Here to Lead

Michael Muscadine: Helping Young People Find Their Power—and Their Voice

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Northern California

“We used to call it the Urban City Rez when I was growing up. We had people like me from the Crow Nation, Sioux Lakota, Apache Pomo California natives, and Navajo tribes. All the different tribes. We all came together in the Fruitvale District in Oakland in the 80’s and early 90’s.

“But in the last couple decades, a lot of families got pushed out because of gentrification. My family is one of the last of the original families in the neighborhood who still own our home. People I knew and grew up with were evicted, or they just had to move. The Native American population here has gotten very small. And for those who are left, there’s always tension with new neighbors who’ve moved in. They are always calling law enforcement on young people for just hanging out.

“I work for Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice. The acronym is CURYJ – we pronounce it “Courage.” We do a lot of work with young men and women of color in the community, including many Native young men and women like the friends I grew up with. My family has deep roots in the community, with five generations in Oakland. This gives me a lot of privilege in working with folks who are impacted by gang and police violence because it makes it easier to relate. We try to reach out to young people who tend to get left behind – the ones teachers are calling the police on, the ones who get tagged by the system as the ‘worst of the worst.’

“I can relate to these young people because I was in their shoes not too long ago. I got profiled and targeted as one of the Norteno Gang Injection in the Fruitvale District, and what was known as the Mexican/Chicano area of East Oakland. That was during the time of the gang injunctions in California, when you could be arrested for just hanging out and doing nothing. CURYJ was one of the organizations that fought and won the fight against gang injunctions, and that’s one of the things that got me involved.

“My grandfather always told me about who I am and where I’m from. He made the Native American traditions come alive for me. He taught me how our communities have been fighting for dignity and respect for hundreds of years. That’s why I am so focused on helping Native young people connect to their heritage through CURYJ. We have ethnic studies programs, we organize sweat lodges, and we try to educate people so they learn to be proud and feel like they are part of their tribe.

“I also work with a lot of other young people from different cultures. Whether they are African American, Southeast Asian, Mexican or Chicano, at CURYJ we help people find their voice, learn about their history, and get in touch with their roots. And it’s all so they can move forward and be proud of who they are.

“Looking to the future, I want to see more of our young people of color getting more involved in the policy process. I learned how important that is when I was working with CURYJ to pass Prop. 57, which ended the process where prosecutors could arbitrarily file a minor’s case in adult court. We went around registering voters and building support in the community. And, when they tried to bring stop-and-frisk to Oakland, we stopped it. Those were big wins for us, and they happened because people used their power and their voice.

“And now there is so much more we have to do. We need to make it so people and families can stay in their communities. We need young people to be safe from profiling, whether it happens in the community or in school. We need to end mass incarceration and put the money into creating jobs and opportunities for young people.

“CURYJ is working for all of these things and more. When I walk out my door in the morning, I feel like I am already at work even though I am not in my office. Just being in my community and talking to people and offering them whatever hope and support I can – that makes me feel good.

“We talk about helping young people dream beyond bars. That’s what this work is about. We need to help young people connect with their past, present and future. I’ve seen what happens when we do this, and it’s a powerful thing.

Michael Angelo Muscadine is a cofounder and senior life coach with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) in Oakland.

Resources

Daniel Torres: Leading with Conviction

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Southern California

When Daniel Torres was just two months old, his father was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His mother struggled to raise him and his two siblings on her own. From ages 13 to 18, Daniel was in and out of the juvenile justice system and group homes. Growing up in poverty with a lack of positive support, he would find himself incarcerated as an adult for the first time at 19.

For the next four years, Daniel spent most of his time incarcerated, struggling to find stable employment. “There were times I felt that I was destined to repeat the cycle of my parents and put my wife and kids through the same pain and struggles I went through.” Daniel recognized that he was caught in a cycle of violence, poverty and incarceration – the same cycle that traps thousands of individuals every year in California.

“When I got out in 2009, I was at a fork in the road. On one side was death and incarceration, and on the other side was the opportunity to change and build a life with my wife and two daughters. I knew I had to do something different.” Daniel said.

But there was a problem. “As I began looking for work, door after door was slammed in my face because of my background. Nothing is worse than wanting to provide for my family and being denied the opportunity.”

A friend referred Daniel to Pasadena-based nonprofit Flintridge Center’s Apprenticeship Preparation Program (APP). The APP, a 10-week 240-hour personal development program, works with formerly incarcerated and gang-impacted individuals to secure sustainable employment in union construction careers.

A decade ago, union construction was one of the only fields open to employing formerly incarcerated individuals at a living wage.

Through the APP, Daniel found the training necessary to become a union Marble Mason earning $50,000 a year. For the first time, he was able to provide for his family. At Flintridge Center, he also found a community of individuals who were deeply committed to his success.

