April 2025 | Message from Fresno DRIVE Director Artie Padilla

Hello friends,

Happy April!  Hope you are enjoying our mix of rain, wind, and warmth. It’s Spring! Okay, I shared in my opening message last week that this month and next, we are going to put some thought into DRIVE’s community engagement strategies. This month, we are going to focus on the amazing community conversation we had with Manuel Pastor and Chris Brenner, authors of Solidarity Economics.  If you missed being there, we will summarize our time with them, and we’re also going to look forward to our May 6 DRIVE gathering, where we’ll be discussing the value of building Social Capital. We will be showing segments of the documentary, Join or Die, which highlights the work of Robert Putnam and his decades of research on why having a strong network of friends and allies is not only healthy for an individual but also helps build a thriving community.

Thanks for your continual connection, 

Artie Padilla