The Arts and Culture
1.      Dance Alive
2.      Community Mosaic in Troy Gardens
3.      Hmong cultural programming
4.      Northside Artists Group
5.      Cultural Hispanic House
6.      Youth and art—making the arts accessible to children, especially disadvantaged youth
7.      Art as a tool to decrease stigma against the mentally ill-- STOP AND GO organization
8.      City repair project—using art to build community
9.      Room of One’s Own book Club

Education
10. Nuestro Mundo Community School
11. Build your own computer workshops
12. Culture camp for adopted African American children
13. Tours of Historically Black Colleges for Teens
14. Community Computer Labs—Educating Baby Boomers
15. African American Parents Group at Franklin school (and expanding to other schools)
16. Guide to resources in the Madison School District for African American parents
17. Community book donations program
 
Health, Nutrition, and the Environment
18. Community Gardens across Madison
19. Northside Farmers Market/ Grocery Store
20. Triangle food bank
21. Project REAP local food initiative
22. Friends of Monona Bay
23. Weed Warriors
24. Yahara River Clean Up
25. Free holistic health care clinic
26. His Rose Ministries
27. Involving Latinos in Community Gardens
28. Access to Healthcare for low income children and families
29. Southside Community Gardens
30.  Edible landscapes
31.  support group for people with social phobias

Poverty and Prisons
32. Allied Drive organizing
33. Participatory Action Research with the South Metropolitan Planning Council
34. Voices Beyond Bars
35. Tenant Advocacy Group (TAG)
36. One Love
37. Money, Education, and Prisons/ Project Re-entry
38. Toiletry Items Drive for local food drives
39. Alternative to Incarceration for Youth (ROYO—Rescuing of Young Offenders)
40. Directory/ Map of community resources for the homeless community
41. Alliance for the Disadvantaged
42. LOT Met Tank (homelessness organizing led by homeless and poor people)
43. RAFT (Responsible Adults Moving Forward Together)
44. A women’s shelter
45. Youth Court
46. Solomon Enterprises

Family and Youth
47. Helping Teens Affected by Prostitution and Abuse
48. Family and Women’s Support
49. Women in Family Court Support Group
50. Within Reach, a mom’s support group
51. Moms’ Social Action Group
52. Latina Women’s Support Group
53.  Support for grandparents raising grandchildren
54.  Mended Little Latino Hearts

The Grassroots Leadership College (GLC) is perhaps best described by Rita, one of our graduates as “the catalyst I needed to get going.”  The logo is aptly, a watering can, as the GLC waters the community with trainings and support, growing grassroots leaders.  We accomplish this by offering the following programs.

1. Community Organizing Semester:  A weekly program that matches developing leaders with coaches for fifteen weeks.  Each class group learns the basics of community organizing, including: avoiding burnout, addressing oppression, fundraising, facilitating, and more.  Through this program, we’ve been able to support more than 100 community projects since 2003, including: revitalizing more than a dozen neighborhood associations, a program to teach women how to rebuild computers, efforts to expand Latino participation in community gardens, and organizing around homelessness through the Dialogues on Homelessness and other programs.
2. Workshops:  GLC workshops cover a wide array of topics of interest to organizers and activists.  We cover topics such as understanding yourself as a leader, working with media, civil disobedience, building inclusive organizations, and more.
3. Community Forums:  These day long events give the community the opportunity to frame the learning.  Together, participants create and lead up to 15 different sessions, teaching each other through their lived experiences.
4. Partnerships in the Community:  We work with many organizations in the Madison area, providing workshops and direct mentoring and facilitating support, partnering on projects of shared interest, and being a resource with skills and connections to share.
5. Support of Volunteers as Community Leaders:  The GLC works with 60+ volunteers annually.  These are people in job training programs, students, retirees, and professionals.  They are the heart of making our work happen.

Why the GLC?

In this time in which funders are looking for groups that collaborate with others, we build thriving, productive collaborations.  

2004 graduate Tamra explains it well.  “The very first day I couldn’t put together, I want a garden in the middle of the city to I want to save people from killing themselves, but as I sat and listened and we started to talk to each other, we started talking about things, we started getting things together.  I thought oh my god, it’s all the same point.  Every single one of us wants something different. It’s all about the same thing healthy families, healthy lives, healthy communities.  It all comes in the same way.”

The GLC model of bringing people together across issues and experiences has allowed us to build communities across race, age, gender, ability, class, and many other boundaries, to provide trainings to more 500 people through our individually focused programs and thousands more through our organizational support and community involvement.  The GLC is, in short, the best “bang for the buck” for community change.

What are the Graduates Doing Now?

Many of the projects our graduates took on as developing leaders are carrying on.  Many have taken on new projects, and have become recognized as leaders in the community. 

• Tamra opened the 1st Oxford House for women in Wisconsin and is on her way to opening a second, helping women get back on their feet after getting out of prison.
• Sandra will be accepting the Hispanic Woman of the Year award from UMOS Inc. on October 15th
• Joe received recognition as an outstanding mentor from 100 Black Men
• Cynthia was the recipient of one of the UW Madison’s Outstanding Women of Color awards
• Bert,  Leslie, and Aaron are all serving on city committees, Barbara is continuing to serve on the county board, and many others have taken roles on committees, boards, and staffs of many of Dane County’s non-profits and community organizations

Grassroots Leadership College graduates are changing the community for the better through their actions every day. 

Neighborhood Organizing
55. Lakeview Hills Neighborhood Association
56. Mayfair Park Neighborhood Association
57. Eken Park Neighborhood newsletter
58. Uplands Neighborhood Association (Sun Prairie)
59. Belle Isle Neighborhood Association (Monona)
60. Darbo-Worthington Neighborhood Association
61. Eastmorland Neighborhood Plan
62. Schenks Corner Project Management Team
63. Cross-cultural residents picnic
64. Increased Community Center Hours in the Darbo-Worthington Area
65. Neighbor to Neighbor Progressive Network
66. “The MIC” multi-interest club for teens in the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood
67. Emerson East Neighborhood Association
68. Berkeley Oaks Neighborhood Association
69. Orton Park Auction
70. Midvale School/ Community Connections
71. Troy Gardens Neighborhood Association
72.  Madison organizations database
73. Decreasing pesticide use on the Northside
74.  Eastside dog park creation
75. Monona Bay Neighborhood Association
76. Neighborhood choir
77.  Madison Hours local currency
78. Engaging fraternities and sororities in the community
79. bike path safety
80.  Burke Heights Neighborhood Association

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
81.  Know Your Rights workshop
82.  Improved interpretation in hospitals
83. Engaging Latino volunteers
84.  water pumps in Africa