BCLI Issues and Advocates Series

Sophia Lanza-Weil, Community Organizer, Congregations Organizing for Renewal

Editor2 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:15:07 -0500

Sophia Lanza-Weil, Community Organizer, Congregations Organizing for Renewal. Sophia is the lead organizer with Congregations Organized for Renewal in South Alameda County, an affiliate of PICO (People Improving Communities through Organizing). Sophia has worked as an organizer for 14 years, addressing issues of social justice through leadership development and building the power of communities. She has worked with a variety of organizations on community and labor issues across the country, including UFCW International, Unite Here!, Basic Rights Oregon, the AIDS Action Committee of MA, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, and Bend the Arc. Sophia is proud to represent the efforts of leaders in South Alameda County working for greater economic prosperity and opportunity in our region, and beyond.

Jonel Seon, Student Services Manager, Laney College Green Jobs Programs

Editor2 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:53:00 -0500

Jonel Seon, Student Services Manager, Laney College Green Jobs Programs. Jonel facilitates the implementation of the solar photovoltaic and energy efficiency training programs through student recruitment, case management, administrative support for faculty, and building organizational partnerships through broadened community outreach. Over the last 5 years, Jonel has worked with distinguished businesses and non-profit organizations, including the Institute for Environmental Entrepreneurship and Alameda Unified School District, to support implementation of sustainability initiatives that address social, economic, and environmental complexities in urban communities. A graduate from the GreenMBA program at Dominican University of California, Jonel currently serves as a Board Secretary for United Roots and is dedicated to promoting social enterprise that uplifts and empowers working-class individuals of all backgrounds.

Please listen to his presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Working Together: Collaborative Strategies Supporting Economic Prosperity for Low- and Moderate-Income Communities in the Bay Area.

Ken Nim, Workforce Compliance Manager, San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development

Editor2 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:40:56 -0500

Ken Nim, Workforce Compliance Manager, San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Ken has ten years of workforce development experience that includes program development, compliance monitoring, job development, and implementation of various City workforce policies such as San Francisco’s First Source and Local Hiring Programs. As part of the CityBuild team, a construction sector training and employment initiative, he has collaborated with contractors, labor representatives, community based organizations, city department heads, and community stakeholders to maximize employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged San Francisco residents. Ken is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and is currently working towards a Masters Degree in Organizational Development at the University of San Francisco. He started his career in workforce development in the nonprofit sector providing direct services to economically disadvantaged communities of San Francisco. Ken believes in the dignity of work and that meaningful employment opportunities help sustain community vitality and connects individuals to a more purposeful life.

Please listen to his presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Working Together: Collaborative Strategies Supporting Economic Prosperity for Low- and Moderate-Income Communities in the Bay Area.

Kirsten Snow Spalding, Esq., Principal, Spalding Consulting

Editor2 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:09:40 -0500

Kirsten Snow Spalding, Esq., Principal, Spalding Consulting. Kirsten is a policy consultant working for non-profit organizations whose mission is to build sustainable communities that provide good jobs, affordable housing, public transportation, cleaner and greener public spaces. Her consulting practice focuses on building community coalitions that can imagine new opportunities for low-income people and realize those visions by strategic organizing, advocacy, and investments. Her areas of policy expertise include workforce and economic development, access to health care, sustainable investing and infrastructure finance, labor rights, and community development. Kirsten brings to her work her skills as a lawyer, pastor, government official, and educator. Her current clients include Ceres and its Investor Network on Climate Risk, the San Mateo County Union Community Alliance, the Career Ladders Project, and the San Francisco Labor Foundation. Prior to starting her consulting practice, Kirsten served as Chief Deputy Treasurer under California Treasurer Phil Angelides and Director of the Treasurer’s environmental financing authorities. Prior to her government service, Kirsten worked in the labor movement as Chief of Staff for the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. For six years, she chaired the Center for Labor Research and Education at University of California, Berkeley and taught at Boalt Hall School of Law. As a lawyer with the firm of Beeson, Tayer and Bodine she represented unions and their pension plans. In her early career she worked as a community and cultural organizer in Durban, South Africa. Kirsten holds a BA from Yale College in music, a JD from Hastings College of Law and an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Please listen to her presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Working Together: Collaborative Strategies Supporting Economic Prosperity for Low- and Moderate-Income Communities in the Bay Area.

Working Together: Collaborative Strategies Supporting Economic Prosperity for Low- and Moderate-Income Communities

Editor2 — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:42:15 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Working Together: Collaborative Strategies Supporting Economic Prosperity for Low- and Moderate-Income Communities in the Bay Area
October 17, 2012

In 2010, the BCLI hosted one of our most popular Wednesday panels on innovative strategies for job creation, where we heard about new and exciting models that were building wealth and supporting economic development in low-income communities. Two years later, the Bay Area continues to see a lack of job growth and economic opportunity, coupled with dwindling public funds to support workforce and economic development.

