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Pittsburg Urban Farmer Plants Seeds for Change See Pg. 6

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December 2024

‘We’re Building a Voice’: Youth Affected by Homelessness Want to Be Part of Conversation

Zac Durant on Unsplash

Youth who have been unhoused spoke in November about the situation and response in Contra Costa County, where youth and young adult homelessness has been called a crisis.

BY SAMANTHA KENNEDY

C

ontra Costa County youth with lived experiences of homelessness are asking for a seat at the table to decide how homelessness should be tackled after saying they’ve felt left out of decisionmaking.

Youth leaders convened a panel, cohosted by Contra Costa College and Contra Costa County’s Youth Action Board, on Nov. 14 that came during National Homeless Awareness Month and looked to highlight the needs of youth experiencing homelessness.

A 2024 Community Needs Assessment specific to youth needs and commissioned by Contra Costa Health’s Health, Housing and Homeless Services says that youth and young adult homelessness “is a crisis” in the county in part due to the lack of resources and not being included in decisions.

Nearly 2,900 Contra Costa students were experiencing homelessness during the 2022-23 school year, according to the

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report, and estimates that up to 13,500 youth and young adults experience homelessness per year.

“The more we all come together, the more people, we’re not just building a person, an empire,” said panelist Anna P. “We’re building a voice.”

Panelists offered various suggestions to support homeless youth, including prevention, such as identifying at-risk youth, increasing accessible resources, rapid rehousing and youth advocacy.

The goal of something like rapid rehousing is “to reduce the length of homelessness and prevent it from becoming chronic,” said Anastasia, another panelist. Rapid rehousing, she said, allowed her to receive services that led to her finding permanent housing.

The report also found that the county “is full of amazing individuals working to end homelessness” but those partnerships were not enough to adequately respond to the crisis homeless youth are facing.

Building partnerships “is entirely based on communication and advertisement of services,” said Teddy, another panelist.

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Adults experiencing homelessness, according to the report, also report difficulty accessing supportive services, especially if they were not already connected to county services, and confusion about which programs they may be eligible for.

“The services are out there,” said Renee Juno Hedrick, moderator and vice chair of Contra Costa’s Council on Homelessness. “And part of it is navigating through them.”

That includes navigating challenges with age or financial literacy, such as lacking information around or not having a credit score, which several panelists said was one of the biggest challenges they had to overcome when homeless.

Lack of empathy and stigma around homelessness are other barriers to addressing the challenges homeless youth face, according to the report.

Underserved youth communities who are experiencing homelessness are, like their adult counterparts, overrepresented.

About 50% of identified homeless youth also had a disability, according to the

In Pictures: Pittsburg Keeps Loved One Alive With Day of the Dead Celebration See Pg. 4

Contra Costa Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, and almost 50% identified as Black.

The report suggests that improving data collection could help better identify the needs of underserved communities that are overrepresented in homeless populations.

Panelists stressed the importance of acts of kindness and empathy in helping to reduce the stigma around those who are experiencing homelessness.

“It’s important to make sure that there are safe, non-judgemental spaces where (youth) can access certain services without feeling ashamed or like they’re being penalized,” said Anastasia. “It should be about giving youth the tools to build the stability that respects their autonomy and dignity.”

Contra Costa residents experiencing homelessness can find services available to them at cchealth.org/services-andprograms/homeless-services or through the 211 Contra Costa online database at cccc.myresourcedirectory.com. •

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December 2024

Antioch Moves to Create CORE Team, but Unhoused, Advocates Call It a ‘Waste of Money’

BY SAMANTHA KENNEDY

S

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ome homeless Antioch residents are one step closer to receiving support from a full-time city-funded homeless outreach team in 2025 — but how much it’ll help is up for debate.

The Antioch City Council on Nov. 26 allocated $75,000 — half of what’s required to establish a Coordinated Outreach and Referral Engagement, or CORE, team — to create a city-dedicated team that hopes to address service gaps for homeless residents.

“If we don’t get a CORE Team, we’re going to continue to complain about the lack of services,” council member Tamisha Torres-Walker said.

