Former Committees

The homelessness and housing committee worked to protect and support the unhoused population of South Bay by organizing mutual aid efforts that served 200+ community members between 2020-2021. This committee was mostly made up of members from the high school led organization, Hope 4 the Unhoused, whose work continues today.

The mentorship program was founded by Beatrice, who had a young child and was unable to participate in the summer 2020 protests but wanted to use her mentorship skills to better the community. In partnership with Cristo Rey, our mentorship program served 20+ high school juniors and helped them prepare for college and identify personal passions. This program merged with our fellowship program in 2023..  

Our merch & swag team designed our line of shirts, posters and swearers for SJS Black Lives Matter, Black Trans Lives Matter, and Stop Asian Hate in collaboration with local businesses to raise funds for our committees. 200+ community members bought our merge and swag during 2020-2021. This team also collaborated with local groups for pop-ups, such as Empire in the Air for their pop-up in San Pedro Square in 2020.

This brief but impactful coalition came together for a series of political education workshops throughout 2020. The leaders of this group can now be found within San Jose Strong, the Concrete Rose Coalition and Razing the Bar organizations.

This committee worked to support students and teachers advocating for restorative justice practices and inclusive environments on campus. The team attended school board meetings and created call to action infographics. Notably, they organized a virtual queer homecoming event for 30+ 6-12th grade students inclusive of an all day live-stream with queer comedians, creators, and drag queens and raised $650+ for Point of Pride. The committee dissolved to join the San Jose Unified Equity Coalition, who succeeded in removing SRO contracts from ESUSD and SJUSD.

When ICE released their statement that international students would have to leave the country if they didn’t have in person classes, SJS connected with a South Bay activist who made a spreadsheet for international students to swap in person classes. When this spreadsheet went viral nationally, the team came together to launch sois.us in 36 hours: a platform to support and provide resources for international students. This committee dissolved as its members transitioned to creating the organization, ‘Hidden Dream’, which uplifts those affected by the broken immigration system, specializing in visa resources.

This team promoted the work of Turnout 4 Transit and connected residents to transportation advocacy work, sharing 12+ guides on how to support sustainable and reliable transit, throughout 2021..

Lanna reached out to SJS after a member of their family experienced xenophobic hate while walking on trails during COVID-19 in South Bay. A small team came together, with Lanna as the lead, to host a BLM/Stop Asian Hate walk to reclaim public spaces for marginalized groups. After that event, the Walk 4 Solidarity team was born, hosting monthly hikes for solidarity–alongside discussion spaces and mutual aid distributions–with 100+ attendees from 2020-2022.