LEADERSHIP TEAM WORKS FOR AN ACCURATE COUNT – AND EQUITY

Once again, a team of Mutual Housing California resident advocates and activists roared out of a NeighborWorks® America training session fired up and ready to roll, this time on the related goals of political participation and the U.S. Census count.

Six of our resident leaders and two Mutual Housing staff members returned from the Community Leadership Institute conclave in Chicago with an energized approach to our recent primary elections and the upcoming U.S. Census count.

The resident leaders who attended the event in Chicago were Andrea Noble and Charlene Jones from Mutual Housing on the Greenway, Elizabeth Reynaga from the Westerner, Victoria Galicia from Owendale Mutual Housing Community, and Latoiche “Tasha” Adams and Jennifer Higley-Chapman from the Moore Village Mutual Housing Community. This foursome was accompanied by Mutual Housing Community Organizing Manager Alexandra Alvarado and Program Coordinator Loren Mora.

The newly formed team of residents from across various Mutual Housing communities quickly began formulating an outreach and engagement plan at the Chicago 2019 NeighborWorks America Community Leadership Institute.

As usual, the primary ballots in Sacramento and Yolo counties included several local and statewide measures as well as party and nonpartisan preferences for offices ranging to local city councils to the president of the United States, and our team made sure that Mutual Housing residents knew what was at stake.

When it comes to civic engagement, we know that political participation works best only when federal resources for everything from education to infrastructure spending are equitably distributed according to where people live, with political representation established on the ideal of one man/one woman, one vote. The only way to establish these goals, then, is to make sure that the United States and California and every local political body in the country knows exactly how many people are living in which jurisdictions, and where, and that their resources and representation are allocated according to an accurate tabulation of our population. That’s where the Census count comes in, and that is where our resident leaders and community builders are currently employing the knowledge gained from the three days of leadership training they received in Chicago last October.

Since their return, the resident leaders and our two key staff members have carried the word of “Yes We Count” – the official theme of Census activism across the country – to all 20 Mutual Housing California communities. Through April, on top of our community builders and social work interns our team had completed one-to-one conversations with over 160 Mutual Housing residents – and in multiple languages, including Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese.

“I always say no I can’t and they are always like, yes you can! I am bilingual but I got rusty. Being part of the NeighborWorks CLI team, my translation skills got better. Now I can stand up here and talk without shaking,” said Owendale resident Victoria Galicia in a February 29, 2020 resident impact committee meeting. As part of a presentation about the importance of the U.S. Census with program coordinator Loren Mora, she shared about her personal growth with public speaking and leadership development.

Our goal is to make sure that all 3,200 Mutual Housing residents get counted by the Aug. 14 deadline, before the numbers are submitted to the President and Congress and the apportionments are established.

“In regards to the funding coming into the schools, a lot of people were asking why it isn’t reaching certain communities,” Adams said. “These schools are suffering, on how much money is being dispersed to different parties and how much money we have to pay back. People had questions on the impact on their children’s education and how they didn’t see the funding. There was a lot of concern.”

As the Census activism gained momentum, not even the coronavirus pandemic could slow down the CLI team that came to be known as “Team Super Awesome.”

Even with the shelter-in-place order, our leaders have conducted phone-banking and Zoom video sessions to continue their organizing activities. Census information has been included in food bags that have been distributed to some of our residents. They’ve created texting platforms to get the word to people to be sure to fill out their Census forms.

Though being much more creative in these present circumstances, they’re actively collecting family photographs and individual testaments on the importance of the Census and posting them on Mutual Housing’s social media accounts, and they’re working closely with school districts and other communications agencies to make sure every one of our families knows what is at stake.

No matter the status of the stay-at-home orders, our resident activists will continue in their efforts to engage the Mutual Housing resident base and encourage everybody to participate in this critical component of self-government, one that can only work if every individual “self” is included in the collective whole.

I totally expect that the dedication and hard work that Elizabeth, Andrea, Carlene, Victoria, Jen and Tash have demonstrated – combined with the expertise that Alexandra and Loren have provided – will result in the Mutual Housing resident community being very well represented in the Census count.

Our activism on these nonpartisan issues has been a hallmark of the Mutual Housing program, one that makes us stand out compared to all the other excellent nonprofit affordable housing developers and managers in our region. It’s becoming a tradition, and one that I am sure will last long into the future, thanks to the support of NeighborWorks® America and the Community Leadership Institute.

A “Yes We Count” event at the Mutual Housing at Lemon Hill community.