Our Children This Month, January 2022
The Resident Council's Development of a Policy Agenda is Officially Underway!
In early-December Resident Leaders from the Fresno Residents Council met together for the first ever Issues Assembly. The event marked the beginning of their work to develop a policy agenda intended to make changes for a better future for Fresno County’s children and families. This diverse 100 member Residents Council, drawn from all parts of Fresno County, was launched by The Children’s Movement (TCM) in partnership with Fresno Cradle to Career (C2C) and the help of 12 community-based organizations. The purpose of Fresno Residents Council is to powerfully bring the voices of community members to the policy table. These resident leaders will share their lived experience and ideas to develop and implement a policy agenda. The power and content of Fresno’s policy decision-making will be significantly strengthened and deepened by this direct input from the community.
The Issues Assembly represented an important milestone for this unique and diverse Council. It was preceded by a Residents Summit in July followed by 5 virtual trainings held over a 4-month period from August through November. Training topics included the fundamentals of community organizing, how policy is formed, how to address the problems in policies and ways to effectively communicate with each other and policymakers. The generation of a common belief that it is the people who have the power to make change—to build unity and community in Fresno—was woven throughout the entire learning process.
Ultimately Four Issue Areas were Identified as Top Priorities
The issue development process began with the identification of 32 issues drawn from 3 primary sources:
- Responses to an intake form filled out by residents when joining the Council
- One-on-one conversations between residents and the TCM team
- The 5 trainings where residents have shared together.
A review of these 32 issues led to identification of identical or similar issues as responses were categorized. Eleven initial issue areas emerged from this process.
At the Issues Assembly the eleven issues were posted around the room and participants began a voting process, after a reminder from TCM Director, Mike Espinoza, that "We have the same values. We love Fresno." The participants engaged in a lively Iowa Caucus style discussion and debate and then voted with their feet by standing in front of their top issue to be counted. At the end of the voting in Round 1, five new issue areas emerged.
The Iowa Caucus process then proceeded to a second round of discussion, debate and voting with instructions from Mike to “refine your issue and talk about the issues popping up.” At the end of the second round, the issues had been narrowed down to four final categories.
The entire process highlighted the complexity and often interrelated nature of each of the issues.
Mental Health
Participants identified some of the causes such as homelessness, missing school, violence in a home, bullying on social media and suicidal ideation. They also did a bit of brainstorming on what we can do: Add services, train school staff, create support groups, increase and ease access to healthcare and reduce the stigma of mental health.
Safe & Inclusive Schools
Participants shared a belief that kids need to feel safety in school both to attend and to learn. There were several overarching themes including access for children with disabilities and safety regarding race, gender and language.
Childcare and Workers Rights for Economic Opportunities for Families
Originally these were set up as two different categories but were quickly merged by the two groups of supporters into a single-issue category. Participants were concerned about the high costs and in agreement that all parents need access to good childcare and that they need to be paid fairly so that they can afford to pay for child care. Farmworker families and single moms were of special concern.
Affordable Housing in Healthy Communities with Access to Public Services and Infrastructure
This issue area combined several of the initial 11 including Housing quality and affordability, Digital Literacy, Access to Technology and Academic Success.
The Issues Assembly ended on a very positive note. When Mike asked the group. “Are you committed to keeping with the process?” The answer was a resounding “Yes!” Several members shared their personal experiences that underlined the importance of the Resident Council’s work being done “to protect our children.” One member summed it up for all by expressing her delight in a morning she spent “watching people power in motion.”