Text Thread W/ Deshae Lee: Featuring the Students of CFJ
This week, we spoke with Deshae Lee, a student activist in Fresno, CA. Deshae joined Californians For Justice 1 year ago as an incoming high school senior, and is already a central leader within our organization. Every week Deshae is in our Fresno office, setting up meetings with school officials, preparing to speak on behalf…
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Youth Are Ready For A Radically New Future
Above: CFJ’s Angel Palencia and Nhada Ahmed kick off the State of the Youth event in San Jose last month. Young people are leading and taking action on a national and global scale, challenging systems of power that endanger their ability to thrive and live with dignity. In California, we have the 5th largest economy…
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Reparations, The Crown Act, & Youth Voice: A Summer in The Movement
This Summer our communities of youth activists, experts, and community leaders continued to build towards a more equitable and racially just education system. Students rose to podiums, experts used their platforms to speak about racial justice, and race in education made national headlines. Here are just a few of the highlights from this Summer behind…
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It’s on us to ensure students feel safe, supported & capable of thriving
Where do you feel safe? Where do you feel seen as a person — someone worthy of investment and support from others? For many students and communities of color in California, there are no easy answers to these questions. We know Black, Latinx, Native, Asian, Pacific Islander, immigrant and refugee, low-income, LGBQ, Trans and Gender…
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The Problem with Earth Day
Earth Day is problematic. For years the needs and conservation leadership from Black, Brown and Indigenous folks have been ignored by the environmental justice movement despite our communities suffering the most. Across the U.S. we continue to see examples of the inequity built into environmental justice efforts. Cities like Flint, Michigan still don’t have clean…
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Communities across CA mobilizing in solidarity with Asylum Seekers
While the violence experienced by children, families and young people at the California border may have slipped from the news cycle, it’s important to remember that our government continues to attack and vilify this community. The violence these asylum seekers are fleeing from is directly linked to U.S. intervention in Central America, and yet our…
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Our Trans Community #WillNotBeErased
The leaked Trans memo sent by the Trump administration this month has had a devastating impact on our trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary youth and communities. There have been many news pieces and op-eds around this issue and the clear threat represented here. By proposing edits to the definition of sex, the administration is trying…
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How to celebrate gender diversity with International Pronouns Day 2018
Today marks the first official International Pronouns Day — a day we’ve long been looking forward to at Californians for Justice. This day provides the perfect opportunity to respect our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer-plus, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming communities. It’s a day to pause and acknowledge the amazing gender diversity that surrounds us! If…
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When schools and districts invest directly in our students, academic outcomes improve
Yesterday, dozens of educators, policy makers and advocates heard from the researchers involved with Getting Down to Facts II, California’s most ambitious education research collection in a decade. Co-hosted by Policy Analysis for California Education and EdSource, the event explored current trends in education including how the state’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) has changed…
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