When the Advocate Needs Advocacy with Raven Loaiza

June 27, 2022
Marsela Rojas-Salas
[This podcast graphic uses modified images of: Alice Walker from The American Library Association, Angela Davis from Columbia GSAPP, Audre Lorde from Esla Dorfman, bell hooks from Alex Lozupone (Tduk), Grace Lee Boggs from Kyle McDonald, Ida B Wells: Public Domain, Patricia Hill Collins from Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil, Sojourner Truth: Public Domain, Yuri Kochiyama from Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center.]

[This podcast graphic uses modified images of: Alice Walker from The American Library Association, Angela Davis from Columbia GSAPP, Audre Lorde from Esla Dorfman, bell hooks from Alex Lozupone (Tduk), Grace Lee Boggs from Kyle McDonald, Ida B Wells: Public Domain, Patricia Hill Collins from Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil, Sojourner Truth: Public Domain, Yuri Kochiyama from Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center.]

In June 2022, the “Leadership Moves” podcast features Raven Loaiza, a former LEAP fellow from cohort 7. She recently joined the Dayton Mediation Center team, as the Mediation Response Coordinator for the newly developed Mediation Response Unit (MRU). The MRU derived from the City of Dayton’s police reform initiatives and is in place to provide the community of Dayton with on scene response options for non-violent incidents. She brings a wealth of knowledge from her decades of experience in providing trauma responsive services to survivors of human trafficking, sexual violence, and interpersonal violence.

In this episode of the “Leadership Moves” podcast, Raven Loaiza gets personal and  talks with us about what happens when the advocate needs advocacy. Based on her own experiences, she highlights the dehumanizing impact of detention and deportation on mixed status, immigrant families, and even more specifically, how it impacted her family and her work. The conversation that follows encourages us as leaders and advocates to ask ourselves:

What happens when we, the advocates, need advocacy? 

How do we show up for work and ask for support?

 And what happens when we are led by people who teach us that vulnerability is okay, so long as you feel safe being vulnerable?

We recognize that building trauma-informed and resilient organizations takes a group of leaders who are willing to understand the complexities of each individual staff and community members’ lived experience with violence and oppression. Raven asks us to be gentle with ourselves in the journey to becoming trauma responsive leaders, “how in the world are we going to know all, have all the answers to all of the challenges? Do you think that in September of 2019, I knew that when my phone rings, you know, 15 times with this odd number that I’m gonna pick up and my whole life is going to be destroyed. Absolutely not.”  

To hear more about how Raven courageously asked her community for support when she needed them most, listen to her podcast episode on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This project is supported by Grant No 2020-TA-AX-K022 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this program are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice.