Painful Childhood, Powerful Memories Help Drive Oakland Woman's Leadership, Mentoring
by Jennifer Mistrot and Elizabeth Cook
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) -- Students Rising Above scholars are not just resilient and courageous. They are also often community leaders. And Patty Martinez is no exception, as she leads with change in her East Bay community.
On a recent weekday morning, Martinez joined Oakland-based advocacy group Community Works' team circle as the non-profit welcomed its newest members. As interim program manager for the organization, Martinez helps facilitate its restorative justice community conferencing program which helps young people and their families constructively reconcile with themselves and those they've harmed.
Martinez is also a past participant at Project WHAT!, a program for kids who have an incarcerated parent offered by Oakland-based advocacy group Community Works. Growing up, Martinez saw her own father cycle in and out of the criminal justice system, and support from the non-profit, family and community was a godsend.
"My dad started when he was a juvenile, his first charge was graffiti," explained Martinez. "My grandma spent a lot of time taking me religiously to church and to visitation, to Santa Rita [jail] to visit my dad."
Memories of visiting her father in jail are painful.
"He would just tell me how powerful I am," recalled a tearful Martinez of those visits. " And just to remember that, how powerful you are. Even, you know, like thinking about it now, just how he was in such a powerless place. And that was the message he would give me. That and school! Both of my parents were on me about going to school and that's what I did."
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With her family's support and Students Rising Above's help, Martinez graduated from high school, then headed to college at Guilford in North Carolina.
Her father was released and rebuilding his life when KPIX 5 interviewed Martinez in 2017.
"Being featured on the news is like a really cool thing for a young adult, you know," said Martinez of her KPIX interview. " My grandma called me and was all excited ... and the next day it was like the complete opposite news. My cousin called me and let me know that my dad was killed. He was shot and his body was found near Mills College."
Martinez was devastated. But she leaned into her community justice studies and her family. Therapy and victim support services also helped as she headed back to Oakland with her college degree in hand.
Now the 25-year-old is leading others through her own experiences. Martinez is committed to helping change how the criminal justice system supports young people. Martinez will soon complete her master's degree and plans on continuing her work in support of her community.
She also carries her father's memory in her heart and into her future.
"I feel like my dad's energy is all around me," declared Martinez. "It's taught me what it means to break all the way down, to be able to rebuild and remind myself that I am powerful and remind others that they're powerful."
