Jenesis Diwa

• Activated a ballroom/voguing space in response to multiple hate crimes against trans women of color in our community, meeting with dozens of BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ youth (mostly aged 20-35) every week to practice cultural arts and community care as a grassroots collective
• Established trust fund agreement with a wealthy community elder who works as a cybersecurity engineer for NASA and IBM and expressed interest in supporting SPICE; per donor’s request, created a “funding container,” a detailed plan for how the funds would be used for SPICE programming and systems of mutual aid
• Organized and facilitated dozens of meetings, presentations, events, and campaigns for the collective, including:

– A GoFundMe campaign for the safety and defense of transgender women of color in Sacramento; raising over $6,000 in donations; garnering public and financial support from multiple community organizations, a Sacramento mayoral candidate, CBS News, a local foundation’s fellowship program, and various digital media publications

– Three praxis-based presentations (with in-person and virtual accommodations) on how to mobilize our communities as an emergency response to the rise of fascism in January 2025; equipped with an original agenda and handmade supplementary graphics and visuals; included a collective “Call To Action,” requested to be adopted by the local Chicano & Indigenous cultural center and implemented into their Ethnic Studies curriculum

– A “Vision Day” event to collectively decide if SPICE would move forward as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or remain an autonomous grassroots collective; equipped with an original agenda and handmade supplementary graphics and visuals; included team-building and social activities and homemade food catering

• Organized multiple mutual aid campaigns for individual community members, including:

– A “Call To Action” for a Black trans woman engaged in an unprecedented legal dispute with a multi-billion dollar company; created graphics and informational videos to promote public awareness on social media; organized a dozen community members to show up and support the individual on the court date

– An emergency request by an unhoused Black queer elder who stumbled upon SPICE by hearing our music and performances in public; facilitated a “Call To Action” meeting (both in-person and virtual) with dozens of community members to determine the individual’s food, health, housing, and transportation needs and provide resources accordingly; created social media campaign equipped with graphics; established networks of communication and emergency response (due to the individual’s chronic seizures); secured food supplies and stable housing for the individual

– An emergency request by two Black/Indigenous sisters (ages 12 and 32) escaping domestic violence; connected them to SPICE and signal boosted their campaign on social media; provided a safe space for them to receive mental health support, including youth guidance for the child; established networks of communication and emergency response; helped raise over $400 for both individuals

– An emergency medical request by a Black trans woman/abuse survivor who didn’t have access to health insurance; created social media campaign equipped with graphics; provided resource navigation and helped raise over $200 for the individual

– An emergency request by an unhoused Black trans woman; facilitated a “Call To Action” meeting; helped provide temporary housing until stable housing was secured; provided support for the individual’s substance use disorder

• Created a financial calculating system for determining fund distribution among members of SPICE (from mutual aid, donations, grants, bookings, etc.) based on three main metrics: Intersectionality (individual’s level of marginalization based on class/identities), Labor (how much work did the individual contribute to obtaining funding), and Need (individual’s level of urgency at the time of obtaining funding); reached a collective agreement to implement it and trained members on how to use it; used it to create a sliding scale for SPICE’s booking fee
• Created shared access to master documents, including signed community agreements (accountability system), cumulative timeline of key events, running agendas, resource lists, and archives of hundreds of photos and videos of SPICE events and performances

• Oversaw safety protocols based on OSHA guidelines, monthly inventory reports, and facility maintenance in accordance with the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) guidelines for a local Chicano & Indigenous cultural center
• Created a COVID-19 mitigation plan for the center, equipped with visual flyers posted in each ARPA facility; submitted regular purchase orders of safety equipment (first aid kits, KN95 masks, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, etc.) using spreadsheet documents shared with the Executive Director
• Coordinated dozens of guests and volunteers during weekly facility workdays, leading educational tours of the center (including groups of over 60 students and staff from Washington Elementary School) while presenting its cultural and sociopolitical history; submitted regular purchase orders of food and beverages for volunteers using spreadsheet documents shared with the Executive Director
• Worked with Sacramento city services and private businesses to ensure proper removal of large waste and unsafe materials
• Presented staff updates on the center’s Instagram Live, including upcoming events and facility workdays; answered any questions or comments from the community

