PROJECT NEED:
What problem will your team solve?
Although, some people and organizations in Watts are very involved in the issues faced in Watts, the overwhelming majority of people in Watts are not very engaged in local issues. This is not because people do not care, but because many people do not know how to navigate city structures or are very busy working. Currently, there are issues with water cleanliness, gentrification and dilapidated infrastructure, all of which can be addressed through the neighborhood council and city council. However, there is low community turn out. We need to fix this.
Our initial goal was to get more people in the community involved. As the organization got more involved in the community it became clear that immigration was an issue. Many people do not get involved because they are afraid or do not have time. In our current political climate, our families and neighbors are ever more fearful. Some of us are even opting out of family parties, court dates, leaving domestic violence situations, and not attending school because they are afraid of deportation. Immigration wasn’t being addressed at school or any community organizations so the Social Justice Student Organization decided to focus on spreading Know Your Rights information for our undocumented friends and families. |
Our original application video focused on civic engagement in a more broad sense with the concern centering on water issues. However, we found immigration to be the most pressing matter for our community.
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How is this need aligned with your impact area and how did you research?
Our impact area is civic engagement. Civic Engagement is about being involved in the political structures of your community, city, state and national government. In our communities there are undocumented folks who contribute to our society yet are targeted by immigration. This breaks of families, discourages being politically active and creates fear. Many of our families have a mix of citizens, residents and undocumented members and so any efforts to make change needs to be inclusive. It is our assertion that advocating for immigrants (those with legal documentation and undocumented) is part of civic engagement. The complex politics and laws make immigration status static and so we believe it is important that people understand their rights whether undocumented or not. We researched by getting into committees and searching newspapers and websites for information related to out topic. We also contacted professors and community organizers and asked them to share their information with us.
OUR PROCESS
We met once a week during our school enrichment period. During these meetings, we assigned committees. The committees included data, community outreach, website and media. We also had Tuesday meeting where half of the group would meet to plan enrichment agenda and remind everyone of their weekly tasks. Our budget was created as a group and reviewed weekly during the after school meetings. The enrichment meetings started as whole groups meetings for 2o minutes, then had committee break-outs for 40 minutes. We communicated through email, met as committees during the week, and met with community members on campus. We were granted permission to leave our classes to meet with various people. We advertised our events through email and by flyering. The majority of our project took place on school grounds. However, our team members attended conferences, meetings and community events outside of school and on weekends.
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OUTCOMES
Short Term
In the short term, we were able to impact over 200 students from our school, 500 students, parents and community members in Los Angeles, and 50 parents. We also impacted the culture of our school as classrooms were allowed to be used as sites of political action. Our team learned how to network, develop action plans, present workshops and plan a forum.
Long Term
In the long term, we have built relationships with the local politicians such as California State Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson and the office of City Councilman Joe Buscaino. We have built relationships with lawyers Alexander Harden from the Legal Aid Society Foundation of Los Angeles and private attorney Solomon Zavala, both of which have offered to help organize events explaining legal rights and legal clinics. We have made plans with tenants rights organizers and Physicians for Social Responsibility. |
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EVIDENCE:
Our performance indicators are surveys, number of people attending our events, number of people attending meetings, number of relationships built with organizations and universities, as well as the growth in our organization.We will track pre- and post data, as well as keep records with videos, images, quotes, observational notes from meetings and conversations regarding future work.Our impact will be visible through videos and our website.
For more on evidence, including quotes and break down of qualitative/quantative data, go to the EVIDENCE tab or CLICK HERE |
REFLECTION
There are so many important issues that we had some trouble narrowing it down. We met with different people who would tell us water was an issue, then we would meet with other people telling us the water was fine. We wanted to get some the sidewalks fixed but the city told us it would take years even with recent grant money allocated. It was surprising that there were so many people approaching similar issues but having different goals and strategies, some in conflict with each other, but we understand that is politics. We had to figure out what our roles were. We also realized as youth, organizations want us involved, and some want us to be everywhere at once. If we could start all over, we would have started only addressing immigration. We would have had more forums and organized a legal clinic sooner. We would like the judges to know that we have worked very hard. We chose an understanding of civic engagement that may be seen as controversial because it was important to us and our community.
For more on our reflection, including videos and quotes of individual reflections, go to the REFLECTION tab or CLICK HERE
For more on our reflection, including videos and quotes of individual reflections, go to the REFLECTION tab or CLICK HERE
BUDGET
CLICK HERE to review our budget