- Kim Bobo
Kim Bobo is a religious and workers' rights activist, and executive director of
Interfaith Worker Justice . She is widely quoted in newspapers and broadcast media as an expert on worker justice issues.Life and career
Born in
Cincinnati, Ohio , and raised a conservative evangelical, Bobo graduated fromBarnard College with abachelor's degree in religion. She later received amaster's degree ineconomics from theNew School for Social Research .Jones, "Religion, Labor Tap New Energy as Allies," "National Catholic Reporter," June 4, 1999.]Bobo is married to Stephen Coats, and has twin sons.
In
1976 , Bobo became director of organizing forBread for the World , a Christian organization which works to combat hunger. During this time, she wrote her first book, "Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing."Bobo left Bread for the World in
1986 and became an instructor at theMidwest Academy , a community organizing training institute inChicago, Illinois . While at the Midwest Academy, Bobo and her colleagues co-authored "Organizing for Social Change," a fundamental text in community-based organizing.In
1989 , Bobo became involved with a strike by coal miners at Pittston Coal. Attempting to organize religious leaders to support the workers, she was startled to find that almost no religious organizations had labor liaisons. She started an informal network of religious leaders to share information about campaigns for worker justice that year.In
1991 , Bobo founded the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues. It was an all-volunteer group led by Bobo and four influential Chicago religious leaders."Interfaith Worker Justice: Organizational Profile," Marguerite Casey Foundation, 2005.]In
1996 , using a $5,000 inheritance from her grandmother, Bobo launched the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. The organization initially was run out of her home. By1998 , the organization had 29 affiliates throughout the country. The group changed its name to Interfaith Worker Justice in 2005, by which time it had grown to 59 local affiliates and a full-time staff of 10. IWJ has been active on a number of worker's rights and worker justice issues.elected published works
olely authored books
*"Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing." Lanham, Md.: Sheed and Ward, 1986. ISBN 0934134871
Co-authored books
*Bobo, Kim, et al. "Organizing for Social Change." 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Seven Locks Press, 2001. ISBN 0929765419
olely authored articles
*"Do Catholics Still Care About Labor?" "America." August 29, 2005.
*"Laboring for Justice: What's Happening in the Religion-and-Labor Movement?" "Sojourners." July 30, 2005.
*"Religion-Labor Partnerships: Alive and Growing in the New Millennium." "WorkingUSA." 6:4 (March 2003).Notes
References
*"Interfaith Worker Justice: Organizational Profile." Marguerite Casey Foundation. Seattle: May 2005.
*Jones, Arthur. "Religion, Labor Tap New Energy as Allies; Interfaith Committee Seeks Justice for Workers." "National Catholic Reporter." June 4, 1999.External links
* [http://www.iwj.org Interfaith Worker Justice Web site]
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