officially welcome bidos to today's core coffee chat about transformational approaches to creating economic equity I'm Nicole lesen I'm one of the local Consultants who facilitates a countywide initiative called the collective of results and evidence-based or core Investments along with Nicole young we're your host today and we're joined by Maria cadenas who's the executive director of Ventures and as you can hear today's session is held in English with Spanish interpret ation Jella caros is providing consecutive interpretation right now and we'll also translate your written comments and questions and soon we'll switch to simultaneous interpretation which is provided by Stella Lowman and with that I'll turn it over to Nicole young who will give us an overview of core thanks Nicole so uh for those of you that may not know core stands for the collective of results and evidence-based Investments and we think of it as both a funding model and a movement uh to achieve Equitable health and wellbeing in Santa Cruz County using a results-based collective impact approach that's responsive to community needs so there's a lot packed into that statement there but we use the mission statement and the vision statement on this slide to really uh remind us of uh what core is all about so core is evolved over the last several years uh again we use words like Collective action safe healthy Community Equitable opportunities for all to to thrive really as um our guide throughout this work and these mission statements and vision statements that you see here were developed uh with a lot of collaborative input and insights gathered from many different people over the years um from different nonprofits and local government agencies and Community groups and when we say things like Equitable health and well-being we mean that all people across the lifespan uh would have Equitable opportunities to experience these eight interdependent core conditions for health and well-being and that people's opportunities and their life outcomes aren't predictable For Better or For Worse or that the differences in outcomes aren't predictable by things like race ethnicity income level gender identity sexual orientation immigration status ZIP code or any other types of social identities and so as both a funding model and a movement core provides us a framework to align our priorities and programs and policies and funding and the results that we're working towards and really to do that using CommunityWide goals uh and Common Language uh to help us really think about how we all play a part in creating the core conditions for health and wellbeing and Equity is at the center of this diagram uh to illustrate and remind us that we have to constantly examine and address not only our individual but our organizational and systemic beliefs and practices and structures um that are often the very things that perpetuate the inequities that we're trying to eliminate and so today's topic around transformational approaches to creating economic equity um is going to be such a great example of what we mean by it's not just about providing Services um that alone won't get us to equity but really looking at what are the underlying structures and systems and mindsets that also have to be transformed and shifted and events like today's core coffee chat are offered as part of the Core Institute for Innovation and impact or Core Institute so think of the Core Institute as the Learning Arm of core Investments where we offer an array of training and technical assistance and other learning opportunities for people across different sectors to build the Knowledge and Skills and systems that we need to be able to fulfill our Collective vision of an equitable thriving resilient community and so I am very pleased to introduce Maria cadenas the executive director from Ventures who will share uh some information with us today about Ventures programs that really from the lens or the persp perspective of how these programs really are transformational in and of themselves but how they really are ways to um break down those kind of inequitable systems that uh that lead to differences in Opportunities and outcomes for uh members of our community and so I am going to turn it over to Media um to share more with us thanks Nicole uh wsos good morning everybody thank you for uh your time this morning and I'm I'm I'm excited to not only share our journey of learning uh in terms of equity and systems but also within the organization as much as without it but to learn from you who are attending today you go to the next slide please Nicole again my name is Maria cadenas I'm the executive director for ventures and just a little bit of my history to kind of ground where I'm coming from um prior to joining Ventures I was leading the global strategy for a for-profit company in agriculture including their economic development in rural areas across the US Mexico and Chile and prior to that I was a director of a public Foundation focused on lgbtq social change philanthropy um and I also in that role I serve for racial Equity initiative across lgbtq funders across the US um and then and before that I was the the associate director of the American civil liberties Union of Wisconsin which I joined um after 911 to really find ways to serve and and connect um the opportunities I have been gifted back into Community spaces um and in that space I was looking at environmental justice immigrant rights um and lgbtq rights at that time before all of that I was um I was a tech consultant immigrant daughter mom you name it we all carry many identities and experiences but all of those have informed how I walk and view the world and a consciousness of how much I don't know because in each step of my journey I was exposed to things that I didn't know existed or didn't fully understand and I say that because that's something that is a very conscious and necessary space when we're talking about equity and change um is this ability to be cognizant of the discomfort and letting go of convenience in the search for justice next slide please uh and so Adventures um what we we say we do is that we work together um to create a shared and prosperous economic future where sip code race gender or immigration status do not dictate income or wealth to us this means that we are both leading and serving that we are the teach and the students at all times in all roles um we see our work as in partnership with people who are living their daily lives who are experts at what our society and how our society functions and we have expertise to share and together we can create something that is more Equitable next slide please um I think we um see we