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National Education Association

About NEA

NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States. We bring the expertise, drive, and dedication of 3 million educators and allies to advance our mission of advocating for education professionals, championing justice, and uniting our members and the nation to fulfilling the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and
interdependent world.

NEA’s CAPE department helps NEA members, affiliates and community partners mobilize around the NEA’s important mission through partnerships, advocacy and organizing. We focus on building the “EdJustice” movement — our initiative for promoting equality, fighting for racial justice, and combatting the institutional and systemic racism that impacts our nation’s students, educators and communities. We cultivate strategic partnerships, as well as provide grants to external groups and NEA affiliates, that advance racial justice issues in education.

CAPE’S Strategies

In leading the movement to advance Racial Justice in Education work, we frame our strategies, partnerships, and activities around three interrelated core concepts that help build our collective voice and power at the local, state, and national levels:

  1. Build Awareness: The awareness strategy focuses on increasing understanding of the moral and ethical imperative of racial justice work, why this work is essential to public education, what system and policies relate to this work, and why this work is critical to the NEA’s Mission, Vision and Core Values.
  2. Build Capacity: The capacity building strategy focuses on providing quality resources and tools to our members, leaders, staff, and partners on the impacts and opportunities to drive long-term improvements in Racial Justice in Education.
  3. Spark Action: Building awareness and capacity boost the potential for more impactful activism and action strategies involving grassroots, partner, local, and state actions advancing racial justice.

Current Hot Issues

  • Immigration/DACA Advocacy
  • Increasing the Representation of Latino Educators
  • Addressing Education Disparities Impacting Latino and/or Spanish Speaking Students
  • Combating School Bullying
  • Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Trainings on: Creating Great Public Schools for Every Student; Supporting English Language Learners; Supporting School Staff and Student Actions Addressing Social Justice on Personal, School, and Community Levels; and Voting Rights and Civic Engagement.

Partnership Engagement Examples

  • Organizing to Enact School District Resolutions/Policies on issues like Immigration Safe Zones
  • NEA Leaders Speaking about Racial Justice & Education at conferences/events
  • Convenings, Town Halls & Forums to Elevate Community Awareness of Racial Justice Issues
  • Communication Tools (ie: Videos, Fact Sheets, Webinars, Facebook Live Sessions, Teaching Toolkits)
  • Trainings on: Immigration/DACA “Know your Rights” Information; Cultural Competency; Organizing; Restorative Justice; Social Justice; Policy Advocacy at Local, State, and National Levels; Supporting Latino Student & Aspiring Educator Leadership Development; and Citizenship and Voter Registration Drives.

NHCSL BBA Contact

Laura Castillo
Senior Advisor for Hispanic Outreach and Engagement
Lcastillo@nea.org