Dr. Norman Brown, President of Partners of the Americas, has announced a two year initiative for the U.S./Mexico region to begin in August, 1999. This initiative is the first major program of Dr. Brown’s presidency, which he assumed at the beginning of the year.

Dr. Brown served ten years with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation retiring as President Emeritus and then taught graduate courses in non-profit management for three years at Michigan State University and Western Michigan University. In these capacities, Dr. Brown has built a unique reputation as an advocate for volunteerism and organizational management for the nonprofit sector in the United States and the Western Hemisphere.

A key component of initiative, as well as a core mission of Partners of the Americas, is to strengthen local non-governmental organizations to work with counterpart organizations throughout the hemisphere in the areas of agriculture, art and culture, citizen participation, conservation, disability, dispute resolution, education, emergency preparedness, health, indigenous peoples, leadership, micro enterprise, natural resource management, university linkages, women and youth.

Funding for travel and small scale projects is channeled through sixty Partnerships between specific localities north and south. The initiative for the U.S./Mexico region over the next two years will be spearheaded by Partnerships in Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Northern California that are partnered with 22 Mexican States.

Mexico Conservation Corps (MCC).

The David and Lucille Packard Foundation has funded a three year program to incorporate adolescent sex education into the program of the Mexico Conservation Corps, a Partners program initiated in 1993 that now consists of eight Corps and a National Association of Mexican Conservation Corps (MCC) located in Merida, Yucatan with more than 500 members.

The objectives of the MCC are to: 1) raise young people’s consciousness about environmental conservation; 2) increase the number of corps of young volunteers committed to community-based, environmentally sustainable development projects; 3) provide technical assistance and training to corps to help them identify local problems and create solutions; 4) increase the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations by adding community service components to their program; 5) teach community service corps the skills necessary to generate their own resources to ensure sustainability.

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Nonprofit/NGO Network.

The Northern California/Central Mexico Partnership has begun a process to identify and foster a network of nonprofit, community serving organizations that have a stake in collaborating with counterpart organizations. A October 16, 1999 meeting of Northern California nonprofit leaders will develop an agenda and delegation to participate in the November 18, 1999 NGO Forum in Mexico City.

From this dialog, the Northern California Chapter of the Partnership hopes to identify the benefits and constraints for ongoing collaboration between organizations in the two localities and if indicated to expand the scope of the network to include organizations throughout the region.

Election Year 2000.

National elections will occur in 2000 in both the United States and Mexico. All of the U.S./Mexico Partnerships have been involved in civic education and participation programs over the past several years, ranging from mock elections, organizational development workshops and dispute resolution training.

The professional staff of Partners of the Americas has played a key role in the Inter-American Democracy Network, a coalition of civil society organizations from the Americas cooperating to enhance their capacity to promote citizen participation and strengthen democracies.

All of this organizational experience will serve as a basis for a wide variety of programs that are being formulated in the Partnerships for the election year and beyond.

Coordinated/Regional Small Projects.

The Partnerships of the U.S./Mexico region have realized the benefits of coordinating projects that have historically been managed by the individual Partnerships. Over the years the different Partnerships have tended to concentrate in a few program areas to the exclusion of others.

A series of meetings in Mexico and the United States have resulted in an emerging regional program agenda that will enable all of the members of the U.S./Mexico partnerships to develop projects across partnerships. This approach will insure that the volunteer time, funding and other resources are used more effectively. This approach will also enable Partners professional staff to more readily raise new funds for future projects.

At the U.S./Mexico Partnerships regional meeting scheduled for November 17, 1999 as part of the Partners of the Americas International Convention, a regional project plan will be finalized.