might have skipped the side or two but in in essence what we what we say is that what drives Ventures is the recognition that in the systems that we live in and the structures that we currently live in they were not designed for equity in fact the structures that were currently living in were designed to create the outcomes that they're giving us um and so some people benefit from those outcomes and so when we talk about wealth and income inequality is not because they just happen St it's more like because it was designed that way and so if we want different outcomes if we want different um outcomes in equity including economic equity we have to take a hold of that we need to create something new that from the basis from its initiative from its very start is focused on equity and so adventurers would like to say that the secret of change is to focus all your energy not on finding the old but on building the new this doesn't take away that there's much necessary work to be done today in addressing immediate needs of people but if we ever want to move to a new reality we have to start imagining differently dreaming differently thinking of things we never would have thought about because each and every one of us has grown up and been conditioned to this world as it is with its current rules that have created inequity so to dare to think something else is actually a tremendous amount of courage and a tremendous amount of Imaging ation and not to mtion work because it is heavy work it needs energy and it needs Focus next slide Adventures we see this space of where we are and where we want to go and there's a bridge how do we get there so when we talk about focusing on creating the new um we like to say that what we're creating is the pieces of the puzzle of the future that we want what are those pieces of the puzzle we have a few pieces already running this is what we call a transformational programs and I'll start with a few um to to give you a sense of what they are and I'll go into detail for each of them in a little bit if I can go to the next Slide the bottom line is that all these pieces of the puzzles they're connected similar to the core interconnectedness nothing lives in a vacuum all systems work on each other the legal system works with the economy works with the job market works with education and they all feed into each other that is why it's so complicated and so complex because everything's connected and everything that we're doing today was informed by the past and who we are and our lived experiences inform how we function within these systems next one so adventures and specifically um I'm going to go into as an example of the hard work that it is because we have the transformational uh programs which I'll go in a little bit but those are outcomes or outputs of very intense work when we say that we have to create the new it's from the inside out how do we function as an organization that is also part of the solution that we're trying to build outside and so for ventures or three strategic goals or organizational goals are really tied to that Equity frame things that we have to really challenge number one is community-owned structures how do we say that we're working together in community in a way that's truly Community owned This Is A step above and beyond what some I might know as Community informed so beyond listening sessions or Beyond surveys or Community conversations right what does it mean to have real Community ownership of a structure like a nonprofit what does that mean for the board makeup the stewardship of that board the power that board holds what about staff what does that mean for Community ownership when you're looking at the makeup of your staff or the training of that stuff right community building communications when you're talking about your nonprofit as just one entity one structure in a system how is the communication of your nonprofits work is allowing for the power of the community to show up not as a fund development tool not replaying all narratives of people in need looking for a savior but really looking at ways that push the narrative forward in terms of equity and Justice of longing and making sure that people all are welcome and supported and lastly when we talk about equity and Community it requires relationships and relationships are not easy so in a nonprofit structure how do you balance those relationships keep each other informed knowing that there's limited Financial Resources but also keeping in local and the in the Journey of of what somebody call Collective impact but it's really about um facilit ating encouraging and leveraging all the work to create the new future next slide please I'm going to go a little bit and if there's any questions please put them in the chat or feel free to to interrupt me I want to have a conversation with you all um so when we talk about uh community-owned structures this is examples of the steps we've taken Adventures as an organization to start questioning these things one is the board itself is there to provide Collective stewardship and this definition was really important because legally there's not much other responsibility from the state or legal structures of what a board does now in the nonprofit sector you hear a lot about is it a fund development board is it a working board is it but all of those are self-imposed as far as the state is concerned they're just fiduciary responsible for the activities of the nonprofit and you only need three so a lot of the things that we think about about best practices or purposes of a board are self- dictated by the sector which is part of the system um and the people within it which are also part of the system so for ventures where like a board is really about Collective stewardship right um and it is a space for us where we practice the how of the what so we want economic Justice what does that look like how is that done how do elections get placed right how is it a place of of healing joy and belonging how is it a place of or we say dreaming and scheming right a place for bold and strategic imagination um and then all of our work explicitly and intentionally centers and addresses racial and gender Equity inclusive of undocumented immigrants as this is really important um the current structures current systems including by Frank think about the Robert rules of orders that go into most meeting Arrangements that was done by a former um you know uh I think it was officer um who just came up with all of these structures and now we all follow them right well who who said that's the best way how is it a best practice how do we challenge that what does it look like differently how do communities of