Rev. Celeste's guest is Rev. Jeffrey Kealoha Ryan, the Senior Minister and Spiritual Director of the Riverside Center for Spiritual Living (riversidecsl.org), and a social justice advocate. He seeks to connect deeply, live consciously and live fiercely. He and his husband, Ed Ryan, met at a spiritual class in Las Vegas, NV.
Riverside CSL is diverse and wanted to be more socially active. Rev. Jeffrey's passion came from his grandmother, who taught him compassion. Observing the constant caretaking, compassion and being in service was part of his family and the way they nurtured. He's always been an advocate of making things better. He's always had a sense of wanting to give back.
Shortly after Rev. Jeffrey came to the Riverside CSL community, it was just after the children were separated from their parents at the border. The Riverside community put together a vigil for "Families Belong Together" (https://www.familiesbelongtogether.org/) with the Riverside Resistance Revival Chorus and other interfaith organizations. Out of that, he works with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. They go to Adelanto Detention Center (http://adelanto-immigration-inmate-info.com/), the state's largest detention center. They accompany asylum seekers to help secure freedom, helping to secure bonds and doing vigils. Riverside's Social Justice program expanded into their neighbors who are experiencing homelessness, foster care, and foster youth. The intersectionality of those things have common roots. They work with other non-profit organizations.
Rev. Celeste remembers there being a homeless issue there when she was an intern there 15 years ago. Riverside is a Housing First city. They focus on getting residents into permanent housing. Rev. Jeffrey was one of the original board members of the Riverside chapter of Family Promise who helps family experiencing homelessness. (https://www.facebook.com/FamilyPromiseRiverside/). They also work with Path of Life, the largest local shelter/agency that provides wraparound services (https://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/cgi-bin/id/shelter.cgi?shelter=11816). Now they have the Office of Homeless Solutions working with Path of Life, with congregations and the three universities in the area that have social work programs. The social work interns are being imbedded in the communities and providing outreach from within the communities themselves.
Riverside CSL has a social work intern from one of the universities. The intern is helping to create programs, find solutions and provide services. Riverside CSL sits in a neighborhood and is also right next to Fairmont Park (the largest park in the city). The intern is modifying the Riverside CSL campus to make it safer for their neighbors as well as for the neighbors experiencing homelessness.
They have been doing conscious conversations at Riverside CSL, a diverse and inclusive community. They work with Inland Congregations United for Change (https://icucpico.com/) and Time Done (https://timedone.org/) to support our brothers and sisters and siblings who have been impacted by the system and who have been released back into society, helping to support them with providing services, working on expungement issues and working to change policy and at the state and local level as well.
Rev. Celeste appreciates Rev. Jeffrey being an ally to her. Diversity and Inclusion was a part of his life growing up in Hawaii. He started his racial awareness work while teaching in a Japanese high school where there was overt and covert racism. He used the PBS documentary series, "Eyes on the Prize" with Japanese subtitles and using Jane Elliott's experiment giving them different colored arm bands to educate them on racial issues.
Rev. Celeste shares her poem entitled