Causes - Democracy for All

Quick Links: Make Yourself Count / Democracia Para Tod@s / Friends of Friendship Park

DID YOU KNOW …

… that communities of color now comprise a majority of San Diego County’s population?
… that there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in San Diego County?
… that Barack Obama received over 55 percent of San Diego County votes in the 2008 presidential election?
… that not one person of color sits on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors?
… that over 600,000 eligible San Diego County residents are not registered to vote?

“Our vision of justice is one in which everyone has an equal part in creating a democratic society.”
– from the Values Statement of the Foundation for Change

In 2008, according to the American Community Survey, San Diego became a “majority minority” county – 30 percent Latino, 11 percent Asian and Pacific Islander, five percent African-American, and over eight percent “other.”  But does San Diego’s democracy work for all of us? It is no accident that San Diego is known nation-wide for its conservative political culture.  Unlike in so many other major cities, there has not existed here a thick network of support for organizations working to engage ethnic minority communities with the civic process.  This has left San Diego’s political establishment disconnected from the lived experience of most San Diegans.

Together with our ever-expanding network of partners, the Foundation for Change is attempting to address this historic lack. By organizing donors, awarding grants and supporting leaders, we aim to build a progressive infrastructure that will create in San Diego a culture of “Democracy for All.”  (For an example of the kind of work other foundations are doing in the realm of immigrant integration and civic participation, see this project of the Los Angeles-based California Community Foundation.)

The first phase of this new initiative at the Foundation for Change is a campaign to ensure that people from San Diego County’s immigrant and border communities are counted accurately in the 2010 census.  At the same time we will continue to seek out opportunities to support the work of grassroots organizations seeking to build a culture of democratic accountability in Baja California.

MAKE YOURSELF COUNT / HAGASE CONTAR: A Complete Count in the 2010 Census

By law the decennial census is supposed to count ALL residents of every state – there is nothing more basic to our democracy than the understanding that every individual counts.   
But cultural and language barriers and a hostile immigration enforcement environment will make it difficult to get some populations accurately counted in 2010.  Mistrust of government runs high in the immigrant communities of our border region. 

As a result California stands to lose out in everything from allocation of Congressional seats to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal government disbursements.  For each person not counted, local governments will lose $12,000 over the next ten years in federal funding alone.
           
In response, a network of California foundations are supporting outreach campaigns to promote immigrant participation in the census. Here in San Diego, the Foundation for Change, working together with The California Endowment, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, and a host of local partners, is spearheading a campaign, “Make Yourself Count / Hágase Contar” to ensure a complete count of our region’s hard-to-count immigrant communities.  

Through this campaign we will grant over $140,000 to engage over twenty organizations and train some 200 trusted community leaders as passionate advocates for census participation. Especially in the current environment, only grassroots leaders with already established relationships of trust will be able to convince many immigrants that participation in the census is worthwhile.

Through this project the Foundation for Change is investing in the census effort here in San Diego, while at the same time investing in community-based organizations working in immigrant and border communities.  We envision this campaign as the first in a series of campaigns that will expand our region’s culture of civic participation and contribute to a greater degree of democracy for all.

To learn more about what a building-block campaign for civic transformation would look like here in San Diego, please contact Executive Director John Fanestil.

CALL FOR DONATIONS

We invite your generous donation to the “Democracy for All Fund.”

Private businesses or non-profit organizations wishing to join our list of sponsors are invited to contact Executive Director John Fanestil at 619-692-0527 or john@foundation4change.org. Donations by check or money order can be mailed to: Foundation for Change, 3758 30th Street, San Diego, CA  92103.  Please make all payments to “Foundation for Change” and please note “Democracy” on the memo line. 

To make a secure donation by credit card, click here. All donations are 100 percent tax-deductible and will directly support the Foundation for Change’s work promoting the growth of democratic institutions and practices of civic engagement on both sides of the border.

DEMOCRACIA PARA TOD@S – The fight for democratic accountability in Baja California. The harvest begins in our binational garden…

On Saturday, February 6, 2010 the Foundation for Change, in partnership with Fundacion la Puerta of Tecate, hosted an event at the “Jardin Cerveza” in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico to learn from, and honor, the work of its 6 Baja California grantee organizations, specifically funded for activities in 2009.   Without a doubt, this phrase merits repeating over & over again, as the event itself represents an important moment, and an important opportunity, at the Foundation for Change.

The main focus of the event was the “Final Report” presentations of the following organizations located in Tijuana, Tecate, and on indigenous lands of Baja California:

• Comité De Mujeres Lluvia Del Sur  from TECATE   presented “A Capacity Building Initiative with Marginalized Women of the ‘Luis Donaldo Colossio’ Colonia in Tecate”

• Barrios Con Arte y Cultura (BACU) from TIJUANApresented  “Voices from the ‘Hood: Marginalized Youth Organize to Collect Oral Histories on Video”

• Centro de Información para Trabajadores y Trabajadoras (CITTAC) from TIJUANA presented “Human Rights Training Sessions: Labor  & Gender Rights for Workers in Tijuana’s Maquiladoras”

• Colectiva Feminista Binacional, from TIJUANApresented “Women Across Borders: Organizing Women for Change

• Fundacion Esperanza from TIJUANA presented “El Placer de Ser Padres” – Parenting Workshops and Community Development in Tijuana’s Urban Margins.

