The Miami Workers Center is a strategy and organizing center founded in 1999 for
low-income
Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse communities and low-wage workers in the
Liberty City neighborhood of
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
,
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
.
Overview
Founded in March 1999, the Miami Workers Center's mission is to work to end
poverty
Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...
and
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced.
No universally accepted model ...
. The center works on these issues by building the power of grassroots organizations made up of and led by the people most affected by these problems and by assisting in the development of a broad-based social justice movement in
South Florida
South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...
.
The Center conducts its work by initiating and developing grassroots organizations; developing the strategic and technical capacity of leaders through the hands-on organizing and intensive political education; and increasing the voice, participation, and leadership of no- and low-wage workers (including the unemployed, welfare recipients, and service sector workers) and their organizations in local/national policy-making, community initiatives, and the broader social justice movement.
Achievements
The Center's most significant achievement has been the initiation and development of Low Income Families Fighting Together (LIFFT), which is a grassroots membership organization of and for current and former welfare recipients, low-wage workers, and public housing residents that has become a growing force in Miami-Dade County. In these efforts the Miami Workers' Center joins arms with South Florida's low-income people to address issues of poverty and oppression within the region's most oppressed communities.
See also
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Social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
*
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...
External links
Miami Workers Centerwebsite
Non-profit organizations based in Florida
Economy of Miami
Organizations based in Miami
Liberty City (Miami)