With the arrival of Fall, Youth Council members met up for a fun photoshoot outdoors while getting to know new Youth Council members! Everyone had a great time striking a pose for the camera.

“When I see these photos I see confidence, strength, kindness, and inner and outer beauty,” said Ron Sanchez, Media Specialist for Mid-City CAN. “I hope they feel empowered and energized when they see their photos and remember that they can accomplish anything in life.”

Youth Council are a group of young people, ages 13-18, who want to create change in our local Black, Indigenous and Communities of Color. They meet every Friday and start each session enjoying food and getting to know each other. Youth Council is always open to meeting new members. Learn more about this fun group by clicking here to visit their webpage.     

Check out the fabulous pics from the photoshoot.

📷: Ron Sanchez, Mid-City CAN 

SAN DIEGO (September 15) – Mid-City CAN receives Innovation Award at Circulate San Diego’s 2022 Momentum Awards ceremony! Held this year at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, Circulate's Momentum Awards recognize local people and projects that provide excellent mobility choices for San Diegan residents and promote a shared goal of fostering vibrant, healthy neighborhoods.

The Youth Opportunity Pass (YOP) campaign wins the Innovation Award! This campaign began over a decade ago by mothers and grandmothers in City Heights who identified transit as a major barrier to youth’s access of education, job opportunities, and extra-curriculars as well as a major financial undertaking for transit-reliant families.

“This is exciting and truly an honor to win the Innovation Award. Thank you, Circulate San Diego,” said Ariana Federico, Mid-City CAN’s lead organizer for the Improving Transportation in City Heights (ITCH) team. “This award belongs to all of the organizers, students, parents, volunteers, and supporters who have worked so hard for over a decade to make sure that the Youth Opportunity Pass program became a reality. Our work regarding YOP is ongoing and we want to make it a permanent program.”

Mid-City CAN Policy Advocate Belen Hernandez Garcia and ITCH team member Maria Cortez were delighted to accept the award from Colin Parent, Circulate San Diego's Executive Director and General Counsel. Along with the award was a Certificate of Recognition from Chair Nathan Fletcher, Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, and Councilmember Raul A. Campillo. Mayor Todd Gloria was in attendance and presented one of the awards. Governor Gavin Newsom received an award and recorded a message congratulating all of the winners. View the list of winners here.

The YOP pilot program enables youth 18 and under to ride free with a PRONTO pass from May 2022 to June 30, 2023. Youth riders receive unlimited rides on the bus, Trolley, COASTER and SPRINTER all over San Diego County.

Only a few months in, SANDAG reported a significant increase due to the YOP pilot program. Compared to April 2022, the following three months had cumulative averages of:

• 25 percent increase in overall youth ridership countywide
• 20 percent increase in average weekday ridership countywide
• 68 percent increase in average Saturday ridership countywide
• 90 percent increase in average Sunday ridership countywide
• 24 percent increase in total MTS youth ridership
• 36 percent increase in total NCTD youth ridership

"With the surfacing of the Youth Opportunity Pass I never had to worry about the expiration of my bus pass or making sure I always had change with me to be able to go home. Without money being in the way, I found myself taking more opportunities to make a change within my community as I had a potent form of transportation. For this reason, the Youth Opportunity Pass Program should remain in place,” said Karina Sandoval, a senior at Hoover High School and a Mid-City CAN Youth Council member, during a Back to School press conference last August that promoted the YOP program.

Mid-City CAN's Improving Transportation in City Heights is a momentum team of community members interested in increasing youth opportunity, combating climate change, and increasing investment in public transportation, and has advocated for the YOP program since 2011. Last June, Mid-City CAN was the recipient of the 2022 Climate Justice Award during Climate Action Campaign’s BLOOM ceremony. Climate Action Campaign honored Mid-City CAN for its commitment to improving the community and ensuring every young person has access to free public transit through Youth Opportunity Passes.

The team continues its work to make YOP permanent.