This was in large part due to Flintridge Center’s approach of helping individuals overcome all of the barriers to success they face. Trauma, lack of housing, criminal record, mental health, and financial assistance are all addressed through a network of community partners. Flintridge Center’s case management team, all with lived experience in the justice system, use a trauma-informed approach to develop a care plan and meet unique needs and goals.

Daniel made a commitment to himself and his family to break out of the cycle. Now, he is part of a team that works to do so for others. “I always say that I’m a client first. That experience continues to give me a unique perspective in developing programs and services to best serve our community members and work to ensure their success.”

For the past six years, Daniel has worked in nearly every capacity at Flintridge Center to support reentry and workforce development programming. Daniel emerged as a leader in the reentry workforce development field, often being asked to share his expertise on panels at state-wide conferences. He was also asked to help develop learning opportunities for similar organizations across California.

“The beginning of my story is not unique,” Daniel shared. “I was able to use the program to transform my life, and I want to see anybody who wants the opportunity have access to it.”

While the United States represents just 4.4 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners. California leads these figures with over 160,000 people in our state, juvenile and federal facilities. With over 95 percent of these individuals expected to return home from incarceration, it is imperative that support is available to ensure their successful transition back into our communities.

Flintridge Center is working at multiple touchpoints to break the cycle of poverty, violence and incarceration in Pasadena and across LA County. In addition to their work with adults, they work with youth at high risk of falling into the justice system, as well as youth diverted to their services in lieu of arrest or incarceration to stop the cycle before it starts – a program Daniel says he wishes was around when he was younger.

“When you change the life of one person, you change the life of their families and the communities we all live in,” Daniel shared. “This is what we work to do every day at Flintridge.”

Daniel Torres is co-executive director of Flintridge Center, a Pasadena-based nonprofit that breaks the cycle of poverty and violence through community planning, innovation and action.

Resources

Daniel Mendoza: Sharing the Stories of Young People, Beyond the Stats

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Daniel Mendoza believes in the power of storytelling. He is aware of the story people think they know, when they hear he was formerly incarcerated. While that experience helped define who he is today, Daniel knows there’s more to the story.

Two years ago, Daniel transferred to UC Davis to complete his Bachelor’s degree in sociology and ethnic studies. He quickly saw the way professors spoke about people with his background—brown and Black men involved with the criminal justice system—was without context, as if he were simply a number. Their research lacked an understanding of why young men of color are more likely to be incarcerated.

“We may be a data set, but we have a story to tell,” says Daniel. “I went from one institution that was meant to keep me in to one that was meant to keep me out. Transferring was very hard, trying to navigate this big system.”

He didn’t feel comfortable sharing his story because “every time I tried to talk to someone, I felt like I had to lie about who I was and change my story so they would feel comfortable.”

Paired up on a class project with a fellow student, Tina Curiel-Allen, Daniel began talking about his experience and the two realized they’d both been living in fear of revealing their secret—they’d both been incarcerated.

Daniel and Tina launched Beyond the Stats, a program aimed at creating community and support for other students who have also been involved with the justice system, while at the same time challenging how faculty and students perceive people who have been incarcerated.

They conducted a survey to uncover how the campus felt about having formerly incarcerated young people attend the university and were disappointed by the results. The two launched a zine to share stories in their own voices, including poems, personal statements, and interviews from members and friends of the movement.

Starting Beyond the Stats was not only part of Daniel’s advocacy, but it was part of his healing.

“I was overwhelmed,” recalls Daniel. “I listened to other students talking about their life experiences, and how they had been preparing for college since high school and here I was remembering my time incarcerated, struggling to write a paper for class. College was not part of my big picture. Until I met Tina and found community, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, and graduate.”

Once he graduated, Daniel knew he wanted to keep challenging narratives about men of color, bringing together stories with data, to inform public policy.

He joined the Stockton-based community organization Fathers and Families of San Joaquin as a youth justice and policy advocate. He partnered with juvenile justice stakeholders to make policy changes to eliminate the practice of trying youth as adults, end solitary confinement, and improving reentry services for formerly incarcerated individuals.

Daniel believes “the movement is definitely making progress. At the state level we’ve been able to pass policies like Prop. 57 in 2016 that gave judges in the juvenile justice system the power to keep young people from being tried as adults and AB 392 that Governor Newsom signed into law this past August, that holds police accountable for their use of force.”

But he knows there’s much more work to do, particularly in communities of color where entire groups of people have been stigmatized due to their race, background, or experience. Daniel continues to tell stories and transform the narrative about places like Stockton because he knows changing the narrative is linked to changing the outcomes.

“In Stockton, we’re starting to talk about our city as a place of opportunity and prosperity,” says Daniel. “Words matter. I remember being called ‘the worst of the worst’ as a 14-year-old in adult court. It took me years to overcome that and believe in the power of my own voice.”

