should also find ways to improve state health care planning and address social and community-level determinants of health.
4. Several states are addressing health care inequality through innovative means. All the states featured in this analysis have sought to make insurance and health care more affordable, and many are taking steps to improve health care quality—for example, by collecting data and monitoring for disparities.
5. More must be done. None of the analyzed states are, for instance, implementing plans that would result in truly universal health insurance coverage or access. State policymakers should take advantage of the growing momentum for state health care reform to address such omissions.

Equity Benchmarks

Myriad factors contribute to health care inequality, and the lack of health insurance is one of the most important. Racial and ethnic minorities ("disparity populations") in particular are more likely to lack health insurance coverage or to be underinsured compared to non-Hispanic whites; while people of color make up just one-third of the U.S. population, they comprise over half of the nation’s 47 million uninsured individuals. But insurance coverage alone does not eliminate health care gaps. The health-services research literature suggests that states can make health care more equitable for disparity populations by:

Improving access to health care. States can expand opportunities for low- and moderate-income families to purchase private insurance or enroll in publicly subsidized programs, and they can establish mechanisms that make it easier for people to find affordable insurance. But even when insured, minority and low-income individuals are less likely to access health care as out-of-pocket costs rise and more likely than are native-born white Americans to face cultural and linguistic barriers to care. States can address these problems by establishing limits on copayments and other out-of-pocket costs in public insurance, by studying and responding to potential unintended effects of cost-sharing on utilization, by taking steps to increase diversity among the state's health care providers, and by providing incentives for health care systems to reduce cultural and linguistic barriers.

Improving the quality of care. States can provide incentives for strategies—such as pay-for-performance programs, performance measurement, and report cards—to reduce disparities in health care quality. In addition, states can promote the collection of data on health care access and quality by patients' race, ethnicity, income or education level, and primary language—and publicly report this information.

Empowering patients. Patients, particularly racial and ethnic minority and immigrant patients, should be able to make decisions about their health care and to demand that care consistent with their needs, preferences, and values be delivered. These goals can be pursued by developing and strengthening patient education and health literacy programs and by supporting training and reimbursement of community health workers, who can help patients navigate through the system.

Improving the state health care infrastructure. The relative lack of health insurance among racial and ethnic minorities is associated with lower levels of health care resources (e.g., practitioners, hospitals, and health care centers) in communities of color. Even if states achieved universal health insurance coverage, communities of color would still require investments to improve their health care infrastructure. States can address this situation by reducing the financial vulnerability of health care institutions serving poor and minority communities, by creating or broadening incentives for health care professionals to practice in underserved communities, and by requiring cultural-competency training for health care professional licensure.

Improving state program and policy infrastructure. States can better align health care resources with minority-community needs by gaining community input, by establishing or enhancing state offices of minority health (which increase the visibility and coordination of state health disparity-elimination programs), and by strengthening Certificate of Need (CON) policies as a tool for reducing geographic disparities.

Adopting or strengthening policies to address social and community-level determinants of health. State agencies that seek to reduce social and economic gaps are inherently engaging in health equity work. Almost all aspects of state policy in education, transportation, housing, commerce, and criminal justice influence the health of state residents and can have disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities. Thus states can address community-level and social determinants of health by coordinating the work of state agencies and by promoting the use of health impact-assessment tools, which evaluate the potential effects of government programs and initiatives both in and outside of the health care delivery sector.

Findings and Conclusions

Our analysis of five states' approaches to health insurance expansion finds that states are addressing disparities in several important ways. While no two of these states used the same approach, several policy strategies were common. These included:

• Expanding access to health insurance products by reducing financial barriers to coverage
• Improving and evaluating outreach and enrollment efforts
• Collecting data (often while building upon federally mandated Medicaid data- collection programs) on health care access and quality measures by patient demographics
• Supporting safety-net institutions
• Improving health care provider diversity, distribution, and cultural competence.

Our analysis also revealed several missed opportunities for states’ promotion of equity. None of the five states are implementing plans that would result in truly universal health-insurance coverage or access. Many groups, such as single and childless low-income adults, undocumented immigrants, and even some legal immigrants are not eligible for new state public-insurance expansions. Community-empowerment strategies are also uncommon. Only one of the states, Pennsylvania, has sought to strengthen local community input and direct resources (in this case, those of nonprofit hospitals) to meet community needs. And only one state, Washington, has sought to strengthen state CON programs as a tool for regulating health care resources; it has linked CON approval with a statewide health-resources strategy.

Recommendations

Based on these findings, we offer a number of recommendations that should be considered by a range of stakeholders—including state policymakers, health professionals, health consumer and advocacy groups, health plans, and businesses—in their efforts to achieve equitable health care for all. These recommendations include:

Make universal health care a core goal. Uninsurance is not just a problem for those who lack coverage; it also contributes to escalating health care costs and access problems, even for those who do have insurance. Only by covering everyone in the population can states eliminate uncompensated costs and strengthen the health care infrastructures of underserved communities.

Assess how policies to expand coverage affect currently underserved groups. The states analyzed here have employed different strategies—mandates to purchase insurance, for example—in order to expand coverage. States that are considering such strategies should monitor their impact and take steps to correct them should they have a disproportionately negative impact on marginalized populations.

Be an agent for change. State government can leverage the power of other stakeholders, both public and private, to help in the battle to eliminate health care disparities.

Reach for low-hanging fruit. Many of the policy strategies examined here can be implemented through regulatory strategies or contractual requirements rather than through legislation. For example, states are required by federal law to identify the race, ethnicity, and primary language of Medicaid beneficiaries and to provide this information to managed care contractors. This information can be used to generate reports on how plans are faring with respect to health care equity.

