Economic Justice  

Our Economic Justice team partners with Indigenous families and community members to advance self-determination, justice, and thriving communities. CBDIO invests in Indigenous leadership and advocacy, supporting initiatives such as the Comité de la Voz Mixteca de Santa Rita, which helped pass an anti-racist resolution in the Santa Rita School District and establish the first Mixteco after-school program in the Salinas Valley. The Chatino Committee has also established a pilot program at the Alisal Clinic in partnership with the Mixteco Committee. Our work focuses on education, health care, housing, workforce development, and child care, while strengthening Indigenous communities’ voices in local, state, and federal policies. We also collaborate through regional initiatives, including the Salinas Inclusive Economic Development Initiative.

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Salinas Inclusive Economic Development Initiative (SIEDI): 

Indigenous leaders grow their ability to make sure their voices and experiences are represented in economic development efforts in the Salinas region.

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Mixteco After-School 

CBDIO organizes and implements a Mixteco after-school program at Santa Rita Elementary School in Salinas, CA. The program emphasizes language revitalization and cultural appreciation. CBDIO’s team teaches students to read and write in the Mixtec language and engages students in cultural activities that highlight Indigenous music, art, and foods. As part of the program with the school district, CBDIO provides daily in-language assistance to Indigenous parents at schools in the district. While the program and services are open to all students and parents, CBDIO established this program in collaboration with the Santa Rita School District as a result of advocacy on the part of local Mixteco parents who expressed a need for in-language services and support for their children. The program at Santa Rita is modeled after our first Mixteco after-school program implemented in Fresno Unified School District.

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CWOP

CBDIO serves as both a Regional Lead and community outreach organization with the COVID Worker Outreach Project, a statewide effort to educate workers and employers in higher-risk industries on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. As Regional Lead, CBDIO collaborates with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project and UC Davis’s Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety to support organizations in the Central Coast engaging in community outreach and education around workers’ rights issues. 

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Labor Rights

The Labor Justice Initiative focus is to empower Indigenous farmworkers that want to change their workplace conditions or who have experienced stolen wages from their employers who are often Farm Labor Contractors (FLC) or growers in the Central Valley and Central Coast. Farmworkers who want to be part of the Labor Justice initiative participate in the monthly meetings where the topics range from Labor Rights to Political Education. Farmworkers also get to influence that work being done in coalitions and also get the opportunity to share their testimonies in Sacramento. The Labor Justice team supports farmworkers in recovering their stolen wages by empowering them to and offering interpretation in Indigenous languages when needed so farmworkers can sit and negotiate with their employer any owed wages by their employer. The Labor Justice Initiative's bigger vision is for workers to take collective action to demand value and respect for themselves and their work.