Curriculum Links

Off Center Productions- Media as a Tool for Organizing and Advocacy - Off Center makes documentaries about social injustices. Recent works include “Tulia Texas: Scenes from the Drug War,” exposing the arrest and imprisonment of nearly 20% of the African-American population of a small town in the Texas Panhandle based on the word of one undercover officer; and “In the Name of Security,” exposing a state-sponsored campaign aimed at destroying the identity and culture of the Palistinian people. They also offer low-cost documentary services to non-profit organizations with a focus on criminal and racial justice that are seeking to use videos as a tool for organizing and advocacy.

Data Center Impact Research for Social Justice - Data Center provides strategic information to social justice organizations. It specializes in research that supports informed action - locating the information that organizers and activists need to develop effective campaign strategies, mobilize support, educate the public, influence policy makers and effectively confront power. It also provides research training and consultation designed to enhance the skills of organizers and activists, with expertise in Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, Youth, and Criminal Justice.

The Growing Divide Workshop - United for a Fair Economy has designed a very effective set of presentations and workshops called "The Growing Divide: Inequality and the Roots of Economic Insecurity." The Workshop includes: An overview of the massive income and wealth shift of the last 25 years. • An opportunity to discuss the effects of gross inequality on our lives and the lives of the people we know and care about. • A discussion of the reasons for the shift. • An inspirational review of movements in the U.S. that have reversed previous trends toward inequality. • An opportunity to discuss strategy and meaningful action responses. • An opportunity to think about concrete steps that make sense for each of us.

The Massachusetts Budget Crisis: Who Hurts, Who Pays? - This 1-hour, interactive workshop can be downloaded or the materials can be ordered from United for a Fair Economy. The workshop reviews the Massachusetts budget and the current crisis, considers how the worsening budget crisis has impacted our life and the lives of people we know, demonstrates that unwise tax cuts in the 1990s was a major cause of the current budget crisis, and explores opportunities to advocate for closing the capital gains tax loophole as a crucial way to raise revenue to deal with the budget shortfall.

A Guide for Strategic Analysis, Participatory Research, Civic Action and Effective Advocacy by James V. Riker, Ph.D - Content includes: The Theoretical and Historical Roles of Nonprofit Organizations in Advancing Social Justice and Fostering Democracy, Nonprofit Organizations' Accountability and Responsiveness to the Publics That They Serve, Nonprofit Organizations' Role in Fostering Democracy, Nonprofit Advocacy and Popular Mobilizing for Economic Justice, Sustaining Strategic Vision and Leadership, and Nonprofit Strategy and Practice for Living Wage Campaigns, Campaign Finance Reform, The Environmental Justice Movement, and the Violence Against Women Act.

Advocates Training - This is a list of Internet Resources of Interest to New Legal Services Advocates compiled by the National Center on Poverty Law. Resources are organized by practice areas including Bankruptcy/consumer, disability, education, employment/unemployment compensation, family law, food programs, health/mental health, housing, immigration, juveniles, social security/SSI, and welfare. Also listed are federal agency sites, other legal service oriented websites, general legal resources, and listservs.

Community Self-Management, Empowerment & Development - This site is hosted through Community Development Society (CDS) by Seattle Community Network (SCN). This is a "cafeteria-style" collection of training material intended to assist you in helping low-income communities (and their people) to overcome poverty. It emphasizes methods and principles, not theory. Topics available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese include Empowerment, Sustainability, Democratization, Partnerships, Participation, and Transparency.

Restorative Justice: Principles, Practices and Implementation - This page offers download-able curriculum Developed by Peg Christian, Jeff Bidmon, and Michael Dooley for the National Institute of Corrections. Each module has a facilitator component and a participant component. The curriculum covers Core Principles and Values, Impact of Crime on Victims, Restorative Practices, Building Community Resource Capacity, Evolving Our Systems, Strategic Action Planning, and Literature and Resources.

Teaching with Technology - This is a collection of best practices essays compiled by Harvard University’s Instructional Computing Group. Best Practices essays are compelling accounts, written by course heads and teaching fellows in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, about their experiences integrating computer resources into their teaching.

National Mentoring Center - The National Mentoring Center's training curriculum is a 10-module tool for training program staff and mentors in effective program practices. Written by Public/Private Ventures, the curriculum draws on the latest in mentoring research to help programs improve. The first half deals with program development issues such as recruitment and screening, while the last 4 modules focus on training of mentors.

Understanding Adolescents: A Juvenile Court Training Program - This website offers the full text of several training modules in Adobe Acrobat, as well as info on how to order hard copies. Module topics include : adolescent development theory in court decision making; strategies for interviewing adolescents; mental health evaluations; chronic aggression; special ed; evaluating competence, and literature review

Utah Board of Juvenile Justice - A curriculum that is being widely implemented by Utah's juvenile justice system as a mechanism to reduce the disproportionate number of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. The project was commissioned by the Racial and Ethnic Task Force of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System, and implemented by the Multi-Cultural Legal Center funded by a grant from the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. Core curriculum covers Introduction to Cultural Competency, Communication, Cultural Perspectives, and Prejudice Reduction. Supplemental Materials include Implementing Cultural Competency and Perspective on Trauma Hate Crime.