Power Station: Recent Episodes
Anne Pasmanick
Power Station is a podcast about change making. We talk to nonprofit leaders about how they build community, advocate for policy change, and make an impact in overlooked and underinvested communities. Their stories and strategies don’t often make headlines but are often life changing. They may not be household names, but they probably should be.
There is no “one way” to support, build and engage communities. Power Station provides a platform for change makers to talk about their way. We look into the challenges nonprofits face in creating change and the barriers they sometimes create for themselves. And we get real about having a voice and using it well in the current political environment.
Why me? My 20+ years of experience in local and national nonprofits has taught me what it takes to sustain an organization and be of value to a community. I want to hear about how a well-honed infrastructure builds community, supports policy advocacy, and makes a meaningful impact.
Ableism favors the non-disabled at any cost. That is the powerful phrase that resonates after my conversation with India Harville, an exceptionally talented dancer, educator and disability justice advocate. It conveys that ableism is structural, embedded in government systems and in our cultural norms, which limit the access of disabled people to resources, opportunity and agency over their own lives. This reality, although exacerbated in this toxic political climate is not new. It has taken fearless organizing by generations of disabled activists to forge game changing policy breakthroughs, including passage of the now embattled Americans for Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Laws. So, it is not surprising that for India, advocacy is an everyday necessity. She is active in legislative policy campaigns that advance disability justice and she uses her voice and expertise to support her fellow dancers in securing housing and attendents. At Embraced Body, the nonprofit she founded, India makes self-expression accessible to dancers with disabilities and other marginalized identities. As a consultant, she coaches organizations in taking the steps needed to create inclusive workplaces where everyone is seen and heard. We can all learn from India and for our collective humanity, we must.
Shannan Herbert has watched many people walk past banks and the people-centered CDFI she leads on the same block, to take their financial business to check cashing places and liquor stores where the cost of cashing a check or taking out an emergency loan is extortionary. For years, CDFI associations, government agencies, and think tanks have reported on the millions of Americans who are unbanked and lack access to capital. As CEO of Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF), which serves new and next-level entrepreneurs and small business owners in Washington DC's underinvested Wards 5, 7 and 8, Shannan wanted to know why people opted for such predatory establishments. In this episode of Power Station, she shares findings from WACIF's just-released report, Beyond Access: Addressing the Trust Gap to Unlock Responsible Capital. In listening sessions conducted in partnership with Onyx Therapy Group and Building Bridges Across the River, participants recounted interactions with financial institutions that left them feeling humiliated and unwelcome. The trauma they experienced led them to payday lenders whose practices are designed to keep low-income borrowers in debt. This report, followed by the creation of a changemaking financial product, will unlock systems transformation and personal opportunity.
It is exceedingly rare, in this political season, to find members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who agree on the value of a government policy to their constituents and the economic infrastructure in the red and blue states they represent. Community Development Financial Institutions, created through the Reigel Act of 1994 have earned that distinction because they deploy capital and technical guidance in low-income and rural communities that banks fail to serve. These 1,300 (mostly) nonprofit CDFIs are financial springboards for people and organizations who want to launch a community-oriented food business, preserve rental affordability through land trusts and facilitate worker owned enterprises. At a time in which Americans are deeply divided and economically stressed I wanted to know how CDFIs are faring and meeting the moment. For this episode of Power Station, I turned to trusted community development advisor John Holdsclaw, President and CEO of Rochdale Capital, for answers. In this episode of Power Station, we discuss the disconnect between what smaller funds need to serve community needs and what philanthropy is willing to provide. They need equity to sustain themselves and to make grants as modest as $5,000, which the data shows can be transformational. The stories are the data. We all need to listen.
All parents know the heart wrenching feeling of having to work when they are worried about the safety of their children. Imagine if those parents are farmworkers who start their workday at 3:00am and use their remarkable and underpaid skills to harvest the crops that end up as food on our tables. Imagine if their only option for childcare is to bring their babies and toddlers into the fields with them. That scenario has become increasingly rare because of a highly committed and expert network of caring professionals who operate Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Centers, highly specialized early childhood facilities across 34 states. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Cleofas Rodriguez, the powerhouse leader of National Ag Families Head State Association (formerly National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association) about the singular eco-system of farmworker families, educational providers and farmers he unites to ensure that the children of our nation's essential workers receive the early education and care needed to be successful when they enter kindergarten. It is a personal revelation for me each time I meet with this organization's brilliant summer interns. As Cleo says, investing in them yields the most extraordinary results. Hear Lizette and Sayra and you will agree.
What is more American than entrepreneurship, not the faux version appropriated by heirs to affluent parents but the creation of small businesses by risk takers seeking to support their families, innovate goods and services, and invigorate their communities? As Audrey Roofeh explains on this episode of Power Station, it was small business owners who gambled their own safety to take care of community members during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis by the US Department of Homeland Security and ICE. An entrepreneur herself, Audrey's firm Mariana Strategies, which helped federal agencies cultivate workplaces free from misogyny, racism and anti-LGBTQ conduct was put out of business by a White House executive order banning DEI initiatives by government contractors. Audrey heard the alarm expressed by fellow small business owners about sustainability in a marketplace where the Rule of Law no longer applied. She founded Integrity Matters, a unique association or small business owners impacted by tariffs, ICE crackdowns, inflation and unpredictable governance. Its members are now organizing to protect voters in upcoming elections, a powerful example of how small business owners invest in us.
There is a sea change underway in the social change and political activism arenas, and it is led by a burgeoning network of girls and women. A major force behind this transformation is Her Rising Initiative, a nonprofit founded by Cherie Animashaun who, as a teenager, was inspired to create a space for girls with aspirations to become changemakers. Its mission, to close the opportunity gap for girls and women in the social, business and political sectors is advanced by helping them to build the confidence needed to lead. My guest on this episode of Power Station is Carolina Nazario, who leads Her Action, a campaign of Her Rising that is laser-focused on the power of policymaking. Carolina brings passion and organizing savvy to developing the capacities of young women, through middle school trainings, college chapters and gatherings across multiple cities, to understand the legislative process, draft bills and advocate for change. We talk about the rise of violence against women in the political sphere and the bill designed to safeguard their involvement. Carolina is building the world, with a cadre of girls and women, where everyone has a place at the policymaking table.
I love speaking with leaders whose innate capacity for engaging communities and influencing progress in politics, policy and culture comes from their character and not just their title. Rafael Collazo, executive director of the UnidosUS Action Fund, the 501c4 sister organization of UnidosUS, our nation's largest Latino civil rights organization, is that leader. UnidosUS, the organizational champion of 64 million Latinos who contribute $4.1 trillion to the U.S. economy has deepened its impact on politics and policy by through this tax designation and Action Fund. Rafael, a consummate political organizer, collaborates with the organization's members, a savvy network of community based organizations, to build the power needed for Latino families to thrive. This involves both supporting candidates who motivate the electorate and leading public policy campaigns in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. As Rafael shares on this episode of Power Station, being responsive starts with listening to what the community aspires to. Those insights are embedded in the UnidosUS National Latino Economic Prosperity Agenda. Latinos wants to not just subsist, they want to achieve the American Dream, an increasingly elusive goal when the cost of housing is displacing families from their own neighborhoods. Rafael has much more to say here.
This moment in America is living proof that the path to a just society requires the shedding of false narratives that demonize people and communities for social currency and political gain. These narratives influence how elected officials expend fiscal resources and which policies and regulations they enact. And it takes education, organizing and relationship building by nonprofits and people with lived experience to dispel myths and adopt new-found truths. In this episode of Power Station, Damien Cabezas, President and CEO of Community Connections DC, the largest nonprofit provider of mental health services in the nation's capital, offers a powerful example of how an historically maligned community remains stigmatized and profoundly misunderstood. While the public perceives that 70% of people with mental illness are violent the reality is that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crime. And as he explains, treatment, along with access to stable housing and community-based supports, leads to recovery and the capacity to thrive. Damien is an exceptional leader and advocate for people navigating mental illness and substance abuse disorders. He knows the costs to families, our economy and society when we embrace stigma over solutions.
Charlie Birney was way ahead of the curve when he became an early adopter of podcasting in 2012. His love of listening to and telling stories through this platform made the years of explaining to friends and family how to access them on an iPhone worthwhile. He started Launch Podcasts in 2014, and its purpose was not what you might expect. He was not interested in growing the audience or monetizing the show. Instead Launch Podcasts was a tool for speaking directly to the group of people, previously unconnected, in a co-working space they shared. Charlie had a vision for internal podcasting that transcends sectors and issue areas. Uber uses them, for instance, to communicate rules and policy updates to a massive and remote workforce. We talk about the possibilities that internal podcasting holds for nonprofits that want to mirror their stated values inside of their organizations. An episode could feature frontline staff explaining what they need to be effective in this challenging environment. Another could prepare board members to use their connections in support of policy goals that advance the organization's mission. The possibilities are endless and the results can be powerful.
For Sophie Miyoshi and Helen Abraha, advocating for the rights of restaurant workers reflects their values and is also highly personal. Both started working in restaurants as teens and over time they experienced the isms and injustices that define the industry, from sexism and racism to immigrant exploitation and wage theft. They found a home at the Restaurant Organizing Collective DC where Sophie is now the executive director and Helen is lead organizer. What they have accomplished, hard-fought legislative victories from wage increases to paid sick leave is even more impressive given the deep pockets and relentlessness of the restaurant industry and its lobbyists. I have had the privilege of following ROC's growth over time, seeing a community that supported its frontline workers during the pandemic, fought for the release of an immigrant member's son from a detention center and withstood the whittling down of wins by the DC City Council and Mayor. In this episode of Power Station, I am particularly struck by Sophie and Helen's current focus, broadening and strengthening their membership. As they explain, policy wins will be tested and can only be sustained by a powerful and unwavering base.
This president and his minions in Congress are relentless in their messaging about who counts as an American and what government owes to its people. And their narrative is rationalizing the elimination of policies and programs that we once embraced as being quintessentially American, in particular the education the education of our children. U.S. Department of Education Commissioner Linda MacMahon is charged with dismantling the agency she leads, and she has prioritized shuttering the Offices of Civil Rights, Special Education and most recently, English Language Acquisition. For two decades OLEA has overseen the provision of English language learning for over 5 million children, primarily U.S. citizens, in the K-12 public school system, a boon for academic advancement and a well-equipped workforce. In this episode of Power Station I am joined by Amalia Chammoro, Senior Director of the UnidosUS Education Policy Project and co-chair of the National English Learner Roundtable, who shares the largely underreported story of OLEA, the difference it made in her own life and what its closure means for communities across the country. UnidosUS is a critical leader in America's civil rights infrastructure and Amalia is a dynamic champion of educational equity. Hear her!
Despite all efforts to whitewash our nation's history, the truth cannot be erased. Case in point: In 1906, the first generation after slavery, African Americans created an extraordinary cultural, economic and entrepreneurial hub, dubbed Black Wall Street, in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This thriving center of enterprise, where dollars spent circulated 9 to 30 times before leaving the community, was destroyed in 1921 by a violent and unrelenting white mob. Thirty-five square blocks were reduced to rubble, and 300 community members were murdered. The failure of white political leaders and media to tell this story and take accountability for it is one erasure. The economic impacts and generational harms of this desecration is another. In this episode of Power Station, Alaina Beverly, a powerful champion of Black political and economic justice, tells the story of the Greenwood Trust, an initiative launched by Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, which she leads. She is educating the nation about Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Massacre and is making history by cultivating a cohort of experts, descendants, scholars, housing and educational leaders to build the economic future that Greenwood, and all disinvested communities deserve. Her her!
When someone tells you their story, listening is an honor. It is an opportunity to connect to someone else's life experience, to recognize that we are all shaped by the inequities and privileges we are born into and that the consequences of both reverberate through families, communities and public systems. In the case of Courtney Stewart, my guest on this week's episode of Power Station, his story is his calling. It informs his leadership as founder and CEO of the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, a community based nonprofit that offers a continuum of care, from meeting material needs to skill building for the workforce and criminal justice reform advocacy and one-on-one sessions that support mental health. As with the most powerful stories, Mr. Stewart's is not entirely predictable. The neglect and harms he experienced as a child and his very early entry into the system could have continued to traumatize him. Instead, he encountered adults who poured into him, a practice he continues with others today. And he shares how inadequate and short-term funding levels challenge nonprofit progress. This is his story to tell, listen!
The story of Washington DC's Ward 8, Ward 7 and Anacostia specifically is often told, largely by people who don't live there, in terms of deficits, both in resources and the community itself. The truth is entirely different. It was home to the Nacotchtank's indigenous settlements in the 1700s, white Navy Yard workers in the late 1800s, when Black people were barred from living there, and became a hub of African American arts and activism, post white flight, in the 1960s. And while the community has been historically underinvested, its people are resilient. Even today, for example, there are only 3 full-service grocery stores available to some 160,000 residents. Investing in people and communities, as we know, is a policy choice. As my guest Tiffany Williams says on this week's episode of Power Station, "it's not a matter of can we, it's a matter of will we." As President & CEO of Martha's Table, which has served the community for 45 years, Tiffany has stewarded in a new and transformative era which includes community members in its program design and priority setting. She is a truly great human and a changemaking leader. Hear her!
Carlos Toledo, executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation knows that the organization he leads, and the community it serves, are on the federal government's target list, but he will not allow the opposition to steal his joy. Instead, he stays laser focused on advancing his nonprofit's mission: providing housing, social services and a pathway to financial independence for homeless youth, primarily Black and Latino, who are queer and trans. Many of these young people have been rejected by their families, the first step into homelessness and interaction with the criminal justice system. What they receive from the Wanda Alston Foundation must feel like magic. It starts with acceptance and love from staff, volunteers and the city itself, whose DC Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs launched the Wanda Alston Foundation and continues to champion young people whose intersectional identities make them particularly vulnerable in this moment. In this episode of Power Station, Carlos talks about the legacy of Wanda Alston, the embracing LGBTQ+ community that supports its work and how his experience on the Harris Walz campaign trail that prepared him for the countless roles and responsibilities of nonprofit leadership. Hear HIM!
The dizzying assault by this administration on our constitutional right to vote is memorialized in The Save Act, which has so-far failed in the Senate, and in state houses bent on disenfranchising Black Americans. My guest this week, Alex Ault, Senior Policy Council at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, expects to see more versions of legislation marketed by the White House and members of Congress as voting security, a solution to a problem that does not exist. He points to the influential community, this nation's 8,000 poll workers and election officials who have argued, successfully, that their ability to administer fair elections would be jeopardized by requiring documentary proof of citizenship, that would exclude married women with name changes and trans people from voting. We look back at the origin story of the Lawyers Committee, launched in 1963 after President John F. Kennedy called upon private bar attorneys to leverage their collective clout to fight for civil rights. The call to action reverberates today. And Alex shares the origin story that makes him a powerful champion for justice.
A conversation with John Yang, President and Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice reverberates with facts and feelings. To start, we talk about the recent Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, an outcome of President Trump's preoccupation with erasing this foundational constitutional right. As John explains on this episode of Power Station, this impulse is rooted in the desire to control who should and should not be considered an American. We are seeing this play out in real time in immigration sweeps and detention centers across the country. And while we do not see a lot of reporting about this, the birthright citizenship issue has a disproportionate impact on Asian Americans. In fact, about 1 in 25 people in the community would be impacted by an adverse ruling. But when John talks about birthright citizenship and his organization's broader civil and human rights mission, he is not advocating for Asian Americans alone. He collaborates with African American, Latino and LGBTQ organizations to advance together towards a more just America for all. This value of inclusion runs deep within John and is embedded in AAJC's strategies and programs. Hear him!
The data is unimpeachable. Homelessness is a national crisis and the numbers of people struggling to live without permanent housing is growing. The latest (2024) data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) finds that 771, 480 people are currently unhoused, and 17,500 more are joining those ranks each week. As decades of research and people with lived experience tell us, ending homelessness requires a massive increase in the affordable housing supply, policies that position low-income renters to stay in the housing they have, and the resources needed by on-the-ground homeless service providers to meet human needs and strengthen communities. And a culture shift is underway. Policymakers and the public are increasingly aware that homelessness is the outcome of broken systems and not of personal failings. On this episode of Power Station I talk to Ann Oliva, the incomparable CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness about leading, with the long view, in unstable times. She shares how the Alliance deploys policy advocacy, research, capacity and movement building to make possible a future where all of us are housed. As Ann says, the Alliance is non-partisan, but it is not neutral.
There is a paradigm shift underway in how nonprofits are advocating for and with people diagnosed with shattering neurogenerative conditions. It starts with treating patients as experts, identifying their priorities for research and leveraging their abilities to forge powerful relationships in Congress, with federal agencies and at all decision-making tables. I AM ALS, a nonprofit founded by Brian and Sandra Wallach after Brian's diagnosis at age 37, is reinventing the playbook for how to approach finding a cure and treatment for a condition that is both devastating and 100% fatal. Brian and Sandra, who met on the Obama presidential campaign trail, are applying their experience with political organizing and mobilization to the eradication of this disease. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Andrea Goodman, the exceptional CEO of I AM ALS, about how a patient-centered organization is achieving robust investments in medical research by Congress and greater cross-pollination of ideas and resources among previously siloed scientific institutions. Andrea views herself as a facilitator of the people, organizations, and institutions whose expertise, resources and compassion are critical to delivering a cure. We can learn so much from the sea-change that I AM ALS is leading.
We have reached a hopeful moment in the decades-long and hard-fought campaign for a housing policy framework that acknowledges the need for all Americans to have a safe and affordable place to call home. The national conversation about the housing affordability crisis is finally catching up to the mission that the National Low Income Housing Coalition was founded, in 1974, to advance. The Coalition advocates for and with lowest-income renters, who are the most severely cost-burdened tenants, and ensures that their voices are centered in policy debates. Congress is on the cusp of passing the 21st Century Road to Housing Bill, the largest housing legislation in a decade, a supply-side strategy for addressing a wholly insufficient supply. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Renee Williams, Senior Advisor for Public Policy at the Coalition about the non-supply provisions of the legislation that are most promising for low income tenants, including administrative solutions to housing voucher and disaster recovery programs. While the Coalition endorses the bill, it has concerns. Increased supply comes with consequences, from unaffordability to displacement. Implementation with integrity is key to success. The Coalition continues to move the conversation forward.
A conversation with Dr. Tiffany Manuel, is illuminating, gripping and if you are engaged in meeting material human needs and advancing social justice, it is an instructive and energizing call to action. In this episode of Power Station, Dr. T shares how the practice she founded, TheCaseMade, empowers nonprofit leaders to reimagine how to be impactful changemakers in a profoundly divided America under an administration that is aggressively dismantling civil and human rights. She brings her academic grounding in the social sciences and deep experience in the nonprofit housing and community development sector to a practice of creating narratives that invites neighbors, policy makers and even former detractors to become organizational champions. Dr. T applauds the bold and unbowed nonprofit leaders who have the humility and desire to do what it takes to shift mindsets, to win small victories on the way to the generational project that is narrative change. And she reminds us that these leaders, who do not submit to demoralization, bring the energy we all need into every room and conversation. Dr. T's books, The Case Made and Fast Track should be required reading for all determined and open hearted change makers! https://www.thecasemade.com
It speaks volumes when an urban planner, an expert in housing, community and economic development who has served in leadership positions in the federal government, national nonprofit intermediaries, and in a community-based Latino serving organization decides that his passion lies in working at the hyper-local level with communities that are often underserved and underestimated. Manuel Ochoa, my guest on this week's episode of Power Station, launched Ochoa Urban Collaborative in 2019 to support the change making aspirations of marginalized communities in the US and globally. He shares his contributions to the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, a public-private and community partnership, supported by the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth, whose mission is to ensure that the state's largest transit investment is designed and implemented with equity as its North Star. Manuel focuses on the scores of small businesses along the Corridor, mostly immigrant owned, that managed to survive the pandemic and are now navigating an economic downturn and the White House's anti-immigrant agenda. And we talk about the role of the arts in community development and more personally, in Manuel's life.
