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The reason I believe so much in @nithyavraman’s campaign is because of the work we’ve done together.
I met Nithya a few years ago. @catkiiim and @KiloIndiaMike took me to a Silver Lake NC homelessness committee meeting. Nithya and @DDerakshan were leading the meeting. https://twitter.com/calexity/status/1140474186755821568">https://twitter.com/calexity/...
I met Nithya a few years ago. @catkiiim and @KiloIndiaMike took me to a Silver Lake NC homelessness committee meeting. Nithya and @DDerakshan were leading the meeting. https://twitter.com/calexity/status/1140474186755821568">https://twitter.com/calexity/...
Nithya talked about how we could be building relationships with our neighbors—housed and unhoused—and help connect people to services. As neighbors, we’d be able to build more authentic relationships with each other. We’d be able to make sure people didn’t fall through the cracks
Not long after that, Nithya, Cat, Janet, Darius and Dorit started @selahnhc. In the early days, they met every other week, visiting folks in the neighborhood, checking in, offering basic supplies. It was (and still is) called “engagement.”
I started going out with them on these
I started going out with them on these
I wasn’t as involved in the beginning of SELAH but my understanding was that the founders worked to establish relationships with the lead service agency (PATH) and any other agency that could help offer services or housing for folks.
After these engagements, one of the SELAH members would reach out and ask for support about anything from doctor’s appts to IDs to available housing options. Often, this was Nithya herself.
My understanding and my experience later was that sometimes SELAH could get that support but often it was few and far between.
This is why the SELAH team (including @nithyavraman @hayesdavenport @catkiiim @KiloIndiaMike @DDerakshan Dorit and others) wrote a report about the services needed for the area.
This is the report. It includes possible sites for access centers. https://www.selahnhc.org/service-center-suggestions">https://www.selahnhc.org/service-c...
This is the report. It includes possible sites for access centers. https://www.selahnhc.org/service-center-suggestions">https://www.selahnhc.org/service-c...
They then took that report to elected officials. Both county and city and I believe maybe state as well. Ryu, O’Farrell, Kuehl, Solis. Meeting with them and meeting with their staffs and saying, how can we solve this together? Our neighborhoods are in crisis
But those elected officials came back with very little. If anything, they offered grants SELAH could apply for. No connections to service providers or other resources.
SELAH’s founders had to build that on their own.
SELAH’s founders had to build that on their own.
So that’s what SELAH did. @nithyavraman and I along with Dorit and Genevieve wrote a grant to get $5k in funding from a state program to start what would later become SELAH’s Saturday Supper program.
Meanwhile SELAH worked to build as many relationships as possible. With neighbors and with service providers. Like PATH and Exodus and The Shower of Hope and @mellemusic @polospantry.
It was many people knocking on many doors, making tons of calls and writing emails to anyone we could think of. Nithya, Darius, Dorit @KiloIndiaMike @catkiiim @hayesdavenport @Mike_A_OShea @Batistick @joshscarcella @OnlyOneHyland @arbustonicole and others I am forgetting to name
I remember sitting in a car with Nithya on the phone with Mel from Shower of Hope trying to convince him to bring us a shower for one month with the goal that we’d find the money and continue the program after that month.
I remember sitting on the phone with Nithya and Dorit when Nithya convinced John at The People Concern to partner with us and send a weekly case manager so folks could walk in and get the support they needed. In the end, thanks to Nithya’s persuasion, he enthusiastically said yes
Luckily SELAH got that $5k grant! We were able to start Saturday Supper. A weekly program with food, showers and yoga. @catkiiim set up a charging station. @hayesdavenport brought his projector and started showing movies.
Nithya and I along with all the incredible people named in this thread ran the program. We cleaned showers, served food, talked with folks, invited them in, supported people in crisis, filled out ID vouchers, filled out forms to expunge tickets. A real community center began.
$5k was only going to pay for a month so after that month, we had to raise more money. We also knew that on site service providers were the key to making it all work. When folks knew they could get their ID, a new cell phone or talk to someone about housing, it made a difference
After hitting walls with our elected officials, SELAH started raising money to pay for the services. There is now some small support from the city but after asking Ryu and his team repeatedly for help, they have offered little to none.
As far as I know, Ryu’s never bothered to go see the work SELAH does. It’s now much more extensive. @KiloIndiaMike @catkiiim @arbustonicole have built a whole food distro center. The programs expanded to Echo Park, Eagle Rock. Dorit’s running an extension of SELAH in West Adams.
Dorit and I went to meet with Ryu’s office in February. We met with Nick Grief. We asked them once again, could they *just* help us with a case manager? With connections to a single service provider? So SELAH could take one thing off their plate. But they didn’t help us.
This is why I am so fully behind @nithyavraman. I have personally seen her build connections without being in office. I have seen her building relationships across her neighborhood. Inspiring others to join in, showing how available services lead to longterm community health.
Our elected officials are not doing enough. We have to elect @nithyavraman.
She will change the game for our city. She already has.
She will change the game for our city. She already has.
