Alliance San Diego Newsletter

April 8, 2022

At a young age, I spent most weekends volunteering with the church or school, through Girl Scouts, and at community events in Charlotte, North Carolina. Some of my most fulfilling moments happened while volunteering; while offering my time and talent to support an important cause. To volunteer means to give back, to replenish, to fill the gap in order to achieve a collective goal. It’s a symbiotic relationship that is so rewarding. This duty is now a fabric of my own family dynamic.

Watching the volunteers at Alliance San Diego transform their raw passion and excitement into meaningful work is a highlight of my social justice career. Volunteers are magical and pivotal components to the success of our organization. In the last year, volunteers powered our Immigrant Relief Fund, increased the number of canvassing conversations with community members, and they even pitched in on calls just to say “thank you” to other supporters. Our volunteers are steadfast partners. Alliance San Diego is grateful for every person that walked alongside us through the challenges of the pandemic. The shifts were scarce and we worked tirelessly to find ways to activate you. When the opportunities arose, our loyal volunteers were there waiting to meet the goal. 

April is Volunteer Appreciation month and we cannot say this enough: THANK YOU to each of our volunteers! The impact volunteers have had on our programs is the reason we continue to build collective power in a world of uncertainty. Every time a volunteer shows up to help, their efforts support us in building a more inclusive democracy for all people. Thank you for sharing your time with us. Thank you for choosing Alliance San Diego. We are welcoming ALL volunteers at our upcoming appreciation event. Stay tuned for more information! 

“Volunteers don't necessarily have the time, they just have the heart." 

-Elizabeth Andrews

Policies at all levels of government should be inclusive, fair, and just. Back in 2020, Alliance San Diego worked with community members and partners across the state to advocate for the expansion of full scope Medi-Cal coverage to income-eligible undocumented seniors over 50 years old. Access to healthcare is a basic right that shouldn’t be based on a person’s legal status. Thanks to the advocacy of San Diego residents and others around the state, full scope Medi-Cal will be expanded to individuals 50 years and older regardless of immigration status beginning on May 1, 2022. Together with partners, Alliance San Diego recently hosted a Medi-Cal workshop in English and Spanish to ensure people have access to the information they need to apply for Medi-Cal. Alliance San Diego will continue advocating with partners across the state until all California residents have access to healthcare, regardless of where they were born.

Every election season, Alliance San Diego is doing the work to increase participation in our democracy so that all of us are part of the decision-making. Off-cycle special elections are particularly challenging since there is little to no city or county voter education, and we are often the only or one of few organizations running non-partisan voter education. While the vote counting continues for the April 5th special election to decide Assembly District 80’s (AD80) new representative, no candidate received over 50%, according to the San Diego Registrar of Voters. The top two candidates will now head to a runoff in the June primary. To ensure voters had information on when, where and how to vote, Alliance San Diego engaged voters in AD80 through a two week long voter education campaign. Our civic engagement team reached out to more than 25,000 voters in the district, sent nearly 8,000 messages reminding people to vote, and reached a wide swatch of voters in the district through digital outreach efforts including social media and email. We will do the same for the primary.

Alliance San Diego is accompanying Janine Bouey in her pursuit of justice as part of our effort to hold U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) accountable. Janine is a retired LAPD officer and U.S. army veteran and this week filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the inhumane treatment she received at the border. Her case is part of a pattern of abuse by border agents who are rarely, if ever, held accountable. Janine, who appears to have been singled out as a Black woman at the Otay Port of Entry when returning from a routine dental appointment, was sexually assaulted by agents in June 2020. If it could happen to her, it could happen to anyone. This is not a question of a few bad apples, the impunity is systemic. Every officer who Janine came into contact with was complicit in her degrading treatment. The complicity, the impunity and the repeated occurrence of this kind of incident make sexual assault a systemic problem within DHS that we, the public, cannot allow to continue and go unanswered.

Alliance San Diego
P.O. Box 12266
San Diego, CA 92112
United States 

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