Since the beginning of the 1996-97 school year, the Partners in Human Rights Education Program, a joint initiative of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, established a Community Action! Fund with a grant of $5,000 from the Otto Bremer Foundation. This Fund supports human rights education volunteers in the Partners Program and their students with the financial resources necessary to create effective Human Rights Community Action! Projects. This Fund provides a unique means of integrating classroom learning about human rights with hands-on activities in the community. Through Community Action! Projects, students can more deeply understand the meaning of human rights in their own lives and the lives of others in their community.
In past years, Partners Program participants have funded their own projects, which limited the kinds of Action! Projects students could plan. Through the Human Rights Community Action! Fund, teams and students can plan and carry out creative service learning initiatives, which will benefit their local communities without being unduly hampered by financial considerations. Each Partners Program team is eligible for one $50 to $400 grant per semester or half of the school year. Below are examples of four Human Rights Action! Projects undertaken in Minnesota this school year. These students have been successfully promoting community involvement, providing models and inspiration for others to join them.
Seventh and eighth grade students at Highland Park Junior High are volunteering
services to hunger relief organizations in Minnesota, based on their understanding
of UDHR Article 25: Right to an adequate living standard and United Nations
Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Article 4: "I have the right
to nourishing food. . ."
The Hmong students in Nina Dibner's class at Powderhorn Community School taught the other students how to make Hmong embroidery, called Pa'ndau or "flower cloths." The completed Pa'ndau were sold at the Powderhorn Neighborhood Association Arts and Crafts Sale. Proceeds from the sale were given to a Hmong refugee organization. The students also donated some of the Pa'ndau for the Partners Program celebration and auction on Human Rights Day.
Barbara Popkin's Grand Rapids Southwest Elementary second grade class
and Carol Steigauf's Red Lake Indian Reservation Ponemah Elementary second
grade class are integrating science, language arts, social studies and
art through a seven month pen pal project. The two classes will meet and
share a science experience at the Head Waters Science Center in Bemidji.
They will correspond regularly for seven months and have five shared experiences
with Indian artists. The Ponemah children will travel to Southwest Elementary
in Grand Rapids when the Ponemah community dancers and drummers perform
there.
Kirsten Parker's class is creating a quilt, a symbolic representation
of the 42 articles contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
They are also writing a catalogue to explain each article. The finished
quilt, with accompanying catalogue, will go on tour.
If you would like to see the guidelines that the Partners Program have developed in order to start your own Human Rights Community Action! Fund, call the Partners Program:
(612) 626-0041
