(May is Affordable Housing Month – see the many events being offered here)
Housing Santa Cruz County Value Statement:
We all rely on one another to make our community work: From local workers and families to our seniors and vulnerable community members; from the farmworkers who pick our food to the store clerks who sell us our groceries; from the teachers who care for our children to the home care workers who care for our parents.
Through public advocacy, community education, and democratic accountability, Housing Santa Cruz County (HSCC) commits to continually transforming Santa Cruz County into a thriving community where everyone has a place to call home.
From the Collab: “It’s a Picnic! Come hang and connect. It’s been a while and a lot has happened. We’ve changed, grown, and learned. So have you;) This is a fun, chill get together to share what we’ve learned and get to know each other. We intend to keep it a safe and respectful space for everyone. It’s a potluck so bring whatcha got or come get fed if you don’t have capacity to cook. Hope to see you soon🫶🏽.”
Thairie Ritchie is organizing an event to create community conversation on re-imagining public safety in response to the arrest and harm by police of a Black bicyclist in Santa Cruz a couple of weeks ago.
From Thairie’s IG: “Hello Santa Cruz! I will be Hosting an Event This Sunday, April 28th, from 4pm to 6pm at Santa Cruz City Hall. The “Community Safety Forum” will be an opportunity for Community members to gather and create open dialogue and conversations amongst each other on re-imaging what the future of public safety looks in Santa Cruz. The Event will include Guest Speakers and Tabling from The Community. To inspire and spark new possibilities to Community Led safety solutions and approaches for Santa Cruz. All Community members are encouraged to attend. During these emotionally charged times, I encourage Community members to be open-minded, courteous, and respectful towards one another. As we continue this Marathon towards Community Power: Unity, Education and Political Change. See you there. Peace and Love”-Thairie
Ethnic Studies has a long history based in liberatory movements, emerging from the 1968-1969 student strikes led by the Black Student Union and Third World Liberation Front at SF State and UC Berkeley. Since its introduction in college and K-12 settings, the movement has focused on uplifting the stories, cultures, traditions, and histories of resistance of communities of color – and growing coalitions, grounded in mutual solidarity, to transform schooling and society.
After years of expanding its presence in K-12 schools – and defending itself from right-wing, racist attacks – the Ethnic Studies movement has reached a new stage, with districts and states across the country developing new Ethnic Studies requirements for schools.
In October 2021, California became the first state requiring high school students to take Ethnic Studies in order to graduate. Beginning with the class of 2030, all students are required to have taken one semester of Ethnic Studies. In order for that to happen, all high schools are required to offer an Ethnic Studies course by the 2026-2027 school year. Across the state, including Santa Cruz County, school districts are working to establish ethnic studies programs to meet this upcoming deadline. High schools in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and San Lorenzo Valley are developing and piloting new courses over the next two years.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District has been leading the way. For over 5 years, PVUSD teachers, administrators, and community members havebeen growing a robust, highly impactful Ethnic Studies program. Drawing on the expertise of Ethnic Studies scholars and a committed group of teachers, the district has integrated Ethnic Studies frameworks across disciplines like English Language Arts, History, and Art, across all three comprehensive high schools (Watsonville, Pájaro, and Aptos). Now, Ethnic Studies at PVUSD – the district serving the highest proportion of students of color in Santa Cruz County – is under attack. Local groups including the Tobera Project and MILPA are defending the program and need our solidarity.
The Tobera Project works “to preserve, honor and celebrate the rich Filipino immigrant experience in the Pajaro Valley of the Manong generation.”
“The Vision of Ethnic Studies in Pajaro Valley Unified School District is to provide rich learning experiences that center experiences, stories, and knowledge of Ethnic Studies groups while also shaping a lens to understand and critique dominant power structures, ultimately to eliminate racism and intersectional forms of oppression.” – PVUSD website
Defending Ethnic Studies at PVUSD
In the fall of 2023, PVUSD came under fire for its ongoing consulting agreement with Community Responsive Education (CRE) and its founder, Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, a leading scholar and highly respected educator in the field of K-12 Ethnic Studies. PVUSD was heading into the final year of a three-year project with CRE to provide guidance and support for the sustainable development of the district’s Ethnic Studies program. The plan that had been developed collaboratively and strongly supported by district leaders, administrators and teachers.
At the September 13, 2023 PVUSD School Board meeting, following a glowing report on the district’s Ethnic Studies program, two community members accused Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales and CRE of bigotry and antisemitism. (The two community members are part of a coordinated right-wing effort to discredit and defund Ethnic Studies.) Following these unfounded charges, a motion to vote on the renewal refused to get a second, no vote was taken. The contract with CRE was thus suspended by the inaction of the Board.
Following this vote, 12 PVUSD Ethnic Studies teachers wrote a letter demanding the renewal of the CRE contract. Sixty-five organizations and more than 1,600 individuals signed an October 2023 petition in support of Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales and CRE. Many teachers, students, and community members continue to ask for the issue to be put back on the Board’s agenda – without success, so far.
