[2] According to The Sacramento Observer, the newspaper which featured her in their fifth installment of their A Powerful Sisterhood series, "Smallwood-Cuevas spent more than two decades serving as a labor organizer, civil rights activist and community advocate".

[2] Prior to her election to California State Senate, Smallwood-Cuevas had worked for the UCLA Labor Center from 2004 to 2022, and she had served as its project director for 15 years.

In October 2015, President of the United States Barack Obama recognized the organization's success.

[1] In July 2020, Smallwood-Cuevas spoke out against Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's announcement of an expansion to policing in communities of color as well as the Los Angeles City Council's vote to resume cleaning encampments in special zones, calling it "regressive thinking that we need to move beyond" and " part of our failure that the Black community is just 7% of the population, but 40% of those who are on the street".

[4] Her successful 2022 bid for California State Senate was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times.