color or communal communities or indigenous communities navigate difficult decision- making and so who gets left out from simple structures where we may entitle a simple it's actually really important and unless we explicitly say how are we including or how are people being currently excluded into every decision then we won't get there and this actually takes a lot of time and intention um in our approach and and so just just a mindset of this is this has been two years in the works we're still in the journey um and this is just within Ventures and I I say that because this is not uh easy work it is not a slogan it's not a bullet point of values this is really really intensive and sometimes um work that is as both personal and systemic like why why do we react at certain way why do we question certain things and it takes a lot of patience and and um I know my my communications people don't like when I use the word love but it's it takes a l of love both for S and for others to find the space to create this conversation uh next slide please into the discussion of collective stewardship um we created what we call the management table because Adventures we say everybody's a leader and we believe it everybody's a leader whether you're an assistant coordinator or director everybody's a leader and the institution in which we currently live still needs management structures and support and so we created the m and the Mah is those little pel things where you smash in the herbs and make salsa so our idea of the Maha is the management comes in takes tough issues passes it out brings it back to the full team for input and discussion and it's like a little working group of Team managerial decision they don't take the final vote the votes taken by all the staff so an example would be we recently had a a discussion about the need for um child care stiens or care stiens for people going out to conferences above and beyond their nor more 925 and so we had all the staff put in their ideas um management had some ideas we discussed it brought it back to the team and then brought it to the board for approval that's a a use of the management table um that we call Mah for lack of another term next slide and then the same thing in terms of the structures we instituted a minimum salary and the minimum salary is the living wage based on the MIT living wage calculator and we also in Ed a maximum salary or the maximum salary is three times the minimum salary for uh retirement contributions we did not base it on a match because a match contribution means that those with higher incomes get a bigger match and those with lower incomes get a lower match and those with lower incomes have less disposable income to contribute and take advantage of the match instead what we did is we calculate the average salary across all positions and then make a 7% equivalent of that average salary as a shared value contribution to everybody who worked a minimum of a th hours that year and that's the retirement contribution we see it as part of a benefit that goes back to the employees we complete staff board and Community Democratic census and review to make sure and have eyes wide open what gaps are we missing from the board from the staff um which community members are we not reaching how do we partner better we updated the employee handbook to the eighth grade reading level um not all our staff is a college graduate or even necessarily a high school graduates we want to make sure that the duties and responsibilities that they're going to be working under is understandable and at their reach we couldn't go lower um because we do need based on our work we do need eighth grade level as that's our minimum but that that's examples of how we have applied this idea of of community ownership transparency and Equity into the operation of the organization next slide in terms of communications uh there's three things I I'll do really quickly one is the media release or media release for all community members allows them to one identify if they want a different name used but it also clearly states that if at any time the community partner wants their image Voice or comments to not be included they have ultimate ownership of those images and they can resent the permission they gave us to use it at any time we brought the reading level of that release down as well and make it available and the storytelling um this is the hardest part honestly because the storytelling we how do we ensure that the power of the story is with the Community member and not the nonprofit what is the connection between the story and the narrative shifts we want to see happen um in community so it's both how do you collect the stories how do you share the stories but how do you have the ultimate owners of the story be the ones that are building the benefit and the power um that comes from that storytelling this is still a journey we we haven't gotten there quite right um but we're learning it with Community um and we and and we'll share those as they come out um but to us what's important is that we Center the voice of the community and the ownership of how the story is shared with the community's members whose story it is this is not the story necessarily of Ventures or the benefit of participating in a ventures progr program is really the story of our community members um their strength and assets and contribution in community and their vision and dreams of what is possible and lastly um the literacy review this is um literacy review everything everything uh and in this one I'll use an example we had um we were working on a program with national Partners to develop a cooperatives um and these are Partners we work for with the years all of us happen to be um first gen or recent immigrant backgrounds um where a cultural competency of the targeted community and so there was a sense of uh we know what we're doing you know a little bit of um egole maybe right um but at the end after we did the documents and we were very happy with them um you know we have a process I'm like let's send it to the literacy review before it goes out and they came back at the 17th grade level and so just sit with that for a second this is documents created by immigrants Latina immigrants or first gen immigrants um with lived experience from the population you you hear that a lot and it still came back at the 17th grade level and it's because we forget you forget sometimes things that you don't question because they're your comfort and your space and it took us 5 months to bring him down and we couldn't bring it down lower than the eighth grade but keep in mind that most of the community that we're working with is third grade