VIEW FROM THE HILL - #14; December 19, 2006 A Monthly E-mail Update Highlander Research and Education Center www.highlandercenter.org To make a secure online contribution to Highlander, go to www.highlandercenter.org and click on the "Donate Now" button. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< CONTENTS 1. Save the Date! - Highlander's 75th Anniversary Celebration 2. Support Highlander with an Online Contribution 3. New Five-Year Strategic Plan Approved by Highlander's Board 4. Highlander Supports National Youth Training Institute 5. Immigrant Leadership Development Institute Graduation 6. Highlander Bookstore Now Online! >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< 1. SAVE THE DATE! - HIGHLANDER'S 75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Highlander will kick off a year of events to mark its 75th anniversary with a celebration in Knoxville and at Highlander on August 31-September 2, 2007. The festivities will include a kick-off concert at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville on August 31st, and two days of workshops, performances, and other activities at Highlander. More information will be forthcoming as our plans develop. Look for future updates in View from the Hill and on our Website: www.highlandercenter.org. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< 2. SUPPORT HIGHLANDER WITH AN ONLINE CONTRIBUTION Highlander's work would be impossible without the generosity of people across the country who share our commitment to grassroots organizing for social and economic justice. As we reach the end of the year, we wanted to remind you that you can make a tax deductible contribution to Highlander through our Web site. Just go to www.highlandercenter.org and click on the "Donate Now" button. You can also mail your contribution to us at 1959 Highlander Way, New Market, TN 37820. Thank you for your support, and best wishes for the holiday season. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< 3. NEW FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN APPROVED BY HIGHLANDER'S BOARD In November, the Highlander Board approved a strategic plan to guide our work for the next five years. Highlights of our new plan include: - Developing a new multi-racial leadership training and organizing institute with 30 people from 15 groups from the Deep South, Appalachia, and immigrant communities, with a majority of participants age 35 and younger. This institute will help groups develop stronger capacity to address their specific issues as well as strengthen their relationships, skills and analysis to connect people and issues across difficult divides to build a broad-based movement. - Broadening Highlander's immigrant leadership development program to include ongoing work with Latino immigrants and new outreach to immigrants of African, Asian, Asian Pacific Islander, and Middle Eastern descent, whose numbers in the South are also increasing. To support this work, we will also expand the capacity of our multilingual program. - Expanding our Young and Restless program to include a specific focus on activists and young leaders in their 20s who are making critical decisions about the direction of their lives. - Strengthening efforts to be a good steward of Highlander's land and buildings by making measurable strides toward operating in accordance with green principles, by building a new dormitory that is accessible for people with disabilities and that meets the standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, and by establishing a maintenance endowment for the ongoing care of our buildings. - Restructuring staff to support the education demands of our work, enhance our external communications, and consolidate some of the operations teams which support the physical work of Highlander. - Using the occasion of Highlander's 75th anniversary for education, celebration and inspiration, including a gathering on the grounds in 2007 and gatherings in other parts of the country over the following year. We will also conduct a 75th anniversary capital campaign to raise funds to build a new dormitory and make essential repairs, energy and environmental upgrades, and accessibility improvements to our current facilities. Thanks to the friends, constituents, colleagues, funders and donors who participated in the strategic planning process, and to the consultant team of Kathie deNobriga (Pine Lake, GA) and Hasan Davis (Berea, KY) for their work. Special thanks to the Hill- Snowdon Foundation for their financial support. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< 4. HIGHLANDER SUPPORTS NATIONAL YOUTH TRAINING INSTITUTE From November 30th to December 5th, forty youth from across the country came to the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, Tennessee for the 2007 National Youth Organizing Training Institute. This was the second year Highlander has worked with the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) in organizing this youth leadership development opportunity. The Institute focused on providing training for new lead organizers and youth leaders transitioning into formal lead organizing positions. It sought to give young organizers a solid and systematic orientation to the fundamentals of youth organizing, including base-building, leadership development, campaign development, and organizational development. Highlander played an important role at the Institute by integrating cultural work into the training workshops. Tufara Waller Muhammad, a Highlander Education Team member, weaved songs and stories into the Institute to remind participants of the history of the South and the power of cultural organizing. Highlander staff member Susan Williams supported the event with recruitment, planning, curriculum development, and logistics, and Tonio Verzone, a Highlander intern, coordinated local transportation during the Institute and provided ongoing support for the five-day training. Another feature of this year's Institute was locating it in Nashville to promote greater participation of Southern organizers. Eight participants from around the South attended this year's training. Community groups represented include Saving Ourselves (Atlanta, GA), Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network (Durham, NC), Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network (Jacksonville, FL)., Center for New North Carolinians (Greensboro, NC), Citizens for a Better Greenville (Greenville, MS), UBUNTU (Durham NC), Oasis/Community Impact (Nashville, TN), and the Nashville Peace and Justice Center. Perhaps one of the greatest opportunities created by the Institute was giving participants the opportunity to sit down with each other and share real stories of triumph and struggle of youth organizing in their communities. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< 5. IMMIGRANT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE GRADUATION On October 20-22, Highlander completed the first two-year training cycle in its Immigrant Leadership Development Institute (INDELI), which provided training at Highlander in organizing skills and leadership development and follow-up support in the field for a total of 32 immigrant activists from 15 organizations around the region. In a moving graduation ceremony, people shared what participating in INDELI had meant to them and the next steps in their organizing work. INDELI has been a family experience, with many participants bringing their children. One participant's baby daughter took her first steps that weekend at Highlander. We teased what a great story that will make when she comes back in 35-40 years to become Highlander's director. Individuals and groups involved in INDELI are working locally on such issues as immigrant rights, education, domestic violence, public transportation, workers rights, and farmworker issues. Many also helped organize and/or participated in immigrant-rights marches, rallies, and other events last spring. Since the graduation, Highlander staff have been evaluating the program, conducting one-on-one interviews with participants to get their feedback. Following the evaluation, we will document and disseminate the INDELI curriculum and begin recruiting for a new training cycle, which will probably begin in late 2007. The new cycle will be multi-ethnic and will include immigrants from Africa and Asia as well as Latin America. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< 6. HIGHLANDER BOOKSTORE NOW ONLINE! You can now order online from the Highlander Bookstore, which offers hard-to-find books, videos, and CDs related to Highlander's work for social change. The books and videos cover such topics such as Highlander's history, popular education, immigration, fighting racism, and using art and culture to support social change. Many are available in Spanish as well as English. Music CDs include works by Guy and Candie Carawan; Carpetbag Theater's "American Sankofa: Remembering 33 Years of Music, Theatre and People"; "Canciones Por La Causa" by Baldemar Velasquez and the Aguila Negra Band; "Coal Mining Women," a collection of songs from the Appalachian coalfields performed by Sarah Ogan Gunning, Florence Reece, Hazel Dickens, and others; and "Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs, 1960-1966." All payments are handled through Paypal, so you can be sure that your credit card information will be secure. >---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>---<>--<>--<>--<>---< To unsubscribe from this e-mail list, or to add someone new, send an e-mail to hrec@highlandercenter.org. Past issues of View from the Hill are available online at www.highlandercenter.org/n-view.asp. Highlander Research and Education Center 1959 Highlander Way New Market, TN 37820 Phone: (865)-933-3443 Fax: (865) 933-3424 www.highlandercenter.org