NFWM/YAYA would like to welcome Antonio Franco as the new Florida YAYA Coordinator.
“I am Antonio Franco and I have been blessed to be the new Florida YAYA Coordinator.
I have been a member of YAYA since 2009 and have taken many leadership roles in coordinating and organizing farmworker awareness events, film screenings, meetings, and peaceful demonstrations.
I am passionate about the farmworker struggle and I look forward to building a network of young people who will educate and mobilize people from their community to support farmworker led initiatives. I look forward to working alongside all of you. Please feel free to contact me anytime”
You can contact Antonio at afranco@nfwm.org
*********************************************
NFWM/YAYA would also like to welcome Nico Gumbs as our new Florida YAYA organizer.
“My name is Nico Gumbs and I am a Florida YAYA organizer for the National Farm Worker Ministry. I’m a self-identified compassionate activist for social justice! While completing my B.A. in Philosophy with a minor in Women’s Studies, I was highly involved in my community as well as, dedicated to implementing intersectional approaches to social justice issues. When organizing with others I have found that ‘working for’ disenfranchised communities is not enough, nor does it call for institutional change, but that ‘working with/among’ these communities facilitates the development of relationships over societal barriers. I believe this differentiation is pertinent to community organizing because ‘working with/among’ truly opens a dialogue with divergent communities that cultivates an atmosphere for compassion, which is what I have found to be necessary for a social justice discourse. In the last year, I have been organizing with the farm worker movement and have noticed that these community organizations truly envelop the terms passion, solidarity, and so forth not only in their organizational procedures, but also in their own communities. YAYA has given me the opportunity to foster my organizing skills by investing in my leadership abilities as it applies to hosting, coordinating, and facilitating in events, rallies, and fundraisers.”
You can contact Nico at ngumbs@nfwm.org