Welcome to  CREA

CREA wants to spread our message of hope and compassion. We believe that a single action can make a difference in the community, and that collective action can greatly impact the world. Through advocacy and outreach activities, our team works tirelessly each day to contribute their part to the greater good.

Education

CREA provides educational opportunities in formal educational settings, popular education programs, informal gatherings, and publications. CREA also offers internship opportunities for students seeking to broaden their understanding of human rights, labor rights, and the systems that affect them.

Reflection

Opportunities to reflect on who we are, what we want our lives to be like, and how we interact with others are often welcome in our busy lives. CREA provides retreats, conferences and days of reflection to assist individuals and groups in the integration of faith, the development of personal spirituality and work for economic and social justice.

Systemic Analysis

CREA provides education in the practice of systemic analysis through programs and materials. This type of analysis examines the interaction and effects of social, cultural, economic, educational, political and religious systems on our lives as individuals and communities.

CREA has developed a series of constructs to assist in this analysis. These constructs provide an objective framework from which to conduct the analysis. They can also be utilized in everyday life.

Corporate Responsibility 

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Economic Social Enviromental

In CREA’s CSR work we engage corporations on a spectrum of issues to bring about positive change in corporate policies, practices and programs. CREA works with other stakeholders in long-term collaborative projects both internationally and in the US. CREA works with corporations to assist in the building of responsible supply chain systems.

Sustainable Living Wage/Income

CREA’s Purchasing Power Index (PPI) is a process used to determine the real purchasing power earned by workers. The PPI is based on the actual wages/income earned by the workers and the real costs in local currency of the items that workers require for themselves and for their families.

In the age of the globalization of the economy, the PPI provides a clear and unbiased assessment of the need for sustainable living wages/income for all workers as well as the income levels that are required to achieve financial sustainability.

Copies of PPI studies are available from CREA.

Human Rights and Labor Rights

CREA’s human rights work focuses on the economic components of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Using our Purchasing Power Index and our work on Sustainable Living Wage/Income, and our focus on supply chains in manufacturing, agriculture and mining, we are able to illustrate the economic and social effects of globalization and industrialization on the lives of workers throughout the world and hopefully bring about positive change.

Sustainable Communities

Amid all the talk of economic, social and environmental sustainability, the challenge of sustainable communities is a local and global challenge. The community is the real stake that requires increased focus and work at all levels of engagement. Stakeholders in the community need to be developed, strengthened, and connected with others facing parallel issues.

Aggravated by on-going climate change, the need for greater focus on sustainable communities and the needed associated decisions should be obvious to all.

CREA’s focus on Sustainable Communities,

interfaces with other components of our work

Fair Trade - Peace Trade

Building on our Fair Trade work, CREA is working specifically with cooperatives that offer peaceful ways for men and women to support themselves.

Sustaining workers, sustaining families, and sustaining communities are all part of the Fair Trade - Peace Trade model and of our work for sustainability.