When Residents Rise, Communities Thrive

By Coreen Campos, Interim Executive Director of The Children’s Movement of Fresno County, & Melissa Noriego, Community-Based Organization Consultant  

On November 15, 2025, The Children’s Movement of Fresno County, alongside community-based partners and organizations, hosted the 2nd Annual 2025 Resident Summit at Fresno City College, bringing together nearly 400 residents, youth, and community partners for a day of learning, reflection, and an overall call-to-action for year-round engagement! Parents, youth, and elders shared stories, asked hard questions, and built new connections rooted in the belief that lived experience is expertise.  

Committed to seeing Fresno recognized as the best place to raise a family, The Children’s Movement and the Fresno DRIVE Initiative launched the Resident Summit in 2024, with the understanding that community transformation does not begin in an office or board room, but with people who have experienced the realities of Fresno’s challenges — a single parent, grandmother, teen, or family who’s struggling to pay the bills. When we create space to truly listen, we better understand both the issues and the opportunities to advance Fresno’s prosperity for all. When we bring together organizations working with these families and communities and host a summit, co-created BY the very families we aim to serve alongside the organizations that serve them, we begin to stir action.   

The Summit was co-created alongside a broad ecosystem of partners. More than 30 community-based organizations participated by inviting residents, delivering workshops, and sharing resources — reinforcing a shared commitment to resident leadership and year-round civic engagement. Together, they helped residents explore how systems such as education, housing, immigration, mental health, and environmental justice shape daily life, and how collective action can influence decisions that affect neighborhoods.  

The Resident Summit matters because systems don’t shift themselves; they shift when the people most affected by them begin to understand how they work, who makes decisions, and how they can contribute and lead solutions grounded in their lived experiences and felt needs. At the 2024 Summit, residents left with a sense of responsibility, hope for change, and motivation to get involved. A hope restored and a roadmap for action were at the heart of the Summit year-round, Policy Labs launched across multiple organizations. The Children’s Movement is not about owning a service or initiative but about building a movement and an ecosystem of action — so we work with and through our partnered organizations and Fresno neighbors and families!   

The Children’s Movement, alongside partners, ensured the Summit had interpretation provided by Radiant Valley, captured resident perspectives, and provided food, childcare, and community resources, reflecting our commitment to inclusion and creating an intentional space that encourages grassroots leadership. The opening plenary featured resident-led community actions for shared learning on neighborhood revitalization such as the Jackson CDC (Community Development Corporation) neighborhood mural project and community-benefit initiatives like Rural Communities Rising that will generate funding for rural communities and Fresnans for a People’s budget, which empowers community members to both understand city-level budgets and engage in budget policy. Breakout sessions that included education, housing, mental health, immigration, and environmental justice were also featured. These topical breakouts were identified as priority focus areas through a resident council and community-based organizations. Each breakout offered clear tools, pathways for action, and culturally-responsive learning. Together, the plenary, workshop, and closing celebration graduation for residents who participated in the Education Policy Lab created a powerful bridge between knowledge advocacy and community transformation, fueling this work year-round!    

The gathering closed with a powerful reminder: change doesn’t begin in boardrooms — it begins when people recognize their power and move together with purpose. A Summit like this creates a ripple effect of action — one inspired, informed, and skilled neighbor becomes a parent who speaks at a board meeting, a tenant who knows their housing rights and shares with their neighbors, a young person who realizes that they can shape their community through civic engagement and policy advocacy. Those individual experiences, woven together through a Resident Summit and year-round engagement, form social networks that build community power, and that is what the movement is all about.   

Special thanks to our resource fair participant organizations; main stage presenters; treasured board members, especially Dr. Kizzy Lopez, Director of Basic Needs at Fresno City College; and Fresno City College for hosting us!  

To learn how you can help The Children’s Movement of Fresno County, email Melissa Noriego at melissan@tcmfresno.org. 

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You can see the FCC Long Form Conference here:

 

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Read below to see the full list of resource fair participants, breakout sessions, and main stage presenters. 

Resource Fair: 

The resource fair provided a practical bridge between learning and support thanks to the nearly 30 partnering organizations who shared resources!  

• America Works  

• Ampact  

• Aspen Public Schools  

• Building Healthy Communities  

• CalSierra Insurance Services  

• Carebot Foundations Inc  

• Catholic Charities  

• Center for Community Transformation  

• City of Fresno- Office of Community Affairs  

• Comprehensive Youth Services  

• Every Neighborhood Partnership  

• Fresnans for a People's Budget  

• Fresno County Dept of Behavioral Health  

• Fresno EOC Local Conservation Corps  

• Gender Alchemy  

• Go Public Schools  

• Integral Community Solutions Institute  

• Ives Torres Foundation  

• Las Panchas  

• Martin Park, Inc.  

• Pequenos Empresarios  

• SEIU  

• The LEAP Institute  

• Valley Voices  

• Vision y Compromiso  

• Welbe health  

• Youth Leadership Institute  

Breakout Sessions:  

Education:   

• GO Public Schools  

• Ampact  

• Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE)  

• Fresno County Superintendent of Schools   

Housing:  

• Tenants Together  

• Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability  

• Envision Fresno  

  
  

Immigration:  

• United Farm Workers Foundation (UFWF)  

• Catholic Charities  

Environmental Justice:  

• Central California Environmental Justice Network  

  
  

Mental Health:  

• A Hopeful Encounter, Inc.  

• Another Level Training Academy  

Main Stage Presenters:  

• Rev. Anna Marie Lopez, Native Healer and Minister  

• Artie Padilla, DRIVE Initiative   

• Assembly Member Joaquin Arambula  

• Dr. Matthew Jendian, Fresno State Director of Humanics at and Sociology Professor 

• Jose Antonio Ramirez, Rural Communities Rising  

• Rhonda Dueck and Shelly Spencer, Jackson CDC  

• Fresnans for a People’s Budget  

• Shane Lara, Poet  

• Sade Williams, Go Public Schools  

• Dr. Michele Cantwell Copher, Fresno County Superintendent of Schools  

• Emily Cameron, Share Fresno  

• Brandi Nuse-Villegas, Resident Organizer     

• Ricardo Castorena, President and CEO, Binational of Central California