Janet Favela Sonneman headshot

Meet Our Team

Janet Favela Sonneman

GOI Program Manager

she/her

Janet Favela is the Capacity Building Trainer at Groundswell Fund. Janet was born as the product of immigration and the love shared by a Salvadoran mother and a Mexican father. She credits her upbringing in the communities of Pico Union and South-Central Los Angeles with her greatest lessons in injustice and resilience.

As an undergrad, her commitment to fights for educational access, racial and economic justice, anti-war efforts, and the empowerment of Chicanas, taught her the basics of activism and set her on her path towards community organizing. Janet started her professional career as a community organizer in East L.A. where she built a base and led campaigns for almost ten years.

One of her greatest accomplishments was having developed and implemented a grassroots strategy to develop a street vendor and community-based policy incorporating hundreds of vendors and thousands of allies. While fighting alongside informal workers Janet became more invested in fights for public space and the criminalization of people of color.