Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1497353
Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association CTA CHAPTER HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association (ASTA) has been leading the charge in Orange County in the successful implementation of community schools. In so doing, ASTA has broken down barriers that existed within Anaheim's com- munities of color that kept stakeholders from being active participants in their students' education. ASTA has developed a collaborative community school model that has buy-in and participation from educators, district administration, parents and community. The shared decision-making means power is equally distributed in plan- ning, implementation, rollout and coordination to better serve students. ASTA has also used this model to develop leadership opportunities within their membership by creating school leads at each site to help carry out the ideals and principles of community schools in the classroom. ASTA members and leaders' community school work allows the chapter to highlight the needs of all schools in the district and to put a system in place where the appropriate resources and tools can be dispatched where they are truly needed. In addition, ASTA has been a strong advocate for human and civil rights. Among other examples, as a union ASTA has created better access to leadership opportunities for teachers of color; created social justice committees; and promoted their members' involvement in CTA's Ethnic Minority Early Identifi- cation & Development program. Pictured above: ASTA's Community School Teacher Leads and the ASTA Organizer. Stacey Yakimowich Chavez UTLA/NEA CTA MEMBER HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD Stacey Yakimowich Chavez is an instructional leader at her school site, an advocate for racial jus- tice, and a union activist who has consistently fought for human rights throughout her career. She has been a leader on the United Teachers Los Angeles Equity Team for the last five years. In this capacity, she has actively organized to recruit BIPOC educators into leadership positions in her local. She also has worked with members of Student CTA, promoting the teaching profession with an emphasis on teaching with fairness, inclusivity, justice and freedom integrated in her mindful cur- ricula and pedagogy. She led the way in planning and implementing a three-part "Brave Space" series in 2020. In collaboration with fellow educators, the series sought to eradicate discrimination within her school site, local and beyond. Hundreds of educators participated in how to engage in courageous con- versations about race. Through a project to educate union members in Los Angeles on ways to support students and families with housing insecurity, Chavez is striving to build more effective school, family and com- munity partnerships. Chavez has demon- strated leadership at the state level, including as a CTA State Council del- egate, and nationally as part of the NEA Board of Directors At Large. As an educator, Chavez creates curricula that are anti-racist, culturally responsive and that aim to abolish the oppressive systems that plague traditional schooling. Her students engage in social justice-fo- cused learning opportunities on a regular basis. She is committed to fur thering human rights for all. "As educators, we're always fighting for our students and our communities," she says. "I'm also a fighter for unionization and workers' rights. Unionization is a human right. Workers' rights are human rights." 28 cta.org Social Justice