In light of the dismal economic climate and limited resources, a collaborative made up of public, private, labor, and non-profit organizations is working to draft a “Regional Prosperity Strategy” for the Bay Area to understand, strengthen, and expand economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income individuals. The goal of the collaborative is to support a sustainable regional economy with good jobs that are accessible for all people, pay a living wage with benefits, provide workers with a voice on the job, and allow workers to advance up a career ladder.

Evelyn Stivers, Field Director, Non-Profit Housing of Northern California (NPH)

Editor2 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:20:49 -0500

Evelyn Stivers, Field Director, Non-Profit Housing of Northern California (NPH). Evelyn has rejoined Non-Profit Housing of Northern California to coordinate regional initiatives including the Zone for Homes campaign and the Great Communities Collaborative as their new Field Director. She also works with housing and land use advocates, including NPH’s nine-county network, to advocate for affordable housing, carry out research and issue analysis, develop new advocacy tools, and provide technical assistance and organizing training. Evelyn is an experienced political organizer who has worked on campaigns at the local, state and national level. She prefers work at the local level though, where the impact is the most immediate. She spent the last six months working on political campaigns for local government offices. Prior to that she spent six months on an incredible travel adventure. She and her partner purchased a boat in Brisbane, Australia and explored the Great Barrier reef.

Please listen to her presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits: Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley.

Richard Marcantonio, Managing Attorney, Public Advocates, Inc.

Editor2 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:48:56 -0500

Richard Marcantonio, Managing Attorney, Public Advocates, Inc. Richard received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1982 and graduated cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law in 1987. After clerking for the Hon. Robert L. Carter, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, Richard practiced civil and appellate litigation for five years at the Howard, Rice law firm in San Francisco. He then served as director of litigation at Legal Aid of the North Bay for nine years, specializing in housing issues in Marin and Napa Counties. Richard was lead counsel for intervenors in Home Builders Association of Northern California v. City of Napa, 90 Cal. App. 4th 188 (2001), cert. denied 535 U.S. 954 (2002), which established the validity of “inclusionary zoning.” He was also lead counsel in Marin Family Action v. Town of Corte Madera, a challenge to the housing element of the Town of Corte Madera, and in a suit against a Napa slumlord for equitable relief and damages on behalf of nearly 500 Napa farmworkers and families. Richard joined Public Advocates as a managing attorney in June 2003, where he works on civil rights issues, primarily in the areas of affordable housing, transportation equity and insurance redlining. He has served as lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a number of affordable housing cases, including Osorio v. City of Pittsburg, Fonseca v. City of Gilroy, 148 Cal. App. 4th 1174 (2007), and Urban Habitat Program v. City of Pleasanton, 164 Cal. App. 4th 1561 (2008). In the area of transportation justice, he is currently co-counsel in Darensburg v. Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 611 F. Supp. 2nd 994 (N.D. Cal. 2009), a pending federal civil rights class action on behalf of minority bus riders who have seen service cut as a result of inadequate funding, and represented the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union in Labor/Community Strategy Center v. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 564 F.3d 1115 (9th Cir. 2009). He is also co-counsel in Willams v. City of Antioch, a challenge to discriminatory policing of African-American families who participate in the federal Section 8 housing subsidy program.

Please listen to his presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits: Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley.

Annie Loya, Executive Director, Youth United for Community Action (YUCA)

Editor2 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:43:02 -0500

Annie Loya, Executive Director, Youth United for Community Action (YUCA). Annie has over 11 years of experience with YUCA. She volunteered at 13 and joined the Higher Learning Core at 14. Since then, Annie has been a key youth organizer within the Environmental Justice Accountability Campaign. Annie then transitioned into staff at 18 years old as Assistant HL Coordinator, where she then supported young people’s development into HL. She drew from her myriad of experiences as a youth to then restructure the HL program as Program Coordinator to add more components that addressed the holistic development of youth, expand the membership to offer more opportunities for young people to get involved, and expand the number of campaigns at YUCA to address both environmental and economic justice issues in the community. Annie was a crucial lead in the campaign that led to the historic shutdown of Romic, a negligent toxic waste facility in East Palo Alto. Annie has taken on a leadership role in her community and in the larger movement for environmental and social justice. At 25, Annie is an experienced organizer, trainer, and speaker. She has developed and led workshops for YUCA, spoken on panels, given keynote speeches, and led various community campaigns around issues affecting youth. She sat on the Ad Hoc Committee that led to the structure of the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing, was a representative to the Environmental Justice Air Quality Coalition, the East Palo Alto Air Resource Team, the Community Advisory Group, Environmental Justice Group, and the Ravenswood Business District Coalition. She brings years of experience as a previous HL Staff and core member to the Director’s position. Her passion for community change is evident in her commitment to the work. Annie also sits on the board of Greenaction.

