As part of our STRONG funder collaborative, EBCF is highlighting our community partners doing transformative work in East Contra Costa County. Learn more about the program, which has invested $3.5 million in East Contra Costa County over a decade of partnership and collaboration.
For over 20 years, Rising Juntos has organized a deeply connected base of Black and brown residents across six cities in Contra Costa County, building power for racial, economic, and health justice for children and families. Their work spans four focus areas — housing and economic security, immigrant and racial justice, healthy parks and communities, and equitable representation.
“Some of the babies and toddlers that started with us are now leaders in our work,” said Rhea Elina Laughlin, executive director of Rising Juntos. “Grandparents, youth, and parents are all working side by side to build a movement that reflects all of us.” This strength and connectivity drives their current campaigns and ongoing work.
Fighting for Equitable Housing in Contra Costa County
Tenant protections have become a key strategy for keeping families safe, stable, and housed amid the ongoing Bay Area housing crisis. Rising Juntos and coalition partners — including ACCE, Movement Legal, and Raise the Roof — have led this work in Contra Costa County, winning historic tenant protections in Concord and Antioch. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were among the first on the scene advocating for renters, delivering emergency aid and pushing for an emergency rent and eviction moratorium.
Contra Costa County has since passed two renewals of that policy, but the city of San Pablo never formalized its own permanent rent stabilization protections. This spring, Rising Juntos organized door-to-door in San Pablo to place renter protections on the November ballot, calling for rent control, an end to tenant harassment and evictions without a specific legal reason, and added protections for seniors and low-income families. They were met with immediate enthusiasm from residents eager to sign the petition.
Fifty-seven percent of San Pablo’s residents are renters, most of them people of color, and two-thirds are rent-burdened, paying over 30% of their income toward housing. The city also has some of the highest poverty rates in the country — a housing crisis made worse by the pandemic and a growing reason to organize San Pablo families.
Housing Justice on the Ballot in San Pablo
The years-in-the-making effort paid off this summer: San Pablo approved the signatures for the November ballot, giving residents the chance to vote protections into law. If the measure passes, it will secure permanent rent stabilization, anti-harassment, and just-cause eviction protections for the city’s renters.
Throughout the process, Rising Juntos and its partners faced opposition from well-funded housing and property owner groups, but they were able to unify their community around shared needs — a testament to sustained, on-the-ground organizing and a milestone for a campaign that began with families most impacted by the housing crisis.
Verónica, a mother and renter who has called San Pablo home for more than 25 years, is a member of Rising Juntos. Like many tenants in the city, she has experienced unexpected rent increases that have caused her family stress and anxiety as they struggle to make ends meet. Her family is just one paycheck away from displacement or homelessness, she said — a fear shared by too many San Pablo tenants. She has spent the past four years advocating for stronger tenant protections because she believes all children and families need a safe, affordable place to call home.
“I am extremely excited and proud of what our community has accomplished. Together we took action and secured the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot!” she said. “If this initiative passes, it will mean real protections that help keep thousands of San Pablo families in their homes by preventing displacement and homelessness.”
A Holistic Approach to Community Health and Safety
Rising Juntos is committed to improving a range of issues that impact health and quality of life for people of color across Contra Costa County. Alongside its fight for fair housing, the group works to secure rights for immigrant neighbors and build accessible, healthy environments for residents to thrive.
Rising Juntos has been a leading voice for regional immigrant protections, advocating for sanctuary policies, accountability from the Sheriff’s Office, legal support, and investment in immigrant communities — including partnering with the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance to advance a countywide policy limiting cooperation with ICE. In Concord, home to the federal immigration court, Rising Juntos is mobilizing immigrant residents to know their rights, develop family preparedness plans, access financial help, and advocate for stronger local protections.
This commitment extends to residents’ physical environments. In East Contra Costa County, Rising Juntos is conducting a climate justice needs assessment focused on renters, unhoused residents, seniors, and families with young children — those most exposed to extreme heat and pollution. The community-based participatory research project gathers input at apartment buildings, laundromats, and parks, and will inform a community-led campaign for climate health equity investments in Antioch.
In Richmond, Rising Juntos is helping lead a community design process to guide a proposed multi-million-dollar renovation of Nicholl Park, a 21-acre green space and vital hub for city residents. They held a Community Design Day on May 16 and launched Richmond PASOS, a weekly walking and dance club held in partnership with Supervisor John Gioia’s Thrive Thursdays at the park. The project centers people often excluded from local planning decisions and aims to develop the space with amenities for youth, seniors, and families.
Twenty years after first organizing in Contra Costa, Rising Juntos continues to build the kind of power that outlasts any single fight — rooted in family, sustained by community, and carried forward by the next generation.