If implemented, Antioch’s CORE Team would provide outreach and engagement to around 40 homeless residents at the encampment near Sunset Drive and Devpar Court. The team will collaborate with the Antioch Police Department and the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team to conduct welfare checks.

Funding, half of which comes from the Encampment Resolution Funding, currently only allows the CORE Team to serve residents at that encampment because of funding guidelines, according to a report from the city.

Since 2023, Antioch’s homeless population has increased by 23%, according to the 2024 Point in Time Count, making it the city with the most unhoused residents in Contra Costa County.

Contra Costa’s CORE Team provides Antioch with some services, including pathways to permanent housing and basic needs support, but the city says “limited resources” in the city leave homeless residents to venture to Walnut Creek or Richmond for help.

Nancy, an unhoused Antioch resident, said CORE’s assistance does not do as much as it should. For her, that assistance has been a blanket, some water, a snack bag and suggestions to call 211, which

is a 24/7 social services and health information line managed by the Contra Costa Crisis Center.

“It’s to the point where the woman that answers the phone, all I have to do is give her my birthdate, and she says, ‘Hey, Nancy, what are you doing?’” Nancy told the council. “They’re not doing anything, and I think it’s a waste of money for you to want a CORE Team.”

The problem, she says, is the lack of shelter beds available to homeless residents, especially in East County.

Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 17 of this year, CORE made nearly 1,700 unduplicated contacts with homeless Antioch residents, according to data from the city. Over 100 were placed in a long-term shelter and another more than 100 were placed into housing with some type of subsidy.

Even with some success, “the absence of a dedicated City-funded team in Antioch limits its ability to address homelessness locally and comprehensively,” according to a staff report.

Other cities, including a recent collaboration between El Cerrito, San Pablo and Contra Costa County, have also helped fund expanded CORE services to homeless residents in their area.

Nichole Gardner, founder of Facing Homelessness in Antioch, recognizes the importance of local support when addressing homelessness, but also felt the funding could be put to better use elsewhere.

“As an advocate, I’ve been out there, the encampments,” said Gardner. “CORE, when they do come, it’s a bag of snacks or hygiene (products)…I just really don’t see how putting this money into a CORE team will do anything.”

Gardner says it isn’t CORE’s fault, saying team members have told her that they’re overwhelmed and they’re aware of the lack of shelter beds.

Other residents agreed with Gardner, suggesting funding go towards something like the Angelo Quinto Community

Response Team, which offers 24/7 response by staff trained in mental health support to non-life-threatening 911 calls, or toward buying a building to provide housing.

Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe reminded residents that the funding, which matches a $75,000 portion from a $6.8 million Encampment Resolution Funding that Antioch received at the beginning of October, is required to meet the city’s obligation with the grant.

Hernandez-Thorpe, who called for a stricter ordinance regulating encampments following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing bans on public sleeping and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s threats to withhold funding for failing to clear encampments, has spoken about the need for additional shelter in East County.

He and Torres-Walker said that should be taken up with the Board of Supervisors.

“Go to these people,” Torres-Walker told residents, “because they owe us resources and representation.”

The allocations only help fund the CORE Team through June 30, 2025, so additional funding for the following year would have to be allocated at a future budget meeting.

That decision would not be made by the current progressive majority council following the results of the Nov. 5 election, leaving Mayor-elect Ron Bernal and incoming council members Louie Rocha and Don Freitas to work alongside Wilson and Torres-Walker.

Bernal made homelessness a top priority during his campaign, calling the situation in Antioch “a crisis” that he wants to address by expanding mental health and substance abuse services, building housing, and partnering with community organizations.

The allocation passed in a 4-0 vote, with council member Michael Barbanica absent. •

Richmond Earmarks Funds in Effort to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence

BY SAMANTHA KENNEDY

R

ichmond’s Task Force to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence has grown to over 40 people since March, coming together to create policy recommendations to reduce genderbased violence that is rooted in the lived experiences of survivors. Now, the task force is $6,000 closer to that goal.

“Something about gender-based violence is it breeds and it fosters isolation, silence,” Nyabinga McDowell from the Contra Costa Family Justice Center’s CHAT Project told the City Council on Nov. 26. “We wanted to connect those folks who don’t necessarily know that this is a reality.”

