At the urging of Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) leaders, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the creation of Esperanza Care 2.0—a county healthcare program for undocumented adults, launching with 500 people and a commitment to expand.

Energy crackled as 110 COPA leaders from 28 institutions, including Bishop Lucinda Ashby of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, filled the room for an honest, wide-ranging conversation with California Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas.

Maria Elena Manzo, Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) Leader, and Founder and Executive Director of Mujeres en Acción, was announced as this year’s recipient of the Siembra Latinos Fund’s Alfred Diaz-Infante Award.

After California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to drop undocumented immigrants from the state health insurance rolls, 120 California IAF leaders and allies traveled to the capitol by bus and persuaded legislators to restore access to the program.

“Immigrants pay taxes. They work in our communities with no safety nets," said COPA (Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action) Leader Mary Litel Walsh. “We came hundreds of miles from all over the state...took time off of work and away from our families to be here today. Why?

Because we need our legislators to fight for us.

Maria Elena Manzo (to the right of Pope Francis) with the Pontiff and the 2024 W/SW IAF Vatican delegation. Maria wrote this article.

[Originally published by Monterey County Now]

Last August, I had the opportunity to travel to Rome and visit Pope Francis. I joined a delegation of 18 leaders and organizers from across the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, the organizing network to which Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) belongs. This was the third meeting our group had with Pope Francis between 2022 and 2024, each a 90-minute conversation at his residence at the Casa Santa Marta. At each encounter, he demonstrated humor and humility as he listened attentively to our organizing stories and engaged us in conversation.

In 2023, leaders from COPA congregations, schools, and nonprofits spoke with over 400 families, hearing dozens of stories about families that had paid thousands of dollars in unnecessary application fees just to apply to live in an apartment. Sometimes, families learned later that the apartments they had applied for didn’t even exist.

In response, COPA leaders reached out to member institutions, building a powerful constituency across Central California. Leaders at Holy Cross engaged leaders at Temple Beth El and Mujeres en Acción, who in turn reached out to other institutions as the team grew. All in all, 13 institutions joined the process and, together, built a relationship with Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin.

COPA leaders:

• researched the issue with state policy experts and attorneys - worked with Assemblywoman Pellerin to craft new legislation, 
• testified in both the Assembly and State Senate (in 3 different languages!) and 
• overcame vested opposition by crafting a compromise with power groups.

[Excerpt]

"In many of our faith traditions, the idea of covenant provides a template for understanding the way COPA thinks about our work. This means going above and beyond the social contract that establishes the state, government, and laws that bind us … by widening our circles of attachment across income, social, cultural, religious, and racial divides – and creating moral commitments to one another, with shared values and ideals that compel us to work together, despite our differences, for the common good....

[Excerpt]

"They've developed a process of attentive listening over the years, talking to people about their lives and identifying the needs of a particular group," said [Bishop Mark] Seitz. "When we were trying to create a process for the synod, it occurred to me it was exactly the approach they'd long taken."

After two weeks of intensive mobilizing by COPA (Communities Organized for relational Power in Action), leaders secured a nine-month, $1.59M extension of the VIDA community health worker (CHW) program in Monterey County.  The 4-1 vote by the County Board of Supervisors extended the VIDA program at current levels to the end of 2022, preventing a reduction from 48 to 18 CHWs by the end of the month.

Prior to the vote, COPA leaders met with their district supervisors, telling stories about the impact of VIDA and asking that they support the extension.

At an online event drawing over 100 leaders, two County Supervisors and allies including the Community Foundation of Monterey County and the Grape Growers & Vintners Association, leaders taught attendees about the effectiveness of the program.  

Fr. Lucas, a priest from King City, shared how he narrowly avoided infecting 200 parishioners at a weekend retreat because Maricela Acevedo, one of the CHWs, and a member of his parish persuaded him to test everyone prior.  When one of the women on the kitchen crew was found to be positive, Maricela went to her house to test other family members.

Another woman, who speaks only Mixteco (an indigenous language in Mexico) got her questions about the vaccines answered only because one of the CHWs, Claudia, speaks both Mixteco and Spanish.  Claudia not only helped the woman register for a vaccination appointment, she came to the house when called weeks later to administer rapid tests and help infected family members quarantine. 

COPA first proposed the VIDA program to the Monterey County Supervisors, who voted unanimously in December of 2020 to allocate $4.9M to hire 100 CHWs.  VIDA is administered by the Community Foundation of Monterey County.

[Photo Credit: Daniel Dreifuss, Monterey Weekly]

As It Heads to the Board of Supervisors to Request Additional Funds, Here's How the VIDA Project has Impacted People's Lives, Monterey County Weekly [pdf]

Local Organizations Seek County Support to Extend VIDA Community Health Worker Program, Monterey County Weekly [pdf]

[Excerpt]

"The Diocese of Monterey is in the beginning stages of the synod, training parish groups to go out and listen to the experiences of everyone, including those on the margins. Bishop Garcia and Deacon David Ford, who is leading the process in the diocese, both have experience working with community organizing groups in the past. They were quick to enlist their help with the synod.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” said Bishop Garcia, who had been meeting with Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action, or COPA, since he arrived in Monterey. COPA is an association of community organizers based in California. “There are already some processes out there,” the bishop said. COPA “does a really good job of getting the pulse of the people. We’ve been really happy about how, at least initially, it’s going.”

Diocesan leaders planned to host five separate regional meetings to train leaders throughout the diocese about how to carry out the synod at their parish. Bishop Garcia invited pastors to attend along with a group of parishioners who would lead the synod at their church."

[Photo Credit:Diocese of Monterey]

A California Bishop Invited Community Organizers to Help with the Synod. So Far, It’s Working, America the Jesuit Review [pdf]