Common will take part in a series of community events to engage, build with and inspire local communities and organizations, including a town hall with youth leaders in Bakersfield

Building Healthy Communities Kern

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-Oct. 3 2018

MEDIA CONTACT:

Sarah Reyes
W: (559) 443-5306
C: (559) 470-4545 sreyes@calendow.org

Press Release

COMMON AND THE HOPE & REDEMPTION TOUR HIT THE ROAD AGAIN IN OCTOBER
The Tour includes a series of special live musical performances inside prisons along with community activationsthroughout California’s Central Valley

Oct. 2, 2018 — Los Angeles, CA — Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy-winning artist, actor and activist Common will embark again on the Hope & Redemption Tour alongside his new nonprofit organization Imagine Justice. Imagine Justice’s Hope & Redemption Tour: Central Valley will take place from Oct. 10 – 13.

“This work and this Tour is deeply rooted in my love for people and my commitment to helping create a world where we all can thrive. I believe that all of us deserve the tools, access, resources and opportunities neededto navigate our lives and cultivate our best selves,” said Common.

Starting on Oct. 10, Common will visit and perform inside three different prisons in three days throughout California’s Central Valley to instill hope, love and humanity in the men and women who are incarcerated. In addition to the live concerts in various correctional facilities, Common will take part in a series of community events to engage, build with and inspire local communities and organizations, including a town hall with youthleaders in Bakersfield, a speaking engagement at Fresno City College and a #SchoolsNotPrisons event inMerced. The Tour will conclude on Oct. 13 with a special visit to a California Division of Juvenile Justice youth facility and a meeting in Stockton with Mayor Michael Tubbs and local community leaders.

“I’m very grateful to go on this journey again to instill hope in our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated and engage youth leaders in California as we go on Imagine Justice’s Hope & Redemption Tour: CentralValley,” said Common.

The Tour is supported by the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and The California Endowment’s Building HealthyCommunities initiative centered on community power building for health and racial justice in South Kern County, Fresno, Merced, Stockton and other communities throughout the state.

“We’re proud to join Common in lifting up the Central Valley’s youth leaders and their bold vision for a healthier and more just California,” said Robert K. Ross, President and CEO of The California Endowment. “Weshare his commitment to justice, both in communities and inside prisons where hope lights the way toward apositive future.”

ABOUT THE HOPE & REDEMPTION TOUR Common dedicated countless hours advocating for criminal justice reform, engaging with local communities and instilling hope in the men and women inside prison as part of his Hope & Redemption Tour that started in 2017. On March 28-31, Common kicked off the Tour by playing three shows in three different prisons in four days. In August, Common hosted a special free community concert, Imagine Justice, on the grounds of the Capitol building in Sacramento with J. Cole, Andra Day, Ledisi, Goapele and more to advocate for criminal justice reform for an audience of over 25,000 people. The next day,Common joined multiple organizations in the State Capitol for several meetings with the governor, numerous caucuses and other legislators to discuss a number of bills that were all eventually signed into law in September. Following his visit to the State Capitol, Common traveled to Folsom State Prison and Lancaster State Prison to perform for the men in prison.

ABOUT IMAGINE JUSTICE Centered at the intersection of art and activism, Imagine Justice is dedicated to leveraging the power of art to advocate for communities around the country, to fight for justice and equalityand to stand united against injustice wherever it appears. Common’s newly founded Imagine Justice will focus on criminal justice reform, coalition/community building, immigration, bringing humanity to communities who are often dehumanized in society, civic engagement and leveraging the power of art to inspire and spark change. Follow Imagine Justice on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook.

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT The California Endowment, a private statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to quality health care for underserved individuals andcommunities, and to provide fundamental affordable improvements in the health status of all Californians.Headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, The Endowment has regional offices in Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and San Diego, with program staff working throughout the state. The Endowment challenges theconventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people’s health.Through its Health Happens Here campaign and 10-year initiative for Building Healthy Communities, The Endowment is creating places where children are healthy, safe and ready to learn. At its core, The Endowment believes that health happens in neighborhoods, schools and with prevention. For moreinformation, visit The California Endowment’s homepage at www.calendow.org.