Actively monitor the implementation of new health care expansion laws. Almost all of the equity-related policies examined in this study require ongoing monitoring to ensure that they are actually addressing disparities.

Also see the Health Affairs article by Brian Smedley, "Moving Beyond Access: Achieving Equity in State Health Care Reform."

Citation:
B. Smedley, B. Alvarez, R. Panares, C. Fish-Parcham, and S. Adland, Identifying and Evaluating Equity Provisions in State Health Care Reform, The Commonwealth Fund, April 2008

Contact:
Brian Smedley - bsmedley(at)opportunityagenda.org

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The “Water Project” visually explores one of our most precious resources and one of the most overwhelming forces of nature. Inspired by water's depth, colors, energy, mystery, and physical properties, the artists have created work using a range of media from film and photographs to wood, canvas and paper.

Opening reception: Thursday, June 19, 2008, 5:00pm to 7:00pm

Exhibition date: June 19 through August 8, 2008

Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes. Within that group are thousands of Iraqi professionals who worked side-by-side their American allies to rebuild their homeland after the US-led invasion. Unfortunately, when the tides turned, this innocent group of people was caught in the middle—between insurgents who saw them as traitors and the American organizations they worked for that didn’t have the wherewithal or will to help them.

The List Project, a New York-based non-profit, is filling in where government agencies have left off. The Project works to assist Iraqi refugees who have risked their lives to help Americans and have since come under attack by their fellow Iraqis. Correspondent Scott Pelley followed List Project founder Kirk Johnson to Jordan to meet the refugees awaiting acceptance into the US. Tune in to CBS on Sunday evening to hear their stories.

To learn more about The List Project and how you can help those who helped the US, visit www.thelistproject.org.

“60 Minutes” airs at 7pm on CBS in the DC, NYC, and LA markets. For more information, visit: www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13502.shtml

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In view of the Connect U.S. Fund vision and mandate, an analysis of a treaty ban on cluster munitions is particularly appropriate, as it bears directly on U.S. engagement in the development of international norms and practices affecting critical peace, security and humanitarian issues. The goal of this paper is to increase awareness of key issues and to promote dialogue among major stakeholders, and therefore enhance the likelihood of constructive U.S. involvement in this issue over time. The consumers of this paper will include both strong advocates for a total ban on cluster munitions, and experts who believe that a total ban is both infeasible and unwise. The paper does not take a position on this issue, but is designed to fairly reflect both sets of perspectives. Finally, the paper does not necessarily reflect the views of any one of the foundation members of the Connect U.S. Fund.

The paper was written by Leonard R. Hawley, a consultant to the Connect U.S. Fund, and Eric P. Schwartz, the Fund's Executive Director. Mr. Hawley is a retired U.S. Army colonel and expert on post-conflict peace operations, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizational Affairs and NSC Director of Multilateral Affairs. Mr. Schwartz, who was United Nations Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery until early 2007, also served as Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs at the NSC, as a senior official in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and as Washington Director of Asia Watch (now Human Rights Watch Asia). Francesco Femia, Program Associate at the Connect U.S. Fund, provided valuable editing and research assistance.

Contact:
Heather Hamilton
hbhamilton@connect.us
202.721.5655

The legal action is the first challenge to EPA's failure to regulate nanomaterials, which are made up of microscopic particles. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology encompasses techniques for taking apart and reconstructing natural substances such as silver at the atomic and molecular level.

Increasingly manufacturers are infusing consumer products with nanoparticle silver for what they believe to be its enhanced germ killing abilities. Nanosilver is now the most common commercialized nanomaterial.

The coalition is led by the nonprofit International Center for Technology Assessment, CTA, based in Washington, DC, a self-described nanotech watchdog.

The CTA found over 260 nano-silver products currently on the market such as household appliances and cleaners, clothing, cutlery, and children's toys, personal care products and coated electronics.

Yet as the coalition's legal petition states, the release of nano-silver may be destructive to natural environments and "raises serious human health concerns."

"These nano-silver products now being illegally sold are pesticides," said George Kimbrell, CTA staff attorney. "Nano-silver is leaching into the environment, where it will have toxic effects on fish, other aquatic species and beneficial microorganisms. EPA must stop avoiding this problem and use its legal authority to fulfill its statutory duties."

Just as the size and chemical characteristics of manufactured nanoparticles can give them unique properties, those same new properties - tiny size, vastly increased surface area to volume ratio, high reactivity - can create unique and unpredictable human health and environmental risks, the coalition says.

While silver is known to be toxic to fish and aquatic organisms, recent scientific studies have shown that the nano form of silver is much more toxic and can cause damage in new ways. Exposures are occurring both during use and during disposal.

A study from Arizona State University published in April showed that washing socks treated with silver nanoparticles to reduce foot odor releases most of the nano-silver into the laundry discharge water, and ultimately into waterways where it could "potentially poison fish and other aquatic organisms," the coalition says.

A University of Missouri researcher published a study on April 29 showing that silver nanoparticles may destroy benign bacteria that are used to remove ammonia from wastewater treatment systems. The study was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

"Because of the increasing use of silver nanoparticles in consumer products, the risk that this material will be released into sewage lines, wastewater treatment facilities, and, eventually, to rivers, streams and lakes is of concern," said Zhiqiang Hu, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in University of Missouri's College of Engineering.

"We found that silver nanoparticles are extremely toxic," said Hu. "The nanoparticles destroy the benign species of bacteria that are used for wastewater treatment. It basically halts the reproduction activity of the good bacteria."

The coalition's legal petition demands that the EPA regulate nano-silver as "a unique pesticide that can cause new and serious impacts on the environment."

It asks that the agency require labeling of all such products and assess health and safety data before permitting them to be marketed.

