Marién is the founder of Taller Tambuyé, an organization that celebrates the art of Puerto Rican bomba—a musical form that is native to the island and deeply rooted in resistance.
Tag Archives: community organizing
Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018 Convenes Education and Youth Justice Organizers, Advocates and Funders in San Juan, Puerto Rico One Year After Hurricane Maria
Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018 (EASJ2018) is a unique education and youth justice convening co-hosted by Andrus Family Fund (AFF) and the Communities for Just Schools Fund (CJSF) that will elevate the collective genius of organizers, advocates and youth who have dedicated their lives to creating safe and supportive schools, closing youth jails and prisons, ending the criminalization of and violence against young people of color, and transforming education and youth justice systems. The 2018 convening will be held at La Concha Resort in San Juan, Puerto Rico October 11-14.
EASJ2018 offers a unique opportunity to bring these diverse voices together in one space to create impactful, contextual change and align strategies to address structural racism and inequality in schools, youth systems, and communities. Additionally, EASJ2018 will explore the ways in which communities are building collective power to end the criminalization of youth of color and advance new models of transformative justice that seek to abolish cages and prisons.
Leading up to EASJ2018, participating organizations sought to create space for solidarity-building and education around the global fight against disaster capitalism and colonialism in Puerto Rico and beyond. On August 11, 2018, youth justice organizers from the continental United States joined organizers and cultural workers from Puerto Rico and the diaspora in New Orleans to unpack the economic and social realities of Puerto Rico pre- and post-Maria. EASJ2018 will give participants another opportunity to collaborate, build connections and engage in shared movement-building strategies.
“EASJ2018 gives attendees a chance to step away from the incredible work they are doing every day in their communities and on the state level, and share it with others in this space,” said Jaime Koppel, Deputy Director for Strategic Partnerships, Communities for Just Schools Fund.
In an effort to amplify the growing movement against privatized education in Puerto Rico, EASJ2018 will lift up the work of a select group of Puerto Rico-based educator organizers, who are mobilizing to save public schools in the midst of a massive wave of school closures and resisting efforts to privatize public education on the island. EASJ2018 programming will address topics such as Puerto Rican colonialism and resistance, police-free schools, investing in public education and organizing youth-led movements.
Additionally, EASJ2018 will provide an opportunity for cultural exchange and self-care among attendees through workshops and community learning tours.
“This is a movement that highlights the building of power among those who have systematically been denied power and celebrates the genius of those at the center of the struggle,” adds Koppel.
Why Puerto Rico
The historical disinvestment in Puerto Rico is structural and historical in nature after more than a century of colonial status. Therefore, the inequities in Puerto Rico are not a result of Hurricane Maria but were exacerbated by it. The day before the storm:
- 6 in 10 children in Puerto Rico were living in poverty.
- Puerto Rico had a poverty rate that was almost double the poorest state in the United States.
- The median family income in Puerto Rico was $20,438, which is half of the lowest median income in the poorest state of the U.S.
“The fact that EASJ2018 is taking place in Puerto Rico one year after Hurricane Maria is very intentional. We know that solutions to youth justice and education in Puerto Rico are found from within. Those closest to the problems have the best ideas on how to solve them. So we are entering the communities of Puerto Rico with the understanding that we know nothing and we are here to learn everything. And, that we can bring resources and learnings from different parts of the United States to create fertile ground for real, collaborative work,” said Leticia Peguero, Executive Director, Andrus Family Fund.
EASJ2018 will provide attendees with an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the struggles for racial justice, education, and youth justice in Puerto Rico. EASJ2018 will feature speakers, organizers, healers and artists from Puerto Rico as well as community learning tours, where attendees will experience the work of local organizations first hand.
“The time is now to lift the veil of invisibility and work together with our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters to enact inclusive, sustainable change,” Peguero adds.
About Education Anew: Shifting Justice (EASJ)
Co-hosted by Andrus Family Fund and Communities for Just Schools Fund, EASJ is an entirely female-led biennial convening that bridges education and youth justice organizers, advocates and funders. The 2018 convening will be held at La Concha Resort in San Juan, Puerto Rico October 11-14 and will include visits to a number of community organizations working in the area. Learn more about Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018 at http:///www.educationanew.org.
For media inquiries, contact Mary Tveit, mtveit@soldesignco.com or 404-432-5067
Out Of The Margins: Planting the Seeds of Liberation
In this episode, we speak with Xiomara Caro Díaz, Director of New Organizing Projects at the Center for Popular Democracy and Advisory Committee member of the Maria Fund. Hear how Díaz, a “community connector,” works to support individuals and social movements struggling against broken systems and policies in Puerto Rico, pre- and post-Hurricane Maria.
