People-Led Solutions: Models of Our Shared Future

Photo: Tantay Tolbert with her son, Supreme. By Yesica Prado. Tantay shares her story of fighting to find housing (and winning) with Yesica in this article. 

As our country experiences a wave of evictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, many residents are experiencing homelessness for the first time in their lives. Not everyone has a contingency plan. People can find themselves precariously living in dangerous unfamiliar environments when lacking resources and information. Homelessness can be a lonesome journey. But through community, advocacy, friendship and love, these films shed light on solutions unhoused residents have found for themselves to build home on the streets. Build community. Build civic love.

The film screening is paired with a panel discussion of grassroots organizers working with unhoused communities, sharing knowledge on tactics to better survive on the streets, solutions to housing our neighbors and how to bring healing to our community. After the discussion, the audience will be prompted to do the healing work for other community members through the act of Love and Care. Participants will be given an opportunity to write a love note and assemble a care package for unhoused residents in Chicago, Berkeley, and Oakland.

The love notes will be virtually documented through a Google Form, which asks participants for contact information, a love note for a stranger, and to sign a pledge to do good for others through our everyday actions. The love notes will be included and distributed with the care packages. Unhoused communities will be asked to write a response letter, which will be mailed back to the attendees of the panel.

For the care packages, participants will be given a GIFT CODE and a list of recommended items to purchase via Care Crates. The audience will also have a choice to use their own funds to allow others with fewer resources to use the gift code and be part of the activity.

The care package will be distributed by the following partners: 

• Chicago: Redline and Night Ministry
• Berkeley: Where Do We Go Berkeley?
• Oakland: The Village #FeedthePeople

Ultimately, the goal is to spring diverse communities into discourse and action to create lasting social change by teaching our community members to care for another fellow human being – a stranger.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

• Watch the films anytime during the festival week with your Rental Pass
• Join our YouTube Livestream for the panel discussion, audience questions welcome. No registration necessary

This event was originally planned as an in-person event to serve the community in response to their needs, but current public health directives do not allow us to assemble in groups.

For the full experience of this program, please check out Let’s Make Civic Love, the virtual conversation special event where you can connect with a stranger.

ADD TO CALENDAR

CM Credits: 1
Curated by Yesica Prado; Co-Produced by Anka Karewicz and Selena Feliciano

PANELISTS:

Needa Bee Activist, Co-Founder of The Village #FeedthePeople

Ian Cordova Morales Homeless Rights Advocate

Toan Nguyen Unhoused Activist Artist

Yesica Prado (Moderator) Activist and Filmmaker

Annyliss Quinde Filmmaker

Isaacnezer K. Njuguna Urban Planner, Nairobi, Kenya

Co-Presented by 

          

     

In this program

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