Causes - Health for All
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Worker Health & Justice
Fires – Fund for Change
Strength for the Journey
WORKER HEALTH & JUSTICE
Subject to enormous stress and most often living and working in sub-standard conditions, immigrants working in the informal sector of the economy face both enormous health challenges and innumerable obstacles – cultural, legal, institutional and economic – to gaining access to even basic health services. When illness strikes or times get tough, workers like these are too often left in the dark, with little support on the ground and little recourse to hold employers accountable for lost wages, medical services or other forms of assistance. Times of economic crisis and natural disaster merely serve to highlight what are ongoing, urgent needs.
The Foundation for Change is committed to assist in developing networks and coalitions around the health and workplace rights of this uniquely disenfranchised population. In 2009 the Foundation for Change awarded grants totaling $106,596 to twelve grassroots organizations or projects from three “Focus Funds.” See a list of GRANTS.
Under the leadership of Program Officer Andrea Rocha, these 2009 grantees Funds are being incorporated into a Social Justice Network for Immigrant and Border Communities. Learn more about NETWORKS. Only by creating a lasting and vibrant network of this sort will the people living in San Diego’s immigrant and border communities be able to thrive in these challenging times.
We understand that in this kind of work indigenous leadership is of the essence. Our grants guidelines make clear that the Foundation for change will “only fund the work of groups that are: committed to democratic and participatory styles of leadership.”
CALL FOR DONATIONS
We invite your generous donation to the “Health for All Fund.”
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 "Fires/ Change" 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 with under-served communities affected by natural disaster.
FIRES – FUND FOR CHANGE – Justice in the Face of Natural Disaster
“I wanted my relief dollars to go to local groups that would get immediate help to communities that have the least and need the most. That’s why I chose the Foundation for Change.”
-- Chuck Lowery, Pacific Bakery
In October of 2007, the San Diego community mobilized in the face of disaster. We joined in saying "thank you!" to firefighters and other loyal workers from the public, private and non-profit sectors who helped so many get through the week. We also applauded the tens of thousands of San Diegans who contributed hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to emergency relief.
And yet, for all the good they did, mainstream relief efforts were hampered by social structures which impair their ability to help those most in need.
As the smoke cleared we learned that thousands of San Diegans unable to prove residency in evacuated neighborhoods were denied access to emergency services. Thousands more steered clear of mainstream services for fear of being reported to immigration authorities. This fear appears well-founded: in the first days of the fire more than one hundred immigrants were seized and deported, and area law enforcement officers were instructed to enforce immigration laws even while pursuing humanitarian assignments.
In response to this humanitarian crisis, the Foundation for Change established the “Fires Fund for Change.” Grants distributed from this fund offered critical resources to organizations with demonstrated capacity for reaching the hardest-to-reach populations with emergency assistance, advocacy vis-à-vis mainstream relief organizations and documentation of abuse. See a list of GRANTS.
Through our work granting money from our Fires Fund, we learned several things:
- the greatest hardship in times of natural disaster falls, as it always does when times get tough, on poor and elderly and immigrant San Diegans, and others who lack the resources and savvy to access the programs offered by large, bureaucratic charitable and governmental organizations;
- there exists an extensive network of organizations with demonstrated capacity to meet the needs of migrant farmworkers in North County San Diego;
- the network of organizations dedicated to empowering low-wage immigrant workers San Diego’s urban economy is fragile by comparison.
Immigrant workers – especially those working in the informal sector of San Diego’s labor market – can be seen as the urban equivalent of the migrant farmworker.
During the San Diego wildfires of October, 2007, these workers were left in the dark, with little support on the ground and little recourse to hold employers accountable for lost wages, medical services or other forms of assistance. The San Diego chapters of both the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Friends Services Committee have documented that these workers had great difficulty gaining access to relief services offered by mainstream humanitarian organizations.
The crisis made clear that there is ongoing, urgent need. Caregivers, housekeepers, gardeners, urban day laborers and other immigrants working in the informal sector of the urban economy face great obstacles – cultural, legal, institutional and economic – to gaining access to even modest health services. These obstacles are even greater in times of natural disaster – times, of course, which are sure to come again.
To encourage and promote grassroots efforts aimed at equipping San Diego’s under-served populations for times of crisis, the Foundation for Change maintains a “Fires Fund for Change.” Grants from the fund will be awarded to organizations actively and effectively engaged with border and immigrant communities, so that these communities will be better equipped in the future to deal with the enormous health challenges they face. Special emphasis will be given to groups working with leadership indigenous to these communities.
CALL FOR DONATIONS
We invite your generous donation to the “Fires Fund for Change.”
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 "Fires/ Change" 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 with under-served communities affected by natural disaster.
STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY – Living Whole Lives with HIV
Each August for over twenty years, Strength for the Journey (SFTJ) has conducted a five-day retreat for men and women living with HIV/AIDS at Camp Cedar Glen in Julian, CA. Since 2006 Foundation for Change Executive Director John Fanestil, acting in his capacity as an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church, has served as the camp’s “Dean.”
SFTJ provides a safe, caring and healing community that fosters spiritual and emotional growth in a supportive, nurturing environment. The retreats are staffed by a dedicated group of volunteers who donate their time, talent and professional expertise. Prior to the retreat, volunteers are recruited from various HIV/AIDS service organizations, faith communities and social/welfare agencies. Training and staff development takes place during a series of five monthly meetings beginning in the spring.
In addition to providing the physical needs of a retreat (cabin style lodging, nutritious meals, nursing support and recreational facilities), the program also offers various group workshops on topics such as health & wellness, medication adherence, nutrition, diet and exercise in addition to providing one-on-one counseling led by licensed and certified volunteer professionals. A highlight of the experience is the Healing and Wellness Center where therapeutic treatments are provided by licensed and certified volunteer massage therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and other holistic healthcare practitioners.
Throughout the week, physical, mental and spiritual activities give participants opportunities to reflect, be challenged and to grow. Traditional camp activities such as campfires, talent shows, outdoor hikes, swimming and recreational activities are combined with quality of life support such as “family group,” 12-step meetings and opportunities for spiritual nurture. Participants draw and lend support to one another, fostering relationships, which often extend well beyond the retreat experience. (92% of the campers filling out the exit survey indicated they made at least on friendship they expect will extend beyond camp.)
SFTJ has grown as a model of a “healing community,” where the leaders demonstrate partnership between HIV-positive and HIV-negative people, and in which all participants are encouraged to provide mutual support. Campers are assigned to “Family Groups” which meet twice a day and are led by experienced group facilitators. During these groups the campers are encouraged to explore with one another their thoughts about living with HIV, difficulties in managing relationships or in disclosing HIV status to family and friends, challenges they are experiencing and fears about the future.
People often learn best by observing other people practice successful behavior. Peers reaching peers can increase the camper’s level of self-confidence about their own ability to adopt positive attitudes that may have a profound influence on their ability to cope with their home environment or belief in their ability to control their own motivations, thoughts, emotions, and specific behaviors.
One of our central commitments is to provide circumstances in which people can inspire and encourage one another to develop new attitudes about living with HIV. These new attitudes create positive outcome expectancies - the belief that good things will happen as a result of the new behavior – which are reinforced by hearing the outcomes experienced by others. The reinforcement value of these experiences motivates the participants to attempt similar life-style change strategies with the hope of experiencing a similar benefit. We choose this model because it has demonstrated significant results as measured by assessment surveys collected at the start and end of each Retreat experience.
CALL FOR DONATIONS
We invite your generous donation to the “Strength for the Journey.”
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 “SFTJ” 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 Strength for the Journey. |
