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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JULY 17, 2022
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Chandler Pride marks a year of helping parents BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
Every month Chandler Pride hosts a meeting where parents who are dealing with their child coming out as LGBTQ+ can get support. “I show up,” said Schroder, who is president of Chandler Pride. “I have been there in the past alone waiting for someone to come join me and sometimes they don’t come.” Chandler Pride is celebrating its first anniversary as an advocacy organization this month. Schroder, and the group’s secretary, Jennifer Morrison, know what it’s like to go through that coming out process as a parent. Schroder is the mother of a transgender child, and Morrison the mother of a gay child. “We’re fortunate enough to have, I think, maneuvered through the coming out process with our children,” Morrison said. “Not that it isn’t challenging, and shocking, and sometimes difficult. But we managed to come through that in a very positive way.” The group, which officially became a nonprofit in July 2021, has staged a Pride event, put together a candidate forum, and hosts the monthly Parents & Ally support group. But some of the most important
Eduarda Schroder and Jennifer Morrison lead Chandler Pride, which helps parents of LGBTQ+ children. (David Minton/Staff Photographer) work they do, Schroder said, is to connect people. For example, a group of student activists wanted to protest the city’s refusal to adopt a non-discrimination ordinance (NDO) to protect its LGBTQ+ residents. She helped student leaders from different campuses connect so they could work on it together.
Same with students concerned about mental health. Since LGBTQ students are more likely to die by suicide, they decided to get involved in that issue as well. “There are other organizations in the community that we are pulling in to our events,” Schroder said. “And then from here on, one of the focuses would
be to continue to have conversations around youth mental health, youth homelessness specifically. “Then look around and see what potential partners we can develop, who might be interested in, in contributing to alleviating, if not solving, the problems.” Schroder said one moment where she felt like Chandler Pride was making a difference came during its candidate forum. Council candidate Farhana Shifa gave the group credit for helping her think differently about the NDO issue. Chandler is the largest city in Arizona without a NDO to protect its LGBTQ residents. While she did not commit to voting in favor of one, Shifa said that if shown enough evidence that one was needed, then perhaps she would be willing to consider it. That was a bit of an evolution from her answer at the Chamber of Commerce forum, where she said she would vote against one if given the chance. Three Council candidates favor a NDO: Angel Encinas, Matt Orlando and Jane Poston. So does mayoral candidate Ruth Jones. Mayor Kevin Hartke and Shifa are against it. Council candidate Darla Gonzalez has not taken a position. Shifa credited Schroder with helpSee
PRIDE on page 47
EV Dream Center helps people in need in many ways BY KEN SAIN Staff Writer
Jovani Cedeno didn’t have to look far to find the inspiration for the nonprofit that he and his half-brother, Dan Gonzalez, started in Chandler. It was their mother. “I took my mom out once when we went door knocking, and she got teary because I was giving them the spiel of what we’re doing here,” Cedeno said. “And she says, ‘Man, if someone came to my door, and told me, they’re going to pick you up from school, they’re going to feed you. You’re getting in sports, you’re doing counseling, and they’re dropping you off. I would have signed all five of you up really quick.” Cedeno and Gonzalez started the East Valley Dream Center just before the pandemic began. Their goal was to help people get off of government assistance and to become thriving members of the community. “So my brother and I, we grew up with inner city, Chicago, single mom and all that and welfare, public aid, Section 8, and very poor and just kind of grew up in inner city noticing how she struggled. We chose not to [get involved with] the gangs, the drugs and we wanted to grow up and do something in the community.” Gonzalez moved to Chandler and Cedeno soon followed. They wanted to do something to help those in the
The East Valley Dream Center offers an app where residents can request a delivery of food, household essentials and cleaning supplies. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)
community, but figured how much help was really needed in the Chandler-Gilbert area. “But then we found [problems in] the downtown Chandler area,” Cedeno said. “And so we had to do something. So three years ago, it was him, myself and a friend, we got together in my living room and say, let’s just start a nonprofit up.” They went to Costco and bought some food and then went to a park to hand it out to folks in need. “It kind of grew from there,” Cedeno
said. They were soon hosting block parties in parks and attendance was growing. But then the pandemic struck and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said block parties were no longer a good idea. “But we didn’t want to stop,” Cedeno said. “So, we kind of went back to the drawing board.” They decided to knock on doors, mostly in public housing complexes. “It was incredible,” he said. “We got to know these families.”
All of this was before they qualified for any grants, so they were managing on about $1,000 a month in donations. The door knocking became so successful, they now are getting grants and are much more sophisticated in what they offer. First, they have their own app. It allows the people they help to let them know what household goods they need and which they don’t. They also have a center on Pecos Road where they hold financial literacy courses, teaching people how to manage their money. They pay people who attend the four courses to encourage them to stick with it. The East Valley Dream Center also gets to know the children, and develops programs for them. There are classes during the week, and then group outings, including going to see a movie. The City of Chandler recently awarded a block grant of $10,000 to the East Valley Dream Center. They have become such an important part of the community, Cedeno says the schools will often call them when there is a problem with one of the students in their program. “When the school has a hard time, they contact us saying, ‘Can you really go knock on the door, because they don’t trust the individual on our end.’ And so that’s a service we’re taking pride in.” See
DREAM on page 47
