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Kyra Brown: Shifting Police Funding Toward Community Investment in Minneapolis

Overview

Kyra Brown (they/them) formerly served as the digital strategist at Black Visions, a Black-led movement organization based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. For the National Equity Atlas Fellowship project, they began developing a digital tool that provided accessible snapshots of the Minneapolis Police Department budget and highlighted how dollars allocated to the police could be reinvested to strengthen communities.

Justin Sykes: Building Community and Youth Power through the Metro Atlanta Racial Equity Atlas

Overview

Justin Sykes (he/him), currently serves as a consultant at Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), working across the organization’s Just Growth and YES! For Equity portfolios. For the National Equity Fellowship project, he began developing a collection of fact sheets featuring data from the Metro Atlanta Racial Equity Atlas (MAREA) — an interactive tool that combines lived experiences of residents and data to foster community agency over neighborhood development. The fact sheets provide MAREA data customized for local ambassadors to use in their advocacy and data storytelling to build community and youth power.

Cathy Garcia: Fighting Displacement in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Overview

Cathy Garcia (she/her) currently serves as a community organizer with the Chainbreaker Collective. For the National Equity Atlas Fellowship project, she began the development of an interactive, digital resource that could be leveraged by community advocates to support development without displacement in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Carla Rae Marshall: Keep Black Hills Water Alive!

Overview

Carla Rae Marshall (she/her), Mnicoujou/Oglala Lakota, is a long-time Mother Earth Advocate/Water Protector. She currently serves as a multimedia consultant for the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. For the National Equity Atlas Fellowship project, she developed a Tableau-based mapping tool that illustrates the local impacts of past and present mining contamination on the region’s land, waterways, and Indigenous sacred sites.

Marcus Carson: Supporting Positive Youth Development in Birmingham, Alabama

Overview

Marcus D. Carson (he/him) is the founder and executive director of Growing Kings, a nonprofit that provides innovative mentoring programs to young men in Birmingham, Alabama. For the National Equity Atlas Fellowship project, he partnered with Mae Whiting, the research director of Growing Kings, to create an educational fact sheet that builds awareness of local policing budgets, highlights effective community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, and empowers local groups to call for investment in community-centered resources and initiatives. They also created data visuals focused on local data to integrate data walks into their ongoing community meetings, supporting community access to data and increasing data equity.

Treshika Melvin: Low Wages in Mississippi

Overview

Treshika Melvin (she/her) serves as the advocacy, training, and power-building director at Springboard to Opportunities. For the National Equity Atlas Fellowship project, she created an infographic for Springboard to Opportunities fellows to use in their advocacy, highlighting the issues of wage inequity and economic insecurity in Mississippi.

Jesus Montalvo: Cameron County Civic Engagement Information Hub

Overview

Jesus Montalvo (he/him/el) serves as a data management specialist at La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE). For the National Equity Atlas Fellowship project, he built a digital hub featuring information about local government meetings (i.e., dates, agendas, maps, calendars, and data) to inform and encourage civic engagement in San Benito, Texas.

Advancing Youth Voter Participation and Civic Engagement in the Bay Area

Dear Atlas users,

Throughout American history, youth-led movements have brought about significant social transformation. Our latest feature story highlights how Bay Area youth are ensuring they are represented and included in local politics. Here’s a look into their efforts and other updates from the Atlas:

Landmark Settlement Reached on Behalf of Californians Struggling with Pandemic Rent Debt

The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE Action), Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), and PolicyLink — represented by Western Center on Law & Poverty, Public Counsel, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, and Covington & Burling LLP — have settled a major lawsuit against the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) over the administration of the statewide Covid-19 rent relief program. In June 2022, the advocacy groups sued HCD for several systemic failures in the program, including a confusing application process that led eligible tenants to be wrongfully denied assistance. In total, more than 460,000 California renter households applied to the program, with 89,000 of those applicants being Bay Area tenants. More than 100,000 households across the state are still waiting for a decision on their applications, according to our analysis of program data. The agreement requires HCD to give pending and denied applicants a fair chance to receive Covid-19 rental assistance. To learn more about the settlement and what it means for tenants, visit carentrelief.org.

In Focus: Youth Voter Engagement in the Bay Area

From demanding gun-control legislation to rallying support for climate justice policies, young people across the nation have led the way on social and political change. In Oakland, California, a coalition of youth organizers is behind Oakland Youth Vote — a campaign aimed at securing voting rights for 16- and 17-year-old Oakland students. Ixchel Arista, a recent graduate of Oakland High and youth organizer with Oakland Kids First (OKF), has been an integral part of the movement. She and other young activists helped push for the landmark passage of Measure QQ in 2020, which lowered the voting age to 16 for local school board elections and made Oakland the largest jurisdiction to approve of 16-year-old voting in any form. Although Ixchel will be heading to college soon, she says that she’ll continue to support efforts to get more young people civically engaged. Learn more about her story.


Ixchel Arista, a Bay Area youth organizer, poses for a photo in Oakland. Photo: Felix Uribe

Atlas on the Road

As a living resource, we connect with groups across the region to increase awareness of the Atlas and build local leaders’ capacity to use the tool. Here’s a brief look at some of our recent presentations: On June 15, Michelle Huang and Simone Robbenolt facilitated a session at Governing for All: California, a convening hosted by the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) in partnership with PolicyLink and State of Equity. During it, participants learned how to use the Atlas as a tool for finding disaggregated data and local strategies to support their work. On June 13, Ryan Fukumori joined Omar Carrera, the CEO of the Canal Alliance, and Sukey Leshnick, the director of strategic learning and evaluation at the San Francisco Foundation, to facilitate a session about the role of disaggregated data in shaping strategy and policy campaigns during the Leading Locally 2023 Conference in Denver, Colorado. On June 9, he presented during a housing data infrastructure workshop hosted by San José State University and TechEquity Collaborative. On May 26, he showcased the Atlas and shared best practices in research justice and data equity during a training session for Contra Costa Health Services’ Workforce Health Ambassador program participants. And Ryan joined Thrive Alliance's Resource Room on May 23, where he gave a brief presentation on current Atlas research and ways in which local organizations can leverage our data to support their efforts. Interested in hosting a presentation or training? Contact us at info@bayareaequityatlas.org.

We Want to Hear from You!

If you’ve found any of our data, research, or resources valuable, please let us know. Share your questions, thoughts, and stories with us at info@bayareaequityatlas.org.

Thank you,

Bay Area Equity Atlas team

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