SACRAMENTO- Me'Lisa James, Founder of MJD shares that one of the most important work experiences she had was being a Manager at the Sacramento History Museum. She found that history education outside of the classroom was limitless.
While running field trip programs, summer camps, education days, classroom outreach, and working with historical reenactors, she made a promise to herself to one day develop and run her own youth program. When she saw the announcement for the Oak Park Black Child Legacy Campaign mini grant she knew she to apply and propose her youth history program.
MJD's office location is in the Sacramento downtown area, in the Capitol district. In the midst of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Me'Lisa reflected on what was going on in society. and knew that protesting in the streets was no longer for her. When the topic of historic preservation and statues flooded the media, she knew that it was time to start developing history programs to help educate people in the region on other paths they can take to reform systems in society in a lasting way. Through navigating the education system to take on career in cultural and resource management.
In the last 5 years companies and organizations have FINALLY started to have the conversation about diversity among staff and leadership. In the History & Social Science fields, professionals are not representative of the cultures in their communities or the people they serve.
Today the world is looking at the immediate solution, but very few are looking to youth as the solution. While it makes sense to fill positions with available professionals, diversity does not exist in the current workforce, especially not in the Sacramento Valley areas. Cities have to invest in programs that mentor youth to excel in K-12 education, college, graduate school, and internships.
This is why MJD created YEHSS: Young Enlightened Historians & Social Scientists. A leadership program for youth of color that creates a pathway to higher education and careers in the history and social science field.
For this mini grant the YEHSS program will be focusing on Sacramento's oldest suburb, Oak Park. Today it is known as Sacramento's Historically Black neighborhood. The program will recruit 5-10 youth to take part in hands on activities that simulate historical preservation skills, and they will meet local and national preservation professionals, and higher education representatives who will speak about the history and social science areas of study and careers.
MJD is excited to be running this one of a kind program, and looks forward to developing future versions.
