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Five Essays on the San Joaquin Valley
Notes about the Community Leadership Project Cohort of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (2009–2017)
About the Community Leadership Project
In 2010, with the backing of the Packard, Irvine, and Hewlett Foundations, ACTA launched the Community Leadership Project, channeling $1 million in multi-year grants to 11 organizations in the under-resourced San Joaquin Valley. Targeting low-income communities of color, this initiative aimed to enhance financial stability and foster leadership development. Over seven transformative years, these organizations received operational grants and development support and engaged in a vibrant learning community dedicated to sustaining cultural work. Participants in the project testified to the profound dedication of the artists and cultural practitioners, who continually created transformative spaces for their communities. They felt deeply recognized and validated by the initiative’s seven-year investment, witnessing firsthand the powerful impact of sustained support.
In this report, ethnographer and folklorist Debora Kodish discusses the hybrid nature of the initiative involving immigrants, refugees or their children from Cambodian, Hmong, Filipino, and Mexican American communities. It is not only a story of how to recontextualize and define what are regarded as assets, from raising money to cultural competencies but is also a roadmap of ACTA’s methodology to field building and services through relationships.