Author Mayra Santos-Febres at Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018
Puerto Rican author Mayra Santos-Febres shares her vision for the future of Puerto Rico and why Hurricane Maria was actually a blessing at Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018.
Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018 Trailer
Enjoy the trailer for Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2018!
Learning Session: Career Development, Entrepreneurship & Economic Supports for Vulnerable Youth
AFF’s learning sessions are an opportunity to highlight the work of our grantees and other leaders in the field, as well as a chance to help convene funders and practitioners to continue learning. Through these sessions, we seek to create a learning community that can help advance effective practices in service of all young people.
Learn how nonprofits, city government and businesses are working together to create pathways and build supports that help formerly incarcerated or foster care youth access viable, living wage training and jobs.
Panelists will highlight collaborations across sectors, the supports youth require to access and succeed at employment, and the organizing, policy, and entrepreneurship initiatives they are undertaking to continue connecting youth to short- and long-term employment.
Speakers include:
- David Fischer, the founding Executive Director of the NYC Center for Youth Employment. He leads efforts to expand, improve and align publicly supported programs to help youth and young adults gain work experience, add skills and explore potential career paths.
- Marjorie Parker, the President and CEO at JobsFirstNYC. She has over 20 years of professional experience providing oversight of adult and youth services initiatives, and serving as an organizational consultant.
- Gregg Croteau, UTEC‘s first Chief Executive Officer. He has overseen the growth of the agency from a grassroots safe haven to a nationally recognized youth development agency.
- Noah Schectman, the Director of Evaluation and Learning at More Than Words, a non-profit social enterprise that empowers youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
- José García, a program officer on the Future of Work team at the Ford Foundation. Prior to joining Ford, he served as program officer for Strong Local Economies at the Surdna Foundation, where he led the design and implementation of a $4 million grant-making portfolio to spur business development and acceleration while focusing on quality job and wealth creation.
Out Of The Margins: Fighting Harsh Immigration in Arizona
Frederick Douglass told us that “if there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Our guests in this episode of Out Of The Margins embody that sentiment. Join us as we speak with Ernesto Lopez and Leidy Robledo of Puente Movement as they fight for the humanity of immigrants in Arizona.
“El Negro Bembón:” Puerto Rico’s Invisibility Crisis Before and After Hurricane Maria
I am yet again drawn to the musical wisdom of Afro-Boriqua singer Ismael Rivera and composer Cortijo as I reflect on a national crisis. While its melody is upbeat and beautiful, “El Negro Bembón” does not convey the seriousness of the song’s message. “El Negro Bembón” tells us the story of a black man who is murdered. When questioned by a black policeman, the killer unapologetically admits he killed the man because he has big lips—“un bembón” in Spanish. The lyrics also allude to lynchings and the coping mechanisms communities of color have had to create and endure when faced with acts of violence. It is a song of consciousness rising and political satire that feels extremely relevant, even though it is quite old.
These days, when I listen to “El Negro Bembón” it feels as if the song was written for this very moment. It is the story of the targeting and hypervisibility of a community, or parts of a community, when a certain narrative is at play. This hypervisibility, which lives concurrently with the invisibility of communities of color, is the conundrum of racism: We are either completely visible and, therefore, vulnerable in ways that do not reflect our humanity or invisible, even when in plain sight. This is the story of so many of our brothers who have been overpoliced because of who they are. It is also the story that we are watching unfold in response to the brown and black citizens in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico’s invisibility did not begin with Hurricane Maria but has been highlighted by it. I have been reminding my funding colleagues—who are worried about the current environmental devastation and humanitarian crisis—that as important as it is to give money today, it is just as important to remember that this is not without context and history. It is true that Puerto Rico is living through the by-product of ever-stronger storms and, sadly, was in the path of a hurricane like we have not seen in a long time. Thus, disaster relief is needed and should be immediate. This type of philanthropic response allows us to feel useful and compassionate. Yet, it can also allow us to look away from the U.S. relationship—that is a relic of imperialism—that continues to allow Puerto Rico to remain invisible to the funding and philanthropic communities. The historical disinvestment in Puerto Ricans here (on the mainland) and on the island is structural and historical in nature. It is deeply steeped in a relationship that does not allow representation among the political forces that shape budget allocations and nation states.
