North American

American Friends Service Committee, Western Mass. Office/ National Office
Western Mass. AFSC focuses on peace education and social justice through work on nonviolence training, study courses and dialogues on economic justice, campaigns against U.S. military intervention, and education and action to combat racism, classism, and homophobia.

The Applied Research Center
ARC is a public policy, educational and research institute whose work emphasizes issues of race and social change.

ARISE for Social Justice
94 Rifle St., Springfield, MA 01105/ 413-734-4948/michaelannb@hotmail.com

BorderLinks
BorderLinks is a not-for-profit organization that conducts travel seminars focusing on the issues of Mexican border communities. People from the north and south come together to explore global issues in the stark reality of the border environment. We offer a firsthand experience with all it's complexities.

Bougton Place (Highland, NY)
150 Kisor Rd., Highland, NY 12528 / 914-691-7578 / clare@ulster.net
The principle value of Boughton Place is the sacredness of all and the need for communities to shape themselves so that persons are respected and the earth valued. Programs include conflict resolution, mediation, psychodrama workshops, community playback theatre, and study circles.

John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC)
Campbell Folk School is a totally non-competitive schools that serves the local and expended communities through year-round classes, concerts, and dances focusing on 1-2 week residential courses in crafts, folk music, folk dance, and folklore.

Camp Sister Spirit (Ovett, MI)
A folk school whose mission is to eradicate hatred and differences through education and interaction with our neighbors. Our aim is to build a self-supporting structure to identify and create opportunities for meaningful and situation-specific social justice, and to put genuine social change within the reach of every member of the community.

Casa Latina (Northampton, MA)
140 Pine St., Florence, MA 01062/ 413-586-1569

Catalyst Centre (Toronto, ON)
The Catalyst Centre celebrates and promotes innovative learning, popular education, research and community development to advance positive social change

Center for Popular Economics (Amherst, MA)
PO Box 785, Amherst, MA 01004/413-545-0743/cpe@acad.umass.edu
CPE is a collective of political economists whose goal is to put useful tools in the hands of people fighting for social change. Through workshops and summer Institutes, CPE aims to demystify economics and give social change advocates a framework for understanding the economy which provides alternatives to the usual mainstream and conservative analyses and "facts."

Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research (Berkeley, CA)
CPEPR's mission is to promote and support popular education and participatory research in order to strengthen the participation of everyday people--especially the poor, youth, immigrants, and people of color--in efforts for social justice.

Cobscook Community Learning Center (Lubec, ME)
The CCLC's mission is to enrich the lives of local community members through grassroots collaboration using the arts, the rich social fabric and the natural surroundings as the medium.

Community Service, Inc.
CSI is a nonprofit educational organization where ideas and practices concerning community are developed, evaluated, and shared. Locally and regionally, our work involves collaborative community building projects as well as classes, workshops, and conferences.

El Barrio Popular Education Program (New York, NY)
EBPEP is a community-based, not-for-profit organization that provides adult education and workforce development programs for New York City's Latino community. Programs include Adult Basic Education, English as a Second Language, video,computer training, and community involvement.

Escuela Popular Norteña (Valdez, NM)
Box Y, Valdez, NM 87580/ 505-776-8432/ ojota2000@hotmail.com
Escuela Popular Norteña is a folk school for radical movement and political education against cultural, racial, sexual, and class oppression. Our focus in on Latino-Chicano communities. In our workshops, we aim to learn from each other our different strategies of resistance to oppression and to find ways to support each other.

Freire Center (Minneapolis, MN)
The Freire Center does popular education workshops, leadership development, and action research for liberation and social change.

Green Mountain Popular Education Project (Greensboro, VT)
91 W. Wheelock Rd., Greensboro, VT 05842/ 802-533-2296/ wmtnfarm@plainfield.bypass.com
GMPEP works with individuals and community groups who are struggling against oppression, and supporting efforts to take collective action to shape out destinies. It seeks to create educational experiences that empower people to take democratic leadership towards fundamental social change.

Headlines Theatre (Vancouver, BC))
The Headlines Theatre Company produces community specific, issue-oriented theatre. While we call our community work THEATRE FOR LIVING, it is based on Brazilian Director Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.

Highlander Research and Education Center (New Market, TN)
does highlander link work??
The Highlander Center aims to overcome poverty, bigotry and economic injustice in Appalachia and the South. We believe that true social change goes beyond dealing with the symptoms of inequality and gets to root causes and building grassroots movement for change led by those most affected by oppression.

Hindman Settlement School (Hindman, KY)
Box 844, Hindman, KY 41822 / 606-785-5475 / hss@tgtel.com
Hindman's mission is to provide education opportunities for the children of the local community, keep them mindful of their heritage, and to provide community service activities through providing and supplement services that are not being provided by the public schools and other agencies.

Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities (Galena, OH)
PO Box 416, Galena, OH 43021 /. 614-965-5118 / Djehnsen@infinet.com
The aim of IHRR is to provide short and long term residential leadership education programs; publish books and information and participate in ongoing development of social movements that promote adult leadership education for nonviolent conflict resolution and democratic social change.

