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Despite new laws and promises of continued action, a whopping 28% of all people experiencing homelessness in the United States live in California. For years, the proposed solution has been to build more housing, but one collective fund is taking a different approach.
Officially launched in 2018, the Inclusive California Fund is a trust-based collaborative fund to address the state’s housing crisis by supporting power-building and community-led organizing efforts in the state. . Originally scheduled to end in 2020, the foundation announced a new round of grants totaling $1.7 million as part of a five-year, $25 million second phase.
The fund was an initiative of the Common Counsel Foundation’s Housing Justice Initiative, where it is currently housed, but also includes the California Endowment, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the James Irvine Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and others. , many of the original funders remain intact. Foundation. The fund raised $13 million in its first phase.
Recipient organizations are called community advisors, rather than grantees, because they guide the Fund on how best to support their work. Recipients in this round include North Bay Organizing Network, Faith in the Valley, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Pueblo Unido Community Development Center, Starting Over, Inc., InnerCity Struggle, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, Housing Now!, and Includes Tenants Together. . At this stage, the fund will focus on two regions of California that typically receive significantly less funding than other regions of the state: the Central Valley and the Inland region.
Jazmin Segura, the foundation’s director, said the foundation is a group that recognizes that development alone cannot undo the harm that a long history of racism, racial discrimination, and housing disparities have done to California. It is said that he was born. To address the root causes of housing inequality, it is important for both funders and community leaders to invest in power-building among organizations that work closely with low-income communities and residents most affected by the issue. I realized that. color.
The fund was scheduled to end in 2020, but the pandemic has highlighted how important housing issues are to the state. “At the time, our funders were excited about supporting organizing and power-building organizations that were not only organizing local communities, but also highlighting the needs of low-income communities of color across the state. We really recognized the importance,” Segura said.
Funding has been extended and a community-led planning process has been finalized to identify priorities for the five-year second phase, which is currently underway. The Fund built on that work and, through a community-driven process, established a new governance structure that centered community organization leaders as decision-makers.
“We have been very intentional about establishing a process to build strong relationships with them so that we can have honest and transparent conversations about their needs on the ground and the needs of their organizations,” Segura said. said.
share the power
While philanthropy has historically been donor-driven, in recent years more donors are creating a more trust-based approach by forging closer relationships and sharing power with the communities they support. I am choosing to take this approach. The Inclusive California Foundation has made an intentional effort to center communities and the organizations that serve them.
Following the first phase of the fund, nine community advisors from across the state came together to design a new five-year phase of the fund. This includes developing a common definition of housing justice, what success means to them, and a long-term vision for their work. Segura said funders were consulted at key times to provide insight into their context and how the charity was thinking about housing justice.
“It’s exactly what it is: a fund for an inclusive California,” said Vonya Cuolares, a governing body member and executive director of Starting Over. “The first thing I realized was that inclusivity is more than just a word. “Coalitions are actually broad. They include people from different perspectives, and that’s why I think it makes the Union more grounded and stronger.”
That holistic approach is reflected in the fund’s new governance structure. The governing body is made up of community advisors and funding partners, who are jointly responsible for guiding the fund according to the strategy developed by community leaders. The governing body is made up of 13 people, including 5 funder representatives and 8 community advisors. Members include Diana Amparo Jimenez of the Weingart Foundation; Cynthia Bourjac, Los Angeles Regional Transit Alliance, Ray Huang, Now Housing! California; Craig Martinez, California Foundation. Kate O’Hara, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy. Pastor Curtis Smith, Valley of Faith. and Derek Steele of the Institute for Social Justice Learning.
“There is a co-governance element to this that will continue to hold us accountable and ensure that our resources and strategies remain aligned with the organization’s priorities,” Segura said. said.
Statewide support
California is a very large state, to say the least. Nevertheless, funds are typically concentrated in her two main regions: Los Angeles and the Bay Area. One of the Fund’s goals in this next phase is to continue to support the organization’s power-building infrastructure across the four priority regions, while also developing and maintaining connections between local, regional, and statewide organizations throughout the state. The network is also to support. Priority regions include Los Angeles and the Bay Area, but the fund is specifically focused on two other regions: the Interior and the Central Valley.
“There were listening sessions, strategy sessions, and work sessions. We got input from different parts of the state in a fresh and necessary way,” said Quarreles, who heads Starting Over, Inc. ”
Starting Over, Inc. is an example of how the Foundation enables organizations across the state to receive support and guide the Foundation’s work. The organization provides transitional housing and reentry services to formerly incarcerated people in Riverside County, part of the Inland Empire region. We also work on rights advocacy and citizen participation.
Like Starting Over, many of the organizations supported by this fund focus on intersectional causes, such as immigrant rights and environmental justice. Partner organizations work on a wide range of housing-related issues, including enacting tenant protections and preserving and producing affordable housing for low- and very low-income residents.
“I think the impact we’re trying to have is bigger than housing. We know that moving political power from the minority to the majority is a key element of what this fund is trying to do. We truly understand: those who are disproportionately affected by housing inequality and housing insecurity, those most at risk of displacement and land grabbing. [and the] They have a powerful voice on the climate crisis and have the opportunity to influence and inform decisions and solutions,” Segura said.
Organizing funders
The foundation also prioritizes organizing and educating other funders about housing justice. This fund allows funders to break down their silos and find ways to fund the different strategies needed to address big issues like housing inequality. Segura said collaboration is needed to make a big impact.
“When we think about working with funders, we want to bring new participants and new funders into the conversation so that together we can continue to learn about how to address housing insecurity and the housing crisis in California.” How do we create space?” Segura said.
For the James Irvine Foundation, one of the fund’s original supporters, the fund is a group that seeks to find ways to support organizations working on issues such as housing justice, and the foundation’s unique strategy in this area. It started as a way to help people stand up. Get used to it.
“Personally, I learned a lot from it,” said Rajiv Guha, director of program development. “I appreciate the Common Counsel Foundation for thoughtfully convening funders while also being very sensitive to the inherent dynamics that exist between funders and groups and communities.”
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