Rosa Resendez is raising her children in South Texas, where many families live in dilapidated homes with no sewage systems and with contaminated tap water they don’t dare drink. Entire communities are built on oil and gas lines, and when the rains come, the flooding submerges many homes in toxic waste. Some residents have turned to drugs and violence, making the community less safe for everyone. But Rosa Resendez refuses to give up hope. Despite her lack of material wealth, Resendez works hard to instill in her children the values she believes will help them become strong and successful: respect, dignity, faith, education and family unity. “It’s not that my life is that much better here than in Mexico,” she says. “But it’s better for my kids.”
It takes a village to raise a child, the saying goes, and we as parents and caregivers know this to be true. We are proud of our children and of the sacrifices we have made to see them grow. We want our children to be everything that we are, to model our values and our work ethic, and we want them to be more, to succeed where we have struggled. We know our children cannot succeed unless our villages – our neighborhoods and our communities – are safe and thriving.
In some of our older, more rooted neighborhoods, we make up for what we lack in financial wealth with our deep bonds among neighbors and friends. We are good at telling one another’s stories, the stories of our communities. These stories help us know ourselves and help make us strong. But as the populations change, these stories get lost; many of our communities are newer, and neighbors are less familiar. We must build and maintain bonds that will keep us all safe and secure.
We envision communities that are free of drugs, where children and the elderly feel safe in their schools and in their homes. We acknowledge that drug and alcohol abuse damage our communities, and we seek help in overcoming our addictions. We seek positive interactions with the police, and partnerships to pursue our shared goal of safe and thriving communities.
We see our youth yearning for support and companionship. We strive to offer them career help and activities in the summer and after school so that they will not be drawn into gangs and violence. We know that clean, well-maintained parks and playgrounds will help our communities stay secure and strong, as will good networks of public transportation that get us to school and work.
Fund the transition of vacant lots into parks or green space, particularly in underserved areas.
Provide meaningful incentives for the development of quality, affordable retail businesses in low-income communities.
Improve funding and access to drug and alcohol treatment programs.
Strengthen and enforce gun control legislation, focusing, in particular, on hand guns.
Implement or strengthen community policing initiatives.
Provide seed money and support for entrepreneurs to open banks, supermarkets and other businesses offering essential services in low-income communities.
Increase funding for public transportation.
Provide funding for cleanup and preservation of large tracts of unused or abandoned lands.
Improve federal funding for transportation, particularly public transportation, school reconstruction and other infrastructure projects that can revitalize low-income communities and provide jobs to residents.
Fund alternative sources of energy, and move major polluters away from populated areas.
Strengthen and enforce gun control legislation, particularly for hand guns.