People Post is a space for opinion pieces, letters to the editor and guest submissions from members of the Long Beach community. The following is an op-ed submitted by Mac Harris and Noah Santiago, youth leaders with the Invest In Youth campaign and emcees at the upcoming People’s State of the City, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Long Beach Post.

Growing up in Long Beach as black and brown youth from low-income families has taught us to be distrustful of the decision-makers in our city. The decision-makers are the ones who are supposed to look out for the interests of the people and the community. But it’s never felt like that for us.

We’ve grown up in a Long Beach where money and ZIP codes dictate the futures we can pursue. Completing high school was supposed to be our only job, but it’s not easy to stay on track with instability at every corner. As rents increased to prices our families couldn’t afford, we were constantly on the move. It’s hard to survive off of $24,000 for a family of five while dodging policing and gang activity outside our front doors. It’s even harder to stay focused when you’re trying to figure out your own identity, let alone trust your own power to create meaningful change.

We don’t want other young people in our city to doubt their power ever again.

Last year, we found empowerment as part of the Invest In Youth campaign connecting with our communities on how to fix the lack of funding toward programs supporting positive youth development. We helped launch the People’s Budget Proposal, calling for equity in the city budget and establishing the first Long Beach Children and Youth Fund. With the help of Councilmember Rex Richardson, we also hosted the Youth Budget Hearing in North Long Beach to help our communities understand how money is spent locally and who makes those decisions.

Educating our communities and elected leaders was not easy. We spent so much time having to prove ourselves before our stories were truly heard. That won’t be the case at People’s State of the City on April 10.

Real stories of the struggles and victories within our communities will take center stage without being dismissed. This night of art and storytelling is a chance for people throughout Long Beach to come together and get a sense for the issues affecting our communities and connect with others dedicated to addressing it. It’s a night where titles don’t matter and we’re all just people who want to see our city be safer and do better.

Despite the major obstacles our communities face, we continue to flourish and heal through fighting. While we celebrate victories like the approval of the Children and Youth Fund and how voters used their power to protect Long Beach hotel workers, we also acknowledge who we still have to fight for in our city. We fight for the families being displaced by gentrification and new developments sweeping through our neighborhoods. We fight for the youth pushed out of schools and into gang violence, sending them further down the pipeline toward incarceration. We fight to feel safe as young people in Long Beach, not as targets for the police or ignored by the school district.

Changing the direction of our city requires that we all join together in creating a Long Beach for all. Long Beach is not just black. Long Beach is not just Latino. Long Beach is not just Cambodian and it’s not just white. Regardless of whether we are black, white, or brown, we all contribute to the fabric of Long Beach and making it a city run by and for the people.