LDIR

History

The Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations (LDIR) Program grows out of a specific moment in the landscape of Los Angeles culture. In the late 1980′s, several community centers and places of worship were vandalized with messages of hate. At each press conference after the attacks, the same group of people came together to speak out against these hate crimes. As this group repeatedly came together, a discussion began to take place about what was really needed to alleviate tensions before they escalated to the level of community attacks.

By 1989, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) began thinking seriously about developing a program that would provide individuals with specific skills to address human relations issues.  The first LDIR class, anchored by one APALC staff person, started in 1991 and graduated the first LDIR participants a few weeks after the Los Angeles 1992 civil unrest. While the first class was conducted solely by APALC, after the graduation the League of United Latino American Citizens (LULAC) of San Gabriel Valley added their support. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Martin Luther King Dispute Resolution Center (SCLC/MLKDRC) also joined as a formal partner to better round out the program’s curriculum and community representation.  By 1996, with the LDIR program more firmly established, there was a great deal of interest from LDIR alumni and community supporters to make the program available to young people. While there was strong interest by LDIR’s Operations Board which by then included APALC, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), and SCLC/MLKDRC, there was significant discussion about how this could be done. In 1997 the decision was made to take the LDIR program into the schools and into the classrooms. The mantra at the time was “every student at every school.” The LDIR school-based program ultimately expanded to public schools in Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Alhambra Unified School Districts working with hundreds of students.

In 2002, with the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, LDIR replicated the training in Flint, Michigan, and Philadelphia, helping those communities to make the curriculum their own. In the ensuing years, LDIR positioned itself at the vanguard of leadership development programs by expanding its curriculum to build greater understanding of, and participation by, transgender, queer, and other populations often facing discrimination and exclusion.

In 2004, LDIR staff conducted an indepth study of existing leadership development programs in the health sector and developed a rationale for creating a LDIRs in Health Program. In mid 2005, LDIR launched the LDIRs in Health Program.  In early 2007, the LDIRs in Health Program brought training resources to a new community of health advocates in the Central Valley.

At this same time, other non-profit organizations increased their demand for training resources and technical assistance. LDIR staff developed marketing materials and a condensed training curriculum to respond to this need. By the end of 2007, responding to the training needs of non-profit organizations had become an integral part of LDIR program delivery.

From schools, to new communities, to sectors, the LDIR program has continued to expand to share resources in new and innovative ways.

Guiding Principles and Philosophy

The following principles outline the philosophy of the LDIR program and provide a rationale for the way we approach our work.

1. We believe that intergroup tensions result from a complex interaction of individual prejudice, bias, misinformation, ignorance, the pressures of a changing society (e.g. economic shifts, lack of jobs, increasing immigration, etc.), and structural inequality/institutional oppression.  Therefore, we believe that the issues must be addressed on multiple levels: personal, intergroup and societal. These levels are generally interrelated and interdependent as they contribute to social divisions. Therefore, any comprehensive effort must address all these levels.
2. We believe that work on these issues must start with the individual.
3. We believe that personal transformation will begin the process of community transformation, and that this community transformation comes about through the exertion of effective leadership.
4. We believe that a new brand of leadership is required – one that is able to implement and advocate for the values of inclusion, cooperation, power sharing, justice, and equity.
5. We believe in self-determination and the power of indigenous leadership.
6. We believe that work focused solely on getting all people to get along is important, but not sufficient.  Such efforts must also be linked with a commitment to pursuing social/economic justice for the collective good.
7. We believe that justice and peace must go hand in hand - that any peace achieved outside of justice and equity for all groups involved, is tenuous at best.
8. We believe that it is not sufficient to deal only with the issue of racism.  It is important to understand other forms of oppression (classism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, religious bigotry, and others) and their intersections as they work in tandem to uphold the power structure and maintain the status quo.
9. We believe that we need to be proactive in addressing intergroup tensions.
10. We believe strongly in the promotion of interethnic collaboration.
11. We do not endorse the concept of color-blindness.
12. The main focus of this program is not to get people to like each other or even agree with each other, but to understand that we all need to learn how to work together.
13. We acknowledge that it is important to be realistic about what a program like LDIR can accomplish. LDIR does not provide any instant formulas for dealing with intergroup relations.  It will not resolve all the tensions in the community, it will not erase all institutional inequities, nor will people be cured of all their prejudices and biases.  Rather, the LDIR program provides tools to facilitate the on-going process of personal growth, and serves as a catalyst to promote collaborative community work and broader social change.