reading level so talk about an Awakening right having lived experience is not enough to say that you know what the community needs it's a great starting point but having the humbleness to know that you still don't know everything and allowing them to have the ultimate say is it takes time but but it's is extremely important next slide in terms of the relationship building um with communities you know we we continue to want to be collaborative whenever we can um including in in the launch of programs like semitas and Alas and I'll go into each of those cases in a second um what this means is that we know we don't have all answers and we know we have some answers and that our partners are doing great work and even if they're not our partners they might be doing great work how do we lift up and leverage their work find that gaps where we can contribute and find the spaces where we can collaborate together and sometimes we're moving so fast in our effort to create the change we want or or the road we want that we don't stop enough to make make sure that our partners are there with us or the community is there with us and so this constant engagement this constant check-in is really important so that the that the at the end of the day the the benefit of the work that we want to see is not Ventures is the community and and if they are not there in full ownership as it rolls out they're not going to be there when we move away right and we you know to us the world will be great when an agency like Ventures is no longer needed and so we need to make sure that our pieces are are as Community owned structured and Collective as possible because Collective is what's going to carry it to the next stage um we also are part of state and Regional coalitions National coalitions because there's so much knowledge the knowledge is not only limited here to the Santa Cruz or Monterey Bay um there's amazing work being done globally nationally Statewide and I just in fact came back from a um guaranteed income Coalition meeting um I know we're going to a meeting on on home care and and we and we go to all these spaces because there's much to share and much to learn together um and bring ideas that can can grow or region um in a way that that really focus on on on the thriving of the future next slide right before I jump into really in the weeds because I I I just gave you an overview from an organizational standpoint on how we navigate these questions of of system and Equity space because to get to the point of an equitable economy you you need to understand all the if this is how much work it takes to run one nonprofit imagine taking on the system and I know it can be daunting but but it is a step at a time so I don't know if there's any questions about our work in terms of Ventures as a Case Model um for organizational structures focused on Equity before I jump into the programs and why those pieces are incredibly important to an equitable economy and I don't see any comments or hands jumping up so I'm going to keep moving us forward all right um so if I go from this kind of sense of as an organization into what it can look like from a program design next Slide the the first thing for us is asking the why and to what end right like I said Ventures at its core is a system change maker trying to create the pieces of the puzzle of that future where we have equitable distribution of income and wealth that's what we're trying to do so what do these PES look like what should they look like and why and to what end what what are they achieving in those questions and this is really critical when you think about economic equity because you're going to hear a lot about Economic Development or Business Development and sometimes you'll hear about um economic Mobility or job creation as equivalent to that Equity but that's not necessarily the case you can have a lot of jobs and still have an equitable outcomes and income and wealth right you can have a lot of businesses and still have an equitable accumulation of wealth because maybe it's a large entity where the CEO gets most of the way of the income of that profit and not necessarily the workforce right so the big question is why are we doing X strategy and what will it accomplish to give us different results next slide so how we like to say Adventures how we get to that point is we have a lot of conversations and we focus conversations with those most harmed in the current system in the Central Coast that happens to be Latina women Latina women earn 42 cents to the dollar which is the largest income gap in the region and I love data so I like to go with data um there's other groups that also have incomeb wealth gaps that's just one of the issues do we have conversations with families that are most harmed by the system right and then we do a lot of research and investigation into what are the models of Ed and phas data that is out there and then we have conversations with decision makers right institutional decision makers like Economic Development plans and and climate adaptation plans and people in the city counil or county boards um we just talk to a lot of people and we start to connect the dots between the conversations on the ground research available and conversation with leaders and trying to think through what could come out of the spaces and it's not like an e it's not a one in one in one conversation it's a constant loop back so we might go to a family they'll say well what really matters to me is my kids then we'll go through the research and like well these are some research strategies right and then we'll hold back to the families and say what about these they're like nope and then it go back again or we'll be in the middle of a County board meeting and the supervisor may be proposing something based on Research they found so then then we're going to research into that take their idea back to the community and it's a little constant Loop through this funnel until something comes out until something comes out into a design and then we pilot it and then we evaluate it if it's having the again we're trying to design this new puzzle piece that we don't know what it is and that's both the Beauty and the hard part of our work next slide one of those pieces was actually seitas seitas is a program in Santa Cruz County um it creates a college savings account at time of birth um and it created with a seed contribution SAS meet small seed and and after that uh as the child grows and meets certain milestones in their development we have Partnerships that add more money into the account with total opportunities equal about $500 by a the child ter 5 and there were three goals to semas improving Child