A place to meet, a place
to learn, a place to organize...
Citizenship
and Voter Training School Modeled
after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Highlander Center
Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Highlander Center , CIVITAS is a school for immigrants. It is designed to engage local immigrant communities in building their own capacity to organize within a multi-ethnic and multi-issued environment, towards the fulfillment of collective social justice. CIVITAS is also the central research and training arm of CAAAELII, fostering groundbreaking cross-racial, cross-cultural community dialogues and community connections.
What We Do
Develop community leadership.
Build capacity of CAAAELII Partners for increased civic engagement.
Promote civil rights/social justice education.
Foster community connections for social justice.
How We Do This
The CIVITAS process is a participatory collective process that promotes understanding of the realities lived today by sharing stories and studying history, to provide a space for reflection on how to change society to be more just and inclusive of the “other.” It is a reflective process where participants are both teacher and learner so shared lessons are put into action contributing to the growth and acceptance of diversity.
We hold trainings that build leaders by developing skills and analysis.
We create and support programs that builds the capacity of our members to organize.
We develop and implement curriculum that integrates popular education, organizing, and the current citizenship, civics and ESL instruction that our students receive.
We foster a network and create opportunities for our leaders and organizations to build relationships across issues and ethnicities.
CIVITAS Components
Lead Teacher Project - Positions the citizenship teachers as facilitators to increased civic engagement who will engage that community in the fight for immigrant rights and social justice.
Apprenticeship Program – Develop grassroots leadership through art, technology, communication, and fundraising, by A) building capacity through CAAAELII’s Partners and allies, and by B) promoting grassroots participatory civic engagement and human rights through social justice education.
