Hey Afterschool Leaders, We’ve Been Called In

If I remember my coursework that earned me a government degree, there are movements leaping to the future and there are politics inching in the now. In similar formation, the nonprofit sector has movement builders, or more commonly called, organizers, righteously fighting for social change. It also has service providers, or programs, dutifully holding up the safety net. Organizers’ work is outside the system, predominantly led by people of color, and service providers within it, largely institutions guided by white leaders. To some theorists, this division of labor is largely by design because the combination might just be too powerful.

Lying within this is the harsh reality that both safety-net programs and organizers are often severely under-funded (organizers even more so) and over-monitored. As a CEO of a service provider organization (Woodcraft Rangers), I spend half my time fundraising and the other half in near-constant budget forecasting or navigating the layers of bureaucracy to ensure that inadequate funding and contracts go as far as possible in service to families, to whom I am accountable above all. I’m sure many leaders, like me, are aware of the long-term change that needs to happen, but there is often frankly little time, space or energy for the future.

Most of us are compelled to afterschool programs because we want to empower youth, nurture young talent, level the proverbial playing field. Despite doing this important work daily, we are painfully aware that the conditions of schools, neighborhoods, and economies just never change.

So, we find ourselves, though well-intended, propping up a system that still doesn’t equitably serve all the people in this country. As agency leaders, we are witness to, and work daily against, the pressures, politics and punishments of this inadequate system. We recognize our own vulnerability in the face of scarcity, and we stand on the thin edge of demanding change while fiercely gripping the ground beneath us.

At their core, publicly-funded afterschool programs work to bridge gaps in an inequitable education system, providing quality offerings that otherwise would only available to our youth’s wealthier peers. Through youth voice, we build power among young people to bring them closer to true self-determination. But trying to rectify inequities in an inherently inequitable system is a Sisyphean task and the rock will never get up the mountain until there is change in the systems themselves. To ensure this movement results in policy that delivers justice, a more equitable distribution of resources and true liberation, we must work together, as a whole system, amplifying the demands of people impacted most and holding elected officials and decision-makers accountable to them.

With fiscal year transitions and budget approvals upon us, agency leaders must stand in solidarity with racial justice movement leaders and take swift action. The values shift in this moment is palpable and budgets are values. But how? I don’t profess to have all the answers, but I am working with a coalition of 17 afterschool agencies here in Los Angeles and this so far, is what we have done or have learned.

TAKE DIRECTION FROM ORGANIZERS

In this moment, with the swell of support from the public, we know that change will be the result of years and decades of their tireless efforts and sophisticated strategies of Black leaders. To be clear, we are not here to co-opt this movement, but contribute to efforts to codify change in policy that will deliver greater investments to historically under-resourced communities — in education and housing and healthcare, and with them, a more equitable society.

Fortuitously, over the last several months in Los Angeles, direct youth service providers and youth organizers have been at the same table, self-minted as the New Fund, in an attempt to collectively identify new sources of public funding locally (initially the vision of our late colleague and dear friend, Mary Jo Ginty). Much of this process has felt like the Yellow Brick Road, winding through interesting but unknown territory. And frankly, combining forces is hard won. Partly, because funders are in the room, and there is only so much to go around. Partly, because some of us are in the now, some of us in the future.

Prominent advocates for community investment and re-imagining public safety like Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State L.A., one of the original members of Black Lives Matter-L.A, recognizes the impact of afterschool and that we are part of this solution. Quoted in an LAist article on May 31, 2020. Abdullah says, “What keeps communities safe is good jobs, mental health resources, housing, parks, after-school programs.”

In LA, we were lucky to already be at the table with organizer colleagues, but if you aren’t already connected to Black and Brown organizers leading this change, find them on Instagram. Follow your local Black Lives Matter chapter or organizations like Youth Justice Coalition, Students Deserve, LA Voice, Community Coalition and the People’s Budget Coalition in Los Angeles.

IDENTIFY YOUR ASSETS

Understand the goals of your local organizers and take stock of the assets you have to forward those goals.

