A Brief History

DJPC was founded in late 1976 in response to the National Catholic Bishops'
Call to Action. DJPC expanded and incorporated in 1979, as an interfaith
membership-based organization addressing global injustice in developing
countries. One of its first projects was participating in the international
boycott of the Nestle Corporation for its unethical marketing of infant
formula in the Third World.

In 1984, DJPC supported a campaign against Western Airlines for its
cooperation in the deportation of Salvadorans. Soon after that DJPC promoted
a campaign to declare the City of Denver a sanctuary for Central American
refugees. Through the rest of the decade and into the 1990s, DJPC has
continued to work in solidarity with the people of Latin America by
sponsoring educational programs, lobbying elected officials, and promoting
action campaigns.

Our Current programs include:
(1) the CAMINOS Guatemala Accompaniment Project and the Promesa health promotion program in Tesorito, Guatemala.
(2) A salon series on Latin America peace & justice, nonviolence studies, U.S. foreign policy, globalization, etc.
(3) Advocacy and Nonviolent Activism

DJPC seeks to end a world with sweatshops in the Southern Hemisphere and
corporate greed in the Northern Hemisphere, devastated rainforests in the
South and overconsumption in the North, and persistent racism, environmental
degradation and ever-widening inequalities in both the South and North.

We welcome your help in building a better world! Please join us!

DJPC Board of Directors

Eileen McCarthy-Arnolds

Connie Curtis - Secretary

Gabriela Flora

Richard Kruch - Vice Chair

Jeremy Lee - Chair

Steve Piper - Treasurer

John Whitson

Message From the Board -  March 2008
By Gabriela Flora

The Denver Justice and Peace Committee is much more than just an organization I belong to or a board on which I serve. DJPC is a community of diverse, dedicated people with whom I share values and who challenge me to make a positive impact on my community and world. DJPC is a vehicle through which I am empowered to work joyfully with others to create peace in Latin America and engage in positive activism. I am connected to many national and local organizations. At the end of the year, however, DJPC received my largest donation, greater than to any other organization with which I am involved.

I believe it is my privilege to support grassroots, local organizations like DJPC. I get back much more than I give. While I strongly believe in the national organizations I support and am thankful for all they do, there is something special I feel when I give (both money and time) to DJPC. It is a connection that is real and personal and one that empowers me as a member of this community. The local component of DJPC creates direct avenues of access into the democratic process that I do not experience with national organizations. This local access provides me with a map and vision of what we can do together to see into and change the realities that exist in current policies and people's lives.

DJPC is locally based but grounded beyond through its international reach. “Reach” indicates communication from me and other DJPC members to areas where I alone could have little impact, i.e. a conduit. DJPC serves as a conduit to Political Participation, Know-how, Insight, Awareness, Empowerment, Community and Self-Actualization. I hope you will join me in continuing your pledge to support DJPC in time and money to the fullest potential of your ability. From personal experience, I can tell you that the payoff of giving to DJPC is multi-fold of what one gives.

In community, peace and solidarity,

Gabriela Flora

DJPC Board member