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Hometown Heroes, Inc. serves as the umbrella organization for camping programming serving children facing extreme trauma. Camp Hometown Heroes welcomes children, ages 7-17, who embody the statement “Freedom is not free.” They have made the ultimate sacrifice of losing a loved one who has served in the armed forces and died fighting in combat. Serving children from all over the country, including Hawaii and Alaska, at a vast camp location in Campbellsport, WI (known as Turning Rivers), the campers are taken through a journey of healing through play, therapy and bonding. Hometown Heroes, Inc. has recently expanded its programming to serve children who have an incarcerated parent in the Wisconsin Criminal System, and through trauma-based and art therapy called Camp Reunite.

Our mission is to provide the resources necessary to bring about a change where children and young people do not need have to take to the streets for survival or refuge, but identify and define their sense of belonging in their families and communities. It is characterized by our objectives: Wherever possible to mediate the reunification of, and re- establishment of the bonding between, the child and the family. Where not possible, we identify suitable alternative based care, primarily foster care. To enable the growth of children and young people living on the street into responsible citizens with genuine concerns for the welfare of other fellow human beings and the development of society in which they live; To provide interventions for change in the child's attitude, values, and outlook in life, from a hostile, aggressive, fearful, distrustful,insecure and exploited child to one conscious of the value of the dignity of the human person living in society with freedom-in-responsibility

NCJW|LA is a section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action. Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children, and families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms. NCJW|LA serves more than 12,000 individuals through our Community Mental Health and Supportive Services, Scholarships, Talkline, Youth Educational Programs and Services, Back 2 School Store, intern training programs and our clothing assistance projects. NCJW|LA social justice programs provide education and legislative advocacy on issues that affect and impact women, children, and families in the areas of children’s rights, economic justice, healthcare, human trafficking, immigration reform, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender-related violence.

The Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights promotes the physical rehabilitation, mental well-being and social reintegration of victims and their family members by providing them with free-of-charge medical treatment, psycho-therapeutic support and socio-legal counseling. In addition, we seek to protect survivors of past human rights abuses and prevent future attacks of violence through political advocacy, human rights education, and public awareness-raising programs. The core values guiding our work are expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We believe in the inherent dignity of the human person and seek to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms laid out in the Universal Declaration. We help survivors of human rights abuses regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or spiritual leanings. In 2005, we started our activities in the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, where we opened the first rehabilitation clinic for victims of torture in Iraq. Today we have a total of nine clinics throughout Kurdistan-Iraq where more than 19,000 traumatized men, women and children have received our services. Each year, The Jiyan Foundation assists more than 6,000 victims of human rights violations. On average 50% of those who seek our help are female adults, while 30% are children and adolescents.

We strive to build & strengthen the capacity of the communities and empower the people particularly poor, marginalized and excluded to address their development needs through integration and coordination at local, provincial and national level. Objectives: 1. Conflict Resolution and Promotion of Peace & tolerance in the society 2. Empower deprived segments of society Women, Minorities, Children, Laborer and peasants to secure their basic rights. 3. To advocate for provision/Improvement of Education, Health, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. 4. To work for promotion of human rights specifically of women, minorities, labor and peasants rights 5. To promote the democratic values and political education and struggle for Empowered Local Governments 6. To work for Climate Resilient society Approach: A participatory approach is followed towards socio- economic and political development of communities. Local knowledge and wisdom is on priority basis and sense of ownership is promoted among the target communities. STRATEGIES: SDA has implemented integrated strategy for the development and empowerment of deprived communities. Following strategies have been adopted for the intervening: Committees of SDA on Thematic Areas to analyze the issues, plan and implement program. Social Mobilization Capacity building Technical and financial support Research and knowledge building Advocacy and Networking Targeting poor and most deprived communities Focusing specially on women, children and farmer's development and empowerment Networking and Cooperation Strengthening local groups and other CSOs through providing capacity building opportunities VALUES: Following values are kept as belief at the centre in all our decisions and functions: Religious and cultural freedom Equal Learning's opportunities for all Peace, tolerance and democracy Gender equality and equity Participatory decision making Transparency and accountability Thematic Focus: Our all programs are scrutinized with the lens of Gender and environment which are the cross cutting theme in all the activities. Organization works in the following thematic area; 1. Democracy, Governance & Social Services 2. Human Rights 3. Peace & Tolerance 4. Environment Protection