The council appropriated $6,000 for the task force, which is made up of a coalition of organizations like The Latina Center and the Family Justice Center, at its Nov. 26 meeting to support staffing that will finalize recommendations by the task force.

Gender-based violence includes

domestic violence, sexual violence, intimate partner violence and human trafficking. The task force says one of the goals is to raise community awareness of what constitutes gender-based violence.

“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but we do want to say:‘What is important for Richmond?’ ” McDowell said.

The resolution also recognizes Nov. 25 as the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and begins the 16 Days of Activism Against GenderBased Violence, both of which are part of a worldwide initiative spearheaded by UN Women to eliminate violence against women and girls.

A 2024 United Nations report found that violence against women is “the most pervasive human rights violation” and 85,000 women were killed intentionally in 2023.

The resolution, brought forward by council member Soheila Bana, who is also part of the task force, initially included having the city manager work with the task force to develop action items and commit to a report in February

outlining those outcomes. But some council members, including council member Doria Robinson, said those steps were “too soon” and the follow-up report was already part of the resolution.

Another problem council members saw was the staffing request in the resolution, which asked for one staff liaison to work with the task force over the next six months. Council member Cesar Zepeda wondered if there was enough staff to support that request.

“Currently, we do not know who that person will be,” said Deputy City Manager Nickie Mastay.“We are booked solid.”

Bana clarified that the staff person would only attend a few meetings and commit a few additional hours to support the task force.

Mastay said she’d speak with City Manager Shasa Curl about what they could work out.

Council members passed the resolution 6-0 with council member Melvin Willis absent. •

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December 2024

What Trump’s Immigration Plans Mean for the U.S.

BY SELEN OZTURK ETHNIC MEDIA SERVICES

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resident-elect Donald Trump has promised to launch the largest deportation program in U.S. history.

This was estimated by Vice Presidentelect JD Vance to involve one million removals yearly.

Can the U.S. afford these policies?

What do these crackdowns mean for undocumented and legal immigrants?

Mass deportation Based on census data surveys, there are an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as of July 2023 — about 3.5% of the total population, and up 800,000 from the previous July.

The all-time peak is 12 million immigrants, reached in 2008.

The highest year of deportations from the U.S. interior is 238,000 immigrants, reached in 2009.

“Currently, most people we deport are already in detention. The government just picks them up … and figures out whether they’re allowed to be here and how to get them back, and if the country will take them back,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, at a Nov. 15 Ethnic Media Services briefing on Trump’s promised immigration policies.

“With mass deportations, however, we’re talking about finding people in their communities,” he continued.

“The two branches of the Department of Homeland Security that specifically do that do not have the capacity. It’s extremely expensive … Nor do we have the detention capacity. You’d need a whole new set of asylum facilities and judges before even getting people home.”

Deporting all undocumented immigrants, who represent about 4.8% of the U.S. workforce as of 2022, would cost about $315 billion and have between a 4.2% and 6.8% negative impact on GDP, by conservative estimates.

By comparison, the national GDP fell 4.3% during the Great Recession, from 2007 to 2009.

“For most things Congress will fund, they’ll need 60 votes. Budget reconciliation needs 50. It’s far from clear they can fund these measures … but they can repurpose money from elsewhere,” said Robbins. “It’s possible to use forms like the military, but our resources are

already strained.”

The existing Department of Homeland Security budget — $107.9 billion for fiscal year 2025 — exceeds all other federal law enforcement budgets combined.

The current daily detention capacity is estimated around 50,000.

Congress has provided approximately $3.4 billion to detain a daily average of 41,500 noncitizens in 2024, of which 60.1% have no criminal record.

For comparison, funds in 2023 were $2.9 billion to detain an average of 34,000 noncitizens daily.

Along with difficulties getting bipartisan congressional support, “Biden has already maximally deployed existing resources for enforcement,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “They don’t have the resources to do much more … and contracting with private facilities, or training state and national guards, will mean more expensive delays.”

DHS data from 2023 shows that, in absolute terms, 3.5 times as many people were removed under Biden than under Trump.