While Ethnic Studies classes continue at PVUSD high schools, the district’s Ethnic Studies educators have argued that the Board’s decision completely ignored empirical evidence as well as the opinions of teachers, students, and administrators, and represents a genuine set-back to this critically important program.
More background: Struggles over the CA Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum
The local attacks on PVUSD’s Ethnic Studies Program and Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum in general are directly related to the national attacks on African-American Studies, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and teaching about Palestine.
Back in 2016, the California legislature authorized the development of an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) – a resource for schools who would be developing and teaching Ethnic Studies courses. As a model, the ESMC offers guidance and sample lesson plans. Districts are allowed to decide independently the specifics of their Ethnic Studies programs. A committee of leading Ethnic Studies scholars and practitioners, including Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales, created a first draft of the ESMCs. However, in November 2020, despite progressive Jewish support for the draft ESMC, conservative Jewish groups, with support from State Senator Scott Weiner, succeeded in efforts to revise the curriculum to marginalize Arab Americans and erase any mention of Palestine (more here).
This highly controversial rewrite was met with widespread opposition, including by progressive Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as the authors of the original curriculum and all 20 members of the original Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee, who asked to have their names removed from the revised curriculum. Despite this opposition, the revised Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) was adopted by the State Board of Education on March 18, 2021. Today, only the Liberated Education Studies Model Curriculum includes substantive lessons about Arab American Studies or any honest conversation about Palestine.
Get involved! Take action!
Understanding and defending Ethnic Studies is as important now as it ever was. Email SURJ SCC here to be notified about opportunities to show up in support. Write to the PVUSD School Board members; attend the next Board meeting, with these demands:
that the CRE contract decision be added to the Board’s next agenda for review;
that the Board vote again, this time in support of the CRE contract renewal, which would empower students by lifting the voices and histories of Ethnic Studies Groups racially marginalized or erased by our educational institutions.
Friday • April 26 • 7:00 PM • 418 Project Theater • 155 River St. • Santa Cruz • wheelchair accessible • suggested donation $10-$20
Citizens Climate Lobby and SC Climate Action Network invite you to a screening of YOUTH v GOV, a powerful climate documentary, followed by up-to-the-minute info on the current status of the groundbreaking Juliana vs. United States case that rests on this question: Do we have a legal right to a safe climate?
In 2015, Kelsey Juliana and 20 co-plaintiffs, aged 7 to 15 (now 15 to 26), filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the U.S. government, a case continuing to this day, and igniting many others both in the U.S. and abroad. Through a string of filings, motions, stays, amendments, briefs, extensions, petitions, and settlement talks their lawsuit progresses, but the heart and soul of this story are the young activists themselves, with their varied environmental plights, their growth, their talents and charisma. Hailing from across the country, the Juliana 21 encompass cultural, economic, racial, and geographic diversity, with many from marginalized communities. Their diversity speaks not only to the universal impacts of climate change, but to the inclusion required if we are to build a better, more just future together.
The film and the conversation that follows will explore the deep value of working collectively in the face of overwhelming odds to deliver a future that nurtures and invigorates us all.
Please put April 26, doors open at 6:30 p.m. on your calendar! And ask a friend or two to join you.
Resource Fair: Explore various restorative justice & practice models.
Overview: Understand the significance of restorative practices & restorative justice.
Panel Discussions: Witness individuals sharing their experiences with restorative justice.
Community Conversations: Foster dialogue & understanding within our community.
Artistic Expressions: Experience creativity in fostering healing.
Confirmed Speakers:
Ben Alamillo, Santa Cruz County Office of Education
Alaya Vautier, Conflict Resolution Center
more to come
This event is FREE & open to the public, but space is limited. Reserve your spot now. Registration Link
Additional Information:
Light refreshments will be provided
Spanish interpretation will be available
Parking permits will be provided at check-in for registered attendees.
Event Organizers include: Barrios Unidos, Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, Mayeda Consulting, Monarch Services, Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Santa Cruz County Probation Dept., Santa Cruz County Public Defender Officer, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, United Way of Santa Cruz County, Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, Walnut Ave., Family & Women’s Center
Contact for more information: Sarah Emmert semmert@unitedwaysc.org
MILPA Collective (MILPA) is, first and foremost, a movement space designed for, and led by, formerly incarcerated and system-impacted individuals. They are committed to supporting next-generation infrastructure and leadership within communities, organizations, and systems. We center cultural healing, racial equity and LOVE in our practices and advocacy. Please learn more and support their transformative work at MILPA Collective
Two Showings: Tuesday • Apr 16 • Resource Center for Nonviolence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz AND Wednesday • Apr 17 • Capitola Library • 2005 Wharf Rd • Capitola 6:30 PM, doors open at 6:00 • FREE • wheelchair accessible
B.L.A.C.K. On Screen is a five-documentary film series focusing on the themes behind our acronym BLACK: Building Legacies of Access in Communities of Kinship.
