By Univision · May 15, 2020

Durante este lunes se llevó a cabo una protesta que derivó en una caravana por varios edificios federales. En la manifestación, miembros de la comunidad, activistas y empleados de distintos sectores económicos, le exigieron al gobierno estatal y a líderes políticos auxilios en las que se tengan en cuenta a los inmigrantes indocumentados y a los desamparados que también han sufrido los efectos de la pandemia.
By Laura Zavala · May 15, 2020

DeShae Johnson in Fresno worries about finishing her senior year, taking Advanced Placement tests, and completing scholarship applications for college while taking care of her younger siblings so her mother can continue to work as a janitor.
Daniela Hernandez, a youth leader on the eastside of Los Angeles, couldn’t get her employer, a food retailer, to provide protective equipment even as shelter-in-place orders began. She won the right to wear gloves, but ultimately decided to quit her job to prevent exposing vulnerable family members to the coronavirus.
Lidia Cruz is a mother of three young children living in Sacramento. With schools closed and limited resources, she worries how to keep food on the table and get pencils and workbooks so her children can learn from home.
Each of these women’s stories resonate with thousands of Californians whose lives also have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.
As education and youth advocates working in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Fresno, we see first-hand how our
students and families are navigating the new reality when confronted with impossible circumstances.
The challenges created by the pandemic lay bare what we always have known: First, working-class families and students of color are one small crisis away from a dire situation, while living and learning in communities with fewer resources than upper-income communities.
Secondly, if we are to truly achieve equity in our schools and communities, the voices of the most-affected students and parents are necessary to create policies that meet student needs.
That is why the California Partnership for the Future of Learning, a statewide alliance of community organizing and advocacy groups, directly asked students and families from low-income communities of color how they are experiencing this viral disruption to life and schooling.
Read more
By Jacqueline Garcia · May 09, 2020

Yesenia Vélez, de 18 años, es estudiante de último año en la secundaria Garfield, en el Este de Los Ángeles, y hasta principios de año todavía estaba haciendo planes para asistir a su fiesta de graduación.
Cerrar el ciclo de la clase de 2020 y abrir camino para empezar la universidad eran algunos de sus sueños. No obstante, han quedado truncados debido a la pandemia del coronavirus.
Yesenia tiene cinco hermanos y su padre es el único proveedor del hogar. Tras la pandemia ha quedado sin empleo y por la falta de estatus migratorio legal en el país, no pueden obtener ayuda del gobierno como el cheque de estímulo federal.
La familia de ocho se ha visto en aprietos económicamente, lo que ha afectado a Yesenia y a sus hermanos de manera académica. Sus dos hermanas mayores, que asisten al colegio, también se vieron en la necesidad de regresar al hogar después que sus clases fueran canceladas.
“De la escuela, a mí me prestaron una computadora con un hotspot [un dispositivo para obtener Internet]”, dijo Yesenia, quien es estudiante sobresaliente y actualmente toma dos clases avanzadas (AP).
Read more
By Cecilia · April 28, 2020

He vivido en el este de Los Ángeles por 25 años y este año será la primera vez que lleno el Censo. Soy madre de tres hijas y un hijo. Soy abuela de tres nietos de siete, cuatro y dos años. Aunque estamos sufriendo con los pagos, tenemos nuestra salud.
Mi esposo y yo somos vendedores ambulantes de fruta y así hemos sobrevivido día a día. Desafortunadamente, debido a la pandemia del COVID-19 ya no podemos trabajar.
Me da mucho miedo de que mi familia se enferme. Cuando dejamos de trabajar, fue difícil porque fue así como hemos salimos adelante.
Me siento decepcionada porque aunque pago impuestos como todos, el gobierno me ha excluido de recibir el estímulo económico federal. En estos momentos de crisis, aunque también contribuimos a este país, los inmigrantes indocumentados hemos sido ignorados.
Pero hay esperanza.
Read more
By Angelika Albaladejo · April 16, 2020

Maria Brenes has been in “virtual mode” for almost a month now. That’s when Los Angeles closed schools and ordered residents to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Brenes is a community organizer on L.A.’s Eastside with the group InnerCity Struggle. She usually spends her days talking face-to-face with families, teachers and politicians to advocate for equal access to a quality education. It hurt Brenes a lot when she had to shutter the doors to the group’s community center, which had been bustling with youth and organizers since its opening last year. Now, she’s balancing video chats and phone calls for work with helping her own kids —second and fourth grade students in the Los Angeles Unified School District— to complete their online assignments.
While talking to Capital & Main by phone last week, Brenes was occasionally interrupted by her daughter who was eagerly playing a spelling game recommended by her teacher.
Brenes half-joked that she gives herself a C+ as a homeschool teacher. But she feels fortunate compared to many of the families her organization serves, and recognizes the importance of continuing, and expanding, her group’s work amid the pandemic.
InnerCity Struggle is creating its own “stimulus” for 300 families to make up for the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the federal aid bills.
“Engagement has been so important in a period of ‘social distancing.’ We call it physical distancing because we still want to maintain the tie,” Brenes said.
InnerCity Struggle has talked with hundreds of community members in the early weeks of the outbreak to check in, assess their needs, answer their questions and learn how the crisis is impacting their families, and them individually. The group has delivered food to Eastside families, paid for with rapid response grants. And they’re creating its own “stimulus,” so far totaling $60,000 for 300 families, to make up for the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the federal aid bills.
And they’re far from alone.
Read more
By Los Angeles Sentinel · April 16, 2020