Mid-City CAN, along with a coalition of transit agencies, school districts, environmentalists, and others, have been supporting Assembly Bill 1919 - Youth Transit Pass Pilot Program: free youth transit passes. If passed, AB 1919 would award grants to transit agencies for the costs of creating, designing, developing, advertising, distributing, and implementing free youth transit passes. In recent weeks the bill has passed through all committees with bipartisan support and only 1 no vote. The bill fell short as it was vetoed on September 13 by Governor Newsom because he said the bill requires the creation of a new grant program which is not in the budget. Mid-City CAN will continue to work with the coalition and support AB 1919.

📷: Ron Sanchez, Mid-City CAN 

***UPDATE***

Wonderful news to share regarding the reforms to Community Planning Groups:

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Mid-City CAN joined Circulate San Diego and nine other San Diego organizations in submitting a letter of support for Councilmember Joe LaCava's proposed reforms to Community Planning Groups (CPG). The proposal would bring CPG operations into compliance with the City Charter, and would increase diversity and participation in CPGs.

Background:
Over the past several years, calls for the City to consider reforms to Community Planning Groups have come from many sources, including the San Diego County Grand Jury, the City Auditor, the Land Use and Housing Committee of the San Diego City Council, and Circulate San Diego.

The Grand Jury Report found that membership of some CPGs is not sufficiently diverse to represent their communities. Some CPGs currently create inappropriate restrictions for democratic participation, limiting community members’ ability to vote and participate in elections. 

The current structure of CPGs is illegal. The City Attorney has opined that the current format of CPGs is inconsistent with the City Charter, and must be changed. The City Attorney opinion validated issues first raised by Circulate in an April 2019 memo which explained that the City Charter requires advisory boards like CPGs to be appointed by the Mayor.

Read the full letter to Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council by clicking here.

****UPDATE****

Mid-City CAN regretfully has to cancel our Back to School Resource Market event on Saturday, September 17. It is our hope to host an event of this impact for our community in the future. Thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to be a part of this event.

Mid-City CAN appreciates the relationship with our partners and look forward to collaborating in the future.
 

Mid-City CAN Youth Council member Karina Sandoval, a 16-year-old incoming senior at Hoover High School and City Heights resident, spoke at a Back to School press conference that promoted the Youth Opportunity Pass (YOP). The event was held on August 26 at Hoover High School and was attended by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, San Diego Unified School District, SANDAG, Chair Nathan Fletcher, and other YOP supporters.  

Chair Fletcher began the press conference by thanking the advocates of the YOP pass: “This is an incredible asset. I really want to thank everyone who’s here who advocated for so long to make Youth Opportunity Passes happen. I want to thank in particular Mid-City CAN. I want to thank City Heights CDC, and I want to thank all the parents and the incredible coalition of folks who have been fighting for this for so long.” 

Fletcher introduced Karina who talked about the importance of YOP. Below is a transcript of her speech:

"My name is Karina Sandoval, and I am a 16-year-old incoming senior at Hoover High School, a City Heights resident, and a Mid City CAN youth council member. Living in City Heights my entire life, I have seen numerous ways my neighbors struggle to provide essentials for their families, from the rent to the food on the table. My single mother being one of them, I was left to utilize public transportation on my own from my very first day of high school as a 13-year-old while she worked early shifts.

"For the past four years, I have used the bus to go to school every morning, attend dentist appointments, arrive at every one of my internships, and make it to daily volleyball games and practices. Through the rush of making it to every destination, I feared the expiration of my bus pass every time I stepped foot onto the bus. There was even once when this fear became true on a school morning. My pass expired that day, and I was short of change. I stepped off feeling defeated as I had now missed my history exam. Other days, I feared being stranded at night as my internship tutoring children ended late.

"With the surfacing of the Youth opportunity pass I never had to worry about the expiration of my bus pass or making sure I always had change with me to be able to go home. Without money being in the way, I found myself taking more opportunities to make a change within my community as I had a potent form of transportation. For this reason, the Youth Opportunity Pass Program should remain in place. This program ensures youth from all backgrounds are connected to their schools, internships, medical care, and early career opportunities. In addition, the YOP is a proven program. Similar programs exist in Alameda County, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Santa Ana. This is our chance to provide our underserved youth in San Diego with the materials to become successful academically and in their livelihoods."

