Why should we care?
SCS’s ability to provide a quality, equitable education is being undercut by high teacher turnover and year-long teaching vacancies, as well as significant maintenance deficiencies within the schools, all of which leads to higher financial, educational, and health costs. A lack of access to wraparound services provided by qualified social workers, psychologists, and nurses inhibits the successful treatment of trauma or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). Abuse, neglect, and trauma significantly increase the likelihood of suspensions, juvenile criminal behavior, and incarceration. With a median age four years below the national average, Memphis’s population can support economic development, but only if we provide children in our community access to opportunities and support.
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Equipping people of faith and goodwill to organize communities for systemic change through collective action.
Zyanya Cruz
Organizer
Zyanya Cruz was born in Southern California, and was raised in Memphis. She has grown up in ceremony and is very involved in Native American Church in Mississippi, with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, who as the original stewards of this land, have welcomed her and her family. She graduated with honors from Overton High School and Cum Laude as a first generation student from the University of Memphis. She is an organizer working with the RACE task force and the Education task force.
She is a jingle dancer, former high school educator, and community organizer who lives for her people and is committed to decolonization, cultural preservation, and the sacred resistance our communities and of all Indigenous peoples locally and across the globe.
