Cambodian Living Arts
- Cambodian Living Arts Official Site
- Cambodian Living Arts on Facebook
- John’s time in Cambodia
Mission
The mission of Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) is to facilitate the transformation of Cambodia through the arts.
CLA collaborates to create an environment where Cambodian arts empower and transform individuals and communities.
CLA does this by building the capacity of artists and the arts community, by promoting awareness of the arts, and by advocating for the arts with cultural policymakers and major institutions.
In doing so, CLA aims to create value and understanding of what it means to be Cambodian and to create a sense of unity and shared culture. CLA believes that through creativity we can each expand our potential as human beings.
Vision
By 2020, CLA envisions a vibrant and dynamic cultural sector throughout Cambodia, with the arts as the country’s national and international signature. Cambodian Living Arts will be a catalyst for this development. The successful transformation of Cambodia’s cultural identity will be a model for other societies.
Food Not Bombs
Mission
Food Not Bombs recovers and shares free vegan or vegetarian food with the public without restriction in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment. Each group is independent and invites everyone to participate in making decisions for their local chapter using the consensus process. Food Not Bombs is dedicated to taking nonviolent direct action to change society so no one is forced to stand in line to eat at a soup kitchen expressing a commitment to the fact that food is a right and not a privilege. With over a billion people going hungry each day how can we spend another dollar on war?
Charter Oak Cultural Center
Charter Oak Cultural Center harnesses the power of the arts to create positive social change. They host cutting-edge, thought-provoking visual and performing arts, including dance, theater, film, concerts, readings, gallery exhibits and much more. Their overall goal is to give access to the arts to all who hunger for them. Our key activities fall into four categories:
- Artistic: Charter Oak provides access to diverse visual and performing arts, including dance, theatre, film, concerts, readings, and gallery exhibits. In our three gallery spaces, emerging and established artists from various cultures exhibit their work. In the course of a year, they present every variety of multi-cultural performing art—dance, film, theatre, concerts.
- Cultural: Charter Oak produces events and activities aimed at encouraging the sharing of new ideas and cultural values, and educating the community on commonalities and differences between cultures. This is accomplished through art, films, lectures, drama and other events. Annually, they present Hartford’s largest Kwanzaa celebration, a multi-cultural Kristallnacht commemoration and SNAP Into Action Against Hunger, a program that raises consciousness about hunger in Hartford and has become a national model. Charter Oak has also recently launched a newspaper created, designed and sold by individuals experiencing homelessness.
- Educational: Charter Oak offers educational opportunities to children and adults in the surrounding neighborhood, which is one of the poorest in Hartford. Their Youth Arts Institute serves nearly 1500 inner-city children with completely free before-school, during-school, after-school, weekend and summer arts and literacy-based programming as well as free nutritious meals and snacks. Their Youth Arts Institute is endorsed by the Hartford Public Schools Superintendent’s office and our programming is specifically designed to supplement school curricula with high quality classes in the arts that reflect a focus on literacy.
- Historic Preservation: Although Charter Oak has no religious affiliation, they are housed in a beautiful historic building built in 1876 as Connecticut’s first synagogue. A key activity of Charter Oak is to restore, maintain and preserve the building, while ensuring that the facility remains a useful and accessible part of the community. The grounds are landscaped, the building is fully maintained and is a source of pride to the neighborhood and the city as a whole. It is an example of visionary repurposing, serving now not as a synagogue but as a sanctuary in the midst of the city for all people.
Charter Oak believes that while people certainly need food and shelter and jobs with dignity, they also need to nourish and nurture our spirits and souls, imaginations and creativity. They hold that the arts are not a luxury, but a human right. Their arts, culture, community-building and social justice initiatives provide opportunities for Greater Hartford residents of every race, religion, class, gender, ability and sexual orientation to find their own voice, claim their own power, give expression to their distinctive cultures, and join with others to create a rich, shared urban experience.
At Charter Oak, they support art that moves the world.
Connecticut Center For a New Economy
Mission & Vision
The Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the economic and social well being of working families in Connecticut’s urban centers by initiating and supporting efforts to raise wages of the working poor, improve public education and training, and preserve affordable housing.
To that end, we are demanding responsible economic development in the urban centers of Connecticut. We are reducing working poverty by advocating for workers seeking self-determination and the right to bargain with their employers for better wages and working conditions. We are initiating public policy to preserve affordable housing and build strong communities for Connecticut’s working families.
CT Coalition to End Homelessness
Mission
The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, in partnership with communities throughout the state, creates change through leadership, community organizing, advocacy, research, and education. Their mission is to prevent and end homelessness in Connecticut.
Vision
The institutions which currently manage homelessness in Connecticut will be transformed as CCEH solves this unacceptable human condition through the implementation of prevention strategies, development of permanent affordable housing, coordination and addition of culturally relevant support services and systems, and the emergence of real opportunities for steady and stable incomes for all of Connecticut’s citizens.
Human Rights Watch
About
Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, HRW gives voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Their rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For more than 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
Mission
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. It stands with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. HRW investigates and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. HRW challenges governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. HRW enlists the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
Alliance for American Manufacturing
About
The Alliance for American Manufacturing is a non-profit, non-partisan partnership formed in 2007 by some of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers to explore common solutions to challenging public policy topics such as job creation, infrastructure investment, international trade, and global competitiveness.
AAM believes that an innovative and growing manufacturing base is vital to America’s economic and national security, as well as to providing good jobs for future generations. AAM achieves its mission through research, public education, advocacy, strategic communications, and coalition building around the issues that matter most to America’s manufacturing sector.
AAM’s capacity includes a Washington D.C.-based lobby and research operation and a national field staff. Current issues include promoting strong Buy American provisions at both the federal and state levels, advocating for fair trade, and promoting revitalization through a long-term national manufacturing strategy.
The blueprint for the future was built by AAM.
In Celebration of John Harrity 