Of the 1.4 million arrests made in the 24 months of 2019 and 2020 under Trump, 47% were removed from the U.S. In the first 26.3 months under Biden, DHS made over 5 million arrests, of which 51% were removed.

Legal immigration “Trump has been talking so much about mass deportations that we rarely hear about impacts on the legal immigration system, meaning the hundreds of thousands of employment visas, family visas and humanitarian visas coming through every year,” said Chen.

Annual new legal permanent residents fell under Trump from 1,183,500 in 2016 to 707,400 in 2020, according to DHS data; the numbers have shot back up since then to 1,173,000 in 2023.

“During the first Trump administration, we saw retrogression — meaning it took much longer to process these cases,” Chen continued. “For an employment or family visa that might typically take three to six months, we saw those times typically double.”

He added that these backlogs are often created by understaffing departments and by Requests for Evidence, which are “ways of asking for more information on a case to ferret out fraud. But if used

unnecessarily, it simply becomes red tape … and if immigration is unavailable to people who are trying to come here through legal means, we’ll be seeing greater amounts of illegal migration.”

Currently, immigrants arriving at official crossing points on the border can make an appointment through the CBP One app and wait months to be processed into the U.S. with temporary humanitarian parole.

“People who try to enter between those points have a very hard time qualifying to begin the process towards asylum,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. immigration policy program. “Under Trump, we can expect that the CPB One process at ports of entry will end, meaning that it will be very difficult for people coming to the border to access legal asylum proceedings,” she continued.

“Instead, we’ll likely see what we’ve seen before: people paying smugglers to sneak them into the United States, rather than to the border, where many people now present themselves to border authorities to ask for protection,” she added.

Trump has also suggested that he’ll scale back the use of Temporary Protected Status — which covers over one million immigrants, mostly Venezuelan, Haitian and Salvadoran — and eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, on which about 580,000 immigrants rely.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the president can terminate DACA, a policy which gives some people who came to the U.S. illegally as children the right to study and work in the country.

“Most employers want to hire a legal workforce. If their workers lose authorizations like DACA and TPS, they’ll have to let them go,” said Gelatt.

“We’re an aging country … and when we lose immigrant workers, it doesn’t necessarily create jobs for U.S. workers.

If an employer loses the immigrant workers they rely on, they might contract out their operation or close up shop altogether. Immigrants and U.S. workers are compliments in the labor force.”

Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the unemployment rate for U.S.born workers in 2023 was 3.6%, the lowest on record.

That year, the share of employed primeage (25 to 54) U.S.-born workers was 81.4%, the highest rate since 2001.

See Immigration, pg. 6

WCCUSD Considers Impact of Curriculum, Conditions on Student Success

BY SAMANTHA KENNEDY

S

tudent achievement is slowly rising in the West Contra Costa Unified School District for some student groups while most others struggle, and district officials have ambitious plans for the coming years — they’re shooting for a 3% increase in test scores per year.

According to the most recent California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance, or CAASPP, data, a majority of district students don’t meet standards for their grade level, with only 32.5% meeting or exceeding English standards and only 23.3% in mathematics.

But since 2022, English and math scores from CAASPP have risen by over 3% for third graders.

Some individual school sites made even bigger jumps between 2023 and 2024. Shannon Elementary School in Pinole had double-digit increases in English and math achievement, and Nystrom Elementary in Richmond had an almost 8% increase in English achievement.

Shannon Elementary principal Jennifer Gulick, speaking at the Nov. 20 school board meeting, attributed the achievement growth to the school’s culture, curriculum associated with the learning software, Zearn, and “the intentionality” of using data from individualized assessments like i-Ready.

“I truly believe that when educators are passionate about their school environment, it creates a ripple effect,” said Gulick.

To continue achievement, Gulick said the school is offering tutoring for math and implementing a sitewide use of Zearn.

Nystrom’s principal, James Allardice, said that increasing teacher capacity and using data to make adjustments were some of the site’s growth strategies.

And, when asked by Trustee Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy what their biggest recommendation was, Allardice and Gulick agreed: prioritizing instruction and curriculum.

“We know that when we provide the same high-quality education at Shannon, at Nystrom, at any other school,” said interim associate superintendent Katherine AcostaVerprauskus, “then we are going to be able to more intentionally make growth as a district.”

