PAJA
Our Initiatives
Foster Care Reform: We advocate for a more culturally competent child welfare system. We want to see County's across the Country increase African American & Latino presence in the professional space of the foster care system. We believe social workers and therapists in the child welfare system should be representative of the children in the child welfare system. We also would like to see more reunification efforts between children and their parents and more resources for those emancipating from the foster care system. Around the nation, nearly 444, 390 children are in foster care, and 101,902 are African American children. In California, 13,557 African American children are in foster care despite their makeup of only 4.4% of the general population. In addition, they comprise more than 16% of cases referred to Child Welfare Services. This is a troubling phenomenon because individuals, agencies, and systems of good intent cause lasting harm and trauma to those they are trying to help without truly understanding how to or why.
Corporate Responsibility & Workforce Equity: This is our Corporate Responsibility initiative. We are fighting to reduce economic disparity across the country particularly in the Construction and Advanced Manufacturing industries. We are fighting for more underrepresented communities to have access to subcontracting (plumbers, painters, carpenters, dry wall, etc.) opportunities and employing more people of color on the construction jobs for new developments – especially developments in the urban communities across America. We are getting more young people interested in defense contracting through our early interest program based in San Diego, CA called "Pamagine" which is a 3D printing program that teaches youth 3D printing, enabling them to build early manufacturing skills. The Advanced Manufacturing industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry and underrepresented communities should be active in the workforce as taxpayers in this country.
Criminal Justice Reform & Police Accountability: We are advocating for a fairer criminal justice system. We advocate for better rehabilitation processes for those exiting the criminal justice system and we will step in to support individuals seeking to overturn cases where innocence can be proven. We are also advocating in the area of police reform. We believe that every officer-involved shooting should no longer be investigated by District Attorney's across the country but rather State & federal investigators. We hope to see a day when independent investigations are conducted on every questionable police shooting in the country. We also advocate for legislation that will create a threshold regarding excessive use of force.