Helping Inglewood Communities Get Healthy
A Summary of the Organeyez Podcast Interview With Derek Steele
Links to interview are at the bottom of this article
Derek Steele is the Health Equity Programs Director for the Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) located in Inglewood, California. Derek was recently featured on the Organeyez Podcast, where he spoke on what it’s like working for a social justice organization and other aspects of his life.
Derek attended Morgan State University, an HBCU, where his interest in social justice involvement first sparked. As an active member of the school’s student government, he helped organize 1000 students to travel to the capital to raise funds for the construction of a new library. HBCUs are historically underfunded and those students were influential in changing that precedent at Morgan. After that experience he knew he wanted to do more.
At Morgan, Derek was studying to become an engineer. After graduating college, he moved to California and started a career in an engineering field but did not take positively to the work he was doing. It was not until his wife posed the question, “What do you think your essence is?” that he realized engineering was not the right path for him. What he wanted was to help people become the best version of themselves.
Through a community garden proposal drafted by Derek’s wife and himself, he was introduced to the Social Justice Learning Institute in Inglewood, California. SJLIs mission is to improve the health, education, and well being of youth communities of color. They abide by three pillars: research, training, and community mobilization. This is exactly what Derek was looking for in a career. The skillsets he gained from organizing in college and his engineer training made him a perfect candidate for his current position as the Health Equity Programs director.
The Health Equity team works to create more access to healthy food, physical activity, and lifestyle opportunities. Their list of accomplishments is impressive, some of which include:
- Teaching over 6500 families about nutrition
- Giving away over 50,000 pounds of produce to over 2000 families
- Starting Inglewood’s first farmers market
- Helping pass health related state legislation
- Having over 250 health advocates complete their class series
Derek and his team take on a lot, but his philosophies as a leader allow the program to be successful and genuine. He has to be very active and stay accountable but is a firm believer in the importance of collaboration and distribution of tasks. He attributes his team’s success to having people who believe in what they’re doing and who are dedicated to SJLIs mission. Helping people be self sufficient is Derek’s motivation, and based on the work he’s already done, he’s truly realizing his dream.
“We’re the author of the story of our lives. We dictate the outcomes of the story. We dictate the rise and falls of those stories. The question is do you want to let the world dictate what that story is or do you want to write it? Do you really want to write it yourself and make it as impactful as possible? It’s up to you. It’s up to us.”
— Derek Steele
Podcast website: https://organeyezpodcast.wordpress.com/
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-organeyez-podcast/id1437034637