ABOUT ANTI-RECIDIVISM COALITION The mission of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is to change lives and create safe, healthy communities by providing a support and advocacy network for, and comprised of, formerly incarcerated young men and women. To accomplish this mission, ARC advocates for fair policies in the juvenile and criminal justice systems and provides a supportive network and reentry services to formerlyincarcerated individuals. In addition to peer support, ARC offers wraparound services, including casemanagement, trauma counseling, housing, education and employment assistance, mentorship, and opportunities for civic engagement. Today, ARC serves more than 1000 formerly incarcerated men and women. For more information, see www.antirecidivism.org.

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"We believe this narrow interpretation of the settlement is at odds with the spirit of the agreement and the District's stated commitment to improve school climate for African-American and Latino students. By putting the burden on student clubs and student organizations to put on celebratory events, the District is sending an explicit message that Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month are not a priority and are not worthy of District resources and staff time."

Sahar Durali, California Rural Legal Assistance

Parents, students, teachers, and community advocates were among the attendees who packed the Kern High School District (KHSD) board chambers on the evening of Jan. 30 for the district’s second community forum on school climate, a condition of the discrimination settlement agreement, which requires KHSD, among other things, to hold two community forums a year where administrators must present data related to suspensions, expulsions and involuntary transfers. The agreement also mandates that the district celebrate Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month and allow students to celebrate these events.

Sahar Durali, directing attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, which took part in the suit settlement answered a few questions about the progress the district has made with regard to school climate.

BHC-SK: This is the second KHSD community forum on school climate. In an over-arching sense, what progress has been made with regard to the lawsuit settlement? What needs to be improved?
SD: The district has made some progress with respect to reducing suspension, expulsion, and transfer numbers. However, the data released at the community forum demonstrates significant disparities still exist in discipline of students of color, especially African-American students. It appears the district has also moved forward with a more comprehensive implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS), and more staff are being trained on PBIS, implicit bias, and social emotional learning concepts. However, KHSD board members have not been trained, and have not indicated whether or not they will participate in any trainings related to PBIS, implicit bias, and social emotional learning concepts.
The district should do more to reduce disparities in discipline. Additionally, during the forum it became evident that some schools still have alarmingly high suspension rates, especially for African-American students. Moreover, school climate surveys reveal that students of color feel especially racially harassed and isolated. The district should do more to address the racially hostile environment these students are facing.
BHC-SK: Now for some specifics with regard to the settlement: Why is KHSD not leading celebrations of Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month, especially when these celebrations are so meaningful to create a healthy school climate?
 
SD: The District agreed to recognize Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month under the settlement. At the last two community forums, the District indicated it was recognizing these months by allowing students to celebrate them. Dr. Brenda Lewis [KHSD Assistant Superintendent of Instruction] also stated that the district had alerted administrators that they should permit students and student organizations to put on events. At no point did the district communicate that individual school sites or the District were leading their own events.
We believe this narrow interpretation of the settlement is at odds with the spirit of the agreement and the District’s stated commitment to improve school climate for African-American and Latino students. By putting the burden on student clubs and student organizations to put on celebratory events, the District is sending an explicit message that Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month are not a priority and are not worthy of District resources and staff time. Additionally, based on the District’s communications, we suspect that at schools where student clubs are not active, and no student initiates celebrations, Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month are simply not being commemorated. It is standard practice for schools statewide and nationwide to put on events during these cultural months, and a commitment to celebrating Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month could go a long way to build trust and repair relationships with the Latino and African-American communities.
BHC-SK: As part of the agreement, the school district is required to train teaching and non-teaching staff on implicit bias. During the forum an attendee asked whether the KHSD board would be required to get this training as well. Do you feel that training the school board is important? Why or why not?
SD: Training the school board on implicit bias would demonstrate to the community that the Kern High School District is engaging in self-reflection and taking a meaningful step forward to eliminate bias at the highest levels of leadership.
BHC-SK: The district has been successful at reducing expulsions and transfers rates, but we still see disparities when it comes to African-American students. What should KHSD do to address this?
 
