Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice

Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice 202 Harvard SE Albuquerque, NM 87106 505-268-9557		Updated: 30 April 2008
Center Projects

Center Projects

The main goal of P&J Projects is grassroots community involvement. Find a project from this list that moves you and join in, or develop your own. This is your space - your community. Together, let's build the better world we know is possible.

If you find a project that interests you or want to develop a new one, contact us. If not, remember to check here again - new projects will be added to this list as people develop them.

Here are the Center's current projects:

Another Side: Truth in Military Recruiting Program

A collaboration of the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, the Alliance for Academic Freedom, and Veterans for Peace. The goal of the project is to give students "another side" of the information they receive from military recruiters and the mainstream media about war and military service. Speakers are available to come to events, meetings or high school and college classes. Resource packets that include articles, websites, films, and books are available from Another Side. Call us at 505-268-9557 or email AnotherSide@abqPeaceAndJustice.org .

[I Want You To Think -- Before You Enlist]

Archives

The Peace Center was founded 23 years ago by concerned members of the community who felt it was important for groups working on peace and justice issues to have a place to go to share in and support each other's work. Over those two decades of grassroots action, we have built up a significant archive. In partnership with the University of New Mexico's (UNM) Center for Southwest Research (CSWR), the Peace Center is collecting and preserving these invaluable materials. Maybe you have boxes of political posters or a rare copy of a flyer used to mobilize New Mexicans to action. You can donate it to the Peace Center's archives to be preserved at the library and be made available for viewing or study by a worldwide audience through the University of New Mexico.

Art

The art project gives local artists and groups the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Peace Center. The exhibits are not necessarily related directly to peace and justice issues, but will also frequently be an exhibit which will appeal to diverse groups.

Creating Peace

Many dedicated individuals have worked throughout history to deal with conflict among us, yet it quickly surfaces when others invade our comfort level in some way. They may have a different culture or personality, or conflicting opinions about what is important. These differences cause us to lose sight of what we have in common, and as the sense of "other" grows we cannot solve problems that affect our work settings, our communities and our relations with other nations. How can we reach across our differences to resolve the huge issues facing us today in our attempt to create a just and sustainable future for ourselves and our children? As part of our Center's work for peace and justice we hope to create a project that will present techniques to help us move through conflict and achieve common goals. We will focus on dialoging, book discussions, and training in communication techniques. If you would like to become part of this important work call Judith at 505-243-6174. Your grandchildren's children will thank you.

Project on Darfur

In 2007 a baby was conceived, the "Project on Darfur". It has struggled to find its unique place. It has jointly worked with the "Task Force on Darfur" that is coordinated by the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque. Two of our activities were: a) a night Peace Vigil at the Duck Pond at UNM; and b) a "Save Darfur" talk given by two Darfuri persons who had escaped from Darfur. Three hundred persons attended their talk at UNM and eighty five persons attended their talk at the First Unitarian Church Sanctuary on November 21st, 2007. These two persons told us what it is like to live in Darfur.

Nine months later, we were born and our first project is to contact NATO Leaders. We are asking them to each contact the Chinese Government to put pressure on Sudan to stop the Genocide. The pressure point for this project is the Olympics in China, the Summer of 2008.

Follow the link (at end of this sentence) to read the Proposal. For more information: call Bob Press at 505-255-3986 or 505-514-5101.

Gardens

On Harvard street, the west side of the building, we have a purple robe locust and a native oak tree donated by Plants of the Southwest. This area used to be a sidewalk! After the cement was torn, with the help of volunteers Maureen and Joe, horse manure and mulch were set to help condition the soil. Now the heat does not reflect on our building, and beautiful flowers are growing.

Fugimi's Garden on the east side of the building is the result of donated plants, again by Plants of the Southwest, and work from our friend Renee who set up the soak hoses. The rose bush given to us by another friend, Patricia Dolan, promises to bear many beautiful white roses.

North of the parking lot is the work of Eric Stout who, volunteering his time and expertise, has planted a pomegranate and some kind of berry after breaking the sidewalk. This new bush and tree will be watered by rain catchment, another volunteer's project, in this case Bert Lopez.

The Sally Alice and Don Thompson garden, on the north side of the Peace Center's building, is the loving work of super volunteer France.

By the entrance we have a tree planted in honor of dear friend Iliana Rodriguez.. It is a pleasure to have her present in the way of a healthy red fruit-bearing tree.

We thank Ellen Dewitt for being our eager on-call tree-consultant.

Grassroots New Mexico

A four-minute community action radio calendar of local and state actions, events and campaigns, airing Wednesdays on 89.9 FM KUNM, at 3:55pm, right before Democracy Now. E-mail your events by Monday morning of that week to grassrootsnm@abqpeaceandjustice.org .

Indymedia

Indy Media TV, 7:00-8:00pm, each Friday, on cable channel 27 (Albuquerque). Unembedded, non-corporate news, local people working for global justice. Hosted by Allen Cooper and Maria Santelli. Call 505-304-3144. On the web at quote-unquote.org .

Libraries: Book, Film and Audio

For years, the Peace Center has kept a library of alternative media sources, available for checkout by our members and the community. We are now working to expand our collection, digitize our catalog and put it on our Web site making our resources available to friends far and near! We'd love your input and suggestions for acquisitions of alternative videos, CDs, books, periodicals, etc. You know, the stuff you can't get at the public library or the corporate bookstores. We also need help with data entry to get the catalog into a searchable database.

