Brooklyn Parents For Peace And The Compass For Change

This morning I want to highlight to local, Progressive, organizations which have recently come to my attention:

The first is Brooklyn Parents For Peace.

Brooklyn Parents for Peace is a network of Brooklyn residents — parents, neighbors, and educators — alarmed by the growing militarism of our society and its effect on our lives and our children's future.

We seek to inform ourselves and our community about issues of war and peace and to enable ourselves to respond effectively.

We hope to give our children a role model of active response to problems which easily lead to hopelessness, cynicism, and despair.

We organize community meetings and study groups, set up information tables, participate in phone and advertising campaigns, meet with elected officials and participate in demonstrations. We offer our neighbors solid analysis on international and domestic policies.

The second is Compass for Change.

The Compass for Change seeks to connect people through technology to achieve social change in New York City. The Compass is a set of free, easy to use online tools designed to help activist and community organizations use the Internet to connect with one another, share information and resources, find funding for their projects, and expand their ability to work social justice. The Compass is also designed to help all New Yorkers access valuable information, identify resources, and connect with social justice movements.

At the core of this project is an online directory of activist and community groups in NYC. This directory is based on "Finding the Grassroots: A Directory of NYC Activist Organizations," published by North Star in 1995. Unlike a print directory, which is costly and time-consuming to revise, the online version is easily updatable by organizations themselves. In this way, North Star can work with activists and organizers to create a more consistently up-to-date resource.

Through the directory, users can find and connect with groups based on an array of search criteria, including issues, methods of organizing, location and constituencies. The directory will be shared with the Ya-Ya Network's website, which will focus on providing resources and information to NYC youth.