People’s Power Lab has a mission to build the power of Black, Brown, and Muslim working-class community members in our base. We represent many Rohingya, Afghan, Syrian, Somali, Congolese and and other refugees in the Triangle area of North Carolina. In addition, we represent many working class African Americans in the Triangle and Rocky Mount.
Our organizing mission includes education justice for the most impacted community members within our base. A significant number of working-class refugees/immigrants and African American community members in our base are denied the basic education resources. Education system in North Carolina and the USA has historically under-served Black, Brown, and working-class community members. A significant number of immigrants and refugees with young children live in poverty. In fact, approximately half of parents with children between the ages of 0-10 live in poverty (source: Migration Policy Institute. April 2021). Poverty and lack of English fluency impacts their ability to impart quality education to children, invest in healthcare, quality housing, and other basic opportunities for their children.
Recognizing the historic barriers for people in our base, People’s Power Lab and Muslims for Social Justice partnered with the City of Raleigh and our donors to organize school-bag / back-to-school supplies drive in the refugee and working-class African American apartment complexes. We distributed 60 school-bags with school supplies within youth attending K-12 School. Most of the parents indicated that they could not afford quality school supplies and that the school does not provide basic supplies. In fact, North Carolina teachers, whose salaries have declined compared to national average (source: CBS17. May 2, 2024), spend record amount of $1300 for school supplies for students, the fourth highest such spending in the country (source: The News and Observer. August 19, 2024).
People’s Power Lab has a long term organizing mission for social change. We do not believe that charity alone will bring a change. We believe in building the power of our people to become the future leaders and change the balance of power. For that reason, we offer a host of services and training sessions to youth and adults in our community. This includes home-work support and English literacy to youth and adults in our base. This is particularly important since NC Public Schools are facing a funding crisis, where teacher-assistants, school counselors, nurses, and many other staff positions are either cut or underfunded. Teachers are often under-resourced and find it harder to provide educational attainment for many refugees/immigrant who enter the middle school or high school while lacking basic English language skills. One of our organizers has volunteered with Wake County Public Schools to help youth lacking English reading/writing skills. People’s Power Lab organizers visit homes of many people in our base and teach them English reading and writing skills that they often do not receive in the schools. We offer stipends to youth to write about their life experiences, conduct research on social issues, and speak publicly at community gatherings and with city officials. We believe these skills will develop future leaders who will advocate for issues faced by them and bring a positive change.
North Carolina is facing serious education crises. Privatization of schools through voucher program has siphoned money/resources from public schools (source: Public Schools First NC. September 2022). Currently, NC schools rank 48th in the country in per-pupil funding and 47th in overall school funding (source: NC Newsline. May 9, 2024). Most of working-class parents send their children to public schools since private schools fees are very high (vouchers do not cover the entire fee). Additionally, private schools normally do not offer transportation, disability services, and other basic services (source: ABC11. February 26, 2024). Many NC public school teachers have quit their jobs because of overload of work and poor reward (source: WRAL. April 3, 2024). State and municipalities have failed to provide basic resources to students, including schools supplies (as offered in the past) and lack of repair/replacement for the electronics (source: NC Newsline. February 5, 2024). Additional staff members, including drivers, cafe workers, and other earn low income, leading to strikes (sources: The News and Observer. August 15, 2024; ABC11, January 18, 2024). As a result of cumulative polices and failure of leadership, North Carolina’s education ranking in the country dropped from 19th in 2011to 36th by 2016 (source: The News & Observer. Jan18, 2018). Learn more about the crisis of education in North Carolina HERE.
Programs like school-bag/backpack supplies or food distribution address the tip of the iceberg. Yet, these events address crucial need of parents and allows deepening of relationship with impacted community members. Many of our community members eventually join the social justice movement because of solidarity-based charity. Please join the long term movements to advance opportunities for all impacted people in our community.