“Rising to the Challenge”

Over the past year, we’ve been bombarded with images of communities in conflict, communities in crisis, of unjust communities. From Ferguson to Baltimore to Charlottesville and more, we’ve seen what happens when oppression, inequality, and hate go unchecked. This week, Just Communities is hosting the annual meeting of the National Federation for Just Communities (NFJC) to collectively rise to the challenge of responding to this new national climate.

The NFJC is a coalition of like-minded organizations working across America to bring the values of diversity, inclusion, and social justice to our schools, workplaces, and communities. We hail from across the United States, from places as distant as Birmingham, Alabama and Buffalo, New York to cities as near as Long Beach, CA. The NFJC’s roots lie with a (now disbanded) national organization, the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), which was founded in 1927 and was the oldest non-sectarian, multi-issue, multi-stakeholder social justice organization in the country.

Each year NFJC member organizations meet to learn from one another. We share resources, knowledge, and best practices. We strengthen our programs to advance our work of creating more just communities. This year, we will be working collectively to craft effective and strategic advocacy plans to not only promote justice and equity in our local communities, but also across the nation.

National Federation for Just Communities 2017 National Convening October 3-6, 2017
La Case de Maria
800 El Bosque Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108

About Just Communities

Just Communities was established in 2001 as a local chapter of The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). Now a fully independent local organization, Just Communities is the only multi-issue social justice organization on the Central Coast that uses evidence-based education and organization development processes to effect whole systems change and produces measurable results. We are experts in understanding diversity, equity, and social justice and the process of transformative change at individual, organizational, and systems levels. We create multi-lingual, multi-generational, multi-stakeholder spaces that empower diverse groups of people to work together in authentic ways to address society’s most challenging issues. Our expertise in human relations uniquely positions us to serve people and organizations in the education, healthcare, non-profit, government, and business sectors. The breadth of our vision statement to “ensure that all people are connected, respected, and valued” does not limit our service to a single constituency. Whether we are training health care providers on cultural competency, facilitating a diverse collaboration of service providers to address youth violence, or empowering at-risk teens as leaders in their schools, Just Communities continues to bridge differences among those of diverse backgrounds and cultures to strengthen the local community and advance social justice.

Join us to make the Central Coast a more just community.