Development A builing expectations for higher education and to build healthy lifelong financial habits and and that's the end prodct so if you just imagine the funnel I went through the what came out of the funnel was the mijitas right next slide this is the research piece of that bubble in that funnel there was research done in Oklahoma and they had data in San Francisco and Oakland as well the children especially children from low and moderate income households with a college savings account early on in life as early as birth with just a dollar or even less than $500 were three times more likely to attend college and four times more likely to graduate there was clear evidence-based data around this approach when we talked to families families were like we were like what's your dreams what's your barriers what do you want they're like well I really want to set up my child to succeed but I need to make sure that they have food and shelter and I don't have money for much else right so we had those conversations with families we had these conversations with the researchers about this outcome and with elected officials uh we had conversations about their goals and also with the health savings um the Health Service Agency you know there was a lot of uh focus on early childhood development in the county a lot of interest in uh decreasing maternal ression right and a and a lot of uh interest in the kind of cradle to Career approaches so all of these three pieces were kind of rolling together until we came up with seas and um at core not to steal the the name the co but what SAS really is about is creating a puzzle piece of this future we want where every child is welcomed at Birth I know we have the three outcomes for sem does but from a lens of Ventures and economic equity we're creating what we we called in this in in our lingo the commons a universal program where everybody gets it right but with using targeted universalism where those with less get a little bit more they get a a higher seed and they have higher access to Milestones that they already doing we work really hard with a Community Partners to say these are not incentives parents are by far by far and wide good parents far and wide they will take care of their child's health and they will take care to give their child what they need so to grow these accounts or can to lean on that what Economist will say economic behavior Behavior economics right and say we are going to do a a a new program that creates a sense of belonging from birth that helps those with less more and those that have it is still there for them right that ties together health and economic stability and asset building with parent education to allow people to know that the dreams are balanced from birth and that and by the way the data supports it right so Seas to me is a wonderful example of taking a really dream of the future everybody belongs and everybody's dreams is valid right so taking that with data Community Voices um needs of governance together to develop a tool that works right um to date samitas has over 7,000 families in Santa Cruz County alone but most importantly to me is the data that has come out when we did the base survey for SAS at launch the aspirations of the parent was a two-year college or high school graduation for their child right now the aspiration is graduate school I'm not saying Sita did all that work but it's a contribution to it right and it's affordable design model of what is possible when we work together because this is not a program of Ventures we we say we'd like to power it but it it took the County Office of bed first five the County Health Human Service Agency the Health Service Agency you know you you name it they jump on VI saludes Santa Cruz community health centers um it was really a joint commitment because it was a joint uh opportunity to imagine something greater for our community um next slide and again if there's any questions jump in um onaku fund monter Bay this is another program of ours um andu fund launched um right at the beginning of the covid pandemic the beginning of the co pandemic I got a call and somebody say I have this mom who's undocumented what resources can she have and I said I don't know give me a minute and then I got another call and then I called my my colleagues in um in Ventura County who had an andu fund called 805 andu fund and I said how did you do it how' you do it what happen and then the next call was okay to that first caller I'm gonna if I create something would you join in and it was pure trust there was noou at the time but we' been working together on social determinance of Health for a while and they say yes and then I called another one and then I called another one and soon enough I had seven colleagues who said yes just tell me what to do right we'll figure it out and then I had one Brave funer who who said well I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do but it sounds good let's give it a shot and it was a it was a I think it was a $20,000 Grant it's very tiny but very instrumental because what we were really creating at amakan in the very beginning was the way of Designing relief efforts in the way that was owned not by the funer by the very Community impacted by the harm all those leaders were leaders of color of immigrant descent or immigrants themselves right and so in the design of vaki fund when I first wrote I'm like we're going make sure that the community voice is helping lead however this happens we figure it out because this is wasn't about raising a bunch of money it did we raised over now it's over six million um and it wasn't about helping a lot of families it did it has helped over 6,000 families this is a heat map uh done in partnership with UC Santa Cruz uh Blum Center I'm I'm sorry the global Health um partnership but the biggest thing it did was leverage what everybody had right and and um and just kind of reimagine who gets to control the say of what relief is we were the first relief partner who had no strings attached to the relief just like the tax credit that came from many who were documented we say it's just cash you know your family you in your need we're in an emergency do what you need to do right um and so we were challenging that relief didn't need to be let me pay your landlord or let me buy you a food basket right and it's only one time we were like really challenging the discourse of what a safety net really meant and what self-determination and dignity could take the front lead in emergency situations so I tell people on docu fund yeah the money great but we really challenge what it meant to step up for people and letting people have self-determination and dignity