The EPA also is asked to analyze the potential human health effects, particularly on children and analyze the potential environmental impacts on ecosystems and endangered species.

"The law does not allow the agency to stand idle while a new legacy of toxic pollution emerges," said CTA Legal Director Joseph Mendelson.

Many of the products in the petition's appendix are meant for children - baby bottles, toys, stuffed animals, and clothing. Others create high human exposures such as cutlery, food containers, paints, bedding and personal care products.

Concerns over nano-silver were first raised by national wastewater utilities in early 2006. One then-new product, Samsung's SilverCare Washer, releases silver ions into the waste stream with every load of laundry.

In response, according to November 2006 media reports, EPA said that it would regulate nano-silver products as pesticides. However, one year later EPA published a guidance covering only the Samsung washer and allowing it to remain on the market.

Members of the petitioning coalition are: the Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, ETC Group, Center for Environmental Health, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Clean Production Action, Food and Water Watch, the Loka Institute, the Center for Study of Responsive Law, and Consumers Union.

To view the full petition, executive summary and product appendix, click here.

Read more.

Thoreau Center for Sustainability SF,
Rear of Building 1016 (corridor)
Tuesday, April 22
5:00pm to 8:00pm

Thoreau Center is hosting the opening of "ReVisions: San Francisco," several works painted on vinyl. The event features 10 vinyl billboards throughout the city that have been painted over by artists instead of being dumped in the landfill. Also on display will be art submissions from Bay Area middle- and high school students for the "Gimme Shelter" art program where students' submission will be chosen for display on local bus shelters in the fall.

"Tides Foundation, Tides Center and Tides Shared Spaces will operate in an increasingly collaborative manner that will continue our history of excellent service, adapt to our clients' needs for a blend of services and respond to changes in the nonprofit sector," said Drummond Pike, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tides. "Brian Byrnes and Carla Dartis bring extensive leadership and nonprofit sector experience to our executive team. We're very pleased to announce these appointments, and I'm confident that they will be instrumental in charting the course to our vision of a healthy and just society."

In support of the new integrated structure, two additional executive positions have also been created. Tides veterans, Ellen Friedman and Lauren Webster have been promoted to the positions of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer respectively and they will serve all of the Tides organizations. Continuing a tradition of innovation to advance positive social change, Tides has created a networked operational and leadership structure where it is now able to offer clients an array of services that amplifies the efforts of forward-thinking philanthropists, foundations, activists and organizations in a more integrated fashion. 

"Operating as independent entities, Tides Center, Tides Foundation, and Tides Shared Spaces were challenged to bring together their resources. Operating as a network, Tides has an opportunity to bring together people, ideas and resources to help our clients increase the already powerful impact they are having on the progressive social change movement," said Ellen Friedman, Executive Vice President of Tides.

About Tides
Tides actively promotes change toward broadly shared economic opportunity, robust democratic processes and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected. Tides is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 and provides an array of services that amplifies the efforts of forward-thinking philanthropists, foundations, activists and organizations to make the world a better place. Tides Foundation, Tides Center and Tides Shared Spaces have collaborated with over 15,000 individuals and organizations that have touched millions of lives across the country and around the globe. With offices in San Francisco and New York City, Tides provides fiscal sponsorship for over 200 groups across the country, operates and supports green nonprofit centers and has granted more than $550 million since 2000 alone. For more information, visit www.tides.org.

Media Inquiries: Christine Coleman, 415-561-6354, ccoleman(at)tides.org

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Christopher Herrera
Tides Foundation
415.561.6400
cherrera(at)tides.org

SAN FRANCISCO, JANUARY 30, 2008 — Tides Foundation announces the winner of the second annual $10,000 Pizzigati Prize. Barry Warsaw, a software developer dedicated to identifying and solving the technological problems that confront social change movements, has won the Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest.

Barry Warsaw is being recognized for his work as the lead developer of GNU Mailman, the open source application that hundreds of nonprofits around the world are now using to manage electronic mail discussions and e-newsletter lists.

The Pizzigati Prize — an award program launched two years ago by Tides Foundation’s Florence and Frances Family Fund — aims to honor individuals who, in the spirit of open source computing, fashion outstanding applications that help nonprofits become more effective in their ongoing social change efforts.

Mr. Warsaw’s free Mailman application, the judges for this year’s Pizzigati Prize observed, has built up a large, experienced base of users who have been more than willing to help new users make the best possible use of the software. And Mailman’s design and development team actively listens to — and interacts with — everyday users.

These interactions reflect Warsaw’s core software development values.  A software engineer for over 25 years, Warsaw emphasizes the importance of healthy communities in software development. “I hope that the Mailman project has served as a good model for open source software development. More than that, I hope that the community of Mailman users reflects my deeply held ideals of how we start by treating each other with empathy, kindness, and respect, and how we create positive social change by sharing those lessons with the wider world around us.”

The Pizzigati Prize honors the brief life of Tony Pizzigati, an early advocate of open source computing who spent his college years at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, where he worked at the world-famous MIT Media Lab and later the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. Three years after his 1992 graduation, Pizzigati, then 24 and a software consultant, died in an auto accident on his way into Silicon Valley.

The four judges on the Pizzigati Prize judging panel (Allison Fine, George Hotelling, Joseph Mouzon, and Katrin Verclas) have each earned wide respect within the nonprofit computing world.