A John Carroll education is distinguished by respect and care for the whole person (cura personalis), innovative teaching, and integrated learning throughout the entire student experience. A commitment to excellence and academic rigor animates JCU's way of proceeding - graduating individuals of intellect and character who lead and serve by engaging the world. John Carroll University, founded in 1886, is a private, coeducational, Catholic, and Jesuit university. It provides programs in the liberal arts, sciences, education, and business at the undergraduate level, and in selected areas at the master's level. The University also offers its facilities and personnel to the Greater Cleveland community. As a university, John Carroll is committed to the transmission and enrichment of the treasury of human knowledge with the autonomy and freedom appropriate to a university. As a Catholic university, it is further committed to seek and synthesize all knowledge, including the wisdom of Christian revelation. In the pursuit of this integration of knowledge, the University community is enriched by scholarship representing the pluralistic society in which we live. All can participate freely in the intellectual, moral, and spiritual dialog necessary to this pursuit. Within this dialog, in which theological and philosophical questions play a crucial role, students have the opportunity to develop, synthesize, and live a value system based on respect for and critical evaluation of facts; on intellectual, moral, and spiritual principles which enable them to cope with new problems; and on the sensitivity and judgment that prepare them to engage in responsible social action. In a Jesuit university, the presence of Jesuits and colleagues who are inspired by the vision of Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus in 1540, is of paramount importance. This vision, which reflects the value system of the Gospels, is expressed in the Spiritual Exercises, the source of Jesuit life and mission. To education the Jesuit spirit brings a rationality appropriately balanced by human affection, an esteem for the individual as a unique person, training in discerning choice, openness to change, and a quest for God's greater glory in the use of this world's goods. Commitment to the values that inspired the Spiritual Exercises promotes justice by affirming the equal dignity of all persons and seeks balance between reliance on divine assistance and natural capacities. The effort to combine faith and culture takes on different forms at different times in Jesuit colleges and universities. Innovation, experiment, and training for social leadership are essential to the Jesuit tradition. At the same time, John Carroll University welcomes students and faculty from different religious backgrounds and philosophies. Dedicated to the total development of the human, the University offers an environment in which every student, faculty, and staff person may feel welcomed. Within this environment there is concern for the human and spiritual developmental needs of the students and a deep respect for the freedom and dignity of the human person. A faculty not only professionally qualified, but also student oriented, considers excellence in interpersonal relationships as well as academic achievement among its primary goals. The University places primary emphasis on instructional excellence. It recognizes the importance of research in teaching as well as in the development of the teacher. In keeping with its mission, the University especially encourages research that assists the various disciplines in offering solutions to the problems of faith in the modern world, social inequities, and human needs. The commitment to excellence at John Carroll University does not imply limiting admissions to the extremely talented student only. Admission is open to all students who desire and have the potential to profit from an education suited to the student's needs as a person and talents as a member of society. The educational experience at John Carroll University provides opportunities for the students to develop as total human persons. They should be well grounded in liberalizing, humanizing arts and sciences; proficient in the skills that lead to clear, persuasive expression; trained in the intellectual discipline necessary to pursue a subject in depth; aware of the interrelationship of all knowledge and the need for integration and synthesis; able to make a commitment to a tested scale of values and to demonstrate the self-discipline necessary to live by those values; alert to learning as a life-long process; open to change as they mature; respectful of their own culture and that of others; aware of the interdependence of all humanity; and sensitive to the need for social justice in response to current social pressures and problems. Our partner in Honduras is Sociedad Amigos de Los Ninos, whose mission is to: Improve the quality of lives of children, adolescents, mothers, families and communities according to their specific needs, implementing programs that provide protection, education, health, training, financing, spiritual orientation, and housing, involving them in achieving their own development. Enable our supporters and volunteers to join this labor of love where they have the opportunity to fulfill their own dreams in favor of the less fortunate.

