Young Religious Leaders Project

Building a Movement:

The Young Religious Leaders Project at CLUE is a training program for leaders interested in the work of economic justice.

The Project works with young adults, from local high schools, colleges, seminaries and rabbinical schools, as well as at large, to train them in the struggle to eradicate poverty in our community. Through concrete organizing projects, direct action, and shared vision our Young Religious Leaders learn first hand about the reality of the working poor and how they can help transform our society together.

At any given time, the Project is engaged in a variety of activities including internships, community gatherings, public education, creative actions, and fellowship.

To elarn more information, please contact Campus Organizer Steve Holt, coordinator of the Young Religoius Leaders Project at sholt@cluela.org or 213-481-3740 .

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Young Religious Leaders Actions

Every semester the young religious leaders at CLUE organize an action to support worker rights. The last action in the fall of 2006 took place in front of the Hilton hotel in Glendale.

The young leaders organized an alternative Christmas party to protest the party that the city was holding inside the Glendale Hilton regardless of the workers request for them to boycott the hotel. The party started off with picketing in front of the hotel.

It then moved onto the lawn outside the hotel where workers, organizers, clergy and young leaders enjoyed tamales and champurrado while a group of the young leaders performed a skit reinacting The Christmas Carol with Scrooge being the owner of the hotel. Other young leaders changes the lyrics of classic Christmas songs to depict the struggle of the workers. These carolers did a delegation to the management of the hotel to share the songs with them.

 

Internista Summer 2009 interns reflect on their summer of action and service:

Ajay S. Kapadia
I am an undergraduate at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I am studying International Business and earning my Non-Profit Leadership Certificate. The reason I decided to intern at CLUE-LA was because during the majority of college my business classes taught how to make the bottom line and how to turn a profit in order to keep “good business” going.

They would discuss where to make cuts in expenses and how to lower the numbers. I had a problem with the numbers and the expenses, which I was told needed to be cut.

However, I realized that these numbers symbolized working people. My classes dehumanized people and characterized them as numbers in listed columns. I am here to remind these businesses that the people that they mistreat are more than just numbers in the record book.

 

 

J.P. Martinez
Born and raised in Los Angeles CA, graduated from Azusa Pacific University in 2006 with a B.A. degree in Philosophy and a minor in Theology.

It was there through mentors, and professors, that he learned about issues of justice and heard stories of liberation. He currently lives in an intentional community in the WestAdams District called "Synchronicity LA". He is currently working on musical projects with his band as well as many other artistic endeavors that serve to bring about what he believes is a new imagination in a world where imagination is stifled and replaced by the narrative of the powers that be.

With his creative energy he hopes to be a part of a larger movement that ushers in a new world order of creation and connectedness opposing the powers of destruction and isolation.

It is here at CLUE LA that he hopes to get connected to the work of justice and continue to push forward the work that is so important to the imagination of those with the courage to believe in the possibility of a transformed world.

Bryan Jarrell
Bryan Jarrell is a 2009 graduate from Grove City College, with a degree in Christian Thought and Communication Studies.

He joined CLUE LA this summer as a media guy- carrying the video camera around the city interviewing clergy, documenting rallies, and preserving on film the actions that CLUE LA and the local clergy community sponsor.

Bryan is an Aspirant in the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, and will be attending seminary in the fall with the intention of joining the Anglican Priesthood.

Lydia Brown
Currently studying social work and global studies at Azusa Pacific University. She participated in APU's urban immersion program where she studied and experienced the issues of the city. She lived with a Mexican family, experienced and read about the injustices barrelling down the streets of LA, and worked at a non-profit.

The experiences she had worked as a needle weaving the vivacious fabrics of others into the tapestry of her heart, inextricably stitching the marginalized into the musculous fabric. Examining her changed heart at the end of that semester, she was struck by its beauty and wanted to continue to create the beauty she wanted to see in the world around her.

No longer is her belief in Jesus dormant, which is why she jumped at the opportunity to put her newly awakened faith into action working as a CLUE intern.

Specifically, Lydia is most alive when talking about immigration, which plays a significant role in the campaign she is working on with the United Farm Workers.

Nina Fernando
I am a current student at the University of Redlands with a major in Music, Religion, and Social Justice. I am in a special program within my school, The Johnston Center, where I was able to create my major; I chose Music, Religion, and Social Justice because they are all extremely important, interesting, and influential in my life and they are all forms of my personal expression that have power to move people.

This summer I am working on the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports Campaign with CLUE and I hope to be helpful in the movement for community health, economic justice, and respect for workers that this campaign aims toward.

Christy Parrish
I am currently attending Azusa Pacific University where I am majoring in Global Studies and minoring in Political Science. I became involved with CLUE because I did an urban immersion program with my school and I had to do an internship as a part of that program.

I fell in love with CLUE, the passionate people and the work that they do to make this world a better place. Although I was unaware of many of the issues that CLUE deals with on a daily basis, I quickly developed a passion for this type of work that involves faith in action. I decided to continue through the summer. I love the unique approach CLUE has to social justice issues and I am acquiring so many skills that will be useful for the rest of my life.