More information about the judges and the judging criteria appear on the Pizzigati Prize Web site at www.pizzigatiprize.org. Also available on the site: links to the work of this year’s six prize finalists. This Year’s Pizzigati Prize finalists, besides Barry Warsaw, included:

• August Detlefsen, for the Open Architecture Network, the first open source community dedicated to improving living conditions for the world’s poor through innovative and sustainable design.
• Nate Aune, for Plone4Artists, a suite of products for Plone, an open source content management system.
• Heather Cronk, for PledgeBank, a nonprofit Web site designed to get groups of people motivated to meet challenges they otherwise might not undertake.
• Subramanya Sastry, for NewsRack, a Web application that helps researchers and nonprofits more precisely track the news that impacts their work.
• T.J. Downes, for Kalender, an open source application that nonprofits can use for planning and scheduling a wide variety of events.

The deadline for the third annual Pizzigati Prize will be September 1, 2008. Application forms and background information will be available shortly on the Pizzigati Prize Web site.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Vanessa Daniel: 415-561-6302, vdaniel(at)tides.org

SAN FRANCISCO, CA; JANUARY 2, 2008; The Catalyst Fund at Tides Foundation has awarded $800,000 in matching grants to eight local public foundations to support reproductive justice work led by women of color. The Women of Color Working Group of the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights - a group of 15 foundations; created the Catalyst Fund earlier this year to address the shortage of funding to the sector of women who experience the greatest health disparities.

“The Women of Color Working Group believes that organizations led by those women most impacted by reproductive health disparities have the expertise to create solutions and policies that best address their community’s needs.” said Vanessa Daniel, the Tides Foundation Program Advisor who manages the fund.

“The persistent shortage of funding for an entire sector of women is weakening the ability of all women in the US to secure their reproductive rights. As funders we have the power and responsibility to reverse this trend, and with Catalyst, we now have a key opportunity.” said Working Group member Adisa Douglas of the Public Welfare Foundation.

The Catalyst Fund’s first round of grants will result in almost $1.5 million in new funding to women of color led organizations, because each local foundation must match the amount awarded by Catalyst dollar for dollar. The Catalyst Fund will also provide fundraising and strategic communications training to assist local funding partners in successfully meeting the match and in sustaining increased funding for these organizations in the future.

The first round of grantees includes:

• Chicago Foundation for Women $100,000
• New Mexico Community Foundation $100,000
• New York Women’s Foundation $100,000
• Women’s Foundation of California $100,000
• Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee $60,000 
• Women’s Fund of Hawai’i $100,000
• Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade County $100,000
• Women’s Fund of New Jersey $140,000

Foundations represented in the Women of Color Working Group include:

• California Wellness Foundation
• Chicago Foundation for Women
• David & Lucille Packard Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• General Service Foundation
• Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation
• Moriah Fund
• Ms. Foundation
• Overbrook Foundation
• Public Welfare Foundation
• Third Wave Foundation
• Tides Foundation
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Women’s Foundation of California

About Tides Foundation:
Tides offers an array of services that amplifies the efforts of forward-thinking philanthropists, foundations, activists and organizations to make the world a better place. Tides Foundation, Tides Center and Tides Shared Spaces make up the Tides organizations. Tides Foundation partners with donors to increase and organize resources for positive social change, facilitating effective grantmaking programs, creating opportunities for learning, and building community among donors and grantees. We bring together people, ideas, and resources to actively promote change toward a healthy and just society. For more information, visit www.tidesfoundation.org.

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San Francisco, CA — December 5, 2007— The HIV Collaborative Fund, a partnership of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition and Tides, announced today that it has received a three-year grant for $5.2 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support community-based organizations in sub-Saharan Africa engaged in advocacy and educational activities to increase access to HIV treatment and prevention services.

The HIV Collaborative Fund uses a unique funding mechanism in which all funding decisions are guided by the members of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), a global coalition of people living with AIDS and their advocates, to strengthen access to comprehensive and equitable treatment, care and prevention services. The HIV Collaborative Fund is a project of Tides. Fiscal sponsorship is provided by Tides Center and grants are administered through Tides Foundation.

“People living with HIV and grassroots organizations have a unique and important role to play in advocating for HIV services, fighting stigma, partnering in the delivery of lifesaving prevention and care services, and strengthening governmental leadership on AIDS,” said Joe Cerrell, Director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy at the Gates Foundation.

“Support from the Gates Foundation will allow ITPC to strengthen its network capacity across sub-Saharan Africa and create models for service delivery, advocacy and communications that we will apply around the world,” said Greg Gray, ITPC’s International Coordinator.

ITPC members around the world advocate for increased access to HIV treatment, evidence-based prevention services, and the human rights of people living with AIDS. The Coalition’s semi-annual Missing the Target reports provide an on-the-ground assessment of the impact of HIV treatment programs in countries around the world. The recommendations for improved care in these reports have been adopted by several institutions, and published in several publications, including the independent and widely respected medical journal The Lancet.

Since 2003, over 500 organizations around the world have received grants through the HIV Collaborative Fund. Examples of funded programs include:

• The Women’s Network for Unity (WNU) in Cambodia, a community organization in Phnom Penh, created a project focused on expanding access to HIV/AIDS treatment for sex workers.
• The South India Positive Network serves aravanigal (members of the indigenous male-to-female transgender community) and men who have sex with men in Chennai with prevention services and treatment education.
• Solidarity for AIDS Organization in the Teso region of eastern Uganda, formed when no other service provider was operating in the area because of political instability and armed rebel groups. SAO’s founders were community members living in displacement camps and conduct community education, distribute condoms and works to increase treatment for HIV in those camps.

About The HIV Collaborative Fund
The HIV Collaborative Fund was founded in 2003 and provides small grants to community-based organizations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Funding is also provided for technical assistance, program evaluation and regional network support. Over 15 donors support these activities including the World Health Organization, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Steven Lewis Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The HIV Collaborative Fund is a project of Tides (www.tides.org) and all funding decisions are guided by the members of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition. Descriptions of all funded projects are available at www.hivcollaborativefund.org.

