
City of Coachella and CHOC Break Ground on Placita Dolores Huerta
read more at https://newsdirect.com
read more at https://newsdirect.com
read more: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/acting-governor-declares-april-10-dolores-huerta-day/
In honor of #MayDay our organizers along with community members marched the streets of Fresno & Tulare standing in solidarity while commemorating the efforts and victories of Workers & Immigrants Rights around the world. May Day is not recognized as a holiday in the United States, however, we at DHF will continue to honor and celebrate it as such. Learn more about the history of May Day in the video below. #SíSePuede
Please check out the latest issue of the Dolores Huerta Foundation’s Vecinos Unidos® Newsletter to learn more about the important gains and accomplishments that DHF Vecinos made this year. Big thanks to all of the esteemed volunteers and generous community members who make this work possible!
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Letter from the Executive Director
The San Joaquin Valley has seen many injustices within the past few years, which is why we continue to mobilize and empower communities with COVD-19 resources and services, health equity education, and tools to combat systemic racism. Through it all, we triumph working with community members like you. Throughout the last year, we continued to fight against COVID-19 and together with our partners we have provided direct assistance to our communities and administered over 7,000 vaccinations. The effort against COVID-19 continues and we ask that if you or someone you know needs assistance in finding a vaccination site or registering for an appointment, please call us at: 661-383-2588.
As we look forward to the coming months and all the work that is yet to be done, we are strengthened by the knowledge that together we’ll continue to make important changes in our communities. We look forward to organizing alongside you for the upcoming elections on Tuesday, June 7th (primary election) and Tuesday, November 8, 2022 (general election). Holding elected officials accountable is our right and responsibility. If you are eligible to vote, please make sure to register and visit www.sos.ca.gov to update your information and learn more about how you can get involved. Even if you can’t vote, you can help educate voters in your neighborhood.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you. Our solidarity is our strength. Si Se Puede!
The Impact Fund and Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability hosted their 3rd annual Clean Water Forum in Bakersfield on April 1-2. The free two-day conference brought together practitioners, experts, and community groups to engage in strategic conversations regarding the state of water litigation, with a particular focus on work that can affect communities in California’s Central Valley. Dolores Huerta sent this greeting and call to action for those attending.
Redistricting determines if residents have fair representation in government and whether their representatives will reflect their interests. District lines can keep a community together or split it apart, thus leaving it without a representative who feels responsible for its concerns.
Join us as we urge the Panama Buena Vista School District to choose maps that will better serve the students in the area. The current maps that are being proposed are unacceptable and do not offer proper representation and equity for the surrounding community. Hold the school board accountable, fight for fair maps tonight 3/29/22 @ 5pm Panama Buena Vista School District 4200 Ashe Rd Bakersfield.
For more information on how to review the proposed maps, please visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pQE99p6O4L9IVC_30oMaGW8_WCmNPVd12sotxE7n1pA/edit?usp=sharing
Legendary organizer and activist Dolores Huerta grew up in an integrated community in Stockton, Calif. As a schoolteacher, she noticed that her students, many of whom were children of farm workers, were living in poverty. It was this realization that led Huerta to quit teaching and organize a path to create change.
In the 1950s, Huerta met Cesar Chavez. Together, they organized agricultural workers to demand better working conditions and higher wages and co-founded the United Farm Workers in 1962. More than 60 years into her activism, she continues to speak out as President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Huerta joins host Tetiana Anderson to reflect on her journey to transform labor rights in America.
For more information, please contact cgomez@doloreshuerta.org
This week, The James Irvine Foundation announced that our Co-Founder and Executive Director Camila Chávez was named as one of the 2022 Leadership Award recipients. The Award comes with a $250,000 grant to continue the Dolores Huerta Foundation’s work of strengthening underrepresented communities by training and inspiring the next generation of leaders. Learn more by visiting https://irvineawards.org/award-recipient/camila-chavez/
Help us spread the word so we can inspire new audiences to support DHF’s work. You can share our video and other graphics found here on social media and with your networks.
[CORRECTION: ***Equitable Maps Coalition]
read more: https://californianewstimes.com/city-council-faces-disapproval-on-redistricting-process/660170/
Read more at https://californianewstimes.com/local-organizations-giving-pandemic-resources-to-residents/655870/
MEDIA CONTACT:
Fabiola DeCaratachea
Communications Director
PH: (559) 816-2780
Fdecaratachea@doloreshuerta.org
Cualquier persona de 5 años o más puede recibir la vacuna COVID-19, independientemente de su seguro o estado migratorio. Registrarse para su vacuna COVID-19 para volver a hacer las cosas que amas con las personas que amas. Visite myturn.ca.gov para obtener más información.