We are all shaped by the neighborhoods we grew up in, from the cost and conditions of our housing to the bonds we formed within them and whether we had access to parks and grocery stores. And the data bears out that zip codes are more effective predictors of our well-being than our own genetic code. Improving neighborhoods that have been battered by extractive public policies, poverty and unsound housing conditions has been the cornerstone of the community development sector for decades. The sector has progressed in its technical ability to finance projects perceived as risky and at its best has evolved by requiring that redevelopment is rooted in the vision of community residents. Putting community first is the ethos of Neighborhood Allies, a nonprofit community development intermediary with a difference. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with its exceptional leader Presley Gillispie, who brings a full gamut of personal and professional experiences to this endeavor. Its goals, lifting 100,000 Pittsburghers up the socio-economic ladder in the next decade are ambitious, but achievable. And it means everything that Neighborhood Allies sees mental health as foundational to a strong community and actively invests in connecting residents to resources.
What does it take to generate transformative changes to a criminal justice system that targets, harms and disempowers Black people? DC Justice Lab was founded to answer this question, to generate transparency and accountably in a city, our nation's capital, which relies on over-policing and surveillance to control its citizenry. Our Metropolitan Police Department, which is deployed at a cost of over $500,000,000 annually and for which there is very little oversight, has most recently abetted federal ICE agents in carrying out unlawful detainments. This overcriminalization of Black and Brown people is not what DC Justice Lab envisions as public safety. In this episode of Power Station, DC Justice Lab's CEO Clinique Chapman shares how her team, a powerhouse cohort of social workers, lawyers, and policy experts invite community members to identify the changes that they believe will strengthen neighborhoods and protect families. She brings a powerful and personal lens to this mission. As a social worker who has worked with young people in the court system, brought corrections officers and incarcerated people to a common table to reimagine a system that diminishes all of them, Clinique truly is changemaking in action.
Rev. Christopher Zacharias is a powerful example of what it means, as Walt Whitman described, to contain multitudes. It starts with his religious calling and belief in engaging across faith traditions to advance equity and justice in communities where they have been denied. He uses his voice to call out policy decisions and corporate practices that harm communities of color and identifies the action steps needed to produce solutions. Rev. Zacharias is grounded in his position as Senior Pastor of the John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church in Washington DC, an historic pillar of America's civil rights movement. On this episode of Power Station I speak with Rev. Zacharias about his interconnected roles as Executive Director of Interfaith Action for Human Rights, whose legislative campaigns are designed to stop the overuse of solitary confinement in prisons within DC, Maryland and Virginia and his leadership of Boycott Target DC, a coalition organized in response to Target's rejection of its DEI programs and $2.5B commitment to Black businesses after the 2025 election of Donald Trump. Momentum is building for each, and corporate and public leaders are paying attention. Rev. Zacharias invites us all to exercise our passion and purpose.
How do we maintain our well-being and motivation when our government is targeting entire populations for deportation and also the nonprofits that protect their civil and human rights? For Naznin Saifi, my guest this week on Power Station, the answer is clear. Her self-care is getting up every day and going to work. As executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, Naznin leads a small cohort of attorneys in representing a diverse population speaking over 100 languages with critical housing, immigration, family law and domestic violence concerns. Staff are all first generation Americans who understand the language, cultural and increasingly, the political barriers that Asian Pacific Islanders, especially recent arrivals in America, face when seeking help with systems that are unfamiliar to them. The Center represents the community in multiple municipalities, each with distinct administrative and court processes. A current challenge is that clients are afraid to leave their homes to go to court and seek justice. And Naznin cannot guarantee their safety, a heartbreaking reality in these times but the Center is there for them, always. Despite the challenges there is joy in and celebration of their victories.
It may seem inconceivable given all that is happening in our nation but yes, tax season is here again. And while that is stressful and complex, particularly for those who have lost their jobs, from federal employees to nonprofit professionals and journalists, for lowest income Americans, filing taxes is a singular opportunity for financial empowerment. That is because of the Earned Income Tax Credit, added to the U.S. Tax Code in 1975, our most powerful tool for lifting lowest income wage earners out of poverty. I cannot imagine a conversation about solutions to economic inequality, through public policymaking and community education, without Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, my guest, again, on Power Station. Joseph recounts how transformative these dollars, which are earned and not charity, are for these families. We commiserate over the cruelty of the latest White House executive order, which makes receiving those benefits exponentially more difficult. Joseph shares how this administration's efforts to undermine the right of all communities to prosper informs his nonprofit consulting and role with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. As always, he is driven by a belief in family, his own and all of ours.
When a small group of incarcerated men within California's prison system decided to use their lives to uplift fellow prisoners, they launched what is known nationally as C.R.O.P., Creating Restorative Programs and Opportunities. They knew that 54% of those who are released from California prisons encounter a world they barely recognize and without adequate support and resources, will reoffend within three years. In this episode of Power Station my guest is Terah Lawyer, the extraordinary leader who, as president of CROP, is demonstrating the power of systems and culture change in real time. Terah brings her lived experience with incarceration, academic grounding and deep commitment to her community to the design and implementation of Ready 4 Life, an innovative campus-based reentry initiative that is proving to be transformative. It trains and places participants in substantive jobs with meaningful wages, provides secure housing and invests in each person's personal development, from taking accountability to honing leadership skills. Terah honors the nonprofits, formerly incarcerated leaders and champions like Gov. Newsom and the California State Legislature who are investing in the potential and humanity of those who are striving for a productive second chance. A story that needs to be heard.
In 2001, in the nascent days of the internet, activists came together to wrestle with a growing challenge, the impacts of an increasingly corporatized media ecosystem on communities of color. They set out to intervene in media and tech practices that harm people of color and reimagined how these sectors could better represent the aspirations of local communities. This led to the founding, in 2009, of Media Justice, an organizing, education and field building organization that has generated significant wins, from passage of the nation's first facial recognition ban to another first, limiting the rates that families of incarcerated people could be charged for phone calls. As Steven Renderos, my exceptional guest on this episode of Power Station explains, where 25 years ago the villains dominating the field were Clear Channel and Comcast, they are now the tech oligarchy, billionaires whose influence is weakening our democracy and extracting local resources. But the public, in these harrowing times, is waking up and taking action. First-time protesters are showing up at public hearings to speak out against the economic and environmental harms of data centers. And Media Justice is powering their activism, developing leaders and connecting them across our nation.
We are experiencing an increasingly rapid erosion of civil and human rights in America. People with disabilities are one improbable yet frontline target. Their decades-long campaign to win protections in housing, employment and healthcare is now facing a shocking reversal of hard-won legal rights. As Theo Braddy executive director of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) says on this episode of Power Station, discrimination against and the oppression of people with disabilities is largely invisible in our society until it happens to us. And because we are all aging into disability, we face a steep learning curve and a responsibility to become advocates for ourselves and others. That is the ethos that guides Theo's leadership of the NCIL, the longest running disability-led association in the nation. Its membership is comprised of some 660 centers across the county that empower people with disabilities to thrive in their communities and Statewide Independent Living Councils that are mandated to create independent living plans. This powerful movement now faces Executive Orders that call for mass institutionalization into nursing homes and the US Department of Justice's failure to enforce the Americans with Disability Act. Theo Braddy has a different plan. Hear him!
When Kat Guillaume-Delemar was six years old she was already an engaged community member. When a fire took the house next to her apartment building, she wondered about the elderly woman who had lived there and whether a new home would replace hers. As often happens in disinvested neighborhoods, that space became a vacant lot that remained the same for decades. Kat now leads the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit that brings technical solutions to human problems and failed systems, specifically bringing community-defined purpose to vacant, abandoned and/or deteriorated structures across the United States. As Kat explains on this episode of Power Station, Community Progress partners with municipalities and community leaders who have experienced the trauma associated with deteriorated and dangerous conditions and have a vision that will serve and strengthen their neighborhoods. These successes are not often highlighted in the media, but they are happening, nonetheless. The wins include the passing of progressive housing policies, the creation of affordable rental units, increased homeownership, centers for the arts and a beautiful park where an elderly woman's home once stood. Kat brings heart, expertise and tenacity to making a more equitable America. Hear her.
What happened to Dakarai Larriett is shocking, horrifying even, and yet it is not entirely remarkable for a Black man in America. In 2024, Dakairi, an Alabama native who spent years on Fifth Avenue in NYC as a corporate executive, was unlawfully detained at a traffic stop in Michigan. What followed was hours of race baiting, an attempted planting of drugs and later, in a cell, literal torture. This is not hyperbole. It is the truth of what happened to him captured by the police officer's own dashcam and bodycam. Video evidence notwithstanding, a judge declined to take action against the officers. In this first interview of Power Station in 2026, I speak with Dakarai about how his experience moved him to become an organizer, a champion for criminal justice reform and a 2026 Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Alabama. He is connecting with the families of incarcerated men in Alabama's deeply corrupt prison system and developing policies to upend business as usual, from lawless police officers to a for-profit prison system that enriches wealthy individuals and the state's coffers at the expense of uncompensated prisoners. His bravery is powerful.
This is my 401st episode of Power Station!! Reaching the 400 mark is a major milestone for me. because I created this unique platform and have sustained it throughout some very turbulent years. Power Station is an audio library of changemakers in America. My guests do the hard daily slog of building organizations, engaging community members in organizing and pushing for policies that that hold the power to meet material needs and generate generational wealth. The build confidence and power in communities that are so often inderestimated. I learn from my guests and others should to, including our vast and dispersed media networks and those elected to serve and govern. So, here are my parting thoughts about 2025 and where I see us going in 2026. Many thanks to all who listen and do the work!
At Live Free Illinois, the nonprofit she founded, Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain advances a critical mission: ending gun violence and mass incarceration by employing a powerful trifecta of strategies: education, organizing and advocacy. It starts with mobilizing a network of over 130 congregations across the state to advocate for public safety and law enforcement accountability. And it requires standing up to recent federal threats, from the cutting of SNAP benefits to the militarization of law enforcement. Live Free Illinois partners with congregations to provide organizer training and to educate members about Project 2025, the blueprint behind our national leadership's assault on Black and Brown communities. And as Rev. Ciera explains in this episode of Power Station, she always expects to win. Take the Clean Slate Initiative, a statewide campaign calling for the automatic sealing of arrest and conviction records for eligible Illinoisians. It united faith leaders, community organizations and allies in fighting for the removal of systemic barriers that burden those most impacted by generational racism and poverty. And It became law in October 2025! Rev. Ciera proves that a moral compass, owning your power and showing up for others makes change possible.
I consider Power Station to be a living library, one that contains the stories, strategies, struggles and accomplishments of some of our nation's most impactful social change leaders. And I have been moved, enlightened and challenged in my thinking by many of my guests. This episode, featuring Chris Torres, executive director of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ), is among the most meaningful to me. That is because LDSJ is devoted to studying, practicing, supporting and elevating the craft of organizing, which, although often undervalued, is at the heart of progressive policymaking and power building. Its Fellowships are academically rigorous, designed to bring savvy college graduates into the nonprofit sector and to reinvigorate mid-career organizers who are considering leaving the sector. As an institute within the City University of New York, a system that is home to over 250,000 students, many of whom are first-generation and students of color, LDSJ is positioning young people who have direct experience with injustice as leaders of long term movements for civil rights, workers' rights and more. LDSJ is making possible what the conservative movement has mastered, an investment in long term leadership. Chris tells the story of building a powerful future here.
Tia Bell is a powerful, determined and impactful force for her community, city and this nation. She has taken her formative childhood experience, the shooting of her mother, who thankfully survived, and subsequent murders of other family members and friends as a blueprint for acting proactively to prevent the scourge of gun violence. Her academic grounding is at the intersection of youth development and gun violence, a public health crisis that is the consequence of historical and ongoing racism, disinvestment and under-representation. The TRIGGER Project, the nonprofit she founded and leads, is laser-focused on equipping young people to tackle interpersonal conflicts with words and reason instead of violence. When Tia asked me to interview Sharon Williams, the mother of her beloved mentee Shane who was murdered in 2023 outside of his home, I was honored. Sharon is strong, loving and hurt beyond measure, a woman whose losses have fueled her commitment to providing a different environment and future for Shane's toddler son Princeton. Tia and Sharon are the closest of friends and their shared loss has shaken both to their core. Their voices matter. Science matters. Gun violence is not inevitable. Listen, comment and share.
Storytelling changes everything. It introduces us to other people's life experiences and cracks open our capacity to care and connect. For the storyteller, it provides what may be a first in a lifetime opportunity to express oneself and be heard. Some of the most powerful stories illuminate aspects of society that we lack the will to confront. Glen McGinnis wanted the nation to know about young Black and Brown men like himself, sentenced to death row for a crime committed as a minor. He craved education, a resource the Texas prison system did not provide. His aspirations led to the launching of Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, a nonprofit that creates community among currently and formerly incarcerated men and women through books and the conversations they spark. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Deputy Director Julia Mascioli and Poet Ambassador Curtis McKnight about the unique challenges of DC residents who are incarcerated first in DC jails and then within the federal prison system. We talk about the Prison Book Club, which connects 900 incarcerated people in over 100 prisons and the looming threat of HR 5140, now headed to the Senate. Listen and share!
Storytelling changes everything. It introduces us to other people's life experiences and cracks open our capacity to care and connect. For the storyteller, it provides what may be a first in a lifetime opportunity to express oneself and be heard. Some of the most powerful stories illuminate aspects of society that we lack the will to confront. Glen McGinnis wanted the nation to know about young Black and Brown men like himself, sentenced to death row for a crime committed as a minor. He craved education, a resource the Texas prison system did not provide. His aspirations led to the launching of the Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, a nonprofit that creates community among currently and formerly incarcerated men and women through books and the conversations they spark. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Deputy Director Julia Mascioli and Poet Ambassador Curtis McKnight about the unique challenges of DC residents who are incarcerated first in DC jails and within the federal prison system. We talk about the Prison Book Club, which connects 900 incarcerated people in over 100 prisons and the looming threat of HR 5140, now headed to the Senate. Listen and share!
This episode is...just me. I have some thoughts and some feelings (don't we all) to share about how nonprofits are perceived in our society. how their leaders are using their voices in this moment, the barriers they face and where true and consistent power lies. Not your traditional holiday messaging but then again, this is me speaking! What I hope comes through is the potential I see for this nation if nonprofits (the most change making and community-centered of them, of course) were considered and treated with the respect they deserve. They are not just a place that reporters can rely on for stories about this nation's woes and inequities, they are stewards of innovation, of creating policy solutions that generate housing, health systems that work for everyone, food, civil and immigant rights, public safety and access to clean water. They are not about imagining abundance, they are about building on the expertise and resources they have, demanding action from policy makers, pushing boundaries, meeting material needs, and building power in communities so that people are heard.
When we talk about healthcare in America, I mean among friends and family, not reporters and pundits, it is difficult to know which headline-making topic to tackle first. Some conversations focus on disparities in health outcomes, preventable gaps based on race, income and geography that require political will to overcome. Others focus on the profound impacts on the horizon for 22 million Americans facing spikes in their premiums, a feature of our current administration's budget bill, that they cannot afford. The state of healthcare in America and the pathway to systems transformation is the life's work and expertise of Anthony Wright, my guest on this week's episode of Power Station. Anthony leads Families USA, a nonprofit that has been instrumental in advocating for and winning policy solutions, which include passage of the Affordable Care Act and the Children's Health Improvement Program and the ending of surprise medical billing. He brings both personal experience with healthcare instability and nonprofit leadership in multiple states to this national role. Anthony wants legislators and reporters to hear more stories about the human impacts of these cutbacks and not just the political impacts. They can start by listening to Anthony Wright Anthony here.
Its theory of change may sound brand new, designed in response to this administration's increasingly authoritarian agenda but California Donor Table has led with a power building model of philanthropy for over two decades. It starts with donors who are committed to using their resources to generate a more just California and nation by investing in progressive communities of color. Their funding produces the infrastructure that communities need to elect candidates who reflect their needs and values. That infrastructure also supports good governance and holds elected officials accountable. In this episode of Power Station, Ludovic Blain, the incomparable CEO of California Donor Table, breaks down how to not only build power but to wield power by funding progressive eco-systems across geographic boundaries and tax statuses. Ludovic reflects on the promise of a new generation of candidates running for offices from boards of supervisors to Mayors and the US Senate and how to prepare for inevitable voter suppression in the mid-terms. Ludovic reminds us that crafting the policies and building the society we want to see requires that we enable progressive leadership to take hold in all levels of government. Listen, be energized and share this episode.
Facts matter but facts alone will not influence change when the truthtellers are not believed. Millions of girls and women see their doctors about debilitating symptoms only to be told that what they are experiencing is not real. Such is the case with endometriosis, a medical condition that among other harms, is a leading cause of infertility in women. As Shannon Cohn, my guest on this episode of Power Station says, it is so prevalent that either you have endometriosis, or you love someone who does. As a teenager she sought help for incapacitating menstrual pain only to be told by a doctor that she was seeking attention. It took many years and countless doctors before receiving an accurate diagnosis. Eventually, she left a successful legal career to become a women's health champion, using filmmaking to advocate for public and institutional investments in endometriosis research and treatment. Below the Belt, Shannon's deeply instructive and moving documentary chronicles the struggles of 4 women living with endometriosis. It is the foundation of a social impact strategy that is disrupting the status quo and breaking through decades of indifference by public policymakers and the medical establishment. As Shannon demonstrates, stories matter.
It is one year before the mid-term elections of 2026, and America faces a high stakes scenario that goes beyond who will run for public office. The conversation now is about who will be able to cast a ballot and whether all votes will be counted. The threats can be found in state legislative actions and presidential executive orders that seek to limit access to the ballot box based on disproven accounts of election fraud. In this episode of Power Station I am joined by Rebekah Caruthers, CEO of Fair Elections Center, a national nonprofit staffed by experts in organizing, public education, policy advocacy and litigation, strategies deployed to preserve and expand the voting rights of all eligible Americans. As Rebekah says, when our voting rights are undermined, democracy is at risk. Fair Elections Center also works with HBCUs, public universities and community colleges to ensure that student voting is unimpeded. Rebekah is a powerful leader whose pursuit of voting and civil rights is deeply embedded in her family's legacy. Her leadership at Fair Elections Center and collaboration with local, state and national advocates is critical to our democracy.
America has a long history of being a welcoming, if imperfect, home to those who have been forcibly displaced from their countries of origin because of conflict. persecution, and violence. And we are not alone. Nations across the globe have taken in millions of refugees—men, women, and children who have crossed international borders to survive. Some nations have developed systems that allow adults to start working right away, positioning their families and those national economies to thrive. On this episode of Power Station, I am joined by Suzanne Ehlers, Executive Director and CEO of USA for UNHCR (the United Nations Refugee Agency). Her unshakeable humanitarian values and understanding of the resettlement infrastructure, from government agencies to nonprofits and faith networks make her an outstanding champion of displaced families. We talk about Building Better Futures, a collection of women philanthropists who have stepped up to make higher education for women refugees possible, an initiative that will change lives, strengthen economies and create lasting social change across the globe. Suzanne and USA for UNHCR remains laser-focused on the well-being of refugees. It all starts with telling their stories.
Shannan Herbert is undeterred by the chaos, economic shifts and uncertainty of this moment in America. She remains laser-focused on building wealth and opportunity in the DMV, especially in communities that have been historically underserved. As CEO of Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF) a nonprofit that brings financial education, coaching and capital to promising entrepreneurs working in or serving LMI communities, Shannan demonstrates what is possible when clients get out from under predatory lending schemes and receive the guidance and support need to achieve their goals. Clients who excel in WACIF's accelerators and peer cohorts are now thriving small business owners. Their companies can be seen and touched at 3 WACIF operated sites, including the Anacostia Arts Center, an extraordinary cultural and commercial resource in Washington DC's Ward 8. In this episode of Power Station, Shannan announces a new initiative, the PIVOT Project, a collaboration with longstanding community partner Latino Economic Development Center and their inaugural funder, Capital One. This catalyst fund will be lifechanging for men and women who have lost their place in the federal workforce and are moved to transition to full-time entrepreneurship. Shannan is a force in local communities and on national stages. Hear her.
