The California Endowment identified Del Norte County and “Adjacent Tribal Lands” as one of the 14 Building Healthy Communities (BHC) initiatives sites.

• Community planning process identified intentional leadership development strategies, including resident community organizing, as essential to achieving BHC goals.

• BHC partnered with schools and hired local community organizers to begin school-based organizing in Smith River, Weitchpec and Crescent City.

• Smith River organizing committee formed and identified recreation programs for youth as priority.

• PICO Network “sponsoring committee” formed to investigate whether a local federation could be created to support structured community organizing. The PICO organizing model was then adopted for community organizing work with BHC. Organizers were trained in the PICO model and begin organizing in Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands.

• Youth organizing group formed at Sunset High School in Crescent City. The group used the PICO model to secure equitable school lunches to Del Norte High School. 

• Weitchpec to Wotek Local Organizing Committee hosts a local action at the Yurok Tribe’s Weitchpec office announcing all of the needed approvals have been gained for a coordinated cultural burn in Yurok Territory. The group organizing the burn names themselves the Cultural Fire Management Council.

• True North Organizing Network formed as a PICO Affiliate.

• True North bridged work between Humboldt Area Foundation’s Community Strategies in Humboldt County, and The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative and expands working areas to include coastal Humboldt and Del Norte County and also within Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, Tolowa, and Wiyot ancestral territories and Reservations.

• True North hired and trained organizing staff and conducts initial outreach through hundreds of individual conversations with Tribal elders, clergy, youth, and community leaders.

• True North leaders organized School Board candidates’ forum for Del Norte Unified School District.  

• Sunset High School students organized and gained improvements for the weight room.

• True North’s organizing resulted in the first coordinated, cultural and controlled burn with the Cultural Fire Management Council, Yurok Tribe and the California Conservation Corp. The prescribed burning prioritized restoration of traditional food sources, weaving materials, and safety on the Yurok Tribe’s reservation lands. 

• True North convened a large meeting in Mckinleyville to introduce PICO model of organizing. Subsequently a Mckinleyville Local Organizing Committee formed. 

• True North focused on a voter engagement campaign in Del Norte County. Through the campaign, we trained 65 youth in a Power of Voting curriculum and registered 150 new voters in Del Norte County. True North youth and adult leaders also co-sponsored the Del Norte Candidate’s Forum with the Daily Triplicate newspaper, which attracted more than 250 participants. Candidates from the forum agreed to meet with True North leaders within 60 days of taking office.

• True North hosts listening meeting and conducts individual outreach in Fortuna.

• True North convened a meeting of 250 people from all across the region and identified five focus areas:

  • Water and the environment

  • Immigrant rights

  • Housing and mental health

  • Police accountability

  • Education Equity

• In partnership with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, True North leaders hosted the first Immigration Forum in Del Norte County. Over 100 people attended the two-day forum, that included free legal consultations and a workshop about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

• The Klamath Local Organizing Committee gained a commitment from the Del Norte Unified School District to support equity for Margaret Keating Elementary School in comparison with schools throughout the rest of the county.

• More than 250 leaders gathered in Hoopa for a community meeting focused on racial inequities and the need to unravel racist power structures across the region. During the meeting, 25 youth organizers organized a march to the Trinity River and made powerful speeches about the need to stop the construction of the proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline.

• CA Assembly Bill 953: Racial and Identity Profiling passage.

• At the request of the McKinleyville Local Organizing Committee, the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee agreed to allocate several millions of dollars to redeveloping the McKinleyville Town Center.

• True North coordinated with local Indigenous leaders to respond to the call from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to travel to North Dakota to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which threatened to desecrate a burial site and poison water held sacred by the tribe. Our local organizing network was able to support more than 65 tribal members and allies in their journey to Standing Rock, and created a free kitchen to provide healthy food to the people camped on the Sioux Treaty Land, directly adjacent to the pipeline construction sites. Known as the California Kitchen, the project grew into a major operation that fed healthy food to thousands of people a day in sub-zero temperatures, and hosted a wide range of Indigenous spiritual leaders, national movement leaders, clergy, and PICO National staff. 

• True North organized a multi-tribal gathering in support of water rights issues and indigenous rights.

• Youth from across the region networked with peers from many cities in California and received extensive training in lobbying, organizing, and self-care through summer camps, conferences, and trips to Sacramento.

• True North, partnered with PICO California, organized local support for the passage of CA Senate Bill 54: the California Values Act.

• True North leaders pressured both the Del Norte Board of Supervisors and the Crescent City City Council to reject efforts to vilify immigrants and distance the County from supporting CA SB 54.

• True North’s Coastal LOC negotiated the removal of the term “Alien” in reference to immigrants in the Humboldt County Correctional Facility, and held an action to solicit commitments from law enforcement to undergo implicit bias trainings.

• The Klamath Local Organizing Committee secured commitments from Tribal leaders, County Supervisors, and others in Klamath and Crescent City to improve local youth recreation facilities.

• True North organized more than 120 people from Orleans, Weitchpec, Klamath and Hoopa to take a series of actions to prevent the proposed Pacific Connector Pipeline, that would cross under the Klamath River. This included researching the project by touring the site and meeting with company representatives, attending public meetings and filing as “interveners” in the federal approval process, speaking at large public gatherings on several occasions, and organizing an inter-Tribal prayer circle with 75 participants at the site where the pipeline would cross under the river. 

• True North leaders requested and received support from the Del Norte Board of Supervisors for the creation of a bilingual, English/Spanish radio station in Del Norte County.

• With assistance from PICO National, True North began to build infrastructure to establish a Rapid Response Network for Humboldt County, with plans to expand to Del Norte. The Rapid Response Network aims to respond to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids by training local residents to make moral and legal observations during ICE operations and provide direct support to families when necessary. 

• True North leaders launched the Rapid Response Network: a hotline number that activates a network of trained observers and supporters to respond to ICE raids and other activities.

• True North leaders rebuilt the Weitchpec to Wautec LOC (WWLOC) in Eastern Humboldt on the Yurok Reservation in May. The WWLOC is currently focusing their research on infrastructure and water systems challenges.

• True North leaders collaborated with BHC to form an education work group called Whose Schools? Our Schools! focused on parent education and involvement in LCAP and LCFF work.

• True North leaders formed the Arcata LOC in May and the group is currently in their exploratory phase.

• True North leaders and volunteers from the Rapid Response Network arranged a campaign to free Claudia Portillo (#FreeClaudia), a local mother and business owner, from ICE detention and fundraised for her bond fees. Claudia was released on bond on June 18th and is now back home in Arcata with her four daughters, her siblings and her mother.

• True North leaders held five candidates forums: three for the Yurok Tribal Council elections, one for the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors election, and one for the Del Norte Unified School District election. True North also co-hosted a forum for the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors election with other community groups.

• True North leaders put pressure on BHC to bring their annual Youth Training Academy program, held exclusively in Crescent City, upriver on the Yurok Reservation to serve youth who are most in need of development opportunities. This resulted in a collaborative program between True North, BHC, College of the Redwoods, the Hoopa Tribe and other stakeholders called Think Village. Think Village will launch pilot programs for youth training in media and storytelling as well as construction with a tiny house project this winter.

• The Del Norte Homelessness LOC gained commitment from the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors and the Crescent City City Council to end homelessness in Del Norte County via resolutions. The resolutions included a commitment to join a collaborative group of stakeholders to address the challenge and create solutions.

• True North’s organizing staff held more than 1,500 1:1 conversations in the community.

True North DNATL