Contacting Your Elected Officials
Maine.gov maintains a voter information look-up service. Enter your address to find contact information for all of your elected officials.
Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives include additional contact information on their websites. Contact:
Senator Susan Collins
Senator Angus King
Representative Chellie Pingree
Representative Bruce Poliquin
Sister Cities
General Web Resources:
- U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities
- Community Radio WERU-FM Sistering Committee
- MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) Sistering Project
- CISPES – The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
- CRIPDES – The organization of the Salvadoran rural popular movement (en Espanol)
- School of the Americas Watch
Dignity for All
Immigration Class resources
On April 26, 2007 the Dignity For All committee presented a 3-hour class, “Who Is The Other,” addressing immigration from the perspective of issues of Central American. Here are the handouts and presentations used in the class:
- Selected Resources on Immigration (PDF) – Handout
- What part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand? (PDF) – Graphic representation of what’s actually involved in getting legal immigration status
- What Part of Illegal Don’t You Understand? (PDF) – Slides and notes from PowerPoint presentation
- Immigration Realities – 2008 video (length 29:16). Current and former Carasque residents talk about what immigration and free trade mean to them and their community
Mining Resources and Web links:
Fair Trade
- PICA is a founding member of the Maine Fair Trade Campaign
- Eastern Maine Fair Trade Commission Report
- Institute for Local Self-Reliance provides technical assistance and information on environmentally sound economic development strategies.
- Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. A good source of information on fair trade issues worldwide.
- Global Trade Watch promotes democracy by challenging corporate globalization, arguing that the current globalization model is neither a random inevitability nor “free trade.” The GTW Web site has extensive resources on GATS and regional and bilateral trade agreements, including a searchable GATS directory.
- Witness for Peace – supporting peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the Americas
- Citizen Trade Campaign – working together for social and environmental Justice in trade policy
kNOw US AND THEM Project Tools
kNOw US AND THEM was a former PICA program built on a Listening Project – in-depth, non-judgmental interviews of recent economic immigrants, small farmers, and displaced manufacturing workers in Maine, and current and former residents of our sister city of Carasque, El Salvador. We used the information generated by the Listening Project to create workshops on immigration, trade, and the relations between us, for community, religious, labor, and school (high school and college) audiences. A few of the resources developed by kNOw US AND THEM are listed here.
Videos:
- “Immigration Realities” – Current and former Carasque residents talk about what immigration and free trade mean to them and their community – part of the the kNOw US AND THEM Listening Project (29:16)
- “kNOw US AND THEM” – Excerpts from interviews with immigrants, farmers and workers in Maine and El Salvador from the kNOw US AND THEM project (7:44)
Global Literacy Curriculum:
- The Global Literacy curriculum is a series of interactive workshops on immigration and trade that PICA has developed for high school students (and others). They are designed to be delivered within standard 40-minute or 1-hour and 15-minutes blocks. They are also very effective with college classes and with members of adult community and faith organizations. Download the Global Literacy Curriculum (PDF format).