Can we, in philanthropy, do both? Can we focus on the many who have lost everything because of Hurricane Maria, while at the same time, do like my colleague Eduardo Carrera of the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico asks us to do and “talk about the day before the storm?” The day before Hurricane Maria, 6 in 10 children in Puerto Rico were living in poverty. The day before the storm, Puerto Rico had a poverty rate that was almost double the poorest state in the United States. The day before the storm, median family income in Puerto Rico was $20,438, which is half of the lowest median income in the poorest state on the mainland. This is important data to lift up because as we in the philanthropic community look at the devastation, I urge us not to fall into the faux philanthropy trap. We know what those traps are—those pesky grants that ask organizations to deliver community level change without considering context or history or a clear understanding of how historical structural inequities need responses that take those inequities into account.
I urge us to ask the hard questions that will make us uncomfortable and hit at the heart of what it is that we are here to do in philanthropy. I hope that we can ask questions that beg us to look deep into the history of inequality and colonialism that has allowed us to turn a blind eye to an island that did not ask to be colonized. Our moment to act is now, and the now that we are responding to is a natural disaster which has been exacerbated by man-made conditions spanning more than a century. It is time we give Puerto Rico the philanthropic visibility it needs to not only survive, but also thrive.
For a deeper dive into the current and historical crises in Puerto Rico, please listen to the latest episode of our Out Of The Margins podcast (available on iTunes, Stitcher and Soundcloud), when I am joined in this conversation by Senator Gustavo Rivera (New York’s 33rd District), Eduardo Carrera, President of the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico and Amanda Rivera of the Institute for Youth Development in Puerto Rico.
Out Of The Margins: Crisis in Puerto Rico
*Recorded on October 6, 2017*
Two weeks after Hurricane Maria ravaged the United States territory of Puerto Rico, the island is experiencing a humanitarian crisis of historic proportion. In this episode, we explore the crisis facing the island before the storm hit and what needs to be done to rebuild Puerto Rico in the best interest of its citizens.
Leticia Peguero, Andrus Family Fund’s Executive Director (and proud Boriqua) is joined by New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Boys & Girls of Puerto Rico President Eduardo Carrera and Amanda Rivera, Executive Director of the Institute for Youth Development in Puerto Rico.
“Las Caras Lindas”: A reflection on Charlottesville and white supremacy
My favorite rendition of the song, “Las Caras Lindas,” is by Afro-Boricua icon and singer Ismael Rivera. Translated literally, he calls us to love “the beautiful faces of my black people.” He tells us that they are filled with love and with poetry. He sings that he is filled with happiness when black faces walk in front of him even though he knows that they are also filled with pain and the reality of life. “Maelo,” as he was known, draws me in when he sings about how proud he is of his blackness.
Since Saturday, I have contemplated what to say publicly about what took place in Charlottesville, if anything at all. My colleagues—white, black and brown—have offered their words of solidarity with racial justice movements and with democracy. Although I appreciate the words, I have become worried as I read them. I appreciate the show of support for the right side of justice and for black and brown people everywhere. And yet, my worry is bigger than my appreciation.
There are moments that are markers in time for us as people and as a nation. I see this as one of those moments. Not because of the racist violence that took place in Charlottesville and not because the current person in the White House reminded us of what we have always known about him—but because the veil that has allowed us to publicly deny the perniciousness of racism in this country has been lifted. We continue to deny it at our own risk.
My worry comes from the American tradition of forgetting and wanting moments to be without history and context. I worry that this moment makes it all too easy to point to the young white men carrying the swastikas and confederate flags who are driving terrorism into crowds and say they are the “white supremacists,” the faces of “evil and oppression.” While surely they came with their torches and guns to intimidate and hurt—aren’t these the faces of something that we have lived before? The American tradition of forgetting would have us say this is a new brand of hate, angst or something not yet named. I say NO.
The American tradition of forgetting would have us ask each other and ourselves: “How is this happening? This is not the America I know!” The American tradition of forgetting will soon have us say that the march this past weekend (and the marches to come) was white supremacy in its clearest manifestation. I would say that just as scary is how this racism lives in our stories, our narratives, our psyches and our institutions.
We run the risk of spending our time obsessed with the Steve Bannons of the world and not paying enough attention to how we perform white supremacy in our practices, our daily lives, in our policies and protocols. We run the risk of not interrogating the quiet everyday actions that give it breath and life. We run the risk of absolving ourselves of the biggest responsibility to be and create change because of the rally we attended, a picture from that rally we felt compelled to post on social media or the letter we sent to our professional community.