• Led biweekly ballroom/voguing workshops as part of the Executive Director’s initiative to serve and appeal to more unhoused BIPOC and transgender youth
• Attended and staffed monthly seminars and events, such as the center’s Transgender Day of Visibility event and a live reading, book signing, and Q&A for “The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition Book” by Bill Mullen and Jeanelle K. Hope; connected with Dr. Hope afterwards to discuss possible collaboration with SPICE
• Worked in liaison with other workshop instructors and community partners/leaders to create an “ecosystem” of care and accountability, offering both political and cultural education and resources to their youth bases

• Led series of ballroom/voguing workshops and events as part of the Director of Student Services’ initiative to bring more BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ visibility to the campus
• Coordinated ballroom/voguing showcase in the central quad on campus for the college’s Queer Visibility Week which fully engaged the present students and staff to participate; delivered keynote speech on the history of ballroom culture and its relevance to today’s political climate
• Negotiated level of performance and political fervor in keynote speech based on sliding scale to determine booking fee with Director of Student Services; Director agreed to the highest booking fee on the scale ($500–$1,500)
• Coordinated Sierra College’s first “Fall Ball,” a formal event for dozens of BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ students and staff

• Engaged with individual donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors to support LGBTQ Connection’s mission; represented the organization at a wealthy philanthropist gala at the winery Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga, CA; coordinated fundraising campaigns and events, tracked the donor database via Airtable, and collaborated with staff to develop compelling content for grant proposals
• Facilitated dozens of in-person and virtual “Best Practices” trainings for hundreds of staff members of schools, health care workers, domestic violence & sexual abuse service centers, and other professional entities to help them better serve and create inclusive frameworks for BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ people
• Managed a budget of $5,000 sponsored by Kaiser Permanente to initiate and organize American Canyon’s first ever Pride event in 2021 (as well as two more Pride events in the following consecutive years) with endorsements from the city mayor, school staff, and other community leaders; featured local artists and food vendors, resource booths, youth music and drag performers, free snack and drink booths for low-income attendees (my original idea which was sponsored by a local hotel), family-friendly spaces (live book reading, face painting, arts and crafts, etc.)
• Provided care by holding weekly office hours at middle and high school Wellness Centers in Napa and Sonoma Counties for 1:1 meetings with students, offering mental health check-ins, social and legal advocacy, conflict resolution, academic and financial support (scholarship, employment, networking opportunities, etc.), followed by thorough note-taking and data entry of each case on Airtable database
• Coached high school students who signed up for our quarterly Youth Leadership Team, teaching them life skills and enabling them to initiate their own projects that make an impact in the community
• Attended multiple conferences including the National Transgender Health Summit and Creating Change Conference in 2023, connecting with others in various workshops, presentations, and seminars and learning about important resources to share with my peers at LGBTQ Connection
• Created agendas, promotional graphics, and outreach strategies for culturally relevant (LGBTQ2S+ and BIPOC-oriented) weekly and monthly social events in accordance with community needs, as well as grant deliverables

• Facilitated fast-paced formal events such as weddings, dinners, and wine/cooking classes and directed guests upon arrival at one of the most prestigious culinary schools in the world
• Transported large amounts of money from the campus store to the local bank via security vehicle to perform deposits and change orders, monitoring student cashiers while they counted money from the safe
• Performed daily security actions (foot patrol, driving the shuttle bus to escort students between campuses, food temperature check, alcohol check, key call, maintenance request, first aid, etc.) followed by logging them into Securitas database with exact time and location

• Worked in liaison with clothing brands across the country to ensure efficient and high-quality delivery of products to their customers (domestic and international)
• Operated industrial textile machinery (sewing, embroidery, heat press, direct-to-garment printer, etc.) using design software to digitize customer designs, followed by daily cleaning and maintenance
• Fulfilled custom bulk orders from local organizations (nonprofits, schools, sports teams, etc.), negotiating price quotes based on cost of labor, ink, garment, and deadline

• Operated and performed daily maintenance of bulk poster and textbook printers and direct-to-garment apparel printers in fast-paced university center print shop on campus
• Worked in liaison with clothing brands across the country to ensure high-quality delivery of products to their customers, negotiating price quotes based on cost of labor, ink, garment, and deadline
• Created a more efficient system of daily tasks, reorganized the workspace, and trained several new employees with supervisor approval

• Supervised at-risk high school students in afterschool entrepreneurial programs to help them create and sell original works of art on t-shirts for the community
• Mentored students on art and visual design principles, as well as branding, marketing, and finding a target market
• Facilitated tabling of t-shirt sales on UCSB campus and nearby neighborhoods