In total, 14 schools increased their English achievement by over 3% and 11 in math.

Stege Elementary, which was relocated to the DeJean Middle School campus while undergoing renovations for safety issues, had the second-highest increase in math performance since 2023.

Trustee Mister Phillips acknowledged the growth by Stege students despite the site’s conditions, adding that they should have been invited to speak to the board. Allardice and Gulick’s appearance on behalf of their schools at Wednesday’s meeting was to “spotlight two schools with promising growth,” according to the staff report.

Phillips asked Acosta-Verprauskus, Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst and acting associate superintendent of facilities Melissa Payne if they thought See WCCUSD, pg 6

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December 2024

Pittsburg Keeps Loved Ones Alive With Day of the Dead Celebration

Framed photos of late husband and wife Jess and Consuelo Segovia and traditional marigolds adorn the altar created in their honor for Pittburg’s Día de los Muertos celebration held Nov. 2.

STORY AND PHOTOS • EMILY TENORIO MOLINA

F

aded photos of Jess Segovia embracing his wife, Consuelo Segovia, are centerpieces of a stunning, lively altar erected in their memory.

The memorial set up by the couple’s first-born, Lisa Segovia, is part of a tradition of remembrance and honoring late loved ones that’s celebrated in Mexican culture. It’s also part of a tradition in Pittsburg, where on Nov. 2, people came together to commemorate Día de los Muertos at the Marina Community Center with live music, food, vendors and altars decorated with photos, flowers, food and trinkets to honor late loved ones.

Lisa Segovia and her family have participated in Pittsburg’s Day of the Dead celebrations for decades, starting when her parents celebrated by making food to put on the altars at home and visiting graves of past generations.

She remembers how her mom liked making atole and food that she would set up next to pictures of loved ones that died long ago.

A ceramic figurine of a skeleton couple sitting on a bench symbolizes the Segovias’ enjoyment of the beaches of Capitola in Santa Cruz and Consuelo Segovia’s love of striking hats.

The ladybug centered in the figurine symbolizes the ladybugs Segovia started seeing after her mother’s death.

Celebrating Day of the Dead hails from pre-Hispanic origins where the Aztecs celebrated death as an integral part of life. As traditions blended with Catholicism and transcended to the United States, the holiday diversified to mainstream culture through films like Disney’s “Coco” and chain stores like Target.

In Pittsburg, which is historically diverse as 43.2% of

residents are Hispanic and 31% of residents were born outside of the United States, the celebration started 30 years ago at the Marina Center sponsored by the Pittsburg Arts and Community Foundation.

Rose Mary Tumbaga, who is half Latino and Filipino, got into celebrating the dead through learning the historical context of the celebration through friends.

Tumbaga, the director of arts, literacy and education of PACF, enjoys seeing people share the stories of loved ones who were once memorable Pittsburg residents and hopes that the community can continue to memorialize older generations.

Lisa Segovia notes that in previous years there were more family altars. She worries that if younger generations don’t continue with the altar setting, the tradition might die off.

“Today, just by sitting here, more people are interested in doing this,” Segovia said, referring to people expressing interest in setting up altars in their homes.

She also pays tribute to her neighbors and friends who were wonderful people that helped her through all chapters in her life.

Framed in brightly colorful frames are two lively young women on the right pillar of her altar.

In a gold plated-frame is Becky Meza-Music, a childhood friend who Segovia saw as family — she even saw Meza-Music daughters as her own since Segovia couldn’t have children. They were part of each other’s lives since meeting in the first grade at St. Peter Martyr School in Pittsburg.

In a hot pink frame is Elizabeth Vazquez, a good friend who died from cancer not long after she helped Segovia through her father’s death.

“They were a big part of my life,” said Segovia, “and it makes me feel happiness thinking about those times.”

A couple of decorative bulldogs are found in the altar, representing her bulldogs Bronson and Buddah who were cherished by Segovia and spoiled with waffles in life by her mother.

With the altar decorated with her mother’s worn out molcajete and trinkets symbolizing the people who encouraged Segovia through life, the memories are fresh to her and creates joy that keeps them alive.