SD: The settlement identifies the need to address racial disparities by requiring that the District address bias and implicit bias through training, review of policies and development of the behavior matrix. Rachel Godsil of the Perception Institute and Dr. Eddie Fergus were identified in the settlement agreement because of their expertise in this area, along with Dr. Nancy Dome. Their recommendations must be implemented by the District in a meaningful manner to make sure that these disparities do not continue.
BHC-SK: In a survey conducted by the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), the percentage of African-American students who felt isolated and/or harassed at school due to their race or ethnicity in the 60 days prior to taking the survey jumped from 16 percent in 2016-17 to 19 percent in 2017-18. Clearly, KHSD needs to improve how it treats African-American students. Any specific suggestions, even beyond the settlement?
 
SD: Under the Local Control Funding Formula, school districts must create specific goals for numerically significant student subgroups in their Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). At the KHSD, African-American students are a numerically significant subgroup. The district could follow in the footsteps of other school districts to create more targeted, comprehensive programs that create supports specifically for African American students. Additionally, the district should work with its commissioned experts, Rachel Godsil of the Perception Institute and Nancy Dome of Epoch Education, to identify the root of the expressed isolation of African-American students, and to work to eliminate harassment of these students by other students and/or staff. Both Rachel Godsil and Nancy Dome are leading experts in addressing implicit bias and racially hostile educational environments and could work closely with the district to create solutions at all levels.
BHC-SK: KHSD is a diverse district. Results from the CHKS suggest that the administration and staff have not done enough to embrace that diversity and ensure that all students are valued for who they are and the rich personal and cultural experiences they bring to the district. The settlement agreement addresses the training that staff may need to address these issues. How can KHSD address these discipline disparities?
SD: One way that KHSD could probably address discipline disparities and create a more inviting school environment for African-American students and other students of color is to ensure school staff are representative of their student body. The district made a commitment to recruit and hire a diverse staff in both the settlement agreement and their LCAP, which is the document that lays out their priorities for each school year and the budget expenditures related to those priorities. In fact, the LCAP specifically created a goal for hiring teachers that reflect the student demographics. However, of the new hires for the 2017-18 school year, 62.6% were white, 26.3% were Latino, and 2.6% were African American. In comparison to the demographic makeup of the student body, which is approximately 22% white, 65% Latino, 5.9% African-American, 2.6% Asian, 1.3% Filipino, and 2% identified as another race, the District is falling drastically short of their goal!

Read more about KHSD’s Forum on School Climate from South Kern Sol here.

"We are coming together to provide community residents with an opportunity to find out about their health coverage options and to enroll into a qualified health plan before Open Enrollment ends."

Clinica Sierra Vista Chief Operating Officer Bill Phelps

Several health care facilities across Kern County are teaming up to hold enrollment events before the deadline on January 31 to help area residents navigate the process.

“We are coming together to provide community residents with an opportunity to find out about their health coverage options and to enroll into a qualified health plan before Open Enrollment ends,” Clinica Sierra Vista Chief Operating Officer Bill Phelps said.

Phelps added that interest is up this year compared to last year but does not have official numbers yet.

The community is invited to attend the next enrollment event, which will be held Saturday, January 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Valley Plaza Mall between Macy’s and JC Penney.

For more information call Clinica Sierra Vista at (661) 328-4245 or Omni Family Health at (661) 459-1900.

Click here for more information.

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La fecha límite de la inscripción abierta es el 31 de enero

Varias instalaciones de atención médica por todo el condado de Kern se están reuniendo para celebrar eventos de inscripción antes de la fecha límite del 31 de enero para ayudar a los residentes del área a navegar el proceso.

