My visit to one of Common Roots' meetings was a new and enriching experience. Common Roots is a collaboration between Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) & People Organized to Demand Economic Rights (PODER). I arrived at the meeting, which took place at PODER's site, located at 474 Valencia Street Suite #125, to meet about 15-20 youth and an adult ally. Everyone was friendly and inviting, and gladly included me in their ice breaker and activities. There was an agenda of the meeting, laying out the activities and discussions planned out for that meeting. After the fun ice breaker, everyone broke up into smaller groups, where we drew out examples and ideas of environmental justice in neighborhoods and a member from each group presented the posters of our drawings. 
After, everyone came together and sat around the computer to watch a video made my Common Roots from a few years ago, discussing Common Roots and "environmental justice".
We then read out examples of environment justice in SF and its effects on SF families, which the adult ally then further explained with additional stories and backgrounds. These stories were particularly interesting to me, because they dealt with the history of SF and I had never heard them before and felt that they really should be common knowledge to San Franciscans, and if everyone knew, they would also want to join in Common Roots' goal to bring social change to San Francisco.
Common Roots meet on Fridays, alternating between the locations at CPA and PODER. If you want to learn more about them, and Common Roots, visit
PODER: http://www.podersf.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment