- Welcome to "Inland Edition", where this season, we're having conversations with people who represent nonprofit organizations working to make the Inland Empire a better place.

My name is Joe Richardson.

[light background music] I'm a local attorney, Inland Empire resident, and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with Ipyani Lockert with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.

Ipyani Lockert grew up in San Bernardino surrounded by people from many different backgrounds, social-economic levels, and religious beliefs.

He worked for years as a mental health outreach worker for the African American Mental Health Coalition, and went on to advocate for greater budget allocations for health and human services.

He is a published author and an avid poet.

So let's meet him now, and learn more about how the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity impacts the Inland Empire.

[soft piano music] ♪ [gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] So, here we are.

From the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, I've got Ipyani Lockert.

How you doing?

- I'm doing well, brother.

You know, blessed to be alive to see a newly given day.

- Excellent.

Now, remind me of your position again.

- Yes, I'm the Inland Empire faith organizer on behalf of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.

- So, this is really amazing, what it is that you're doing, and I'm really excited about digging into this.

But, "building the house", as it were, like we like to.

Tell us about, if there, in your journey, there's some kind of "aha" moment that takes you on this path of public service, nonprofit work, et cetera, that gets you on the road to doing what you do now.

- Well, definitely.

Before I get to the "aha" moment, I can't start without the conception, right?

I have to give all praise and glory to the Heavenly Father.

But, as well as my parents, my father, Eddie and Sonya Lockert.

- That's fine.

- There's no question in my mind that my brother and I were created in love, and raised in a household of unconditional love on the west side of San Bernardino.

- Right.

- So, with that being said, I'm a product of the San Bernardino Unified School District.

- Right.

- I attended school at North Park Elementary; Go Coyotes!

And then, eventually went to Martin Luther King Middle School; Go Roadrunners!

Then, I also went to San Bernardino High School; Cardinal pride!

- Right, okay!

- Then, I ended up going to where we're at now, San Bernardino Valley College; Go Wolverines!

And eventually graduating from Cal State, San Bernardino; Go Yotes!

- Wow!

So, you were homegrown all the way!

- Totally homegrown, you know, and proud of it, you know?

- Yeah, that's right.

- One of my missions, and that I feel that brought me to community, was I used to go out in community to try to combat the negative narrative and stereotypes that we also see, you know, connected to our communities.

So, I would go out and highlight and take pictures of the positive happenings in our community, and do, like, poor man's journalist and do a little write-up about that.

- So, how'd you get started to wind up at the project that you're at now?

- Basically, I was in community doing positive things in the community, trying to address the needs of the homeless, raise money.

I used to do a thing called Stop the Hunger Challenge, #StoptheHungerChallenge.

So, it was through that I had an opportunity to work as an outreach worker with the African American Mental Health Coalition under the leadership of Linda Hart.

I was a part of her first cohort.

- Right.

- So, working in community and learning about the mental health needs of our community and the stigma that's often attached to that, it really made me see that our community really does need advocates and people out here to educate and show our community that there are resources that are available, and that it's okay to- especially as men- to address our feelings and things like that; To, you know, feel those things, let those things resonate.

We're alive, you know?

You have to feel emotions!

It's a part of the experience, or you're like a zombie, if not, you know?

- Right.

- So, doing that work, it really showed me that there was a need in the community.

So, once I got done doing the outreach work with the African American Mental Health Coalition, a friend of mine, by the name of Erick Lemus, reached out to me.

He was like, "You know, my company"-- At the time, it was California Partnership.

It was a nonprofit.

- Right.

- They were looking for a community organizer, and that's when I finally got into the space as a paid community organizer.

And, it was so surprising, because I knew what a community organizer was, but I didn't know people got paid (laughter) to do this stuff!

Right?

- Right, right.

- 'Cause I was just doin' it out of the kindness of my heart, you know?

Organizing events and poetry, open mics, and all kind of events like that.

And then, eventually, during that time, I was actually recognized by Assemblymember Eloise Reyes as her inaugural Man of the Year in this exact same studio in 2018.

- Wow.

- And, also recognized by the executive director, Senator Connie Leyva, recognized as part of her "Terrific 20" in District 20.

- So, tell us about the mission of the organization.

- Well, the mission of our organization at Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity is to reach out to the belief systems and faith systems that are held within our community to gather those belief systems to work to address social justice issues that affect us all.

Our main or specific issue lenses are our justice and system-impacted community members, as well as our immigrant and asylum-seeking community members.

Sadly, these communities are often marginalized and often demonized, you know?

So we do our work, we try to humanize and show people that everyone is worthy of grace and redemption.

So, we try leverage the faiths and the belief systems, 'cause there seems to be a lot of overlap as far as those aspects of grace, and redemption, and second chances.

- And so, tell us how that shows up in terms of the programs that you support, that you're part of, the events that you do.

You know, those types of things.

- Definitely.

We do a number of things, but one of the things that-- I actually hold the social justice aspect of the work here in the Inland Empire.

So, one thing that I'm extremely proud of is our expungement clinics that we facilitated- - Yes, yes.

- thus far this year.

We have done one at Chaffey College in partnership with ARC, which is the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and many other partners.

It was a wonderful event at Chaffey College and over 150 people were able to start the expungement process to remove the ills of the past, to be able to remove those barriers.

- Right.

- Because many of our audience does not know that when someone gets a felony, there's often over 40,000 collateral consequences that they may face, such as not being able to get certain certificates to get a better quality of job or certain jobs that they're excluded from.

So, anything that we can do to remove those barriers, to allow someone to be able to provide for themselves and their families, to me, this is how you reduce recidivism.

It's by creating opportunities, removing the burdens to allow ones to grow and flourish, to be providers, contributing members of our society.

- So, if there is some such a thing, tell me what a typical day is like for you.

(Ipyani laughs) I figured that might get a laugh!

- Yeah, yeah!

I hear you, I hear you!

- I'm a comedian in a former life, right?

- There you go!

I can tell, definitely!

(laughter) You got the jokes with that one, right?

No!

A typical day for me consists of a number of meetings, right?

As well as engaging with leadership, constructing campaigns.

Also, we have a leadership cohort that we're orchestrating here.

So, our leaders that are in our leadership circle?

Helping engage them and getting them to participate, learn how to use their voice, how to tell their story.

Many people in our world, sadly, feel that their stories have no value, but we all have a story to tell.

We all are valuable.

We're all a part of this gift and we have something to bring.

- Tell me a little bit more about your leadership cohort.

And, I'm asking that because I wanna get a sense for the things that you directly do for people.

I know that you do a lot of stuff; you do rallies, you do webinars.

And, things like that.

But, the folks that you come across, like in a leadership cohort, in your education program, these actual people, how do they come to you?

Do you come to them?

Do they come to you?

And, how did the cohort come together?

- Definitely.

Often it's just being out in community that people are participating at one of the functions that we're orchestrating or we're in partnership with.

And, we make those kind of human connections where they wanna learn more about what we do or they have a story to tell, and that's usually the case.

Someone is dealing with something, an injustice, and they want people to know about what they're going through.

- Right.

- So, if we find people that, I like to say, that are "on fire"- - Right.

- and are willing to come out and utilize their voice, we'll invite 'em into our leadership cohort.

This year we have six individuals.

Our cohort consists of a series of trainings, our social-biographical training, abolitionist training, lobbying training, or political-?

Civics 101, right?

As well as...just know your rights, right?

How to navigate the process of asylum seeking, right?

For asylum-seeking communities; how to navigate that process.

So, it's a lot of education and enrichment, but the main thing is to help them realize and see that they are of great value and that they can be instruments of change within our community.

And, the skills that we teach them are transferable.

It doesn't just have to be with the social justice issues that we are achieving to make change, you know?

It could be whatever they want.

I'm big on that.

Advocacy 101 is one thing that we train, teach as well.

Because, it shows people how to organize.

And, really, organizing is really simple.

It's meeting people that are affected by the similar circumstances or is a issue that you guys all ascribe to that you wanna see changed.

And, it's bringing those people together.

It's really gathering people that want to- and this is key- render the efforts to manifest things, because that's key.

If you're not willing to do the work-?

And, I don't know how-- any other way of doing it than doing the hard work, and that's what's been bottled for me through my mom and dad.

- So, tell me about your volunteer force.

I mean, I don't know how many employees you have or whatever else, but many organizations are really fueled by the volunteer involvement.

So, tell me about your volunteer force.

- Well, definitely.

The bulk of our volunteer force comes from the network of congregations that we have.

- Gotcha.

- We are connected with over 130 congregations- - There we go!

- throughout the state of California.

So, when we do a action-- Like, for instance, we have a young lady that's been working with our organization.

Her name is Floricel.

She's undocumented, but she's lived in this country for over two decades, and her children are born and raised here.

But, right now, she's in the midst of facing deportation.

So, they have a rally at the ICE center, in Stockton, coming up on the 23rd, as well.

And, it's going to be over 80 parishioners of different congregations, different faiths, coming there to ask and demand that, you know, she has a right to stay.

Because, you know, many of our immigrant communities, they generate billions of dollars and are unable to access the benefits, the health and human services that you and I, as citizens, can access, right?

So, they are contributing individuals and really, in my personal opinion- this is my personal opinion- just really part of the backbone of America, right?

So, we will come together and organize an event to bring our faith leaders to come out and support, and make a little "good trouble", you know, as they would say sometimes!

- [Joe] That's right, yeah.

- [Ipyani] To raise awareness about her plight, and that she is not a threat.

She is a contributing member of our society.

Her children are born and raised here, and if she was to leave, that's their only parent.

One of her children is 18, so you would say they're an adult.

But, how does an 18-year-old be able to take care of the younger siblings, right?

You know?

So, we fight for things like that.

We'll put together, resources together to have those fights.

Because, sometimes individuals need a lawyer, or they have housing insecurities or food insecurities, and our congregational network is really key in providing those resources to address those kind of needs.

- [Joe] What is the hardest part about what you do?

(laughs) - You know?

- Another one of those questions!

- [Ipyani] Yeah, yeah!

- I told you I was a comedian, right?

- [Ipyani] Totally, totally!

No!

There's often some challenges, right?

- Right.

- One of the challenges that I face on a regular basis, being in a very conservative area, because, yes, California is you could say a, quote/unquote, a "blue state".

But, to me, it's more so of a purple state because- - Okay, sure.

- there's pockets of deep blue, but outside of those pockets is very conservative.

So, often I run into-- When I try to engage with certain congregations, some of them don't believe in an interfaith approach, which, you know, each person has the right to ascribe to whatever faith or deity that they believe in, right?

Most often we follow the traditions of our family, and some don't see value in that.

And, I try to explain to them that interfaith is about recognizing each of our beliefs.

We're not here to proselytize, or convert, or change anyone's belief.

- Right.

So, give us your resource wish list in terms of, "If we had X more resources"-?

People resources, money resources, whatever.

"We would do more of this".

- Mm hm.

- Or, "we would bridge into this, "which we haven't quite done, "but we know we want to do more of.

We would do more in this area or geographical pocket".

What would a resource wish list look like for you?

- [Ipyani] Man!

That's a wonderful question, and thank you for that question.

Right now our main issue areas that we, or regions, I should say, that we work in are in the Bay Area, so Northern California.

And then, Los Angeles, and then the Inland Empire.

But, it would be beautiful to have staff and organizers within San Diego, within Orange County- - Sure.

- within Central California, right?

Because often the central part of California is kind of underserved, you know?

- Right.

- So, from a funding point of view, we would love to have those resources to be able to hire more staff to orchestrate the prayer vigils, bringing awareness to the propositions that we're supporting, to help humanize the communities, 'cause there's impacted people throughout each community.

I'll say it like this: one-out-of-three Americans are either directly impacted or are system-impacted by incarceration, right?

So, to raise awareness.

Imagine if we had that as a voter block, right?

- Right, wow.

- If we could, you know?

- Yeah, a lot of us.

- You know?

Right?

It really does.

There's many unifiers out here, but we are easily divided, right?

Sadly.

But, we can bring people together.

So, from a funding point of view, we would love to have more staff, 'cause we are only a staff of about 12 of us and we're going through some changes.

From a volunteer point of view, it's always good to have a endless list of volunteers, right?

- Yeah, sure.

- That are people that want to engage, you know, and congregations that would love to work with us and believe, ascribe or believe in the interfaith approach, you know?

- Yeah.

- So, that would be my wish list, is more congregations that believe in the interfaith space and interfaith approach, as well as volunteers that are willing to get out and serve and help us in any capacity, as well as just having funding to hire more staff in other parts of the region so we can just do more purposeful work and make greater impact throughout the entire state.

- [Joe] Speaking of rallies, let's go and talk to some supporters at a rally right now.

[light thoughtful music] ♪ - My name is Amber-Rose Howard, and I'm the executive director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, also known as CURB.