“Nos estamos reuniendo para brindar a los residentes de la comunidad la oportunidad de conocer sus opciones de cobertura de salud e inscribirse en un plan de salud calificado antes de que finalice la inscripción abierta”, dijo el director de operaciones de Clínica Sierra Vista, Bill Phelps.
Phelps agregó que el interés aumentó este año en comparación con el año pasado, pero aún no tiene cifras oficiales.

La comunidad está invitada a asistir al próximo evento de inscripción que se llevará a cabo el sábado, 27 de enero de 10 a.m. a 3 p.m. en el Valley Plaza Mall, entre Macy’s y JC Penney.

Para obtener más información, llame a Clínica Sierra Vista al (661) 328-4245 o a Omni Family Health al (661) 459-1900.

Haga click aquí para descargar el volante.

“Cutting health care will hurt real families directly and hurt all of us indirectly by crushing our economy.” -- Lorena Lara of Faith in the Valley Kern

Bakersfield, Calif. – Organizations, advocates, students and families delivered a simple message during a recent press event at the Liberty Bell: health is more than health care and everyone, particularly the most vulnerable members of our community, is at risk.

As an example, residents, in partnership with Building Healthy Communities South Kern including Faith in the Valley, Dignity Health’s Community Health Initiative, Clinica Sierra Vista, Vision y Compromiso, California Partnership, say that the expansion of Medi-Cal has helped boost the regional economy by creating new jobs and providing people with basic preventative services. Specifically, in Kern County, if life-saving health coverage were to be reduced or dramatically cut, we could:

  • Lose health insurance for about 160,000 children, seniors and working family members;

  • Get rid of about 14,700 jobs and;

  • Rip about $305 million from our local economy

“We want to educate our fellow Kern County residents about what it means to create a healthy Kern County,” said Lorena Lara of Faith in the Valley Kern. “Cutting health care will hurt real families directly and hurt all of us indirectly by crushing our economy.”

Family financial stability advocates also say that the proposed changes currently being considered to our tax system would have devastating consequences for the economic health of our communities. For example, abolishing deductions for state/local taxes and itemized charitable deductions, which would sharply raise Californians’ tax bill, will hurt our capacity to invest in the things that matter most to us.

“We already know that over 80% of all donations made nationally come from individuals—not foundations or corporations,” said Jill Egland, Vice President of Community Impact, United Way of Kern County. “Those same numbers hold true for us here in Kern. Furthermore, we’re not just talking about contributions from the very wealthy. We’re talking about the bulk of charitable investment coming from working- and middle-class incomes. Reducing or abolishing these deductions? We’ll feel it here, most definitely, in our loss of ability to invest in our parks, our schools, our places of worship, our emergency relief efforts. We need to empower communities. Not cripple them.”

BHC-SK is a broad collaborative of community groups and organizations, public agencies, residents, and youth leaders who are partnering and advocating towards community and health equity in Kern’s underserved communities.                                     

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"There are 41,000 registered voters between 18-24 years old in Kern County and only 19,000 voted in the 2016 general election."

Reyna Olaguez, South Kern Sol

In mid-November, three youth from South Kern Sol had the opportunity to travel to Austin,Texas to participate in Voto Latino’s 10th Annual Power Summit. The youth, Marisol Sanchez, 17, Veronica Morley, 21, and Yesenia Aguilar, 19, heard from national figures like Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino’s President and CEO, as well as the former Secretary of Housing and Development, Julian Castro– who announced during the summit. that he is considering a run for president in 2020.

Voto Latino brought together nearly 500 youth leaders from Texas and several other states to empower and teach them about the importance of being civically engaged in their communities.

“Even if you are 17 or if you are undocumented and cannot vote- we all know someone who can and we need to make sure they get out to the polls on election day,” said Kumar during her welcome address.

“The take away message was that when communities stand together and vote, communities will rise up and be stronger,” said Reyna Olaguez, South Kern Sol’s Executive Director, who also attended the event. “In Kern and across the nation the reality is that youth are registering to vote, but very few are actually going to the polls on election day and this needs to change in order to change our communities for the better.”

