AP
Listserve Members:
A
voter recently asked me about my company, Educating for Justice. My
guess is that if one person wants to know what we do, there might be
others out there who are interested too. I think it's helpful to know what
a candidate does everyday to get a better understanding of who they are.
To give people an understanding about EFJ, I like to tell them that we are
similar to Amnesty International, only we focus much more heavily on
education. My wife Leslie and I are the Founding Directors of EFJ and as
such, we're really proud that we have been able to build EFJ from just an idea
and a passion for social justice into a viable and successful
business.
Below
is some more detailed information about the company. Please
feel free to email me with any questions or comments that you have.
I
look forward to seeing many of you at the Candidates' Forum tonight at
Mt. Carmel.
Peace,
Jim Keady
EDUCATING FOR JUSTICE
MISSION
Mission
Statement
Educating for Justice, Inc. (EFJ) is an Asbury Park-based
non-profit organization that develops, produces and distributes justice-oriented
programming and content to the educational marketplace. Through research, digital filmmaking,
grassroots educational events, and educational publishing, EFJ seeks to raise
awareness about issues of justice and spark efforts for social change.
HISTORY
Background on EFJ
EFJ
started out in June 2000 as the Olympic Living Wage Project. Our initial work was part of a broader
international campaign to bring awareness about the labor abuses of Olympic
apparel sponsors to athletes competing in the 2000 Sydney Games. As an
experiment, 2 U.S. Americans lived in Indonesia on the income level of local factory
workers and brought the truth of that reality to Sydney through a major media campaign focused
on these starvation wages paid to Nike and Adidas factory workers.
Current
staff members of EFJ, all four of whom are graduates of St.
Josephâs University in Philadelphia, helped to make the experiment a
reality. EFJ Founders, Leslie
Kretzu and Jim Keady lived for one month on $1.25/day in Tangerang, Indonesia while EFJ Creative Director
Mike Pierantozzi documented the solidarity experiment on digital video, and EFJ
Webmaster Jeff Lyons uploaded daily journals, photos, pricing research and news
articles to the site. The national
and international interest was far greater than we had imagined, and consumer
pressure was enough to make marginal changes at the factory
level.
Five
years later, Educating for Justice, Inc. has expanded into an international
nonprofit organization with the primary goal of educating high school and
college students about issues of global injustice by creating dynamic, cutting
edge resources for public, parochial, and private schools in the U.S. Our materials and events raise
questions, provide information, and push students to think critically about key
social, economic and political issues, with the hope that they reevaluate the
perspectives delivered to them by traditional sources - the mainstream media,
major political parties, and corporate America.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
To meet
our educational goals and provide our extensive grassroots network with the
resources necessary to promote social justice, Educating for Justice, Inc. now
includes six divisions:
EFJ
Traveling Classroom
EFJ
Films
EFJ
Publications
EFJ
Online Educational Resources
EFJ
Grassroots Activism
EFJ
Store
EFJ
TRAVELING CLASSROOM
EFJ
Traveling Classroom is the public lecture series division of EFJ, Inc. that
develops and presents educational multi-media events for high schools, colleges,
parishes, community groups and conferences (national and international). From October 2000 to date, EFJ founding
directors, James Keady and Leslie Kretzu, have conducted âTraveling Classroomâ
events across the United
States and internationally at more than 200
venues. They have also briefed
members of the US Congress and their staffs on Capitol Hill. Traveling classroom events are
structured to present information from the perspective of the most vulnerable
members of society, a perspective not often given consideration by students and
faculty alike. For example, one of
our current presentations, âBehind the Swoosh: Sweatshops & Social Justiceâ
looks at the issue of sweatshops from the perspective of Nike and Adidas factory
workers whom EFJ staff have personally interviewed. Each Traveling Classroom
event includes key information on the subject, social analysis, theological or
secular reflection and an action plan.
EFJ
FILMS
EFJ
Films, the filmmaking division of EFJ, Inc., produces and distributes original
short and feature-length documentary films. To date, EFJ Films has produced three
short educational films on the issue of sweatshops and currently is in
production on its first feature-length documentary film. These films not only educate EFJâs
target audiences, but show clearly how interested viewers can take effective
action on the injustice highlighted in the film. (ex. Promotion of basic rights
for sweatshop workers.) Beginning in late 2006, EFJ will also acquire and
distribute film projects by other independent filmmakers.
Our
current EFJ Film project is Sweat www.sweatthefilm.org
EFJ
PUBLICATIONS
EFJ
Publications, the publishing division for EFJ, Inc., creates and distributes
original content and materials including books, posters, artwork, articles,
pamphlets, and newsletters. In
addition, this division also acquires and distributes works by outside authors.
In conjunction with EFJ Films, EFJ Publications creates and distributes âTeacher
Workbooksâ to accompany short & feature-length films for classroom use. This division of EFJ will launch in
December 2006.
EFJ
ONLINE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
EFJ
Online, EFJâs Internet presence, provides free web-based educational resources
for teachers, students, and everyday individuals looking to learn more about
domestic and international justice issues. EFJ staff and volunteers are
currently building the resource Justice 101 - an online resource
of introductory social and economic justice issues
that will include teacher lesson plans, frequently asked
questions, compilations of books, and much more. These resources can be
tailored for classroom use.
EFJ
Online currently operates at www.educatingforjustice.org.
EFJ
GRASSROOTS ACTIVISM
EFJ
Grassroots Activism is our division of advocacy, where our constituencies â both
in the U.S. and in developing countries -
are linked together to work for change.
These campaigns have a two-tiered approach. First, we work to educate students,
faculty, and community members through our educational events, printed
materials, and films. Second, we
encourage action through focused works of solidarity by providing constituents
with short-term and long-term strategies to bring about the stated goals for a
particular campaign. Beyond the
work done on campaigns sponsored by EFJ, we relay information to our
constituents about work being done by our colleagues at other national and
international social justice advocacy organizations. Depending on the campaign goals,
activism can take the form of coordinated letter/email writing campaigns,
organized nonviolent demonstrations and vigils, follow-up community education,
shareholder actions, immersion trips, financial and technical assistance with
educating & organizing workers and more.
EFJ
STORE
EFJâs
Store is the place for EFJ supporters to purchase quality goods while supporting
businesses that treat workers with dignity and utilize environmentally
sustainable business practices. Guaranteed to be produced under fair working
conditions, items in EFJâs Store include EFJâs line of sweatshirts,
t-shirts, and a range of other âsweat-freeâ and âfair-tradeâ products.
