Our History

"Wake Up California" - The Founding Years: 1984 - 1991

From 1961 to 1983, California Tomorrow existed as an influential environmental planning organization. In 1984, the organization was reestablished in its current form by Lewis H. Butler, a former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, dedicated conservationist, and past director of the Peace Corps in Malaysia. Recognizing the increasing cultural and ethnic diversity of the state and the pending impacts of immigration, Butler sought to create an organization that could bring people from different ethnic and racial communities together to raise awareness of the impacts of the demographic shift and call for strategies to lessen inequality and promote equity. The first Board of Directors reflected the geographic and ethnic diversity of the state.

The goal in the early years was to frame important issues related to California’s future, amplify those issues in public debate, build new coalitions around a vision of a fair and inclusive society, and nurture a new generation of leaders who would develop strategies for engaging the involvement of individuals and organizations from across the community, a first step toward strengthening democracy. Three primary projects characterized this era: the California Tomorrow magazine, a Fellows Program, and a major action research project on Immigrant Students.

Edited by Bruce Kelley, the California Tomorrow Magazine was a quarterly journal devoted to providing a public forum on issues such as the impact of immigration policy on individuals and communities, mental health services for diverse populations, environmental racism, and a variety of topics related to children and education. The magazine sought to give voice to a diversity of writers. It was published for 4 years.
The California Tomorrow Fellows Program was inspired in part by Lew Butler’s experience with the Peace Corps. Fellows spent a year designing and participating in projects connected to the CT mission. These included studies of: African American youth employment, barriers to naturalization for immigrants, the state’s foster care system, inter-ethnic dialogue in Los Angeles, and the integration of youth services in Fresno and Santa Clara Counties. Journalism Fellows created a public radio series as well. In addition to social impact, equal importance was placed on the collaboration and learning gained through the Fellowship experience. More than 30 Fellows participated in the program over six years.
In 1986, Laurie Olsen joined California Tomorrow to launch a major action research project, The Immigrant Students’ Project, documenting the experiences of immigrant students and the challenges posed by swiftly changing demographics to our public schools and educators. Utilizing demographic research, extensive interviews with students, educators and parents, and transcripts from passionate public hearings and “speak outs,” the project resulted in the publication of Crossing the Schoolhouse Border: Immigrant Students and the California Public Schools. With new information on the numbers of immigrant students in California, their well-being, and recommendations on how schools could be more responsive to the needs of immigrant students, the book quickly became a “classic” among educators and schools of education nationally. The project approach became a template for what would become California Tomorrow’s trademark action research efforts.

By 1989, the organization had expanded significantly, opening up a Los Angeles office under the direction of a new Executive Director, Linda Wong.

The Immigrant Students Project hosted conferences throughout the state, and generated new research and publications on promising practices, newcomer programs, and immigration policy. A broader “Schools for a Diverse Society Project” built upon the project, addressing the need for more inclusive curriculum and structural reform in schools to address inequities.

A new focus on collaborative services for children and families sought to create more comprehensive and accessible supports for the diverse communities of the state. Core to this work was an understanding of the need for attention to racial, cultural and linguistic diversity in service delivery. California Tomorrow organized community-wide collaboratives in Fresno and Santa Clara, served as a clearinghouse of information nationwide, provided technical assistance, and advocated for public policies to promote interagency collaboration.

The 1990s: CT Responds to Political Backlash and Focuses on Institutional and Organizational Change

By the 1990s, politicians, community leaders and professionals in public institutions were well aware of the increased cultural and linguistic diversity of the state. Many were searching for the strategies and approaches to serve new populations. Others resisted the changes. Some saw in the demographic shifts the opportunity to further political agendas. The California Tomorrow board determined that California Tomorrow should monitor the impacts of a growing backlash against immigrants and diversity, and assert the conviction that diversity enriches California’s communities. The need for our specialty was becoming more and more apparent - helping institutions engage in the deep work of changing policies and practices to become more responsive to diversity, more equitable and inclusive.

The Fellowship Program ended, and we closed the Los Angeles office. The California Tomorrow magazine ceased quarterly publication, becoming instead a biannual volume, California Perspectives. Under the co-directorship of Laurie Olsen and Hedy Chang, the organization focused on advocacy, model development, in-depth training, technical assistance and new research in several key sectors impacting children and families: K-12 public education, early childhood education, and building community capacity for inter-ethnic work.

