A state organization that once focused on overcoming rural poverty and inadequate child care is broadening its reach to mobilizing communities and creating peace through racial reconciliation and healing.

The Alabama Institute for Social Justice recently announced the change.

Lenice Emanuel, executive director of AISJ in Montgomery, said statistics show in Alabama, women and people of color are hurt most by social injustices. She said the goal of the AISJ is to create a state where economic, political and social equality exists for everyone.

To get there, AISJ will offer the following:

• Advocacy and outreach achieved in part by hosting community-based events that rally people to identify issues and to develop solutions for grassroots community change;

• Training and leadership development aimed at creating leaders to advance social justice; and

• Public policy and justice pioneering aimed at increasing conversations about issues that keep low-wealth populations from having access to prosperity and equal human rights.

The AISJ grew out of the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama Inc., or FOCAL. The group began in 1972 as a child care advocacy agency during the Civil Rights Movement. It was launched in response to an outcry from a group of African-American women in Selma who wanted quality and equitable child care in rural, disadvantaged areas.

Building power bases

She said inequities in societal structures have been well-documented, including low wages with no upward mobility, inadequate child care, higher incarceration rates with stricter sentences, discriminatory policing, racial profiling and wide disparities in access to education, housing, health care, civic engagement and paths to prosperity and longevity.

“While strides have been made since our organization began, there is still much work to be done to bring the ultimate dream of equality, justice and peace to fruition,” she said.

The AIJC’s efforts will focus on building power bases for social change that are dedicated to helping those most negatively impacted, she said.

She said the mission of social justice doesn’t just help women and people of color, it helps everyone.

“Inequity impoverishes everyone, not just those being discriminated against,” she said. “Each of us has a role to play in advancing equity. It is the goal of the AISJ to help inform and inspire all citizens of Alabama to reach for the highest goal to which our nation aspires — that of freedom, liberty and justice for all.”

She said given Alabama’s history concerning civil rights, the AISJ does not take for granted that it has important work to do on behalf of the communities it serves.

“We feel that each representation of our organization should be a reflection of that mission,” Emanuel said. “Although we are proud of the gains that have been made in pursuing racial, social and economic equality, we look forward to making even more progress and better serving those in need.”

For more information about the organization, go online to www.ALISJ.org.