Oona Chatterjee

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1998

Oona Chatterjee

Make The Road by Walking

http://www.maketheroad.org

Brooklyn, New York, United States

Civil and Human Rights

The Bold Idea:

Immigrant communities and the poorest neighborhoods in America's cities are the hardest hit by changes in welfare and immigration policy. The low-income, often non-English speaking, residents of these communities typically don't have a voice in the debate over issues of local concern such as economic justice, workplace justice, and a safer, healthier environment. Often they are unaware of their legal rights and of assistance that is available to them.

Make the Road by Walking is a membership-led organization based in Bushwick, Brooklyn that fights for justice and opportunity through community organizing on issues of concern. They promote economic justice and participatory democracy by increasing residents' power to achieve self-determination through collective action.

Their multi-faceted approach includes:

• Organizing and Activism to build a stronger community and make governing institutions subject to democratic community control
• Collaborative Learning that enables people to advocate effectively for themselves, analyze the root causes of problems, and strategize about how these problems can be collectively resolved
• A Community of Support to provide essential services to residents.

Since its inception, MRBW has scored some major victories. The Economic Justice and Democracy Project required New York City to conform to federal law and provide translation services to non-English speakers in all of its food stamp, welfare and Medicaid offices. The Workplace Justice Project forced dozens of neighborhood employers to pay over $100,000 in illegally withheld wages to garment workers, and continues to fight for workers’ rights and improved conditions.

Biography:

Oona is co-Executive Director at Make the Road, a collaboration between Make the Road By Walking and the Latin American Integration Center. She has won several honors, including the Union Square Award and the Reebok Human Rights Award. Oona was named one of the "21 Under 40 Making a Difference" by Contribute Magazine and won an Ashoka Fellowship in 2007.