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My first executive director position was with MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose, CA. I distinctly remember the day I started, it was May 7th, 2003 and I had just taken on the role with all the energy and confidence of an almost 28 year old, artist and recent youth center leader can and should have.
The 2022 wildfire season is underway. Due to the current drought and extreme heat conditions across much of the state, wildfire impacts in the coming months are anticipated to be extremely severe for people in cities and rural communities.
APPLICATIONS CLOSE AUGUST 18TH, 2023.
Through Northern California Grantmakers’ Racial Equity Action Institute (REAI), participants will gain knowledge, lessons, and tools for developing actionable strategies in their institutions to advance racial equity with field experts and each other. One sector on its own cannot solve the challenges of racial inequities. Our cohort learning program connects specialists in racial equity from philanthropy, business, government, and nonprofits. By deepening our relationships and the connectivity of those in our ecosystem who are committed to change and justice, so much is possible.
In Get It Right: 5 Shifts Philanthropy Must Make Toward an Equitable Region, we've highlighted 5 case studies from regional leaders who are already doing this work. Read about how the Akonadi Foundation is building Black movements.
All children deserve to have access to a quality education. They deserve to feel safe and supported in a place that exists to prepare them for their futures. Yet, for Black youth and other youth of color, this is far from the reality. Every day, Black children and other youth of color, some as young as six are being pushed out of classrooms and schools because of deep racial profiling. Across the country, Black high school students are twice as likely to be suspended as white students. In Oakland, while Black youth made up 26 percent of the Oakland Unified School District’s enrollment, they represented 73 percent of arrests. This vicious cycle continues to fuel pathways to prison and confinement, where Black youth are consistently over-represented, which creates additional barriers for our young people to realize and achieve their full potential.
As we consider our roles, it is important to remember that justice is defined not by our own definitions but by the communities directly experiencing injustice. It is also important to keep in sight how our roles align with, support and uplift the existing work of community organizers who have long advocated for restorative and healing justice as common practice, rather than forms of justice defined by the same systems and institutions that uphold structural racism.
And as we celebrate Juneteenth on June 19, we know that autonomy and sovereignty are essential to building Black power.