I am Dr. Patty Ramirez, the founder of KLBRI, and a transnational social worker that has spent over a decade working with immigrant victims of crimes, unaccompanied children, asylum seekers as well as in the criminal justice and violence prevention fields.
I started my journey as a youth activist in Los Angeles, CA and have been in various social justice organizations and movements in various capacities. My work led me to pursue my doctoral graduate program where I focused on the intersection of healing, leadership, and social justice as way to mitigate the impact of race-based trauma, retraumatization, and burnout.
I birthed KLBRI at the end of 2020 as part of my doctoral research and capstone in response to the political context of unaccompanied minors, family separation, migrant caravans, racial trauma, police brutality, and mass incarceration.
The collective and intergenerational wounds that my communities and I have experienced called for a healing-centered organization that sought to transform the ways in which we show up in this work.
My work and lived experience revealed that the ways in which we currently do our work is not sustainable and must include a paradigm shift for healing and leading.
The collective and intergenerational wounds that my community and the social justice organizations and movements, that I belong to, continue to experience has deepened my commitment to build a healing-centered organization that seeks to transform the ways in which we show up in this work.
I am so honored and grateful for the support that I have received and look forward to cocreating with anyone who believes in the mission of vision of KLBRI.