Melel Xojobal is a children's rights organization based in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Our mission is to promote and defend the rights of indigenous children and young people through participatory educational programs that improve their quality of life. At Melel Xojobal we work in a participatory manner to promote the strengthening of indigenous cultural identity, to defend human rights, to strengthen personal and cultural dignity, to ensure that justice and liberty are respected, and that the participation of all is ensured regardless of race, gender, creed, religious affiliation or ideology. We believe that education is a fundamental means by which people exercise self-determination and become the authors of their own history. Melel Xojobal's specific objectives are: 1. To implement participatory educational programmes with indigenous girls, boys, and young people to promote and defend their rights to health, education, protection from mistreatment, to regulated conditions of work, association and expression. 2. To generate through ongoing research a better understanding of child welfare, human rights and education in an urban context. 3. To inform and educate the Mexican public about the human rights of indigenous girls, boys, and young people of Chiapas. 4. To exchange and share ideas and experiences from a human rights perspective which relate to indigenous infant, childhood, and adolescent education among organizations on a national and international level. All of our work is guided by the aim of protecting and promoting five human rights established by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Rights to health, to education, to protection against all forms of mistreatment, to work, and to freedom of expression and association). Our work responds to the situation of indigenous peoples in Mexico, who account for around 10% of the population, and continue to live in conditions that marginalise them socially, economically and politically and which push them to the edge of society. To provide an indication of the need for our work: according to government statistices, in the city we work in, in 2010 61% of the population had no formal right to medical services; 24% of the population aged 3-18 did not attend school. In 2010 we formally counted 2,481 child workers in the city. In 2005 in Chiapas as a whole, 71% of the population under 14 lived in municipalities classified as being at high or extreme risk of malnutrition; in some municipalities infant mortality rates 75 in a 1000, on a par with several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The mission of Streetaware Association is to develop social solidarity and responsibility. Streetaware's objectives are: 1. Social and economic development of the local, regional and national community; 2. Developing organizations through training sessions and motivational activities for personnel; 3. Involving the business environment in improving the quality of life in communities they are part of and where they do their activity; 4. Providing counseling for public and private institutions in the field of human resources, talent and organizational development, management, projects' elaboration and implementation, professional ethics, social responsibility etc.; 5. Initiating and developing programs in the field of social protection and economic development meant to support communities in achieving the objectives set in the social and economic development strategies; 6. Developing the human resources in Romania; 7. Developing social and communitarian services; 8. Promoting democratic values, individual rights and freedom, ethnic and cultural diversity, social justice and equal chances; 9. Initiating, promoting, and implementing measures to protect human rights, according to the national and international laws; 10. Initiating, promoting and implementing measures to promote children's rights, according to the national and international laws; 11. Initiating, promoting and implementing measures to protect special rights for women, according to the national and international laws; 12. Research, lobby and advocacy activities in the field of human rights, children's special rights, women's special rights, rights of persons in disadvantage situation, eradication of discrimination; 13. Developing collaboration between institutions to protect human rights; 14. Assisting and protecting the interests of persons in need; 15. Increasing awareness on psychological, social and juridical phenomena; 16. Promoting and developing scientific cooperation in social and human sciences; 17. Promoting sustainable development; 18. Initiating, promoting and implementing measures of sustainable development; 19. Developing programs in the purpose of increasing the degree of responsibility towards environmental problems; 20. Training activities and activities of developing in arts, culture, and history; 21. Supporting activities of the formal and non-formal education; 22. Providing information and counseling services; 23. Providing mediation services on the domestic and international labor market. 24. Providing training services for different categories of professionals: teachers, managers, entrepreneurs, specialists in the social, psychological and educational field, specialists in the judicial and economical field etc.; 25. Providing consultancy services in business; 26. Providing consultancy for start-ups; 27. Providing mentoring and coaching; 28. Developing personal and professional competences for different categories of professionals.