Latino Economic Development Center was born out of the Mount Pleasant riots, an historic event in Washington DC ignited in 1991 by police violence and the city’s failure to meet the pressing needs of thousands of newly arrived Salvadorian civil war refugees. Since then, LEDC has been at the forefront of equipping Latino communities in DC, Maryland and Virginia with the knowledge and resources needed to create wealth through home ownership and entrepreneurship. Now, in another historic moment, the federal takeover of DC, LEDC is expanding its services into rural regions with immigrant populations and is guiding Latino federal workers who have lost their jobs and are exploring entrepreneurship by necessity. It is doing so while navigating the targeting, demonization and detention of community members and staff. Emi Reyes, my guest on this week’s episode of Power Station, is the most inspiring of nonprofit leaders. As the daughter of Salvadorian restaurant owners, she knows first-hand about the barriers immigrants face in building economic security. She knows that Latino economic power is on the rise and that her resilient community will survive. Emi is a macro thinker with deep community roots. Hear her.
Why would a president who speaks in dystopian terms about crime call for the Department of Justice’s cancellation of $820 million in grants to hundreds of community-based and national nonprofits with a track record of reducing violence, caring for crime victims and increasing public safety? The evidence is clear. He demonizes people of color and spends millions on the militarization of cities over evidence-based interventions and community informed policy solutions. In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by José Alfaro, the outstanding executive director of Community Justice, an organization founded to change the conversation about gun violence and its disproportionate impacts in communities of color. Gun violence, Jose explains, is the #1 killer for young Black men and boys and the #2 killer of Latino men and boys, a statistic that includes homicide, suicide, intimate partner violence and hate crimes. Community Justice approaches gun violence as a public health issue, calls on media to be accountable in their reporting and engages policymakers as partners in achieving peace. As José says, the administration’s actions are about power, not public safety. Community Justice and its counterpart Community Justice Action Fund are on the frontlines of truth telling and changemaking. Hear him.
Equal justice under the law may be a goal of our court system, but it is not a guaranteed outcome. There is no right to counsel in civil cases, making low-income tenants in Housing Court at great risk of eviction and potentially homelessness. These cases are high stakes, especially in jurisdictions where affordable housing is out of reach for most low-income individuals and families. Nationally, only 4% of tenants are represented by lawyers compared to 83% of landlords, a data point that has barely improved over the decades. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Chijioke Akamigbo, executive director of Rising Justice, a nonprofit organization whose game changing model for the provision of civil legal services is transforming the field. Rising for Justice, situated in the DC Superior Court is powered by a team of attorneys and the law students and social work students who take part in its clinical training program. These students learn not only the law but what it takes to secure justice for those who rarely feel seen or heard. Chijioke brings lived experience, empathy and a history of humanizing systems that fail those without means. Hear him!!
Organizing is collective action. It is the tool we employ to overcome harms sanctioned by the state and committed against those who are perceived to be powerless. Organizing exposes inequities, identifies who perpetuates them, and generates solutions to systemic injustices. At a moment when our national leaders are leveraging their powers to undercut civil rights, detain and deport Latinx men, women and children without adherence to laws or norms, organizing is more than an option, it is a necessity. In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by Danny C, whose commitment to mobilizing underserved communities was shaped by his lived experience as the son of migrant parents who struggled with housing costs and displacement. He co-founded La Colectiva, a nonprofit powered by Northen Virginia’s robust Latinx population. It is leading critical organizing campaigns about how ICE, Amazon and ICA-Farmville operate at the expense of and without accountability to Latinx people and all communities of color. It exposes how Democratic leadership fails to honor community over corporations. La Colectiva is making seismic shifts in Virginia’s power dynamics and its reports put that information in the hands of those who are empowered to do better. Hear him!
Democracy is not just a concept; it is a practice. America’s belief in its citizenry’s right to self-expression, to dissent and to elect our political leaders is codified into constitutional amendments and federal laws. Those principles, which are fundamental to our national identity, have been severely tested by a history rooted in genocide, slavery and ongoing economic inequity. Now, we persevere, striving to create, through civic action, education, and the sanctity of our right to vote, a more perfect union. And, in a moment in which these rights are under assault by an authoritarian administration we must coalesce, flex our organizing muscles and use all available tools to preserve democracy. In this episode of Power Station, the invincible Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, breaks down how BISC positions grassroots coalitions to take on and win urgently important ballot initiative campaigns. It takes technical expertise, a command of organizing and a commitment to relationship-building among sometimes unlikely constituents to run and implement ballot campaigns calling for the right to bodily autonomy and to raising the minimum wage. Listen to Chris and I promise that that her story will resonate and inspire.
For Ty Hobson-Powell, being a child of Washington DC goes deeper than living with the United States Capital and the White House as a backdrop. It is not just that politics is in his bones and that he has worked in national campaigns and in District government to generate policy change for people and communities. What motivates his fight for justice is the unique experience of living in the seat of this nation’s federal government while being one of 700,000 Washingtonians who raise families, work and build communities, all without statehood or full representation in Congress. In this episode of Power Station, Ty shares what his activism looks like now, his call for less apathy and more care for others and how his book, The Fire This Time memorializes his message, especially for young people of color about leadership, courage and using your voice with purpose and power. At a time when our nation’s democratic principles and institutions are under assault and DC is under federal control this conversation brings, at least for me, urgency, clarity and a plan of action. Ty is building the world he wants his 4 year old daughter, who is his inspiration, to inherit.
The advent of the internet changed how we interact with friends, our nation and the world. We are all there now, accessing news and popular culture through social media apps, attending school, working and connecting with friends. At our best we are also engaging, as nonprofits and political campaigns, in mobilizing voters and organizing public policy campaigns that advance equity and strengthen democracy. All of this exists while social media companies profit from disseminating hate-based disinformation peddled by authoritarian politicians and their surrogates. In this episode of Power Station, the awesome public interest technologist and social justice activist Mallory Knodel poses a vital question. What if we looked at the internet and social media apps not as the final arbiter of politics and culture but as a tool over which we, collectively and individually have choice and agency? What if the technical design of the platform we uses supported human rights and democracy? Mallory and her co-creators at the Social Web Foundation are building the infrastructure needed to make our connectivity more intentional, purposeful and creative. The are envisioning and implementing a Fediverse and ActivityPub as an open space for everyone. Hear her and share!
At the highest levels of government our elected officials are violating the Constitution, ignoring court orders and trampling societal norms to undermine decades of progress in America. They are demonizing schools, corporations and nonprofits that practice diversity, equity and inclusion, taking back federal grants intended for housing and climate change mitigation in communities of color and cutting nutrition programs in public schools. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Celina Stewart, the inspiring and unstoppable CEO of The League of Women Voters who is making history of her own. Celina, an expert in redistricting, the Census and voting rights is the League’s second African American CEO. She describes leading during a constitutional crisis, pushing back against harmful executive orders while supporting members tackling hyperlocal threats to their communities. The League of Women is fueled by people power, those who join school boards, testify at city council hearings, and stand with immigrants against unfounded deportations. The League’s newest initiative, Unite and Rise, 8.5. seeks to protect and preserve our democracy by mobilizing 8.5 million voters. This is the powerful non-partisan movement, centered in 700+ local leagues, that can change the course of history.
For José Vasquez, leading Common Defense, a national nonprofit comprised of 200,000 veterans who share progressive values, is an extension of the oath he took as a 17 year old enlistee. He swore to and has remained steadfast in defending the Constitution and advocating for the well-being of those who serve. He and a cohort of activist vets launched Common Defense in 2016 to provide a civic engagement platform for veterans who are anti-racist, pro-democracy and anti-authoritarianism. Collectively they are advancing progressive policymaking in state legislatures, on Capitol Hill and in the White House. Common Defense organizes around the issues that resonate deeply for its members, including climate change and healthcare. A current campaign demands accountability for the president’s dismantling of the Veteran’s Administration, which is putting the health of 16.5 million veterans at risk. On this episode of Power Station, I speak with José about his life’s journey, from joining the Army, to living out his family’s dream of a college education, to his evolving views about our military and his decision to organize his fellow veterans to use their voices for the common good. Hear him and share!
How is it possible that in 2025, America is funding and operationalizing daily raids on Latinos in the form of arrests, detainments, deportations and disappearances? What can justify the vilification of Latinos, a community that includes families that have been established here for generations and newer arrivals seeking citizenship in a broken immigration system? Meanwhile, Latinos, working across sectors, contribute $4.1 trillion dollars to this country annually. While the president and congressional leadership are the architects of this cruel, and often illegal campaign targeting 20% of the nation’s population, both political parties have failed Latinos as a whole. Neither has modernized our immigration system or fully recognized their economic, cultural and social contributions. I am honored that Sindy Benevides, founder of Aqui: The Accountability Movement, shared her organizational story on this episode of Power Station. Sindy explains that achieving a just future for Latinos in America requires a narrative shift around how Latinos are perceived, the leveraging of the their economic power, and accountability by all sectors for hiring and policies impacting Latinos and other communities of color. Sindy is a powerrful leader who is building a new path towards justice, one that we all can walk.
Organizing is a superpower. It allows us to make our voices heard, to influence the decision-makers, from corporations to landlords to the elected officials who determine clean air standards, the cost of childcare, the minimum wage and whether voting rights will expand or become more restrictive. And in a moment in which politicians are defunding healthcare and other public systems to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest in our society, organizing provides a skillset and framework that prepares nonprofit organizations, their staff and community-based volunteers to lead impactful and changemaking campaigns. In this episode of Power Station I speak with the invincible Elyssa Feder, who has trained thousands of new entries in the organizing field since launching Rising Organizers in 2016. She is positioning a new generation of organizers to save and strengthen our battered democracy and is creating the organizing infrastructure that nonprofits need to activate their communities and fulfill their mission. And Elyssa is committed to growing power, through organizing, in Washington DC where 700,000 people lack full voting representation in Congress. As she says, organizing takes many forms and there is room for all of us. Hear her and share this episode!
What makes culture change possible? Not the kind that divides people, which we are experiencing now but change that which empowers individuals, builds community and in some cases saves lives. Active Minds, a nonprofit founded by Alison Malmon after losing her brother Brian, a college student, to suicide 21 years ago demonstrates how normalizing conversations about mental health and prioritizing the well-being of youth and young adults is transforming America. Active Minds has activated student-led mental health advocacy chapters across 500 college campuses and high schools and is now expanding into middle schools. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Brandi Pretlow, Active Minds Vice President for Community Initiatives whose clinical expertise, deep empathy and strategic savvy is engaging diverse communities, from educational systems to influencers and athletes, in elevating mental health care as a shared value. Brandi speaks to the resources we all need, from housing to health, to maintain our mental health and to the imperative of meeting needs in the most marginalized communities. We talk about navigating federal budget cuts, expanding Active Mind’s advocacy voice and the promise of seeing culture change in action.
We have a long history in America of institutions and public systems that do not serve all members of the public equally. As Erin Kilmer-Neel shares on this episode of Power Station, the financial services industry, banks in particular, have routinely failed to approve loan applications for small businesses and mortgages from borrowers of color on par with their white counterparts. Perceptions of unworthiness is rooted in a well-documented history of racism in public and corporate policymaking. As executive director of the Beneficial State Foundation, the nonprofit that owns and partners with Beneficial State Bank, an equity-driven enterprise, Erin is powering a movement to unlearn the biases that undergird perceptions of risk and reimagine policies and practices that meet the capital needs of borrowers of color. Take Underwriting for Justice, an initiative that is upending racially discriminatory lending norms. It is engaging banks in signing on to methodologies that lead to systemic yeses. Erin is a bright light in the ongoing campaign to bridge the social equity and banking worlds. She credits the vision of Beneficial Bank co-founders Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor in creating an institution that builds power within, instead of extracting from, the communities it serves.
What stories have we heard, and beliefs have we internalized, to explain the crisis level numbers of Americans who are on the brink of losing their housing or are already experiencing homelessness? Do we blame the individuals? Is the problem intractable? Years of study illuminates the facts: we have a profound dual problem of affordability and supply. Our federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is responsible for a wage to rent disparity that causes extremely low income Americans to pay more than half of their income on rent. And a shortage of 7.1 million affordable housing units makes it inevitable that 77,000 Americans have no home at all. That data and more is captured in seminal reports produced by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which has been at the forefront of tenant-led policy advocacy for decades. On this episode of Power Station, Renee Willis, the Coalition’s exceptional new President and CEO shares the life experience that guides her leadership in this most challenging of times. As she says, when we talk about policy we are really talking about people. The Coalition knows the true story of housing in America and champions people who aspire for better.
If you think that young people are not informed about, paying attention to or taking action to counter the harm, in rhetoric and policy, practiced by the current administration, you will be encouraged by this episode of Power Station. My three outstanding guests, Jean Garcia, Hannia Hernandez-Mendoza and Bryan Juarez Ruiz, are college students whose academic successes and commitment to shaping a more just future led to their selection as summer interns with the National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Association. NMSHSA is the advocate and support system for 24 migrant head start centers that provide high-quality educational services to 26,000 children of farmworkers in 34 states. Jean, Hannia and Bryan have all experienced the extreme challenges of agricultural work first-hand. And they all credit their early childhood days in migrant head start centers as foundational to their educational development and capacity to, as their immigrant parents expect, build a life for themselves beyond the fields in which they have toiled. They are on the way, not only to personal achievement but to charting bold systems change for farmworkers, immigrants and other underserved and targeted communities. Hear them tell their stories here.
It is meaningful and instructive that the Legal Defense Fund, which has championed racial justice at the voting booth, in education, housing and in the criminal justice system since its founding by Thurgood Marshall in 1940, is on the frontlines today, winning legal victories in a perilous moment for American democracy. LDF is defending the hard-won civil rights of Black Americans against racially imposed barriers, laid out in Project 2025 and implemented by President Trump and the 119th Congress. As LDF Associate Director-Counsel Todd Cox explains on this episode of Power Station, Congress has abdicated its responsibility as a check on the executive and the U.S. Department of Justice has rejected its mandate to enforce civil rights laws, leaving the LDF and its sister organizations to carry out the fight in the courts. LDF brings the expertise and infrastructure needed to litigate, advocate in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill, organize in impacted communities and educate the public and policymakers about what is at stake. Todd, a consummate civil rights litigator, looks to his grandparents, who fled autocracy and racial violence in the south, as his inspiration and guide. Hear him and share this powerful story.
When UnidosUS convenes its annual conference this August, it will provide a safe space for the leaders of its 300 affiliates (community based nonprofits) to process and strategize over President Trump’s targeting of immigrants, assault on Medicaid and threats to their nonprofits’ tax exempt status. As Janet Murguía, President and CEO of UnidosUS shares on this episode of Power Station, it is an opportunity for thousands of leaders, stakeholders, allies and partners to draw strength from each other. As this nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, UnidosUS is a powerhouse nonprofit whose expertise in organizing, research, policy advocacy, educational programming and civic engagement has advanced the rights and well-being of Latinos and other underinvested communities for 57 years. It remains a non-partisan frontline force for intergenerational wealth building, increasing opportunities for homeownership and educational opportunity through programs delivered by affiliates across America. We talk about the impacts of actions taken by this White House and the 119th Congress, from ICE raids to the breakdown of due process and, in response, the growing pro-democracy movement. I cannot think of anyone more equipped to lead in this unprecedented moment and to make America more equitable than Janet Murguia. Hear HER!
In 1963, a time of heightened suppression of Black Americans to their civil rights, President Kennedy invited 244 lawyers to the White House, calling on them to use their expertise and influence to move the civil rights struggle from the streets into the courts. That call to action launched The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonprofit that for 63 years has tackled discrimination against people of color and championed the right to full participation in civic life. In this episode of Power Station, I am honored to feature Rob Weiner, Director of the Committee’s Voting Rights Project. which challenges efforts at the state and national levels to disenfranchise voters of color. It is notable and moving that until recently Rob was Senior Counsel at the Voting Rights Division at the US Department of Justice. He explains that under the Trump administration, the DOJ has abandoned its mission to protect the right to vote and is instead trafficking in disproven claims of voting scams and election fraud. Rob and his colleagues at the Lawyers Committee are boldly pushing back against executive orders, redistricting schemes and narratives that seek to weaken hard-won civil rights. And they are winning. Hear him!
It started, as promised, on Day 1 of this super-charged Trump Administration. His targeting of political foes, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, people of color and the nonprofit organizations that defend their rights morphed into punitive and legally dubious executive orders. Fortunately, the civil rights community was prepared for the onslaught. They had studied Project 2025, pre-election, the administration’s playbook for autocratic rule. John C. Yang, President and Executive Director of Advancing Justice - AAJC, my guest on this episode of Power Station, is one of those insightful and courageous leaders. He and his team at Advancing Justice - AAJC are standing up, in court and on Capital Hill, to the administration’s efforts to defund Asian American organizations, decimate the federal workforce (8% of which is Asian American) and deport community members, including naturalized citizens. Advancing Justice - AAJC is working in concert with civil right and public interest organizations representing all communities who are being maligned and attacked. And these efforts are winning. We talk about diversity, a word that Trump now prohibits, and John reminds us that diversity is our strength and part of our national identity. This is a conversation about truth, hope and action. Listen and share!
As a nation we are learning a powerful lesson in real time. In the just completed first 100 days of the Trump administration, the president has led a reckless campaign of retribution that relies on the flouting of laws, courts and the constitution itself. From freezing federal funding to nonprofits that keep families fed to seizing immigrants and dispatching them without due process to foreign prisons he is adhering to Project 2025, the administration’s autocratic playbook for diminishing civil rights, a precursor to dismantling democracy. In this week’s episode of Power Station I speak with Skye Perryman, the intrepid and unbowed President and CEO of Democracy Forward, the national nonprofit on the frontlines of defending those whom the administration targets from his attacks. Democracy Forward is winning in the courts and in communities by giving a voice to those who are under attack. Its communications team is telling the stories of nonprofit leaders, lawyers and immigration advocates who are standing up for their rights and continuing to serve their communities. And Skye invites us to be a part of the movement. Listen and learn how we can move forward together.
To see disenfranchisement in action, look no further than Washington DC, whose 700,000 residents pay the highest taxes per household in our nation and yet have no voting members in the U.S. Congress. This inequity has persisted through both democratic and republican administrations and is intensifying in the 119th Congress and the Trump presidency. For almost 3 decades, DC Vote, a local nonprofit with national reach has led the movement for DC Statehood. It achieved the passage of Home Rule, but our elected leaders still do not control their budgets, and their legislation can be overturned by members of Congress who do not respect the right of a majority Black and Brown citizenry to govern itself. In this episode of Power Station I speak to DC Vote’s Organizing Director Kelsye Adams whose political savvy and organizing know-how is generating powerful pro-statehood coalitions across the nation. Kelyse, an organizing superstar, co-founded Free DC, which invites everyone, not just the organizationally affiliated, to advocate for democracy. Along the way she found time to launch Long Live GoGo, which celebrates the official music of DC and catalyzes civic action at the intersection of art, politics and culture. Listen and share!
There is one fact that Lisa Countryman Quiroz, CEO of Jewish Vocational Service Bay Area (JVS) wants you to take away from our deeply data-informed conversation. There is a proven pathway for people stuck in low-quality jobs to secure high-quality employment that moves families into the middle class. And doing so generates a quantifiable return on investment. That fact is documented in unimpeachable quarterly earnings data collected by the state of California’s Employment Development Department. Job seekers, primarily women of color, come to JVS with aspirations and the need to provide for their families. JVS’s investments in them, customized training for specialized positions in industry and public agencies, one-on-one staff support and advocacy for systems change, make a better life for families achievable. Jobseekers come to JVS having earned around $40k annually. Post training, they earn $60k and in 5 years their salaries are over $100k. These results are life-changing for families and a huge win for economic mobility. At JVS, Lisa Countryman Quiroz is making transformational progress notwithstanding the threat of federal funding cuts and policy rollbacks. There is so much to learn from this episode. Listen to Lisa and share!
What is more powerful than a book that delivers a new framework for understanding and repairing the most foundational injustice in our nation, the gap in wealth and power between white and Black Americans? The first revelatory moment I experienced reading Black Power Scorecard by Dr. Andre Perry was his description of Black power, a data-driven and additive definition, which can be summarized as the ability to live a long and full life. What follows is a deep and data-driven dive into the conditions that make a long life possible, from communities with clean air, to home and business ownership to incomes that empower families. Understanding where these gaps in wealth and power lie, provides an unimpeachable policy framework for advancing Black Power in America. Most importantly, Andre Perry connects us to Black communities that are flourishing because of Black entrepreneurs and leaders, including Lanier Richardson whose business investments are creating a new class of owners in Black communities. These stories are under-reported and deserve to be heard so that strategies are replicated. Black power, unlike White power, is collective and not extractive. It benefits all of us and it is fully within reach.