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The following 2007 Fellows will receive a $21,000 award over the next three years: Nao Bustamante, Skowmon Hastanan, Rajkamal Kahlon, Ivan Monforte, Jennifer Monson, Clifford Owens, and Swoon.

The Lambent Fellowship in the Arts program supports visual and performing artists in all five boroughs of New York City.  A selection panel of artists and arts professionals made anonymous nominations to the Lambent Fellowship’s selection committee, who chose finalists to be considered by the Tides Foundation Board of Directors.

“The Lambent Fellowship program celebrates and fosters the intersection between art and social change,” explained Michelle Coffey, Senior Philanthropic Advisor at Tides Foundation. “The recipients reflect New York’s rich diversity and their works offer great insights into the role of art in critiquing, shaping and changing our ideas, our communities, and our society.  The Lambent Fellowship program pays tribute to artists who are making exciting and high quality work, while at the same time are in line with Tides Foundation’s mission of creating a positive impact on people's lives in ways that honor and promote human rights, justice, and a healthy, sustainable environment.”

About the Artists:

Nao Bustamante is an internationally known performance and video artist originating from the San Joaquin Valley of California, now residing in New York. Her (often precarious) work encompasses performance art, sculpture, installation and video. Bustamante has presented in Galleries, Museums, Universities and underground sites all around the world. Her work has been exhibited, among other locales, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts, and the Kiasma Museum of Helsinki. In 2001 she received the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman fellowship and in 2007 named a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow. Currently she holds the position as Associate Professor of New Media and Live Art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Skowmon Hastanan, visual artist, creates work from a unique perspective relating to the immigrant experience occurring outside the United States. She moved from Bangkok to New York at the end of the Vietnam War. Her works derive from memories of the American military presence in Thailand and her experience growing up in New York City. The narrative involves the result of the political interaction between the USA and Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and how it directly and indirectly resulted in the establishment of a sex trade, trafficking of person, and the creating of gender and racial stereotypes. Skowmon examines today's media's use of old clichéd Asian mystiques to sell sexual fantasy. Using images of mail-order brides and escort services that appear on the Internet and in classified ads, she explores feminine identity from these found images.

Rajkamal Kahlon, visual artist, interrogates the ideological positions of representation as they are linked to forms of racial and colonial authority. In her dialectical engagement with historical texts she critiques the will to "make" humans implicit in the visual practices backed by repressive regimes of power in part through the use of violent imagery framed by psychedelia and the human body turned grotesque through its traumatic encounters with colonialism, military rule and torture.

Ivan Monforte uses simple gestures and materials, as well as emotional language and content, as strategic tools to address themes of loss and mourning, representations of class, gender, race and sexuality, as well as the pursuit of love.  He often utilizes social sculptures and performance based videos in his work to challenge the viewers' relationship to art viewing, making and collecting.

Jennifer Monson creates dance systems and performances that arise from the confluence of environmental research and in depth artistic process. Her work explores concepts of wilderness in relation to the built and natural environments with a special focus on urban ecologies. Embodying contradictions inherent in the concept of nature, Monson's work re-negotiates relationships between art, environment, power, and place.

Clifford Owens makes art through photography, video, performance, installation and texts. His work has focused on the "social contract" of an art experience within an art institution, and the social function of a studio visit. Clifford was born in Baltimore,  Maryland in 1971 and he lives and works in Queens, New York.

Swoon is an artist whose work begins with figurative drawing, portraiture, and traditional print making techniques and extends to urban interventions and community-based collective experiments. Among other projects she has been wheat pasting an ongoing series of portraits on New York City streets for the past six years, and is currently involved in the Miss Rockaway Armada, a floating experiment in ecologically sustainable living practices, which travels the Mississippi River carrying theater, music, visual art and a variety of workshops. With each of these practices she is attempting to create a free, publicly available, and outward reaching context for the creation of and experience of contemporary art.

• Policy Action Grants are large grants designed to support advocacy, broadly defined, in specific policy areas. 
• Bridge-Building Grants will support projects that foster connections between regional and local advocacy efforts, on the one hand, and work being done in the traditional foreign policy corridor of Washington and New York.  
• Rapid Response Grants are designed to enable organizations to respond to unique, time-sensitive, and unforeseen opportunities for policy change.  Rapid Response Grant proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis, and will be considered promptly, beginning July 2007.

HOW TO APPLY

The Connect US grantmaking fund is managed by Tides Foundation. For detailed information about grants offered through the Connect US Global Security and Cooperation Initiative, or for the complete Request for Letters of Inquiry, visit the Connect US web site at http://www.connect.us. Instructions for the submission of letters of inquiry can be found on the Tides Foundation web site, here. 

This new request for proposals (RFP) follows three previous rounds of grants awarding a total of $3.7 million. The most recent round, awarded in December 2006, funded 44 grantees in 18 states with two-year grants totaling $1.2 million. Syringe Access Fund grants support community-, street- and pharmacy-based syringe access programs, as well as state-level policy education efforts to eliminate legal barriers to this life-saving intervention. Of the $1.2 million awarded in 2006, 80% of funding supported direct services and 20% supported state-level policy work.

> You can find the new RFP for the Syringe Access Fund Here

Background: The Connection Between Injection Drug Use, HIV and Hepatitis C

Injection drug use has accounted for approximately one-third of all adult AIDS cases reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC also estimates that 60% of Hepatitis C cases are linked to injection drug use. Blood-borne infections such as these can be transmitted directly among injection drug users when infected users share syringes or engage in high-risk sexual contact. Women who are infected with HIV through injecting or unprotected sex with an infected injection drug user can transmit the virus to their babies during pregnancy or while nursing.

