Alianza comunitaria es una coalición que se formo en el 2009 con la meta de educar e informar la comunidad sobre redadas y retenes en el condado Norte de San Diego. 

Grupos de Derechos Humanos y de base junto con grupos de estudiantes de MECHa del condado Norte se unieron alertar la comunidad sobre redadas de inmigración que estaban separando familias de la comunidad. 

Salón de multiusos de la primaria
San Marcos 1 Tiger Way San Marcos, CA 92069
18 de febrero 2025 6:00 pm

Immigration Resources
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · February 24, 2025 4:31 PM · 1 reaction

Este mensaje continua en Español:

Workplace Rights Ambassador Project (WRAP)

Universidad Popular invites you to participate in our Workplace Rights Ambassador Project (WRAP). The Workplace Rights Ambassador Project (WRAP) is an initiative that seeks to build a bridge between the Labor Commissioner’s Office and workers who have been negatively impacted at their workplace.

The training will take place in person and in Spanish once a month, over the course of five months. Upon completing the training, participants will receive a certificate and be prepared as Workplace Rights Ambassadors from the California Labor Commission.

We highly recommend this training program to young workers and immigrants who have recently joined the workforce and need to be educated on their workers rights. Though they are impactful drivers in the economy, the young workforce and immigrant community is often being exploited in the workplace. This can be a result of minimal education surrounding workers rights and a general fear of retaliation in the workplace. If you know someone who could benefit from this training, send them over.

To register for the training click here.

For additional information and questions please contact Francisco at [email protected] or call 760.670.6759

Español:

Derechos Laborales Embajador del Proyecto (WRAP)

Greetings San Diego Sector Leads and Co-Conveners!

Distribución de Comida Pauma
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · July 30, 2024 3:32 PM · 1 reaction

Clase de Ciudadania y Civismo en San Marcos
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · July 30, 2024 1:16 PM · 1 reaction

Friend -

We are excited to share that Universidad Popular proudly co-hosted the California Jobs First Southern Border Coalition Ceremony & Celebration for elected Sector Leads on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at the home of the IBEW 569 in San Diego County, with co-conveners San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, Comite Civico del Valle, Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition, Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation, San Diego State University, SBCS and San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center.

We opened the gathering with the blessing by Pascha Nierenhausen, a Sector Lead for the California Native American Tribes in Imperial County and a Land Acknowledgement by Stephanie Saavedra, a Sector Lead for the Disinvested Communities in San Diego County. Then we were uplifted by beautiful chanting with Native Bird Singers and dancers who brought heart, culture and tradition to our community celebration.

We then presented each Sector Lead and the Honorable Jose S. Castillo, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One, delivered heartfelt remarks and performed the Swearing-In of our Sector Leads in English and Spanish. Justice Jose Castillo was born in Mexico and came to the United States as a child. After serving in the military, he became the first in his family to graduate from college and law school. After law school, he worked as a law clerk for a federal trial judge, a staff attorney for the federal court of appeals, and as a federal prosecutor. In December 2020, Justice Castillo was appointed to the superior court, and in April 2023 to the Court of Appeal.

This community gathering honors and celebrates elected Sector Leads who have been elected by their peers as trusted partners and who consistently demonstrate a strong commitment to and experience serving disinvested communities. The Sector Leads will be responsible for representing their sector, connecting with disinvested communities relevant to their sector, convening and supporting their sector, attending Regional and Subregional Task Group meetings, and sharing insights and information with Coalition. Most importantly, they are lending their expertise and lived experience to empower a more inclusive and grounded economic development process. The Sector Leads represent the following 15 sectors: Labor, Businesses, Grassroots, Government, Economic Development, Philanthropic Organizations, Education and Training, Workforce Development, Environmental Justice, Worker Centers, Disinvested Communities, California Native American Tribes, Youth, LGBTQIA, and Farmworkers.

Thank you to elected officials who attended the event including City of San Marcos Councilmember Maria Nuñez, City of Carlsbad Councilmember Teresa Acosta, and City of Lemon Grove Councilmember Alysson Snow.       

To see more photos of the celebration click the link below.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/joe-dusel-photography/7z5BWG81XP

Thank you to our friend and photographer, Joe Dusel for documenting this historic event. 

Congratulations to the elected Sector Leads by County:

We enjoyed a beautiful ceremony followed by a wonderful meal prepared by our friends at Super Cocina.

Thank you to every person, organization and business that contributed to making this an amazing event. We look forward to the next community gathering!

You can still become a coalition member and can sign up to receive updates. For more information about the California Jobs First and the Southern Border Coalition, visit https://cajobsfirst.sdsu.edu/.  

Sponsoring agencies:
Governor’s Office of Planning & Research
Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz)
California Labor and Workforce Development

Volunteers continue to document the conditions at Open-Air Detention Sites (OADS) and provide humanitarian aid on a daily basis. Regardless of the temperature and climate, rain or shine, volunteers bear witness to the injustices at OADS.