In our initial statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter, I asked our team of 550 staff members how they wanted us to support the movement. A site coordinator wrote to me:

“I know very recently we were part of an organized coalition of groups advocating for after-school funding — I would love to see even more continued unity among our partners/allies regarding support for this movement. The lack of adequate funding for social programs in under-privileged neighborhoods is exactly the kind of racial injustice these protests are all about. Given our connections within the city, we have a unique opportunity to catalyze meaningful change through a powerful unified demand for justice and reform.”

I believe that I am in service to those closest to the work, and I respected him calling me in. Afterschool organizations have valuable assets. We have the strength of parent, youth and staff voices. We have the privilege of knowing policy makers and funders. We have the data that proves success. We must be ready to leverage those assets. We began with political pressure.

ANSWER THE CALL

The next day, buoyed by this clarity delivered straight from the front lines, I invited a few colleagues into a frank conversation about budget reform and test their willingness to engage. Real change is messy but leaders, especially white leaders like myself, need to honestly acknowledge that some of our ways of working: evaluating best practices, seeking perfection, or “handling the politics” are done from places of comfort and often in service to the system itself, not to those we are charged to serve.

It is budget season in America and the clock is ticking. The next day, we received a call to action about the People’s Budget LA, calling for public comments at the upcoming LA Council Budget and Finance Committee meeting. It gave us a platform, a deadline and a tactic all in one.

HONE YOUR MESSAGE

Using the language of organizers is important. It’s an easy frame for afterschool as BLM advocates for an upstream approach that nurtures and uplifts communities, moving away from a punitive system. Furthermore, when surveying communities, youth programs are always high on the priority list and from thought leaders of the movement like Professor Melina Abdullah to neighborhood council representatives giving public comments at council meetings, the community is vocal that specifically afterschool programs can help make communities safe. In California, we are fortunate that the voters recognized this in 2002, through the ASES program, where the first S stands for safety!

Using the language includes Defund the Police. While potentially uncomfortable, those words are precise and intentional and using them is a show of solidarity, against brutality and in favor of community investment.

BUILD A COALITION

Over the next 48 hours, 16 organizations joined mine to sign on to a letter to Mayor Garcetti and Council members. With collective strength, people felt safer, not fearing political fallout individually, but instead standing together.

A couple of folks did tell us this was “too political”. But, frankly, this moment requires moral courage, and I was proud to stand with so many who exhibited it including Woodcraft Rangers, After-School All-Stars Los Angeles, LA’s Best Afterschool Enrichment, Heart of Los Angeles Youth, Los Angeles Education Partnership, The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, TXT: Teens Exploring Technology, arc, Para los Ninos, Inner-City Arts, EduCare Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of Carson, GAP:Gang Alternative Program, LACER Afterschool Programs, A World Fit for Kids, KYDS, and Team Prime Time Afterschool Programs. I’m confident that our coalition will grow with more action.

TURN UP THE VOLUME

The letter made our case, opened the door and framed the conversation in solidarity. While the next steps are unfolding, it is imperative for leaders who hold positional power, especially white leaders, to push hard, alongside community organizers who have pushed for so long. We must be sure that our service is truly dedicated to communities — not to systems, not to politics, not to ego — to make this change happen.

We must continue to apply pressure on decision-makers and the public — a full-court press that, as our staff member pointed out so powerfully, we know how to do when our inadequate dollars to support communities are at stake. Why wouldn’t we do it when actual lives are at stake?

This is a moment of reckoning. For our society where Black lives have not mattered, for systems that have not served Black and Brown children, for leaders who have not been willing to risk comfort for the liberation of those we are in service to.

I, for one, am committed to doing the continual soul-searching this moment requires. To evaluating how I am complicit in upholding systems that oppress. To evolving my understanding of what solidarity means. To taking every next action that is required because Black Lives Matter.

I firmly believe that until there is racial justice in this country, we cannot deliver on the promises, no matter how well-intended, we make to the youth we serve.

Afterschool leaders, I am calling you in to join me.