Justice is a Human Right!
Our Annual Sowing Seeds for Justice Dinner is co-sponsored by The New York State Labor-Religion Coalition
The mission of RMM is to address the needs of the rural poor, including migrant and immigrant farmworkers and their families. Our Mission Statement lays out our focus clearly and succinctly:
Rural and Migrant Ministry works for the creation of a just, rural New York State through:
Nurturing leadership;
Standing with the disenfranchised, especially farmworkers and rural workers; Changing unjust systems and structures. RMM pursues this mission through several programs focusing on the needs of members of rural communities of New York State. Our Accompaniment Program supports farmworkers as they seek to improve their living and working conditions through the coordination of the Justice for Farmworkers (JFW) Campaign. The Campaign brings together a remarkable coalition of allies from the faith, student, and labor communities to stand with farmworkers in an effort to change the laws that deny farmworkers equal rights in New York State. Seventy five years since the start of the New Deal, the shameful legacy of Jim Crow-era politics lives on through the exclusion of farmworkers from the basic workers rights and protections that were codified into law during that period. In 1996, the JFW Campaign succeeded in obtaining clean drinking water and sanitary facilities in the fields for New York State farmworkers; in 1999, an equal minimum wage. In 2003, following a march by hundreds of farmworkers and allies across New York, a comprehensive Bill that would remove the remaining labor law exclusions was introduced in both the Democratic Assembly and the Republican Senate. The Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act would eliminate the labor law exclusions that deny farmworkers such basic rights and protections as collective bargaining, the option of a weekly day of rest, overtime pay, an equal minimum wage, disability insurance, and more. Our Annual Sowing Seeds for Justice Dinner is our major fundraiser for the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign!
The Assembly has passed the Bill consistently, but the powerful agricultural lobby has blocked the Bill from moving in the Senate. Governor David Paterson has made it clear that he supports the Farm Worker Fair Labor Practices Act, and that he will sign the bill if it is passed by the Legislature. That leaves the fate of the Bill in the hands of the NYS Senate, which has never brought the bill to a floor vote.The Justice for Farmworkers Campaign is making a fundamental request that the Senate vote on this bill before the end of 2009.
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Rural & Migrant Ministry's Youth Empowerment Program!
Our Youth Empowerment Program has several components that work with rural, poor, and migrant youth.
RMM is a unique organization that focuses on the leadership
Beginning in 1988 as an overnight summer camp for 100 children from rural and migrant communities, the YEP evolved to become a series of programs offered year-round. Its mission is to enable rural and migrant youth to confront their own experiences of prejudice and inequality through the positive development of leadership skills and the creation of a community of support. The YEP include:
Summer Day Camps in three communities in five rural counties. These camps provide a vital service to working families and offer many young people a first-time experience in personal enrichment and creativity. For many young people, these camps represent the first step in a long relationship with RMM and with each other, during which they are given the opportunity to develop skills and attitudes that will enable them to face and overcome barriers that confront them each day of their lives. The Day Camp is a leadership experience that gives children a taste of democracy in action and begins their journey to empowerment;
An Overnight Leadership Camp, focusing on the same skill-building and leadership development activities as the day camps, which now welcomes more than 100 campers, ages 8-18, and has become a remarkably diverse enterprise, with a population that is 40% Latino, 40% African-American, and 20% European-American;
The Youth Arts Group (YAG), a year-round leadership development program for a group of 20 or more culturally-diverse high-school students from six school districts in the Hudson Valley. As they describe in their own words, they are “determined to create change in our lives and communities. We are committed to educating and empowering ourselves and others, developing and practicing leadership skills, while acting as allies to each other and to those seeking social justice.” Meeting as a group one evening each week and involved in projects throughout other parts of each week, the members of YAG address theme issues chosen by them at the beginning of each year. This year the group has chosen the issues of farmworker justice, the creation of an alternative portrayal of youth in the media, and ensuring equal education for all.
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