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Event Description

In this discussion, community partners and funders will delve into the pivotal passage of Measure J in November 2020, where 2.1 million voters chose to allocate funds towards community counseling, mental health services, youth development programs, small businesses, job creation, and affordable housing instead of incarceration. This panel will explore how this historic decision transformed the landscape for community-based organizations in LA County. Additionally, we'll provide an update on the progress made over the last four years, highlighting the challenges encountered and sharing insights into what's next in the implementation phase.

Speakers

Ivette Headshot

Ivette Alé-Ferlito

Co-Founder and Executive Director, La Defensa

As a queer femme, and formerly undocumented person, Ivette has been organizing and leading anti-carceral campaigns in California for nearly a decade. They have helped found and lead multiple coalitions, including JusticeLA and ReimagineLA, supporting historic victories including ending LA County’s $3.5 billion jail expansion plan in 2019, and the passing of Measure J in 2020, which secured hundreds of millions of county dollars for community investment. They previously served as Policy Director at Dignity and Power Now, and Statewide Coordinator at Californians United for a Responsible Budget. They also serve as the Chair of LA County’s Gender Responsive Advisory Committee, and on the Public Safety Realignment Team. Ivette is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Political Science, a Women’s Policy Institute Fellow, and a UCLA Law Fellow. They bring a depth of organizing experience that spans well over 15 years.
Megan Castillo's headshot photo

Megan Castillo

Policy & Advocacy Manager, La Defensa / Re-Imagine LA

Megan Castillo (she/her) is a grassroots organizer originally from South Central Los Angeles, CA. Megan's experience as a working-class, first generation college student, as well as a Black woman, has greatly informed her lens as an abolitionist organizer.

Megan is highly committed to upending state sanctioned violence, fighting for liberation and building a better quality of life for Black, Indigenous and other people of color. She has dedicated her career to improving the lives of our most vulnerable populations. This includes uplifting community-led campaigns around racial justice and divesting resources from carceral and harmful institutions and instead investing in systems of care.

Currently, Megan is the Policy and Advocacy Manager at La Defensa and the Reimagine LA- Coalition Coordinator for Measure J, which passed in November of 2020. Most recently, Megan was appointed to the Los Angeles county Measure J- Care First Community Investment Commission.
Megan is the cofounder of #BlackatLMU and in 2019, and was awarded the Black community impact award for her dedication and efforts to raise awareness amongst her community. She is Women's Policy Institute Alumna, Gilman Scholar Alumna, and a Norman Topping Scholar Alumna. Megan has earned both her Bachelors in Psychology and African-American studies and her Masters in Social Work, with an emphasis in Social Change and Innovation.

Megan has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Spectrum 1 News, The Appeal, and the LA Progressive for her advocacy and organizing.
A portrait of Mike in front of a black backdrop. Mike has a beard.

Mike Dennis SCG Member

Senior Director of Housing Justice, Liberty Hill Foundation

Mike oversees Liberty Hill’s housing justice portfolio, which includes fundraising, grant making, program implementation, and movement strategies. He also directs the foundation's Liberty Vote program which provides funding for democracy and civic engagement strategies across LA County.

Mike was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. A core area of Mike's expertise is focused on building political power and movement-based coalitions that fight and win housing justice policies. Mike began political and issue based organizing more than 20 years ago. He's spent the past 15 years of his career organizing to protect working class and working poor families from displacement, and creating permanent systems that reverse and prevent homelessness across LA County. Mike has co-founded several LA-based coalitions working on housing issues, and co-led the efforts to pass Measure J, Measure ULA, and create the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA). Before his time at Liberty Hill, Mike oversaw policy, advocacy, and power building campaigns for both East LA Community Corporation, and The United Way of Greater LA. Mike holds bachelor degrees in Political Science and International Affairs from Cal State University, Fullerton and UC Davis.

Mike is an avid long-distance hiker, skier, and photographer.
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Isela Gracian

Senior Deputy: Housing, Homelessness, and Planning, Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell

Isela Gracian serves as Supervisor Mitchell’s Senior Deputy on Housing and Homelessness, leading the Supervisor’s housing, homelessness, and planning policy. She brings to the second supervisorial district over two decades of experience in grassroots community work. She served as the President of East LA Community Corporation, where she led policy campaigns, community wealth programs, and development of affordable housing. Isela is recognized as a leader in community driven development weaving together the intersections of housing, income generation, environmental justice, and culture.
Joey Williams

Joey Williams SCG Member

Senior Program Manager, The California Endowment

Joey Williams, a Tribal Council member of the Nuwa (Kawaiisu) people out of the Kern Valley Indian Community, and began organizing over 16 years ago as a youth pastor working to dismantle the school to jail & prison pipeline in Bakersfield. He has been a product of the foster care , jail, and probation system since age 7. Joey committed his life to bringing people of color, young people, and disenfranchised targeted communities off the sidelines and into the big fight for good jobs, quality education, and ending mass incarceration and police brutality. Joey is the former Co-Vice Chair of the LA County Cares First Community Investment Advisory Board-CFCI (Measure J) representing the Native American Community, which is allocating $100 million from the LA County Sheriff's Department, and investing back in the communities they have harmed. Joey is formerly the Director of Organizing at the CA Native Vote Project, and now is a Senior Program Manager at TCE, and is committed to dismantling White Supremacy, and building Native Power so that all our people can be free, self determined, and live the full life their Creator intended

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