when they're a need which is really crucial for safety nets and we were one of the first at the end of uh towards the end of andu fund no it's not the end it's still going but at the towards the end of covid we had one funer that really heard us when we said we can't do onetime relief it's not sufficient enough let us try um everything we learned from because the community was coming back to us and telling us it's not enough something else was needed and so we looked at Stockton who had at that time just wrapped up their um Stockton guaranteed income pilot with tons of data on the model and we said we're going to do it we did a guaranteed income pilot here with docu fund funds uh with 15 families one of the first Pilots that was solely focused on undocumented Community um just to show the impact of guaranteed income and again it's about challenging what is a safety net you know and we we just proved what stock and proved that cash Works those families that receive 500 steady income a month for six months this is just six months you know they establish emergency savings household income went on average up by $1,500 many used it to buy health healthare housing food right um used it to pay child care so they can seek better jobs so 30% started or grew their microenterprises 30% file taxes for the first time think think of what that means this is a a limitedly overseen distribution of cash that means we don't have a lot of Scaffolding in terms of the management of poor people we simply say we trust you and we're here with you during this emergency flipping what the script is about the safety net it's not about policing poor people about trusting each other as neighbors and being there for each other as neighbors and I can tell you that during the course of the covid pandemic we kept track of everything we only had three people applied twice and they were a year apart so that those narratives of fraud or abuse they're just not there they're just not there and this allowed us to prove it again imagine a different safety net that is about serve deter mination and Trust right and that takes away all that heavy and expensive um patronization of people who just because of their economic instability they're seen as less than capable of taking care of their family so we want to challenge that narrative and so that's another example of unaku fun again a very pragmatic immediate um manifestation of economic justice of a common around dignity and self-determination next slide and I just said all of this I'm going to skip this one this is the name of the guaranteed income um model we have and we continue to do it we're on our uh going to our eighth um cohort like I said earlier um building an infrastructure of a complex ecosystem requires collaborative approach and a broader cultural shift on how we work and what purpose system serve I I I'd like to say that we have a social contract with every piece of the system and every system that we're a part of there is a social contract that we allowed it to exist many are not delivering on their social contract because if they were we wouldn't see the gaps we have based on race or gender or immigration we wouldn't see the gaps that we have in housing we wouldn't see the gaps that we have in the care of the Earth right the social contract for a lot of these systems is that we would be better off for living in the societies with the systems and the rules that we have and so if they're not delivering we have to start addressing what needs to change but this change is not easy right it and it's hard and it takes a level of um commitment and love to stay in it it also means the recognition that alone we can't do it and that you will need a break you will need a break because you can't do it alone you need the team and you need to do it together and having that bright light of to the why and to what end allows you to continue in the system I I tell my my team all the time we have big ideas and we're working with systems that have been operating for centuries to think that you're going to fix it in one Grant period is ridiculous right but we can have momentum and move it forward a little time next slide so everything begins with love next and with dignity and respect for people in planet next slide in community and by the community next and we want to create a world where all our values value and worthy including our planet next and just a reminder we are both leading and serving we are of and for the communities we live in and share this world with it is mutual and it is shared and it is inherently loving next and I'll leave that to the questions um and open it up Maria thank you so much I always learn something listening to you and I I love the infusion of love in what what you're talking about here and um I hope that more people will get to um listen to your presentation um later since it's being recorded because there's just so much in it um that's inspiring and also very very real about how you got to the point that you're you're in with your colleagues in these programs so the framing is so helpful but um I'm sure others have questions and reactions some of you may be hearing about this um a new and some of you may be familiar with some pieces of it but haven't seen it all put together this way or know know more about its Origins but whether you have questions large or small for Maria this is an opportunity to to ask and um and interact so let us know you can raise your hand or jump in or put something in the chat if that feels more comfortable Heather asked a question in the chat me read that loud or do you want to read that Nicole I'm happy to um given the educational goals does Ventures liaz with undocu slugs and other groups in local higher education thank you heather for the question yeah thanks Heather um so we have connected with the the higher ed organizations seitas is is right now very focused in Z to5 so our initial conversations with um Cabrio UCSC and and other groups has been to let them aware and and to make sure that we think about it in terms and I know right now that st's director is working on uh developing a volunteer model so that we can have maybe first gen students who want to take the calls and welcome their parents and their kids into the program um we we want to make sure that that's available um but our oldest kid is just turned five so we're still they're still not there yet um we will get there uh but thank you for that and it's a reminder to again continue that conversation forward thanks and Heather's also calling out how inspiring the organizational framework is in the chat thank you heather any other questions reactions all right I don't I I hear none but