Felecia Gaston has done a lot for the community of Marin City. She has made it her mission has been to connect Marin City residents, especially young people, with opportunities throughout Marin County.
Over the years, that mission encompassed youth development, civic engagement, advocacy, criminal justice initiatives and the preservation of Marin City’s Black history. Now, Gaston has brought those efforts together under RIZE MARIN, an umbrella organization encompassing Performing Stars, the Phoenix Project, Beacon Solutions and the Marin City Historical & Preservation Society.
We spoke with Gaston about finding her purpose in Marin City, the programs that have shaped her work and what she hopes RIZE MARIN will mean for the community’s next generation. We spoke to her about this exciting new step.
How long have you been part of the Marin community?
Since 1986. Before I came to Marin City, I was living in San Francisco and attending college. I was studying geography with the goal of becoming a meteorologist, while working to put myself through college. At the same time, I was very involved in the community. I volunteered with the Black Chamber of Commerce, worked on community outreach for the San Francisco International Film Festival, and published two guidebooks highlighting Black-owned restaurants in San Francisco.
Someone told me about a small community across the Golden Gate Bridge called Marin City, where a local nonprofit was looking for an administrative assistant. I applied, not knowing much about [it].
I will never forget my first day. There was a warmth and closeness that immediately reminded me of where I grew up in Marietta, Georgia. People knew one another. Families were connected. There was a real sense of community.
I fell in love with Marin City almost immediately. What began as a job became something much greater. I saw tremendous needs, particularly among young people, but I also saw possibilities and opportunities that were missing.
Little did I know that crossing the Golden Gate Bridge would change the entire direction of my life. I came to Marin City for a job. I found a community. I found a purpose. And I never left.
What inspired you to want to do more for the community?
I have always believed in the old saying, “Find a need and fill it.”
As I began to understand the Marin County landscape, I realized there were tremendous resources and opportunities here, but many were not reaching Marin City, particularly our children. There was a disconnect. Outside organizations often had resources and genuinely wanted to reach Marin City, while families in Marin City wanted access to those opportunities.
What was missing was the connection. We became that connector.
We started with Performing Stars, providing scholarships so Marin City children could receive professional training in dance, music, theater and other performing arts. Our approach was welcoming and open. If an organization had something meaningful to offer our children and families, my question was, “How can we work together to make this opportunity accessible to our community?”
That philosophy became so central to Performing Stars that our mission was built around two simple words: “Opening Doors.”
Today, Performing Stars has expanded beyond just the arts to also provide cultural and civic programs. How did that happen?
Performing Stars has always believed our kids deserve access to everything Marin County has to offer — not just the arts.
Around 2000, we began expanding beyond arts programming as enrichment organizations opened opportunities for our young people. We wanted our kids in those rooms too. We began introducing them to activities including surfing, rowing and sailing, some of which continue today.
Our civic education and social justice work grew in a similar way. One of our funding partners invited a group of teens and young adults to Alabama, where they visited important civil rights sites, traveled the Selma-to-Montgomery route and learned firsthand about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., voting rights and the Civil Rights Movement.
Our young people came home changed. Those experiences deepened our involvement in voter registration, civic education and community engagement.
Tell us about the Phoenix Project.
The Phoenix Project was never simply a job program. It began in 2009 as a community response to crime, repeated involvement in the justice system and strained relationships between young Black men in Marin City and law enforcement. Rather than treating the situation solely as a law-enforcement problem, we brought people together — including community members, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Probation Department, Public Defender, District Attorney, Marin Housing Authority and community organizations.
Most importantly, we asked the young men what they needed. Those conversations identified barriers including unemployment, lack of education and job training, driver’s license issues, transportation and housing problems, limited access to counseling and mentors and distrust between young Black men and law enforcement.
The Phoenix Project became a bridge between the community and the criminal justice system. The goal was straightforward: reduce the revolving door into the criminal justice system by addressing the circumstances putting young men at risk while building greater communication, trust and accountability.
