Article published on my program coordinator, describing what the Pride Action Team is and what we do.
Hi, my name is Ronnie Swinburn, and most people within my community know me as a public spokesperson who speaks on empathetic activism and personal justice for the local LGBTQ+ Community. I am also a proud member of the Sacramento’s Building Healthy Communities Pride Action Team where we empower others to establish safe and affirming environments for youth who identify along the LGBTQ+ spectrum, those who are perceived to be, and adolescents who support LGBTQ+ youth in general through outreach, training’s also local events. I mention all these charitable aspects of my life because what most people don’t know is the reasons why I do what I do for my city and the youth within it.
A youth and I volunteering to create a welcome sign for all BHC sites attending a three day Queer and Transgender Youth Leadership Summit funded through T.C.E. [The California Endowment].
While growing up in South Sacramento I have encountered various tribulations in which a lot of these situations I have either felt completely “on my own” or “alone” while also enduring external and internal personalized conflicts. Throughout my early adolescent years I did not believe, nor couldn’t possibly imagine believing, in my self and my moral rights enough to make my intuitive voice establish a real significant change towards any of the oppressors I was facing. That and the fact I had absolutely no knowledge in regards to the many community collaborations of authoritative figures in our city who aid, teach, mentor, encourage, and help to expand individual self potentials for the youth within this region that have survived through life altering hardships, such as myself.
A personal article on how I am “creating compassion” for my community.
My junior year of high-school was when my current involvement with my societal environment began. It was the peak of finding out who I genuinely aspire to be also what I would truly want to see happening around me for my community and those within it. Over the last three years I’ve spoke at numerous schools, a few business conventions, at the Capitol twice testifying on behalf of legislation bill AB827, even had an interview with a Sacramento News and Review journalist in regards to acknowledging my efforts. I have been blessed with sharing my individual story of what it was like and is continuing to be like growing into the person I am due to the past I have evolved from. Since being provided with amazing opportunities through organizations like Mental Health America of Northern California, the California Endowment, Equality California, the Sacramento’s Building Healthy Communities Hub and now AccessLocal.Tv; I realize how doing exactly just this, expressing myself and my perspectives on the community I was raised in, is important for my own self healing. Also I am able to expose to others who don’t know what the true extents of oppression are, how showing minor compassionate understanding can improve our society as a whole by uplifting the vital issues from the voices of my generation and younger generations to come.
