Class Resources from the Advocates for Human Rights

While exploring some of the websites posted by my fellow upcoming "unconference" attendees, I discovered the Advocates for Human Rights page. This site has a tremendous amount of information and resources for educators and for students as well as areas focused more on individual action under their advocates section. Main webaddress: http://discoverhumanrights.org/

There are "toolkits" for educators on the right to education, health, housing and food. There are also toolkits on the rights of migrants and the rights of women. One such toolkit I plan to use is the right to housing.

Under the Right to Housing. There is a national factsheet you can access or the following which includes information specific to Minnesota as well:
http://discoverhumanrights.org/sites/7cc8fb84-899d-457d-a486-470ccb03fb16/uploads/Housing_Fact_Sheet__Minnesota_Nov__1__2007.pdf

The fact sheet has some powerful statistics and nice definitions of what housing rights include and the current crisis of the homeless in Minnesota. The following are statistics are taken directly from the above site:

Black, American Indian and Hispanic people constitute 54% of Minnesota’s homeless population

In Minnesota, 32% of homeless women who were interviewed cited domestic abuse as one of their reasons for leaving their last
place of residence.

44% percent of homeless adults in Minnesota report at least one chronic health condition, 52% report suffering from serious mental illness, and 34% report alcohol or chemical dependency

On any given night, 9,200 people in Minnesota23 and 800,000 people nationwide are homeless

The home site also includes lesson plans, powerpoints, quizzes, and tips on how to take action.

On a personal note, one of the Advocates for Human Rights projects is to help run a school in Nepal. To help support that project the site offers a free kit for hosting a house party for the Nepal School. Which I am going to do.
http://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/Hosting_a_House_Party_for_the_Nepal_School.html

So as you can see, there is a lot of valuable information at this site. I hope you check it out.