#Influenza & #COVID19 can be life threatening to people with preexisting consequences. According to WHO the new #Covid-19 #omicron variant is spreading faster than any previous strain. We care about the community which is why we encourage you to get #vaccinated against #COVID19 and #influenza this season. If you are a vulnerable group, please get educated, get informed, get #vaccinated. Find a #Vaccine near you at: myturn.ca.gov
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This year DHF LYFE & Livin’ LYFE Youth Program members participated in Arte Americas Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead celebration in Fresno, California (with a limited showcase and COVID-19 safety precautions in place.) DHF Youth Organizers form their curriculum with a critical lens on history and intersectionality. Youth members created an altar of hand painted frames to honor and feature the 49 individuals that were lost at Pulse Nightclub, in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016, in a mass shooting targeting the LGBTQI+ community. It was named one of the deadliest incidents in the history of violence against queer people in the United States. Hate has no place in this world, we extend our hearts to the families affected and to the folks who continue to battle being themselves in today’s world.
The youth not only learned about the tragedy of that night, but the personal stories and the light these individuals shined on the world while they were with us. They joined the frames of couples that died that night together w/ a bracelet to signify their everlasting love.
The youth want to educate their peers and uninformed adults that the LGBTQI+ community has a rich history and life stories of love, joy and courage. This ofrenda provided the community with a piece that demonstrated the passion, beauty, diversity, and the love in the lives of the 49 victims prior to the events at the Pulse Nightclub Latin Night. They wanted to show how many positive experiences of the LGBTQI+ Hispanic community are found through dance, poetry and creation of safe havens.
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Need a reason to celebrate? DHF has got you! DHF staff, volunteers, Vecinos Unidos® members, and partner organizations, with the help of our generous donors and supporters from around the world, were able to secure significant legislative wins. This is what People Power looks like!
SB 380 End Of Life Options Act – This is a major step forward in respect for patient autonomy and relief of suffering for terminally ill Californians. It reduces the mandatory minimum 15-day waiting period between the two oral requests for aid-in-dying medication to 48 hours for all eligible patients.
SB 721 California Farmworker Day – Establishes a day to honor California’s’s roughly 800,000 farmworkers – essential workers – who play a vital role in maintaining our food supply and whose work is more critical than ever during the pandemic.
SB 393 Farmworker Access to Childcare Act – Directs resources to the Migrant Child Care Alternative Payment Program so that such workers can gain access to child care in any county in the state of California.
SB 497 Direct Deposits to Qualifying Accounts, Overdraft Features – Closes a loophole that allows non-bank prepaid card companies to evade California laws that prohibit overdraft fees on prepaid cards used to receive public assistance, unemployment compensation, and/or state distributed child support payments.
SB 81 Judicial Guidelines for Sentence Enhancements – Establishes guidance when a California judge is deciding whether to dismiss an enhancement (policies that mandate that people who are convicted of criminalized behaviors while engaging in generally non-criminalized behaviors—such as being in a school zone—or having generally non-criminalized traits—such as having a prior conviction—receive longer and surer sentences) by requiring judges to give “great weight” to evidence that proves certain mitigating circumstances, such as: The underlying conviction is not a violent felony.
SB 224 Pupil Instruction Mental Health Education – Requires each Californiaschool district, county office of education, state special school, and charter school that offers one or more courses in health education to pupils in middle school or high school to include course instruction on mental health.
AB 701 Warehouse Worker Protections – Prohibits a California employer from taking adverse action against an employee for failure to meet a quota that has not been disclosed or for failure to meet a quota that does not allow a worker to comply with meal or rest periods or occupational health and safety laws.
AB 1096 Removing “Alien” from State Law – Removes the word ‘alien’ from California laws when referring to noncitizens
SB 757 Home weatherization for Low Income – Creates better transparency in the solar energy systems sales process and enhances California consumer protection.
SB 62 Garment Worker Protection – Prohibits the practice of piece-rate compensation for garment manufacturing in California, except in the case of worksites covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement. Furthermore, garment manufacturers who contract with another person for the performance of garment manufacturing would be required to jointly and individually share civil liability for all workers in that other person’s employ.
AB 796 CA Motor Voter Program – Will help create a more representative democracy and ensure that California’s DMV’s voter registration process is efficient, fair, and secure.
None of this work is possible without supporters like you, so please take a moment to celebrate our collective wins and know that we are grateful for all you do to strengthen our community.
