We’re growing and changing at TakeAction, and we want to get you caught up! We have three great organizers who are taking on lead roles in our organization. We want you to get to know them and learn a little bit about the vision they have for their new roles.
Amanda Otero and Jessica English have been with TakeAction for sometime, and have recently taken on new roles. Cacje Henderson is brand new to the TAMN team. Keep reading to learn about them!
Amanda Otero, Deputy Organizing Director
I organize because I am pushed every day to live into the truth that I am enough. As a woman and as a light-skin Latina, I have been told time and again that I’m not enough, and because of this, I’ve lived a lot of my life out of a place of shame. Organizing has given me the opportunity to say ya basta, to affirm who I am, to develop a vision for myself.
As TakeAction’s Deputy Organizing Director, I am excited to work more closely with our organizers and leaders to model the kind of organizing we want to see in our state – one where we can take on bold changes, where dismantling structural oppression in our own lives and in our communities is a priority, where we know when to listen and follow the lead of people directly impacted by the issues we’re fighting against. And one where we are in deep relationship with each other – relationships that reach across divides of race, class, and gender.
I will be accompanying and supervising organizers as we reach out to community members, invite them into our work, and develop them as activists and leaders. I will also be leading our leadership development work with our most active leaders, pushing them to build their own bases and grow through political education. I’m thrilled to meet you in the near future.
Cacjectbedimi Henderson, Economy Program Lead
My name is Cacjectbedimi Henderson and I was born and raised in Minneapolis. #Southside I’m a first generation organizer and oldest of seven children. I got my start organizing at the University of Minnesota Campus around issues of inclusion and visibility of multicultural Greek lettered organizations.
My organizing is fueled by the desire to build power in low income communities and communities of color. For too long the system has operated at our expense and it’s imperative that we organize so that it operates to our advantage. I began my organizing journey with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and most recently, did policy work with Educators 4 Excellence.
I’m incredibly excited to join the team at Take Action as the Economy Program Lead. I’m excited to engage our base in the fight to build a multi class/multi-racial movement that will truly benefit working families. When we work together, we win.
Jessica English, Care Worker Membership Manager
My name is Jessica English Teitelman and I am the Care Worker Membership Manager with Care Worker Action at TakeAction MN. I am so excited to be in this role, as an agender person, to build the power of women in our state!
We have so many of our community members living longer than ever before. This means we’ve got a growing community of people aging, but no statewide plan on how we’ll care for them. This has led to more and more women, often family members, stepping up into the role of personal care attendants, but little support is offered to them for taking this on. I am appalled with the current treatment of the workers who care for our most vulnerable.
Let me tell you what this looks like – eighty-nine percent of personal care attendants (PCA) are women. Most PCA’s are not able to earn standard raises, they don’t have paid sick time or basic job safety and securities. That’s why I am energized to lead a team of organizers and care workers who can grow a grassroots base with Care Worker Action and work to end the devaluation of women’s labor, particularly women who are doing the hard work of caregiving in our communities as PCAs.
