Uniting Communities takes hold

Friday, December 17, 2010

by Aimee Santos Lyons, Western States Center In November, I was excited to be in New York City to train and facilitate a dialogue on Weste...

"My favorite SAFIRE session was this one."

Friday, December 17, 2010

By Amanda Wake Judy Wu on The Kapor Center's new mural SAFIRE 's Fall 2010 session came to a close this Monday. Ratema who has ...

DREAM Act inspires Oakland's undocumented youth

Thursday, December 16, 2010

By Joel Tena [Reprinted by permission from the wonderful local site, OaklandSeen .] “John” didn’t come to the US of his own choice. His p...

Five reasons to support ACRJ this holiday season

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

by Eveline Shen I want to pass along a message from two leaders in our SAFIRE youth program. Chrystal and Emily share their thoughts on h...

Eddy Zheng: our community rallies to let him stay

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

By Yvonne Tran Last Thursday morning, I attended Eddy Zheng’s court hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals – 9th Circuit in downtown San Fran...

Taking climate justice home

Thursday, December 09, 2010

By Amanda Wake, Youth Organizer As our friends and allies prepared to head to CancĂșn this month for the United Nations Climate Change Con...

You decide the time

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

By Dana Ginn Paredes December 7th was an International Day of Action to support the families of farmers, indigenous peoples, and vulnerable...

Reflections from Occidental

Saturday, December 04, 2010

by Lovely-Joanne A. Diala If I were to use one word to describe SAFIRE's first-ever retreat held at Occidental Arts & Ecology Cent...

Building Strong Families will take all of us!!!

Thursday, December 02, 2010

a message from our Executive Director, Eveline Shen... As the end of the year approaches and the holiday season is upon us, like most peop...

Long distance family: not home for the holidays

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

By Dana Ginn Paredes Thanksgiving is one of the holidays I look forward to most. It is the kick-off event to the days of holiday festiviti...

SAFIRE girls reflect on Oakland's new mayor

Monday, November 22, 2010

We asked the girls from our SAFIRE youth program what they think about Jean Quan becoming the first Asian American and woman Mayor of Oaklan...

Movement in action: EMERJ's Strategy Team moves together

Thursday, November 18, 2010

By Yvonne Tran Last week was one of those weeks that was just jam-packed. Here at ACRJ, we have been preparing for 3 days of our Forward S...

Standing forward: thoughts from the Forward Stance Leadership Initiative

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

  By Anasa Troutman Anasa participated in ACRJ’s second Forward Stance Leadership Initiative last week (FSLI2). A year and a half ago,...

ACRJ recognized as 2010 top nonprofit!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

ACRJ is proud to announce that we've been named one of the top nonprofits in 2010 working on reproductive health, rights and justice at ...

Lailan Huen reflects on her mother's election as Oakland's mayor

Thursday, November 11, 2010

By Yvonne Tran For folks who have watched the local Oakland elections closely, the waiting ended at 6pm last night.  Jean Quan was declared...

Wonderful news for nail salon workers in SF!

Monday, November 08, 2010

By Dana Ginn Paredes Exciting news! The San Francisco Board of Supervisors UNAMINOUSLY passed the Nail Salon Recognition Ordinance (11-0) ...

Mothers Behind Bars—powerful new report card

Thursday, November 04, 2010

At ACRJ, we think a lot about Strong Families. We talk to people and hear their contributions to the Strong Families stories project .  We ...

Stories from the SOUL

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

By Amanda Wake Yvonne Tran and I had the opportunity to run a workshop and collect stories at SOUL's National Youth Organizing Trainin...

Women of Color are kicking butt in Idaho!

Monday, November 01, 2010

by Maria Nakae I was inspired and humbled when I talked to Dina Flores-Brewer, a board member of Women of Color Alliance (WOCA) in Idaho....

Private prison business behind SB1070

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Glenn Nichols, city manager of Benson, Ariz., said last year two men came to the city "talking about building a facility to hold wome...

Toxic chemicals & the workers that have to use them

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

By Dana Ginn Paredes When it comes to toxic chemicals in consumer products, one of the most popular messages we hear are about the potenti...

Women building community in New Mexico

Monday, October 25, 2010

By Moira Bowman, Movement Building Director A couple of weeks ago, my coworker Amanda and I were in New Mexico to support Women Building C...

Everyone loves Sex (Ed)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

By Yvonne Tran I remember being in 4th or 5th grade and getting separated from the boys to watch an animated short film about sex. It cons...

Are cell phones the cigarettes of our generation?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Elaine Kamilly, like four billion of our fellow earthlings, spends a lot of time on the cell phone By Lisa Russ My first few yea...

