To address the inequities that COVID-19 has further revealed in Black and Brown communities, organizations and community movements are rapidly adapting their work and finding creative solutions to meet the needs of their neighbors. For our May Collaboratory, we learned how community leaders in the Central Valley, Greater East Bay, and San Francisco are making an impact around COVID-19 education, COVID-19 testing, distribution of essential supplies, and raising funds to support vulnerable populations, including Black and Brown birthing people.
What was covered
- Organizing strategies for supporting communities of color during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color in the Bay Area and Fresno especially Black and Brown folks
- Organizations and community leaders who are on the front lines addressing the pandemic
Keynote Speakers:
Sheryl Davis - Community Resilience Caravans (San Francisco)
Sheryl Evans Davis is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Davis has been a school teacher and director of a nonprofit working with diverse groups of people from pre-school to senior citizens. Davis encourages everyone to exercise respect, honor diverse experiences and to be inclusive. Over the past few months Davis has been helping develop an outreach and engagement framework with community stakeholders and city departments to address the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations.
De'Anthony Jones - Community Resilience Caravans (San Francisco)
De’Anthony Jones is the Neighborhood Services Liaison in the Office of Mayor London N. Breed. He was born and raised in the Western Addition neighborhood in San Francisco, CA, serves as a Neighborhood Services Liaison with the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services for the Mayor of San Francisco, London N. Breed. Prior to that role, he served as a Teen Program Lead at Collective Impact in the Western Addition, where he worked with children and youth in the community he grew up in. De’Anthony feels called to the work of civic engagement as well as mentoring and supporting other young people from the community through opportunities for leadership and enrichment. He credits his experience growing up in poverty as well as being given opportunities by various organizations, programs, and elected officials as being the reason he is where he is today.
Jonathan Alexander Jacobo - Latinx Task Force (San Francisco)
Jon Jacobo is the Director of Engagement and Public Policy for TODCO Group, a 50-year-old San Francisco affordable housing and advocacy non-profit. In this role, Jon works on developing policy around land use and planning and he is the key engagement liaison with residents, community groups, business partners, and government officials. Jon is also the elected Vice President of the historic Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, in San Francisco’s Mission District, where he was born. In this capacity, he has helped lead the organization and its staff to ensure that they collectively preserve, enhance, and advocate for Latino cultural continuity, and vitality.
Rahwa Neguse - Healthy Black Families (Oakland)
Rahwa is the Executive Director, Healthy Black Families, Inc., which is an organization servicing Black pregnant and parenting families in Berkeley, Oakland, and the greater East Bay region. She has over 15 years of experience as a leader in both the public and nonprofit sectors with demonstrated experience in the areas of organization management, strategic planning, community engagement, youth development, and quantitative and qualitative research evaluation. The work of Healthy Black Families, Inc. is centered at the intersection of health equity and social justice while supporting the growth and development of families through education, engagement, capacity building, and advocacy.
Janice Mathurin-Boyd - Fresno Grows Best Babies Zone (Fresno)
Janice is the Project Manager for Fresno GROWS Best Babies Zone, which is a place-based, multi-sector, community mobilization effort for reducing racial inequalities in infant mortality and birth outcomes. She has more than 20 years of combined professional experience, relevant education and diverse skill set from the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Mathurin-Boyd has extensive program management experience in the implementation and evaluation of culturally effective programs including (eg., infant mortality reduction, health care access, school readiness, physical and mental health, youth leadership, and workforce development support) with WFFRC.
Dayna Long - Project MASC (Oakland
Dr. Dayna Long has been a primary care pediatrician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland for over 20 years. For the past 5 years, she has also served as the Director of Center for Child and Community Health at University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. She dedicates her career to eliminating childhood health inequities that lead to poor health, financial and educational outcomes for families and young children on both individual and population levels.
Connie Wun - Project MASC (Oakland)
Connie Wun, Ph.D. is the co-founder and Executive Director of AAPI Women Lead. She has been working on issues of violence against women and girls of color for more than 20 years. She is also the founder of Transformative Research, a research consultancy that trains community-based organizations on participatory action and community-driven research. In this capacity, Dr. Wun has worked with organizations including Open Society Foundation, Girls for Gender Equity in NYC, Monsoon: Asian and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity, National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence, Policy Link, Survived and Punished, and the national Sexual Assault Demonstrative Initiative.
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