"Inside the word “emergency” is 'emerge'; from an emergency new things come forth. The old certainties are crumbling fast, but danger and possibility are sisters." – Rebecca Solnit
This is not your typical ZOOM call. There will be no PowerPoints, no moderators, and no panel of speakers. For one hour, we invite you to join a conversation between two impassioned individuals discussing issues of resilience, over coffee! This three-part series is made up of light-hearted, informative, informal conversations. As we all grapple with the loss of lives and tremendous upheaval, together we can work to anticipate future needs.
This three-part series aims to use this time to plant seeds for transformation – not only to fix inequitable systems, but to explore new paths. We hope you’ll make yourself a cup of coffee or tea and join us! You can register for the full series or an individual session.
Resilience During Crisis: Session 2
While we are responding to the urgency of community challenges, we need to think about how philanthropic investments today can sow the seeds for creating equitable systems down the road. This session is about centering love, healing, culture and building people power to not only meet this critical moment, but also to ensure we have a “just recovery” and an equitable future we want to see.
Like previous disasters such as wildfires and floods, philanthropy has jumped into action. But what if disaster philanthropy went beyond a charity model focusing solely on immediate relief, but one that moves towards uniting leaders and building long-term power? What if those most affected by the disaster sat at the decision-making table to determine who, how, and where philanthropic resources should be allocated? What if we centered everything on love, healing, culture and building people power?
During this call, we will explore the following questions:
- How can philanthropic think beyond relief and invest in “just recovery”?
- What is “just recovery” and what does it look like?
- Why do love, healing, culture and building people power essential to building an equitable future?
Speakers
Samantha Sandoval, Senior Program and Grants Manager, Latino Community Foundation
Samantha is a passionate and dedicated equity champion committed to liberating and channeling capital into under-resourced communities. As the Senior Program and Grants Manager, Samantha supports grantmaking at LCF. She is dedicated to social justice and advancing equitable strategies to enhance social, environmental, and economic impact in Latino communities. Samantha has over ten years of experience in philanthropy, public health, and public policy. Prior to joining LCF, she served as grants manager for Youth UpRising, an Oakland-based organization investing in youth leadership, where she managed over $5.5 million in grants and contracts. She also worked at New Door Ventures, supporting the San Francisco-based organization’s $4 million annual fundraising campaign designed to help disconnected youth prepare for life and work. Previously, she worked at The California Wellness Foundation, where she supported grantmaking for two health portfolios totaling $18 million annually.
Samantha holds a BS from Santa Clara University and is currently completing her MA from Tufts University. In her free time, Samantha enjoys hiking, yoga, and live music.
Alan Kwok, Disaster Resilience Director, Northern California Grantmakers
Alan leads NCG’s and Philanthropy CA’s efforts to galvanize and coordinate philanthropy to strategically invest in reducing the frequency and lessoning the impacts of natural hazard events in California and in ensuring equitable disaster recovery. He received his PhD in emergency management with a focus on community resilience at Massey University in New Zealand. He still remembers his first lunch with Samantha talking about various resilience issues. While his professional experience includes leading a multi-year Bay Area-wide preparedness campaign at the American Red Cross, he values more of his ability to make plans on the fly for all types of life emergencies and outdoor adventures. He believes that hazard events, including pandemics, earthquakes, and wildfires, don’t have to turn into disasters if private and public sectors invest in the right things at the right time for those who are most at risk.
Angie Sanchez, Community Engagement Manager, La Luz Center
Angie was born and raised in Sonoma Valley as the oldest of 7 children and proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. Coming from a low income, mixed immigration status household she experienced firsthand the struggles and inequalities that many Latino families continue to live with today. At a young age, she understood that to overcome discrimination and inequalities we needed to ensure that Latinos have a place and a voice. That experience led to her commitment to non-profit work for more than twelve years focusing on enhancing the Latino economic, cultural, and civic leadership that reflects the population of the Latino community in Sonoma County. Most recently Angie was awarded the 2019 North Bay Business Journal Latino Leadership Award and North Bay Young Professionals 'Ones to Watch' for 2020.
Currently, Angie has been working on building a foundation to amplify and deepen the voice of Latinos through civic engagement. With the support of the Latino Community Foundation, she created a game called Censotería which is based on the popular Mexican game Lotería. The game was designed as a creative initiative to teach about the upcoming census in an educational, fun, and culturally relevant way. The game is now being used as part of the outreach strategy by other Latino led organizations all over California and other states to educate predominantly Latino immigrant communities about the importance of participating in the 2020 Census.
Angie also serves on the board of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Sonoma County and the Hispanic Community Advisory Group for Sonoma Water. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, attending live music concerts, and BBQing with family and friends.
Other events in this series
-
Session 1: Resilience During Crisis | For program resources, contact registrar@ncg.org
-
Session 3: Nonprofit Resilience Register >
Target Audience
This program is open to NCG members and non-member funders.