Staff

LDIR is a program led by a fierce multi-racial group of women from diverse class backgrounds who use a team and collective decision-making approach to doing the work. Some of us are first and second generation immigrants. Some of us are queer, and some of us are straight. We come from various communities of faith and define our spirituality in varied ways.  We know that our identity and social location informs our work, and that there are many aspects to who we are that our bios do not address. We invite you to get to know us!

Muneera Shariff Gardezi

Muneera  received her Bachelors in Anthropology from UCLA and is currently finishing up her Masters degree in Cultural Anthropology from CSUN. As a graduate student, her emphasis has been on identity politics  ranging from the role of ethnicity in hospital practices to Islamophobia in the US.  Muneera is a graduate of the LDIRS in Health 2008-2009 6 month program.  Her experience in the program has increased her analysis and awareness and informs her work on a daily basis.

Jennifer Jiries

Before joining the LDIR program, Jennifer Jiries was the Volunteer Manager for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).  She has been involved in non-profit work for over four years with organizations like AIDS Walk Los Angeles and the Venice Family Clinic.  She has also been doing community based work with groups such as Trans/Giving, Tongues to Tongues, and FTM Alliance.  She started out working towards a film degree by working in a non-profit women’s clinic.  After moving to Los Angeles and working in the entertainment industry for a year, she went back to working for non-profits and has been there ever since.  She has spent the past five years organizing a performance and art show for transgender, genderqueer, and intersex performers & artists.  She also facilitates a support group for allies in the trans community.  Jennifer comes to the LDIR Program with a strong commitment to social justice issues and community work.

Carmen Morgan

Carmen is presently the Program Director of LDIR. Under her leadership the LDIR program has received local and national recognition and has expanded to Flint, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Northern California.  Carmen co-wrote and edited ExpandingLDIRship: A Resource Promoting Positive Intergroup Relations in Communities Through Awareness, Skills and Actions in 2002, which remains the center piece of LDIR’s community programming and training.  She has presented at national conferences including the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, National Association for Multicultural Education, Grantmakers in Health, INCITE! and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation’s Annual Meeting, to name a few.

Carmen is a founding member of the California Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), a former Human Services Commissioner for the City of Pasadena, and is currently on the fundraising committee for Black Women for Wellness, a community-based organization serving women in South Los Angeles.  Carmen remains a committed community activist who has worked within the non-profit sector, specifically around social justice issues, for over 15 years.  As a founding member and current President of Liberty Hill Foundation’s donor advised funds for women of color, Carmen combines her commitment to community, activism, and philanthropy.

Diana Aquino Price

Diana grew up on the east coast and obtained her undergraduate degree in English from Barnard College. She has lived, worked, volunteered, and studied in New York City, Washington, D.C.; Beijing, China; and Taipei, Taiwan. She moved to California in July 2010 to pursue a master’s degree at UCLA, where she is focusing on mixed race literature and identity within the university’s Asian American Studies department.  Soon after settling into Los Angeles, she joined LDIR’s team, eager to contribute to and learn from community-based work that resonates with both her academic interests and personal commitment to social justice.

Sam Sunshine

Sam Sunshine is a lead facilitator and Community-based Program Coordinator at LDIR. She is a graduate of LDIR’s community-based class of 2003-2004, subsequently trained as a facilitator, and joined as staff in 2008. Prior to her role in the LDIR program, Sam worked in the Public Health sector for over 6 years with The Los Angeles Free Clinic and the Asian Pacific Health Care Venture. She is a trained sexual health, chronic disease management and general nutrition counselor and educator, a State of California Certified HIV Counselor, and a Certified Health Educator. She has a decade of combined experience in health education, community organizing, racial healing and dialogue, and multicultural facilitation, and is trained in conflict management and mediation. Sam has presented at the national White Privilege Conference on Organizing for Racial Justice in the White Community.