There is no question that disinformation, the invention of narratives founded in lies to influence how Americans think was instrumental to the election of Donald Trump. The far right has transformed our media eco-system by repeating hateful messaging on questionable platforms now perceived by true believers to be legitimate. The repercussions are upon us: deportations without due process, federal funding freezes for resources that meet human needs, a campaign to eliminate the tax exempt status of social change nonprofits, the acquiescence of republican members of Congress to their leader and the largely uninspired response to this moment by democratic leaders. On this episode of Power Station, I turn to Kevin Peréz-Allen, Senior Vice President of the non-partisan Signal Group, which lives up to its descriptor as a modern public affairs firm. Kevin shares data from his deep dive into right-wing messaging and his experience with clients: nonprofits, businesses, law firms, embassies and universities that are navigating unprecedented challenges and seeking to be heard by policymakers and the media. And we talk about what can be gained if those on the left communicate with clarity and not condescension. We can all do better if we are open to change.
In 1984, at the height of the AIDS crisis, the LGBTQ community was pushing back hard against prejudice, transphobia and the failure of the public health system to meet dire medical needs. When queer youth, some of whom identified as trans, were hospitalized at the then-notorious St. Eliabeth’s hospital in Washington DC, a group of community members and health professionals founded SMYAL, a nonprofit that provides housing, mental health support and safe spaces for LGBTQ youth. As SMYAL’s executive director Erin Whalen explains on this episode of Power Station, our president wants to return to that punishing era . Erin are her team are not collapsing in the face of federal funding cuts, the targeting of LGBTQ youth, particularly those who are undocumented, and the rising incidents of hate they are navigating. They are taking steps to care for each other and to support the little SMYALs, the 6-12 years old children and their parents, some of whom are now losing access to vital gender affirming care. As Erin shares, they will use their power and voices to be bold and brave. We all have an amazing opportunity to do the same.
The true story of America is currently being rewritten in real time by the White House. The president’s rejection of incontrovertible truths, from racism to domestic violence to the marginalization of people with disabilities is laid bare in the banning of words on government websites that reference those who have been most wronged in our society. It also explains his freezing of federal funding for nonprofits that work each day to tackle discrimination as codified in the National Fair Housing Act of 1968. This landmark civil rights legislation, hard-won after years of advocacy, was enacted just weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and remains integral to creating a more equitable union. In this episode of Power Station, Lisa Rice, President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance shares what it takes to move forward in the face of an existential crisis impacting her organization, its members and those they serve. Lisa is unbowed and NFHA is hard at work, correcting algorithmic biases in appraisals and lending and leading a movement for AI that advances civil and human rights. Lisa is a treasure. Please listen and share her story.
For Andrew Lee, performing at Carnegie Hall, bringing violin instruction to underfunded DC public schools, working in coalitions designed to increase funding for the arts and STEM during students’ out-of-school time, launching new orchestras, and partnering international musicians with young, emerging artists is all part of building a musical eco-system that reflects and is accessible to all. As Andrew shares on this episode of Power Station, leading the Washington Conservatory of Music, which for 40 years has been a center of learning for young people and adults, is an opportunity to build community, celebrate musical traditions and demonstrate the power of communication through the arts. Andrew’s gifts and aspirations go deeper than his musical virtuosity. His experiences with the policy making process on Capitol Hill, with running political campaigns and as a communications strategist for nonprofits make him uniquely qualified to meet the challenges of an unprecedented moment in this nation. We talk about what is at play, from federal funding cuts to donors’ changing metrics to the potential we all have to stand up and become a powerful voice for targeted communities and institutions. Listen, be inspired and use your voice.
It was 1973 when the National LGBTQ Task Force, the nation’s first LGBTQ rights organization, was founded. Homophobia was being codified into legislation; the AIDs epidemic was a devastating and deadly epidemic, and gay people were subject to discrimination and violence. A brave group of activists, scientists and doctors stepped up to create a nonprofit from which they advocated for the right to exist, be heard and win legal protections. Co-founder Bruce Voeller, a biologist who coined the term AIDS, and died from complications of it in 1994 was instrumental in organizing the first ever briefing on LBGTQ issues with the White House. In this episode of Power Station I speak with the fearless Allen Morris, Director of Policy at the National LGBTQ Task Force about how he uses his voice on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures to stand up against vitriolic rhetoric and policies targeting queer and trans people. Allen is leaning into principled struggle with policymakers, pressing them to see that queer people are not the enemy. As this administration seeks to turn back the clock on LGBTQ rights, the Task Force is unbowed. Allen is inspiring and a joy. Hear him!
It is a singular privilege to interview an author when their work is as powerful, instructive and intimate as What Might Be, Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Susan Sturm, Professor of Law and Social Responsibility at Columbia School of Law about her book, which explores her experience in tackling racism in American institutions and invites those who feel stuck on the sidelines to join in. Susan reflects on the “loving struggle” she has engaged in as a white woman working in multiracial collaborations, a practice supported by her treasured colleague, the late Lani Guinier. The book provides a window into the practice of confronting racism in predominately white institutions and the striking outcomes this work has generated. This includes the transformation of a court system whose routinized approach to calling balls and strikes each day obscured deeply embedded patterns of racial inequities which harmed litigants, court personnel of color and the broader community. We delve into Susan’s vision for moving forward in a political environment that denies the existence of racism altogether. Listen, learn and share.
How do you stay hopeful and motivated when entire communities, immigrants, LGBTQ and people with disabilities among many others, are being demonized and targeted for punitive action by our nation’s leaders? For Lucy Arellano Baglieri it is by keeping her eyes on the long game, building in the most difficult of times for a more just future. As Lucy shares on this episode of Power Station, this administration’s freezing of federal grants to nonprofits and efforts to revoke their tax exempt status is a defensive reaction to decades of progress in advancing civil rights and economic justice. In this episode of Power Station, Lucy shares how her family’s experience as immigrants who persisted through broken systems to thrive as entrepreneurs is at the core of everything she does. It guides her work at Luz Impact Strategies, the consultancy she founded to help nonprofits in strenghthening internal systems and tackling external barriers to maximizing their impacts in the communities they serve. The formula of capacity plus capital equals power has been foundational to Lucy’s accomplishments at the community and C-Suite levels and it undergirds her leadership and voice at Luz Impact Strategies now.
We are living in a moment of turmoil. Many communities feel targeted, and nonprofits are under pressure to quiet their voices. LIFT, a Washington DC based national nonprofit with offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles is undaunted in its support for and belief in Black and Brown parents seeking to break cycles of poverty and achieve economic mobility. In this episode of Power Station, Neils Ribeiro-Yemofio, the incomparable executive director of LIFT DC shares how just listening to parents about their aspirations for their families can be transformative. At LIFT DC, financial coaches are matched with parents, guiding parents through a 2 year process to increase their incomes, attain higher education and alleviate debt. As Neils says, it is an investment in hope, money and love. The results are stunning and unimpeachable. Parents are not only generating economic benefits for their families they are advocating for public policies that make life more equitable for their communities. Parents at LIFT DC have testified before the City Council and were instrumental in the enactment of the Child Tax Credit. And their advocacy is far from done. Hope lies here. Listen!
Do we believe in forcing people experiencing homelessness into detention camps? The president of the United States does, and it is happening now, including in New Orleans where 100 people were removed from an encampment and placed in a detention camp in the lead up to the Super Bowl. As Jesse Rabinowitz, Director of Campaign and Communications at the National Homelessness Law Center shares on this episode of Power Station, America remains locked into a narrative shaped by President Ronald Reagan who asserted that poverty and homelessness is a choice. Jesse is working toward a new narrative that recognizes the role of racism and corporate interests in creating our housing crisis and perpetuating homelessness. He breaks down how the Center’s holistic approach, from litigation to advocating for policy solutions to grassroots coalition building is essential to ending homelessness.This model matters greatly in a moment when all levels of government are criminalizing not only those whose are living with homelessness but also the nonprofits and community leaders who support them. Jesse is devoted to building the community power and political will needed to create a more just America where everyone has the housing they need to thrive.
It is not news, but it remains unacceptable, that young people in America experience life distinctly differently based on their race, class and geography. In Washington DC, children from low-income families attend schools that are deeply under-resourced, a stark contrast to their peers in more affluent and white communities. Academics and think tanks have long documented these disparities and elected leaders sometimes advance policies to lessen inequities. But the voices we seldom seek out for their views are young people themselves. In this episode of Power Station, the ebullient Nicole Newman shares how Critical Exposure, the nonprofit she leads, listens to Black and Latinx young people so that they are heard, seen and taken seriously as advocates for change, particularly within the schools they attend. Critical Exposure’s talented staff teaches them to use photography to tell stories about their lived experiences. And they teach them about the power of organizing, a skill that positions them to transform their schools and become advocates for equity over a lifetime. These young people are taxed with much responsibility. We can all, at least, listen to them. Nicole does, she is their wholly committed champion.
An organization’s origin story reveals so much about its founders’ principles and vision for generating transformational change. In the case of New Disabled South, co-founders Dom Kelly and Kehsi Iman Wilson knew that they were creating a space that didn’t exist, a movement for disability justice in the American South. They focused first on their internal infrastructure, developing human resources and operational policies that support the sustainability of staff, all of whom are disabled, as is the board of directors, as they conduct research, build coalitions and advocate for policy change in city halls and states houses across 14 states. In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by the exceptional movement builder e.k. hoffman who leads New Disabled South Rising, the 501c4 advocacy companion to NDS. E.k shares how punishing asset limits, failure by states to expand Medicaid and government hearings that are inaccessible diminish civil liberties. And as a disabled person who is also trans, e.k. navigates the realities of intersectionality. We talk about the rise of horrible rhetoric coming from the White and the necessity of experiencing disabled joy. New Disabled South is an essential space we should all see, hear and support.
What is the charitable sector and why is vital to our nation? It refers to organizations that exist to create social value over financial profit. It is an IRS designation that affords a tax-exempt status to nonprofits and the philanthropies that support them in meeting human needs and advancing policy solutions to social and economic inequality. Do not underestimate nonprofits, this country's third largest employer, accounting for a workforce of 14 million Americans. In this episode of Power Station, I talk to the incomparable Dr. Akilah Watkins, President and CEO of Independent Sector, the only national membership organization comprised of both nonprofits and foundations. She shares what happens when they bring their diverse perspectives to a common table to tackle challenges to an independent sector that is both crucial to our nation's future and under assault in the current moment. Akilah has been in the sector since becoming a community organizer at 14 and she brings that spirit to her leadership at Independent Sector where grassroots and more institutional nonprofits connect, engage and build a collective identity. We talk about the state of advocacy and public trust in the sector too. Hear us!
Deportations of immigrants in the United States did not start with the Trump administration. And virtually no one would disagree that our U.S. immigration system is deeply dysfunctional and requires an overhaul. What is new is how this administration’s explicit racism and xenophobia is deploying the blunt instrument of deportation to upend the lives of Latinos and other immigrants whose hard work fuels our economy, including citizens with generational roots in America. On this episode of Power Station, Abel Nunez, Executive Director of CARECEN DC, founded in the 1980s to help El Salvadorians fleeing civil war to integrate into this city, shares how the administration is pushing the use of the word illegal instead of undocumented, targeting nonprofits that teach financial literacy and encouraging neighbors to report those perceived to be “illegal” to a government hotline. As this administration wages a war on diversity and pushes the limits of civility, CARECEN DC continues to stand firm as an invaluable resource for people who simply want to be Americans. We have the power of fellowship within us and Abel asks us act on it. We must be in it, together, for the long haul.
In the first week of a presidential administration marked by executive actions banning the education of Air Force members about the Tuskegee airmen, freezing scientific research grants at the NIH, immigration raids intended to fast-track deportation and the purging of DEI programs across federal agencies, remember that it is the nonprofit sector that continues to move democracy forward. In this episode of Power Station, we speak to Amir Kirkwood, CEO of Justice Climate Fund and a leader in the movement for climate and community-centered financing. Justice Climate Fund was awarded $940m, as part of President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, to ensure the deployment of capital, primarily through CDFIs and nonprofit loan funds into communities plagued by generational disinvestment in housing, community facilities and public water systems. Amir brings deep experience, from executive positions in CDFIs, national and global banks to now leading the deployment and leveraging of capital into vulnerable communities. He shares how Justice Climate Fund and its community partners are meeting the moment to invest equitably and purposefully. As Amir says, this is forward-looking work with stories of success that need to be told. Let's amplify these stories whenever and wherever we can.
Innovation, disruption and problem-solving, these are words often used to describe how technology impacts society. But the sector does not center those powers on equity, ensuring that all people can access housing, livable wages, healthcare and education. That work is the business of the nonprofit sector, which is particularly potent in local nonprofits with deep community roots. Too often these groups are underfunded and uncredited for policy win and community building. In this episode of Power Station, the remarkable Marla Dean, Senior Director of the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s Health Equity Fund, introduces us to its $26m Demonstration Project. It is a powerhouse set of initiatives designed to redress historical wrongs against communities of color by overcoming economic and social disparities in what she calls, “the Washington DC the nation doesn’t know exists.” The Greater Washington Community Foundation is investing in the highly effective community-based nnprofits who conceived of these solutions and, with the Foundation’s support, are bringing them to life. It starts with recognizing that overcoming health disparities requires economic mobility and that removing barriers to career aspirations, family reconnection and participating in building a green economy is a public service.
We are at moment in which grappling with America’s history of racism, recognizing the impacts of generational injustice and creating solutions to those harms is being met with fury by our president elect and his allies. including Elon Musk, a ceaseless purveyor of misinformation. Trump has memorialized his plans to eradicate DEI-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives within federal agencies and public universities in the right-wing playbook Project 2025 and he demonizes organizations that advocate for the redress of social and economic inequities. He even blamed the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles on DEI, a nonsensical claim that seeks to stir up outrage among his supporters. In this episode of Power Station, Dr. Deitra Reiser shares how her company, Transform for Equity, guides organizations in examining how racism, sexism and ableism shows up in their workplaces and engages them in shaping policies and behaviors that make a culture of inclusive belonging for everyone possible. She partners with synagogues to identify why more Jews of color, accounting for 15-25% of the community are not joining their congregations or being hired as staff. This is crucial work and the outcomes are heartening. Deitra tells the story powerfully.
My wish for 2025, a year for which Donald Trump’s plan to weaken democracy and human rights is memorialized in his Project 2025 blueprint is that more people, from our families to the business sector and the media, recognize that the complex business of protecting both is the daily business of the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits, especially those guided by the communities they serve, are powerful problem solvers that redress historic wrongs with policy and capital based solutions. Tech leaders are credited with being great innovators but nonprofit innovations transform systems that hold communities down. To name just a few: Grounded Community Solutions solves for our purportedly intractable housing crisis through community land trusts and shared equity, Rochdale Capital lends and invests where banks fail to, bringing capital and hands-on help to entrepreneurs of color. The TRIGGER Project dismantles gun violence through youth-led prevention strategies and Global Development Advisors is building the infrastructure needed for small business development in San Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, allowing those with a dream to thrive at home rather than risk their futures to migration. Robb Spewak and I break it down here and issue our call to resist retrenchment.
I am obsessed by the business of changemaking, the generation of solutions to our most pressing unmet human needs. I am drawn to people who are moved to action by their own lived experience and by those with a deeply felt sense of responsibility to redress injustice. And I see nonprofits, the best of them, as the infrastructure needed to produce enlightening data, build connections and organize communities, advocate for consequential public policies and implement new policies to make the intended impact. So, in this episode of Power Station I have the great pleasure of looking back, with stellar podcast producer Robb Spewak, on a truly inspiring roster of guests in 2024, the very changemakers that I admire and am honored to amplify. Robb and I want these leaders and nonprofits to be seen, heard and recognized and not to be “best kept secrets.” As always, we take the mission seriously and have great fun doing the work.
Whatever challenges you navigate during your day there is tremendous comfort in knowing where you will lay your head at night. For too many Americans, that safe place is out of reach, a consequence of failed housing policies and artificially low wages that perpetuate the racial wealth gap. In Montgomery County, Maryland, one of our nation’s wealthiest counties, there is a deep well of poverty that pervades the region’s prosperity. In this episode of Power Station, Courtney Hall, the invincible CEO of Interfaith Works, a champion of low-income communities since 1974, talks about the privilege of serving those who are struggling and aspire to more. Interfaith Works has developed the infrastructure and expertise required to serve 35,000 Montgomery County residents through shelters, permanent housing, food, clothing and training for jobs generating salaries that can support families. As Courtney says, it takes resident-informed and data-driven policy change to reinvent broken system and create new opportunities. Interfaith Works advocates to and is a resource for a rich network of municipal, state and federal elected officials who are the force behind progressive policies in the region. Courtney and his team are standing with the community no matter what lies ahead.
Origin stories are powerful in shaping both people and organizations. In this episode of Power Station, Lelaine Bigelow, the outstanding executive director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, shares how her family inspired her all-in career as an advocate for racial, economic and gender equity. She credits civil rights champion and Georgetown University Law Professor Peter Edelman for founding GCPI and continuing to advance its mission to study, inform and act. As Lelaine explains, GCPI operates from a belief that an America without poverty is possible. Its small staff of policy and communications experts produce research on issues from climate change to health and housing disparities that perpetuate economic and racial inequality. They collaborate with elected leaders in state legislatures and on Capital Hill to design, enact and implement meaningful policy solutions to these profound challenges. We talk about GCPI’s illuminating report on state abortion bans and their impact on women of color living in red states with diminishing public benefits. Lelaine is not slowing down or lowering expectations in the face of a new administration. She calls for not only defending hard-won policies but for pressing forward to achieve more.
In the Ghanaian culture, a mythical bird called Sankofa honors the African Diaspora, symbolizing the need to look to the past and carry forward the truth and wisdom found there to benefit future generations. The image is so powerful that filmmakers, educators and entrepreneurs Shirikiana and Haile Gerima named both their groundbreaking 1993 movie and their incomparable bookstore, Sankofa. It was an honor to interview Shirikiana on Power Station, the final episode of a 4-part series produced in partnership with Rochdale Capital. Sankofa Video Books and Café is a vital cultural touchstone where children can see themselves depicted in books about joyful Black families, a rarity in literature, students from Howard University explore the works of Pan-African writers and the community gathers to hear live Jazz and meet independent filmmakers. The strength of and connection to the community is critically important to Sankofa as it navigates pushback from gentrifying neighbors, the need for more physical space and the high cost of operating in Washington, DC. Sankofa’s next chapter is a transition to cooperative ownership, a journey informed by looking back to shape the future. Shirikiana Gerima tells her remarkable story here.
Music not only feeds the soul it has also been, throughout history, a vital means of creative expression and resistance against social and political repression. While some musicians become chart-topping bestsellers, most are with small labels or are entirely independent. And while we may view digital platforms like Spotify as providing access to less well-known musicians they do not feature or compensate all artists equally. Simon Vansinjan is in the business of creating economic equity and opportunity for musicians who want to be heard and compensated and for listeners who want engagement with a more diverse universe of performers. On this episode of Power Station, Simon tells the story of Mirlo, the online audio distribution and music sales platform he co-founded as a cooperative. It unites his dual passions for music and the solidarity economy, which prioritizes social profitability, collective decision-making, and equitable pay for musicians, venue workers and other undercompensated players in the industry. An accomplished software developer and Rochdale Capital Greater Washington Center for Employee Ownership 2024 Impact Award winner, Simon and co-owner Alex Rodríguez are organizing a day-long event for union leaders, performers and shared equity advocates to explore their collective future together.