One thumb up and one thumb down for California’s Governor

Friday, October 15, 2010

by Maria Nakae Last month, we blogged about two important bills aimed at protecting the health and well being of some of the most marginal...

Toxic sludges, oil drillings... tell-tale sign of insanity

Thursday, October 14, 2010

By Yvonne Tran There has been a massive toxic spill. State of emergency has been declared. Numerous people have either died or suffered nu...

Get Out The Vote Because We Have Had to Fight for our Right to

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

GET OUT THE VOTE on Tuesday, November 2nd! Based on their gender, race, age, citizenship and criminal record, people throughout history ha...

Cooking with Puppets

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Jennifer and Lonna, one of the few sister-duos who participated in SAFIRE this past summer, decided to share their Strong Families story t...

Building with Young Women United in New Mexico

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

By Amanda Wake, Youth Organizer YWU Program Coordinator, Micaela Cadena Last week I had a blast working with the incredible women of Yo...

Making It Better: Our LGBT Youth

Friday, October 08, 2010

By Yvonne Tran With the onslaught of anti-gay bullying, intimidation, and overall harrasment of queer/LGBT youth resulting in numerous con...

Bring Back the Woman!

Thursday, October 07, 2010

by Maria Nakae Here in California, we are no strangers to repeated attempts at passing thinly veiled anti-choice ballot initiatives that w...

The gender wage gap & parental leave

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

 By Dana Ginn Paredes A friend shared a story of how she encouraged the men in her workplace to take Family Medical Leave when they and t...

An Ode to Nicky Diaz Santillan

Monday, October 04, 2010

By Lisa Russ Attorney Gloria Allred, left, escorts Nicandra Diaz Santillan after a news conference at Allred's office in which she ...

My Strong Families Story

Friday, October 01, 2010

By Lovely-Joanne A. Diala After looking through videos of stories ACRJ collected for the Strong Families Story Collection, I began to ask ...

“I” is for “I Believe in Dignity and Respect”

Thursday, September 30, 2010

by Maria Nakae Have you ever been called a bad name? It’s annoying, right? Have you ever been called a racial slur? Now that’s downrig...

Collecting Stories: It’s A Process

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

By Yvonne Tran This summer I collected dozens of stories from people across the nation. I was humbled by people's experiences and insp...

Judy & Her Father

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

This summer ACRJ's SAFIRE youth collected family stories from their elders and came up with creative ways of sharing them with all of yo...

Parental leave: a story for strong families

Monday, September 27, 2010

By Dana Ginn Paredes It has been a month since my return to work from parental leave. The transition has been relatively easy. I mean, the...

More Summer SAFIRE Story Projects

Friday, September 24, 2010

There are plenty of stories collected from ACRJ’s SAFIRE youth that are just waiting to be shared. Here is another story collection project ...

It Gets Better: Dan and Terry

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Dan Savage's column and podcast are hugely popular all over the country, including conservative communities where, apparently, teenage...

Watch Jett tell the story of his Strong Family

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

by Maria Nakae Jett shares the story of his strong family, which comes together to support his brother who has a mental illness. While ma...

A New Deal for Families of Color

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

By Moira Bowman, Movement Building Director Just yesterday, my colleague Yvonne Tran and I were doing some fact checking to prepare for a w...

Your strong family story deserves to be heard!

Monday, September 20, 2010

by Maria Nakae What does your family look like? Does it look like the stereotypical nuclear family – two straight parents, two kids and a...

Frank

Friday, September 17, 2010

By Yvonne Tran Frank tells us an amazing story of how strong women helped shape, support, and helped guide his life. They instilled in him...

Under the Table: The Elusive Family Dinner

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Maddie had her dinner tonight in the shopping cart. By Lisa Russ It’s the back-to-school time of year, full of sharp pencils, clean not...

If you missed me at the Permaculture for the People Report Back No Worries!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

By Amanda Wake, Youth Organizer If you missed the Permaculture for the People Report Back at the new vegetarian Filipino Restaurant,  No W...

Do you know about Domestic Workers United's victory in New York?

Monday, September 13, 2010

by Moira Bowman I was at a gathering of friends recently, where as usual, we were lamenting the various challenges of the current political...

Working Class Terror: BED BUGS

Friday, September 10, 2010

By Yvonne Tran Yes, yes. You probably have all read the NY Times articles on bed bugs terrorizing cities from the Big Apple to Detroit to...

Chevron, health and the environment: no longer just a local fight

Friday, September 10, 2010

By Dana Ginn Paredes When I was in college (learning about politics, economics - and justice on the side) I joined a group of students on ...