BLACK SURF SANTA CRUZ LIBERATION PADDLE OUT

Friday  June 19 • 12pm – 5pm 
Cowell Beach • Santa Cruz • Free

Join Black Surf Santa Cruz as they come together at the shoreline to celebrate, connect, and spend the day in and around the ocean. There will be music, games, food, art, and time in the water — with free surf equipment (while supplies last), ocean safety support, and a welcoming space for all levels. Whether you’re paddling out or staying on the sand, there’s a place for you here.

RSVP here to spend the day with Black Surf Santa Cruz! Check out the LPO 2026 webpage for more information and to stay updated on the latest LPO news!

Want to Support the LPO?

Here’s what they need: 

  • Volunteers — sign-up here or on their website!
  • Monetary donations — help us reach our community fundraising goal! Venmo/PayPal: @blacksurfsantacruz or head over to our site for more ways to donate. Please write “paddle-out” in the notes to include your name on our community surf board! 
  • Donations for our prizes & games — prizes & giveaways welcome! 
  • Corporate Sponsors — help us expand our impact! 
  • Spread the word — tag your crew & bring a friend!

De-escalation Training

Wednesdy • June 17 • 5:00-7:30 PM 
Resource Center for Nonvioence • 612 Ocean St • Santa Cruz
wheelchair accessible • ticketed event

De-escalation skills are key in helping people (including ourselves) reduce anger and increase the calmness and clarity that allow us to deal with immediate problems and issues more effectively.
In this fun, informative, and interactive class, we will:

  • Investigate the way that stress increases our potential for anger and reactivity;
  • Understand the physiology of anger
  • Learn Blocks to Listening & Active Listening Skills
  • Learn and practice techniques for de-escalating anger and conflict with role plays and real life examples.


Register Here

Juneteenth Celebration

Saturday • June 13 • 12 – 6 PM • wheelchair accessible • Free
Santa Cruz City Hall (809 Center St) to Laurel Park (301 Center St)

Santa Cruz Juneteenth celebrates Black Liberation and Freedom for our 35th year!

The theme this year is RESILIENCE 

Join in for Music, Dance, Poetry from the Diaspora, nourishing soul food, craft booths, and help create an Ancestors Altar. Move your body with our Moments of Movements instructors. Dance to the park in our 2nd Line Sidewalk Parade starting at noon at the BLM Mural with a live brass and drum band and our Honorary Grand Marshal.

🙏🏽  Ancestors Altar. 

💪🏽  Move your body with our Moments of Movements instructors.

💃🏽  Dance to the park in our 2nd Line Sidewalk Parade starting at noon at the BLM Mural with a live brass and drum band and our Honorary Grand Marshal.

Always FREE, there’s plenty of activities for children, including the sack race and the basketball clinic starting at 1:30pm. More info here.

Advocate for a People’s Budget for Santa Cruz County 2026/2027

Sign On Letter • Email Your Supervisor • Attend Board of Supervisor Meeting Wednesday, June 10/Thurday June 11

It’s budget time again! Like last year, this year’s budget fight is real; the current federal government has made cruel cuts to grants, a significant source of funding for Santa Cruz County’s Health and Human Services (HHS) department, which is forcing that department in turn to propose cuts. However, our county has options! The pain of these cuts could be shared amongst other departments.

Like last year, and the year before, we are asking individuals and organizations to sign on to our community letter, Santa Cruz County: Budget Our Values, because people-centered services save lives and money by June 15th.

You can also directly send a personalized letter to your supervisor here!

Budget hearings will be June 10th, 11th and 24th. The agendas and locations will be published here.

And this year, we have an op-ed in Lookout: read it here!


Restorative Justice 101 Training

Next training: Wednesday • June 10 • 5:00-7:00 PM 
Free (donations accepted)
Virtual, check website for current details

Join the Conflict Resolution Center for a 2-hour introductory workshop to learn about and discuss the many layers and nuances of restorative justice. This will be a combination of lectures with whole group discussions as well as breakout room discussions for an interactive and engaging experience.

You Will Learn:

  • The basics of what restorative justice is and isn’t
  • The different ways it can be implemented
  • The underlying principles and foundations
  • How it differs from criminal justice
  • Who benefits from restorative justice and how
  • Ways it is being implemented in Santa Cruz County
  • and MORE!
     

FREE** Accepting Donations

See CRC website for details and registration

Care Not Cages County Budget 101

Thursday • May 28 • 6:00 – 8:00 PM  • Wheelchair accessible  • Free
In-Person • Branciforte Branch Library • 230 Gault St • Santa Cruz


A THRIVING community is a SAFER community!

You’re invited to come learn about the Santa Cruz County budget for 2026-2027, and how you can help decide how Santa Cruz County spends your taxes.

Care Not Cages, a collaboration between MILPA and Showing Up for Racial Justice Santa Cruz County, has been working to advocate for an investment in prevention, community-based solutions, housing and public health services in our county.

