1959 Highlander Way · New Market, TN 37820 · phone: (865) 933-3443 · fax: (865) 933-3424
e-mail: hrec@highlandercenter.org

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In order to bring about deep and lasting social change, people must bring their whole selves to the work. But many of our constituents are damaged by the injustice they have experienced. Hence, an important part of Highlander's work is helping people to rebuild and renew themselves, along with their organizations, so they can participate fully and effectively in the struggle for change. We provide a democratic space where oppressions are addressed and a culture of justice is created so that people can be authentic and whole.

People must "author" their own existence, and they do so in part by telling the story of their experiences. When the reality of an individual's perception is understood, felt, and acknowledged by other people, self-esteem is raised and self-determination is enhanced. A sense of being part of something larger and connected to others helps one to believe that conditions of injustice can be changed.

These experiences of hope, universality, relatedness, self-determination, altruism, group cohesiveness, and trust may sound amorphous, but they are necessary prerequisites of a willingness to engage in collective struggle. In and of themselves alone, it is difficult to create social change; without them, however, change is unlikely. People rarely strive for that which they perceive is hopeless, risk where they perceive isolation, or manifest courage when the promised outcome is futility. We try to create an environment where people can form the vision of a different world.

We believe that the language we use is intimately connected with who we are, our thoughts, our emotions, our dreams, our cultures, our passions, our politics -- our whole selves. Our constituency embodies a rich diversity of cultures and languages, with a blossoming presence of Spanish and indigenous languages of Latin America in addition to English. In our commitment to put the wholeness of our constituents at the center of our work, we are institutionalizing a multilingual approach in Highlander's daily life. We do multilingual work because we believe that

• Language is a culture bearer, of ourselves, our histories, our emotions.
• Language is a tool of power, of sharing, and therefore of power sharing.
• Crossing languages is not a barrier, but rather an expander.
• In order for people to feel authentic and bring their whole selves to the work, they must be encouraged to participate using the language(s) that most stir their inner selves.
• We cannot build a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, local-global movement using only English as the language of "choice" in our daily work.

We believe the wholeness of individuals and the authentic relationships that are built are the cradle for democratic participation -- for all of the other work we do to create strong leaders and a broad base for multi-racial, multi-issue movement building.

. . . to Base-Building . . .

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