Community Organizing Around Human Rights
We have chosen to advance systemic social change and organize for the long haul to end the school-to-prison pipeline and pushout in South LA and communities like it.
The cornerstone to this level of change is a parent-led movement with community-based social justice organizations that bring parents into the foreground of the public education debate. This is essential to making sure that the leadership of ending the school-to-prison pipeline is shared with those most impacted by an unequal education system that has spanned generations.
Since June 2005, we have combined our community organizing approach with a human rights framework. We use international human rights standards as the basis by which we analyze conditions in our schools and communities.
The definitions embodied in international human rights standards raise the bar of what we demand from our public education system and reflect more closely what our founding parents expect and deserve from schools:
- Black and Brown South LA children AND parents are treated with dignity and respect in the school climate and the educational process, and as a result are able to affirm their self-worth and inclusion in the school community (the right to dignity)
- South LA schools resist the impulse to push out and instead intentionally keep Black and Brown students in the educational environment, address root causes to their learning barriers, and prevent and repair any harm being done to them as a result of the school climate, so that they are able to pursue their opportunities to learn (the right to education)
- South LA Black and Brown parents participate and share in decision-making, monitor and hold schools accountable, and are able to communicate honestly, all without backlash to them or their children, so that they are fully included in the school community regardless of their circumstances (the right to participation)
The integration of human rights led to a clearer vision of the type of parent power CADRE is working towards – Black and Brown parents who are able to protect and promote the South LA community’s dignity, opportunity to learn, solidarity, and self-determination.
For more information about the human rights standards used in CADRE’s campaigns, click here.
To keep our eyes on the prize, everything we do falls under and is considered part of our Human Right to Education Campaign, our core program and overarching campaign. Under this umbrella, we have identified one long-term goal which we pursue in two to three-year phases and expect to be working towards for the foreseeable future until community conditions for South LA Black and Brown families are dramatically changed.