Allies for Justice Awards

Headwaters Foundation is a catalyst for social, racial, economic and environmental justice -- supporting grassroots organizing that fosters just and sustainable communities. We do this through grantmaking, capacity building and partnering with a community of donors and nonprofit leaders working together as allies. Together, we are tipping the scales, creating a momentum that is unstoppable.

Allies for Justice Award recipients are chosen because they embody Headwaters' conviction that, together, we can create social and political conditions that guarantee justice for all. If there is a common thread among this year's honorees it is education - access to education and equity in education. Each of this year's honorees has made a significant contribution to tipping the scales into balance in this arena.

2011 Allies for Justice Awardees

CrossingBarriers is a grassroots organization that develops leadership and organizing skills among immigrant students and students of color. The program provides youth activists with the tools they need to be agents for change, succeed as students and better their communities. Over the past few years, youth organizers have worked successfully in the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Eden Prairie schools to connect and reach out to diverse immigrant and non-immigrant students of color, bringing about positive change in addressing tough issues like discrimination, bullying, language barriers and student-on-student violence.

Organizing Apprenticeship Project, for the past five years has been the convener of a multi-community collaborative to promote racial and cultural equity in education. The collaborative currently includes partners MIGIZI Communications, Somali Action Alliance, and ISAIAH. Working with partners and others, the collaborative has supported successful organizing efforts among parents and youth in key communities of color and American Indian communities. By connecting grassroots efforts to a broader agenda for change, they are advancing a powerful common vision and strategy for creating equity for all in Minnesota's education system.

Henry Bromelkamp has been a Headwaters donor for 20 years. Like so many people connected to Headwaters, Henry puts his values into action with thoughtful and engaged philanthropy. By day, the mild-mannered founder of Bromelkamp grants database and software company, by night Henry is a social justice superstar and active supporter of a broad range of nonprofits in Minnesota and beyond. Building schools in Africa has been the focus of his donor-advised grantmaking at Headwaters. As the founder of Africa Classroom Connection, Henry has engaged a broad network of support in the development of over 3,000 community-built classrooms in 800 locations in the Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa.