Legal Rights Center News

October 2008

We are pleased to welcome a new member of the Legal Rights Center staff. Sylvia Gutierrez comes to us from an extensive background in Restorative Justice services, having worked with Meditation Services, the Resource Center for Fathers Families, and BIHA Women in Action among other organizations. She has trained and worked in such areas as dispute resolution and mediation, domestic violence issues, parenting and family conflict, restorative circles, and women's and children's issues. Her work at the LRC will focus on our program partnering with Minneapolis Public Schools, described in our April news below. Both the program's expansion and Sylvia's position are made possible in part by a grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation.

September 2008

School is back in session, and the Legal Education for Youth program is up and running, offering presentations for youth in Minneapolis Public Schools. These presentations are geared particularly towards low-income youth and youth of color, who often perceive or experience “the law” as an arbitrary, oppressive, or unnavigable system. Our program covers the crucial points of constitutional rights, safe police interactions, the consequences of having a juvenile record, and any questions or concerns students raise. One teacher's thank-you note summarizes the impact of our program:

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

The Charities Review Council has accredited the Legal Rights Center as meeting ALL standards. This designation comes after a lengthy application process, which included a review of the Legal Rights Center’s transparency along with our financial, governance, and fundraising policies. We have always valued our ethical responsibilities to our donors, the communities we serve, and the general public, and we are pleased to receive the Charities Review Council Seal. For more information, please see www.smartgivers.org.

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 Minnesota’s statewide public defender system, and that the Legal Rights Center continues to serve the same crucial role as a place where communities of color join forces to exercise their constitutional and human rights.

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.