Speaker Series
2024 Speaker Series: From Climate Crisis to Justice – a Sustainable Future with California Communities
The 2024 Speaker Series examines the connections between climate change and historical and ongoing inequities impacting Californians. Speakers will challenge conventional governance models that ignore climate change impacts on vulnerable populations, as well as offer solutions driven by community expertise. As we navigate an increasingly uncertain political and environmental landscape, the series will spur critical conversations on the intersections between climate change, mass incarceration, economic opportunity and racial justice.
Investing in Clean Transportation and Community Action
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
With the 2024 election results set to reshape government priorities for years to come, there is an urgent need to understand the shifting landscape of public funding and policies related to climate change, clean transportation and the transition to a green economy. The focus of this conversation was on the crucial shift from building roads and highways to centering public dollars on the needs of the people – especially as the demands of the climate crisis come to the forefront.
We were joined by Hana Creger, Associate Director of Climate Equity at The Greenlining Institute, and panelists Mayor Rey León, Executive Director of the Latino Equity Advocacy and Policy Institute (LEAP), Jeanie Ward-Waller, Director of Transportation Advocacy at Fearless Advocacy, and Simeon Gant, Founder and Executive Board Member of Green Technical Education and Employment (Green Tech) for an important dialogue as we envision a new path toward a healthy, equitable future for all. This was a virtual event conducted via Zoom.
Growing Equitable Food Economies
Thursday, August 8, 2024
Many urban communities face limited access to healthy and fresh food as a result of policies and practices that have intentionally disrupted people’s economic mobility and relationship with the land, especially among communities of color. Failure to acknowledge the clear connections between food justice, environmental justice, social justice and economic justice has only deepened persistent health and wealth inequities.
Planting Justice addresses inequitable access to healthy food, safe community space and quality jobs, particularly for people who have been formerly incarcerated, through holistic re-entry services, food distribution, youth education and internships, fair wage employment and creation of urban food systems. Headquartered in Oakland, Planting Justice has expanded their educational, employment and food distribution efforts into South Sacramento in partnership with Sacramento County and local nonprofit organizations.
2023 Speaker Series: Community Wellness as the New Normal
Our 2023 Speaker Series focuses on how we will shift from surviving the COVID-19 pandemic to thriving. We have woven together programming that shows how climate change, mass incarceration, drugs, economic opportunity and racial justice are all interconnected and deeply impact community health. And, beyond the policy, how we might create lasting narrative and policy change in these areas. In the face of an uncertain budget and political landscape, it’s critical that our collective action is intersectional and lasting.
What Food Security in Native American Communities Can Teach Us About Environmental Justice
October 3, 2023
For millennia, California Native communities could depend on the land and water for their livelihoods. Comprehensive cultural frameworks informed stewardship, harvesting, fishing, and hunting practices that kept Native communities food secure and in right relationship with the land.
Today, Native communities frequently face limited access to healthy and fresh food as they have limited access to the ecosystems that are important to their foodways. Colonialism has not only disrupted their relationship with ancestral lands and waters, but the cultural practices that ensured intergenerational transmission of knowledge since time immemorial. Food justice and environmental justice are intertwined in these communities, and the failure to redress historical inequities places families at risk.
First Nations Development Institute’s California Tribal Fund seeks to fortify and revitalize traditional food systems in pursuit of food sovereignty. Join Rebecca Tortes, Director of the California Tribal Fund and Sabine Talaugon, Program Officer for a timely conversation about the unique assets that Native communities bring to building healthy, sustainable, and culturally relevant food systems.
Unlocking Opportunity for Boys and Men of Color in Sacramento
May 31, 2023
Advocate, researcher and social change strategist Arnold L. Chandler shared the groundbreaking LifeCourse Framework to give us a better understanding of social problems that face boys and men of color. The framework is a foundation for developing interventions and solutions to improve life outcomes for people of color through policy and systems change, power-building and grassroots movements.
My Brother’s Keeper Sacramento, a collaborative effort of local organizations, has been advancing change for boys and men of color since 2015. Led by Program Officer Ray Green, the collaborative’s strategy leads unveiled the 2023–2026 Guide to Action — their strategy to unlock greater opportunities for Sacramento’s boys and men of color.
Past Is Prologue: Uncovering Our Past Holds The Key To A Better, More Inclusive Tomorrow
May 25, 2023
Communities across America are grappling with big questions about racial inequality. How do we effect lasting change? Civil rights attorney and author Michelle Coles discussed how social justice and systemic change must stem from a thorough understanding of our past.
The policies that were created during slavery continue to harm Black people today. But the Black statesmen and their allies who fought for racial equality after the Civil War left a profound legacy that positively impacts us right now. Ms. Coles draws on her deep knowledge of the criminal justice system and American history to help us solve the social ills that stem from our countries’ past failures so that we can build the world we want to see.
Cultivation of the Heart: Centering Hope for Youth Engaged in Gun Violence
February 9, 2023
Julius Thibodeaux-Hasan (author and director of Movement 4 Life) and Scott Budnick (founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and CEO of 1Community) joined Chet P. Hewitt and our guests to reflect on the urgency of reforming the carceral system, the power of centering people with lived experience in finding solutions and the hope we must have for our youth.
Julius’ memoir, Cultivation of the Heart, is about his path and how we can cultivate the hearts of our young people, especially those at the center of gun violence who are grappling with hurt and pain.