Margaret Vega fawns over the aged photos of the loving Segovia couple, who have been her close friends for over seven decades.

The 89-year-old grew up with Consuelo Segovia in booming 1950s Pittsburg. She remembers when as spirited young teenagers they would drive with other neighborhood girlfriends to Pittsburg High, a fun luxury that not many teens had in that time.

“They make for good memories. Those are keeping me alive now,” Vega said.

Longtime resident Kiko Perez believes the Day of the Dead tradition is growing in the town’s community. He notes the great number of residents that stopped by to pay respects to loved ones at the cemetery in Pittsburg.

Like the Segovias, Perez and his family have participated in the Pittsburg celebration for years as they display black and white pictures of smiling relatives and friends. “[The altars] are keeping them alive,” Perez said.

In the end, celebrating death is not a scary or weird affliction but rather a token of appreciation to the people who gave us opportunities for a good life.

As it’s beautifully said in “Coco,” “When there is no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world.” •

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December 2024

The skeletons on the bench symbolize the late Segovias. Like the one on the right, Consuelo Segovia liked to make a statement with a hat.

Leticia Segovia, left, is wearing Catrina makeup to celebrate Día de los Muertos with Lisa Segovia, her sister. She is holding a picture of their parents.

Elizabeth Vazquez, left, and Becky Meza-Music were close friends of Lisa Segovia.

Kiko Perez says the altars created to honor late loved ones for Día de los Muertos “are keeping them alive.”

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December 2024

Pittsburg Urban Farmer Plants Seeds for Change

BY JOE PORRELLO

A

passion for health and the betterment of his community led Ray Harts to start Healthy Hearts Institute in the El Pueblo Housing Development of Pittsburg in 2017. The urban farm has since provided over 70,000 pounds of produce for local residents.

But, for Harts, it’s about more than produce.

“It’s not about providing a farm for them — it’s giving them something to be proud of, and I think that’s what will make a change in people’s lives,” he said.

As a nonprofit without financial stability, Healthy Hearts Institute often lacks the capacity to deliver its produce.

“People have an open invitation to come to the farm whenever we’re here and grab food for free whenever they want,” said Harts.

Harts’ inspiration for the project partly stems from growing up near El Pueblo.

“When I was a kid, everyone had gardens and fruit trees in their yards,” said Harts, now 50 and married with three kids of his own. “I remember every weekend seeing somebody’s mother or grandmother shelling peas or cleaning greens — it was always harvested food, never from the grocery store.”

Harts also attributes his devotion to health to his father who was in and out of prison.

His own incarceration about 25 years later sparked Harts’ mission; he thought up the idea of Healthy Hearts Institute in California State Prison, Corcoran.

“No one was going to hire me; I was going to have to work for myself, so I started educating and preparing myself to reenter society with some tools,” he said.

Harts wrote his business plan in 2012 and was released in 2013 after serving eight-and-a-half years of a decadelong sentence. While in prison, he met the founders of Planting Justice in Oakland — an urban farm and organic nursery — who advised Harts on how to proceed.

After connecting with master gardeners, the Resource Conservation District and the UC Davis Cooperative Extension, Harts purchased about two acres of land in 2016. The field had been lying fallow for over 20 years with weeds four or five feet tall.

“I reached out to the housing authority and asked if I could start a community garden, and they accepted,” he said. “For them, it was a win because they didn’t have to cut this grass a bunch of times every year.”

Still without funding, it was another year before ground was broken.

Starting with 10 raised beds in 2017, Harts initially

Joe Porrello

“It’s not about providing a farm for them — it’s giving them something to be proud of,” says Ray Harts, owner of Hungry Hearts Institute urban farm in Pittsburg.

watered his crops by hooking up 200 feet of hose over the fence to a neighbor’s water supply.

A 40-by-50-foot in-ground plot along with an irrigation system in 2018 followed.

Next came classes on meditation, mindfulness, nutrition, cooking, ecotherapy, gardening and environmental sustainability.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Harts to shut them down. Instead, he expanded the farm, breaking ground on another acre of land.

Now, Harts is trying to get the local residents more involved again and continue changing the narrative around the El Pueblo Housing Developments.