When: Thursday, May 28, 2026, 6-8pm (doors open at 5:45pm)

Where: Branciforte Branch Library, 230 Gault St., Santa Cruz CA 95062

Snacks will be provided!

We also encourage you to attend the upcoming county budget hearings and review the county budget website: santacruzcountyca.gov/VisionSantaCruz/Budget.aspx

Register here!


Hosted by Care Not Cages, a collaboration with MILPA and SURJ Santa Cruz County

All This Safety is Killing Us

Saturday • May 23 • 2 – 3:30 pm • Free
Institute of the Arts and Sciences • 100 Panetta Ave • Santa Cruz

Join the UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences for a conversation between Aminah Elster, Jennifer James, and Carlos Martinez on the intersection of prison abolition and healthcare. In 2025 Martinez co-edited All This Safety Is Killing Us: Health Justice Beyond Prisons, Police, and Borders to which Elster and James contributed the chapter “Medical Neglect as Carceral Violence.”

This event is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Everything is Going Right and as part of Visualizing Abolition, an arts-based initiative that reaches across prison borders to contribute to the unfolding collective story and alternative imagining underway to create a future free of prisons.

Little Singer — Dinétah (Arizona), Santa Cruz Premiere

Friday • May 22 • 6:30-8:30 PM • Doors open at 6 • sliding scale
RCNV • 612 Ocean Street • Santa Cruz

RCNV is proud to collaborate with Science and Nonduality (SAND)—an organization exploring our interconnectedness and humanity’s place within the web of life—to host the Santa Cruz Premieres of the Wisdom of the Ancestors film series. These films hold transformative power, and we believe viewing and contemplating them together can help disrupt cycles of violence and nurture Beloved Community.

Amidst the wide horizons of Diné land, the legacy of historical trauma echoes through generations. At the center, a medicine man and a small school, where grief and resilience meet in song, teaching, and k’é (kinship). Little Singer is rooted in the land; carrying the vision and medicine of k’é for those yet to come.

Everyone is welcome.Ticket sales support both RCNV and SAND’s vital work, and 50% of proceeds after film production costs directly fund Indigenous-led initiatives in the featured communities. Complimentary tickets are available to ensure no one is turned away for lack of funds. Click here to secure your complimentary ticket.

Special thanks to our promotional partners:
The Center for Spiritual Living, The Romero Institute, The Center for World Networking, and SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice—Santa Cruz County

Get Tickets

Redistribute Wealth: Grupo Nauhcampa Conchero Aztec Dance Community

Each month SURJ Santa Cruz County suggests a local organization that is doing excellent work strengthening racial and economic justice in our county. If you’re able, please consider making a donation– healthy for you, healthy for our community. Thank you!

“Grupo Nauhcampa is a grass-roots, indigenous organization dedicated to the preservation of our ancestral Danza Azteca Chichimeca de Concheros tradition. The term Azteca Chichimeca refers to the indigenous Otomí and Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico, a region known as Chicomoztoc and Anahuac. Concheros is in reference to our dance society, which combined ancestral dance practices with Catholicism as a way to preserve our traditions and resist Spanish colonisation as far back as 1531. For us, danza is not a hobby, it is a deep life-long commitment to our cultural preservation and identity.

“As our greater community faces severe and unprecedented racial injustice and economic hardship, it is more important than ever that we resist the latest onslaught of colonialism by honoring the ceremonial obligations of our tradition, staying rooted in brown joy, and praying as we have for generations. As our people say, LA CULTURA CURA (culture cures). We hope that by offering our heart and history, that you consider supporting our work.

“This year, we are raising money for our annual Ceremonia de la Abuela Santa Ana Tlazolteotl. Our ceremony begins on July 31st for a night-long private vigil, and continues into August 1st for the public ceremony for la Abuela Santa Ana Tlazolteotl at Las Animas Park in Gilroy.

“Gracias, tlasohkamati, thank you!–-Grupo Nauhcampa”

Please consider supporting this fundraiser by making a donation. No donation is too small!
All donations will be entered into a raffle to receive a handmade medicine bundle and artwork — be sure to include SURJ, your name, and phone number in the note to enter.
Venmo your donation here

UCSC Powwow

Sunday • May 17 • 11:00 – 6:00 • Doors open 10:30 am
Open to the public • drug and alcohol free • w/c accessible
Kaiser Permanente Arena • 140 Front St • Santa Cruz
The UCSC Powwow 2026 is a social gathering that brings together Native American communities from various tribes across California and Turtle Island. This event celebrates and honors Native cultural heritage on Uypi and Amah Mutsun lands. 

In honor of Sophia Garcia-Robles, this event celebrates Indigenous culture through dance, song, art, and community—uplifting traditions that continue to sustain and connect us across generations.

Hosted by the AIRC and POCSC, this powwow creates a space of fellowship, respect, and empowerment, strengthening the connection between UCSC and the broader Native/Indigenous communities of Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay.

For any questions, please email airc@ucsc.edu