Institute for Popular Education, Brecht Forum (New York, NY)
The program uses popular education methods in classes and workshops designed to provide activists with basic analytical tools, help them examine organizing strategies in a larger context, build leadership skills, deepen awareness of the issues affecting New Yorkers on a daily basis, and increase their involvement in the political life of the city. [On main page, clik "About Us" to see info on this program.]

Lindeman Center (Chicago, IL)
The Lindeman Center is a resource-sharing place, a gathering place for educator/activists to combine their skills, knowledge and experience in search of solutions, a Center for problem-posing and strategy-building with organizations and groups in Chicago committed to collective and democratically-determined action.

Mixed Company (Toronto, ON)
Mixed Company is a theatrical company that specializes in "Forum Theatre" techniques. We offer workshops and services to corporations, community organizations and educational institutions as well as individuals and groups.

National Coalition of Alternative and Community Schools
Our mission is to unite and organize a grassroots movement of learners and learning communities dedicated to participant control, liberation from all forms of oppression, and the pursuit of freedom.

Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed (Omaha, NE)
PTO's mission is to challenge oppressive systems by promoting critical thinking and social justice. We organize an annual meeting that focuses on the work of liberatory educators, activists, and artists; and community organizers. Our work is based on the ideologies and works of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal.

Praxis/Economic Justice Project (Chicago, IL)
The Praxis/Economic Justice program seeks to address economic justice through the process of education, action, and reflection. The goal of the program is to develop leadership skills through long and short-term workshops that will equip participants to analyze their reality and organize and to take meaningful action for economic justice.

Radical Education Community
REC was created to foster a more unified community within the southern peace movement --particularly Texas -- and to encourage better understanding of the different methods of activism that make up any major social movement.

Project South (Atlanta, GA)
Project South is a broad-based community-driven membership organization that develops and conducts popular political and economic education and action research for organizing and liberation. We develop indigenous popular educators and movement leaders from grassroots and scholar-activist backgrounds, bringing them together on the basis of equality to engage in building a bottom-up movement for social and economic justice.

Self Education Foundation (Philadelphia, PA)
SEF is a nonprofit organization led by young women committed to supporting individual and community empowerment through self-education. To this end we utilize the tools of grantmaking, community organizing and outreach. We believe that self-education is the practice of freedom.

Urban Action School (Seattle, WA)
The Urban Action School: starts with the real interests and experiences of participants; stimulates conversations between people who don't normally get together; offers informal, participatory, and accessible education in leadership, social justice, economics, history, and organizing; uses a liberating theory of race, class, gender, and authority; works to change power relationships in society; inspires a sense of hope and creates opportunities for action.

 

International

Association for World Education (based in Viby, Denmark)
Valorevej 59, DK -- 4130, Viby, Denmark / 45 46 19 48 39
AWE is an international organization of individuals and institutions who believe that learning about ourselves and our communities is most effective and satisfying when education reflects an awareness of our intimate relationship to the world as a whole. AWE's strategy promotes intercommunication and interaction among individuals and institutions which are working to comprehend and to spread awareness of the global aspects of education and stress the special contribution of a voluntary, people's organization in working towards their goals.

Foreningen for Folkehøjskoler
(The Association of Danish Folk High Schools, Copenhagen, Denmark)
Nytorv 7, 1450 Kobenhavn K, Denmark / 33 13 98 22 / ffd@grundtvig.dk

International Council for Adult Education (based in Toronto, ON)
ICAE is a global partnership of adult learners and adult educators and their organizations, and others who promote the use of adult learning as a tool for informed participation of people and sustainable development. In the emergence of knowledge-society the ICAE promotes lifelong learning as a necessary component for people to contribute creatively to their communities and live in independent and democratic societies. ICAE is comprised of the following regional councils --

Arab Network for Literacy and Adult Education
Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education
European Association for the Education of Adults
Caribbean Regional Council for Adult Education
Consejo de Educación de Adultos de America Latina
North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education
Pan African Association for Literacy and Adult Education


International People's College (Helsingor, Denmark)
IPC's aim is to create a meeting place for people with different cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds. IPC tries to foster fellowship, consideration of others, and a spirit of global citizenship, because they believe that better understanding among people leads to peace among nations. IPC offers liberal education in a residential setting where cross-disciplinary and creative subjects are offered by an international staff. The school's working language is English and the students come from all over the world.

Popular Education for People's Empowerment (PEPE, Quezon City, Philippines)
PEPE is dedicated to the promotion of "pop-ed" theories and practices as tools towards people's empowerment. As part of its commitment to human development, PEPE provides "pop-Ed" services to a diverse set of people: urban poor, peasants, fisherfolk, professionals, women, indigenous peoples, etc. Its services are focused on enhancing these sectors' capacities, knowledge, skills, and attitudes as community educators.

Viitakivi International Center (Hauho, Finland)
An international study center for adults, meeting place for people of many cultures, religions, and ideologies, aiming to give personal relevance to contemporary issues and promoting personal development through English and Finnish.

 

some other organizational directories

Catalyst Centre Popular Education Mapping Project
(with a particular emphasis on Canadian organizations)

Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research Site List

Pop Ed Toolkit Organizational Links

Study Centers and Progressive Organizations
(on main page, click "Links")

 

ORGANIZATIONS AND NETWORKS

cspicer@admin.umass.edu 413-585-8755