Daniel knows it is critical for formerly incarcerated people to participate in advocacy. “The closer we are to the problem, the closer we are to the solution.”

The work will always hit close to home, says Daniel. “This work is very personal and it’s a collective effort. My mother used to tell me, watch out for your little brother, watch out for your sister and so forth. And you know, I’ve just expanded on that vision.”

Daniel Mendoza is co-founder of Beyond the Stats, a collective of formerly incarcerated students working to dismantling structural barriers and supporting system-impacted students navigate the University of California system. Daniel is also Youth Justice and Policy advocate at Fathers and Families of San Joaquin in Stockton, CA.

Resources

Brandon Dawson: Everyone Should be an Environmentalist

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Sacramento/San Joaquin

Brandon Dawson knows people often perceive environmental issues as not being about them, or being about something that the average person may have to see first-hand, such as polar bears or a melting glacier.

A policy advocate for Sierra Club California based in Sacramento, Brandon seeks to change these perceptions, working to address the concerns of communities of color in particular, so that the movement will work for people like him and the communities he comes from.

“Growing up in Texas, I saw environmental pollution by oil refineries in Houston and how communities of color are harmed by industries that aren’t accountable to our needs,” says Brandon. “I saw the high prevalence of asthma among people of color because of the pollution in their neighborhoods.”

During college, Brandon got involved with a student environmental organization, noticing he was one of the only people of color involved, though the issues they worked on disproportionately affected communities of color. He became educated about environmental justice movements working at the intersection of race, equity, and the environment.

Brandon deepened his commitment to working on environmental issues, getting a law degree and working in Washington, DC, and most recently moving to California to become a state policy advocate with Sierra Club.

“California is the most progressive state in the country, not just on environmental issues, but social justice more generally,” says Brandon. “I wanted to learn about everything going on here, to advocate for environmental justice for communities of color across the state.”

At Sierra Club, Brandon puts the concerns of communities of color front and center. He partnered with the California Environmental Justice Alliance, the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, and Clean Water Action on advocating for sustainable funding for safe and affordable drinking water for communities of color and low-income communities. In partnership with these organizations, he focused on working with communities who have historically experienced water pollution due to agricultural run-off, including harmful nitrates and other toxic pollutants in drinking water.

“This is important because a lot of times communities can’t even use the water from their sinks for drinking, showering, or simply brushing their teeth,” explains Brandon. “These communities have to use bottled water, which is expensive and creates yet one more environmental problem.”

With the support of Sierra Club and its network, Brandon was able to support the coalition’s tireless efforts over the past few years to help pass Senate Bill 200 in summer 2019. The legislation will create a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund to ensure more than 1 million Californians access safe and affordable drinking water.

“A lot of the work we did was making sure affected communities were at the table,” says Brandon of the legislative victory.

Brandon also advocates for increased funding for parks in communities of color and low-income communities that often lack access to green spaces so they can enjoy nature and experience clean air.

“I want to make sure urban communities that don’t necessarily always see parks and forests are able to access and appreciate the value of the land that they grew up near and on,” Brandon said. “A lot of people view environmentalism as an older white generational issue, when the reality is, our communities also require clean water, clean air, and access to nature. There’s value in making sure younger people of color are dedicated to this cause.”

Brandon’s efforts include upholding the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which ensures all public and private projects abide by environmental standards and consider their environmental impact. He recently partnered with state and local environmental justice groups to stop legislation that would have weakened community participation in the application of CEQA environmental impact assessments.

“We have to equip communities with the most information possible so they will know exactly what’s going on in their neighborhoods and communities,” says Brandon, “since that will affect their environment and their overall health.”

Brandon says that while he understands the value of hope in motivating people to do this work, for him, the motivation is imagining the worst-case scenario, and doing everything he can to stop it.

“I understand we need optimism, and to have hope. But, for me, I work off of pessimism,” says Brandon. “I want to prevent some of the worst-case scenarios that activists and scientists have been predicting for our planet. We all need to come together to be proactive and build toward a healthy, vibrant world for our kids and for our future.”

Brandon Dawson is a policy advocate for Sierra Club California based in Sacramento.

Resources

#Census2020 — How the Voice of the Latino Community Will Shape the Future of California

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Northern California

“Each individual’s civic engagement – big or small – matters as that’s where the power starts.”

Christian Arana, Policy Director at the Latino Community Foundation, talks about his work across the state to galvanize the Latino vote, why the Census is so important for the state’s largest ethnic group, how he defines leadership and who gives him hope.

What is the vision that drives you personally or professionally?

