Tides 2009 JBL Awards - Call for Nominations until May 22nd.

Call for Nominations: Tides 2009 JBL Awards - recognizing individuals who advocate / organize for immigration reform

Tides 2009 JBL Awards - Call for Nominations

The 2009 JBL Awards will recognize two individuals who have advocated and organized for comprehensive immigration reform, worked to counter anti-immigrant policies and groups, and helped voices at the grassroots shape and influence the immigration debate at the national level. The award recipients will be honored with $10,000 each on September 7, 2009 at the Tides Momentum Conference in San Francisco.

Nominations are due on Friday, May 22nd 2009. Named after Jane Bagley Lehman, one of the founders of Tides and board chair until her death in 1988, these awards honor the life and legacy of this unconventional philanthropist whose insatiable curiosity was matched by her willingness to take risks. Jane was inspired by the approaches and strategies of grassroots advocates and organizers and their willingness to challenge traditional assumptions. She also cared deeply that the results of their efforts be translated into public policy.

Reforming Immigration Reform
In the absence of comprehensive reform, the U.S. immigration system continues to violate rights and perpetrate injustice. Under our current law and policy, undocumented workers are easily exploited by unscrupulous employers. Families, including those with U.S.-citizen children, are torn apart each day by immigration enforcement raids and deportations. And hundreds of thousands of immigrants sit in detention, often mistreated, malnourished and threatened, not knowing when they will see their families again.

In this hostile environment, a growing number of grassroots leaders have emerged to right the wrongs—and to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Human rights groups, elected officials, faith-based organizations, and activists from across the nation are stepping up to defend our nation’s commitment to unity, equality and opportunity.

They face a determined and vocal anti-immigrant minority, opposed to a path to legalization and, in some cases, even to safeguarding basic civil and human rights. At worst, these anti-immigrant forces have stoked a climate of hatred and fear, leading immigrants to go deeper into the shadows and withdraw further from community life.

The 2009 JBL Awards will honor grassroots advocates who are working to achieve immigration reform and working to counter restrictionist policies and groups. Eligible nominees are activists who are working at both a local and national level and collaborating with others to:

Raise awareness of the immigration debate and help educate people who are not yet aware of the issues.

Expose racist and xenophobic anti-immigrant work and inform the public of hate crimes.

Respond to anti-immigrant attacks and protect workers and families affected by raids.

Nominees will have supported local immigrant communities while elevating their work and the grassroots movement for comprehensive immigration reform to the national level. Nominees will have pushed to advance both moral and political arguments for planting real immigration reform firmly within the Obama administration's agenda.
Their work will also have called for immediate cessation to raids as well as reversal of draconian detention policies. (While the JBL Awards recognize the power of all of these roles in restoring justice to our immigration policies, any individual applicant will not have to have accomplished all of these roles.)

To learn more about the nomination process and more about the JBL Awards, please click here.

Deadline: email nominations no later than Friday, May 22nd 2009 to:
jblawards@tides.org.

Tides partners with philanthropists, foundations, activists, and organizations across the country and across the globe to promote economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected.

Tides Foundation
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29903
San Francisco, CA 94129