Access to sterile injection equipment, including syringes, has been proven to reduce the risk of HIV infection without contributing to increased drug use. This is the conclusion of many independent, peer-reviewed studies and evaluations conducted in the U.S. and internationally since the early 1990's, including a 1997 Report to Congress prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services. As an HIV prevention intervention, syringe access is endorsed by such organizations as the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine, the American Public Health Association, National Institutes of Health, and the American Pharmaceutical Association. Most recently, a September 2006 report prepared by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences concluded: "Given consistent evidence that multi-component HIV prevention programs that include sterile needle and syringe access reduce drug-related HIV risks, such programs should be implemented where feasible."

About the Syringe Access Fund

The Syringe Access Fund is a multi-year grant making initiative consisting of the Levi Strauss Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Irene Diamond Fund, the Tides Foundation and the National AIDS Fund (with the addition of a sixth funder - Public Welfare Foundation - in 2007). The Syringe Access Fund was created in 2004 to respond to the deadly connection between injection drug use and HIV, particularly in communities of color and among women.

Since 2004, the Syringe Access Fund has reviewed 242 proposals and awarded 92 grants (to 83 individual grantees) totaling more than $3.25 million. In addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, programs in the following states have been awarded two-year grants since 2004: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington. The wide range and increasing number of localities that are now implementing syringe access programs reflects a growing awareness of the efficacy of such programs among public health officials nationally.

Despite overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of syringe access programs, the federal government has prohibited the use of federal funds for such purposes since 1988, and state and local laws related to the sale and possession of syringes may interfere with local programs' ability to provide such services. In addition, private funders may be reluctant to fund such programs given the political controversy that has sometimes surfaced with regard to these programs. The Syringe Access Fund was created to help fill this gap, and consists of a growing number of funders who believe that sound scientific evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of syringe access programs must drive both policy and practice.

Examples of Syringe Access Fund Grants in Action

As examples of funding since 2004, Syringe Access Fund grants have been awarded to support a van for a mobile clinic in Staten Island, and to open a Sunday exchange site in San Francisco where none existed. In Los Angeles, a four-agency partnership used its grant to purchase syringes for exchange through a city-sanctioned and city-funded exchange program that is not allowed to use city funds for syringes. In New Jersey, two separate policy grants supported statewide efforts related to legislation allowing for the creation of up to six pilot needle exchange programs (which Governor Corzine signed into law in December 2006). In Texas, a policy grant is supporting opinion research to identify religious, community and political leaders who will support a building policy education efforts.

Lists of grantees from all three previous funding rounds are available on the Syringe Access Fund page of the Tides Foundation website at: www.tidesfoundation.org/services-strategies/collective-giving/syringe-access-fund.

About the 2007 Round of Grants

The current funding partners are committing more than $1.2 million to this new round of grants in 2007. A Request for Proposals (RFP) has been posted on the Tides Foundation website at www.tidesfoundation.org/services-strategies/collective-giving/syringe-access-fund and project proposals are due June 20, 2007. Two-year awards will be announced by September 2007.

Additional funding partners are invited to join the Syringe Access Fund in support of grants during 2007 and additional years. Interested funders may contact Gary Schwartz at the Tides Foundation at gschwartz@tides.org, and/or Sam Avrett at savrett@earthlink.net.

About the Funding Partners

Since 1952, the Levi Strauss Foundation has funded community-based organizations focused on social change in areas where Levi Strauss & Co. has a business presence. The Foundation was one of the first funders to respond to HIV/AIDS in 1985, and since then, has awarded over $37 million in funding for such programs.

Since its creation in 1992 by Founder and Chairman Sir Elton John, the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) has raised over $125 million for HIV/AIDS programs in 55 countries around the globe. EJAF supports community-based prevention education programs, harm reduction programs, and direct services to persons living with HIV/AIDS, especially populations with special needs.

The Irene Diamond Fund, established in 1994 by the late philanthropist Irene Diamond, focuses on HIV/AIDS, human rights and the performing arts. The foundation, based in New York City, supports a limited number of self-selected projects, and since its inception has provided over $31 million in funding to combat HIV/AIDS.

The National AIDS Fund's (NAF) mission is to reduce the incidence and impact of HIV/AIDS by promoting leadership and generating resources for effective community responses. Through its network of Community Partnerships, NAF promotes local planning and provides grants and technical support to as many as 400 service organizations annually. Since 1988, NAF and its partners have invested over $142 million to combat HIV/AIDS.

Since 1976, Tides Foundation has partnered with donors and institutions by offering donor-advised funds, philanthropic advice and management services for progressive social change philanthropy. Tides Foundation provides administrative and programmatic support to the Syringe Access Fund, including coordination of grant review, selection and awards.

In 2007, a sixth funder has joined the Syringe Access Fund: Public Welfare Foundation, established in 1948, supports organizations that help people overcome barriers to full participation in society, pursuing a strategy of "service, advocacy, and empowerment" for meeting basic human needs and promoting democratic participation for people around the globe. This year, Public Welfare Foundation will make grants totalling $20 million to address human needs in disadvantaged communities.

Contact Information:

Information about the Syringe Access Fund is available online at:

www.tidesfoundation.org/services-strategies/collective-giving/syringe-access-fund.

For further information, please feel free to contact Sam Avrett at savrett@earthlink.net.

BOMA members consider not only the best commercial recycling programs, but evaluate building’s energy and water conservation efforts, air quality and toxics reduction programs, support for public transportation, and effective use of tenant education programs geared to promoting sustainability practices in commercial office buildings. The Environment Committee has created this new award as an opportunity for BOMA members to consider the entire spectrum of programs and practices that constitute an effective sustainability program for office buildings including what policies and procedures should be adopted that can help move a property toward becoming "green."

