Leading by Example

Miguel Santana, a lifelong New Yorker, was born in Inwood in the early 1960s. He cites his parents' involvement in civil service and local unions as the catalyst for his strong work ethic and commitment to public service. His mother worked for the Human Resources Administration and was a member of DC 37 and his father joined a union during his days as a factory worker. Santana began his career with the city in 1990, later joining Local 1180 in 1999 when he became a Principal Administrative Associate II. "Once I became a Local 1180 member, I really took advantage of the union's education benefits," he says. He participated in Local 1180's Urban Leadership Program, a degree program at the City University of New York. While there Santana received both his Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree in Urban Studies and Affairs. Santana is now able to put his degree to good use as one of six staff representatives for the Local 1180's over 9,000 union members. Santana represents a variety of professionals who work for the city in over thirty different departments and sectors. In addition, he and his fellow graduates have formed the Urban Leadership Action Committee, which they hope will become a center for social activism within Local 1180. He is also working to revive the union's Hispanic Caucus. "I've always been on the outside looking in; I've had to make inroads for myself," he explains. Because of this, Santana sees the responsibility of representing others as essential.

In addition to Santana's work with local labor, he is very passionate about working with neighborhood youth to provide them with fun, safe activities in their neighborhoods to prevent them from getting mixed up in drug-related crime and violence. While living in Queens, Santana coached baseball, basketball, and soccer in conjunction with the community youth outreach group Queen of Peace from 1993 until 1998. He soon became Athletic Director of their basketball program and then founded the non-profit organization Sky Hoops to provide a year-round basketball program to children between the ages of five and seventeen in his neighborhood. In conjunction with local building supervisors and community leaders, Santana hopes to develop similar programs for at-risk youth to decrease petty crime in his Bronx neighborhood where he has lived since 1999. He has recently reached out to all seventy-two buildings in his election district in order to spearhead "Operation Clean Halls", a program to discourage city youth from hanging out unaccompanied in apartment buildings after hours. He has also lobbied local community centers to extend their hours past 9pm so that kids can have an alternative to hanging out on the streets.

After hearing about Grassroots Initiative on the radio station WBAI in November 2005, Santana decided to run for Bronx Democratic County Committee in June 2006. Faced with two technical challenges to his petition, Santana sought redress in the New York State Supreme Court and won both challenges. He then went on to defeat his competitors at the polls when he received twice as many votes as his closest competition. Now fully empowered as an elected official, Santana hopes to use his post to further his youth outreach initiatives and to serve as a representative of his neighborhood.

> Back to Election Assistance Unit