People Power
Through shared knowledge and experience, community members work collectively to decrease the criminalization of our community. We do this through our programs focusing on Community Building and Civic Engagement.
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Community Building
We believe strongly that the key to a thriving society is building a strong community based on respect and dignity for all. Our Community Building programs give people a chance to connect, build relationships, and recognize our shared struggles.
Know Your Rights. Demand Accountability!
We believe that knowing your rights when dealing with law enforcement is the first step to demanding our rights as humans. However, we strongly believe that knowing our rights is not enough to protect them. An essential part of our program trains community members to build power and hold law enforcement accountable.
Participatory Defense
Participatory Defense is a community organizing model developed by Silicon Valley De-Bug for people facing charges, their families, and communities to impact the outcomes of cases and transform the landscape of power in the court system. Our Participatory Defense hub is led by community volunteers. Meetings are currently held every Sunday at 2pm.
Political Education Programs
We believe that one of the most important aspects of community power-building is understanding the history of struggle and how it relates to our present. By inviting lived experience experts and scholars to share their understanding of how the world works and why, we hope our participants gain the tools necessary to look at the world critically and move towards changing it for the better. We believe the questions are often more important than the answers. Our focus is on the complexities of the world in relations to our struggles not dogmatic "truths" that can be memorized.
Reclaiming Our Stories
One of the things that anyone who lives or works in a community like South East San Diego realizes is how rich and diverse the culture is. That culture comes from the people who live here. Reclaiming Our Stories is a way for community members to come together and share their stories/experiences with friends and family and celebrate how wonderfully similar, and beautifully different, we all are. These stories challenge society's attempts to dismiss our humanity and undermine our power. By telling and "reclaiming our stories" in community we define our own narrative, recognize each others humanity, and continue to thrive no matter what conditions we have survived.
The Community Spot
The Community Spot is a "third space" where we gather outside of work or home to build a sense of community based on social justice. While many of the activities that take place are ran by Pillars of the Community, it is also available for the larger community to use for any programs that are pushing positivity and liberation.
The Musalla
Our musalla (place of prayer) is where we hold most of our islamic services that fall outside of our community work. In addition to being a place for muslims and non-muslims to learn about the centrality of justice and human dignity in Islam, it is also a place for quite reflection and a refuge from the constant pressures of the material world.
Civic Engagement and Policy Work
We have a variety of programs and initiatives to increase civic engagement and ensure that policies supporting our community are implemented.
Census Work
In partnership with California Calls and United Way, we provided outreach for the 2020 Census through phone banking and community outreach events. The challenges surrounding COVID made this extremely difficult but our strong community partnerships, focus on daily census completion reports, and strategy helped us reach thousands of hard to count community members.
Freedom and Justice Campaign
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Gang Data
Our court advocacy work uses public records act request and storytelling to challenge gang documentation and gang enhancements in the courts. We work with local attorneys and families to challenge racist gang enhancements through the Racial Justice Act.
Get Out the Vote
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Police Accountability
We believe there are two underlying causes from police harassment and racial profiling — the brutal and racist foundation of this country and because they can get away with it. Our police accountability seeks to address the later. We are changing this culture of acceptance by helping community members fill out formal complaints and by tracking the disparity in the way we are treated compared to other neighborhoods.
Record Clearing
Pillars works directly with the San Diego Public Defenders Fresh Start program to assist community members in preparing their record clearing motions Pro Per. We assist in a variety of record clearing areas.
Redistricting
Pillars participated in advocating and drawing new district lines for the state, county and city. An important part of this work was working across racial and ethnic lines to make sure the new lines reflected the constituents of their districts.
Resentencing
Social Bios are a powerful tool used to create a positive narrative around community members. Social bios were coined and developed by Silicon Valley Debug and Pillars has integrated this great tool into our work.
