The Semilla Project is 501 (c)(3) center of change and transformation focused on leadership development and capacity building led by BIWOC for BIPOC/BIWOC youth through identity, culture, wellness and land based learning.
Our values wellness, land based relationship, leadership development, intersectional, intergenerational, compassion, love and accountability.
Our vision is to prepare a strong generation of BIWOC leaders that will be developing the strategies to achieve cross-movement liberation, and the policy platforms that a new generation of candidates in public positions can adopt and push forward.
Our mission is to provide the skills, knowledge, and community framework to prepare the upcoming leaders using a relevant practical critical framework approach that provides applied and tangible community solutions to address the problems in the communities of color around climate justice, racial and justice equity.
The Beginnings
The Semilla Project came to live as a need in the immigrant rights movement in New Mexico through New Mexico Dream Team (NMDT) to embrace and understand the vital role of BIWOC leadership in our movement as part of an effort to be cross movement and intersectional with the solutions of the problems of communities of color have to deal every day. BIWOC children, youth, adults, and elders voices and leadership must uplift and centered their constant and valuable contribution in the frontlines, strategy and building aspect of movements towards liberation as part of the whole world active role of healing and finding truth and reconciliation in the state of violence that we live in. We recognize as movement leadership development is not just needed in the teen or youth but its cycle of learning where BIWOC are key to bring the perspective and solutions to dismantle the oppressive, misogynist and capitalist systems that are impacting our communities through climate, water, land and food.
Theory of Change
If BIWOC are centered and lead on providing leadership development to upcoming generation on the importance to achieve systematic change starts by reconnecting, understanding, reclaiming culture, identity, wellness and their relationship with land then organizing, transformation and liberation becomes cross-racial, gender fluid, cross-movement by nature and ultimately change and advancement of well being is possible for ALL.
Meet Our Project Leads:
TABITHA KING
Trainer, Facilitator, & Curriculum Innovator
AMANDA KING
Advocacy Digital Narrative Innovator
MAGGIE SEAWRIGHT
Storytelling, Digital, & Creative Content Innovator
JOSUE DE LUNA
Climate Policy Innovator
The Semilla Project Programs:
SemiYA!- Youth Activation through Outdoors, Land Based Learning and Wellness. We educate, engage, train and activate BIPOC youth in developing community policy recommendations for the different levels of government; neighborhood, school boards, city council, statewide, and tribal. This program has been a success collaboration with immigrant and undocumented membership of NMDT UndocuHealing and native youth from Native American Community Academy. We already activated over 50 youth through this program.
Re/Generation is a cross-racial coalition of six organizations representing New Mexico’s diverse Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), immigrant, and refugee communities. We seek to transform systemic racial inequity through a place-based, scalable climate justice initiative that will support regenerative economies in our local communities while building solidarity with the global movement. New Mexico is a borderland state, with the U.S.-Mexico border to the south and twenty-three sovereign Indigenous nations within. With an extraction-based economy—and a high reliance on privately-run prisons—our communities have some of the highest poverty rates, pollution exposure, and poorest health outcomes in the country. Re/Generation is a decolonizing project that begins with preparing youth leaders to tackle racial and climate justice issues in their own regions; shifting the public narrative to center BIPOC communities; and accelerating a movement toward a just economy that sustains both our planet and our people.
COsecha Forward – BIWOC leadership, organizers, educators, curriculum developers and strategist will provide its experiences on organizing, campaigns and advocacy to ensure the center of leadership development and capacity building has a holistic overview for the yearly cohort of 20 BIWOC that will start this summer to prepare themselves for being campaign managers, field managers, narrative expertises, advocates and identify the potential candidates for City Councils, School Board Elections and run Ballot Initiatives.