“There are 41,000 registered voters between 18-24 years old in Kern County and only 19,000 voted in the 2016 general election. Out of those, 53 percent are Latino but only 44 percent voted. Youth participation lags behind older voters about 13 to 15 percent,” said Olaguez who added that there are about 365,000 registered voters in Kern.

"We are training parents and residents to become leaders with the tools to advocate for discipline reforms at school board meetings and to run for school board."

Gerald Cantu, Dolores Huerta Foundation

After parents in the Mojave Unified School District reached out to the Dolores Huerta Foundation for help in addressing the racial disparities in school suspensions, Building Healthy Communities South Kern’s Kern Education Justice Collaborative partners began their work to find a solution to the extreme suspension and expulsion rates for students of color in the district. Outdated disciplinary practices remove students from the classroom and allow these same students to fall behind in school.

In a series of education justice op-eds in The Bakersfield Californian, Gerald Cantu, Education Policy Director at the Dolores Huerta Foundation, cites that students of color across Kern are pushed out of schools through disciplinary practices, as brought to light in recent the Kern High School District settlement. Mojave Unified School District has the highest rate of suspensions in the county, with approximately 41% of student body suspended between 2014 and 2015, the majority of whom were black. Despite being a minority in the district, black students were expelled two times more than their white and Latino counterparts.

BHC-SK asked Cantu to tell us how this campaign will look like in Mojave.

“As we begin our work in Mojave Unified, we intend to apply the lessons learned through our years-long efforts at Kern High School District, where we worked with parents to advocate for adoption and faithful implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and restorative justice practices, training on implicit bias, and a diverse staff representative of the student body,” Cantu states.

“We are training parents and residents to become leaders with the tools to advocate for discipline reforms at school board meetings and to run for school board. It’s going to mean progress towards the dismantling of the school-to-prison pipeline for students of color. Two school board trustees will be up for election in 2018, and we intend to hold candidate forums where parents and community members will have an opportunity to ask questions of the candidates.”

Read more from Gerald Cantu in The Bakersfield Californian here.

"As a youth advocate it is hard to move forward, people doubt you-- but it is worse when you're not at the table, because your perspective doesn't get there."

Dean Welliver, South Kern Sol

Our own Dean Welliver, Program Associate at South Kern Sol, recently attended the Inaugural Summit for the Obama Foundation in Chicago. Bringing together civic leaders from across the globe for a two-day summit held October 31 and November 1, the summit was packed with panels, workshops, and speakers including elected officials, writers and artists, social justice leaders, and entrepreneurs.

“My favorite panel was called ‘Getting Women in the Room Where It Happens,’ which included Dolores Huerta,” said Welliver. “There were so many good conversations about how women can support women to deal with sexism in the workplace, tokenization, and self-doubt.” The panel included former National Security Advisor under President Obama, and Mana Al-Sharif, the woman arrested for driving in Saudi Arabia.

Dolores Huerta, Susan Rice, and Mana Al-Sharif speak on the “Getting Women in the Room Where It Happens” Panel

As Program Associate at South Kern Sol, Welliver encourages local youth to find their own voice to raise awareness and visibility of health and race equity issues impacting underserved communities across Kern. Welliver wants to ensure that policymakers and other stakeholders authentically have youth at the table, not just to check of diversity boxes.

“As a youth advocate it is hard to move forward, people doubt you– but it is worse when you’re not at the table, because your perspective doesn’t get there. You want to be seen as well as heard,” said Welliver. “At the Summit, Michelle Obama said that before youth can use their voice, they have to know how to find it. Now with my role at South Kern Sol, I am fostering youth journalist voices who want to create narrative change in their own community.”

Michelle Obama with Poet Elizabeth Alexander

“I came back feeling extremely grateful to Dr. Ross and the [The California Endowment’s] President’s Youth Council, and also Dolores Huerta, Camila Chavez, and the work of The California Endowment,” added Welliver when asked what was his greatest takeaway from the summit.