Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauryn Valley.
Hi Lauryn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
SCV For Change started in the summer of 2020 as a response to the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor which sparked national protests. Additionally, a video had resurfaced of City Council member Bob Kellar calling himself “a proud racist”, all of these things made us (a bunch of college students) want to start something concrete. SCV For Change was an idea which turned into events, which turned into donation drives, meetings with members of city council and more. Today we’re focusing on continuing to support the BIPOC communities in Santa Clarita and assisting mutual aid efforts around LA County.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Hell no. The mayor at the time, Cameron Smyth, had called in the National Guard to address a Black Lives Matter protest in town that took place in early June (we didn’t organize it). They guarded the mall with riffles. When we had our first Sit Out outside of city hall, we encouraged people to call in demanding city council members to remove “proud racist” Bob Kellar. We sat there as city council members Laurene Weste, Marsha McLean, and Bill Miranda defended the comments made by Kellar. We’ve had one of our protest attendee’s attacked, police called, and the attacker comforted while the victim was talked out of pressing charges. We host a weekly protest and are constantly harassed by drivers over the signs and flags we hold. We’ve been trying to get a community fridge in town for months now. Businesses are scared of upsetting the city and attracting the “homeless”. Our own food pantry ceased communication after we created a presentation for their board in December. We were later told they didn’t have the “space”. The food pantry has close ties to city council, specifically former member proud racist Bob Kellar.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
SCV For Change is an organization that is focused on creating a more inclusive community and more transparency within our local government. Our main focus is creating and aiding our community within Santa Clarita and LA County. Our work extends beyond our weekly protest as we’ve been assisting in mutual aid efforts in and around our valley. We gained a lot of recognition from our Juneteenth event we put on this past summer and our Sit Outs outside of city hall where we encouraged people to call in for the removal of Proud Racist Bob Kellar and question the budget spending toward the LASD. We’re still very much so finding our footing as we’re continuing protests but also trying to have a long-lasting impact. Being a source for information, specifically in regards to what our local government and school boards are doing is very important to us. Transparency is something that people forget our elected officials have a duty to uphold. Before June, I had never thought about our cities budget and now I watch city council meetings and stay up to date on their actions because it matters. Getting people involved locally is so crucial, it’s where you can affect the biggest change, we want people to always be aware of their power.
I think I’m most proud of the community we’ve not only been able to support but build. We’re not a nonprofit and all of our funding is crowdfunded donations. We’ve been fortunate enough to have people who can’t be on the ground financially support us which means a lot. Over the holidays, we were able to donate money to a couple of families who had been hit hard by the lack of resources provided throughout this pandemic and we can’t take credit for that. We’re able to give back due to community support and that’s an amazing thing to witness. When we started SFC, we weren’t the only organization starting but looking around now, we’re the only one still as active or even still together. I think that’s a testament to who I am as well as who my counterparts Megan Duncan, Sebastian Cazares, and Jess Conrad are. This isn’t a trend. We all woke up this past year, between the appalling inaction taken by our government to assist with Covid-19 relief, unemployment, billionaire bail outs, and BLM protests there is no going back to before. We’re wide awake now we want to change and we’re not stopping until we have it.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I think it always surprises people to learn that none of us knew each other beforehand. We all met through protests and actions this past summer and started organizing along the way. None of this was planned when we started. When we say anyone can be an organizer, we mean it. You just need to start and you’ll find people, I swear good people always find good people.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: scvforchange.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scvforchange/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scvforchange/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/scvforchange?lang=en
Image Credits:
Megan Duncan