The extraordinarily heavy rains that have impacted our San Diego region have been disproportionately felt by communities already suffering from historic marginalization. Precarious conditions are exacerbated by the loss of homes, jobs, and businesses and an increased sense of uncertainty. Another largely invisible group caught up in the unprecedented rains in our county includes migrants who get drenched when they enter the country irregularly, walking miles to the section of the border wall known as “Whiskey 8” to turn themselves over to Border Patrol. As is etched on the 30-foot-high steel bollards, the words “Whiskey 8” have become synonymous with an OADS where Border Patrol detains people as they wait to be picked up and transported to processing facilities. Whiskey 8 became widely known by organizations and individuals that began documenting abhorrent human rights violations and subsequently began providing continuous emergency assistance since the lifting of Title 42 in the Spring of 2023 until now. It’s been over 200 days since we set up the first humanitarian station to provide emergency assistance, and the situation at Whiskey 8 has become more dire as injuries, extreme weather, and political extremism intensify.

We remain steadfast in our condemnation of government-inflicted human suffering. From the beginning, we have demanded that the federal government and the Border Patrol agency eliminate the use of open-air detention sites to hold migrants and people seeking asylum. We have called for Border Patrol’s parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to end the practice of holding people, including children, under conditions that threaten health and prevent access to basic hygiene needs and care. CBP and the federal government have no excuse to continue using the OADS and, as a consequence, put at risk the lives of migrants and people seeking asylum. It is unacceptable that thousands of people must suffer in the rain for hours, through cold, and sometimes with severe injuries after falling from the wall. Although the images of crying children, of women disabled by falls, and of the dead have not appeared in the media recently, impacted families are forever scarred, and we have these images imprinted in our memory. For more than 200 days, the organizations that provide emergency assistance at Whiskey 8 have continuously denounced these terrible conditions.

The government and the Border Patrol have ignored public opinion and insisted on keeping people in the OADS for hours at present, but during cold months, people have been left waiting for long hours and even days and nights. The organizations carrying out the work at Whiskey 8 have relied on the generosity of communities from across San Diego County and beyond that offer solidarity. These communities have extended a hand and demonstrated their generosity by donating items that have undoubtedly alleviated the desperation of people who come to Whiskey 8 without shoes, no proper outdoor wear, and, in some cases, severely injured. San Diego communities have responded by bringing blankets, coats, shelters, tents, fruit, bread, water, coffee, baby diapers, and donations for purchases of needed supplies. We thank the thousands of hearts and hands who felt like helping and acted on it.

The work and coordination at Whiskey 8 depend on the sacrifice and extensive experience of organizations and volunteers who have served migrants for decades and continue to give their best. We will continue to support migrant and asylum-seeking sisters and brothers who, for their own reasons, began their journey to reach the United States and ended up at Whiskey 8. Those who are interested in lending their support to the efforts at the wall are asked to commit to the following:

1. The main purpose for being at Whiskey 8 is to document the conditions and note violations of national standards and human rights in OADS in order to shut down CBP’s use of those places; 
2. The secondary function is to provide humanitarian support to migrants and people seeking asylum awaiting processing at a Border Patrol facility.
3. The treatment of migrants, people seeking asylum, and volunteers will be completely respectful.
4. Sometimes, there may be the presence of anti-immigrant individuals who seek to exploit the conditions at Whiskey 8 to promote racist and violent opinions. In these cases, we ask volunteers to de-escalate the situation and document the incident.

We conclude by thanking and appreciating the sacrifice, dedication, and generosity of hundreds and perhaps thousands of community members who have spoken up while seeing images of migrants and people seeking asylum under these conditions. We are inspired that communities across San Diego County will continue to demonstrate the solidarity in their hearts, especially with those who have traveled from far away and arrived at Whiskey 8. The work of the organizations and volunteers that receive people once the Border Patrol releases them at the Iris Trolley Station in San Ysidro also greatly needs support. We extend the invitation to those who can activate their solidarity and come to provide support in whatever manner feels appropriate.

Humanitarian Aid
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · April 04, 2024 12:29 PM · 1 reaction

Thanks so much again for joining us last month to learn about California's Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) and the work of the Southern Border Coalition. A copy of the session PowerPoint Presentation is attached for your reference.

With CERF assisting our local region to access greater Federal and State funding opportunities, local government and philanthropy can play a key role in supporting strategies that diversify local economies, develop sustainable industries, and create high-quality, accessible jobs. We appreciate the energy and enthusiasm shared for this work and invite you to continue the conversation:

Thursday, October 26
10:00 - 11:30 a.m. 
The Hive at Leichtag Commons
441 Saxony Road, Encinitas
Please register here.

When you arrive to the property, please let the welcome staff know you are here for the CERF meeting, and they will direct you to parking.