Our mission is to provide outstanding education and leadership opportunities to women and youth. Leymah Gbowee is best known as the extraordinary woman who launched a powerful movement of thousands of women-from 16 different ethnic groups, across religious divides-to end Liberia's bloody civil war. Back in 1999, when the country, after a brief period of calm, was thrown once again into chaos, when women and children faced unprecedented levels of cruelty and displacement, when a quarter of a million people died and many more fled, and when the economic, political and educational systems threatened to completely collapse, the network of Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace took matters into their own hands. Boldly, the women marched in the streets; clamored for the deployment of foreign peacekeepers; demanded a ceasefire; spoke passionately in public forums; held pray-ins, sit-ins and a sex strike; demanded the resumption of peace talks when they stalled; and blockaded the peace talks with their bodies, forcing warlords to negotiate. With those actions, the women achieved the impossible without a single shot. They ended Liberia's civil war, deposing the nation's notorious leader Charles Taylor, ushering in a hopeful new period of democratic self-governance, and paving the way for the election of Liberia-and Africa's-first female president. But that was not the end of the story; in fact, it was the beginning. As history attests, peace is not a moment; it is a process. Building a lasting peace demands recognizing the importance of the empowerment and participation of women; that, in turn, demands ensuring that women and girls have access to education for life and leadership. It has been and remains the dream of Leymah Gbowee- awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in ending Liberia's civil war-to see women and girls empowered in Liberia, throughout West Africa, and worldwide to realize their own dreams and work confidently towards humanity's shared dream of peace and security. She believes that journey to sustainable peace must begin with girls' education. A major step towards achieving that goal came in 2012 when Gbowee founded the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa in Liberia. With offices in the capital city, Monrovia, GPFA is Liberia's leading grassroots, community-based organization dedicated to building sustainable peace in that country and throughout West Africa. It is focused on girls' education, women's empowerment, sustaining the peace, and ensuring security that goes beyond freedom from violence and war to encompass all aspects of human security-for food, health, environmental, personal, political and community security. In the short years since Leymah Gbowee founded the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa in Liberia, we have seen how eager Liberia's girls are to take advantage of the opportunity to follow their own dreams and help to make the dreams of their families and their communities come true. Today, GPFA is the leading grassroots, community-based organization in Liberia dedicated to building sustainable peace, increasing access to education for women and girls and supporting their full and active participation in the economic, social and political life of the country. GPFA achieves its goals through a comprehensive program of scholarships, mentoring, internships, leadership development and community-building activities.