If you doubt the power of cooperatives to build community and generate economic equity you need to know the Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (CPA) story. It emerged from an energy deregulation crisis in Washington DC that burdened houses of workshop with utility costs that exceeded clergy’s salaries. The Washington Interfaith Network came together to find a solution, which they achieved through a collective energy purchase, producing a savings of over $100,000. Their success led to the launch of the CPA, a cooperative that is wholly owned by its nonprofit member-owners, including churches, synagogues, public charter schools and affordable housing developments, all local institutions that are vital to the low-income children and families and communities of color they serve. Member-owners identify what they need to operate safe and welcoming facilities and CPA’s exceptional staff facilitate processes for collective purchasing while building a robust eco-system of vendors led by women and people of color. Alex and Amy tell their story powerfully on this episode of Power Station. Their commitment to a workplace that honors all voices in decision making fuels the pursuit of their mission. Rochdale Capital’s support is driving their mission, collectively, forward.
Here is the hard reality: In 2024, a majority of voters can no longer distinguish between fact and fiction. This truth is disturbing and dangerous but not that surprising. As a recent Pew Research Center study reveals, most voters cite friends and families, not newspapers, television or academic studies as their primary source of news and information. We are all subject to a deluge of misinformation on social media but microtargeting, a campaign of disinformation warfare on an unsuspecting public, was a hallmark of the GOP’s presidential campaign. As Gal Golan and Alan Jenkins share on this episode of Power Station, it is possible to communicate across lines of difference. This, they argue, is how we build a more perfect union. Their contribution to this aspiration is 1/6, a striking and powerful graphic novel that imagines what might have happened if the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol had been successful. It is grounded in the real stories of those who were there and, in the tradition of pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian comic books, honors the truthtellers. In 1/6, Alan and Gan are speaking to everyone. Hear them! OneSixComics.org
Our news feeds are brimming with stories about America as a divided nation which cannot agree on who deserves to live here or whether to ensure that families do not go hungry. But there is a different vision for America, one that Power Station guests strive every day to bring to life. They are overcoming disinvestment and disenfranchisement with community power-building and capital. Many of them view cooperative ownership and shared equity as essential to that vision. My guest for this week’s episode (the first in a series produced in partnership with Rochdale Capital) is Dominic Hosack, a leading voice in the movement for food sovereignty. While in a PhD program focused on food systems, he was inspired to address food deserts in communities of color by becoming a grower himself. As founder of Steptoe Farm, he invites the community to share in Steptoe’s abundant crops and teaches neighbors to become farmers themselves. There is a reason that Dom is a winner of the Greater Washington Center for Employee Ownership’s 2024 DC Cooperative Impact Award. He demonstrates how capital, relationship-building and cooperation can build the America we want to see.
America has a complicated relationship with those who leave behind their families, culture and countries of origin to pursue a greater future in ours. Throughout U.S. history we have both celebrated the risk-taking and resilience of our own descendants in making a new life here and reviled, in the grip of nationalistic political forces, migrants fleeing poverty, violence and a lack of opportunity. In this episode of Power Station, Paty Funegra demonstrates what is possible if we reimagine our current immigration system by supporting would-be migrants’ right to stay at home and prosper. Paty launched Global Development Advisors to support economic development in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras by building a vibrant entrepreneurial eco-system there. In collaboration with universities, international aid agencies, FinTech and venture capital groups, she is bridging the capital and information gap that constrains small business owners and tech start-ups in the region. By creating a path to investment, GDA is building the economic infrastructure needed to generate jobs that sustain families and strengthen communities. Paty Funegra makes a powerful social justice and business case. She invites philanthropy, investors and all of us to join her.
It is rare to feel enlightened, deeply distressed and optimistic during a single conversation. I experienced all of that with Manjit Singh, co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, (SALDEF), my guest on this episode of Power Station. His formative years in India during the 1980s were shaped by conflict and violence against Sikhs, a faith that values and practices humility, service, equality and social justice. Sikhism originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent in the 15th century A.D. and is practiced by 25 million adherents globally. Since its founding in 1996, SALDEF has become a powerful force for protecting the civil rights of America’s 700,000 Sikhs, ensuring their representation in civic life, from the Census to voting and standing up against discrimination. The work is critical: according to FBI data, Sikh’s are the second most targeted religious community for hate crimes in the United States. SALDEF, led by Kiran Kaur Gill, brings expertise and strategic savvy to educating public agencies and corporations about the community, advancing policy solutions to systemic challenges and building the next generation of powerful Sikh leaders. What Manjit has built is now a multigeneration movement to embrace.
I invite compelling people to be my guests on Power Station, the podcast I created to amplify the voices, solutions and stories of accomplished nonprofit leaders. Most know that a 40 minute episode can move and influence allies, policy makers and funders and are onboard. We break down the social, racial and economic injustices their organizations confront and the under-reported yet meaningful systemic changes they generate through community building and legislative advocacy. When an episode goes live I promote it and assume my guest does as well. Posts and reposts elevate the leader and organization and underscore that nonprofits are on the frontlines of ending homelessness and hunger and standing up to discrimination against immigrants, people of color and LGBTQ people. This week, when my guest did not show up, Podville Media super-producer Robb Spewak and I took to our mics. We talked through some distressing trends: ignoring invitations, showing up late or occasionally not at all and most baffling to me, failing to promote one's own episodes. Did isolation and changing work expectations during the pandemic or differing ideas about how to deploy communications staff explain this? It’s worth a conversation. Power Station is for building power together.
It is difficult to reconcile the human, cultural and economic contributions of immigrants to America, both historically and now, with their relentless vilification by extremist political leaders. And it is deeply frustrating that attempts to enact legislation to repair a broken immigration system have failed because of political opportunism. The experience of asylum seekers, those who fled torture, is particularly dystopian. Their ability to access resources and gain legal status rests with a fragmented series of legal processes, public agencies and under-resourced nonprofits. When Joan Hodges-Wu, a social worker specializing in serving victims of torture decided she could no longer operate within this system, she launched Asylum Works, a new model that engages and uplifts asylum seekers. On this episode of Power Station, Joan shares the story of launching a new nonprofit in 2016 with $4,000 raised from a GoFundMe campaign. Since then, Asylum Works has collaborated with academic experts and survivors to provide support that includes but extends beyond legal services to health and wellness, education and training. It is powered by an exceptionally diverse staff, many of whom are survivors themselves. My words are not enough. Hear Joan and share!
One voice that is often overlooked or not even considered in deliberations about ending homelessness in America is that of people who are experiencing homelessness themselves. That paradigm is being upended by the National Coalition for the Homeless, which organizes, trains and engages people with lived experience as partners at policymaking tables. Their first-hand knowledge of housing and homelessness systems makes them invaluable advisers to US HUD and the CDC and led to the development of tools for getting people out of unsheltered homelessness and to safety during COVID. Their participation in policymaking is supported by the Coalition’s Lived Experience Training Academy, a singular resource for effective policy advocacy. As Donald Whitehead, executive director of the Coalition explains on this episode of Power Station, when people do not see themselves in policy making, they feel disengaged. That understanding is what sustains him in the Coalition’s current campaign, registering people to vote in shelters across the country, which moves them towards hopefulness, agency and power. Donald Whitehead brings his own lived experience to the daunting but realizable goal of ending homelessness. He is an indispensable leader and an inspiration to me.
It should not feel astonishing, but it does. In a national debate and many state campaign stops, presidential and vice presidential candidates are asserting that housing is a human right and sounding a call to end homelessness in America. Their declaration is both overdue and exhilarating. Getting there is the North Star of Funders Together to End Homelessness, which brings together grant makers, nonprofits that advance housing justice through federal policy advocacy, and those who have lived experience with homelessness and housing insecurity. As its indomitable CEO, Amanda Misiko Andere explains on this episode of Power Station, learning how racism is baked into this nation’s policy making and public systems and unlearning assumptions about why Black and Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by homelessness requires a good deal of sitting in discomfort. Funders Together is mobilizing philanthropy to be a part of the solution by taking grant makers on this journey and encouraging investment in nonprofits on the frontline of policy advocacy. As Amanda says, racial justice is housing justice. Undoing racial inequities is an urgent but long term project. She is a philanthropy influencer who I am proud to follow.
A few years into hosting Power Station, outstanding audio engineer Rob Ford said, “People should really hear what you and your guests talk about off-mic.” He was right, which led, eventually, to today’s inaugural episode of Power Hour, a segment of Power Station that brings those off-mic conversations into the light. It is where social change leaders share what concerns and enlivens them, beyond their organizational roles, about the nonprofit sector and our society. On this episode of Power Hour, John Holdsclaw, President and CEO of Rochdale Capital talks about the stepping back, by banks and foundations, from explicitly supporting ownership, equity and leadership by Black Americans in nonprofit sector. He calls for investments in the next generation of leaders of color including executive coaching, which is particularly relevant given the resistance they often face, and the collective trauma of Black Americans tied to financial services. John points out that the word equity is disappearing from philanthropic messaging around diversity and inclusion and clarifies thar he and Rochdale Capital continue to champion racial equity. This conversation means so much to me and I believe it will to you as well.
Sometimes an organization’s backstory speaks volumes, which is definitely true of The Women’s Foundation of the South (WFS). It was co-created into existence by a cohort of women, all accomplished grant makers of color who were compelled to build what the philanthropic sector lacked, a public foundation dedicated to the advancement of women and girls of color in the American south. They started to dream together in 2019 and launched in 2021 with Carmen James Randolph, its exceptional founder, at the helm. In this episode of Power Station, Carmen shares what it takes to start a foundation without major institutional donors, forging ahead through the Covid 19 pandemic and the devastation of Hurricane Ida, both of which exacerbated profound inequities in communities of color. These challenges shaped WFC’s approach: investing in nonprofits and small businesses that serve those who are most vulnerable. She has garnered significant philanthropic support and is lifting up a powerful network of women who lead, without adequate recognition or resources, nonprofits in regions struggling with shattering maternal and infant mortality rates. As Carmen says, the WFC is exercising a vital tool of philanthropy, women’s voice and leadership.
If you want to know about the state of our public schools and how parents are advocating for the needs and aspirations of all children, you will need to look beyond the headlines. Parents who disrupt school board meetings to spew hate about books and classes that value diversity and inclusion may make the news, but their actions tear schools apart, not build them up. In this episode of Power Station, Maya Martin Cadogan, the founder and executive director of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE), shares what real parent engagement makes possible. Maya was inspired to launch PAVE by her mother, a remarkable agent of change. She wants all parents to feel the agency her mother did and PAVE provides that opportunity. It empowers parents with the responsibility of choosing which policy positions to pursue each year and prepares them to testify before City Councilmembers and the Mayor about solutions to pressing systemic challenges. PAVE parents may lack degrees in education, but they are experts in what their children need and in how to create change collectively. Theirs is a story that needs to be told.
In America, small business and entrepreneurship is venerated and often romanticized in popular culture and by the media and politicians. But for aspiring entrepreneurs who are not wealthy or well connected, starting a new business is fraught with challenges and inequities. The data reveals that 85% of our businesses are microenterprises, companies of five or fewer people, launched with $50k or less, often without access to traditional bank products and capital. Unlike tech guys launching a start-up with Silicon Valley investments, these entrepreneurs are often people of color striving to build wealth, generate family legacies and create jobs. What they need, from coaching to capital and community can be found in The California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), a powerful network of 400 CDFIs, community lenders, small business and women’s business centers that make success possible for those whom banks do not serve. In this episode of Power Station, Carolina Martinez, CAMEO’s exceptional CEO, shares what it takes to build a thriving ecosystem of support for entrepreneurs of color, including policy advocacy and an insistence on corporate accountability. Do not miss this masterclass on how change is made.
If you want to know what matters most to your elected leaders, the answer is found not in their rhetoric, but in their choices during the budget making process. When the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities was founded in 1981, the mission was to understand how federal spending, or the lack of it, impacted low income Americans, particularly their ability to access healthcare and housing. It also provided policymakers with alternative strategies for meeting human needs with fiscal integrity. As Peggy Bailey, Executive Vice President of Programs and Policy shares on this episode of Power Station, the Center not only brings rigor to federal budget analysis it focuses on and is a resource to state budget making as well. And its internal process has evolved too. All Center departments operate from a justice framework, with staff holding themselves and each other accountable to shared values, from centering racial equity to including those with lived experience in their policy development. Peggy brings her all, including what she has experienced first-hand, to ensuring that public policies and their implementation in the real world uplift those who are too often left behind. She is a true changemaker. Hear her!
The next time you visit your local farmers market take a moment to consider who produced the bounty of just-harvested fruits and vegetables and brought them with care to your urban neighborhood. As Hugo Mogollon shares on this episode of Power Station every farmer, from new entries in the sector to Black farmers carrying the toll of historical exclusion from federal resources to immigrants managing farms until they have land of their own, has a story. Their stories inform Hugo’s leadership of FreshFarm, a nonprofit that is building a more equitable food system in the Mid-Atlantic region. It expands economic opportunities for the 250 farmers, ranchers and producers who sell their products in FreshFarm’s 27 markets in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia and makes fresh food accessible to underserved communities through food hubs and matched public funds. And it is building a fresh food culture among children, teaching them to grow gardens and prepare recipes. This complex but seamless web of strategies is generating millions in revenue for small farmers, making food distribution more just and boosting health outcomes for families. This is how, with transparency and intention, transformational change is made.
Sindy Benavides leads Latino Victory with strategic saavy, optimism and a deep belief in the ability of Latinos, and other communities of color, to engage in the electoral process and generate a more equitable America.
I am excited to reshare this very edifying and inspiring episode with Sindy. We learn about her own road to organizing, the communities that poured into her, the talented cohort of leaders that Latino Victory stands behind and the resources it provides to make their engagement possible. Enjoy!
This conversation with Eric Ward remains as instructive, powerful and resonant as when it was first recorded. Eric, now a Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, is a nationally lauded expert on authoritarian movements in America and their corrosive impact on democractic systems and our belief in them. In this episode, Eric explains how antisemitism took root in America and provided the othering and fearmongering that are hallmarks of broader white nationalist movements.
It is particularly important listening as we head into the 2024 elections and consume, whether we wish to or not, so much hate and divisiveness on social media and ads generated by the Trump campaign.
I am so grateful to Eric for his incredible work and for sharing it with Power Station.
In the movies, small business owners are often depicted as avatars for what we admire: people following a dream, continuing a family legacy and serving a beloved community. But the real life version of entrepreneurship is more complex. Not everyone has a friendly banker, access to capital, or the capacity to generate a business plan. For people of color damaged by systemic racism in policymaking and banking, the barriers can seem insurmountable. These inequities led to the creation of Community Development Financial Institutions, for decades a source for capital and technical assistance in underserved communities. In this episode of Power Station, Shannan Herbert, the inspiring new CEO of Washington Areas Community Investment Fund (WACIF), shares the stories of those who have walked through WACIF’s doors, become part of an educational cohort, received a loan, learned how to create a marketing plan and most importantly, joined a lifelong community of practice. WACIF’s rich history of investing in Black and Brown communities in Washington DC and surrounding municipalities is now enhanced by the Racial Justice in Underwriting initiative, which is changing how the business of lending is perceived and done. Hear her!
Our nation is bitterly divided over its vision for democracy or whether to remain a democracy at all. Increasingly, elected leaders on school boards, state legislatures and Capitol Hill, are using their policy making powers to further marginalize vulnerable constituents.. The discord, amplified relentlessly on social media, often tells only a portion of the story. We hear less about the problems-solvers, the nonprofits that meet human needs, engage communities and generate solutions to systemic problems, from hunger to housing and homelessness. The Urban Institute, founded in 1968 to advance President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, enriches these organizations and all sectors with rigorous research and unimpeachable data about an array of societal challenges. It also convenes stakeholders, from municipal leaders to academics and people with lived experience, to share research findings and discuss strategies for advancing equity. This episode features Urban Institute Senior Fellow Samantha Batko, whose community informed research answers critical policy questions about housing and homelessness. We start with this unsettling truth, that on any given night in America some ¼ million people experience unsheltered homelessness. Sam is a tremendous champion of housing justice rooted in evidence-based data. Hear her.
In 1990, 60 disabled men and women with disabilities put their wheelchairs and mobility aids aside and crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capital and into the Rotunda. Once inside they chained themselves together and announced that they would not leave until the House passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. Dara Baldwin, consummate policy advocate and inspiring disability justice activist was not aware, until attending their 50th anniversary event, that the Black Panthers conceived of and helped implement the chaining strategy. This fact, and the contributions of many Black disabled leaders, from Rep. Barbara Jordan to Don Galloway have been expunged in movement storytelling by white nonprofit executives. Dara’s new book, To Be a Problem, A Black Woman’s Survival in the Racist Disability Rights Movement, brings light to the entrenchment of white privilege and racism in the sector. And it corrects the record about the historical and ongoing impacts of people of color in the disability community. The book is also hopeful, imagining a new wave of activism where Black disabled people are at the center of the movement for Black Liberation. Dara has given us a rare truth-telling narrative for our times.
We are at war, in America, with empathy. Every day, state and national leaders introduce bills designed to stigmatize, strip resources from, and publicly target those they view as other than human: immigrants, people experiencing homelessness and LGBTQ children, to name a few. The recent Supreme Court decision upholding the right of Grants Pass, Oregon to fine homeless people for sleeping outside when no shelters are available is both cruel and ineffective. Choosing criminalization over solving for homelessness through large-scale public investments in affordable housing and raising the substandard wages of working people demonstrates an alarming lack of empathy. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Mark Horvath, founder of Invisible People, the sole nonprofit newsroom dedicated to deepening our connections to and understanding of homelessness. Mark was a successful media executive who became homeless after losing his job. When he got back on his feet, he set a new course for his life. Invisible People’s videos, documentaries and news stream are deeply impactful windows into the world of our national housing crisis. Mark’s work is moving some policymakers to legislate with empathy, our underestimated superpower.
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This conversation is about what is possible when a nonprofit organization engages jobseekers and employers in shaping the future of work through a North Star lens of racial equity and economic mobility. It is about reimagining workforce development, an admittedly wonky and uninspiring term, as an opportunity to prepare jobseekers, largely women of color in California, for high quality jobs. And it is about influencing the companies that hire them to do the internal work needed to retain them. In this episode of Power Station, Lisa Countryman Quiroz, CEO of Jewish Vocational Service, shares how employers are expanding their strategies for sourcing talent and making attitudinal changes that enable talented staff to manage both work and family responsibilities. Lisa describes the robust training and certification programs that position jobseekers formerly making $40,000 a year to five years later making over $100,000. She points to JVS ‘s advocacy for progressive legislative policies and its stand against cuts to state and national workforce funding. And she calls on philanthropy to invest in these strategies beyond the traditional markets. Lisa is an exceptional storyteller and a changemaking leader. Once you hear her, you will want to share this episode.
For many students, college internships are a rite of passage, an opportunity to experience different workplaces and enhance their resumes. They are even more meaningful when the interns are first-generation Latino college students whose immigrant parents are America’s farmworkers. In this episode of Power Station, I continue a tradition that I cherish, interviewing exceptional young people whose life trajectories are flourishing through their connections to the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association. Isaac Ramon Peña and Berenice Verdugo talk about the migrant Head Start programs that impacted their lives, providing a safe space while their parents worked the fields, starting at 4am, as well as educational enrichment that made them kindergarten ready. They recognize that NMSHSA is a vital support system for Migrant Head Start Centers and a singular resource for their parents, from bringing the USDA Farmworker Relief Program to life to promoting well-being through the Vaccine Project. Isaac and Berenice are thrilled to be learning about policymaking and advocacy through their placements with the United Farm Workers and UnidosUS. And they shout out NMSHSA’s incredible team, for helping them navigate their first time to Washington, DC, including, of course, the incomparable Cleofas Rodriguez. IYKYK.
It is a rare book that enlightens readers about how our capital markets work and how to invest in them to build wealth in ways that prioritize economic opportunity, environmental sustainability and racial equity. The Social Justice Investor, the first guide for anyone who wants to better understand the financial marketplace, is that book. In this episode of Power Station, I speak to its author, Andrea Longton CFA, who has raised over $1billion for social justice investment in the United States alone. The Social Justice Investor is a plain-language roadmap for engaging our financial advisor, organizational HR manager or DIY financial platform in helping us advance our values-driven investment aspirations. It connects us to remarkable leaders in the field who invest in shared ownership enterprises and reject investment in companies that profit from prison labor in their supply chains. Andrea is motivated in part by having worked in financial markets abroad and upon returning home, realizing that conditions in her grandmother’s Appalachian home town were in some ways worse than in countries where she was driving capital. And yes, there is industry and political backlash to these changing expectations. Listen!
