DOLORES HUERTA FOUNDATION "SI SE PUEDE!" FORM FITTING TEE

Description

ABOUT THE DOLORES HUERTA FOUNDATION
Dolores Huerta established the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) in 2003 with proceeds from the Puffin/Nation prize for Creative Citizenship that she received a year earlier.
Dolores Huerta remains active with DHF as a full-time unpaid volunteer, and sees the work of the foundation as a continuation of the non-violent civil rights movement of the 1970’s. Dolores’ youngest daughter, Camila Chavez, has served as Executive Director of DHF since its inception in 2003. She has led the organization through steady growth adding 19 policy, organizing, communications, and administrative staff who conduct programs on civic engagement, education, LGBT equality, health, and youth development. The primary DHF office is located in downtown Bakersfield with satellite offices in Arvin, Visalia and Fresno
.
DHF is a tax-exempt organization who recruits, trains, organizes, and empowers grassroots leaders in low-income communities to attain social justice through systemic and structural transformation. DHF hires and trains full-time organizers who form neighborhood organizations called
Vecinos Unidos
(United Neighbors). 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, Greenfield, and Bakersfield (Kern County) Lindsay, and Woodlake (Tulare County) and Sanger and Parlier (Fresno County). The residents of these communities are primarily Latino, immigrants, 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. DHF uses a grassroots house meeting organizing model to recruit members and to engage the community in
Vecinos Unidos
chapters.
The Dolores Huerta Foundation partners with multiple organizations through local, regional, and statewide networks.  Their strongest base is in South Kern, one of the Building Healthy Communities initiative supported by the California Endowment.  DHF was a founding member and staffs the Kern Education Justice Collaborative (KEJC) working for education reform through reducing suspension and expulsion rates and incorporating programs to increase support for low-income, English learners and students with disabilities in Kern County. Building on the successes of the KEJC, DHF is working with partners to replicate this model through the Central Valley Movement Building project.  DHF also belongs to two statewide education coalitions working on education reform: Fix School Discipline and Dignity in Schools.  This local and statewide work is directly connected to national efforts on school discipline reform being conducted. DHF is an anchor organization of the statewide California Calls alliance working to increase the civic participation of youth, immigrants, and people of color.  More recently, DHF joined YVOTE a statewide coalition and project of the Movement Strategy Center focused on millennial voters.  DHF is also a member of the Kern LGBTQ Youth Roundtable and Immigration Rapid Response network.