The 4th R, Creating a Human Rights Culture: The Role of Service Learning, vol. 8 No. 1, Spring 1997.

Community Action! Fund Established
to Support Human Rights-Related, Service Learning Initiatives


Since the beginning of the 1996-97 school year, the Partners in Human Rights Education Program, a joint initiative of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, established a Community Action! Fund with a grant of $5,000 from the Otto Bremer Foundation. This Fund supports human rights education volunteers in the Partners Program and their students with the financial resources necessary to create effective Human Rights Community Action! Projects. This Fund provides a unique means of integrating classroom learning about human rights with hands-on activities in the community. Through Community Action! Projects, students can more deeply understand the meaning of human rights in their own lives and the lives of others in their community.

In past years, Partners Program participants have funded their own projects, which limited the kinds of Action! Projects students could plan. Through the Human Rights Community Action! Fund, teams and students can plan and carry out creative service learning initiatives, which will benefit their local communities without being unduly hampered by financial considerations. Each Partners Program team is eligible for one $50 to $400 grant per semester or half of the school year. Below are examples of four Human Rights Action! Projects undertaken in Minnesota this school year. These students have been successfully promoting community involvement, providing models and inspiration for others to join them.

If you would like to see the guidelines that the Partners Program have developed in order to start your own Human Rights Community Action! Fund, call the Partners Program:

(612) 626-0041



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