Thank you Karina for an amazing speech on the importance of this program and why it needs to be permanent!

Keep spreading the word about the YOP program. Click here to get a free PRONTO youth card today!

📷: Ron Sanchez, Mid-City CAN 

We love our interns! Mid-City CAN is fortunate to have so many talented interns working with us for many years. One of our recent interns, Precious Inyang, was a Summer 2022 intern through Health Career Connection. "I highly recommend that any higher education student who is eligible and interested in pursuing a health career apply for this internship and see it through if selected," advised Precious.

While with Mid-City CAN Precious worked with our Improving Transportation in City Heights (ITCH) team doing outreach for the Youth Opportunity Pass program. She also helped developed an upcoming educational campaign. For her major project, Precious used her global health and premedical background to create a research project on the intersection of public transportation and public health.

Thank you Precious for the amazing work that you did while at Mid-City CAN! We wish you all the best at UCSD as you pursue your BA in Global Health and keep in touch!

Get to know Precious by watching the video below that she created highlighting her internship at Mid-City CAN and working with the ITCH team.

It's a wrap! Our Youth Council 2022 Artivism program has concluded and it was a thrill to meet so many incredibly talented students! Thank you for all of your hard work. Many thanks to our amazing teaching artist Lorain Khalil Rihan who had a tremendous impact on the students.

"These past weeks have been amazing and life-changing," said Artivism student Jasmine. "I would like to give a special shout out to Lorain the teaching artist for everything she has done and taught us. She was immensely an inspiration to me personally. I learned so much about youth organizing and have been inspired and moved to join Youth Council and become more involved with Mid-City CAN."

All youth participants will display their art projects at the Copley-Price YMCA in City Heights in August. Stay tuned, we will post more information about their exhibit at the Copley-Price YMCA on our social media channels.

Thank you to the sponsors of our Artivism program: Level Up SD, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Foundation, and Price Philanthropies.

View more photos from our Artivism program by visiting our Flickr page.

📷: Ron Sanchez, Mid-City CAN

On Saturday June 25th the Civic Engagement team hosted their first Queer, Trans, Intersex, People of the Global Majority (QTIPGM) Health, Pride and Resiliency event at Henwood Memorial Park in City Heights. The goal of the event is to improve the health disparities that the QTIPGM community encounter, as well as provide resources from Community Based Organizations to mitigate those disparities. Thank you to all our partners and guests who attended to make the event a success! 

Mid-City CAN was excited to partner with more than 10 community organizations including Planned Parenthood, Rainbow Spaces, SD Black LGBTQ+ Coalition, and many more. The event featured speakers, a yoga session led by JustBriFree Yoga & Wellness, a tie-dye station courtesy of Sew Loka, a flag making station, a performance by Amber St. James, and food & drinks. Council President Sean Elo-Rivera stopped by and congratulated Mid-City CAN for hosting a wonderful community event!

View photos and a video of the event on our Flickr page (no log in required).

📷: Ron Sanchez, Mid-City CAN

We're excited about Youth Council's Second Annual Artivism Program that begins next Tuesday on June 21!

This year's Artivism will be taught by an amazing visual artist, Lorain Khalil Rihan. See her amazing work and learn more about Lorain by visiting her website.

If you're on the fence about signing up, there are so many reasons why you should join! Here are a few fun reasons:

- Create and learn about art

- An opportunity to exhibit completed artwork projects in a community setting

- 2-4 field trips to learn about art

- Balboa Park annual pass (which means you'll have access to museums for a year!)

- Meet new friends

- Certificate of completion

- Community service hours

- Recommendation letters

- Lasting memories

Artivism is FREE and no art experience is needed.

The summer program will have two sessions:

• Session 1: June 21 - July 8 (3 weeks)
• Session 2: July 11 - July 29 (3 weeks)

DAY: Tuesday - Friday

TIME: 2 pm to 5 pm

LOCATION: Hoover High School, 4474 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego, CA 92115

Students can join the 1st session, 2nd session, or both sessions!

