Meet AIR’s Champions for Change

My volunteerism absolutely informs my work at AIR. I have experienced firsthand the importance of speaking with religious leaders, village chiefs, and other community members to get their perspectives on upcoming projects—and adapting our plans accordingly.

Living in south Louisiana, we are used to dealing with major disasters on a regular basis. One of the main barriers to community-led disaster response is the lack of access to tools, something that my co-founder and I recognized in the wake of the hurricanes in 2020.

There are tremendous opportunity and wealth gaps in DC, which I experience daily as I move about the city. The sense of the 'us' and the 'them' is easy to slip into. Eating together and being with people consistently provides a way to bridge the gaps even though the gaps remain. It is important and meaningful for both neighbors who start in the kitchen, and those who come in through the front door.

My volunteerism reminds me that in our work at AIR, we need to make the extra effort to bring in perspectives from families that we might not hear from as often. They use the public services that we support through state and federal grants, and we need to understand how to meet their needs successfully.

This experience reminds me to prioritize the voices of young people as much as we can in our work at AIR. Youth have a lot more to give to policy and decision-making in education than we give them credit and space for.

I started a ‘green group’ among AIR’s remote staff, and it’s now self-sustaining. I would like to bring an environmental aspect into more of my work at AIR and am working on some exciting initiatives intersecting climate change and health.

As chair of the AIR Pride employee resource group, my volunteerism makes me think more about how to advocate for our LGBTQ+ employees and how to empower them to advocate for themselves.

I am passionate about Tutoring Chicago because they provide free tutoring to students whose families have financial issues. I grew up in a reduced-price lunch family, so I am very supportive of services that help kids in that situation.

My work at AIR often focuses on the systematic issues at a larger scale. My volunteerism grounds me in the community and people. As a former middle-school teacher, I've seen the trauma my students experienced due to gun violence in their communities—I also have seen how connections to the community and safe spaces can help students grow and succeed.

My advice for someone looking to get involved in their community is to think back to something you loved when you were a child, and then look for organizations that offer related volunteering opportunities.

Volunteering expands my understanding of the role of ‘places and spaces’ in the equity of our communities. This organization serves families with fewer financial resources than the families in bigger peer communities, and my experience has made clear how where a person lives can directly affect their access to resources.

CalSAC’s board recruitment strategy and selection focused on ensuring that people with lived experience in out-of-school time programs would be considered. This made me think about ways we can be more intentional at AIR about involving people with direct experience in the systems we hope to change through our work.

I'm an advocate for localization of international development and am always trying to push for participatory approaches, frameworks, and design in research. People need to not only have a say in how change happens in their communities, but also have the chance to have a hand in it.

Music is a great equalizer and connector across societies, culture, race, age, background, and socioeconomic status. Through music education, students learn how to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

I am fortunate to work for an organization like AIR whose mission aligns with my personal values and inclination to be involved in work and activities that contribute to improving people's lives.

Looking at our own bias and value of status is hard—but essential—to do our work successfully.