Please listen to her presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits: Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley.

Vu-Bang Nguyen, Land Use Program Coordinator, Urban Habitat

Editor2 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:54:44 -0500

Vu-Bang Nguyen, Land Use Program Coordinator, Urban Habitat. Vu-Bang began his journey into the world of land use planning after studying Architecture at the University of California (UC) - Berkeley with an emphasis on City and Regional Planning and Design in the Third World while also working for the City Planning Departments of San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley, CA. He continued his studies at UC - Berkeley and completed a Masters in City and Regional Planning with an emphasis on Community Development and Land Use Planning. His research included working with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency on increasing community engagement in the City’s Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, especially among San Jose’s Vietnamese American population. After City Planning positions for the City of Berkeley and Town of Los Gatos, Vu-Bang switched to the private development side as a Project Manager for a real estate development company in San Jose, CA. He is Urban Habitat's site coordinator for the Great Communities Collaborative, working in several planning efforts throughout the Bay Area including Sunnyvale and East Palo Alto. Vu-Bang is a member of the American Planning Association (APA) and the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Please listen to his presentation at the BCLI Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits: Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley.

Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits: Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley

Editor2 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:40:43 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Protecting Communities, Securing Benefits:
Lessons Learned in Silicon Valley
September 19, 2012
During the current economic crisis, cities everywhere are courting development to create jobs for their residents and to support struggling local economies. But at what cost is it acceptable to allow companies to move into our communities if they are not providing their fair share of local tax dollars, jobs to local residents, and affordable housing to their workers?

For the first panel of the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute’s Issues and Advocates Speakers Series, we hear from experts about the impacts of Silicon Valley’s job growth on affordable housing, transit, and the environment, and consider what this growth means for low-income communities and communities of color. You learn how a coalition of local community-based and regional organizations and a non-profit civil rights law firm worked together to gain community benefits from a large corporation that was planning the development of their new headquarters.

Fresh Thinking about Community and Anchor Partnerships: Creating Shared Value for More Equitable Communities

BCLI — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:57:12 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Fresh Thinking about Community and Anchor Partnerships: Creating Shared Value for More Equitable Communities
October 19, 2011

We've seen that anchor institutions, such as universities and hospitals, can have a significant impact on community economic development. But how can communities with fewer economic resources catalyze anchor relationships that will serve the particular needs of their community members? And how can leaders within anchor institutions move from a "social responsibility" framework to one that acknowledges the community's integral role in their long-term success?

In this panel, we offer some innovative case studies that allow us to stretch our thinking about the ways that anchor institutions are defined and how they support the communities in which they reside, in terms of both economic development and cultural stabilization, and we provide examples of the kinds of strategic partnerships that can emerge from engagement between anchors and communities when the focus is on the creation of shared value.

Read the speakers' bios and listen to the Anchor Partnerships panel podcast:

Closing the Opportunity Gap: Prioritizing Schools in Planning for Sustainable Communities

BCLI — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:17:22 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series
Closing the Opportunity Gap: Prioritizing Schools in Planning for Sustainable Communities
September 21, 2011

Supportive, inclusive educational institutions are essential for vibrant, equitable communities, and access to opportunity-rich education provides a means by which socially and economically marginalized community members can improve quality of life. As we plan for growth within the Bay Area region, we must prioritize high-quality schools as a key feature of sustainable communities.

In addition to classroom education, the level of student opportunity is informed by where and how students and their parents sleep and eat, how they travel to and from school, and the environment that surrounds and supports (or does not support) their general well-being. Equitable decision making on behalf of community education, therefore, includes paying careful attention to those elements outside of the school itself that can greatly impact students' abilities to succeed. Economically stable communities with opportunities for affordable family housing, healthy neighborhoods with clean air, dependable transportation for both students and working parents, and safe routes to school for students who walk or ride bikes are just a few of many factors that can support student success.

Focusing primarily on land use, housing, and transportation, our panelists identify key issues in equitable decision making in planning for opportunity-rich schools in the Bay Area in the face of anticipated high regional population growth. As a group, we share policies and strategies that decision makers and advocates can use to ensure that our growth strategies are sustainable, equitable, and address the needs of low-income families and communities of color.

