I don't need to tell you that we are living in challenging times. Our social fabric is fraying and vulnerable communities are under attack and stretched to the breaking point. It would be easy to give in to despair. I am writing to you today to encourage you to hold fast to hope and to consider the ways that we can work together locally to make a difference in our region.
Pain ripples through our community: the killing of Stephon Clark and the aftermath, the escalating targeting of immigrants by the federal government, the resistance to police accountability and transparency, youth who are sacrificed to the prison pipeline, city schools facing major funding cuts.
And yet I still have hope
. My hope is in the leaders of Sacramento ACT, ordinary men and women and youth who work together tirelessly to build a community rooted in equity and justice and hope. ACT builds bridges: we are an intentionally multi-racial and multi-faith organization. ACT works to heal the community we live in, most recently by collaborating with partners to develop a series of healing circles for traumatized communities.
Elvia Vasquez, joined our Education committee a few years ago. She was a mother concerned about her son in school. When she sought help at his school and at the school district, she felt ignored and dismissed. "I wanted to be heard." She began to work with an ACT organizer and soon joined with other parents to advocate for changes and one of the first success she saw was gaining an increase of the counselor's time at her son's school to full time, a critical element in providing mental health support to youth.
Elvia now serves on the ACT Board of Directors. "At ACT we advocate for justice for all. ACT is like a family advocating for all its members. I found a place where my voice is heard. But more than that, working together we lift up the voice of the community."
Add your voice. Help us build a community of belonging. Help us build a community of hope.
In Unity,
Gabby Trejo
Executive Director
