Legacy Weavers Reflect on Weaving in Everyday Life

Deiglis Delgado-Wells (left) & Harman Singh (right)

This year, Fresno DRIVE is selecting 20 weaver awardees to receive microgrants to support their work to build connection and meaning in our community. Two community leaders serving on the selection committee, also known as legacy weavers, share their thoughts on how weaving shows up in everyday life. Legacy weaver Harman Singh, a Central Unified School District trustee and community organizer, explains why weaving is essential to local education and activism and how it's strengthened through shared community spaces. Fellow legacy weaver Deiglis Delgado-Wells, Lowell CDC's Resident Services and Community Engagement Coordinator, speaks to how weavers help their communities grow stronger and more connected.

Harman Singh

In your opinion, why is weaving essential to creating supportive learning environments?

To me, weaving is essential to creating strong learning environments because weaving is about doing, and doing is one of the most powerful ways we learn. It brings together people from different walks of life, each carrying their own experiences, knowledge, cultures and perspectives. We may live in the same city, pass each other every day, or even share the same spaces without ever truly engaging with one another. Weaving creates the environment for those connections to happen. Much like individual threads coming together to create a stronger piece of fabric, bringing people together allows us to learn from one another and build something stronger than what any one of us could create alone. Learning does not only happen in classrooms or formal settings; it happens through relationships, conversations, shared experiences and working alongside one another.

How can weavers utilize community spaces like parks to increase inclusivity?

Parks are some of the most public and accessible spaces we have in our city. They are places where people can gather regardless of income, background, age or status, without many of the barriers that exist in other spaces. That makes parks incredibly valuable for weaving. By hosting programs, community events, recreational activities or even informal gatherings in neighborhood parks, weavers can meet people where they already are. It creates opportunities to engage directly with the residents who live around those spaces, hear what matters to them and build relationships in an environment that belongs to everyone. When we activate our parks in ways that reflect the people surrounding them, they can become more than recreational spaces; they can become places of belonging and connection.

How can local weaving efforts amplify community organizing?

I believe weaving IS community organizing at its core. Organizing begins with relationships: bringing people together, listening to one another, identifying shared experiences or concerns and recognizing that we have the ability to act collectively. Weaving helps establish the trust and relationships that make organizing possible. Someone may not initially see themselves as a “community organizer,” but they may be the person who checks on their neighbors, brings people together for a block gathering, starts a community garden or ensures someone knows about a needed resource. Those relationships create networks, and those networks allow information, resources, ideas and opportunities to travel further. When people are connected to one another, they are also better positioned to advocate for their neighborhoods and take collective action when change is needed.

What are you hoping these microgrants will do to help strengthen community connection in Fresno?

What excites me most is seeing what people come up with when they are given resources to address the needs they already recognize within their own communities. The people who are actively involved in their neighborhoods often have the clearest understanding of what is missing, what people need and what could bring them together. The solution can look completely different from one neighborhood to another, and I think that is part of the beauty of these microgrants. It could mean more events where neighbors actually have the opportunity to meet, connect and check in with one another. It could be a community garden that provides food while creating a shared space. It could be cultural programming, activities for young people, beautification projects or something we have not even thought of yet. Most importantly, these microgrants are not the reason people are weaving. Fresno's weavers have already been doing this work. They have already been bringing people together, caring for their neighborhoods and finding creative ways to meet community needs. These grants are a small investment in that existing work, giving people additional resources to build on what they have already started and potentially turn a concept into something that creates lasting connections.

Deiglis Delgado-Wells

What does weaving mean to you personally, and how is it integral to transformative change?

There are many types of weavers, but what weaving means to me, and what I love most is the natural or organic weaver: someone who transforms personal experiences into powerful stories that inspire people to come together, spark new ideas and create solutions to the challenges in our communities. These weavers don’t just tell stories, they build bridges, bring hope and turn lived experiences into collective action. They remind us that meaningful change often begins with one person willing to share their story.

How is community strength amplified by weaving?

I am so grateful to be part of an organization that believes in the power of community, where people can come together, lift each other up and create positive changes. Together, we are not just weaving stories; we are weaving a stronger community.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the Weaver Awards recipients by subscribing to the Fresno DRIVE newsletter here and following on Instagram @fresnodrive.