Read the speakers' bios and hear the podcast of their presentation:

*Jeffrey Vincent, Deputy Director, Center for Cities & Schools
*Marisa Raya, Regional Planner, Association of Bay Area Governments
*Vu-Bang Nguyen, Land Use Coordinator, Urban Habitat

Curbing Sprawl, Protecting Health: Building Housing for the Bay Area's Most Vulnerable Residents

BCLI — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:26:44 -0500

BCLI Issues and Advocates Speaker Series

Curbing Sprawl, Protecting Health: Building Housing for the Bay Area's Most Vulnerable Residents

August 31, 2011

Over the next 30 years, the Bay Area is projected to add two million people to its population-a 30% growth, or the equivalent of adding two-and-half cities the size of San Francisco or about four Oaklands.

Senate Bill 375, the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, requires regional planning agencies in the Bay Area to prepare for this growth in a strategic manner by prioritizing new housing development near public transportation in order to reduce the amount of automobile-generated pollution in the region, which is currently the single largest and fastest growing source of pollution in the Bay Area. But much of the planned development will take place in low-income communities and communities of color already exposed to high levels of pollution from sources such as highways, ports, and industrial manufacturing. This conflict presents a challenge for regional agencies and advocates who want to both curb urban sprawl and protect the health of those already impacted by environmental injustice.

Our panelists will identify the health and planning challenges associated with transit-oriented development projects in the Bay Area's most polluted communities. As a group, we'll share policies and strategies that decision makers and advocates can use to ensure that such projects are planned, designed, and built in a healthy and equitable manner.

Read the speakers' bios and hear the podcast of their presentation:

Leadership and Innovation in Job Creation

Editor2 — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:03:32 -0600

BCLI Wednesday Night Panel Series
Leadership and Innovation in Job Creation: New Models for Putting Low-Income Communities Back to Work
November 17, 2010

In our final panel of the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute Wednesday night series, we hear from the architects, developers, and implementers of fresh, effective approaches for quality jobs development for low-income communities -- models that deliver jobs and build community wealth in our struggling communities. In this panel, you'll hear about programs that have succeeded in empowering worker-owners to develop new green businesses, in providing sustaining funds to existing small businesses in order to encourage a vibrant urban core, and in investing in nonprofits that employ, train, and support members of our communities who have the least access to jobs, including the formerly incarcerated.

Specifically, we look at models developed by Inner City Advisors, the Cleveland Model of Evergreen Cooperatives, and REDF; and hear about exciting work in the City of Richmond for support of worker-owned cooperative businesses. Our expert panelists share the details of these programs, including opportunities and challenges for implementation and the short-term and projected results. We talk about scalability and replication, with an eye toward what local decision-makers can do to encourage these types of programs and investments in their communities.

Click on the links below to view the speakers' bios, hear the podcast of their presentation, and download handouts.

Speakers

*Jose Corona, Executive Director, Inner City Advisors
*Marilyn Langlois, Community Advocate, Office of the Mayor, City of Richmond
*India Pierce Lee, Program Director for Neighborhoods, Housing, and Community Development, The Cleveland Foundation
*Jason Trimiew, Director of Fund and Business Development, REDF

Encouraging Community Support for Affordable Housing: Lessons Learned in Pleasanton

Editor2 — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:16:56 -0500

BCLI Wednesday Night Panel Series
Encouraging Community Support for Affordable Housing: Lessons Learned in Pleasanton
October 27, 2010

Community-member attitudes about affordable housing developments can block projects that are intended to help stabilize communities. Disagreements about affordable housing development can also create divisions within communities, increase project time to completion, and even persuade developers that affordable housing projects are not feasible for communities where there is opposition. Community housing goals and needs go unmet, leaving low-income people with few housing choices and likely displacement from the communities in which they live and work.

In this panel, we share strategies for building local support for affordable housing in Bay Area communities. In particular, panelists discuss their work as affordable housing advocates in response to the city of Pleasanton's housing cap. Working with Public Advocates and local community allies, Urban Habitat challenged Pleasanton's policies and practices of excluding housing for low-income families, eventually reaching a settlement in which the city reaffirmed its commitment to nourish lively, diverse neighborhoods, while doing its share to address the Bay Area's affordable housing crisis.

Click on the links below to view the speakers' bios, hear the podcast of their presentation, and download handouts.

Speakers

* Becky Dennis, Organizer, Citizens for a Caring Community and Former Pleasanton City Councilmember
* Connie Galambos Malloy, Director of Programs, Urban Habitat
* Richard Marcantonio, Managing Attorney, Public Advocates
* Michael Rawson, Co-Director, Public Interest Law Project
* Terrell Watt, Owner, Terrell Watt Planning Consultant