Community Coalition
Jathan Melendez is a skilled youth and community organizer with extensive experience in advocacy and leadership. Since October 2020, Jathan has been serving as a Youth Organizer and Community Organizer at Community Coalition, following a role as a Youth Organizing Fellow. Prior to this, Jathan gained leadership experience as a Food & Beverage Team Leader at Target from September 2016 to September 2020. Jathan also held the position of Servant Leader Intern at the Children's Defense Fund from June 2017 to August 2018. Jathan earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from California State University, Los Angeles, completing studies in 2020.
Community Coalition
Our Mission: To help transform the social and economic conditions in South LA that foster addiction, crime, violence and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing and changing public policy. Who We Are: Community leaders, including U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass, founded Community Coalition as a non-profit organization in 1990 in response to the 1980's crack cocaine epidemic that devastated South LA. The goal was to provide preventative community-centered solutions to the drug problem. Community Coalition works with African American and Latino residents to build a prosperous and healthy South LA with safe neighborhoods, quality schools, a strong social safety net and positive economic development in order to reduce crime, poverty and substance abuse in our community.