Hundreds gathered in the 900 building on Woodland Community College’s campus for a Saturday event hosted by the Davis Phoenix Coalition, focusing on organizing the community to rally against actions taken by and being pursued by the current presidential administration.

Local elected leaders, advocates, organizers and parents joined in the ‘Culture of Community’ event on Feb. 8, discussing how individuals can advocate for issues being targeted by President Donald Trump and his administration. Some of those issues included climate, healthcare, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, public education and more.

This event comes in response to many executive orders signed by Trump in the weeks following his inauguration on Jan. 20. Several of these orders target undocumented individuals by authorizing the U.S. Dept. of Defense to use the military to assist ICE in its operations, OK’ing funds to build new detention facilities for deported migrants in Guantanamo Bay, approving mass deportations and even setting up the foundation and framework to end birthright citizenship to children of undocumented persons.

Immigrant communities aren’t the only ones facing admonishment from the Trump administration — the 47th president also signed executive orders demanding doctors to halt in providing gender-affirming treatment for transgender people who are ages 19 and younger. The administration has also removed all language related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as gone as far as to remove the letter “T” from the LGBTQ+ acronym on various government agency websites.

“Culture in Community” is a response from the members of those communities targeted by the Trump administration right in Yolo County — taking a multi-focused approach on responding to a wide array of social justice and equity-related topics.

The event aimed to connect residents with Yolo-based organizations and resources to help address concerns regarding seven different focus areas: climate, system change/dismantling structural bias, healthcare, immigration, LGBTQ+ communities, public education and community building.Davis Phoenix Coalition Executive Director and former Davis Mayor Gloria Partida welcomed everyone with a smile and a nod to Davis Phoenix Coalition’s Chair, Anoosh Jorjorian, who helped organize the various focus areas and breakout sessions.

A handful of Yolo County elected officials were present for the Saturday event, including California State Assembly woman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who provided a Yolo County perspective on a lot of the national-level issues and promised to the crowd that “yes, we’re going to fight him,” referring to Trump and his administration’s proposed policies.

The event also featured a video address from Yolo County’s State Senator Christopher Cabaldon, as well as a keynote address from UC Davis Professor of Law Raquel Aldana, who shared her own experiences of feeling like an outsider as an immigrant living the supposed “American Dream.”

“Thank you to the Davis Phoenix Coaliton for organizing the Culture of Community event this weekend, and to Woodland Community College for hosting,” Aguiar-Curry said after Saturday’s event. “It was a great way for the community to talk about how to advocate for the issues important to us — immigration, education, healthcare, climate and more.”

For more information about the Culture of Community initiative, visit the Davis Phoenix Coalition’s website at https://davisphoenixco.org/.