First place went to the recently renovated, historical Ferry Building downtown. And third place was awarded to the historical U.S. Mint building on 5th and Mission streets. The old Mint was recently remodeled and opened as a museum. We are proud to be considered among these high visibility buildings that were recently remodeled with new technologies. Judges recognized our challenges at Thoreau Center and lauded our grassroots conservation efforts.

The JBL Awards focused on recognizing individuals that have been integral to the rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast.  The devastating aftermath left by Hurricane Katrina magnifies the long term social, political, and economic policies that have disproportionately hit communities of color and low-income communities.  A successful progressive strategy for rebuilding in the Gulf Coast needs to address the systemic problems affecting those communities.  The need for public infrastructure systems, a social safety-net, environmental monitoring and toxic clean-up, and the crucial element of civic participation to achieve these goals, are some of the issues the JBL awardees incorporated into their work.

This year’s awards were expanded to include seven activists due to the broad range of vital activities going on in the Gulf region.  Tides Foundation is hosting an event in New Orleans on Monday, June 11th, 2007 to recognize and honor these amazing activists, organizers and change agents.

This year marks the 17th anniversary of Tides Foundation’s JBL Awards.  The award is named after Jane Bagley Lehman, one of the founders of Tides Foundation and the Chair of the Board until her death in 1988.  An unconventional philanthropist, her insatiable curiosity was matched by a willingness to take risks. Jane was most intrigued by the approaches and strategies of advocates and organizers and their willingness to challenge traditional assumptions. She also cared deeply that the results of these efforts be translated into the broader area of public policy.

(In no particular order.)

Anne Rolfes

Anne Rolfes grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana and is the founding executive director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.  Since the hurricanes, the major focus of her work has been to help organize the local communities affected by the storms so that they can make informed choices regarding their health and safety. She teaches community members sampling techniques to measure toxic sediments on their homesites located in the footprint of the Murphy Oil Spill and the Katrina disaster.  Anne’s current project is planning a gathering called “Fenceline Neighbor Power Conference.” This conference will bring together dispersed communities facing similar environmental problems to talk and work more collaboratively together. 

Father Vien thé Ngyuen

Father Vien thé Nguyen is the pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church in East New Orleans. He has been integrally involved in the struggle and rebuilding of Versailles in New Orleans East, home to one of the largest concentration’s of Vietnamese Americans in the United States.  Since saving lives during the storm, he has become known throughout the city and has grown to prominence in the fight and eventual win against the Chef Menteur landfill in New Orleans East.  Father Ngyuen is deeply committed to working to ensure that communities have a strong voice in determining public policies that invest in effective government systems which truly serve people.

Tanya Harris

Tanya Harris was born and raised in New Orleans.  Her family is deeply rooted in the Lower Ninth Ward and have been members of ACORN for over 23 years.  Tanya is currently the head organizer for New Orleans ACORN and since Katrina she has been working tirelessly to organize displaced residents from New Orleans and assist them in rebuilding their lives and communities.  Tanya has organized and recruited thousands of volunteers to help gut homes all across the city, saved thousands of homes from being seized by the city as public nuisance without due process, stopped land grab bills at the state legislature, and won certified water for the entire city. 

Rev. Jennifer Jones-Bridgett

A native of Baton Rouge, LA, Reverend Jennifer Jones-Bridgett is an ordained Baptist Minister and presently the executive director of PICO Louisiana InterFaiths Together (LIFT).  She believes that justice is not just a matter of putting the right policies in place or involving the community in a planning process, it means ensuring that families have the power to also define the agenda and control the future of the Gulf Coast.  It means equipping historically marginalized residents to organize themselves for power.  Reverend Jones-Bridgett strongly believes in community building across lines of race, class and denomination.

Malik Rahim

Malik Rahim, a veteran community organizer, was raised in New Orleans and has been fighting for racial, economic and environmental justice for the last thirty years. In 1970, he co-founded the Louisiana chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and the platform of the BPP has remained his guiding principles.  Malik co-founded the Common Ground Collective with Sharon Johnson and Scott Crow on September 5, 2005, only days after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Common Ground has been working to deliver services and resources to the most marginalized communities in the Greater New Orleans area. Common Ground has initiated 15 program areas that have served over half a million people in the areas of medical care, legal assistance and advocacy, food and water distribution, roof tarping, house gutting, toxic remediation, children’s programs, a women’s center and much more.

Victoria Cintra

Victoria Cintra was born in Cuba and migrated to the United States when she was eight years old.  She is currently the Gulf Coast outreach organizer for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA), an organization that provides assistance and advocacy for immigrant workers across the state.  Since Katrina, Victoria has spoken forcefully and articulately on the struggle for justice for the thousands of immigrant workers who have come to rebuild the Gulf Coast.  She has become a forceful immigrant advocate with FEMA, the Red Cross, private contractors and state and local governments.  Victoria has been integral in identifying health hazard issues impacting immigrant workers, disparities between ethnic groups, discriminatory practices by both government and non government agencies and testifying before international commissions.

Derrick Evans

Derrick Evans is a sixth-generation native of Turkey Creek, a Mississippi Gulf Coast community settled by freed slaves in 1866.  Derrick founded Turkey Creek Community Initiatives to promote sustainable local development that is both environmentally and culturally sensitive.  After Katrina, Derrick maxed out credit cards and loaded up a U-Haul truck with $20,000 worth of water, gas and other supplies to build a volunteer camp in Turkey Creek. Since the storm, he has been a tireless organizer and advocate for the needs and rights of coastal communities.  Derrick was also one of the founding organizers of the Steps Coalition, a collaboration of groups fighting for fair and equal justice in the allocation of resources in rebuilding South Mississippi.