Click here to sign up:

https://www.inplay.org/providers/mid-city-can/youth-artivism-summer-program

This program is geared for high school youth ages 13-18 and is also open to students who will be enrolled in San Diego Unified School District in the Fall 2022. 

Ensuring access to Artivism for Mid-City CAN means that students who live or go to school outside of San Diego school district are able to benefit from this program as well. Due to a generous donation, Mid-City CAN will be accepting students who live outside of San Diego Unified district boundary lines.

Mid-City CAN had a wonderful time hosting the community on Tuesday, April 26 to celebrate the launch of the Youth Opportunity Pass program! The YOP Community Celebration at the City Heights Performing Annex featured speakers, entertainment, food, and much more. Thank you to all who attended.

Special shoutout to the Hoover High School Drumline team for an amazing performance! 

Youth ages 18 and under starting on May 1 can now ride for free on the bus, trolley, and other public transit operated by San Diego MTS and the North County Transit District.

If you weren’t able to attend the celebration and have questions about the YOP program including how to register, visit Mid-City CAN’s Improving Transportation in City Heights page at:

https://www.midcitycan.org/improving_transportation

View more photos and a video on our Flickr page by clicking here.

📷: Ron Sanchez, Mid-City CAN

Tell us about the work you do with MCC and what calls you to it?

I believe we are here to serve. That's my aspiration in life and at Mid-City CAN. 

As the Policy Advocate, I work with local partners and government offices to move campaigns forward. My role is to guide officials and their staff to recognize and address community needs. That's right, I attend a lot of meetings. As I follow the legislative process, I also simplify information and resources to share with community members. 

The sustainability of the work we do relies on us also taking care of ourselves as part of it. How do you like to take care of yourself?

I love spending time with family and in nature! Equally important, prayer and reflection.

What is one of your favorite memories at MCC?

Seeing everyone at staff meetings.

What brings you joy? 

Finishing what I start. Musics, food, and discussing what I read. 

This time of physical distancing has fostered a lot of new hobbies or returned people to old favorites. What have you been passing the time with?
I have been practicing the guitar and exploring new interests.

As Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) heritage month comes to an end, we want to honor the Asian Solidarity Collective (ASC), a local organization that is doing work for our APIA community in San Diego. This organization works to uplift the Asian American community and activate a social justice consciousness through community building events, political education and outreach, and collective action. With a goal of collective liberation for all communities, the collective does not only work with the Asian American community, but stands in solidarity with other oppressed communities. Asian American experiences and histories are relational to, and not in competition with other oppressed communities. Recently, we were able to sit down with the collectives Organizer and Co-founder, DJ Kuttin Kandi, a legendary womxn DJ, a well-known public speaker of diversity, and a dedicated community organizer for social justice.

Do you celebrate APIA Heritage Month? If so, what are the ways your organization/community celebrate it?

Before Covid-19 struck, we usually center our annual fundraiser around this time of the year by lifting up the Black-Asian solidarity, and celebrate Malcolm X’s and Yuri Kochiyama’s birthdays. We lift up the work of our ancestral organizers like Yuri and Grace Lee Boggs and acknowledge that the need for solidarity is important; we can’t just talk about our own struggles, but also our cross-racial solidarity. Throughout the year, we work with our community on the daily educating our community and working with our community on racial solidarity and our hxstory.

Do you think it’s important to celebrate APIA Heritage Month? If so, can you share with us your thoughts on why recognizing APIAs is important?

My favorite subject is history - when I was picking a major, there weren’t many Filipinx historians. I am particularly inspired by the work of Filipinx historian Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon who documented the work of Filipinx farmworkers; I want to lift up her legacy and she reminded us that Filipinx heritage month is not just heritage month - but Filipinx history month. We need an APIA history month (year, etc.) to focus on how do we reclaim our stories radically - this is how we celebrate our heritage by reclaiming our stories and histories.

If we want to highlight any unsung APIA heroes, can you name anyone of Asian and Pacific Islander descent who have contributed to communities here locally?

