Our Team
What unites us is our love for our community.
Fernando Martinez
Fernando Martinez is a long-time community organizer and a circle keeper. For the last 25 years, Fernando has led multiple issue-based community organizing campaigns in Alabama, New Jersey, North Carolina, and nationally, aiming at improving students' and parents' lives. He has been blessed with love, family, and support to lead the community healing initiative, with the mission to transform intergenerational trauma into collective power.
Founder and Director
Imani Dillahunt
Imani R. Dillahunt is an educator, advocate, and community organizer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. At present, she is the Statewide Early Childcare Organizer with the Education Justice Alliance (EJA), where she works alongside families across North Carolina to address exclusionary discipline practices in early childcare settings.
Prior to working with EJA, Imani was a first-grade teacher at Southeast Raleigh Elementary School, where she also served as an instructional leader, parent liaison, after-school program director, and mentor through Wake County Public Schools and YMCA programs.
Imani earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education, with a minor in Spanish, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Currently, Imani is pursuing a Master of Science in Instructional Design at North Carolina Central University to build a curriculum where our children feel seen and empowered
Advisory BoardAdvisory BoardByron Laws
Byron Laws is a prominent Raleigh community advocate, social worker, and civic leader, widely recognized for his advocacy for racial equity and his former role as the chair of the Human Relations Commission for the City of Raleigh. He holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Social Work degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Byron has worked as a Unit Director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County, channeling his career into youth development and community impact. In his civic work, Laws served three terms (totaling six years) on the Raleigh Human Relations Commission. During this time, he became deeply involved in efforts to establish the Raleigh African American Affairs Board. He frequently advocates for underrepresented communities and has been a vocal critic of local policy reversals that have impacted these initiatives. He is also a local media producer, having launched the "What's the 919?" podcast. The educational series uses stylized, animated guest features to teach residents about Raleigh's local government, city districts, boundaries, and landmarks.
Advisory BoardJennifer Castillo
Jennifer Castillo is passionate about diversity & equity, youth wellbeing & leadership. Jeniffer has significant experience working in public universities (student affairs equity work and adjunct teaching) and in youth-serving nonprofit organizations. She loves to cultivate creative connections that embrace and amplify the voices and lived experiences of youth of color and advance social justice through intergenerational community work. She is a first-generation college student and believes that it was relationships and opportunities that helped her navigate and realize her purpose, and she wants the same thing for young people.