00:00we ready ready
00:12yes all right all right so closing out today is a conversation all about what is working
00:25what is needed and how everyone here in the audience and watching at home can help in real
00:31ways with the ongoing relief efforts from the wildfires here to lead this here to lead the
00:38discussion please welcome win with black women chief advisor jackie dupont walker zaire calvin
00:44from extreme athletics.org michelle white from neighborhood servants lee wilson lisa wilson from
00:50flint ridge center and lee johnson from our own round of applause round of applause round
00:59of applause
01:08good afternoon i want to hear you good afternoon we are so glad to be here with you today and
01:32for this last panel we hope that you will be energized by the information that we give
01:40we're here to educate about the realities related to altadena and the pasadena area to see that
01:49you will have an opportunity to hear from those who are on the ground for outstanding organizations
01:55and people with experiences with what has happened with the fire we want you to help empower our
02:00base uh with concrete actions and then finally we want you to find ways to help resource the work
02:08that has to be done are you ready for the task okay we're going to start with our panel and thank you so
02:15much for being here today we're talking about rebuilding and we want to rebuild a community after
02:22the devastation uh that is about more than about cleaning up debris it's about empowering our community
02:30with hope making sure that our youth understand the role they play in making a difference and much
02:37just as many of you may have done in the past and ensuring long-term stability are you up to the task
02:42oh definitely up to the task okay let me start with zaire uh your personal story losing your sister and
02:50rebuilding work uh offer a powerful lens into this crisis can you share what you've seen on the ground in
02:58altadena and pasadena yes um first i'd like to thank god and thank you all for being here
03:06um what's going on in altadena is total devastation um i know day by day everybody who's living in this
03:16nightmare waking up every day um it's not stopping um people are worried about
03:23the predators that are out there that are trying to take property and it's happening already
03:29um the pain that each family is feeling uh just to give you an idea imagine your whole neighborhood
03:37everybody all your friends your family everybody losing everything at the exact same time
03:43every piece of everything and when i say it's just all the help that we need financially
03:52because these are proud people who literally for generations created wealth and created stability
04:01for families and you know it's just so much needed at this point that you can't understand
04:08because it's phases and every day this has felt like three years this time period of being away and
04:16running around and trying to get things in order for the community it's been insane uh thank you um
04:24i represent win with black women a network of women who for the last four plus years have come
04:31to any situation fired up and ready to go and lee uh on has been leading direct and trauma-informed recovery efforts
04:41can you break down quickly for us the specific ways your organization is supporting displaced families
04:48and stabilizing the neighborhood yeah i think that one of the things uh first and foremost is you can't solve a problem
04:55with a single solution i think a lot of people uh in that first phase we are very reactive um because you
05:02want to help you don't know how to help you want to pour as much in as you can but the problem is when
05:08you don't have a system we keep repeating the pattern and you can see it from tulsa to katrina it's the same
05:14thing that we're not just displaced we are forgotten so for us we're treating this work um very much like
05:21heart work but also bringing a approach of how can we be how can we be intentional in growth so i think
05:29the first thing is you know realizing that not everyone is going to go back to their homes i i think
05:36you know if we're going to create change and create a space so some of those that were displaced can
05:42come back in a right way we have to like acknowledge what the problem is so there's a lot of things that
05:47we can't fix but what we can fix i think is making sure that people are educated and informed um i think
05:54the one thing that we do a really good job of is we look at this work um the way you should look at
05:59grief when when you lose someone you aren't thinking clearly when i lost my granddad it was it it was maybe
06:08about a few months after i was coming off my second round of cancer and to lose him my mind was somewhere
06:15else i was making all sorts of crazy decisions when i look back and i'm like thank god thank god that
06:21somebody was there but imagine not just losing someone imagine losing everything and how are you
06:30going to navigate whether it's fema we know families that have gotten denied from fema already which is
06:35crazy like what more do you need me to to show you i don't have anything left so for us with that it is
06:42one it's making sure that the money goes to the families in a way that works for them so a part
06:49of it is giving them the choice like based on um based on the amount you may have to pay taxes on it
06:55it may like do you want us to do that do you want us to take the same ten thousand that we can put in