I only moved here to San Diego in 2006. My friend Virgil who died 3 years ago, was a community leader, committed to the arts, young people, Filipinx community, and the movement. He was so committed to our community that often forgot himself to put his community first. When I was sick, and had heart surgery, and almost died - he came to see me in the hospital even though he didn’t know me - we had things in common. He got a lot of love after he died, and he deserved that when he was living. It’s often when people die that we lift them up, but so important to keep lifting them up. Other folks in our community and organization know more in our community who are our ancestral organizers.

Have you or anyone you know experienced racism and anti-Asian sentiment during COVID-19?

From the work we’re doing, yes - we do know folks. The San Diego Asian Pacific Islander Coalition which recently formed here in San Diego, that Asian Solidarity Collective is also part of has been supporting and addressing anti-Asian racism and hatred through multi-strategizing

and making public statements to denounce all kinds of racism and xenophobia. Asian Solidarity Collective specifically is making a call for our communities to look at alternative models of a culture of accountability. And holding our govt leaders & organizational leaders accountable and making sure they’re emphasizing addressing oppression of any kind in our communities. The San Diego Asian Pacific Islander Coalition is in conversation with A3PCON (Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council) about this issue as well; and we’re all noticing the rise of anti-Asian hate in San Diego across the United States and globally.

What are some ways you think we can tackle the hatred rhetoric against APIAs? 

What Covid19 has brought to light is people’s existing biases against the Asian-American communities. The issue is not Covid19, but the ways in which our communities are policed, invisibilized and forgotten due to things like the model minority myth. We’re often used as either as tokens or as a racial wedge to further divide our communities. And this is being showcased at this time in SD too. We see people wanting to put together a human relations commission - but we were an after thought - conversations this big shouldn’t be only with a selected few people. But it should include a team that brings together a diverse group of people. This system is designed to do what it’s doing; but how do we break away from a system that constantly gives us handouts and doesn’t really give us freedom. To be liberated from any kind of hate rhetoric is to move towards an abolitionist world. We must think of the work of abolitionist work of Black activists and organizers. We have to lift up the work of Black and Indigenous organizers who have been fighting for liberation. We have to dig into our own biases, internalized racism, and how we’re also oppressive towards other communities of color, and then do the cross-solidarity work to build across races to bring liberation to all. How do we show up for people with disabilities, for queer folks, for people of all ages? We must look at how all forms of oppression are connected and how we do that as Asians is super important.

The end of APIA heritage month may be coming near, but that is no reason to stop celebrating organizations that seek justice for oppressed communities. The work done at these organizations is year round. We want to thank DJ Kuttin Kandi for all of her work done in the community, and for sharing with us some of her incredible insight on being a social justice advocate.

We Need You.

Mid-City CAN relies on the support of donors like you. Your donation supports leading community advocacy campaigns focused on establishing positive and progressive change in City Heights and beyond.

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MID-CITY COMMUNITY ADVOCACY NETWORK CHOSEN AS NONPROFIT OF THE YEAR

Mid-City Community Advocacy Network is proud to announce it has been selected as a 2019 California Nonprofit of the Year by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher.

The Mid-City Community Advocacy Network's mission is to create a safe, productive, and healthy community through collaboration, advocacy, and organizing. With the help of its residents and partners, they are able to drive positive change across many systems and issues that concern and affect the residents of City Heights.

“We are honored to be recognized by Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher as Nonprofit of the Year. This award is especially meaningful to Mid-City CAN this year as we are celebrating 30 years of working hand-in-hand with our community to create a thriving City Heights. This is really a recognition of the collective dedication and the love that youth, parents, teachers, and partners have for this community,” commented Diana Rodriguez Ross.

Support community power and the prospect of a happier, healthier future for ALL by making a small contribution today!

“Nonprofits are often hidden in plain sight,” explains Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits). “California Nonprofits Day is an opportunity for our elected officials to celebrate the good work they see nonprofits doing in their districts, and for everyone to appreciate the collective impact of nonprofits in our communities.”