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Creating fair district lines is a critical tool our communities have to reclaim their voting power. For many communities of color throughout the nation, historical gerrymandering allows their elected representatives to choose their voters in their district, rather than allowing the voters to elect their representatives in fair and lawful elections. This practice of gerrymandering has disenfranchised underrepresented communities and diluted their voting power. Our communities are standing up and demanding that county officials adhere to the process as outlined in the Federal Fair Maps Act. Community leaders like Tammy Tyler refuse to be shut out of the process and are working to make sure that the voice of her community is not only heard, but that their involvement leads to concrete changes. For Tammy, redrawing the district lines is personal. “A lot is at stake for the community of California City, California,” Tammy states, “The system has failed the black and brown communities for so long that we have lost faith and it made us believe that we have lost power.” Tammy says that all changed when she met DHF Organizer Carol Watkins. It was then that she “woke up” and took her power back empowered with tools and knowledge she gained through a series of educational redistricting workshops. According to Tammy, “We don’t even have a hospital here. Our roads are bumpy when the ones in the white neighborhoods are nice and smooth.” She understands the lack of resources and funding for communities of color is rooted in racist practices that our communities work to dismantle.
California City is not alone. The DHF plans to continue addressing redistricting issues in the Central & Antelope Valleys in partnership with community leaders and other organizations that make up the Equitable Maps Coalition (EMC). Using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, DHF is working to create maps that display newly proposed boundaries. GIS mapping makes the data visible and easier to comprehend the social inequities in Central Valley communities. With your support, DHF has been able to mobilize folks in the Central Valley and support leaders like Rubi Colmenares, one of many community members who have collectively submitted hours of comments and feedback at board of supervisor meetings. Rubi shared, “I felt good, because I had the opportunity to express what I had in mind and I was being heard.” “It was so beautiful to hear from every community in Kern to come to a universal agreement, especially in the most misrepresented and underserved communities,” said Gabriela Fernandez, DHF Youth Program Manager.
DHF has faced strong opposition in Fresno and Tulare as in Kern County, and the fight for equitable representation is just starting. Each area has gained a tremendous amount of support for the EMC maps. Over 1,200 people signed petitions in agreement that these maps presented the best options for fair representation. Vecinos Unidos® member, Mirna Elvir says, “It was a very important moment for me being able to express myself to the people who have power to resolve the different problems that communities have, especially the community of Lamont.”On December 4, 2021 DHF joined forces with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 521, Central California Coalition for Equitable Redistricting (CCCER), Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN), Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) Central Valley Leadership Round Table (CVLRT), Cultiva de Salud, Central Valley Progressive PAC, Central Labor Council (CLC), Communities for a New California (CNC), Strength Based Community Change (SBCC) and Central Valley Partnership to lead a “Redistricting March for Our Future” in Fresno, California. Hundreds of supporters took to the streets to urge Redistricting Commissions to adhere to the redistricting criteria and ensure that community voices are heard. We marched in solidarity to demand fair maps, improved public services, and more COVID rescue funds for our Central Valley communities. Join us in DEMANDING redistricting commissions to adopt an equitable map at assembly, senate and congressional levels. Demand that your elected representatives know where you are located and what is important to you and those in your community by giving public comments at your local redistricting hearings. For more information, please contact Eliana at ehoneycutt@doloreshuerta.org or Californians may visit www.wedrawthelinesca.org
Please check out the latest issue of the Dolores Huerta Foundation’s Weaving Movements Newsletter to learn more about the important gains and accomplishments we made this year. Big thanks to all of our esteemed volunteers and generous donors who make this work possible!
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To read more about The Fight for Fair Maps! visit: https://www.doloreshuerta.org/2021-fall-wmnl-the-fight-for-fair-maps/
To read more about People Powered Legislative Wins, visit: https://www.doloreshuerta.org/2021-fall-wmnl-people-powered-legislative-wins/
To read more about DHF Youth Honor Día de los Muertos and the LGBTQI+ Community, visit: https://www.doloreshuerta.org/2021-fall-wmnl-dhf-youth-honor-dia-de-los-muertos-and-the-lgbtqi-community/
Letter from the Executive Director
Dear DHF Family,
The last two years have been trying. While we have all faced loss and grief, we also came together in ways that inspired us all. You’ll find reasons throughout this newsletter, to celebrate Vecinos Unidos®, youth and most of all, PEOPLE POWER! Our Vecinos Unidos® members, youth and greater community secured legislative wins that we can all be proud of. You’ll learn about the herculean efforts we are collectively making with our partner organizations to ensure that the voices of historically disenfranchised communities are centered through the redistricting process. I hope you, like me, will also be inspired by the ways our youth continue to lead with their hearts. I wish you all a season filled with love for justice and joy in all that can be achieved when people are empowered to pursue social justice!
¡Si Se Puede!
Camila Chavez
Executive Director
Download your own copy here: https://b51e2b.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-Fall-WMNL.pdf