For Jean Kayano, chief administrator at Knotts Family Parenting Institute (KFPI) in San Bernardino, cuts to social services are not abstract. “Every program we have is affected by state funding,” she says. Particularly infuriating are cuts to foster services, when foster parents are already asked to “raise kids on less money than it takes to house a dog at a kennel.”

KFPI, a new member of the California Alliance, began 20 years ago as a group home for foster youth facing homelessness and substance abuse. But, 12 years later — after much organizational soul-searching — the leadership expanded KFPI’s scope. “We weren’t making transformative change,” Kayano says. Thus, the shift from simply assisting disadvantaged youth to actually preventing the abuse and neglect that often separates families in the first place.

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Click here to download the California Alliance’s June 2010 Ballot Guide!

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The California Alliance has grown to include two new critically important regions of the state, called “shifting” regions.  These are traditionally red counties where the demographics have significantly shifted with an influx of low income, working class and people of color residents, but the level of community-organizing infrastructure and civic engagement culture doesn’t yet match these changes.

1. The Inland Empire, the rapidly growing San Bernardino and Riverside counties have a population that now rivals the state of Oregon, with over 4 million people.  This region spans 27,000 square miles and has undergone tremendous change in the last ten years. For example, in San Bernardino Democrats now outnumber Republicans as registered voters for the first time (40% to 37%), with Decline to State voters at 18%. In Riverside County the voter registration breakdown is 41% Republican, 37% Democrat, and 17% Decline to State. Over several months, California Alliance leaders met with local groups and unions in the Inland Empire in order to develop a joint power analysis and long term strategy.

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