While I am afraid of the lynch mob, I am just as afraid of the institutional and structural nature of white supremacy in action—that sees my hair, my body and my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as a threat. It is white supremacy that consistently questions my name and is constantly intrigued by how a first-generation Afro-Latina, who did not speak English until first grade, runs a philanthropic institution. It is white supremacy built into policies that sends police in riot gear with weapons of war when brown and black people are protesting peacefully, and that continues to fill prisons with brown and black bodies at a disproportionate rate to our representation in this country. It is white supremacy that wants to believe in and litigate “reverse discrimination” in college admissions while denying a Black Yale law school graduate, who used his time of incarceration to fight for justice, acceptance into the Connecticut Bar. It is white supremacy that forgets the past.
So, my response is to remember—really try to remember instead of forget. I say, let’s remember America in all its greatness and all its truths and legacies. To fill my spirit, like Maelo did so many years ago, I will find resistance and love in “las caras lindas de mi gente negra…”
Capacity Building Through Deep Listening: Introducing SOAR
After more than three years of deep listening to our grantee partners, we are excited to launch a new capacity-building program called SOAR: Sustaining Organizations; Augmenting Resilience. Here are some answers about our new program.
What is the goal of SOAR?
SOAR is our new program that aims to strengthen organizational effectiveness and the capacity of AFF’s partners, the field at large and to help inform how philanthropy supports organizations that work on behalf of young people. We hope to help create a significant change in one target area of each organization that will allow them to heighten and sustain their impact.
With SOAR, we are committing to strengthening these organizations for the long haul. We know that it will take time. It is important to not only provide grants or typical philanthropic funding, but also collaboration and support to build resilience.
What is the relationship between philanthropy and capacity building?
The notion that organizations need help with their capacity has been happening for a long time, so investing in capacity building is not new to the philanthropic sector. The way in which we are designing SOAR is what we think is new, nimble and innovative. We took our time on the front end to talk with our grantee partners about their goals and opportunities and challenges for growth. They developed their own assessments and identified goals targeting the issues they want to address. Therefore, SOAR is a grantee-led outcome of deep listening and engagement. Many other funders dictate from top down or they give money and get out of the way. The typical model misses the opportunity for learning and deep engagement.
What are some common challenges your grantee partners face?
Strategic communication for community organizing is one. Young people are connected to social media but sometimes disconnected from political action. Some of our grantee partners will work within SOAR to train their first communication directors, incorporating technology for social justice change.
Another major issue facing community-organizing groups is burnout. SOAR will address early staff burnout, lack of long-term career engagement in organizing and the limited pool of viable long-term leaders that result from this burnout. Focusing on staff wellness can also extend out into the community. AFF’s grantee partners are exploring the role of trauma-informed wellness and healing practices within community-police relations.
Universal Partnership is training grantees and somatic-based leadership development in order to address questions critical to their campaigns. Questions such as: How can New Orleans police and justice systems develop trauma-informed policies and practices that consider the unique needs of LGBT youth and promote healing? These organizations are clear that they have to address trauma within its members and then in the community in order to transform it from the inside out. This is an emerging ask from the field of organizing.
Another opportunity for some grantee partners is program design and evaluation. A few of our grantee partners are doing work in their local communities that can have a national impact. One of them works with young people in the foster care system to support them in graduating from college. SOAR will help them evaluate which programs can be replicated to support foster youth nationwide.
Other challenges we’re addressing through SOAR are strategic financial planning and human resource capabilities, both of which have huge impacts on the life and fiscal health of an organization and their employees
Finally, we are working closely with three grantee partners to build second tier leadership, like assistant directors. Many organizations fold when the first executive director leaves. We want to groom the second generation so the transition is seamless.
How does SOAR work?
SOAR is currently a one-year grant to consultants and providers that work with our partners.s we expand, SOAR investment should span a couple of years. In June 2018, providers and grantees will learn what was effective, and how these learnings can be diffused with the field at large to further strengthen organizations serving vulnerable youth.
How does SOAR allow AFF to better fulfill its mission?
AFF’s mission seeks to foster just and sustainable change in the United States. We do this by supporting organizations that advance social justice and improve outcomes for vulnerable youth. AFF is committed to helping grow the effectiveness and impact of organizations serving vulnerable youth because they are often the only sources of support system-impacted youth have. Through SOAR, AFF is better positioned to deepening our learning and responding to our grantees’ needs. Engaging in close partnerships help solve the problems organizations face as they tackle changing systems, laws and improving the lived experiences of youth. This intimate partnership is more likely to contribute to new thinking and approaches that can have a rippling effect in the field of philanthropy and social justice. We look forward to working with our funder colleagues in continuing the conversation of engaging deeply with our partners to help build their capacity.
Coming Together for Justice: Kim McGill
Organizer Kim McGill of the Youth Justice Coalition shares her thoughts on the importance and challenges of “freedom fighter” work at Education Anew: Shifting Justice 2016.