California Nonprofits Day, now in its fourth year, was formally recognized by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 62, authored by the chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Nonprofit Sector, Assemblywoman Monique Limón (Santa Barbara), who will speak at the celebration luncheon. Senator Holly Mitchell will keynote the luncheon. The day is organized by Assemblymember Limón and CalNonprofits.

According to “Causes Count,” a 2016 report commissioned by CalNonprofits, the nonprofit sector is the 4th largest industry in the state, employing nearly one million people. Each year, California nonprofits generate over $200 billion in revenue and bring in $40 billion in revenue from outside of California. The unpaid labor contributed by volunteers at nonprofits is equivalent to 450,000 full-time jobs every year.

About San Diego’s Nonprofit Landscape

12,832

Number of all federally registered nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations in San Diego County.

This includes everything from homeless shelters and fundraising foundations to trade associations and advocacy groups that promote causes such as increased transit options or environmental protection.

1,162

That represents the number of human services public charities in San Diego. This is the largest charitable category in the region. These groups provide services to specific communities such as children, seniors and the homeless. Human services charities include Boys & Girls Clubs, Meals-on-Wheels and Mama’s Kitchen, which delivers meals to homebound San Diegans with AIDS or cancer.

53 percent

This is the percentage of San Diego nonprofit revenue that comes from contributions such as government grants, individual donations or foundations. That’s about 20 percent more than the state average.

This means San Diego nonprofits are more reliant on outside income than the average California charity. One major difference: The average nonprofit in the state gets nearly two-thirds of its revenue from programs it offers while San Diego nonprofits report getting only 41 percent from that source.

San Diego nonprofits’ greater focus on outside dollars means they could be more vulnerable to the volatile nature of donations and grants.

It also likely means San Diego nonprofits have to spend more time applying for grants and seeking donations than those elsewhere, said Nancy Jamison, executive director at San Diego Grantmakers, which corrals foundations and other funders.

“If there’s a higher reliance on contributed revenue that means the organizations are having to work that much harder for that contributed dollar,” Jamison said. “Contributed dollars don’t just arrive.”

Help us continue to do the work we do by donating today!

MID-CITY COMMUNITY ADVOCACY NETWORK CHOSEN AS NONPROFIT OF THE YEAR!

 NONPROFIT WILL BE HONORED BY ASSEMBLYWOMAN LORENA GONZALEZ-FLETCHER ON CALIFORNIA NONPROFITS DAY

 SAN DIEGO, CA – Mid-City Community Advocacy Network also known as Mid-City CAN is proud to announce it has been selected as a 2019 California Nonprofit of the Year by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher.

Diana Rodriguez Ross, Executive Director for Mid-City CAN will travel to Sacramento to join one hundred other nonprofit leaders who will be honored by their state senators and assemblymembers during a celebration luncheon as part of California Nonprofits Day on June 5^th.

“We are honored to be recognized by Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher as Nonprofit of the Year. This award is especially meaningful to Mid-City CAN this year as we are celebrating 30 years of working hand-in-hand with our community to create a thriving City Heights. This is really a recognition of the collective dedication and the love that youth, parents, teachers, and partners have for this community,” commented Diana Rodriguez Ross

“Nonprofits are often hidden in plain sight,” explains Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits). “California Nonprofits Day is an opportunity for our elected officials to celebrate the good work they see nonprofits doing in their districts, and for everyone to appreciate the collective impact of nonprofits in our communities.”

Additional Background

California Nonprofits Day, now in its fourth year, was formally recognized by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 62, authored by the chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Nonprofit Sector, Assemblywoman Monique Limón (Santa Barbara), who will speak at the celebration luncheon. Senator Holly Mitchell will keynote the luncheon. The day is organized by Assemblymember Limón and CalNonprofits.

According to “Causes Count,” a 2016 report commissioned by CalNonprofits, the nonprofit sector is the 4^th largest industry in the state, employing nearly one million people. Each year, California nonprofits generate over $200 billion in revenue and bring in $40 billion in revenue from outside of California. The unpaid labor contributed by volunteers at nonprofits is equivalent to 450,000 full-time jobs every year.