We're a coalition of about 80 organizations across the state who've come together to reduce the number of people in prison and jails, reduce the number of carceral institutions, including prisons, jails, and immigrant prisons.

And, really to shift all of that spending that we're all doing with our taxpayer dollars from carceral systems, like prisons, into the community.

We really wanna redirect public safety to say, "Listen, prisons don't keep us safe.

"Prisons only perpetuate the harm "that we're trying to prevent.

"And so, we need to shift and be more responsible with our dollars".

So, CURB with all of our organizations down from San Diego all the way through up Sacramento, Davis area, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity has been our faith partner here.

They became a coalition member a few years back, and have prioritized working on this particular campaign and their own platform.

So, they've joined us to pull together faith-based leaders and, you know, all these kind of groups from LA, here in the Inland Empire, up in Oakland, so that we can really focus on bringing together "care not cages".

We think it's really important to have faith-based organizations in this work, because, historically, faith-based organizations have helped change this world!

We look at the civil rights movement and all what happened then, it was faith-based leaders who came together to help lead the people.

So, we really appreciate Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity stepping into this and bringing back that strength from faith-based leaders.

- My name is Dylan Rodriguez.

I'm employed at University of California, Riverside, as a professor.

That's my day job.

So, I've been involved with prison abolition and carceral abolition organizations and movements for close to 30 years.

Originally with Critical Resistance, which is now a national organization.

So, I've carried that work ahead, you know, in the last few decades.

And, I've been really privileged and uplifted by a group called Decarcerate Inland Empire, which he's part of- in which Interfaith is also part of.

So, there's-- It's a great connection of different organizations and people that are all invested in this project of trying to decarcerate California and redistribute public funds toward things that are somewhat more life affirming and less carceral, ideally anti-carceral.

A lot of organizations have mission statements and platforms, and very specific and narrow objectives.

What I think we lack is serious, sustained collective analysis of the condition that we are actually confronting.

Right?

And, the reason why that's so crucial is I'm convinced, and I've seen it happen in the Decarcerate Inland Empire Coalition.

Once we get together and start to build a collective analysis of all the obstacles our organizations are confronting, all the reasons why the objectives that we're trying to reach are difficult, sometimes it seems impossible.

It usually comes back to the notion that we actually can't reform this thing.

Right?

We can't reform the carceral apparatus.

You can't reform California state prisons.

What you actually have to do is shut 'em down, right?

And, that's abolition.

That's the difference between abolition and reform.

[light thoughtful music] ♪ - [Joe] So, you might be already talking about this another way in terms of some of the things you're talking about.

But, one of the things that stuck out for me in reading some notes about the organization is that you guys get at the intersection between spirituality and social movements.

- [Ipyani] Yes, indeed!

- [Joe] Talk about that.

- Definitely.

You know, our faith-rooted organizing approach is something that came out of the civil rights movement.

- Right.

- And, it ascribes to Gandhi's theory of nonviolence, right?

And, bringing change by coming together.

So, we'd like to say we're in that middle ground between spirituality and social justice, right?

- Right.

- Because we feel like that's the fertile ground.

That's where the seeds can be planted that will create a yield that provide for all our community.

- Tell me about, in the inspiration category, how do you derive hope and stay optimistic, even in a tough time?

It could be personally a tough time, but it could be a tough day at the office in the work that you're doing, as well.

How do you stay optimistic in all of this?

- [Ipyani] You know, I have to attribute, like, the modeling of my parents, the faith that they ascribe to, and the way they've conducted their life.

Even in the worst of days, they've still managed to smile, to laugh, to be grateful.

To me, life is a gift itself, right?

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Each day that you live is truly a blessing and a gift.

There's been billions of human beings to exist for millions of years, and it's our time to live.

So, if each newly given day that's given to all creations that live, that's my motivation.

- Right.

- It also makes me connect to my own personal business, Motivational Realizations, the Energy of Positive Thought.

I often tell people that, you know, our outlook and perception really affects our lived experience.

I tell people, "You should look through the lenses of love "when you look upon life.

"Most importantly, in the mirror of self-reflection, "that you see the love that's within you.

"And, once you discover and unearth that love "that's within you, hopefully that helps you see the love within others".

You know what I mean?

- Right.

- So, those are my motivators; life itself, the gift of life.

Being able to create.

I feel like the gift of creativity, to me, is our second greatest gift outside of the breath of life itself, 'cause right about the first part, don't worry about the creativity!

