Berkeley Model United Nations partners with City of Dreams

The Importance of Education in Marginalized Communities

City of Dreams is honored to be selected for the Nonprofit Spotlight for this year’s Berkeley Model United Nations Conferences. Selected out of a pool of Bay Area nonprofits, we were lucky enough to partner for this year’s theme: “The importance of education in marginalized communities.” The Nonprofit Spotlight serves to amplify the work of the selected organization and expose these students to the change-makers in their communities.

City of Dreams' Executive Director, Jaraé, and Program Director, Kareem, at BMUN's Delegate Workshop on October 16.

Berkeley Model United Nations is a traveling high school and collegiate debate team that made history in 1952 as the world’s very first simulated United Nations.  At these conferences, over 2,000 students hold mock-UN sessions to debate relevant international issues. Topics this year will include AI’s implications on healthcare and the legal regulation of cryptocurrency.  This most recent conference was the first of 3 for the year.  Our Executive Director, Jaraé, was invited to share the City of Dreams mission with the enthusiastic students.  City of Dreams will be attending the following BMUN events of the year as the official nonprofit partner.  

To expose the true realities of our work, Jaraé took these students on an immersive experience into the life of a Bayview child.  She told them, “I want you all to take a deep breath and use your imagination. Pretend you are an 11-year-old, 6th grader.”

Jaraé: “You live in the Oakdale community, a public housing development located in the very back of Bayview Hunters Point. Your great-grandpa moved to San Francisco during the 1940s seeking employment and prosperity in California, after the U.S. Navy invested $87 million at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The Housing you live in was built in response to this large migration."

"When you travel to school, 2-3 times a week, you have to take two buses, about a 45-minute ride across town. You could attend the local schools but their reputation for being “bad” schools deterred your parents from enrolling you there. You wake up late, because you’ve snoozed your alarm so many times, and all the adults have left for work for the day. There is no more milk left, so you settle for a bowl of dry fruit loops to start your day. Moseying to the bus stop you pass a memorial where two women and one man were victims of gun violence over the Labor Day weekend; one of them a close friend to your middle brother.” 

"Before you even entered middle school, rumors of you being promiscuous had already begun circling the community so you deal with shame and low-self esteem."

"You're also worried about your eldest brother, currently in jail."

*DING DING DING* The bell rings for the 3rd period.

 "Your 2nd-period teacher stops you, concerned about your progress, and hasn’t been able to get in contact with your parents.” 

She continues: 

“I wish this was a story I made up, but unfortunately it is a true story of many youths we serve at City of Dreams. When the shipyard closed in 1974 many people were left unemployed at a time we saw drug use and violence plague communities across the country. It was later found that the Navy and other occupants of the shipyard after the closure were guilty of polluting the environment and fined for their abuses. Thousands of families and children have been impacted by extreme asthma and cancer because of this."

"When I think about the history and similar stories of communities across America, I realize 'marginalized' is an understatement of the neglect; from redlining practices to anti-literacy laws there has often been systematic, intentional harm caused to communities of color."

"Although there are many aspects of a community that can propel its members, it's education that remains a foundational element.” 

We are honored to be recognized by such a paramount organization, training young minds to resolve the most critical and complicated issues. As these young professionals prepare for their next conference in November, we will continue to challenge unjust norms ourselves, and work to inform communities like BMUN of the change happening alongside them.