Joseph A. Myers
Raja Rahim
Wayne Sakamoto
Joseph A. Myers
A member of the Pinoleville Band of Pomo Indians, Myers grew up in Mendocino
County on the Pinoleville reservation. He attended local schools and later
served as an officer for the Oakland Police Department and the California
Highway Patrol before earning a law degree from the University of California at
Berkeley in 1975.
After graduating from law school, Myers took a position with the American Indian
Lawyer Training Program, a national training and technical assistance program in
Oakland for tribal governments. A commitment to improving and professionalizing
the tribal court system, the judicial institutions of tribal government mostly
located in Indian reservations, still inspires Myers today, as he heads the NIJC,
an organization he helped create. NIJC offers technical assistance to tribal
governments and delivers monthly training sessions around the country on legal
topics that include criminal procedure, Indian housing law, juvenile justice,
domestic violence, and other areas of concern.
NIJC will soon launch the Regional Justice Center. The Center will teach youth,
ages 14 to 21, about laws that affect them and provide computer and job-skills
training.
Myers also dedicates his time to the California Indian Museum and Cultural
Center in Santa Rosa, which focuses attention on historical and contemporary
issues of racism and diversity through lectures, storytelling and
demonstrations. Myers hopes the museum will help debunk stereotypes of Native
Americans and inspire youth to think positively about differences and diversity.
 Raja Rahim
As a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, Rahim knows firsthand the
enduring impacts that such violence has on women, children and families. She
draws upon her personal experience to counsel and reach out to families in San
Francisco.
Her work spans more than 10 years and includes volunteering for numerous
organizations, including W.O.M.A.N. Inc., San Francisco Women Against Rape, and
Mu'akhah, a newly formed Islamic social service organization focusing on families, women
and children. Rahim also served as an outreach worker for the San Francisco
Neighborhood Safety Partnerships project, where she brought together community
members and police to address public safety and violence. Recently, Rahim joined
the staff of the Greenbook Project, a national initiative being tested in San
Francisco to address the intersection of child welfare, courts and domestic
violence. The new position builds upon the trust she has earned from the
communities she serves, the respect she has garnered from the governmental
agencies most frequently involved in domestic abuse, and the wisdom she has
culled from personal experiences.
Rahim has also contributed considerable time to creating a common understanding
of the needs of domestic violence victims among people with religious beliefs.
As a Muslim, she has helped clarify common misunderstandings of Islam regarding
women. She assisted in the organization of the first interfaith conference on
domestic violence in 1999 and shortly thereafter organized a series of dialogues
at the San Francisco Muslim community center on domestic violence.
With the spare time she has, Rahim sings with a jazz quartet, writes about her
life and acts in plays with a local alternative theater group, Soapstone
Productions.
 Wayne Sakamoto
Sakamoto's 15-year commitment to violence prevention stems from the challenges
he faced as a third-generation, Japanese-American growing up in a rural
community. The son of two internment camp detainees, Sakamoto learned early the
consequences of hatred and bigotry. In his violence-prevention work, he battles
what he sees as one cause of violence: hate.
Sakamoto was instrumental in developing and implementing a nationally recognized
program, Project COURAGE (Community Organizations United to Reduce the Area's
Gang Environment), which began in Riverside and trains community members and
college students to provide prevention and intervention programming in their
communities. The program has served thousands of youth, since its inception in
1989, and is still running today. In his current role as the coordinator for the
San Diego County Office of Education Safe Schools Unit, Sakamoto designs and
implements violence prevention programs for school districts with both small-
and large-scale needs. He has developed the Violence Prevention/Intervention
Team and has assisted in the implementation of Foster Youth Services, School
Community Policing and the Gang Risk Intervention Program. Believing that youth
must be partners in the endeavor to prevent violence, Sakamoto frequently
incorporates leadership training in his programs.
Having provided support in the aftermath of the Santana High School shooting,
Sakamoto emphasizes that school violence, while carried out on a school campus,
is really an issue of community violence. This belief guides the design of his
programs, which reach out to also include family and community.
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