I am Chara Swodeck; a wife and mother, business owner, community collaborator, problem solver and dreamer; bringing ideas to life with goals, milestones, and conditions of satisfaction.
I am honored to share my passion for effective collaboration within our beautiful city and community. I am grateful to call the City of Pomona my home. My husband and I moved to Pomona shortly after our first anniversary in 2003 and chose to invest our time, energy and talents in our neighborhood. We have two children, both products of our Pomona public schools, and remain actively involved in ensuring equity and opportunity for every family in Pomona. Connecting-the-dots and creating impactful experiences has been part of ‘who I am’ since I was a child. I found a connection volunteering for many years as Pomona PTA Council President (over 23 schools) in our local school prioritizing equity in education and instilling a sense of pride and ownership within our students and their families. This led to a deeper call to serve in various capacities throughout our community.
My community efforts have been focused towards forward movement, sustainability, and successful development of our neighborhoods, businesses, and culture; something we create collectively, working together. There is an African word, “Ubuntu” which can be translated as “I am, because We are.”
The phrase “Community Changes Everything” has been my mantra for many years, and has led me to imagine and manage community events like the Pomona Children’s Festival, Kwanzaa Joy Celebration at Fairplex, Pomona PTAs Summer Training, 500BlockPomona Art Walk, Shop Downtown Pomona, Girl Scouts Takeover at LA County Fair, and support others’ ideas like the Pomona Placemaking workshops, Juneteenth Celebrations, Pomona 5K/10K, and serving as Volunteer Coordinator in the last 11 Pomona Christmas Parades. I currently serve as a board member for the Child Development Center at Fairplex, Service Unit Manager for Pomona Girl Scouts, and Historic Preservation Commissioner for the City of Pomona.
I ran for City Council in 2020 and received 43.51% of the votes. Since then, I became Chair of the Historic Preservation Commission and have worked to ensure clearer design guidelines were created for the community, as well as fought to be more inclusive in the history we protect and share.
I continue to work with the Mayor and other community leaders to continue the COVID Action Committee's vision and mission, stay on track and continue to support our many needs within the community. I am currently the Chair of the Vision & Planning subcommittee. I worked with the City to build Pomona Connect as a way to ensure even the City’s "harder to reach" residents and businesses had access to resources and support, especially during the pandemic. We helped connect residents to food relief, mental health, and housing relief (over $2.3M in funding to help tenants pay rent, the only program which helped both tenants and property owners).
I continue working with Anti Human Trafficking organizations and Pomona Police at Montvue every month and engaging with residents along Indian Hill to find real solutions to this challenging issue. We have worked on signage, programs, and awareness of the impact of trafficking to both our residents and the victims. We have worked alongside groups like Project Resilience, Project Sister Family Services, Every ONE Free, and more.
In 2020, several local Black community leaders and I convened with Mayor Sandoval to find ways to better support Pomona’s African American population. The need for a space to educate, celebrate, and uplift the community came up. This led to a small group of us starting the African American Advisory Alliance - Pomona4As (a 501c3 Non-Profit) and opened the Alliance Cultural Community Center in Downtown Pomona to provide a space for programs, collaborations, and celebrations to amplify the voices and beauty of the Black community.
I have worked on numerous projects over my years in Pomona, helping connect-the-dots, and have built solid relationships with community leaders, elected officials, and City staff, which is why I have been endorsed by Mayor Tim Sandoval, Vice-Mayor Victor Preciado, Councilmembers Nora Garcia and John Nolte, as well Community leaders like Dr. Jose and Rose Calderon, Three Valleys Water Director Carlos Goytia, Tribal Chairman Tony Cerda, Farmer Stephen Yorba (Lopez Farm), Planning Commissioners Dr. Gwen Urey, Dr. Kyle Brown, Yesenia Miranda Meza, and Alfredo Camacho. I have also served in numerous capacities of placemaking, restructuring and organizing over the past 20 years.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, in the Crenshaw and Inglewood areas and spent my junior high and high school years in Pasadena, graduating from Blair High School - Health Careers Academy (where I received my Certified Nursing Assistant certification at 16 years old) and awarded my Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Marketing from Azusa Pacific University in 2001.
Our family has been committed to not only give back, but also engage and fully immerse in advocating for equitable policy for our neighborhoods in art, business, education, housing, and public safety. This moment in history is bigger than any one of us individually. I would be honored to represent my community in this capacity. Together, we have the opportunity and responsibility to build an impartial and just future for our entire district. I believe in Pomona, the community I love and proudly call home.
留言