Through June, screenings will be the 3rd Tuesday at the Resource Center for Nonviolence and the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Capitola Branch Library. Doors open at 6:00, screenings begin at 6:30.
Against All Odds is March’s film.
Each screening will be followed by a discussion and/or Q&A. Some of the filmmakers will be participating. Stay tuned!
ABOUT THE FILM
A documentary about the extraordinary difficulty African-Americans have faced in their efforts to establish and maintain a middle class standard of living. Nearly 40 percent of all black children are poor. And the black middle class remains proportionally much smaller and far less healthy than the white middle class. With a compelling narrative, dramatic historical footage and a series of deeply personal interviews, Bob Herbert shows why this is still the case a half century after the heyday of the civil rights movement. Stay tuned to the Santa Cruz Black Instagram to RSVP
The series continues with:
May 22 The Taking of Harris Neck: 80 years of Injustice for the Gullah People. The stunning marshlands of Harris Neck, Georgia have a tragic history. In 1942, the US government took 2687 acres of land inhabited by descendants of freed slaves to build an airbase. The government promised to give the land back after the war. Now 80 years later the community is still fighting to get their land back. The Taking of Harris Neck tells a story of trauma and racism – and the perseverance to overcome against all odds.
June 19 Descendant. Follows descendants of the survivors from the Clotilda, the last ship that carried enslaved Africans to the United States, as they reclaim their story.
Sunday • April 14 • 6:30 PM • In-Person at the RCNV • 612 Ocean St. • Santa Cruz • wheelchair accessible • FREE
Join us for a rare, in-person meeting and potluck (we’re usually on zoom) to celebrate spring and continue to build new culture. We will share food, ideas and hopefully leave feeling more connected and inspired to keep learning and showing up.
All are welcome, even if this is your first meeting.
In the spirit of collective, interconnected liberation, the intention of Cultivating Care: A Space for White Allies/Accomplices/Co-conspirators to Disrupt White Supremacy is to actively build anti-racist culture by understanding and dismantling white supremacy as it exists in ourselves and our culture. While we are clear that we must also work in relationship with BIPOC to create new systems where all people are valued and thriving, this group is for being in compassionate relationship with each other to address our whiteness. This container is for white folks, wherever we are on our racial justice journey, to have courageous, vulnerable conversations that foster belonging, healing, calling in and showing up.
Thursday • April 4 • 7:00 PM • In-Person at the RCNV • 612 Ocean St. • Santa Cruz • Wheelchair accessible • FREE
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s profound legacy, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, co-sponsored by the NAACP Santa Cruz County, invites you to Revolution of Values: Revisiting MLK’s Beyond Vietnam In Our Fight Against Genocidal Wars. This event, set against the backdrop of ongoing conflict and human suffering, seeks to echo Dr. King’s timeless call for a seismic shift in our moral compass—toward justice, peace, and a profound empathy that transcends borders.
A Night of Reflection and Renewal:
April 4th, the anniversary of Dr. King’s groundbreaking speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring relevance of his message. Delivered in New York City in 1967, Dr. King bravely condemned the atrocities of war, linking the fight against racism to a broader struggle against all forms of oppression, including economic exploitation and militarism. Today, as we witness the deepening crisis from Israel and Palestine to the Congo, his words resound with an urgent clarity, compelling us to act in the face of injustice.
Embracing Dr. King’s Vision:
Join us at the Resource Center for Nonviolence for an evening dedicated to igniting a “revolution of values” within our hearts and our community. Through a community reading of “Beyond Vietnam,” we will explore the speech’s profound implications for our current global landscape, especially the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Our panel of distinguished speakers, including Thairie Ritchie, Muna AlSheikh, David H. Anthony III, Sarah Cruse, and Bhavananda Lodkey, will delve into the speech’s resonance with today’s struggles for justice and peace.
The Power of Collective Action:
This event is a call to action—a summons to embody the principles Dr. King championed. By revisiting his words, we are reminded of the interconnectedness of global conflicts and the shared humanity that binds us. The “Revolution of Values” event challenges us to confront the divisive forces of hate and to forge a path toward reconciliation and understanding, particularly in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
A Journey Towards Peace:
“Revolution of Values” is an opportunity for deep reflection and meaningful dialogue. It is a chance to examine the roots of conflict, to understand the narratives of those caught in the crossfire of war, and to recommit ourselves to the pursuit of peace. By engaging with Dr. King’s message, we acknowledge the complexity of Israel-Palestine and the Congo and affirm our dedication to nonviolent resolution and the protection of human rights for all.
You’ll find more information and registration here.
Showing Up for Racial Justice-Santa Cruz County, CA 
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