Friendsgiving Equity Dinner November Reflection

It was a night of laughter, tears, joy, friendship and community building. Our Equity Team and Community Outreach Contact came together on November 16th to spend the night with our Union Family of Choice from the Capital Service Center local chapters at Malabar Restaurant in Natomas.

Our team created an event that would build community with colleagues in our region that promote equity and human rights and also have an awareness for the needs of marginalized groups in education. As teachers and educators, we have a great deal of power to impact the lives of our students in ways we may never know.

The Friendsgiving Equity dinner provided a venue to share this awareness, identify problems and where they exist, and create a community to address them. We were able to share information and resources available from CTA.

Our union is bigger than just our individual chapters and school districts. We can effect change by working together, and we bgin by knowing each other. Each of us is a piece to our puzzle and the four presenters came together to share their stories and experiences in education. We were honored to have a video presentation by Chau Nguyen, a sutdent presentation by Ali Moneeb, a PowerPoint presentation by Azita Joubeh, and a presentation by the 2018 Cesar Chavez "Si Se Puede" Human Rights Award Elizabeth Villanueva. These speakers inspired us to fight our battle and support education. The night ended with giveaways and prizes for the attendees. Each participant took home a journal reflection and resources to use in their local chapters from CTA such as scholarships and conference opportunities.