When Tia Bell was just 10 years old, she experienced a devastating trauma, the shooting of her mother in their own neighborhood. She went to her elders, neighborhood protectors, and pleaded with them not to seek retribution. She did the same after the murder of her uncle, and other community members. She recognizes the humanity of the perpetrators, seeing them as victimized by the same lack of resources, voice and agency as those they targeted. She wants them to receive help. Now, as the Founder and CEO of The Trigger Project, she brings her lived experience, empathy and scholarship in youth development to cultivating a culture of prevention in Washington DC and beyond. In this episode of Power Station, Tia shares how The Trigger Project is rooted in the knowledge that gun violence is a disease, that we are all susceptible to it and prevention is our collective responsibility. Her vision was on display last week when she and the young people she champions hosted a conference and festival, sharing information about trauma and roots causes while uplifting strategies, including emotional intelligence training, for prevention. Tia is a star, a powerful and undaunted force for good.
When the global pandemic struck America, it shut down our institutions, from schools to courts and libraries, devastated our economy and exposed who is served by our public systems and who is overlooked. Low income communities of color suffered the most, from a loss of jobs and housing to dire health outcomes. That moment moved seasoned public defender Kristen Gettys Downs to think about the failed systems, rooted in racial injustice, that led her clients into Baltimore, Maryland’s criminal justice system and undermined their ability to succeed upon reentry. She knew that a stable home is foundational to thriving and yet is out of reach for so many. Now, as executive director of the Homeless Persons Representation Project, Kristen and a team of staff and volunteer attorneys, represent clients facing eviction, the majority of whom are Black women, young people facing violence in shelters, veterans, and those seeking expungement of criminal records. HPRP's impact legislation has restored stolen benefits, from SNAP to temporary cash and disability assistance, to those who were robbed. HPRP and those experiencing homelessness firsthand are powerful partners, advocating for the policies and resources they and their counterparts across the nation deserve.
America is heading into a presidential election that will determine whether we remain a democracy or consign ourselves to autocracy. It is happening while the world witnesses a devastating assault on Palestine by Israel, a constitutional democracy, led by an autocratic leader, Bibi Netanyahu. Much like aspiring autocrat Donald Trump, he does not recognize the rights and humanity of many within his own nation. While Netanyahu characterizes Israel’s war on Gaza, prompted by the horrendous October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, as a strategy to eliminate Hamas, it is the people of Palestine who are bring killed by the thousands, leaving famine and destroyed infrastructure in its wake. As a Jew and a believer in the power of nonprofits to advance democracy I am devastated by this nation’s responses to the ongoing assault on Gaza and to those who are standing up to question it here at home. For this episode of Power Station, I reached out to Wa’el Alzayat, former U.S. State Department diplomat and Middle East policy expert who is now CEO of Emgage, a nonprofit that generated a turnout of 1million Muslim American voters in the 2020 election. We talk about the labeling by the Anti-Defamation League of protestors, including Jewish students as pro-Hamas and antisemitic, the weaponization of antisemitism by members of Congress who themselves traffick in anti-semitism and the opportunity for President Biden to take a risk and do what is right. I am grateful to Wa’el Alzayat for informing a conversation that we should all be committed to.
Solving this nation’s housing crisis, which has triggered an all-time high in homelessness, begins with demystifying the reasons it exists. The National Low Income Housing Coalition answers the why, advances policies that make housing attainable and builds the political will to achieve large-scale solutions. For 50 years it has been unwavering in its focus on the housing needs of lowest income renters, engaging them as partners in their advocacy and as members of the Board of Directors. As the super talented Sarah Saadian, Senior VP of Public Policy and Field Organizing, explains on this episode of Power Station, there are two main drivers of the housing crisis: a severe shortage of homes that are affordable and available to extremely low-income renters and our systemic wage gap, which make it impossible for working people to meet ever increasing rent demands. She points to the Coalition’s annual GAP report, which documents these conditions state by state, providing policymakers with the stark realities of their constituents. The Coalition’s marshaling of $46 billion during the pandemic is legendary. Next up, the full federal investment needed to solve our housing crisis.
It happens during every election cycle. Young adults are characterized in newspaper headlines as apathetic non-voters. This very tired trope, which is contradicted by data, greatly frustrates Kristen McGuire. As executive director of Young Invincibles, the national nonprofit that emerged when young people stepped up to be heard in the lead up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, she lives the actual truth every day. As Kristin reminds us in this episode of Power Station, advocacy by young people led to a hallmark ACA provision, the ability to stay on parents’ health insurance until the age of 26, a transformative moment for healthcare access in our nation. Since then, Young Invincibles has provided infrastructure, training and support to young leaders who are generating progressive and equitable policymaking at the state and national levels. Its focus in 2024 is on elevating policymaking that increases access to mental health care for young people and all Americans. Governors, college administrators and the White House are listening and incorporating Young Invincibles’ research and recommendations into trailblazing legislation. All of this follows its life-altering impact on Student Debt cancellation. It's time for new headlines.
The numbers tell a powerful story about America and its future. Today, 64 million Latinos, those with multi-generational roots and newcomers, call the United States home. While they are vital contributors to our economy, culture, and civil rights legacy, they are grossly underrepresented (just 2%) in elected office. Latino Victory is the trailblazing nonprofit that is changing the trajectory of Latino electoral power, and it is winning. On this episode of Power Station, Sindy Benavides, President & CEO of Victory Fund, who leads with strategic brilliance and heart, begins the conversation with a staggering statistic. Every 30 seconds a Latino in the United States turns 18. These numbers motivate Latino Victory to empower Latinos across the country with information about everything there is to know about voting and civic engagement. Its 501c4 counterpart elevates the campaigns of an impressive roster of candidates vying for office at the local, state, and federal levels. Latino Victory's founders, Eva Longoria and Henry Muñoz III, stepped up to ensure that the Latino electorate is seen, heard, and engaged. Sindy Benavides and a growing movement for representation are bringing the vision to life.
If you have lived through housing insecurity and homelessness or worked in a nonprofit as a shelter provider, tenant organizer, nonprofit housing developer or policy advocate you know that having a home is fundamental to thriving, losing a home is traumatizing and fining people experiencing homelessness is unproductive and shameful. The progress that the nonprofit housing sector has generated over several decades is irrefutable, from persuading policymakers to increase funding for housing vouchers to preventing evictions during the pandemic and fueling affordable housing development through community land trusts. And yet rental housing and homeownership is increasingly unattainable across most income brackets. In this episode of Power Station, Marisol Bello, shares how the Housing Narrative Lab is countering damaging messages embedded in our culture about who becomes homeless and why. It is building a new, more nuanced narrative that emphasizes empathy over blame and policy solutions over criminalization. We discuss the Lab’s newest report, conducted with the National Homelessness Law Center, that probes public perceptions of and experiences with homelessness. The fact that so many respondents know homelessness up close is foundational to a powerful new movement for change.
It often begins with a knock at the door in the middle of the night. A child, or multiple children, need immediate care. Their parents have been deployed, incarcerated, are sidelined by substance abuse or mental illness. This is when grandparents, other relatives and family friends step up at a critical moment. These adults, who take on caregiving for conservatively, 2.5 million children in America, have no legal standing. They are not legal guardians or adopters. And there is no single entity that funds, studies, or resources these families. There is, however, extensive data on the outcomes of children who stay within their families versus navigating the cultural and emotional dislocation of traditional foster care. On this episode of Power Station, Ana Beltran, a consummate changemaker, introduces us to Grandfamilies and Kinship Support Center, the nonprofit she leads. The Center provides technical assistance to individuals, government agencies and nonprofits that serve grandfamilies, tackling challenges, from enrolling children in school when no parent is present, to filing for Child Tax Credits. She notes that federal policymaking is catching up to the moment. U.S. HUD is accepting proposals now for grandfamilies-oriented affordable housing. A community to support and celebrate.
What compels men and women to leave their home countries behind to migrate to the United States? Oscar Chacon, executive director of Alianza Americas, has made it his mission to answer this question for our elected leaders whose policies determine the quality of life for some 22 million Latin American and the Caribbean immigrants, the largest segment of America’s foreign born population who now reside in the U.S. As Oscar shares on this episode of Power Station, until America’s leaders understand the political, economic, and environmental conditions in El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Mexico, and other countries of origin, they cannot fully appreciate what drives migration. He defies conventional advocacy strategies by sending American policy makers to embed with families and communities in Latin America and bringing Latin Americans to tell their stories in America. Alianza is a safe space for Latin American and Caribbean leaders of community based nonprofits here to tackle inequities both in the US and at home. Immigrants are a committed community, sending $156 billion dollars back home, an amount greater than any other form of U.S. assistance to Latin American countries. This, Oscar tells us, is the power of love and empathy.
Consider the implications of undertaking a 10-year strategic plan during a global pandemic. The Greater Washington Community Foundation did just that, bringing its intentionally diverse constituency of civic, business, nonprofit and community leaders together to inform the process and vision. In the Washington DC region, the pandemic exposed the thin economic margins, structural racism, and lack of access to resources that Black and other communities of color have grappled with in and around our nation’s capital for generations. As Tonia Wellons, President, and CEO of Greater Washington Community Foundation explains on this episode of Power Station, the moment created an opportunity to engage its unique cohort in building on the Foundation’s core competencies, identifying barriers to economic justice, investing in groundbreaking solutions, and aligning itself with change making, high impact nonprofits. Tonia breaks down how closing the racial wealth gap is embedded in every issue the Foundation tackles and in its robust investments in targeted guaranteed income initiatives and a brand new school-based Children’s Savings Account. Tonia Wellons see its convenings as the Foundation’s superpower, the space where communities have a voice, business leaders become allies and impact is an achievable goal.
In 1996, a small group of Asian American civil rights leaders in Washington, DC stepped up to launch a new and inclusive organization, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. The vision was to create a home for, and combine the forces of, a diverse constituency that includes South Asians, East Asians, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and more to ensure that their voices and expertise were heard and included at public policy making tables. NCAPA is now where 40+ national AAPI nonprofits with expertise in healthcare, education, immigration, housing, and technology make recommendations and, when needed, demands to the White House, Congress, and federal agencies. This work is critical to raising the profile, needs and contributions of communities that too often have been invisible to decision-makers. In this episode of Power Station, National Director Gregg Orton, who learned the hard scrabble but exhilarating world of policy making as a Congressional staffer, shares NCAPA’s recent accomplishments. After decades of advocacy, the White House is on the brink of updating the collection of AAPINH data by standardizing data disaggregation. Gregg is savvy, hopeful and a consummate and welcoming bridge-builder. Hear him and share.
In 1996, a small group of Asian American civil rights leaders in Washington DC stepped up to launch a new and inclusive organization, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. The vision was to create a home for, and combine the forces of, a diverse constituency that includes South Asians, East Asians, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and more to ensure that their voices and expertise were heard and included at public policy making tables. NCAPA is now where 40+ national AANHPI nonprofits that advocate for advancements in healthcare, education, immigration, housing, and technology make recommendations and, when needed, demands to the White House, Congress, and federal agencies. This work is critical to raising the profile, needs and contributions of communities that too often have been invisible to decision-makers. In this episode of Power Station, National Director Gregg Orton, who learned the hard scrabble but exhilarating world of policy making as a Congressional staffer, shares NCAPA’s most recent accomplishments. After decades of advocacy, the White House is on the brink of updating the collection of AAPINH data by standardizing data disaggregation. Gregg is savvy, hopeful and a consummate and welcoming bridge-builder. Hear him and share.
The story of Mothers Outreach Network is about what happens when women stand up for other women who live in poverty and are entangled in the child welfare system. It is about being a Black mother in Washington DC where 13% of families live under the federal poverty guidelines and face a loss of benefits when they get a job or their income increases. It is about moms who lack the basic resources, including strollers, needed to navigate their daily lives. Melody Webb, a Harvard trained public interest lawyer, founded Mother’s Outreach Network to build economic security and power among women in these circumstances. It took a global pandemic and the death of George Floyd to push the philanthropic sector to deepen their investments in Black-led nonprofits, including Mothers Outreach Network. In this episode of Power Station, Melody shares stories about women who are blossoming as advocates who testify before the DC City Council to identify policy solutions. She explains how Mother Up, her new pilot project that targets $500 per month in guaranteed income to these moms provides security and builds confidence. This is a story about making change in real time.
The most powerful advocacy begins at home. This is the case for Staci Lofton, who loved growing up in Queens, New York but realized as she got older that her family and neighbors had to leave their community to buy groceries, find a doctor and connect to the many resources needed to maintain their lives. As Staci explains on this episode of Power Station, her experience is shared by countless other underinvested Black and Brown communities that lack what research has determined is necessary to thrive: clean air, open spaces, healthy food, a safe environment, and access to community-based health care. As Senior Director of Health Equity at Families USA, a powerhouse national nonprofit, recognized for its leadership in bringing the Affordable Care Act over the finish line and making Medicare drug price negotiations possible, Staci is driven to preserve and expand on these achievements. She talks about what is at stake in our upcoming elections, including women’s bodily autonomy and funding for community health centers. As Staci says, Families USA bring its policy advocacy superpowers to a high stakes fight for justice, health equity and democracy itself.
There is power that comes from privilege and position and there is power that communities who have been excluded from decision making tables, claim. It is built over time with a commitment to meeting needs, creating personal bonds, and deepening community connections. This is the origin story of MANA, the oldest and largest Hispanic Women’s nonprofit organization in the nation. Amy Hinojosa, MANA’s dynamic, and inspiring CEO knows that her influence in the halls of Congress and in the White House is powered by MANA’s impressive footprint of on-the-ground Latina-led chapters and affiliates. On this episode of Power Station, Amy talks about MANA’s impactful initiatives, including Hermanitas, the only mentoring program in the nation created by Latinas for Latinas. It has been, most recently, a critical lifeline for middle and high school girls navigating mental health challenges spurred by isolation and social media during the pandemic. Over time it has generated thousands of Latina change makers, from educators to public officials and community leaders. It is no surprise that as MANA prepares to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, the festivities will include a get-out-the vote rally. This is a beautiful lesson in how lasting change is made.
Let’s be real: If you work for a nonprofit with a social change mission you are probably not averse to taking on challenges. Whether a nonprofit’s charge is tackling hunger, homelessness, or access to healthcare you must be prepared to help people in crisis, provide resources, build community power and advocate for policy solutions. The truth is that nonprofits exist to take on deep-rooted problems that the private market will not solve. But where corporations are capitalized at levels needed to build a robust infrastructure and attract expertise, philanthropic support for nonprofit grantees is not commensurate with their capacities or the urgency of their mission. This tired and harmful paradigm is being brilliantly disrupted by Andrea Levere, a legend in the field of asset building and now, the founder and CEO of Capitalize Good. In this episode of Power Station Andrea shares her experience with making wealth inequality a national talking point and breaks down her blueprint for Enterprise Capital, a new model for investing impactfully in the nonprofit sector. Andrea reports on what happens when the model is put into action. This is true change making, a breakthrough, in action.
America’s housing affordability crisis is a well-documented reality not just in gentrifying cities but in virtually every corner of this nation. The persistence of the problem is particularly frustrating because we have proven policy solutions in hand, largely generated by nonprofits and community leaders. What is lacking is full-on political will at the federal level to break through barriers and make housing an accessible and affordable resource. Community Land Trusts, which have deep roots across the globe, were put on the map in the United States by civil rights icons Charles and Shirley Sherrod. Their founding of New Communities in Albany, Georgia, motivated by the violent displacement of Black farmers from their land and informed by their time on kibbutzim in Israel, galvanized a modern movement for the communal stewardship of land and housing whose affordability is permanent. In this episode of Power Station, Tony Pickett, CEO of Grounded Solutions Network, a powerdul cohort of CLT leaders, shares his own experience in the field and calls on philanthropy and government to make robust investments in a model, based in shared equity, that uplifts all communities. Hear him. His work and words are compelling and hopeful.
America’s progressive movement is a big tent of organizations and leaders whose passion for democracy runs deep. Imagine a Venn diagram with one circle representing these organizations and the issues they tackle, from choice, the environment, healthcare and housing to LGBTQ rights, labor rights, and immigration. A parallel circle would display the legislation and public investments needed to protect people and the earth. What is in the intersecting circle? As Daria Dawson, executive director of America Votes, explains on this episode of Power Station, it is voting for progressive changemakers. Every election, whether for president, city council or state election administrators, is our collective opportunity to make our beliefs and expectations known. This juncture is where America Votes thrives. Now in its 20th year, America Votes is the coordination hub for the big tent, the apparatus that labor unions, national and community-based advocacy oriented nonprofits look to for guidance and to make their on-the-ground intel known. Daria, the first Black woman to lead America Votes, is a consummate political campaign professional who feels the stakes for the 2024 election cycle personally. She is also undaunted. Her call to action: Use your voice.
We want to believe that all children in America, from birth through high school, are equally positioned to learn, dream, and thrive. The reality, which is well-documented through unassailable data collected by Kids Count, a national initiative funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is starkly different. As Kimberly Perry, executive director of DC Action says on this episode of Power Station, the input into our children isn’t equal so the outcome isn’t going to be equal. A failure to invest in quality childcare, public schools and out-of-school resources in Black and Brown communities is a direct result of public policies rooted in racism, leaving a legacy of discrimination that is embedded in our public systems. DC Action is dissecting these systems to better understand what is working and where change is needed. It works with parents and young people to create policy solutions and push for their passage into law by the DC Council and Mayor. DC Action is both a resource to lawmakers and a formidable advocate for policies and programs that uplift young people. And Kim Perry is a powerful leader who leads with love and optimism.
The data tells the story: In the United States, 44 million people, including 1 in 5 children are food insecure, lacking the food and nutrition needed to thrive. This population includes not only individuals and families living in poverty and experiencing homelessness; it also extends to our employed neighbors, family members and the co-worker in the next cubicle. Until our national leaders fully invest in policy solutions that lift families out of poverty and make our transportation, health, and housing systems more equitable, hunger will persist. In fact, as L. Ron Pringle, President and CEO of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, a North Carolina based nonprofit, explains on this episode of Power Station, the hardest part of his job is trying to convince people, from policymakers to corporate leaders, that hunger is a real issue. At the Food Shuttle, Ron and his team have created an eco-system of programs that feed people in need today while advocating for the elimination of hunger tomorrow. Feeding, teaching, growing, and cultivating are the organizational pillars that make Inter-Faith Food Shuttle a lifeline to food equity in North Carolina and a partner in a growing national movement for ending hunger.
Facts matter. Data eclipses narratives steeped in bias, providing the foundation for policy solutions to economic inequities. At the Brookings Institution, a preeminent global think tank, scholars conduct research, generate data, and share knowledge for the purpose of improving policy and governance in America and around the world. That includes Senior Fellow Dr. Andre M. Perry whose research focuses on the value of assets, from homes to businesses and infrastructure, in American Black majority cities. His work exposes a devastating devaluation of assets, an underpricing of homes by 23%, robbing Black communities of some $156 billion in lost equity. As he shares in our conversation and in his tremendously important book: Know Your Price, Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities, these dollars could have financed millions of businesses, college educations, replaced water pipers in Flint, Michigan and more. His book bring policy to life by following his own trajectory as an infant raised by Elsie Boyd, a woman who chose to be his mother in a house considerably more valuable than its market price. His work on the devaluation of Black-owned homes by appraisers is a masterclass in the collaborative art of policy change. Hear him.
When Darryl Maxwell explains, on this episode of Power Station, that I in 7 Washingtonians are lawyers, I am taken aback. Yes, the federal government is our largest employer and many law firms are headquartered here but the abundance of expertise does not make access to justice equitable for all. The DC Bar Pro Bono Center exists to galvanize the legal community, from law firms to the Department of Justice, as volunteers, providing civil legal services to low-income people facing eviction, immigration challenges, child custody disputes, and denials of public benefits. It does the same for nonprofit organizations, a critical sector here, and small businesses striving to operate with limited resources in a regulated marketplace. As Director of Nonprofit and Small Business Legal Assistance, Darryl was my lifeline while establishing Power Station as an LLC. As he points out, supporting the legal needs of nonprofits that advocate for DC residents is another access to justice touchpoint. The same is true for small businesses that serve residents and build family and community wealth. The Center is also a voice for systemic changes in public policy that make access, justice and equity a reality for all.