It's over, right?

(chuckles) - Right, right!

- But, you know, with that gift of creativity, we're able to set things to sail that could live beyond our days.

And, those are the hopes for my poetry series and my literary works.

And, I encourage everyone to utilize their voice, to find their voice, discover their talents.

We're not taught to look within ourself.

Especially, as young high schoolers and kids, we emulate and model what we see outside of ourself.

But, the real- in my personal opinion- the key to life is being authentically you.

There is a path.

There is a skill set.

There's gifts and blessings that have been uniquely given to each one of us, and we must unearth and cultivate those things.

And, I believe this wholeheartedly: if you take the time to cultivate your gifts, your talents, and find the courage to utilize them, that it will create a path for you.

There is a way for you.

Like, we've all been given a dream and a vision, but that's not to tease us.

That's to show us what is here for us in this world.

- Right.

- But, if you're willing to render the efforts, and I harp on that because that's so key; you have to do the work.

And, I'll end it on this.

You know?

People often pray for miracles, right?

But, I ask those same individuals, "What do you consider the breath of life?

"And, how many more miracles do you need to receive before you do your part?"

- [Joe] Right.

Wow, that's sweet.

So, how do people get more information on Interfaith?

I mean, on the Interfaith Movement?

This is-?

Give us some homework!

- Okay!

- Like, we're inspired!

We look through it; we wanna follow up right now.

How do we get more information?

- Definitely, definitely.

Well, if you would like to find out more about Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, you could go to our website, im4humanintegrity.org You could find it or just Google it.

It'll pop up for you.

As well as if you wanna find more information about Proposition 6- this is a huge campaign, a huge undertaking that we're doing throughout the state- you could go to CAslave.com to get more information, to get toolkits about how you can help educate our community about this wonderful opportunity to remove involuntary servitude from the California State Constitution.

As well as, if you do go to our website, or you can even hit me up on Facebook, you know, Ipyani Lockert, I-P-Y-A-N-I.

My name is very unique.

- [Joe] Yes, it is!

It ain't Jim Miller, brother!

(both laughing) They can find you!

- Yeah, definitely!

Definitely, you know?

Only the people with love and positivity, right?

- Right.

You're one of a kind, literally and figuratively!

- Yeah, you know!

(laughter) - Right?

- Definitely.

You know, thank you to my mom and dad, my brother, Jelani Lockert and my cousins are all kind of named African names that have meaning, and I find that we kind of grow into those meanings.

My name is out of the Swahili dialect and it means grace.

And, often when I talk to people, I say like, "You know, what does your name mean?"

They're like, "Oh, my name's Robert".

"Well, what does, Robert-?

It's your name.

"What does it mean to you?

Define yourself".

You know what I mean?

- Right, yeah.

- "You're this iteration of Robert.

Who is this Robert?

And, what does that mean to you?"

So, I'm big on helping people, and empowering people, encouraging people to discover their voice, to utilize their talents and gifts.

So, yeah.

You could reach out to our website.

Once again, enter im4humanintegrity.org And, if you shoot me an email at ilockert, I-L-O-C-K-E-R-T, @im4humanintegrity.org You can shoot me an email, and I can provide you any other information or resources that you're interested in partaking, or you wanna learn more about.

- Excellent.

So, Ipyani Lockert?

Listen.

We're gonna have to keep the dots connected, man, because there's some kindred spirit stuff going on here.

- Amen, amen.

- But, I appreciate greatly what you're doing with your organization and wish you great success with it, and we are honored that you would come on the show today.

- Definitely.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak about our work on behalf of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.

And, um?

Thank you Connie Leyva, as well!

- [Joe] Right.

That's right.

(both laughing) - And, the team, and the team!

- That's right, that's right.

Well?

Well, listen.

Once again, here we go.

We've done it again!

A fantastic organization in the Inland Empire doing incredible and wonderful work.

You've gotta continue watching us.

You gotta let folks know.

Don't let this be a well-kept secret, audience!

And, you can go to YouTube, not only the show on our regular showtime.

Go to YouTube, see all these episodes, catch up, as well as get additional information.

So, we're gonna keep walkin' down the road to understand, to connect all kinds of folks, because we have a humanity in common.

So, keep doing it with us, and we will do it one conversation at a time.

Till then, Joe Richardson from "Inland Edition".

See ya later.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ [softer music/vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]