“I don’t want people to look at (El Pueblo Housing Developments) as a low-income community,” he said. “I want them to look at it as a healthy living community.”

Harts believes new gardening classes, which would last from eight to 20 weeks and include stipends for participation, could bring positive change.

“You’d be getting money for your bills, learning a lifelong skill, and more importantly, you’d be building relationships with other people in the class,” he said.

The value of people producing their own organic crops is immeasurable, Harts says.

“If you can’t grow your own food, you’ll never be free,” he said. “If you need to go to a restaurant or a grocery store to eat, you’re tied into a system.”

Harts also wants to educate people on the value

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WCCUSD...

Immigration...

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facility conditions impact educational outcomes.

“I believe high-quality instruction happening in classrooms, led by site leaders who are very intentional and teachers who are very intentional is what changes what we are here to provide, which is high, rigorous instruction,” said Acosta-Verprauskus, “so no.”

“I’ve been in facilities just like Stege … in other districts, and it boils down to curriculum and instruction,” said Hurst.

“Every time we touch a building or a site, we have the opportunity to improve learning,” said Payne.

Stege Elementary, which has the highest percentage of Black students among schools in the district, has for years had community members who feel ignored by the district.

About 60% of Black students did not meet English standards, according to CAASPP data from 2024. But, since 2022, math scores for Black students in seventh grade have increased by over 5%.

Other student groups, such as those who are Native American or are foster youth, saw large decreases in achievement. Native American students, for example, had a 14% decrease in English scores. •

While mass crackdowns on these immigrants “will take more resources than the new administration will have, resulting in economic devastation across the country, they’re still counting on instilling fear in communities,” added Chen. “We have people with legal status calling our attorneys because they’re afraid that they’ll be rounded up because they’ll be profiled. Those are legitimate concerns in this new environment.”

“What does it look like when that intimidation campaign is working?

It looks like kids not going to school because their parents fear being deported, shortages of healthcare workers because people move to safer states or are removed from the country, like shortages of teachers here on TPS and DACA,” said Elizabeth Taufa, policy attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

“Even if they can’t afford to enforce these policies, they’re unraveling the threads of our American communities,” she added. •

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of consuming produce without genetically modified organisms, pesticides, herbicides or fungicide.

They can make fruits and vegetables look nearly flawless, but Harts noted many are not aware of the health risks involved with consuming them. He says food bank attendees in the past chose “grocery store tomatoes” over the heirloom varieties he had but fruits and vegetables grown organically taste better and feel better in the body.

But without funding, barriers grow larger for Healthy Hearts Institute to plant more crops and get its produce to community members. Its fruits and vegetables used to be distributed at food banks, though a lack of resources has stalled such collaboration.

While volunteers are needed and appreciated, Harts says the money to hire full-time help is crucial in reaching his goals.

“The bottom line as a nonprofit is to raise money; you have to be able to pay people,” he said. “We can’t just run on volunteers because that doesn’t last long.”

Similar initiatives to Healthy Hearts in areas like the El Pueblo Housing Developments, Harts says, are critical — but come at a cost to be effective.

“You need to pump a lot of money into it to get the community excited,” he said. “When you deal with a low-income neighborhood, people tend to give them the bare minimum, just enough to get by — and that’s what they’ve received their entire lives. It’s hard for them to

Youth Voices,

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Farmer...

Continued from above

see themselves in a different light when all they have is leftovers.”

Planting and harvesting food yourself, according to Harts, enables part of that positive self-modification.

“Growing your own food is a form of liberation — it’s resistance if you don’t like the way our food system is run and you don’t like the prices,” he said.

“Harvesting food is ancestral and still in our DNA — it’s ecotherapy. It’s healing.”

Healthy Hearts Institute will host its annual holiday event in mid-December with s’mores and popcorn, inflatable slides, bounce houses, music, food trucks with no charge, around 600 toys given to kids, and, of course, pictures with Santa Claus.

Those looking to volunteer or donate can visit www.healthyhearts.co for more information. •

Community News, Youth Voices

www.ccpulse.org

December 2024

7

Community News, Youth Voices

www.ccpulse.org

December 2024

Contra Costa Elects First Black Woman Supervisor

BY SAMANTHA KENNEDY

P

ittsburg City Council member Shanelle ScalesPreston officially made history after certified election results showed she won the District 5 seat on the Board of Supervisors, defeating Antioch City Council member Michael Barbanica. Scales-Preston will be the first Black woman and second person of color to serve on the board.