What’s a success story that comes to mind from this program?
One of the most important success stories isn’t about one individual. It is about what happened across the community. Marin County Probation Department statistics document a dramatic decline over time in the number of Marin City adults and juveniles under supervised probation.
Those numbers matter because behind every statistic is a person, a family and a life that did not continue through the revolving door of the criminal justice system.
Tell us about Beacon Solutions and what people can expect from it.
Beacon Solutions is the community outreach, advocacy and civic-engagement arm of RIZE MARIN. In many ways, it gives a name to work we have been doing for years — bringing people together, connecting residents with resources, sharing information, advocating around community needs and making sure Marin City is included in the broader conversations happening throughout Marin County.
Our community events have ranged from honoring original Bay Area Tuskegee Airmen and creating Enlighten: Young Women Exploring Their Futures, to the Marin City Jazz & Blues Party in the Park, Professional Blacks in Aviation at Lucasfilm, and a community conversation with actors Danny Glover and Felix Justice.
One upcoming example is our Marin City/Sausalito community movie night. It is designed as a fun, family-centered community event, but we are also partnering with local public-safety agencies to provide disaster-preparedness information, emergency resources and other useful information to residents.
A common theme with your community efforts centers around preserving Marin City’s rich culture and history.
When I came to Marin City in the late 1980s, I had the privilege of getting to know many elders and longtime residents, including members of families who came during World War II from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and other parts of the South and Midwest to work at Marinship. I was fascinated by their stories. Growing up in Georgia during segregation gave me a personal connection to what they described. When they talked about leaving the segregated South, traveling across the country and coming to California for opportunity, I understood that they weren’t simply telling me Marin City history: They were telling me American history.
The Black workers who came to Marinship answered America’s call during World War II. They left the segregated South, traveled across the country and helped build the ships supporting America’s war effort. After the war, many stayed. They built churches, opened businesses, raised families, organized, fought discrimination and housing inequities, created social clubs and community organizations, and raised generations of children. They built Marin City.
The deeper I went into the research, the more I asked: Where was the Black story of Marin County?
Then, as Marin City approached its 80th anniversary in 2022, I looked at the documents and artifacts I had collected for approximately 30 years and realized we had another responsibility: preserving our history. That led to formally establishing the Marin City Historical & Preservation Society.
One of our goals has therefore been to take Marin City’s history out of the boxes and into public spaces — libraries, schools, galleries, universities and other institutions. The work also led to the publication of A Brand New Start … This Is Home, documenting World War II Marinship and the legacy of Marin City.
I want young people to understand that Black history isn’t something that happened only in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia or somewhere far away. Black history happened right here in Marin County.
What inspired you to integrate all your efforts and create RIZE MARIN?
For years, all of this existed under Performing Stars. Eventually, the name no longer reflected the full scope of the organization we had become. It was one organization responding to one community in different ways at different moments.
As we celebrated our 35th anniversary, we knew it was time for an identity and structure that reflected the work. Rather than creating four separate nonprofits, we brought Performing Stars, the Phoenix Project, Beacon Solutions and the Marin City Historical & Preservation Society together under one umbrella: RIZE MARIN.
RIZE MARIN may be a new name, but we are not a new organization. It represents 36 years of opening doors, building relationships, connecting people to opportunities, responding to unmet needs and producing results. Now we are bringing everything we have built under one umbrella so the work can continue, grow and serve the next generation.
That is one of the advantages of RIZE MARIN. A young person who first comes through Performing Stars may eventually need career guidance. A family connected through Beacon Solutions may need help navigating workforce resources. Someone returning from incarceration may need employment assistance as well as advocacy and connections to other services. People don’t have to fit neatly into one program. We can meet them where they are, connect them to what already exists and help them move toward where they want to go. We are rooted in our legacy and rising into our future.
RIZE MARIN is about much more than a rebrand. It is about sustainability and preparing this organization for its next generation of service.