Research, Monitoring, Model Development and Technical Assistance
A major research project monitored the impacts of a new state school reform effort called “School Restructuring”, and found that the lack of expertise on issues of culture, language, immigration and equity were resulting in the bypassing of the needs of many communities of color. Working with The Achievement Council and the Multicultural Collaborative, California Tomorrow created the Community Schools Initiative, an inter-ethnic mobilization of parents, students and educators to improve the schools in south Central Los Angeles. Our Early Childhood Education Project published a major research report, Affirming Children’s Roots, on the extent of diversity in early care and education throughout the state.

The need to enact principles of equity and inclusion led to publications documenting models for doing so, as well as several major demonstration projects. The Early Childhood Education Project designed and piloted dialogue and training models for the staff of early childhood programs and parents of young children. The High School Immigrant Students Demonstration Project involved partnerships with three high schools in Salinas and Hayward over several years to build new models for immigrant and English Learner students. A new Equity Centered School Reform Project extended that model into middle schools and emphasized issues of racial equity. Community Building Principles for Action were developed. All of these resulted in publications, toolkits and strategies to share with the field.

Advocacy
The focus on changing institutions that began in the early 1990s continued to develop. By the mid 1990s, a new strategy was added: advocacy. As a political backlash against immigration and increasing diversity began to be felt in California, California Tomorrow could not pursue our mission without becoming more explicitly and actively involved with advocacy. When Proposition 187 was placed on the state ballot, proposing an end to public services for undocumented immigrants, California Tomorrow published a “broadside” analysis of the harmful impacts that would result. By the second half of the decade, a new wave of divisive ballot initiatives appeared. California Tomorrow participated actively in mobilizations to oppose Proposition 209 and 227. Following the passage of 227, California Tomorrow played a central role in organizing a new statewide coalition, Californians Together, on behalf of English Learners in California schools.

An emerging national role for California Tomorrow
Increasingly, California Tomorrow was being called upon to provide technical assistance and training, as well as policy development support for schools and community building efforts nationwide. As the rest of the nation began to experience the demographic changes that had impacted California, our staff members were increasingly called upon to provide consultation and expertise to private philanthropy, to major policy and intermediary groups seeking to respond to increasing diversity. In the 1995 Strategic Plan, the CT board officially noted the national scope of California Tomorrow’s work, and our charge to bring the lessons from California to national audiences.

In 1999, in response to a request from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, California Tomorrow launched a national research project on access, equity and diversity in After School Programs. This research led to a new project area, the After School Project.

The New Century: New Partnerships, Major Contracts, New Media and Communications

By the turn of the century, California Tomorrow’s theory of change was well developed, and our set of strategies well-honed. The Early Childhood Education Project, the K-12 Equity Centered School Reform Project, the Immigrant Students Project, a Building Community Capacity for Equity and Diversity Project, and the After School Project were solidly established. The reputation of our research and on-the-ground work resulted in new partnerships, more requests for technical assistance, and new opportunities.

In 2000, Greg Hodge became CEO of California Tomorrow, partnering with Laurie Olsen as the Chief Program Officer. To a continuing focus on research, policy and model development, institutional change and advocacy, California Tomorrow added a more explicit component on communications.

In 2001, California Tomorrow adapted our theory of change, strategies and tools to work with a national network of community foundations through a new initiative called the Leading by Example Network. The prior two decades of work on diversity and public education led to a new national project, the “Bilingual Children, Families and Communities Project”, which documented the creation of schools that aimed to connect young people to their heritage and to affirm their identities as bilingual, bicultural youth with the skills they need to navigate across different cultures and communities. It was the start of a ten year strategy to change the public discourse on diversity to a positive, additive paradigm, a strategy that brought us into the realm of civic campaigns, youth organizing, and the development of new curricular and school models. And, the increase of young people from diverse communities making their way into higher education led to a new program focus on the community college system in California.

California Tomorrow began to expand and strengthen partnerships with other organizations including, for example, Californians for Justice, Active Voice, the Consortium of Community Foundations for Youth, the Community Network for Youth Development, and coalitions such as Californians Together, Coalition for Quality Education and others.

As the demand for our expertise grew, a new business plan for the organization delineated a new focus on fee-for-service contracts for technical assistance in areas we had already honed, in addition to a continuing reliance on foundation funding for new model development, research and ground-breaking work. Major contracts included California First Five Commission, the California Department of Education, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, among others.

A new communications plan revived the California Tomorrow newsletter as a vehicle for framing the demographic changes facing the state. Projects began to develop policy briefs and working papers in addition to our continuing active publications program. Videos, CD Rom and other technology were added as creative, effective mediums for sharing our experience and project work. The website was redesigned to serve as a detailed introduction to California Tomorrow’s philosophy and vision, areas of focus, publications, and as a resource for educators, parents, policymakers and members of the media who are concerned with issues related to demography, opportunity, education and equity.