LDIR

On September 14, 2010, LDIR will be spending the day at The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities to lead the workshop, Facilitating Social Change: Linking Power and Facilitation, for a large group of advocates from public health, legal, education, and other community-based organizations in the nonprofit and public sector. Our long-time friend, thuan nguyen, coordinator for the California Fund for Youth Organizing, will be joining the LDIR team to support the session.

The workshop will be a unique opportunity for participants to:

• Explore cultural identity and how it informs the process of facilitating networks, collaboratives, and meetings;
• Develop and practice strategies to address difficult facilitation dynamics that arise as a result of intergroup tensions;
• Leave with resources, important anti-oppression terminology, and a better understanding of the history of certain terms and identifiers.

This workshop is now full, but if you are interested in staying informed about future trainings, please join our mailing list by filling out the form on our homepage.

LDIR alumni, current and former LDIR staff, Ezak Perez, Sam Sunshine, Shoshana Vogel and Dipti Baranwal traveled to Detroit, Michigan for the 2010 United States Social Forum (USSF) on June 22-26. Overall, the USSF provided an opportunity to connect the movement-building work that LDIR is doing in Los Angeles to the broader movements across the US and internationally. Some highlights include:

The 95th birthday celebration of radical Detroit activist and organizer Grace Lee Boggs;

The press conference for Michigan Roundtable’s Truth Commission, funded by the Kellogg foundation; and

The People’s Movement Assembly on Health, Healing Justice and Liberation, and the National People’s Movement Assembly Charter.
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On May 29^th, 2010 LDIR was proud to cosponsor the forum “Building Solidarity Across Race: A Community Forum Against Police Violence” with the Ida B. Wells Institute.  This event captured the essence and impact of police brutality and racial profiling in our country.   Fierce Independent journalist, Thandisizwe Chimurenga, eloquently wove the connections of racial profiling across race and showed that racial profiling is an issue for all people of color.  Representatives from the families of Mike Cho, Christian Portillo, DeAundre Brunston, and Oscar Grant spoke about the racial targeting that was a result of the brutal, open, and unfounded killings of all of these people.  Thandisizwe showed us disturbing yet very crucial video footage of the murder of Oscar Grant. Through watching the video in slow motion, Thandisizwe showed us all what no one wants to believe: the killing of Oscar Grant was unfounded, brutal murder and there is no debating that.
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The LDIR program, along with its Merced-based program partner, Healthy House Within A MATCH Coalition,  will be launching a three-year program initiative in the Central Valley this fall. The LDIR/Healthy House collaborative was one of 18 programs funded by the Community Leadership Project (CLP), a three-year funding initiative sponsored by the Hewlett, Irvine and Packard Foundations.
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LDIR alumni and friends at the inaugural For the Love of Justice event

The LDIR program held its inaugural For the Love of Justice event on February 14^th, 2010 at CARECEN. LDIR’s work – to break the isolation that is shared amongst people in the struggle for social justice – was the foundation for bringing people together on February 14^th. Our hope was to reclaim Valentine’s Day as a justice-loving day, one that included all forms of loving expression – a day that was not bound by gender-conforming heterosexism and consumerism, but instead, a day that celebrated the complex identities and expression of us all. The event brought together LDIR alumni, their friends, loved ones and supporters, to celebrate Lunar New Year, and recognize LDIR’s 19 years of community building work in Los Angeles.
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LDIR has been an active member of the Los Angeles social justice community for almost 20 years, and we are now bringing back our presence to the web community! We are constantly striving to foster social change by acting as resources to community folks and other organizations, but as a relatively small team, staff capacities are primarily dedicated to fostering face-to-face relationships instead of work on the web. As a result, LDIR has not been able to create strong Internet presence. Many thanks to our fabulous staff member, Susan Ma, who has helped us to overcome our technological fears, prioritize, and build our capacity to do this work. For over a year, we have worked collectively to get to this point; we welcome you to explore the new LDIR website!