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KINDNESS AWARDS
You are warmly invited to join Sunday Friends for the 2026 Inside Poverty & Silicon Valley Kindness Awards on Friday, September 18, 2026, at Adobe World Headquarters in San Jose.
This gathering brings together nonprofit and community leaders, business professionals, educators, philanthropists, policymakers, volunteers, and changemakers for a day of conversation, learning, and connection focused on one important question: How can we build stronger communities by recognizing the knowledge, strengths, and leadership already within them?
2026 Inside Poverty & Silicon Valley Kindness Awards
Friday, September 18, 2026 | 9:00 AM–3:00 PM
Doors open at 8:30 AM
Adobe World Headquarters
345 Park Avenue, San Jose
Inside Poverty
The day begins with Inside Poverty, an immersive program exploring the realities of poverty through the direct experiences of community members, alongside local and international leaders working to create meaningful change.
Through conversation and dialogue, we will explore asset-based approaches that recognize lived experience as valuable expertise. Rather than focusing only on what families need, the program asks us to consider what becomes possible when we also recognize their knowledge, strengths, relationships, and leadership.
Meet Our Speakers
LaVonda Baldwin is an Executive Coach who partners with high-capacity leaders and teams to expand what they believe is possible—and what they are willing to pursue. A former U.S. diplomat and nonprofit executive, she brings more than a decade of leadership experience in complex, high-stakes environments.
Darcie Green, Executive Director, Latinas Contra Cancer, leads an organization working to support individuals, families, and communities affected by cancer while addressing the health inequities that can limit access to care. Her perspective brings an important understanding of how health, opportunity, and community well-being are interconnected.
Zelica Rodriguez-Deams, Director of Thriving Communities at SOBRATO Philanthropies, leads a team implementing place-based strategies across East San Jose and North Fair Oaks in Redwood City. Her work focuses on strengthening communities by bringing people, organizations, and resources together around locally identified priorities.
International Voices
We are especially pleased to welcome two international leaders whose work offers valuable perspectives on community development and social change beyond Silicon Valley.
Lee Griffiths, Trainer & Consultant, Jeder Institute, specializes in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and participatory community leadership. His work explores how communities can build on their existing strengths, relationships, knowledge, and resources to create lasting change.
Marcos Arturo Leyva Madrid, Director, Servicios para una Educación Alternativa (EDUCA), Oaxaca, Mexico, is the longtime director of EDUCA, one of Oaxaca's respected civil society organizations focused on democracy, social participation, and community development. His experience offers an important perspective on how communities can organize, participate, and develop solutions rooted in local knowledge and leadership.
Special Guest
Supervisor Betty Duong is the Santa Clara County Supervisor, District 2 including East San José and parts of downtown San José, Alum Rock, and the East Foothills. Her participation brings a civic leadership perspective to the conversation about strengthening families, neighborhoods, and opportunity across our region.
Silicon Valley Kindness Awards
Following Inside Poverty, we will celebrate the 2026 Silicon Valley Kindness Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations whose compassion, leadership, generosity, and commitment are helping create meaningful change throughout our region.
This is more than a day of presentations. It is an opportunity to step outside our individual organizations and sectors, hear from people with different experiences, and consider what we might learn from one another.
Whether your work is in community development, philanthropy, education, business, government, or the nonprofit sector, we hope you will join us for a day of thoughtful conversation, new perspectives, meaningful connections, and a celebration of revolutionary kindness in action.
Please register by September 10. ($40 per person / $280 table of 8)
2024