“This campaign has always been about serving the needs of our residents,” Scales-Preston said in a Nov. 20 Facebook post ahead of certified results, “and I look forward to doing so with unwavering passion and dedication.”

Scales-Preston will succeed Supervisor Federal Glover, who served in the seat for 24 years as the board’s first and so far only person of color after sitting on the Pittsburg City Council. Glover announced his retirement last December and endorsed Scales-Preston the day before the election, saying she was “best suited to continue the committed service” he provided.

District 5 covers Pittsburg, Bay Point, Martinez, Hercules and parts of Antioch as well as several unincorporated communities, including Bay Point.

Scales-Preston won 52.16% of the vote, totaling more than 41,300 votes over Barbanica’s 37,896 votes.

Barbanica asked supporters to get behind Scales-

PHOTO VIA SHANELLE4SUPERVISOR.ORG

Preston as the District 5 supervisor in a Nov. 23 YouTube video. He said he reached out to ScalesPreston, but “the phone went to voicemail.”

Scales-Preston maintained her lead over Barbanica while votes were counted, increasing her initial 67-vote lead on Nov. 6 to over 3,000 by the time results were certified.

Barbanica and Scales-Preston first faced off in a March primary, finishing second and first, respectively, ahead of

Pittsburg City Council member Jelani Killings. The two did not receive 50% of the vote, so November’s runoff was necessary to declare a winner.

In addition to Glover, Scales-Preston was endorsed

by U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, and Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, District 1 Supervisor John Gioia and various unions.

Scales-Preston will be sworn into the District 5 seat in January. •

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Coming Together Helps Build a Healthy Antioch COMMENTARY • FIFITA GREWE

I

n Antioch, health isn’t just the absence of sickness; it’s the vibrant presence of community engagement, community building, and the structure we provide our youth, recognizing how they are impacted when we come together. My vision of a healthy Antioch is partly what it is right now and a little bit more of what it should be.

Picture a city where the community seamlessly brings

8

together our youth and adults. At schools, work offices, community centers and beyond, Antioch prioritizes physical well-being and community development.

Moreover, a healthy Antioch showcases a sense of belonging, ensuring that every citizen is in a safe environment. The city does many things that go unnoticed, helping elderly people and kids with initiatives like the Girl Power event for eighth grade girls before they head into high school. Giving our youth that structure is very important because these kids will be our next generation of adults, and they will forever cherish what our community does to help them feel included.

Community building in Antioch is essential. We showcase our community when we come together for sports and to give back to schools, kids, and more. The city gives me personally a sense of community when I go to events that have many different people there and I get to talk to them and just socialize. I also feel a sense of community anytime I go out and I’m just able to talk to random people and actually get to know them.

But Antioch still needs more community engagement.

We don’t come together enough. We also sometimes lack showing up for people when we need to. It needs to be more than just the little things. As a city, we should be able to come together and not worry about all these

random things that may come in the way of us building towards unity.

Antioch gives us a little sneak peek into the “real world.” No matter where we go, we’re going to run into cities that aren’t as “perfect” as they may seem. Every city has its flaws, challenges, trials, etc., but in those cities there are people who actually, genuinely care for the people that make up that environment.

But there are also times when we do see the “ugly” side of our city. When people have public disagreements in front of kids, it shows them it’s OK to argue out loud when that shouldn’t be the case. We also have problems with our school district office and we definitely shouldn’t have to worry about that. There are many challenges and trials that Antioch goes through, but when it comes down to it, we have more positive aspects than negative.

Finally, the vitality of Antioch stems from its development in community outreach and being able to grow as a whole. Many others may not agree with one another and what they have to say, but that’s OK because, at the end of the day, all we are trying to do is build and go up. We don’t and will never have a “perfect” city, but the least we can do is work towards that as our main goal. In Antioch, health is not just a personal endeavor but a collective responsibility, where everyone works together to build a happier, healthier community.•