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Legal Rights Center News October 2008 September 2008 Your
presentation to my students… was
amazing. I was surprised at
how much information you shared with my students that was actually
useful and relevant to their everyday lives… My students really
learned a lot and I would like to think that it helped prevent future
legal problems.
Please contact us at 612-337-0030 to arrange a presentation for your class. July 2008 June 2008 The founding of the Legal Rights Center (in 1970) and the lessons learned from the coalitional practices underlying our creation were the subject of a doctoral thesis successfully defended by Nalo Johnson of the University Of Minnesota’s American Studies Program. Once catalogued, it will be available through the University’s library system under the title: The History of the Founding of the Legal Rights Center: a Study in Coalition Building Between the Black and American Indian Communities of Minneapolis. To
complete her research, Johnson interviewed many present
and past Legal Rights Center staff, as well as key board members dating
back to our founding. Johnson concluded
that the Legal Rights Center significantly
influenced the
development and practices of May 2008 The
Legal Rights Center,
which owns its building at 1611
Park Ave. S., has completed the repair projects
that
had been set in motion by an order from the City of Minneapolis
Environmental
Services Department. Exterior drainage
to the Minneapolis sanitary sewer system has been disconnected, new
(and
re-graded) pavement has been installed in our driveway, rock gardens
have been
installed to limit runoff, and lighting and security updates have been
completed to ensure the safety of our employees. In appreciation, the Mayor of Minneapolis sent a letter to the Legal Rights Center, stating that our corrective action, along with efforts by other similarly situated property owners, had resulted in improved water quality in the Mississippi River. Thank you to our Capital Campaign funders who helped us make such a positive impact: the Otto Bremer Foundation, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and the Beverly Foundation. April 2008 The Legal Rights Center has become a community partner with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) at the school district level, giving Minneapolis youth greater access to our Community Conflict Resolution and Legal Education programs. One of the partnership’s primary goals is to reduce suspensions and administrative transfers by providing restorative justice as an alternative. A recent city-sponsored publication, Blueprint for Action: Preventing Youth Violence in Minneapolis, called upon MPS to seek restorative solutions for school incidents in order to reduce risk factors for youth violence both inside and outside of schools. For this project, the Legal Rights Center has chosen to emphasize the restorative method of Family Group Conferencing, creating channels of communication and accountability that extend beyond students and schools to the students’ families—however their families may be defined. As the families of students subject to formal discipline processes can perceive schools as being adversarial and racially biased, we use restorative justice not only to restore students to good standing within their schools, but also to restore the trust between families and schools. Our method also provides support to parents and guardians of struggling teenagers, both within the process and through referrals that become a part of the agreed upon accountability plan. |
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| Legal Rights
Center 1611 Park Avenue
South
Minneapolis, MN 55404 Phone: (612) 337-0030 Fax: (612) 337-0797 Email: office @ legalrightscenter.org |