The Reproductive Justice Fund is part of the Reproductive Justice Initiative at Tides Foundation. The RJF is a funding collaborative of individual and institutional donors that supports efforts to broaden the base of the U.S. reproductive justice movement in order to increase its power to effect public policy and public opinion. The RJF funds organizations that use grassroots organizing and policy advocacy to build the power and leadership of historically underrepresented women, including women of color, low-income, young, rural, immigrant and LGBT women. The RJF prioritizes organizations that pull reproductive justice from the margins to the center of progressive political organizing by building effective cross-movement alliances between reproductive justice and labor, environmental, economic justice, criminal justice, civil rights and other social justice concerns.

Learn more about the Tides Reproductive Justice Initiative.

In 2006, Tides Foundation's RJF made grants to 24 organizations:

Bridgeport, CT and San Francisco, CA, Oct. 3, 2006 –   Launched in March 2006, AltruShare specializes in community investment while offering comprehensive and competitive brokerage services including best execution, superior service and value to institutional investors. 

Led by a management team with more than 40 years of domestic and international experience in institutional brokerage and portfolio trading, AltruShare’s agency-only model offers superior brokerage services free of traditional conflict of interests.  Through its “Community Investment Enterprise” business model, AltruShare combines traditional brokerage services with social responsibility without incurring any costs to its clients.  The firm sponsors cutting edge independent research on community investment, including portfolio audits, industry reports, community research; it also offers market analysis and intelligence, block trading, algorithmic trading and direct market access.

Tides Foundation and Underdog Foundation have a combined 40 years experience in community-based investment, which will help AltruShare determine the best ways to reinvest its profits – from the AltruShare Opportunity Funds – in communities where it conducts business.  AltruShare will focus its social responsibility initiatives on revitalizing underserved communities through youth development, education, and economic opportunity.  It has already conducted a “needs analysis” in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  Although AltruShare will work closely with its nonprofit owners, AltruShare is a for-profit venture that will support research and community investment through its own profits.  It does not accept donations and its nonprofit owners will not have a say in the management of the brokerage business. 

“AltruShare competes on best execution, service and value, and uses the latest technology, but what makes us different is that we represent a new partnership between Wall Street and Main Street because AltruShare was created to reinvest in the communities we serve.  We offer superior quality and execution and at the same time reinvest in underserved communities without any cost to the investor,” said Peter Drasher, co-founder and managing partner, AltruShare. 

“Tides and Underdog bring a terrific track record of national expertise, 40 years of experience in community-based investment and philanthropy, and a commitment to innovation.  Our goal is to develop a sustainable source of support for economically disadvantaged communities.  We feel that given the same service and cost, clients will choose a brokerage firm whose profits are reinvested in the community,” said Dawn Edwards, co-founder and president, AltruShare.

Changes in government and the philanthropic sector have been driving the need for innovative approaches to solving the needs of underserved communities.

"We look forward to serving as AltruShare's philanthropic partner as the firm grows and develops its innovative Community Investment Enterprise model, which will – through the AltruShare Opportunity Fund at Tides – support youth, education and economic development in diverse and underserved communities around the country," said Drummond Pike, CEO, Tides Foundation.

The Underdog Foundation will be managing a national community investment program for Altrushare to help communities which are often ignored or forgotten – communities who are considered the underdog. 

“From day one, Peter was clear that he didn’t want giving something back to communities to be the last thing he did in his company; he wanted it to be the first thing.  At the Underdog Foundation, we’ve been lucky to work with people using their companies or investments to innovate and to make the biggest possible difference with their philanthropy.  It’s amazing that Peter found a business model that allows institutional investors a way to get best execution and still know that their trading business is giving back to those communities with the greatest needs,” said David Berge, president, Underdog Foundation.

Read more about AltruShare and Tides Foundation in Pensions & Investments Online.

About Tides Foundation

Since 1976, Tides Foundation has partnered with donors and institutions by offering donor advised funds, philanthropic advice and management services for progressive social change philanthropy.  Tides is committed to strengthening community-based nonprofit organizations and the progressive movement through national and global philanthropy - creating a positive impact on people’s lives in ways that honor and promote human rights, economic justice and a healthy, sustainable environment.  For more information, visit www.tidesfoundation.org.

About Underdog Foundation

The Underdog Foundation works to meet community and environmental needs that cannot be met through simple investments.  The Underdog Foundation, which does not accept unsolicited applications, supports non-profit organizations doing important work in our communities through grant making, community investment, technical assistance, and strategic nonprofit/for-profit partnerships. They have special expertise in applying an array of innovative community investment models to provide effective capital to communities and organizations that have compelling needs but may have been excluded from access to capital.  For more information, visit www.underdogventures.com. 

About AltruShare Securities

Launched in 2006, AltruShare Securities, LLC, is the first institutional brokerage firm specializing in community investment, and the only nonprofit owned brokerage firm.  AltruShare combines comprehensive and competitive institutional brokerage services, a unique research product, an experienced management and trading staff.  A for-profit venture, AltruShare’s profits support the AltruShare Opportunity Funds, which benefit locally based community programs addressing youth development, education, and economic opportunity.   For more information, call 203-330-8100 or visit www.AltruShare.com.

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What does H.R. 4 Mean for Me?

The Pension Protection Act of 2006, commonly referred to as H.R. 4, was signed into law August 17, 2006. The new law creates a new definition and new rules for donor advised funds-some of which take effect immediately, and some of which will take effect in the coming months. Below we provide some detailed Questions and Answers on these new regulations and how they affect our donors and our community. Tides Foundation has been following this legisla