Every person has a story to tell and the same is true for organizations founded by local leaders to tackle inequities in their communities. In Power Station’s first episode of 2024, the remarkable Lynn French shares both her own origin story and that of Hope and a Home, the changemaking nonprofit she leads. Her personal journey started in segregated Washington, DC where she grew up in a family of educators and civil rights activists who embraced the ethos of standing up for what is right. During her tenure in city government, Lynn pushed bureaucratic boundaries to bring equitable community development to Washington DC. She drafted the Homestead Preservation Act, allowing nonprofits to reclaim abandoned homes for families locked out of the housing market. When she retired from government, she was asked to lead Home and a Home, a nonprofit that emerged from the closure of Junior Village, an orphanage that systemically abused vulnerable children and families. Now Lynn French strengthens families by providing stable housing and multi-generational training, education, and support. These families, who may be your neighbors, are now thriving, and they have an important story of their own.
On this 300th episode of Power Station, I am joined by my friend and colleague John Holdsclaw. Over the twenty plus years I have known John he has excelled as an organizer, public policy advocate, and leader in financial services that deepen racial and economic equity in under-resourced Black, Latino, Indigenous and AAPI communities. John launched Rochdale Capital, an emerging CDFI, with its strategic partner, National Cooperative Bank, to provide capital to enterprises, from affordable housing to health centers and grocery stores, structured as cooperatives and other forms of shared ownership. He views CDFIs not as an industry but as a movement that uplifts communities traditional banks have failed to serve. Take Rochdale’s investment in a line of credit for All-In Groceries, a store that was 58 years in the making in Waterloo, Iowa’s East Side, a neighborhood marginalized by decades of redlining and racism. This is the community and life-changing work that motivates Rochdale Capital’s fully engaged staff and board of directors. And John announces our thrilling partnership, Power Station powered by Rochdale Capital. Expect more stories from leaders who invest financial and human capital to build community, influence and power.
At a time when even faith is politicized it is essential to our nation that the national nonprofit Faith in Public Life persists. It is a safe space for leaders from diverse faith traditions to find common ground and speak out in support of a more just democracy. For almost 20 years FIPL has spoken up for equity and inclusion as champions of LGBTQ equality, immigration rights and strategies for reducing gun violence. Its focus now is on safeguarding voters and election administrators and all who participate in civil life from political violence. And it is supporting the right of all people to comprehensive reproductive healthcare. In this episode of Power Station, Faith in Public Life CEO Jeanné Lewis shares how she is driven by her own faith and a passion for empowering those who have not experienced the confidence and agency needed to act and lead. She further lives her values as a member-owner of Community Grocery Cooperative, a new economic model for bringing groceries to Washington DC’s under-resourced Wards 7 and 8. Jeanné exemplifies what it means to believe in the power of the collective to strengthen our democracy. Hear her.
If you were to construct an organization with the capability to move bold public policy forward it would have to look like the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). It starts with a critical mission, to ensure decent and affordable housing for lowest income renters. The fact that 7.3 million Americans experience extremely low incomes, or put another way, that this nation has available and affordable housing for only 33 of every 100 extremely low income households has challenged NLIHC to create an infrastructure that optimizes its reach and impact. Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) is one such initiative, launched in 2018 to make affordable housing champions out of leaders from the civil rights, education,’ and health sectors. On this episode of Power Station, Chantelle Wilkinson, OSAH’s exceptional National Campaign Director, tells a powerful story about the national partners, from the NAACP to UnidosUS and the National Education Association that are embracing housing advocacy and elevating affordable housing on their own organizational policy agendas. This and other game changing NLIHC strategies are making affordable housing, finally, a topline political issue. All power to Chantelle who brings her heart, lived experience and organizing rigor to this vital movement.
A conversation with Steve Storkan is an education in the potential of employee ownership to build community, family, and intergenerational wealth. His passion for building a better future for workers was shaped by seeing his own father work multiple jobs to cover a mortgage. He knew that a strong work ethic is not a substitute for the assets needed to ensure a secure life and a viable retirement. When Steve became a certified financial planner, he introduced business owners whose families were not prepared to continue their legacy to the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, a retirement plan that allows employees to purchase a company from the selling shareholders. As founder and Executive Director of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network, Steve advances the mission of worker ownership through the creation of state-based centers. They are a resource for business owners to learn about this formula for wealth transfer and for new businesses to begin their journey as worker owned cooperatives. This episode of Power Station explores the power of profit-sharing and worker voices in wealth creation. The call to action is for national funders to fund centers everywhere, an investment in a more equitable national economy.
There’s more to Capitol Hill than elbow jabs between elected officials and performative press conferences. Every day, members of Congress who take public service seriously take on our most consequential social and economic challenges. Pull the curtain back further and you will see nonprofit leaders who bring shared values, expertise, policy solutions to these decision makers. On this episode of Power Station, Eric Mitchell, President of the Alliance to End Hunger, shares his organizational strategies for tackling hunger at home and across the globe. It starts with building a powerful coalition of leaders from the corporate, faith-based, NGO, agricultural and academic sectors who are unified in their support for anti-hunger and anti-poverty policies and investments. Their work is vital to the futures of the 44 million Americans and 780 million people globally who experience hunger. Right now, the Alliance is laser-focused on modernizing the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a highly effective nutritional and education lifeline for our next generation. And because, as Eric says, hunger is a symptom of deeper historical ills, the Alliance champions the EITC and Child Tax Credit, anti-poverty game changers. What an eye-opening and heartening conversation.
We are in a moment of conflicting expectations about the workplace. Blurred lines between work and personal time, toxic behaviors, including discrimination have long been pervasive in the workplace. The pandemic made working from home possible for a segment of the population and many are resisting a return to the physical workplace. The question of what makes a workplace desirable, however, goes far deeper than the work from home debate. In this episode of Power Station, Mo Edjlali shares his journey from tech entrepreneur to nonprofit leader with a mindfulness mission. Mo relates what happened when his company imploded, and he confronted his role in its ending. The hyper aggressive approach that he equated with success had in fact hurt others and fostered an unhealthy environment. He stumbled upon and then dove into the practice of meditation and learned, despite his skepticism, that focusing on his breath could change the way he perceived reality. He created Mindful Leader to enable people to foster mindfulness and compassion in the workplace. Listen and learn about the resources and community Mindful Leaders provides to reimagine our collective corporate, public sector and nonprofit cultures.
It takes exceptional people and organizations to solve our nation’s purportedly intractable problems. In this episode of Power Station, Marta Urquilla, who has led social justice initiatives in community groups and the White House, shares how the pioneering organization she leads, the Centri Tech Foundation takes a housing centered approach to bridging our nation’s digital divide, the deep gulf between those with access to the internet and those without. The need for digital access spans from urban centers to rural regions, and Indian Country, where infrastructure cannot deliver water or electricity, let alone broadband service. This reality sidelined millions of children from participation in online schooling and their parents from accessing vital information during the pandemic. Centri Tech Foundation partners with nonprofit affordable housing developers to embed connectivity to residents’ homes and guide them along a pathway to economic opportunity. It measures the state of digital access and provides a blueprint for improvement through its Muni Index. And its Social Justice Innovation Awards invest in Fellows whose projects leverage technology and cultural expression for the public good. This is a story about building a more just future that needs to be heard.
This may sound unconvincing coming from someone who speaks into a microphone every week, but I don’t love talking about myself. What I do love is speaking with and amplifying the voices of those who confront and generate solutions to injustice in America. They are leaders of nonprofit organizations who use their values, know-how and expertise to bring capital to under-resourced communities, compel Congress to fund housing for lowest-income renters, educate the children of farmworkers; the list of accomplishments goes on. In this episode of Power Station, my friend and producer Robb Spewak asks about the illegal eviction that displaced me from a gentrifying block in Brooklyn and propelled me into a lifetime of organizing, policy advocacy and nonprofit leadership. We talk about how the best (in my opinion) nonprofits are those that build community power and press state legislatures and Congress to enact legislation rooted in racial equity. And I share my personal run-ins with sexism in nonprofits, which, along with racism the sector is not immune to. Mostly we celebrate the amazing guests that tell their stories each week on Power Station. And we tease some exciting changes to come.
When Liz O’Donnell, a first-grade teacher in Washington DC, arrived at the hospital to give birth she could not have imagined that she would leave without baby Aaliyah or the resources she needed to recover. She had experienced a change in fetal movements a few weeks before and did not realize, after an easy pregnancy, the urgency of her situation. The nurse could not detect a fetal heartbeat and Liz delivered her daughter, a stillbirth. In this episode of Power Station, Liz shares how she founded Aaliyah in Action to help families impacted by perinatal and neonatal loss grieve and to advocate for the recognition of stillbirths as a public health imperative. She partners with over 40 hospitals to provide care packages to women at their most vulnerable time. And when her employer, the DC Public School system, denied her paid leave she pushed back and won the inclusion of stillbirth in the District’s Paid Family Leave and Family Bereavement Acts. Liz is deepening her engagement in the public health sphere, exploring inequitable systems in women’s maternal health care. Aaliyah remains Liz’s powerful North Star.
Rajiv Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, is testing a hypothesis. He wants to know whether the right interventions, from mentorship to education and opportunities for putting ideas into action will yield effective citizens, young people with the will and capacity to strengthen our embattled democracy. The Institute’s recent survey of 18-24 year old’s reveals an alarming lack of understanding about civics and also that they are not particularly ideologically driven or party aligned. They care about the state of their communities and the world, are open to people with different points of view and are looking for people and institutions that are ready to get the work done. Building great citizens is a shift for what was founded in 1945 as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Its mission, to build a pipeline of college professors to educate returning G.I.’s, grew into what is now a remarkable fellowship of 27,000 scholars, innovators, and artists. Now rebranded as the Institute, with Rajiv as its leading force, it is demonstrating that informed and engaged young people can be remarkable citizens when we give them the tools and get out of their way.
Small community based nonprofits are some of the most powerful change agents in America. They solve for inequities in education, childcare, mental health, and other needs in communities that have been marginalized by racism, discrimination, and poverty. These nonprofits are underestimated by national foundations and their accomplishments are underreported by the media. In this episode of Power Station, Gretchen Van der Veer explains how Fair Chance, the organization she leads, partners with small community based nonprofits in Washington DC, whose budgets are often less than $500,000, to strengthen their sustainability and impact. It has flipped the conventional model of capacity building, which imposes fixes to perceived deficiencies and instead partners with groups to create a plan for reinforcing their organizational systems, from fundraising to board development and financial management. These interventions, once assessed, validate the theory that a robust infrastructure produces greater benefits for the children, youth, and families these nonprofits serve. Local and regional foundations that fund small community based nonprofits are essential supporters of equity. Fair Chance is singular resource that invests its time, expertise and commitment to organizations that go all-in for their communities. Gretchen Van der Veer is an exceptional changemaker.
This is a story about civic engagement and political power that should be headline news. In 2020, EMGAGE, a national nonprofit, was instrumental in motivating over one million registered Muslim American voters to cast a ballot in one of our nation’s most consequential elections. This milestone is particularly meaningful because Muslim Americans have been marginalized, underrepresented and subject to hate crimes and government persecution since the shared national tragedy of 9-11. EMGAGE energizes the Muslim American electorate by investing in state-based organizing that builds networks among diverse populations, including Black Muslim Americans, who share a strong desire to preserve our embattled pluralistic democracy. In this episode of Power Station, Wa’el Alzayat, shares how his whose lived experience as a Syrian immigrant, Middle East expert, and American diplomat, informs his leadership of EMERGE. He listens to and champions public policy priorities, from tackling gun violence to expanding economic opportunity, that move Muslim Americans, like other Americans, to advocate for policy change and to vote. At a time when democracy in America and across the globe is alarmingly fragile, we are all strengthened and inspired by EMGAGE’s inclusive approach to community and power building.
Sometimes numbers speak louder than words. In Washington DC, a single grocery store serves the 85,000 residents of Wards 7 and 8, the historically disenfranchised neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Zooming further out, 35% of people living in our nation’s capital are designated as food insecure, lacking an adequate amount of food for a healthy life. Again, the data tells the story. The legacy of racism in public policymaking is borne by people of color, from food to housing and healthcare. In this episode of Power Station, Tiffany FitzGerald explains how DC Greens, the nonprofit she leads, created The Well at Oxon Run, an acre of land in Ward 8 dedicated to growing produce and providing communal green space for all Washingtonians. DC Greens also runs Produce Rx, a program that enables doctors to prescribe healthy food as a medical intervention and provides a food allowance to make access possible. All of DC Greens strategies, including their policy advocacy, is informed, and driven by the community. A truly entrepreneurial nonprofit, DC Greens is shifting these initiatives to DC government’s ownership, ensuring their ongoing fiscal support. This is how change is made.
In 1996, a group of Asian/Pacific Islander women came together to confront gender-based violence in their communities. As survivors themselves they knew that mainstream social service organizations lacked the linguistic and cultural knowledge needed to meet their diverse needs. They persevered, eventually launching the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project, which remains the sole Pan Asian provider of trauma-informed and survivor centered services in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The team includes social workers, trainers, and a mental health professional and their collective language capacities include Japanese, Hindi, Thai, Mongolian and Mandarin. DVRP is an essential resource for women, and sometimes men, experiencing gender-based violence, including abuse by intimate partners, in-laws, and employers emboldened to exploit workers whose immigration status is precarious. In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by Krittika Ghosh, executive director of DVRP and a globally recognized champion of Asians, Pacific Islanders, and other marginalized people, including the LGBTQ community. Her experience as an immigrant and survivor fuels her inventive approach to culturally based healing, including sessions that explore what constitutes a heathy relationship and workshops in mindfulness. A conversation with Krittika is too valuable to miss.
If we have learned anything since 2016 it is that elections have consequences. Donald Trump was not the first politician whose worldview is steeped in racism, misogyny, and anti-immigrant ideology. But he is an outlier in using his platform to undermine our democratic systems and encourage violence. In this episode of Power Station, Daria Dawson, Deputy Executive Director, and National Political Director of America Votes, recalls her path to her current role, including her parent’s commitment to voting and civic engagement and her life as an on-the-road political campaign warrior. America Votes, the coordination hub for progressive organizations whose missions include protecting and expanding the right of all Americans to vote, sees itself as a behind-the-scenes player. It makes sense when you understand that it was founded by and continues to grow a powerful cohort of progressive local and national organizations, from labor unions to Black, Latino and AAPI civil rights groups, trusted messengers for their constituencies. Daria reminds us that every election matters, not just the presidential race, and America Votes is there for all of them, even investing in year-round staffing in battleground states. Hear her!
What if we looked at homelessness as solvable rather than intractable? What would we do if we considered the 580,000 people who are homeless on any given night in America as having been failed, as opposed to being failures? That is the perspective that Ann Oliva brings to her leadership of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the organization that inspired her throughout highly productive tenures at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. At the Alliance, Ann is building on an impactful portfolio, from researching how systemic racism pushes marginalized people towards homelessness, to educating lawmakers about public policy solutions to providing community based organizations with hands-on assistance to advancing communications about homelessness. Ann remains hopeful in large part because she knows what is possible. She knows that bold federal investment in affordable housing, at scale, is the real solution to our homelessness crisis. And she is closely connected to the many community, nonprofit and public leaders who are poised to make transformational change a reality.
Amy Javaid first encountered A Wider Circle as a chaperone for her daughter’s kindergarten field trip. She was struck by how staff engaged 5 year old kids in talking about neighbors, a less othering term than clients, who lack clothes and a home. They learned that their actions, sorting clothes, helps neighbors, some of whom are also 5 years old. Amy volunteered and held various positions before becoming CEO in 2021. Now she is building community and opportunity in Washington DC’s historically underserved Washington Highlands neighborhood. A Wider Circle’s most celebrated resource is its Essential Support program which brings 20 families a day to a furniture showroom to choose beds, tables, and other goods for homes they have finally secured. As Amy points out, this is the start of their journey out of poverty. Some sign on to a program that builds family supports over time. And all are learning to advocate for their priorities, affordable housing, and a living wage. Just as Amy learned in leading anti-poverty work across the globe, the pathway starts with meeting urgent needs and grows into collective action to upend systems at the root of poverty.
“What am I doing to enfranchise people or how am I participating in their disenfranchisement?" That question, posed by this week’s guest, Dr. Marla Dean, to all of us, stopped me in my tracks mid-interview. It has guided her own life and career, first as an educator in troubled and under-resourced schools and then as CEO of Bright Beginnings, a celebrated nonprofit in Washington, DC, that provides childcare and early education services to children and families experiencing homelessness. When I first interviewed Marla in August of 2021, she was deep in the trenches of helping vulnerable families survive an unprecedented pandemic. She powered through but knew she needed to heal, regroup, and continue her commitment to economic mobility from another venue. Now, two years later, Marla introduces us to her new role, leading the Health Equity Fund, a demonstration project launched by the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the region’s largest philanthropy. The Fund supports highly effective community-based organizations and invests in policy advocacy, systems change in ways that are innovative and disruptive. With GWCF President Tonia Wellons, Marla is pushing philanthropic boundaries to empower nonprofits and re-enfranchise communities. Marla was raised to be an advocate and it shows.
As Monte Pollard approached the end of a six year sentence in federal prison, he was so overwhelmed by the prospect of reentry, he considered committing a violation that would keep him locked up. His lack of confidence made sense. Over 6 years in multiple facilities, he did not have access to a single training or educational opportunity. When he lost his mother to domestic violence, counseling was not available. It was a visit from Charles B. Thornton, then head of the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs, that gave him hope and the beginnings of a plan. He earned an internship at MORCA, went on to become a staffer and served in other public agencies. Now the executive director of Changing Perceptions, he is leading a transformation of the reentry process for returning citizens in Washington DC. In this episode of Power Station, Monte shares how his nonprofit, Changing Perceptions, is remaking government systems, from social services to criminal justice while strengthening the resilience of those he serves. And he is providing training in financial literacy, in partnership with CAAB, a prerequisite for building generational wealth. Monte’s aspirations and capacities for changemaking are limitless.
In 2016, Andrew Lee received a call that changed his life and created a cultural sea-change in Washington DC. A conservatory-trained musician he juggled professional performances, running music festivals, and, as a community leader and volunteer, bringing classical music to under-resourced neighborhoods. He was invited to perform that night in a concert featuring brilliant musicians from across the globe. Andrew hopped on a train and headed to Carnegie Hall. The sheer artistry moved him to consider, “what am I doing to create this experience for others?” He launched DC Strings Workshop, a nonprofit organization that makes music education accessible to largely Black and Brown students in schools without arts funding. The logistics alone are impressive, from operating a summer camp, embedding music teachers in elementary and middle schools to performances by the Accord Symphony, an orchestra made up of semi-professional and professional musicians. As Andrew shares on this episode of Power Station, the work goes even deeper. It includes navigating difficult conversations about the impacts of economic instability and violence on students. And it engages young people in finding and using their voices to advocate for music in every school for every student.
When Allen Morris is asked what a policy director does he gets to the point and is not shy: “I tell the President and Congress what to do.” As policy director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Allen advocates for his community in Congress and in state houses where xenophobia, transphobia, and anti-Blackness dominate policy making. In states where the very humanity of LGBTQ people is under attack, the Task Force supports and partners with grassroots group and hosts kiki’s (social gatherings, for the uninitiated) a safe space to share information, fears, and joy. In this episode of Power Station, Allen talks about the singular contributions that the Task Force has made, over the past 50 years, in advancing LGBTQ rights. Queering Democracy, just one pillar of the work, along with its companions, Queering Equity, Queering Faith, and Building Power, is a window on a powerful template for nonprofit policy advocacy. It’s components, from Fed Watch, a collective deep dive into regulatory rulemaking to revving up participation in the Census and the vote, demonstrate the Task Force’s intentionality and dedication to justice. Allen is everything. Listen and you will know.
