SRF News

SRF just published its Fall 2009 Newsletter. Click on the link below to read stories about Cancer Prevention in Denver, CO;  Acceso Hispano’s new Online Community Service Directory; Media and the Politics of Culture; and 2Cooltura Gang Prevention Campaign.

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In commemoration of our 30 years of service informing, connecting and empowering communities, SRF has just published a 30^th Anniversary Annual Report.

We have come a long way since our founding in 1979; what began as a dream in New Mexico is now an international reality with headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C.   We started out using radio and film to communicate social justice ideas; we now use television, the Internet, and mobile text messaging to mobilize communities.

In 2009, we will continue to act as an information broker between the government, the non-profit sector, and the communities that they serve, with a consistent focus on results and impact.  We have built a solid foundation for our next 30 years of service, and look forward to working with our many partners, donors, and community members to continue making our mission a reality.

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According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) an estimated 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the United States each year. Victims are often lured into trafficking networks through false promises of good working conditions and high pay as domestic workers, factory and farm workers, nannies, waitresses, sales clerks, or models. Once in this country, many suffer extreme physical and mental abuse, including rape, sexual exploitation, torture, beatings, starvation, death threats, and threats to family members. It is believed that most victims who are trafficked are isolated and remain undetected by the public because 1) the strategies used by the perpetrators isolate victims and prevent them from coming forward, and 2) the public and the victim service providers have only recently become aware of this issue and may not be familiar with how to recognize or respond to trafficking victims.

To help stem human trafficking in the US, the Self Reliance Foundation is working with its media partner Hispanic Communications Network to design a Spanish-language public awareness campaign with support from the US Department of Justice – Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

This high-impact multimedia campaign is launching in early November 2009. The campaign will pilot in the Washington, DC metro area. Produced in Spanish, this effort will support local human trafficking programs and services, and also help to increase detection and reporting of cases of human trafficking among the local Spanish-speaking population.

To complement the media campaign, SRF will collaborate with the Hispanic-serving community and faith-based partners to disseminate the campaign’s public education materials, and implement interpersonal grassroots outreach efforts to engage “Good Samaritan” members of the greater Hispanic community in the campaign. Our strategy two-pronged strategy is designed to increase the number of community members who understand how to identify human trafficking victims, are aware of the purpose and services of the local service providers, and ultimately are willing to work with the these groups to identify and also rescue and assist human trafficking victims.

To learn more about human trafficking please visit the US Department of Justice’s Online Description.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — From March 26 to 29, 2009, the Self Reliance Foundation hosted the conference: “Expanding Informal Science Education to Latinos” in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town.

The conference brought over 100 representatives from informal science institutions and science research organizations together with Hispanic organizations, media, and educational projects to review current Informal Science Education (ISE) resources, identify needs and gaps, learn about best practices in designing culturally effective programs and resources, and develop new strategies and resources to enrich the informal science learning environment for Latinos. The conference built on existing project partnerships Self Reliance Foundation has developed through its NSF-funded Celebra la Ciencia and Conciencia/Hispanic Science Newswire projects, and sought to further expand initiatives to involve new organizations.

“We know from research that informal science education – science outside the classroom – provides powerful formative experiences that have inspired many to become scientists”, explains Bob Russell, PhD, project director of Celebra la Ciencia. “In many ways, our communities are ’science rich’ – there are thousands of science museums, zoos, community and youth organizations, and science programs across the country. Media – television, radio, and the Internet – pervade our culture in Spanish and English. Our task at this meeting was to harness these resources more effectively.”

“Our challenge was to share what we have and work together to create new opportunities for Latinos to get involved in science”, concludes Russell.

The Conference hosted three keynote sessions designed to help science educators, science researchers, and others in the Hispanic Informal Science marketplace address how to develop new strategies and resources to enrich the informal science learning environment for Latinos.  Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops, including sessions led by Marisol Gamboa, Senior Software Engineer for Harris IT Consulting, Inc; Dr. Inés Cifuentes, a volcanologist and science educator; Fred Mondragón, New Mexico’s Cabinet Secretary of Economic Development; that addressed different topics and offered insights as to better engage Hispanic adults and families in the sciences.

Well-known science institutions and museums such as the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, National Science Foundation (NSF), San Diego Natural History Museum, National Children’s Museum, Institute for Learning Innovation, Space Science Institute, Exploratory Science Museum – UNICAMP, Illinois Institute of Technology, Boys and Girls Club, Latino Organizations such as the Society for the Advancement of Native Americans and Chicanos in Science, the ASPIRA Association, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers among many others participated in the conference’s educational sessions.

According to Roberto Salazar, President of SRF, the conference was a tremendous success. “We had representatives from government, museums, the non-profit sector, the media, and academia all represented at the conference, sharing their expertise. It was clear to us all that the more we work together, the better – and the more effective – our work becomes.”

The conference was made possible thanks to the generous support of the National Science Foundation.

View the conference program:  Expanding Informal Science Education for Latinos– Conference Program