Speech given by Janal Shura as Keynote Speaker at Connections Santa Rosa Breakfast meeting May 2008.

Janal provided a historical perspective on the Sloan House and her grandmother's work to help improve the lives of woman in Sonoma County. Sloan House is a women’s emergency shelter in Santa Rosa and it provides transitional housing for homeless women. Sloan House is named after Janal's grandmother.

 

Thank you for having me here today to speak about my grandmother and share the memories I had of her.

I was born and raised here in Sonoma County by my mother and guided by my grandmother, Eddie Mae Sloan. I grew up in Sebastopol, living in the house that was built by my grandmother and grandfather in 1953 and that was home to three generates of my family. 

I realize now how lucky I was to grow up in that house surround by my family. Growing up there gave me a connection with nature, I spent many days explore the outdoors and getting to know the earth under my feet. It gave me access to a good education and most importantly it allowed me to spend many years being guided by my grandmother. 

I know she played a large roll in shaping the person I am today. She shared her thirst for education and knowledge with me. In 2005, I graduated from Sonoma State with a B.A in Multicultural Studies and became the first person in my family to graduate from College. She taught me the importance of having passion for your work. 

Today I work for a company called Guayaki. Our mission is to provide a product that creates fair wages for families in South America and drives the reforestation of South Americas’ rainforests. Two causes I hold dear to me. It is a truly an amazing feeling to see your work make a difference in the quality of peoples lives and to know it supports your values.

In preparing to speak today I spent a lot of time retelling stories with my mother and looking at old photos and awards of my grandmothers.  I wasn’t even born when my grandmother did most of her work. My memories don’t include the times she marched for civil rights and lead meetings for community action programs. I wasn’t really aware of her full impact on Sonoma County until after she passed away. That is when so many of the stories started to resurface. That’s when I learned she was known as a Warrior and a Shero. Complete strangers have told me what a blessing Mis-Sloan was and how much she is missed. My grandmother was a humble woman so she didn’t boast about her stories or awards. They simply came with doing the job right. 

There are plenty of people who could share the stories from those days better then me. But there are a few things that I know are important in understanding exactly who Eddie Mae Sloan was and what made her so remarkable. 

First was her dedication to family. When my grandmother brought her children to Sonoma County in 1953 she was hoping it would be a safer place for them and provided them with better opportunities then the inner city. Together her and her husband scrimped and saved to buy a plot of lot in West County. At the time Sonoma County wasn’t the welcoming place it is today. Together her and her family faced discrimination and cruelty from people who weren’t ready for Blacks to part of their community yet. Leaving her children behind each day as she went to work was her most difficult challenge. 

Despite that she continued to build a home and raise her family and make Sonoma County her home. She also continued to extend her hand to those who needed it, whether it was accepted or rejected. She did this because she didn’t just want a better life for her own family but for everyone. She believed it was important that everyone in the community help one another because a community is a family. Through all of it she taught her children the importance of tolerance and acceptance of those who were different from them. She kept this belief throughout her life and it has been instill in me today. 

Second was her Spirit. I do not remember my grandmother as a religious women but rather a spiritual woman. We didn’t go to church, but my grandmother still managed to share the most important values of any religion. She simply felt it was important for people to believe in something, but it didn’t require it a title. Eddie Mae believed that we are all connected by our spirit. And that we have a responsibility to each other because our actions do not end at our front door but instead stream out into our community. Her legacy of helping others began long before she become a community organizer/ and poverty fighter.

She helped her neighbors when they were sick, shared food and even her home when it was needed. She believed by uniting together for a common purpose we could build a stronger community for ourselves and our children.

Working hard was something my grandmother was never afraid of. When she came to Sonoma County she worked as a psychiatric technician at the Sonoma Developmental Center. At night she came home to cook, clean and even grow and raise her own food. It’s no wonder she was able to accomplish so much as a community worker. As her children got older she was able to spend more time uniting with others to bring about positive changes for the community. My grandmother was elected executive director of SCPEO in 1971. 

During her time as director the program served over 20,000 people through a variety of programs including Head Start, family planning, food support, and emergency shelter and youth activities. She spent a lot of time talking with young people who had become disillusioned by the system or had given up on themselves. She provided them with the same guidance she gave her own children and grandchildren. She showed them how they could make a real difference and their true value. Many of them have become the leaders of our community today. Today they carry on her legacy of hard work and dedication in setting new standards for our quality of life. Her hard work brought her recognition throughout the country. She used that recognition to give a voice to those who so often went unheard. Even today the memory of her hard work and dedication has not been forgotten. 

The renaming of the Santa Rosa Womens shelter as the Sloan House is one of the greatest reminders of her memory. The Sloan house encompasses so many of things Eddie Mae Sloan was about. When I heard the Womens shelter was going to be rededicated to my grandmother and renamed the Sloan House. I couldn’t imagine her receiving a better honor. The Sloan House is about family. It doesn’t just provide temporary shelter for women and their children but a temporary home. Their circumstances and backgrounds may verify but just the same they need a break. My grandmother use to say sometimes all a person needs is a break to change their lives. Just like Eddie Mae Sloan the Sloan House helps people without concerns of religion by serving as the only non-sectarian Womens shelter in Sonoma County. Eddie Mae believed in working hard but she also understood that sometimes we all needed a hand. She worked tirelessly to create programs that provided people with a “hand-up”, not a “hand-out”. The Sloan House doesn’t just offer a safe place to stay. Through transitional housing and numerous other community resources it provides women with a hand-up and the resources needed to break the cycle of homelessness and abuses. And just like Eddie Mae the Sloan House is open 365 days a year. It never stops offering help. The Sloan House truly keeps the legacy Eddie Mae Sloan alive. 

A program like the Sloan House still needs a hand from the community though. I personally want thank all of you here at Connections for pulling together and being a part of the Sloan House and providing it with the extra things that make it a home. 

I also want to thank you for the numerous other community services projects you are a part of. Connections has also managed to encompass the true spirit of Eddie Mae Sloan. Through your work with Circle of Sisters you help to guide and inspire our youth. You provide scholarships that help other achieve their true potential. And you have a created a network for supporting one another. Eddie Mae Sloan would be overjoyed to see how you have united together to make positive changes and support one another. She would also be glad to see her most important lesson in practice. “Help each other as we go – and lift as we climb.” 

Again I want to thank you for having me here today and letting me share the qualities that made Eddie Mae Sloan a Warrior and Shero.

Written by: Janal Shura, granddaughter of Eddie Mae Sloan