I'll say one thing um I think all of us carry uh those moments of Doubt like where am I doing what I'm doing or like you're really tired like I said I've been atst for over 20 years um in different seats in different spaces um so I you know right now I was just like oh my gosh okay Nico I'm going to go in there and give you everything but some days I just you know um but you just got to breathe it out and for me it's just a reminder again we we're working with systems that have been in use for hundreds of years and if you look behind me I have an image of a field but agriculture was founded on the premise of surf at least in the western culture right and agriculture uh surviving the us because of slavery the way it was done so to think about an industry which is one of the top industries for the State of California that is dependent on low wage work right or Farm Workers it's not because they're just happen to be the Latina Farm Workers they used to be Japanese workers they used to be Chinese workers it used to be someone else who was poorer than or less wanted and so the economic model of that industry centuries old and so we have to it doesn't mean that it doesn't produ great produce or great benefit but it raises a lot of questions of use of the soil or use of Labor or use of water and I think those questions are very valid questions so when we talk about Economic Development A lot of times you hear a lot of terms about talking to the economists or the professionals right or the specialists um who better than the worker who better than the mom who's the neighbor to those fields to know what the impact is we know the impact let us not be fools in thinking that because we're not the one with the title it is not our economy it is our economy it is our communities as a school system and I think like I said we human beings created all of this human beings can change all of this and it's just a matter of having that that m massive patience with oneself and and Grace and forgiveness because we're going to mess up we are absolutely going to mess up because we don't know everything and we don't know the journey that our brothers or sisters may be walking in and how do we walk in better allyship and with more thoughtfulness so I thank you all for your time and for your qus and your comments Ventures is hiring for Co-Op developers if you know anybody that's my plug selfish plug that's a great plug thank you you all for having me today may I say something is it still available for comments I'm sorry um I'm commuting so I've been just listening without my video and um my name is Liz and I'm the director of a nonprofit called safe families for children and I just wanted to say a humongous thank you for sharing all of your wisdom and um guidance and I I wish I was on my desk because I had so many notes I wanted to take on everything you said and I'm going to listen to the recording later but um you're very inspirational for those of us that are leading organizations and fumbling and wanting to grow and do a better job and I just I just thank you for your time and what you're giving to our community and everybody thank you Liz thank you Liz for sharing that and completely agree very inspiring and and thanks also Maria for the attention to the the doing as as well as the undoing that's necessary it's such a good reminder of just trying to think about all these structures that we're all embedded in and and trying to both observe but also change so really appreciated that that lens um are there other questions or comments question media can you share some of your thoughts or strategies in terms of um how you or your staff or what you do in situations where you know we often work with other Human Service professionals that you know on one hand we all talk about equity and equity and equity and equity and we all you know and Community engagement and all that like we talk the talk and then um there's still many times when then the way that the work happens right it's still very much kind of the status quo or or kind of those systems and structures are all about the rules and the procedures and the Pol and so it's kind of like this uh disconnect between the right the words that come out of our mouths and we're all in agreement with each other and then still falling back on um you know the and you know process is good and structures and systems and policies are are necessary and also um there sometimes it can be hard if like okay how can I or who am I to be the one raising those kinds of questions you know the why to what end and does it need to be this way especially if it's in a um large group or this kind of group think happening or the leaders of another organization or initiative aren't quite sold on that or don't see um kind of the limitations there and so what do you what do you do in those kinds of situations to then not lose hope that's a good question all right I'm just going to answer from my end um there's uh there's a time and a place right and I would say that um I think you need to speak truth when truth needs to be spoken um it it sounds differently from different people some people are are like to all of their pentop stuff comes out sometimes you have the Diplomatic attempt sometimes uh you have the murmur passive aggressive let me write it on the evaluation sheet right um so there it comes out but I think truth needs to be spoken too um I have found uh that the intention uh in most of the spaces in Santa Cruz the intention is is to move towards Equity there's intention sometimes the education right of what that actually means or like the pragmatic application of it um is not always there and and it's not only in Santa Cruz County so as an example the state rolled out millions of dollars of funds for the what they call the the economic recovery dollars the Equitable recovery of the state this big bold plan to look at economic recovery in an equitable way that was the whole purpose of those funds right right um and they want it in a way that involved communities that were usually left out of this economic discussions and by the way the time turn around as a year for the plan and the proposal less than three months so who who in the community who's usually left out isn't the no enough to even know that there's a proposal who in the community who hasn't been invested in ages has the necessary networks to apply for a $5 million Grant to take the lead but they're not they can't you know it's just no so like you said there's a big bold um messaging about what is desired and then the application goes back to the same old same old so you'll see it in the lead agencies most of them are former Economic Development agencies or or