An Inside Look at Advocating with Communities of Color – Podcast Episode 215 | Classnotes Podcast 215

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Classnotes Podcast (November 29, 2021). Community advocacy is hefty because you are not just speaking on your own behalf, others are relying on you. IDRA’s policy fellows felt that responsibility in their fellowship, but also had the strength of their own cultural, ethnic and racial identities and legacies to sustain them.

As IDRA’s groundbreaking Education Policy Fellows Program closed its inaugural year, we sat down with our four fellows to reflect on their experience. With this program, IDRA set out to change the landscape of state education advocacy by training advocates with a commitment to and experience with communities of color to influence state laws and lead a powerful network of impacted communities.

Morgan Craven, J.D., IDRA National Director of Policy, Advocacy and Community Engagement, led the conversation with fellows: Dr. Altheria Caldera, Araceli García, Thomas Marshall III and Christina Quintanilla-Muñoz, M.Ed. In this second of four episodes, they describe their experiences advocating with communities of color in the Texas Legislature.

The IDRA Education Policy Fellows Program that operated from November 2020 through July 2021 was generously supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Trellis Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and in partnership with the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship, facilitated by Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service.

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Show length: 41:35 min.

Resources

IDRA Education Policy Fellows 2020-21 Profiles

IDRA Launches Education Policy Fellows Program – Fellows Will Engage a Network of Impacted Communities to Transform Education Policymaking, August 28, 2020

A Case for Changing How We Label “English Learners,” Highest Aspirations Podcast, Ellevation Education, featuring Araceli García, September 28, 2021

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Show Notes

  • The fellows consider how their own cultural, ethnic and racial identities shaped their respective advocacy experiences during the fellowship.

  • Christina, Araceli, Thomas and Altheria discuss how the Texas policy advocacy landscape can evolve to include more people and communities of color.

  • The fellows share what sustains them in their work and offer advice for overcoming doubts and advocacy anxiety.

  • Altheria talks about drawing strength from the Black women who paved the way for her, including Barbara Jordan.

  • Araceli and Altheria close with a more personal discussion of Altheria’s mother, and the legacy she will leave behind.