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November
7, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 19Oakland,
CA
Latino teens step forward as community organizers
Miguel Dimas is only 17, but he is already on his way
to becoming a community organizer for social justice causes. His life
took an exciting new turn last summer when Casa Esperanza hired Dimas
through the City of Richmond’s work placement program for youth.
Casa Esperanza (House of Hope), a social outreach ministry at St. Mark
Parish, is affiliated with the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community
Organization, (CCISCO). Organized two years ago by Father Jesus Nieto
Ruiz, the then- pastor, Casa serves as a one-stop resource and service
agency, which refers Latino families to adult education and health and
immigration services.
Although Dimas was doing general office work there, the staff saw greater
potential in the young man. This past August, they recommended him for
a part-time job at CCISCO. Channeling young people like Dimas into community
organizing is one of Casa Esperanza’s new programs, and the Catholic
Campaign for Human Development has recognized it, said Sandra Gutierrez,
Casa director.
Casa recently received a $5,000 local CCHD grant to train youth leaders
to address issues of poverty and violence in Richmond by educating their
peers on how to avoid gang activities and teen pregnancy, make good career
choices, and promote justice.
Dimas, a senior at John F. Kennedy High School, is serving on a youth
interviewing team, querying his classmates about what they’d like
to see changed or improved in the city of Richmond, and then bringing
them together to make it happen. His is a ground-floor assignment into
the basics of community organizing.
“It’s fun and challenging,” said the young man, who
added that his new job is putting him into contact “with kids I
ordinarily wouldn’t talk to.”
Casa Esperanza’s youth community organizing project began in February
2005 as a follow-up to parish Confirmation classes for 14 through 17 year
olds, explained Gutierrez.
During those sessions, “we tried to get them involved in anything
happening at the moment – immigration rights, health, local politics,
ballot propositions, domestic violence situations, and motivate them to
grow and work to improve people’s lives.”
This type of involvement has carried over into the youth project. In September,
for example, the kids volunteered to do phone banking for the Alliance
for a Better California. Father Ramiro Flores, parochial administrator,
organized a group of 20 youths to make phone calls, and then treated them
to a pizza party.
Last summer, Casa Esperanza sponsored a sports tournament for neighborhood
youth. The project attracted not only Latino, but also Asian and African
American young people. About 65 turned out, and some of them now attend
the weekly Friday night meetings at Casa Esperanza, along with graduates
of the Confirmation class.
The group initially met as one large assembly, but last April, Elizabeth
Gutierrez, 17, a graduate of the 2003 Confirmation class, and an El Cerrito
high school student, decided it was time to take a risk. She stepped forward
to initiate a group for younger kids, ages 12 to 15. Currently, half a
dozen girls are meeting with Gutierrez each Friday. Two boys originally
joined the group, but then dropped out, because they were outnumbered.
“We are hoping they will come back,” she said.
They aren’t doing any community organizing yet. Instead they are
leading up to it by “connecting God with the real world. We are
looking at how God and Jesus are good to everybody and how we can be good
to people, like them.”
For the older group, Casa brings in community leaders each week to address
such issues as homelessness and staying away from drugs. They receive
a speaker’s stipend, said Sandra Gutierrez. The director said she
plans to use some of the CCHD funding for a youth day that combines social
justice education with such fun activities as a barbeque.
Elizabeth Gutierrez
Miguel Dimas