06:59your pocket do you want us to pay your rent do you want us to pay for car payment and understanding
07:04that so for us it's doing the work but making sure that it is going to the families that need the
07:10support but really making sure that they are in a place of peace when they make the decisions for
07:17their community and for their entire families there's so many unintended consequences that comes
07:24out of what god puts in front of us as a challenge so miss wilson for neighborhood servants and i love
07:31that name neighborhood servants that's michelle michelle sorry about that okay michelle for
07:40neighborhood servants you work directly with young people how has the wildfire disaster impacted the
07:46youth in the area and how are you creating pathways to resilience and leadership for them so again our
07:55youth are resilient but you have to be very careful to create space safe spaces for them to
08:01be able to explain what they're feeling they don't know what to say a lot of our youths are saying
08:07they've never seen their parents in this kind of space and they don't know what to say they don't
08:14want to create more of a burden they don't want to share so we have to create safe places for them to go
08:20and then put us with them so that we can create ways for them to be able to share with us so sitting
08:25them at a table and let's break bread together or putting them with video games and but we're doing
08:30something every couple of weeks that we just keep re-engaging because we know as their parents are
08:35going through phases they're going through phases so as we're getting people back and into a short-term
08:41long housing pro uh piece then the needs will change and they'll be able to tell us how their needs
08:47are changing too so we just have to be we have to stay and listen so we're seeing some of those
08:52intergenerational conversations we yep lost yes back at the table for dinner yep okay uh and flint rich
09:01the flint rich center focuses on re-entry workforce development and breaking the cycle of poverty
09:09how do these elements play in the disaster recovery and what long-term opportunities do you see for
09:16community members impacted by the fire long-term can you hear me long-term opportunities i see we work
09:25with populations who have been formerly incarcerated or otherwise have barriers to successful employment
09:34so by working with them and you know with the um the opportunities that are going to be coming up
09:41include rebuilding construction that's what we do and so who better than the residents of the community
09:50who have been disenfranchised who better to learn those you know skills and then help and be a part
09:57of the rebuilding process um it's you know the population we work with is so um challenged in many
10:06ways there are so many barriers and this has only um really expanded those barriers for many of them so
10:14we will be working with them to make sure that they are they have the skills that they need to
10:21be a part of the solution okay let's have a little dialogue here and anyone just jump in maybe two of
10:26you for any question uh most of us have spent our lives as um black and brown people looking for equity
10:34i don't know about you but i think most people didn't understand the definition of equity
10:39most people say oh yes i believe in equity but when you share with them that equity means
10:45if i am behind you get nothing until i catch up there's a whole different response and so it's not a
10:53surprise that we live in an environment where we're trying to forget equity but you've taken leadership
10:58in that and i know most of us have and i hope our audience has too we will not end the conversation
11:04so disasters like this expose the deeper inequities uh in our communities and among our people
11:12let's talk about the big picture what systemic barriers are preventing an equitable recovery
11:18in the altadena pasadena area after the fires anyone um one thing first of all housing in the
11:29pasadena altadena community is unaffordable it has been unaffordable for a long time and even the way
11:38that people were notified with one area of town being notified the day before and the other not
11:48receiving notification give the hours difference between the west and rice yes eight hours difference
11:54between notice and that means you know people on the west side were just told time to go now and
12:01not giving them time to grab important papers that would make a difference when they're trying to you
12:07know get things settled with insurance compared to people on the east who had time to gather all of
12:12that kind of information even that is just a another example of a divide that um you know is really big
12:23in pasadena we have more of the um poorest people compared to and then the rich people um and it's
12:30just the the system has to be changed so in that case it was the system of communication so that was
12:37something just very basic how do you communicate to people can i jump in also i mean a lot of it has to
12:44do with of course just discrimination when it comes to different practices that they have so that's
12:54already clear what i'm worried about honestly is the my elderly in my community and the disabled who
13:00didn't get any services at all so when it came down to these emergency services and things happening
13:06there was nothing for disabled people or for anybody um and our elders they have
13:20you
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