DOLORES C HUERTA FOUNDATION

The Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) aims to empower youth, parents, and community residents to advocate for change by engaging and pressuring their elected representatives to develop and implement systemic solutions locally and statewide.

Our Integrative Voter Engagement (IVE) program aims to increase the number of young, immigrant, low-income, infrequent, and new voters in targeted areas. We also aim to strengthen the knowledge of young, immigrant, infrequent, and new voters about the importance of voting and how it impacts their community.
Educated and empowered community members advocating for student-centered policies to achieve educational goals that promote health and equity in our schools. Comprehensive community proficiency and involvement in the Local Control Accountability Plan (district budgeting) process.

Additional DHF programs aim to combat homophobia in the Latino community and provide support to LGBT youth working on safer school climates. The immigration program seeks to enhance our education and outreach efforts to immigrants in the communities in which we work. We aim to increase access to healthy foods as well as increase opportunities for physical activity leads to decrease serious health disparities including high rate of diabetes, and hypertension.

Vecinos Unidos - DHF Organizers use a grassroots house meeting model to form neighborhood organizations called “Vecinos Unidos" (United Neighbors). Vecinos are trained to work collectively to prioritize the needs of their community, engage and pressure public officials through collective non-violent action and advocate for their rights.

Civic Engagement - Through integrative voter outreach and education, DHF has been instrumental in passing progressive local and statewide legislation to increase funding for public services. In a partnership with California Calls, we have established a base of over 20,000 local supportive voters in Kern County. DHF has recently expanded into Tulare and Fresno counties.

Education - DHF is working to dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline through student and parent training for meaningful engagement and advocacy to increase public input on education spending and reform discriminatory school discipline policies. DHF provides regular trainings for parents to have meaningful engagement in the Local Control Accountability Plan (district budgeting) process.

Equality - DHF is working to create a healthy, accepting supportive environment for Latino LGBT youth, family members and friends by building a base of volunteers working to create safer school climates and advocate for the needs of LGBT young people.

Healthy Environments - Our “Cultiva La Salud" (Cultivating Health) Project trains communities to advocate for increased access to healthy foods and safe enjoyable opportunities for physical activity. Vecinos Unidos have successfully advocated for policy and infrastructure improvements to support these efforts.

Established in 2003, the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) is a pioneer in transformational change in California's Central Valley. The work of DHF is guided by founder and President Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez. Camila Chavez, daughter of Dolores Huerta and niece of Cesar Chavez, is the Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

DHF is a leader in a wide range of education, civic engagement, and civil rights coalitions in low-income communities in Kern and Tulare counties and statewide. DHF is connecting its groundbreaking community-based organizing to state and national movements to register and educate voters; overhaul schools with low educational outcomes and high out-of-school suspension rates; bring about infrastructure improvements in long-neglected communities; advocate for greater equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community; and create a strong leadership development pipeline.

DHF's multi-issue approach to social change is backed by an intersectional analysis of the historical, social and political contexts with which its base faces a complex set of oppressions. DHF conducts movement building at the intersection of race, class, sexual orientation and socio-economic status to address the harmful and discriminatory practices and abuses faced by marginalized individuals and families living in the Central Valley. It is an anchor organization that provides empowerment, tools and resources.
DHF organizers use a grassroots house meeting organizing model to recruit members and to engage the community in Vecinos Unidos (United Neighbors) chapters. Through this program, DHF has built a powerful network of over 20,000 supporters, volunteers, and voters in the rural agricultural communities of Arvin, Lamont, Weedpatch, Bakersfield, California City, Lindsay, Woodlake, Sanger, Parlier, and Selma located in Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties. The residents of these communities are primarily Latino and low-income.

The Vecinos Unidos chapters work with DHF on community concerns they have identified as being important such as education, health, the environment, civic engagement, youth development, and economic development. Vecinos Unidos members are trained to work with their neighbors to bring about change in their respective communities by developing campaigns, circulating petitions, developing allies, and communicating with public officials to advance policy changes.

Ten of the 18 full-time staff at the Dolores Huerta Foundation are community organizers. DHF also has a team of 12 part-time seasonal canvassers. Student interns and community volunteers are an integral part of the DHF team. The dedicated and hard work of DHF staff, leaders, and volunteers has resulted in the organization receiving statewide and national attention for its organizing, education, policy, and civic engagement work.

Civic Engagement
• Registered and mobilized thousands of infrequent, young, and immigrant voters in Kern and Tulare counties.
• Played a leadership role in California Calls in establishing a base of more than 20,000 supportive voters in Kern and Tulare counties.
• Developed a team of 40 paid canvassers and more than 100 trained volunteers for voter education and outreach.
• Hosted multiple candidate forums in Lamont, Arvin, Bakersfield, Woodlake & Lindsay.

Community Improvements
• Secured millions of dollars for local infrastructure such as new sewer connections, street lights, sidewalks, and gutters in Lamont and Weedpatch from 2007-2015.
• Obtained half a million dollars to renovate two public swimming pools in Lamont and Arvin.
• Built a new neighborhood park in Woodlake.
• Passed a one cent tax increase in Arvin for recreational and public services, two school bond measures to build fences and a new gymnasium at a school in Weedpatch, and school infrastructure improvements in Arvin.

Education
• Led education efforts in Kern County in 2012 on Proposition 30, which raised an additional $370 million in funding for education in Kern County and more than $13.1 billion statewide.
• Won a historic civil rights victory for Latino and Black students in the Kern High School District through a lawsuit settlement which requires the district to implement positive discipline practices to address disparate discipline outcomes and provide discipline-related training to all district staff and personnel.
• Played a leadership role in building the Kern Education Justice Collaborative, which is addressing disparate disciplinary treatment between students of color and their white peers at Kern High School District due to current policies and practices (California's largest high school district serving over 36,000 students),
• Successfully advocated for the allocation of over $3 million to parent centers and programs to improve school climate and the elimination of over $1million allocated to an underperforming online program at Kern High School District.
• Partnered with Arvin Union School District to formalize Safe Routes to School volunteer efforts encouraging walking and bike riding to school as well as joint use agreements, and making school facilities available to community members during non-school hours.

Equality
• Hosted the first ever Pride March in Bakersfield in 2017.
• Organize the annual Queer Youth Prom in Bakersfield.
• Organize annual LGBT Youth Summit in Kern County providing comprehensive workshops and trainings.


Healthy Environments
• Residents secured funding for Safe routes to School in the Arvin Unified School District (AUSD) Parents advocated for local procurement (farm to table policy)
• Sponsored a Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) resolution that was unanimously approved by the Arvin City Council.
• Promotion of bike riding and safety; have gifted hundreds of bikes to youth and adults.