What is the 2008 Solidarity Award?

The Solidarity Award is the flagship project of the Miranda Foundation. The Award honors the exemplary work of non-governmental organizations. Through it, the organizations have the opportunity of getting to know and learning from each other, as well as of exchanging information, with the goal of promoting the practice of the values of Solidarity in Puerto Rico.

What are its goals?

• To strengthen community organizations whose work is based on the principles of Solidarity and who model bridge-building capabilities.
• To acknowledge, showcase, celebrate and promote the stories of exemplary entities which advance actions and processes grounded on the values of solidarity.
• To stimulate civic participation and organizations’ alliance-building capabilities.

What is the prize?

The award consists of $7,000 and the sculpture Solidarity.

Who is eligible?

In order to expand the message of solidarity to a larger audience and building on the experience of the past five years with grassroots and nonprofit community organizations, the 2008 Award will be granted to an entity (group, organization, movement or initiative) which mobilizes people as citizens to act on issues that affect them: social movements*. The entity should have demonstrated leadership in the search for solutions to social challenges. It should have brought together separate efforts. And through collective action, it should have achieved positive changes or advanced causes for the common good.

*For the purposes of the Solidarity Award, a social movement is "A mobilization of  groups (of people or organizations) whose efforts are aimed at specific a purpose, and who, through solidarity and collective action, create new spaces for (political) participation and civic engagement directed at fundamental social changes. Its impact goes beyond the immediate outcome and projects itself into the future with medium and long range results."  (Reference: Social movements researchers such as Joseph Gusfield, Andre Gunder Frank, Alan Touraine, Orlando Fals Borda, and sociologist Hiram Guadalupe.)

What are the criteria?

Nominated nonprofit entities (groups, organizations, initiatives or movements) should meet the following criteria:

• Grassroots: Be an entity, or be part of an entity, that arises from civil society and is not imposed or required by external demands.
• Permanence: Have continuity, either as a result of the original movement becoming a formal organization or because institutions stem out of it to address the intended issues.
• Collective awareness: Educated and transformed the mindset and attitudes of others.
• Transcendence: Have gone beyond individual self-interest, reflecting the needs and aspirations of the collective. It should have been able to project its impact beyond its local geographic area to the broader national level.
• Positive Results: Show it has had a positive effect in the lives of citizens.