This is a recording of a live event featuring Vivian Wan, CEO of Abode Services, who talks about homelessness causes, impacts and solutions.

“We know that permanent housing, combined with supportive services, is the most effective way to end homelessness,” says Wan. “The causes are complex—mental health, systemic racism, poverty—but the solution always begins with housing. Without it, people can’t stabilize their lives.”

Abode Services, a Fremont-based nonprofit with a housing-first approach, has been working on the front lines of this issue since 1988. It has grown from a small but passionate organization into one of the most respected housing and service providers in California. Abode’s programs, which have expanded throughout Bay Area counties, have helped thousands transition from the streets to homes.

There is no single face of homelessness. Veterans grappling with untreated PTSD, young people aging out of foster care, single mothers fleeing domestic violence, LGBTQ+ youth rejected by their families and workers holding down jobs that pay less than a living wage—all find themselves without a place to call home. Each story is unique, but they are all threaded together by systemic weaknesses.

“People assume if you’re homeless, you’re lazy or addicted. That’s a dangerous myth,” says Wan. “We need to be able to see homelessness not as a moral failure of individuals but as a systemic failure. And until we do, we’ll be treating symptoms, not causes.”

This is a recording of a live event featuring speaker Stacey Cross, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country.

Stacy Cross is a seasoned health care executive with more than 30 years of executive and board leadership and entrepreneurial skills in sexual and reproductive health, pharmaceuticals, wellness, and management. She has a very personal commitment to Planned Parenthood’s mission of ensuring reproductive rights and access to health care for all. Both of her grandmothers died far too young—one was only 19—because they did not have access to effective birth control or safe preventive health care.

The event was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark and Union City and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fremont Branch. As an organization that believes in the power of voters to create a more perfect democracy, the League of Women Voters is fighting to preserve the individual rights of women to make their own reproductive choices.

The League of Women Voters has engaged with all significant abortion-related lawsuits and federal legislation since Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The League’s position is that all people should have access to a basic level of quality health care at an affordable cost, including abortion, and that public policy must affirm the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices. In addition to having grave health consequences, the overturn of Roe endangers other individual liberties. In the Roe ruling, abortion is protected as a right to privacy in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the same legal reasoning that the Supreme Court used to uphold the rights to contraception, interracial marriage, and same-sex marriage. The precedent of overturning the constitutional protection of the right to privacy threatens these and other civil liberties as well.

NOW that the 2024 election is over, WHAT does it all mean for our country, our region, our state and cities, our individual lives, and the lives of our fellow Americans?

In this event San Jose State Professor Emeritus of Political Science Larry Gerston analyzed the election results, shared his insights, and answered questions. The League of Women Voters Fremont, Newark, and Union City co-hosted with the American Association of University Women Fremont Branch.

Professor Gerston is a distinguished scholar, author, and media commentator, having written more than a dozen books, many journal articles, and more than 150 op-ed pieces for major California newspapers. He is a frequent on-air political analyst on local, state, and national levels. How timely it is that just a year ago, Professor Gerston published the book, "Trumpism, Bigotry, an The Threat to American Democracy."

Nearly 70 people have died while incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail in the past 10 years. Alameda County has paid out millions of dollars in related lawsuits.

Whether or not one has a personal connection to the Jail, we should all be concerned about what occurs in this government agency that acts in our name.

Meet the KTVU investigative journalist who has been covering this story for 10 years, and hear from the advocates who lobby for change and accountability by establishing an oversight system for the Sheriff’s Office.

Hear international and local climate activists pass along steps each of us can take to help save our planet:

Bill McKibben, an international climate activist, educator, and author, has recorded a special presentation for Tri-City residents expressly for this event that is sure to inspire. He recently helped found Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He is a contributing writer to the New Yorker and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He’s written over a dozen books about the environment and won the Gandhi Peace award and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities.

Amos White is founder and Chief Planting Officer of 100K Trees for Humanity, a Black-led urban reforestation nonprofit. 100K Trees organizes cities and communities to plant trees for climate, equity, and public health. Since its founding in 2019, the 100K Trees organization has raised over $2.5M for tree planting. White was appointed to CALFIRE’s Urban Forestry Advisory Committee in 2021 and the Alameda County Agricultural Advisory Committee, where he presently serves as Urban Ag Chair. He is a 2023 Recipient of the Jefferson Award, a recognition that is given to citizens who have done extraordinary things.

Representing environmentally conscious students at two of our local high schools are:

Jasmine Grisanti, founder, and president of the Washington High School Ecology Club;

Jyoshika Balaraman, captain of the Climate Science Olympiad at American High School, and

Sharva Parma, treasurer of the Science and Eco Club also at American High School.

This is a climate imperative you won’t want to miss.