Collectively that day, and despite the pouring rain, members from these organizations shared their Foundation for Change funded projects to a larger & binational audience.  In doing so, they brilliantly and humbly articulated the struggles of women, youth, workers, and indigenous peoples of these borderlands.  All groups presented a PowerPoint, and BACU shared a home-made video, produced with equipped purchased with their grant. All groups had 20 minutes to present, with a 10 minute question and answer opportunity from the audience; and not just any audience!

Present in the audience ,and highly inquisitive that day, were also members  of the Foundation for Change Board of Director, the Chair of the Grantmaking Committee, Foundation for Change staff and volunteers; Fundacion la Puerta staff & volunteers; s well as some of the U.S.-based Fiscal Sponsor organizations that had initially facilitated the groups’ ability to receive their grant.  

Worthy of mention as Fiscal Sponsors, present that day, are: Oscar Romo from the Southwest Wetland Interpretative Association (SWIA), Amelia Simpson from the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), and Peter Brown & Susan Beattie from Grassroots Events/Schools for Chiapas.  They all inspired us for their role as binational allies able to provide genuine and collaborative fiscal sponsorship & support to our grantees.

In fact, and given the inability of the Colectivo Kumiai Spapoman to be present that day, Peter Brown from Grassroots Events/Schools for Chiapas spoke articulately about the work of this organization and their project regarding the “Conservation and Protection of  Kumiai and Cucapa Indigenous Assets: Territory, Culture, and  Natural Resources.”  Peter was clear in letting us know that he was not representing anyone’s voice or experience in the Kumai community; but as an ally and partner he had updates & information that he wanted to share.  This, of course, is the kind of Fiscal Sponsor relationship that we want to continue nurturing: as an ally, partner, and friend; able to understand the realities of our grantees.

The day’s presentations were followed by a Mexican style “comida”, the entrainment of Ensamble Casiopea, a musical duo from Tecate (passionate with the music of legendary South American singer Mercedes Soza), and the good cheer and energy from a local youth group, Grupo Frontera, that rose wholeheartedly to the occasion to support with logistics at the event and to practice their English with allies from across the Border, in San Diego.

Last but not least, the beautiful and smooth interpretation skills of Carlos Diaz-  de Leon and Daniel Durazo made it seem as though we were all speaking one language.  On second thought, we were… social justice is a universal langauge.

All in all, approximately 50 people attended the event, representing over 12 organizations, from Tijuana, Tecate, and the San Diego region.  This was indeed a chance to learn and harvest in a binational garden.

To learn more, please contact Program Officer Andrea Rocha

FRIENDS OF FRIENDSHIP PARK – Preserving the “birthplace of the border”

In 2008 the Department of Homeland Security began to erect an elaborate system of double and triple barriers along the coastal stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in southwestern San Diego County. Eleven of the 14 miles of the “San Diego sector” had already been double-fenced.  Under legal waivers issued by Secretary Michael Chertoff, DHS began to erect double and triple walls through the Tijuana Estuary and across the face of Friendship Park, an historic location where generations of San Diegans and Tijuanenses have gathered to visit with friends and family through the border fence.

As a matter of conscience, Executive Director John Fanestil began to serve communion at Friendship Park in the summer of 2008. Watch a video about communion at Friendship Park. On February 21, 2009, when San Diego Border Patrol began to enforce the ban on public access, Fanestil became the first U.S. citizen to be forcibly prevented by U.S. Border Patrol from entering this historic location. Read John’s account:”On Saturday I was almost arrested for committing assault with a tortilla …”

In July, 2009 over 70 community-based organizations and hundreds of community leaders – including California State Attorney General Brown, members of Congress Susan Davis and Bob Filner, and a dozen other elected officials – wrote to Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano requesting the restoration of routine public access to Friendship Park. READ THE LETTER
In the fall of 2009, San Diego Border Patrol officials created a limited “public access area” at Friendship Park, which prevents visitors on the U.S. side from drawing closer than five feet to the international boundary. A sign posted at the entrance to the park lists “rules for entry,” among them,   “Physical contact with individuals in Mexico is not permitted.” Local coalition leaders are calling for a new design allowing visitors easily to see, hear and touch each other at the historic border park.

For the latest news, please visit Friends of Friendship Park or follow the cause on Facebook.

CALL FOR DONATIONS

We invite your generous donation to the “Friends of Friendship Park.”

Private businesses or non-profit organizations wishing to join our list of sponsors are invited to inquire at 619-692-0527 or info@foundation4change.org. Donations by check or money order can be mailed to: Foundation for Change, 3758 30th Street, San Diego, CA  92103.  Please make all payments to “Foundation for Change” and please note "Friendship Park" on the memo line. 

To make a secure donation by credit card, click here.All donations are 100 percent tax-deductible and will directly support groups working to secure routine public access to Friendship Park.