{"id":71011,"date":"2025-02-25T11:59:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T19:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71011"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:59:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T19:59:37","slug":"california-leaders-awarded-350000-for-community-changemaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71011","title":{"rendered":"California Leaders Awarded $350,000 for Community Changemaking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the face of top-down federal changes, community changemakers are tackling some of California\u2019s most urgent issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 2025 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award recipients assemble for a group portrait in San Francisco in November 2024. Left to right: Skye Patrick, Stacy L. Smith, Helen Iris Torres, Nayamin Martinez, Cutcha Risling Baldy, Kaitlin Reed and Shantay R. Davies-Balch. (Courtesy: The James Irvine Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the face of top-down federal changes, community changemakers are tackling some of California\u2019s most urgent issues.<\/p>\n

This year, a cohort of seven women from six nonprofits received $350,000 leadership awards from the James Irvine Foundation to make change on the grassroots level, from improving environmental pollution to promoting Indigenous food sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this time where it seems that everybody else is making decisions that we don\u2019t have a voice in, the only way we\u2019re going to have agency is if we organize ourselves,\u201d said awardee Nayamin Martinez, executive director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN), at a Tuesday, February 18 Ethnic Media Services briefing about the awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just remain silent, they\u2019ll run over us,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Through the Fresno-based CCEJN, Martinez supports people in the Central Valley disproportionately impacted by air and water pollution, pesticide exposure and extreme heat, through both community mitigation projects like free air and water filter distribution, and major policy wins like California\u2019s first statewide pesticide notification system and bans on oil drilling near populated areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re proudest of is giving a voice to farm workers,\u201d she said. \u201cIn collaboration with the state Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, we hosted the very first farm worker hearing in Sacramento last February. From that came an audit commission for Cal\/OSHA that enforced regulations to better protect farm workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through a state-led Sustainable Pest Management Work Group Martinez also helped draft a plan for California to reduce pesticide use by 80% in the next 20 years.<\/p>\n

Within the first few weeks of the new presidential administration, however, she said CCEJN already faced setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fear of raids and deportations is causing people not to show up to work. Right now it\u2019s the peak season for citrus, and some farmers in the industry here don\u2019t have enough workers,\u201d Martinez explained. \u201cWe are recipients of an EPA grant that\u2019s frozen, and local food banks that were receiving money from the Department of Food and Agriculture to provide food in struggling communities have also gotten their funds frozen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, \u201cwe\u2019re focusing much more on educating our community about knowing their rights,\u201d she added. \u201cWe can\u2019t help people focus on cleaning the air or water, if they\u2019re afraid that they or their children won\u2019t be here in the next month or year \u2026 It\u2019s in all of our best interest to defend these agricultural jobs, because if we don\u2019t, we won\u2019t have billions of dollars in income.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, California generated around\u00a0$57.7 billion<\/a>\u00a0in agricultural revenue, making it the largest agricultural producer in the country.<\/p>\n

Between one-third to one-half of U.S. farm workers live in California; an estimated\u00a075%<\/a>\u00a0of these are undocumented.<\/p>\n

To address both food and climate resiliency, \u201cwe need to look to Indigenous peoples\u2019 knowledge,\u201d said Irvine awardee Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, co-director of the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute at Cal Poly Humboldt and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Western conceptions of conservation or preservation, humans are often considered outside of nature. In our knowledge, humans are part of nature, and we need to think about how the ecosystem works together so that everyone can breathe, drink the water and have the food they need,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous peoples know that\u2019s possible because we lived in that world before colonization \u2026 of working with the land in a relationship, rather than just as a resource,\u201d said Baldy. \u201cLately, my elders have been reminding me how we\u2019ve been navigating a federal government that has been trying to control and erase us from the very start, in agreeing to treaties and then breaking them.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Food Sovereignty Lab, Baldy mentors students in projects promoting Indigenous sovereignty in ecology, food and even in the cultural sphere, having revitalized the local Hoopa Flower Dance, a coming-of-age ceremony for girls.<\/p>\n

She has enlisted over 200 community volunteers to build and maintain an on-campus Indigenous Garden including medicinal plants and herbs; launched a mental health and wellness initiative to reduce drug and alcohol abuse among youth; and helped students create and deliver 125 food boxes with regional food and recipe cards to Indigenous people in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it feels like we\u2019re all alone in the things that we want to do, but we need to start by telling a story about the future that we want to see,\u201d said Baldy. \u201cThat\u2019s how we begin building it together, by claiming for yourself: \u2018I believe that we can have a world where everyone lives well together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent political and economic setbacks faced by community\/ organizations like these \u201care not new territory,\u201d said awardee Helen Iris Torres, CEO of Hispanas Organized for Political Equity (HOPE). \u201cIt\u2019s a moment of reflection to say: \u2018Why are we still here?\u2019 I truly believe that we repeat history because we haven\u2019t learned our lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, Latinas comprised\u00a020%<\/a>\u00a0of California\u2019s population and 40% of Californian women; yet the wage gap for Latinas is larger than any other state in the nation, with Latinas making 39.5 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men.<\/p>\n

Since Torres became executive director of the Los Angeles-based statewide civic advocacy organization in 2000, she has trained over 60,000 Latinas and created an alumni network with 61% serving on government boards or commissions, 41% serving executive-level roles and 16% holding or running for elected office.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither we can keep bearing witness to the injustice of the world, or we can do something about it,\u201d she said. \u201cMy passion stems from seeing my mother, who brought me and my sister from Puerto Rico to Detroit as a monolingual Spanish speaker to raise us alone \u2026 I had a very serious heart disease growing up, and she had to navigate a public education and health care system that, frankly, discriminated against her for being a single mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governmental changes we\u2019re facing now, too, will pass, but only if we ensure our place at the decision-making table,\u201d she added. \u201cIf you\u2019re not invited to that table, set up your own; that\u2019s where we need to be right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nominations<\/a>\u00a0for the 2026 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards are now open, with an easier process to nominate people this year.<\/p>\n

The deadline for an initial nomination involving three questions about the candidate is March 12, and the deadline for a more detailed submission from accepted nominated candidates is April 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are leaders who are confronting California\u2019s most critical challenges by building up a better future for our state,\u201d said Cindy Downing, program officer of The James Irvine Foundation. \u201cWe may feel much like the times are quite daunting, but here is what happens when folks step up with a bold vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Feb 25, 2025 In...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71012,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71011\/revisions\/71012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}