GWoC Archives - Resilience OC

Welcome our New Executive Director

Resilience OC — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 04:30:57 +0000

As Resilience O.C., we want to announce our new Executive Director, Claudia Perez. Claudia began her involvement in youth and community organizing as an undocumented high school student in 2010. As an undocumented womxn of color, her participation was key in efforts that lead to the creation of RAIZ (Resistencia, Autonomia, Igualdad, lideraZgo) in December of 2011. Beginning as a RAIZ youth member, she quickly transitioned from attending people power popular education workshops, organizing collective community mural projects in Santa Ana, and co-coordinating art as a form of resistance workshops which lead to the creation of art used during annual May Day marches, to becoming one of the most committed and transformative youth mentors in Santa Ana.

From 2011 to 2012 and as part of the undocumented youth movement, Claudia participated in efforts in support of DACA and in local efforts helping undocumented youth learn about and apply for DACA. From 2012 to 2016, she co-organized annual Youth in Resistance Conferences engaging hundreds of youth each year. Between 2013-2014, Claudia became a trained RJ practitioner by CCEJ and Rita Alfred of the Restorative Justice Training Institute and was part of local efforts against the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline in Orange County. During the same period, she was part of a highly skilled and very effective local deportation defense team, which up to this day, has contributed to the stopping of over 20 deportations.

In 2014, she joined Santa Ana Boys and Men of Color (SABMoC) and launched the Santa Ana Girls and Womxn of Color (SAGWoC) project while becoming a Xinachtli Teaching Circles facilitator and while implementing restorative justice based alternatives to suspensions at Lorin Griset Academy as an RJ Implementation Specialist for the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD). In 2016, RAIZ, SABMoC and SAGWoC merged to form Resilience Orange County. That year, Claudia became the first Director of our Youth Organizing Department and Co-Coordinator of the Orange County Girls and Womxn of Color (OCGWoC) project. Claudia received her Bachelor’s in Sociology from the University of California, Irvine in 2017. She is also a key partner in the Latino-Muslim Unity partnership.

As Executive Director of Resilience O.C., Claudia will continue the organizational commitment to the vision of nurturing a transformative movement and the mission of supporting resilient youth leaders in creating a transformative youth leadership pipeline in Orange County aiming towards social-systemic transformation while promoting healing, trauma-informed and culturally relevant practices that are inclusive of all members of the community. As a team, we honor the commitment and hard work of this powerful and courageous womxn of color, throughout all these years, and look forward to growing as an organization under her leadership.

– The Resilience OC Team

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GWoC Logo Winner

Resilience OC — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 19:06:10 +0000

In the month of September, Orange County Girls and Womxn of Color began their logo competition to depict the amazing space local young womxn of Orange County are creating for each other. This past Monday, GWoC was able to vote a logo in to represent the initiative. It was a very difficult decision to choose between beautiful artwork from local womxn of color. However, we are happy to present Orange County Girls and Womxn of Color’s new logo and artist behind the masterpiece! Statement from Leyna Nguyen, the artist behind our new logo. I am a self-taught digital artist since the age of 11-12. I began on a website called deviantART (my account is private). Obviously being young didn’t stop me from trying to make something out of my doodles. I kept practicing during my free hours; which eventually became a daily routine. I begged for a drawing tablet by the time I was 13 and began to make profit from commissions (for other people online) ever since. It was a very long, independent process to get to where I am today and even now, I am still working to improve my skills as an amateur artist! I hope to take this hobby and create a career out of it in the future. About the Author [vc_row][vc_column width=’1/3′][/vc_column][vc_column width=’2/3′]OC Girls and Womxn of Color hopes to create a safe and supportive space for womxn identified folx of color in Orange County. OC GWoC is led by its three founding members Claudia Perez, Cheyenne Reynoso, and Dulce Saavedra who founded it in 2015.[/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Girls and Womxn of Color Online Launch

Resilience OC — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 00:29:27 +0000

Girls and Womxn of Color Family! We want to introduce you all to Orange County Girls and Womxn of Color (OCGWoC). For the past two years we have been working to create a safe and supportive space for womxn identified folx of color in Orange County. We have done so with a vision to heal intergenerational trauma through advocacy and communal and culturally relevant practices; channeling and addressing our traumas to embody our cultural resiliency and strengthen our interconnected bonds. You may have seen or participated in some of these spaces if you have joined us in our *Xinachtli circles or in the spaces that we started providing for womxn this summer.

*Xinachtli is a Rites of Passage program for young womxn to recognize the role of womxn in society through indigenous, cultural practices. The circles help facilitate the process of transformation and value of young womxn in our community. It also, creates a safe space for young womxn to get together and develop healthy relationships with one another as well as a support system.

If you have not been able to join us for Xinachtli or this summer we would like to let y’all know what we will be up to: [ordered_list]

Starting in September, we will be resuming our weekly GWoC bonding and evening sessions on MONDAY (6-8pm). Please see attached flier/ calendar for more details!
Taking part of a Regional Womxn’s Convening to address collaboration and advocating for local womxn of color in September.
We are collaborating with our media department to host a Girls and Womxn of Color Logo Contest. Please see attached flier for more details!

[/ordered_list] We hope to see you at one of our events to connect and build with you all! September GWoC Calendar Logo Contest About the Author OC Girls and Womxn of Color hopes to create a safe and supportive space for womxn identified folx of color in Orange County. OC GWoC is led by its three founding members Claudia Perez, Cheyenne Reynoso, and Dulce Saavedra who founded it in 2015.

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