Grants bring aid to the food and technology inequities in Los Angeles and surrounding communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Weingart Foundation granted $100,000 to Brotherhood Crusade, Community Coalition and InnerCity Struggle to bring aid to the food and technology inequities in Los Angeles and surrounding communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Brotherhood Crusade, Community Coalition and InnerCity Struggle recently joined forces to raise $400,000 to support 5,000 at risk South and the Eastside of Los Angeles students with technology and emergency needs.
“Because of their deep roots in communities, Brotherhood Crusade, Community Coalition and InnerCity Struggle proactively came together to ensure the voices of youth of color are not lost in COVID-19 relief efforts and their right to education is not violated,” said Fred Ali, President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation. “We wholeheartedly support this critical effort to address educational inequities exacerbated by the global COVID-19 crisis.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced school closures through the end of the 2020 school year. While the organizations support the implementation of a public health response to flatten the curve and protect the most vulnerable, students and families are communicating grave concerns about the inequities in access to academic instruction and support, as it relates to the current COVID–19 response.
Read more
By Jacqueline Garcia · September 06, 2019

Justo hace un año miles de inquilinos de bajos ingresos del condado de Los Ángeles se sintieron aliviados después de que la Junta de Supervisores aprobara una ordenanza provisional para congelar el alza del alquiler en un 3% anual.
La ordenanza también suspendió los desalojos sin causa justa y es valida en todas las áreas no incorporadas del condado de Los Ángeles, a excepción de las propiedades exentas de control de alquileres.
No obstante, la moción temporal, que fue extendida en julio, y esta pautada para expirar el 31 de diciembre de 2019, tendrá la oportunidad de convertirse en una ordenanza permanente. La votación esta programa para este martes 10 de septiembre.
Representantes de la organización La Lucha del Pueblo (Inner City Struggle ICS), líder en el movimiento, dijeron que, si no se hace algo pronto, miles de familias de áreas no incorporadas del condado de Los Ángeles, incluyendo el lado este, podrían correr el riesgo de perder sus hogares por desalojos injustos y aumentos de alquiler escandalosos.
Henry Pérez, director ejecutivo interino de ICS, dijo que en esta ocasión los inquilinos no solamente están buscando una estabilización de renta permanente, pero también una forma de poder informar a los arrendatarios acerca de sus derechos.
“Hay muchos inquilinos que no saben de esta póliza y les hemos dado la información, pero si no saben como van a pelear”, dijo Pérez.
Read more
By Nina Agrawal · September 06, 2019
As a high school freshman, Jennifer Velasquez worked every day after classes helping her mom sell elotes, raspados and tacos from a street cart in East Los Angeles. With rent to pay and siblings to support, they would often work late into the night, sometimes until 2 a.m. — and she would get only a few hours of sleep.
It’s why, in part, she failed Algebra I.
She repeated the class her sophomore year, and then moved on junior and senior years to Geometry and Algebra II, determined to meet the requirements for admission to the Cal State University system. She was accepted to Cal State Los Angeles, and, last month, Velasquez, 19, became the first in her family to attend college.
“It was difficult,” Velasquez said. “If I had to do four years of math, it would have been more difficult.”
Velasquez is among the students, parents, educators and Los Angeles school board members who are opposed to a proposal by Cal State University to require a fourth year of math, science or other quantitative high school coursework for admission, laying bare a tension between two imperatives in California education.
Read more
By Raymond Mesa and Elizabeth Chavolla · May 28, 2019

La comunidad de Boyle Heights estrena un nuevo y colorido centro comunitario, que será sede de la organización “Inner City Struggle” que se ha dedicado a ayudar a jóvenes en el área.
La organización ha ayudado a la comunidad y a la juventud por más de dos décadas y aseguran que los servicios han logrado mejorías en las escuelas y la comunidad en general.
Read more
By Virginia Gaglianone · May 23, 2019

El próximo martes 4 de junio, los angelinos irán a las urnas para decidir el futuro de la medida EE.
La aprobación de dicha medida autorizaría un impuesto anual a las parcelas, de 0.16 centavos por pie cuadrado de propiedad, por los próximos 12 años. Dichos fondos serán destinados a programas y mejoras educacionales en las escuelas del Distrito Unificado de Los Ángeles (LAUSD).
Según estimados de los funcionarios del distrito, dicho impuesto recaudaría $500 millones anuales para las escuelas de LAUSD. Para ser aprobada, la medida requiere el voto de una súper mayoría, esto es un 66.67 por ciento de los votos.
Los fondos recaudados por este impuesto serán utilizados para reducir el tamaño de las clases, proveer enfermeras escolares, servicios de biblioteca y consejería, apoyo a estudiantes, clases de arte, de música y recursos y materiales educativos. Por otro lado, dichos fondos no podrán ser utilizados para comprar parcelas para construir escuelas, modernizar planteles o utilizarse para acuerdos y obligaciones legales.
Read more