Everything begins at home for me. I learned about the concept of social justice, doing the right thing, stepping up when it requires it from my parents. They left Guatemala at the height of the Civil War. I can only imagine the moment when they looked at each other and said “we have to get out of here”. From that moment, they worked hard to make sure my two brothers and I had every opportunity imaginable. Their grit and sacrifice is why I could go to Georgetown and get my masters at U.C. Berkeley. I am cognizant that opportunities like these for people of color and boys and men of color in particular are few, which is what led me to do the work that I do today. A major focal point of my job is to make sure that people are filling out the 2020 Census so, through that process, they have a voice. Each individual’s civic engagement – big or small – matters as that’s where the power starts.

Tell us about the work that you do with the Latino Community Foundation, and what drew you to this role/organization?

Everyone deserves the opportunity to have good healthcare, a good job and quality education. Yet, for Latinos and boys and men of color, there is a missed connection between what we deserve and the process that needs to get us there. When I came onboard, the Latino Community Foundation was digging deep into the fact that if we get Latinos civically engaged, policies, policymakers and the Capitol will look like us and give us the rights we need. While we are seeing much appreciated rapid response funds left and right in the age of the coronavirus, it is changing structures and systems that will bring real change, and this is exactly why we need the Census. It is because of the Latino community that California is one of the largest economies in the world. If we begin to imagine where we would be if every person of color had the chance to participate, and raise these stories and narratives of who really drives the state, we would see an even more successful California.

What’s your main focus at the moment, personally and professionally, and why is it important to you?

When I see injustices in the world, I want to use my skills and privileges to change them. Currently, my focus is to make sure that every single Latino is counted in the Census. Across the country, we are celebrating people like doctors and nurses. Through accurate Census data, we can make sure that, in the future, they have the funds and resources to do their work.

The second thing that I am heavily focused on is the upcoming election and getting people out to vote. The Latino Community Foundation held the first primary debate that focused on the interests in Latino population. I don’t just want to register Latino voters as passive participants. I want them to be informed and to feel empowered to hold their leaders accountable.

Finally, we are making sure that policies at the state level take into account the Latino community. When Gavin Newsom became governor, we wrote the California Latino Agenda because it is no longer acceptable to leave out Latino people in any line item or policy agenda. You can’t talk about issue areas like prison reform, environmental justice or healthcare without talking about and centering the Latino community.

Why is the Census so important for Latino communities and for California? What do people need to know? How can people get involved in this work?

When you are counted, you get political representation and resources for your community. I always give people the tangible example of when the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010: the Act passed by two votes and, because California was counted accurately in a previous Census, the state essentially defined healthcare once and for all. Our community deserves as many votes as possible so they can shape policy.

How do you define leadership? Could you tell us about a leader you admire.

Jorge Ramos, who moderated the debate in 2018 for having the courage to speak the truth. We have to level with people and say the honest thing. At the end of the day, no one is going to fault any leader for being transparent and open. Our people deserve the truth, especially during a time when we need information to stay healthy and safe, and need information that is accurate. We see leadership fall apart when lies are told and, for me, Jorge is someone who always seeks the truth.

What are some of the challenges or barriers that stand in the way of civic engagement or civic participation for communities of color and boys and men of color?

One of the challenges is funding for the work because everything costs money. There is so much work that needs to happen, and we need to continue funding groups that have an emphasis on boys and men of color. In return, we would see boys and men of color having the confidence to use their voice in a constructive way and participating in our democracy.

Additionally, boys and men of color not having support services is a major barrier – not having a counselor, mentor or hero. When you constantly hear about how schools or organizations don’t have the resources to do their work, it has a ripple effect on how we care about these students. Having resources can have a transformative effect. We can’t wait for money to come down the pipeline. We have to take charge by participating in the Census or voting for people who would be a champion for these communities.

What are some of the solutions that you are working toward or would like to see?

Extension of MediCal to undocumented populations across the state. Back in March, we commissioned a poll in advance of the primaries, and healthcare was the number one issue for Latinos in California. This is now the third poll that we’ve done that has consistently shown the number one issue our community cares about is healthcare. Having healthcare is having peace of mind. We need to move quickly as a state to live up to our values, including extending healthcare to our elderly undocumented population. These are the tangible things that would create stability for families and individuals – because when you don’t need to constantly worry about how you would pay for healthcare, you can focus on living your life.

What inspires you or gives you hope?

Nonprofit leaders, who are some of the most courageous and bravest people I know. One of our grantees, Armando who runs an organization in Fresno, took it upon himself to go buy food to get it to the families that were most in need when the shelter in place was announced. This idea that we don’t have to wait around to start helping people – that we don’t need to write another report or do more research. We know what the problems are in our community, and we have leaders who have been trying to enact the solutions. Even without the adequate resources, they are able to do so much impact.

In my position at LCF, I try everyday to use my voice and position to elevate their stories so they can be invested in. How Armando is supporting his community, particularly farm workers in the Central Valley, will have a profound effect across the state, and it’s unfortunate that it took a pandemic for people to see this.

Resources:

Latino Community Foundation – 2020 Census