Under One Roof: Strength in Diversity
I attended the North Bay Organizing Project's 6th Annual Meeting. This meeting emphasized voting as one of the main ways to get the community's voice heard. As there are local government re/elections and 17 state-wide ballot measures, this is an important election year.
The North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP) is a multi-issue community organization that focuses on education access, transportation, voter engagement, fair housing, and more.
[Related: Which Side Are You On?: North Bay Organizing Project's 5th Annual Public Meeting]
At last year's meeting, one of the big issues the community was working on was housing. Then this past summer, Santa Rosa's City Council voted 4-2 in favor of Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Evictions. Although it's not perfect, this is an especially great victory for those of whom were writing letters, sharing and signing petitions, attending city council meetings, circulating posts on social media, and doing other forms of engagement to get this moratorium passed. Everyone who was involved supporting these efforts in any way were invited on stage. This was great to see because it showed that voting is not the only way to have an impact on votes. As speakers at the meeting pointed out, not everyone can vote. However, their voices can still be heard by those who can. One of the most powerful parts of this demonstration of community involvement was the speakers pointing out who was not there - three out of the six city council members who are against the rent control ordinance. It drew attention to elected officials as well as what they think is important.
[Related: Democracy Beyond Voting]
Another one of my favorite parts was seeing NBOP's Education Task Force representative and former Sonoma State University Chicano and Latino Studies and American Multicultural Studies professor, Amanda Morrison. She talked about how teaching ethnic studies is an act of love. One of the things the Education Task Force works to do is get ethnic studies into the K-12 education. A current and a former SSU student each took some time to talk about the value of ethnic studies and what it has done for them. As a student in both Women's and Gender Studies and American Multicultural Studies, I related to both of them as they explained how they were finally able to connect with their culture and were given the language to describe the world around them. This is also my experience with ethnic studies and is why I feel it is important every student should have the opportunity to take. Ethnic studies has enriched my academic learning and helped inform my involvement in my community.
Audience members were asked to join speakers on stage by tenant and member for the Centro Laboral de Graton and Integrated Voter Engagement Team
Check out the album or Instagram for more pictures from this event.