Once you have parked, please cross the street to the walkway, which will lead you up to Barn 1 on the East side of The Hive, where our gathering will take place. We will have staff onsite to guide you too, but if you have any trouble, please call Sharyn Goodson at (858) 997-6675.

Thank you to our friends at the Leichtag Foundation for hosting us - See you on Thursday!

Our team at Universidad Popular is pleased to inform you that we are one of eight co-convening organizations facilitating community engagement and planning for equitable economic development as part of the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF) in the Southern Border region. 

The co-conveners are Comité Civico del Valle, Imperial Valley Equity & Justice Coalition, IV Wellness Foundation, San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center, San Diego State University (fiscal agent and convener), SBCS, and Universidad Popular.

Over the past few months, the co-conveners have been working to organize the Southern Border Coalition structure, framework, establish initial goals and develop the Coalition Bylaws. With the unanimous approval of the Coalition Bylaws, the co-conveners are focused on bringing community partners and stakeholders to the table. Working together with diverse representation from throughout the border region, we believe we have laid a solid foundation for the work, and we look forward to your willingness to participate and/or take on leadership roles in the Coalition.

The Southern Border Coalition invites you to attend an information session (via Zoom) on Thursday, July 20, 2023, from 6:00-7:00 pm. During the session, we will be providing an overview of the Southern Border Coalition that includes the goals of the Coalition, its timeline and deliverables, the High Road Transition Collaborative (HRTC), and the next steps on how HRTC Sector Leads will be elected to form the Subregional and Regional HRTC Tables.

The information session will conclude with Q&A and will remain open until all questions from the community have been discussed. The session will be recorded and made available to the community on the Southern Border Coalition website.

A follow-up survey to collect attendee feedback and insights into the needs of the community, along with additional information regarding in-person meetings that will take place in various locations throughout the San Diego and Imperial County subregions, will be shared following the session. The goal of these efforts will be to inform stakeholders, learn more about their experiences and desired outcomes, and invite them to join the regional table.

We hope that you can join us! Please click on the link to register.

We are also gathering stakeholder information for those who are interested in being contacted with more details and updates from the Southern Border Coalition: Survey Form.

We are confident that we have emerged stronger and more prepared to deliver on the results of the Southern Border Coalition, including developing a comprehensive regional economic plan that supports high-road jobs, an inclusive transition to a net-zero economy, and empowers and uplifts disinvested communities by fostering equity and creating sustainable opportunities for growth. We genuinely value our partnership with you and feel excited as we move ahead with renewed momentum and enthusiasm.

Please feel free to share this email and/or the information session registration page with your network!

If you have any questions or require any further information, please reach out to us at  [email protected].

Thank you!

Comité Civico del Valle - Luis Olmedo
Imperial Valley Equity & Justice Coalition - Daniela Flores
Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation - Roque Barros
SBCS - Kathryn Lembo
San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council - Brigette Browning
San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center - Susan Guinn
San Diego State University - John McMillan
Universidad Popular - Arcela Nuñez-Alvarez

We will be hosting meetings in December to share more information about the Catalyst Program and how you can help identify and vote on pre-development projects in your community, what Coalition Membership means and why it matters, and how community Coalition Members can participate in Sector Lead Elections in January.

Meals will be provided at each of the meetings. Please RSVP here for the meeting(s) you plan to attend and indicate if you have any interpretation and/or childcare service needs. This will help the Co-conveners plan accordingly and make proper arrangements for all attendees.

The agenda for each meeting will be the same but you are welcome to attend as many meetings as you would like. We hope that you can join us! Please click here to view the flyer.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Your Southern Border Region Coalition Co-Conveners

CA Jobs First (formerly CERF) is a $600 million California State funding opportunity to support equitable and sustainable economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding will be allocated across thirteen regions, with Imperial County and San Diego County representing the Southern Border Region.

The Southern Border Coalition is a regional coalition comprised of disinvested communities, economic development agencies, education and training providers, employers, businesses and business associations, environmental justice organizations, farmworkers, government agencies, grassroots and community-based organizations, labor organizations, LGBTQIA, CA Native American Tribes, philanthropic organizations, worker centers, workforce entities, and youth working together to create an equitable economic development plan through California Jobs First (formerly CERF) for the Southern Border region of Imperial and San Diego Counties.

Sector Meetings - Grassroots and CBOS
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · August 10, 2024 8:33 PM · 1 reaction

Sector Lead Ceremony and Celebration
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · April 05, 2024 5:15 PM · 1 reaction

San Diego County - Southern Border Coalition December Meetings!
Posted by Francisco Ramirez · December 11, 2023 10:19 PM · 1 reaction

Mensaje continuara en Español:

As a Listos California partner, Universidad Popular is committed to serving our community at all times but we are especially concerned about potential devastation that could result from a hurricane. We encourage every family to prepare and know how to protect your family during and after a hurricane.