Mavi Kalem was formed at the aftermath of the 1999 earthquake, and founded in 2000, to respond the needs of the earthquake affected and migrated communities in particular of the disadvantageous groups of women and children in health and education. Since then, it has been implementing projects mainly assisting women and children since its establishment. Projects involving the empowerment, skill development, health services and information sharing have been implemented throughout 2000-2002 in Düzce area, mainly assisting women and children after the earthquake. Since 2002, Mavi Kalem has been implementing projects and activities concerning; educational support, awareness raising on health standards, awareness raising on domestic violence, psychological support, consultancy on health and legal issues for both local and migrated women and children in Fener/ Balat district in Fatih, Istanbul, addressing the needs of children, women and girls of the local community migrated from all regions of Turkey and since 2014 the Syrian children and women in Fener-Balat were included in its beneficiary group. Activities such as Turkish language courses, socialization activities with local population, help in admissions to schools and other official and administrative actions, and psychological support were provided to Syrian children and women. Mavi Kalem has worked toward the Syrian refugee influx related issues since 2011, by conducting needs assessments and gap analysis in Hatay, Gaziantep and Sanliurfa without-camp populations. Also on the national and international level; women' rights and health rights, children's rights, wide spreading of minimum standards in humanitarian aid, youth exchange programs are included in Mavi Kalem's actions. Dissemination and advocacy for humanitarian assistance standards and principles in disasters, emergencies and migration situations is one of Mavi Kalem's work areas. Since 2001 it has been part of Sphere Project, since 2009 INEE Workgroups and for 2 years now part of CHS Alliance. MAVİ KALEM has held the adaptation of Sphere handbook in Turkish successfully and been in cooperation with Ministry of Health, TRC, municipality health departments for its wide spreading, and implementing training programs. Similarly INEE and CHS basic humanitarian aid principal books have been adapted to Turkish and disseminated at national level by Mavi Kalem. It is one of the founding members of SITAP (Civil Society Disaster Platform, national). Mavi Kalem has organized Women in Disasters and Emergencies Workshop hosting women experts, academics, experienced NGO field workers from humanitarian organizations, NGOs, and women right based organizations in 2016. Gender specific issues, needs, and rights in emergency settings were discussed; field experiences and suggestions for improvement were exchanged toward strengthening and mainstreaming the gender perspective in disaster and emergency response. Mavi Kalem, has also delivered its services and expertise to disaster and emergency or poverty affected locations other than its primary implementation area through partnership with other local organizations, in other districts of Istanbul and other provinces such as during the Van earthquake response. Overall organizational strength and capacity lies within the Mavi Kalem's 17 years of implementation experience with focus on public health and education, disaster, emergency and migration specialization, advocacy of women and girls health rights, mainstreaming gender equality perspective in its implementation, developing and designing projects and programs based on the needs and participation and feedback mechanisms of its beneficiaries, volunteers, and supporters, measuring quality and monitoring and evaluation of impact in action rather than quantity focus, integrity and commitment of Mavi Kalem, at all levels to organization's policies in regards to work ethics, preceding women and girls, and children protection, non-discriminatory approach, preservation of confidentiality and respect for dignity, transparency and accountability, anti-fraud and corruption. Since its foundation Mavi Kalem has been working with international donors and experienced in project budget management, and reporting accordingly. Mavi Kalem's administrative and financial system and its management are executed as per Turkey's finance law and associations' law and regulations. Grant agreements, contracts and partnership agreements are also reflected in its implementation and management. Annually Mavi Kalem goes through financial and administrative auditing of relevant governmental body and also independent financial auditing. Mavi Kalem prioritizes gender equality in the implementation and decision making steps of projects and decides and acts with accountability, transparency, participation and approaches differences equal as principal. Mavi Kalem, being a non-profit civil society organization for which 97% of employees are women, applies positive discrimination to women when recruiting, selecting and determining beneficiaries and target groups to promote gender equality. To eliminate social discrimination during stages of project content, project design and project implementation, working with women is prioritized in determination of the project team and selection of financial experts procured from the affiliated participant organization. In addition to being sensitive to gender discrimination in works and studies, Mavi Kalem acts responsibly and is in favor of vulnerable groups avoiding discirimination based on ethnicity, political views, religious beliefs, sexual identity and race in terms of target groups, beneficiaries and employees. Mavi Kalem does not define itself in politic, religious or ethnical personalities. Freedom, human rights, democratic rights, health rights, public gender equality, women rights, LGBT rights, children's rights and prevention of discrimination are supported. www.mavikalem.org ) In addition to all, Mavi Kalem has started a process of institutionalization at 2015 to improve on its experience in project development and implementation it has built last 18 years and aims to develop and improve its policies based on its long experience.

The mission of the YWCA is to eliminate racism and empower women while promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

YWCA of the Greater Capital Region, Inc. is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.