E-NEWS. From Puente’s August Newsletter. Subscribe! Donate!
Del Campo Al Cambio (“From Field to Change”), better known as DCAC, is an advocacy group comprised of community members who aspire to become grassroots organizers, are marking the 1st anniversary of the group’s formation in August 2023.
Building a power-building foundation to address local issues takes long term commitment and considerable effort to obtain necessary skills and build relationships with neighbors and other community partners. DCAC members have met this challenge with an open mind and their willingness to have difficult conversations about a wide range of ideas, issues, and barriers they’ve experienced as (im)migrant farmworkers and long-time residents of Pescadero who contribute greatly to the vitality of San Mateo County’s agricultural economy and their community. They continue to engage with DCAC, in addition to their daily full-time jobs and familial responsibilities, so they can learn to become effective community organizers.
We are proud of DCAC’s willingness to take the first step of learning what it means to engage in grassroots advocacy and organizing, so they can uplift their fellow community members. Here are some of the highlights of their activities:
- Multiple evening group discussions to identify the top advocacy priorities in the South Coast communities and picked the advocacy for affordable and decent housing as the top issue.
- Organized a food pantry distribution in February 2023 in collaboration with Dreamers Roadmap.
- 3 members traveled to Washington D.C. with the United Farm Workers (UFW) to advocate for the passage of the Farmworker Modernization Act.
- Attended a lecture by Teresa Romero, President of United Farm Workers (UFW) at San Francisco Commonwealth Club
- Completed the first round of the community organizing group training conducted in Spanish by Faith-in-Action, the Bay Area chapter.
- Completed the in-depth, 27-hour community organizing training provided by Professor Marshall Ganz, the Rita T. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in partnership with the Faith-in-Action, the Bay Area chapter. This training was conducted over three consecutive days in South San Francisco.