Business Development Partners um and they're doing the best you know I I I'll Grant they're doing the best um but this work is hard work because it is undoing so much and questioning everything that's what I don't even know everything I can't I absolutely can't it's it's black history month right what does that mean to my black family and friends who are here in Santa Cruz who with the history of a sunset Town what that did that mean for their continuation in this count um I think for me the best thing is to speak up to speak up and not let it sit there and I think for my team what I say is that it is part of our job of our mission to speak up when they're whatever seat they're taking whatever committee they're taking to speak up and call it out um to be explicit not only intentional but explicit and what those gaps are and I think for me the term inequity is very valuable but it hides the real crack at it which is racial Equity if we are not willing to call out race and we're not willing to call out sexism then we're leaving behind fundamental key parts that were designed into the system that created the inequities we have they're baked in and I and we have to call it out because if we don't call it out you can create a very what may look at like Equity you know and we all seen the cartoon right of the of maybe some of it's a cartoon with the uh people looking over a fence to a baseball game right and so your tall person mediumsized person short person and one can't see a cross and we say that's where we are and you look to equal everybody gets the same size box to stand on and then Equity is everybody gets the needed boxes they need to look over the fence and then they added a new slide that says liberation you take the fence out you know but to me uh decolonization right true Liberation means maybe we don't have those bleachers in the back end and we figure out why the hell are they even playing baseball you these are the kind of questions of really questioning and everything which take time and sometimes the current system don't allows us to have that time um but we have to fight for it and and speak it out and and a mean of just say it I it's not about pointing fingers these are systems it's not like yeah there's individual actors and there's individual behaviors but we're talking about systems were all pardoned some of us are benefiting from it some of us are not and I think those that are benefiting from it or somehow in spaces of of privilege have even more responsibility to speak out um I think as the Ed I have a lot more coverage than maybe my assistants or coordinators might feel in certain spaces so there's spaces when I need to speak up spaces where they feel I need to speak up more than they can but allowing them to speak up when they can and knowing that if they mess up I got their back I got their back I think being with each other um I don't know it's so complex you speak out and then lean with people who are with you there's more people with you than you think and you can't move everything at once it's a big boulder right so pick the corner and your partners and just don't stop pushing that' be my answer thanks so much Maria appreciate that as well any other comments thoughts seeing lots of appreciation in the chat thanks we we have a few more events to tell you about and we hope you'll spread the word about this one being available as a recording because um we know not everybody could make it today but uh that's one of the reasons why we record everything so that they'll live on um so thanks to everyone for being here for spreading the word to Maria for the thoughtful and inspiring and very real presentation um very much appreciated to Stella and Jella for for helping us offer this in both languages and to all of you for joining us so looking ahead there's a parent power Summit on the 10th Nicole do you want to say a word about that just let people know yeah the parent power Summit is hosted by the Central Coast Early Childhood advocacy Network and it's a tricount uh Network work so Santa Cruz montere and San Bonito counties uh primarily uh organized and kind of started by the first five Santa Cruz County montere San Bonito counties along with the uh childcare planning councils in each County and so they're really focused on Early Childhood from birth to eight years old and um engaging parents Community leaders as uh co-designers as advocates uh is a big focus of the network and so every year they organize a parent power Summit that is um again designed with parent leaders there are workshops uh offer that parent leaders are um designing and facilitating themselves and so if any of you uh either work with or are a parent in this community or are just really interested and seeing kind of this model of agencies and community and parent leaders coming together to do uh Statewide advocacy work the parent power Summit is a great opportunity to see that in action um so that's this coming Saturday in Selenas and then do you want me to talk about the next event we have this month Nicole sure sure so we've been doing a a regular series of workshops in partnership with data share Santa County data share is that platform that web-based platform that houses a whole bunch of community level indicators and so we've partnered with data share to create um basically an interactive version of the core results menu that has a number of indicators organized by core conditions so we uh periodically offer kind of a data literacy 101 Workshop where we're really creating opportunities to practice using data share to find Community level dat data and then we alternate that with workshops that go a little bit deeper in terms of how do you use the data what do you do with it once you find data how to use it for things like grant writing for research for program planning for advocacy and so that's what the next workshop on February 27th will focus on how do you make meaning of community level data once you find it um so again the registration is available on the core website and jel put that link in the chat and as well as the links to the feedback Poll for today's session or if you are uh looking at this on screen and have a phone camera you can scan the QR codes um to respond in either English or Spanish and again we appreciate the feedback it helps us know not only what we what worked well uh about these Core Institute sessions but how we can continuously improve and also so what topics might be of interest in the future so we will leave this up for a moment we'll stay on for a few more minutes in case anybody has any lingering questions and again just want to also uh Echo the thanks to Media for a fantastic presentation today
