Building community power is increasingly recognized as a valuable and necessary strategy to improve health justice and racial equity, with both immediate and long-term results. However, there is limited research or documentation of authentic discussions on the definitions, nuances, and front-line measurement of building power. In the fall of 2017, The Praxis Project hosted five learning circles with some of the nation’s most impactful grassroots community organizers to engage in deep reflection and discussion about building and measuring power. Our Measuring the Impact of Building Community Power for Health Justice: What? Why? And How? brief provides a summary of our discussions and recommendations, and our webinar invites you to hear directly from organizers.
Join this webinar to discuss:
What is community power?
How do grassroots organizations build power within their communities?
Considerations for evaluating power from a public health approach.
Speakers:
Lai Wa Wu
Policy & Alliance Director @Chinese Progressive Association
Born in Hong Kong and raised in the Midwest, Lai Wa Wu is the Policy & Alliance Director for Chinese Progressive Association. She is passionate about health justice and the empowerment of young people. Over the past two years in response to youth members’ experiences of feeling unsupported in accessing mental health services, Lai Wa guided youth participatory action research to better understand systemic, emotional and cultural barriers to students’ utilization of mental health services in San Francisco Unified School District, and respond to challenges in engaged use of mental health among students of color, especially Asian American youth. Their research efforts won $1.5 million for access and competency in mental health services for youth of color, towards a vision of schools that are safe, supportive, and welcoming of all students. Prior to CPA, Lai Wa has worked with Asian Pacific Environmental Network, AFSCME, and Student Immigrant Movement.
Alejandría Lyons
Treasurer @SouthWest Organizing Project
Alejandría is a community organizer and graduate student who began organizing with SWOP in August 2015. Alejandría is currently working on a Master’s in Community and Regional Planning at the University of New Mexico. Currently she is working on issues of land in water through her research, and also as a fellow of the CESOSS Leadership Institute. She supports the efforts of others to use spiritual teachings to heal the land and the community in order to protect our natural resources. As a native Nuevomexicana Alexandria understands the importance of being active in her community’s challenges as well as those of her compañeros’ joint-struggles in liberation. Alejandría is an active member of NM Con Mujeres, a branch of the US World March of Women, a movement that works with issues of patriarchal oppression. Through the group, she has traveled to Washington D.C for the first Women’s March, as well as Honduras to support the legacy of Berta Cáceres and the Lenca people. Alejandría currently lives in Albuquerque as she continues in her studies and in the battle for liberation and social justice at home and abroad.
Lisa Padilla
Con Mujeres Gender Justice organizer @SouthWest Organizing Project
Lisa Padilla is the Con Mujeres Gender Justice organizer for SWOP. Born and raised in Albuquerque, she attended St. John’s College in Santa Fe. She then studied psychology, anthropology, and Chicano studies at UNM, graduating in 2016. She went on to study for her Masters in Social Work at NM Highlands. In raising her three boys, she has aspired to educate them as feminists and activists. As a volunteer at their schools she frequently read to them and their peers in Spanish, with an eye towards appreciation for our New Mexican cultural heritage. Lisa imagines herself riding on the shoulders of her ancestors, especially those of her grandmothers and great-grandmother, who came to Albuquerque from Chihuahua Mexico during the time of the Revolution, against great odds. Her paternal family’s history is deeply rooted in New Mexico, going back hundreds of years. Her parents and her many aunts and uncles have schooled her in the pride and poder of Chicano Power all of her life. It’s for this reason that working in social justice for our community feels like a natural part of her evolution, as her life experiences have all led to this place.
Cost: FREE
This webinar was hosted and recorded on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. View the recording below or access the slide deck.
Centering Community in Public Health Webinars: Praxis is in a unique position to build bridges between community organizers and traditional public health institutions. Below includes our 2020 webinars designed for local health departments, public health collaboratives and other agencies interested in increasing community-centered health equity and justice; we offer and provide additional webinars and trainings tailored to the needs of our partners upon request.