Newsletter/Calendar

The P&J publishes a monthly newsletter/calendar highlighting peace and justice activities and work in our community. We love to receive submissions from groups or individuals about upcoming events related to peace and justice, book or other media reviews, and short articles about peace and justice work in our community and beyond.

Print edition deadline : 20th of the month (e.g., 20th of September for the October issue). E-mail to MonthlyCalendar@abqpeaceandjustice.org .
Website edition: there is no deadline. Submissions are appreciated at least 10 days before a meeting/event/etc. date (since it may take a few days before the information is posted). E-mail to web@abqPeaceAndJustice.org .

Nuclear Resistance Calendar

Nuclear Resistance Calendar is a date calendar chronicling nuclear events and the victories of groups who fight to end the nuclear age. The calendar is illustrated with art by local artists.

Nukes Next Door

Nukes Next Door takes a hard look at nuclear projects at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, which are contaminating or have contaminating potential. We advocate for air monitoring and reduction of emissions.

Peace and Justice Organizations Linking Arms (PAJOLA)

Peace and Justice Organizations Linking Arms (PAJOLA) is the name of the Peace Center organizational membership collective. We are about 50 strong, and growing! There is so much creative, innovate work going on around New Mexico for all aspects of peace and justice, and this is one way we use to link our work together. PAJOLA meets bi-annually (January and July), to plan joint activities, share information, give feedback to the Peace Center, and seek support for our work from each other. Each member group has a page in the PAJOLA area of our Web site. So, please check them out!

Peace Worker Family

We who work for peace are really an extended family, and as such we need to help each other when the going gets rough - times of sickness and loss. If you or another member needs temporary help with preparation of food, transportation, shopping or other errands, etc. e-mail bookruth@swcp.com or call 505-842-0843. If you want to be on the list of helpers, please call or email and specify what kinds of help you can offer. Support our community!

People Before Profit - Film/Speaker Series

The People Before Profit film/speaker series currently running the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, brings together rare, independently produced films and expert speakers on a variety of topics relevant to global and local struggles for peace and justice.

Solar Forced Air Heater

The solar forced air heater project has a two fold goal of constructing solar forced air heaters out of recycled materials and helping people put them on their houses. It is a people helping people project.

Somos l@s otr@s... and They Are Us!

The Peace Center has joined with El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos and a group of musicians and theater activists to make all of our organizing efforts toward justice more effective, more coordinated, and hopefully a lot more fun as well! "Somos l@s otr@s... and They Are Us!" will use the power of music and theater to educate, empower and dialogue among our diverse communities. We will focus on infusing on-going workshops on immigrant rights with more powerful music and theater, and begin outreach to the broader community of U.S. citizens, reminding ourselves and our communities that when we remember the best in ourselves and our cultural traditions, we no longer fear our neighbors. Future activities will be posted in the newsletter. If you want to learn more, contact Dair Obenshain: call 505-877-5883 or e-mail SomosLasOtras@hotmail.com .

State of Peace Strategic Planning Project

A collaborative planning project with the Peace Centers and peace groups around the state of New Mexico, with the goal of building a coordinated agenda to transform our state from one dependent on the preparation for war to one grounded in life-affirming, peaceful, sustainable pursuits.

Sustainable Retrofit

The Peace Center's new home, the physical space, is in desperate need of energy efficient, sustainable retrofits. We have a small committee investigating the possibilities, brainstorming goals, and evaluating the current status of energy flow in the building. Any additional ideas, expertise, labor, energy, spirit, that can be devoted to this project would be so helpful. Let's transform this great new space into an example of urban sustainability.

Web site

The Web site includes the monthly newsletter / calendar in its entirety, plus listings of events scheduled after the hard copy of the calendar goes to print. Our member groups each have their own PAJOLA page on the site. Included on the pages are descriptive and contact information (when provided) and links to their own Web sites (when they exist). Also, additional resources are available on the Web site. We would love your pictures, graphics, input, etc. to help make the Web site a more effective organizing tool for the peace and justice community.

Women of Juárez

We collaborate with local, state, national and international groups to bring awareness and support the relatives of the femicides in Chihuahua, Mexico, in their quest for justice. Contact Cecilia if you would like to learn more or work with us.

For more information on the issue, you can access

Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez, a non profit group in Las Cruces at www.amigosdemujeres.org ,

Justicia para Nuestras Hijas a group based in Chihuahua, Mexico, that works for women's rights providing support and empowering the relatives of the young women murdered or disappeared at http://espanol.geocities.com/justhijas/ ,

Amnesty International at www.amnestyusa.org , and

Mexico Solidarity Network at www.mexicosolidarity.org .

Cucharitas para Lomas began in October 2006 (and in ended November 2007) as a small project working in solidarity with the Women of Juárez. We are very satisfied with the results that our one year project accomplished: Solidarity with Paula Flores, mother of one of the many victims of femicide in Ciudad Juárez, and her organization, Fundación Maria Sagrario. The project provided educational and kitchen supplies for the Maria Sagrario preschool and helped build workshop space for the Fundación, where the women meet and learn occupational skills.

All of this was made possible with the help of several groups, organizations, teachers, students, musicians, poets, and you. Thank you! November 2007

Please send calendar items, comments, and questions concerning this Web document to Web@abqPeaceAndJustice.org .