Our First Seven Years
Seven years ago this month, community leaders took a risk, and created the CAPACES Leadership Institute to prepare leaders with the political consciousness and capacity needed to lead and support social justice work. On this special occasion, we would like to share a few of our successes so far and ask that you continue to renew your support of our work.
September of 2012: The CLI launches the TURNO youth leadership program to create a path for youth embrace and prepare for long-term movement leadership. The program began with ten youth and one part-time staff. This next school year we will have 2.5 FTE dedicated to the program and expect to serve well over thirty youth.
September 2013: Over 75 community supporters gather to unveil the CLI’s “Wings of History and Hope” mural, the first publicly displayed mural in Woodburn. Over 150 volunteers helped make this happen, both changing the law in Woodburn and painting the mural. Today Woodburn has multiple publicly displayed murals.
June 2014: CLI launches its “national” leadership development work by testing out it’s Seven Dimensions program with a cohort of 20 leaders from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement. Seven Dimensions is a three-plus day gathering where participants engage with each other about the dilemmas of making and keeping a long-term commitment to the social justice movement work. Last month, we ran our third cohort and have now engaged over 75 leaders in the program. We plan on running another cohort this fall with leaders from our sister organizations and allies.
May 2015: TURNO youth lead the way in passing a $63 million Woodburn School Bond, that hadn’t passed since 1994. This fall TURNO youth will be at it again, working to defeat the anti-immigrant Measure 105, which would repeal our state’s 30 year old sanctuary law.
September 2017: The CLI launches its DACA Advocacy Capacity building project to boost the capacity of DACA youth to mobilize their communities. Here is what one of the youth had to say about their experience: “I can honestly say that the fire that was awaken in me through the opportunity of working for CAPACES and the leader they created in me has been thrilling. The most rewarding thing for me through this journey has been the connection with real DREAMers whom feel the same way I do. It’s been a hardship knowing congress didn’t passed a Clean Dream Act. But, I know our fight continues and one day we will get that solution we need for all eleven thousands of us DREAMers and undocumented youth. They tried to bury us. But, they didn’t know we were seeds.”
March 2018- The CLI launches Oregon’s first bilingual public service training program–People’s Representatives–to bridge the Latinx leadership gap in public service bodies (elected and non-elected) in the Mid-Willamette Valley.
As you can tell, we’ve had a busy seven years. Our work has impacted many individuals, but more importantly the communities they live in. We couldn’t have done this without your support and hope you can continue to partner with us in our journey. Thank you.
Jaime Arredondo |
