OSI Announces 2004 Winners of New York City Community Fellowships

NEW YORK – Ten New York City community organizers, activists and leaders working to improve the quality of public life in low-income neighborhoods were awarded Open Society Institute New York City Community Fellowships.

The NYC Community Fellows are working on a range of innovative public interest projects, including the creation of a community-based legal center to aid South Asian immigrants, the establishment of a domestic violence center for refugee and immigrant African women, and a program in Harlem to protect fixed-income seniors facing eviction.

The ten fellows were selected from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan and will receive 18-month stipends of $48,750. Over the past eight years, OSI has invested over seven million dollars to support the work of individuals working in marginalized New York City communities.

OSI’s New York City Community Fellowship Program supports a new generation of social justice activists and provides them the opportunity to initiate community-led projects that empower neighborhoods and address critical social needs. Community Fellows lead local social change efforts that focus on economic justice, civic participation, workers’ rights, health and education.

2004 OSI NYC Community Fellows:

Ms. Afua Atta-Mensah (Central Harlem) established the Central Harlem Seniors Anti-Displacement Project, which works to protect fixed-income seniors facing eviction. The project provides free legal representation in housing court, educates seniors about their legal rights as tenants, and publicizes data on the severity of the displacement of seniors.

Ms. Zeinab M. Eyega (New York City) founded the Center for African Women Sauti Yetu (meaning "our voices" in Swahili) to help victims of domestic violence in the African immigrant community and to ensure their access to reproductive health care. OSI funding will support advocacy, community organizing, education, and violence prevention, as well as a referral service for victims.

Mr. Josué Guillén (New York City) runs the Technology Advancing Communications project that aims to bridge the digital divide and provide technical assistance to racial justice organizations. The project will help create technology plans that serve organizations’ specific communications needs. 

Mr. Imani K. Henry (New York City) established Transjustice, a leadership development and organizing project run by transgender people of color. Transjustice aims to identify community health and human service needs, develop and conduct leadership trainings, and work for change through education and community action. The project will also conduct anti-discrimination workshops and distribute a publication that identifies resources available to transgender people of color.

Ms. Glenda Johnson (Central Harlem) coordinates African Voices, a series of communications workshops taught by media professionals to train West African residents of Central Harlem to be community advocates. Workshops will cover basic research and writing techniques, journalism principles, public speaking, computer skills, photography and publicity. Participants will submit articles for publication in The Citizen (Harlem's only community-run newspaper), and speak at quarterly public forums and in monthly radio broadcasts.

Ms. Madeline Lamour Holder (Brooklyn and Queens) established the Families United Home Restoration Advocacy Project, which is led by low-income homeowners working to organize against predatory lenders. Using a range of advocacy methods including legal, social service outreach and media campaigns, the group seeks to end abusive lending practices.

Ms. Kavita Pawria (Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and New Jersey) created the Azaadi Legal Defense Project, a community-based legal center focusing on South Asian immigrant rights. The project will hold monthly workshops to teach legal skills to low-income families and will also organize local grassroots campaigns to encourage the reform of oppressive federal immigration and deportation policies.

Ms. Paula X. Rojas (Brooklyn) established Project X, a collective for low-income women of color, the first task of which is to form a childcare cooperative. Participation in the cooperative fulfills state welfare work requirements for those receiving assistance. The project will also develop a “liberation school,” a popular education program in which members learn skills like political analysis, community organizing, and democratic decision-making so that they can implement change in their own communities.

Mr. Tushar J. Sheth (New York City) created Workers Safe & Free. Through legal advocacy and public education, this project aims to end collaboration between federal immigration enforcement agencies and state and local authorities in federal counter-terrorism efforts—a practice that severely impairs immigrants' access to essential public institutions and social services. The project will also provide legal assistance to low-income immigrant workers whose employment rights have been violated.

Ms. J.T. Orinne Takagi (New York City) created Call for Change. The project brings together socially conscious media makers of color to produce short videos to document the voices and concerns of immigrant, low-income groups and communities of color. The videos focus on topics such as the elections, the war on terror, and the impact of U.S. policy on human rights at home and abroad.

The Open Society Institute, a private operating and grantmaking foundation, is part of the network of foundations, created and funded by George Soros, active in more than 50 countries around the world.

OSI's U.S. Programs seek to strengthen democracy in the United States by addressing barriers to opportunity and justice, broadening public discussion about such barriers, and assisting marginalized groups to participate equally in civil society and to make their voices heard. OSI U.S. Programs challenges over-reliance on the market by advocating appropriate government responsibility for human needs and promoting public interest and service values. OSI U.S. Programs supports initiatives in a range of areas including access to justice for low and moderate income people; judicial independence; ending the death penalty; reducing gun violence and over-reliance on incarceration; drug policy reform; inner-city education and youth programs; fair treatment of immigrants; reproductive health and choice; campaign finance reform; and improved care of the dying.