To understand the long and twisted journey to the Supreme Court’s chilling decision to dismantle affirmative action in higher education and its implications, you cannot do better than to ask civil rights champion and self-described optimist John Yang. As president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, John has navigated the drumbeat to defeat affirmative action for years and a devastating rise in anti-Asian hate crimes since the emergence of Covid-19. AAJC employs a range of strategies, from education to litigation and policy advocacy to advance the rights of Asian Americans and all communities of color. John points out that the case brought before SCOTUS by white nationalist Ed Blum relies on the model minority myth, a persistent trope, and a convenient strategy for pitting Asian Americans against other people of color. In fact, the data reveals a high level of support by Asian Americans for affirmative action. John is also buoyed by the emergence of new youth-led Asian American nonprofits and the cohort of civil rights partners, including the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Urban League, Lawyers Committee and MALDEF that are moving this nation towards justice.
As listeners know I record from Podville Media, a vibrant audio and video studio in Washington, DC. After 277 episodes, it’s my turn to be the guest, admittedly a reluctant one. Robb Spewak, a 30 year broadcast professional and a podcast host in his own right who has produced almost every episode of Power Station is my co-host and interviewer. It was a great experience, evidence of my trust in Robb. And days later the experience still resonates. Turns out I am comfortable interviewing nonprofit leaders tackling the most daunting challenges of our times but revisiting some of the moments that shaped me is harder. Robb asked what compelled me to create Power Station and why I persist. A turning point was being illegally evicted, part of an aggressive campaign by developers to empty an entire block, setting me on a path to organizing and leadership in community based and national nonprofits. Most importantly I want to amplify the voices of those who are changing our fragile democracy for the better. And yes, I believe that foundations should support this and other podcasts that tell stories which should be headline news.
None of us, from the Supreme Court to our elected representatives to corporate CEOs, should underestimate this nation’s young people. On the same day that the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, blocking relief for 40 million Americans, the 18 to 34 year old’s that animate Young Invincibles, a nonprofit founded during the nation’s tumultuous debate over the Affordable Care Act, absorbed the blow and set about putting a powerful Plan B into action. On this episode of Power Station, Young Invincibles’ executive director Kristin McGuire shares her own experience with student debt to illustrate how young borrowers, particularly Black and Brown youth, are harmed, often generationally, by the high cost of student loans. And while she is frustrated by the SCOTUS decision, she draws on her conviction, gained from years of community organizing, that the movement to end the stranglehold of student debt will prevail. Young Invincibles invests in the capacity and commitment of young leaders to influence policymakers from state legislatures to Congress and the White House. They are doing the work to make bold and essential change possible.
Do you know the old idiom, the devil is in the details? In this episode, Natalie Davis, co-founder, and CEO of the nonprofit United States of Care, tells Power Station about the importance of treating every detail in the policy making process as an opportunity to produce the most impactful legislation possible. And she is admittedly obsessed with public policy implementation, creating a plan that delivers great outcomes in real time. It takes close collaboration with local policy makers, public agencies, and community based organizations that understand the needs of their regions and where the barriers might lie to producing a powerful implementation blueprint. Natalie and her team listen to what local communities want from their healthcare systems and United States of Care shapes its policy campaigns around those priorities. Right now, United States of Care is laser-focused on the legal decision from Braidwood vs. Becerra, which strips free health screenings and other preventive care from our doctor's visits. Most people simply want to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy, a system rooted in equity and caring. That is the mission at the heart of this essential organization.
A conversation with Families USA executive director Frederick Isasi is a masterclass in how to transform our expansive, inefficient, and poorly performing health care system. America spends more money per person on health care than any other nation yet our health outcomes, including some of the world’s worst life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates are appalling. In this episode of Power Station, Frederick explains how we got here, starting with just a few decades ago when many families knew and had access to their healthcare providers. That was before the corporatization and consolidation of hospitals and medical practices, which have driven prices sky high and generated substandard outcomes. When hospital pricing is based not on actual costs but on exorbitant CEO salaries, we are all, as health care consumers, harmed. Many Americans opt out of care altogether, ration their medications and carry debilitating medical debt. From ending surprise medical billing to advancing fair drug pricing and hospital price transparency, to demanding access and equity, Families USA is leading a powerful and winning movement for change. Frederick wants all of us to be engaged, skeptical and activated consumers.
Do we stop to think, when enjoying a meal at a favorite restaurant, about what is happening in the back of the house? While servers and bartenders are working hard, their counterparts, dishwashers, food runners and bus boys, face far greater challenges. In Washington DC, less visible workers receive hourly pay as low as $3.89 and depend on tips distributed by “the house” to make minimum wage. But tips are not always shared, just one form of wage theft in the industry. These workers, primarily women, and often undocumented immigrants, are vulnerable to exploitation. Restaurant Opportunities Center DC is disrupting unjust practices by this powerful sector through organizing and advocacy. ROC teaches workers about their rights, trains them in the skills needed for higher-paid positions and advocates for policies that empower them. On this episode of Power Station, ROC organizers Miguel Castro Luna and Norma Vasquez share that for undocumented workers without access to federal funds, the pandemic is not over. Many are still struggling to pay back rent. ROC’s Earned Sick Leave and Excluded Workers Campaigns have led to huge legislative wins. We can join them in demanding enforcement and justice.
Every person, in every city, deserves to live the healthiest possible life. You could assume this is a shared national value, but our health outcomes tell a different story about America’s aspirations. Residents from the most marginalized neighborhoods in underinvested cities are subjected to living in unsound housing conditions under persistent threats of eviction, compromised by poor air quality and a lack of access to potable water. Recognizing that social determinants, factors that exist outside of a doctor's office, have an outsized role in the state of our health led the de Beaumont Foundation, a public health philanthropy, to take bold and evidence-based action by launching CityHealth. Its expert advisers and an outstanding staff advance policy solutions to health challenges based in science and validated by community leaders. They are cultivating relationships with Mayors, municipal leaders who are tasked with delivering a better quality of life and equity to their constituents even when their colleagues on Capitol Hill cannot. You will be captivated by CityHealth co-executive director Katrina Forrest, and she will make you a believer. Policy solutions, framed in equity, tracked for accountability, and memorialized in medals and maps.
Annabel Collinson wants you to know that if you feel anxious and helpless about environmental conditions around the globe you are not alone. She shares the climate anxiety that is pervasive among young people whose futures are compromised by rising temperatures and their real-time harms, from warming oceans to sea level rise, economic disruption, food insecurity and the displacement, primarily of people of color, from their homes and communities. Annabel and her colleague Madeleine Ary Hahne, who have devoted years of study to environmental science, global security, human geography, and field work across multiple nations, came together to create an alternative response to environmental degradation. They co-founded, with Zoe Salt, Visions of Soon, a striking online platform designed to engage and empower a new generation in environmental learning and activism. They have coalesced a remarkably talented team of photographers, videographers, journalists and poets to profile, through a striking website and across social platforms, environmentalists and activists whose practices, from sustainable carpentry to wild swimming and elm restoration are pragmatic strategies towards a more sustainable future. These visionaries welcome all who wish to join them. Individual steps leading to powerful collective action.
There are many versions of our American story. For some it is a gateway to freedom and opportunity, for others it is where only some can thrive, often at the expense of less valued communities. As always, the truth is complex and nuanced and data, when our public leaders choose to collect it, tells the true story. A global pandemic exposed and deepened America’s fault lines, revealing how historical policy making decisions steeped in racism and anti-immigrant bias created strikingly disparate outcomes to the crisis. The truths are profound and unimpeachable, shocking but not truly surprising. In this episode of Power Station, Alvinah Yeh, executive director of Asian Pacific Islander American Labor Alliance, explains that xenophobia and inequitable healthcare, education and workforce systems were realities well before the pandemic struck. But the story is now elevated, and it is time for new voices to inform policy makers, employers, and the labor sector about their lived experiences and how to craft policy solutions to protect and expand the rights of AAPIs, our fastest growing working population. APALA is where dynamic AAPI leaders make change and equity possible. These are stories that we all need to hear.
When George Jones talks about his mission to make Washington, DC an anti-racist city he is sometimes met with discomfort and even denial. But when he talks about the tremendous disparities in wealth and income that separate white communities in the NW portion of the city from Black families in the SE the very same business, academic and foundation leaders agree that the data is unimpeachable and the systems that perpetuate it must be upended. As CEO of Bread for the City, the highly impactful nonprofit he leads, he manages the complex organizational infrastructure needed to provide for a continuum of human needs, from food and clothing to medical attention and legal support. Bread for the City also builds community power, positioning those with lived experience in advocating for policy solutions before the City Council and Mayor. George points out how a pervasively negative narrative about Black youth in poor DC neighborhoods strips us of empathy and disconnects us from the facts. While crime is real, the perpetrators are in fact a small and known cohort. Joining this anti-racism journey is an opportunity we cannot afford to lose.
Elyssa Feder remembers the moment she became an organizer. She was watching a debate on C-Span about the proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood and government officials were spouting lies to bolster their positions. She realized that their power shielded them from consequences and that she was not satisfied being a young woman in a food court who knew better. She honed her organizing capacities in political and issue-specific campaigns and learned that having better facts, and she strongly believes that facts matter, does not guarantee a win. Winning requires an engaged citizenry, people power bolstered by community-based nonprofits with expertise and relationships. Knowing this, Elyssa set about to solve for a real and pressing problem, the huge gap in the organizing infrastructure needed to strengthen our fragile democracy. She launched Rising Organizers to train those who want to get involved with organizing skills and strategies. Young people are completing their training and taking root as change makers in organizations and communities. Funders now have an opportunity to support Elyssa’s vision and build the future we all want to see.
Some organizations really do lead with love. When Jeanne Manford joined her gay son Morty at the 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Day March her handmade sign declared, Parents of Gays Unite in Support of our Children. That message moved many young people whose families were not there for them. Jeanne went on to become the mother of a movement, PFLAFG, that unites families, their LGBTQ loved ones and allies. The fierce love of these families and allies makes PFLAG a powerful force for protecting parents and children who are increasingly under attack in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. As Diego Manuel Sanchez, Director of Advocacy, Policy, and Partnerships explains, PFLAG’s power is embedded in its grassroots infrastructure, more than 400 chapters and 250,000 members and supporters. And PFLAG creates opportunities for all of us to contribute to the change we want to see, including commenting on a new Title IX regulation that protects trans and other non-binary athletes. Diego is an extraordinary advocate and human being. Having turned to his own mother as a 5 year old to say that he was "born wrong" he demonstrates the power of claiming one's true identity.
If you want to know how to protect and advance the rights of Latinos in Texas, ask Eric Holguin. A native son of Corpus Christi and Texas State Director of UnidosUS, the nation’s largest non-partisan champion of Hispanic civil rights, he starts with the facts. Without the state’s 11.4 million Latinos, who are critical to the workforce and especially well-represented in the civil service, energy and small business sectors, the economy would collapse and were it not for gerrymandering, Texas would be a purple state. Making progress in a state where political leaders maintain power by demonizing Latinos takes commitment, resources, and a strategy. Eric partners with UnidosUS affiliates, on-the-ground advocates for voting, education, reproductive, healthcare, immigration, and LGBTQ rights. He cultivates the next generation of Latino political leaders and most importantly, he engages with everyday community members who are moved more by values than by policy alerts. Standard messaging by political parties often fails to connect with Latino voters and will not motivate them to get to the polls. Votes must be earned, not taken for granted. Eric offers a roadmap to making change possible. Listen and celebrate how UnidosUS moves America forward.
Today’s headline stories about jobs and the economy focus on remote workers facing a return to offices and thousands of professional hired by tech companies to deepen their capacities for artificial intelligence and machine learning. More commonplace injustices are being challenged by a growing movement for livable wages and paid family leave, against racial discrimination and immigrant exploitation and for the right to form a union. These and even worse abuses, including the pervasive use of child labor, were born in 20th century factories and mills. A profound desire to honor the contributions of millworkers is deeply rooted within Jim Warlick whose mother, the late Mary Hamilton Warlick, worked behind the same sewing machine for 33 years at the Garrou-Morgantan Full-Fashioned Hosiery Mill in Burke County, North Carolina. The newly unveiled Dignity of Work Monument recognizes those who toiled in the furniture, textile, and hosiery industries in conditions that would be entirely unacceptable today. Jim’s interviews with surviving millworkers reflect both the difficulty of the work and pride in what they accomplished. Lessons about their experience will become middle school curriculum, a triumph of truth in education that should inspire all of us.
Niciah Mujahid wants you know that your city’s budget is 100% your business. As the dynamic executive director of Fair Budget Coalition, she leads a cohort of community-based nonprofits in advocating for a budget that invests in human needs and advances racial justice. Every aspect of this complex process, from analyzing budget proposals to engaging residents in testifying at budget hearings to building relationships with and posing solutions to the mayor and city council members is rooted in a racial equity lens. As Niciah explains, the budget, a quantifiable plan for how to acquire and spend a city’s resources, is also a moral document reflecting the priorities of elected decision-makers. This work is particularly consequential in Washington DC, whose residents have been denied statehood and lack full voting representation in Congress. And DC’s elected leadership, who develop and negotiate the budget, cannot enact it without a sign-off from Congress. But a conversation with Niciah is the opposite of bleak. She believes deeply in the acumen of Fair Budget Coalition’s talented members and ardently champions DC residents, whose fight for housing, health and safety are at the heart of the Coalition’s vision and mission.
Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, is reframing how to think about progressive change making in politically polarizing times. She pushes back against the deeply embedded belief that those working for social justice and racial equity are in a lonely uphill battle against a fierce anti-democratic majority in her state and throughout the nation. Tram believes that the multi-racial coalition of young people, immigrants and working families New Virginia Majority brings together to restore the voting rights of returning citizens, make housing affordable and advance immigrant rights are the true majority, overshadowed by a loud and aggrieved minority. New Virginia Majority, powered by chapters and hubs across a hugely diverse state, generates policy and electoral wins that should be headline news. Hundreds of Black and Brown community leaders turn out in the state capitol each year, pressing legislative leaders, some of whom they helped elect, to enact legislation that uplifts their communities. Tram is driven by the same devotion to democracy that galvanized her family’s journey from Vietnam to America 41 years ago. She is cultivating a new generation of leaders and proving that people-powered change is possible. You will want to share this conversation.
As Felipe Pinzon says, not enough Americans know how nonprofits change communities. His own organization, Hispanic Unity of Florida, provides a master class in how transformative change in marginalized communities is made. It started in 1982, when residents recognized that immigrants arriving in South Florida needed help to manage the many complex transitions they faced. Hispanic Unity became a safe space where families learned how to navigate new systems, from public schools to healthcare to learning English, finding employment, and becoming citizens. Hispanic Unity sites the number of jobs attained, businesses started, and homes purchased by new immigrants among its successes. It also considers its public policy advocacy and committment to standing by the community in a deeply anti-immigrant environment a metric of impact. It's 2 Generation approach, working simultaneously with children and their parents to keep all family members on track for reaching their goals is key to building self-sufficiency and generational wealth. As a leader Felipe is proud to invest in Hispanic Unity’s frontline workers, from training opportunities to including them in organizational decision making. He is building a new narrative about immigrants and he and the community will not be deterred.
There is intention and beauty in the naming of The Person Center. Its founder, Amelia Missielidies, wanted the women she served, survivors of domestic and sexual violence who were African immigrants and refugees to recognize the value of their personhood. As an Ethiopian and a social worker, Amelia understood what American service providers could not, that the experience these women shared: war, conflict, and migration, requires a trauma-informed approach to healing. After Amelia’s passing, her mentee, Lul Mohamud, stepped up to carry on and even deepen her impact. Lul describes The Person Center as guided by “the beauty of collectivism”, lessons from the community that she both comes from and serves. Instead of expecting marginalized women, some with uncertain immigration status to come to them to report abuse, Lul, a Somalian-American public health expert, and her team invest time in African immigrant and refugee communities, building trust, conducting informal needs assessments, and training community members to advocate for each other. She is collecting data for academic research, including the whole community in outreach and training, and advocating for a broader set of community needs, from healthcare to housing. Lul is an inspiration.
Are you, your nonprofit, and the community you serve being seen and heard? What if you could communicate the story of your nonprofit, the inequitable conditions you tackle, the public policies you advocate and your solutions for uplifting people and communities? In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by Oscar Zeballos, CEO of Podville Media, a fellow podcasting evangelizer whose partnership with co-founder Charlie Birney provides a dynamic stage for diverse voices, from ESPN to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to the White House Historical Association. Just before recording I participated on a panel session moderated by Oscar as part of Solutions for Housing Communications, a National Housing Conference event. Oscar conveyed the myriad ways that content generated by our audience of communications professionals can influence decision makers across an evolving media landscape. We carried our passion for purposeful communications into Podville Media’s Studio C where I pressed nonprofit and foundation executives to support podcasting and other creative messaging tools. Oscar gave a glimpse into new technology that uncovers where podcasts are making an impact. What is the story you want to tell?
Where are our nation’s most effective and committed changemakers? You may expect them to be representing us on Capitol Hill or launching start-ups in Silicon Valley but the real champions of opportunity and equity, from poverty alleviation, upending the racial wealth gap and creating a pathway to generational wealth are nonprofit leaders. On this episode of Power Station, two exceptional leaders, Mercedes Lemp of My Sister’s Place and Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, of Capital Area Asset Builders tell us about their organizational partnership, envisioned by Mercedes, to lift domestic violence survivors out of poverty and into a life of possibility. It starts with a monthly cash transfer, guaranteed income that provides women with the means needed to leave their abuser and build a life for themselves and their children. To deepen the effect of this initiative Mercedes reached out to Joseph whose track record in making financial education and resources accessible through CAAB, including guidance on the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, has proven to be life-changing for low-income families. Mercedes and Joseph have created a model that can and should take hold nationally. Hear them tell the story here.
Public narrative is about the story of me and the story of us. This is how Sandy Dang, an expert and educator in the field describes its essence. On this episode of Power Station, we explore the power of public narrative to communicate our values and lived experience and to tell the collective stories of our communities. Sandy came to this field, which trains individuals in how to distill their life experience into a 2 minute story, innately. Born in Vietnam, she survived the war, life in refugee camps and her family’s resettlement in Salt Lake City, Utah. She realizes now that navigating through these challenges made her stronger. It fueled her drive to build community with refugee children and their families by founding Asian American Lead, a groundbreaking nonprofit in Washington DC. AA Lead created opportunities to share her story and to embolden young children and their parents to develop their own voices. Sandy believes in stripping away adjectives and affectation to share personal truth through public narrative. It sparks awareness, deepens our understanding of life experiences that are different than our own and makes connections that inspire.
If we have learned anything from the last several years, it is that while we have shared collective pain, a global health crisis, economic freefall, mass shootings, and political discourse so fractured we cannot agree that democracy is a core value, the impacts of these events have landed starkly unevenly. The data shows what progressive nonprofits know: low income, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ communities continue to be disproportionately harmed by systems, rooted in racism that make these outcomes inevitable. On this episode of Power Station, the brilliant lawyer, strategist, and organizer Afua Attah Mensah shares stories of community based organizations across the nation that are building the relationships and policy solutions needed to make transformative change possible. We may not hear about these achievements on the nightly news, but we should. The good news is that Community Change, a national nonprofit with deep community roots and a long history of bold activism invests its assets, staff with exceptional expertise in organizing, policymaking, communications, political and issue campaigns, in advancing the aspirations of its grassroots partners. As Afua tells us it starts with people who care about the common good.
At its core, the N Street Village story is one of humanity, resistance, and advancing racial and housing justice. It began in 1972, when Pastor John Steinbruck opened the doors of Lutheran Place Memorial Church, at the center of Washington DC’s embattled 14th street corridor, to women and children in need of shelter and care. It was 6 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, a devastating act that reverberated across the nation and ignited riots just blocks from the White House. That moment led to the founding of N Street Village, which has evolved over the last fifty years into a national model for serving women experiencing homelessness. The process starts, as explained with clarity and compassion by N Street Village CEO Kenyatta Brunson, by welcoming them without judgment, providing the time and resources needed to recover from domestic violence, disability debt, divorce, death, key drivers of women’s homelessness, and advocating for the expansion of safe and affordable permanent housing. It takes tremendous skill and heart to both address complex individual needs and reform public policies rooted in racism. Kenyatta tells her powerful story here.
When you live with racial injustice as a child and have parents who encourage your intellectual curiosity and impulse to advocate and serve you know what it means to live your values. In this episode of Power Station, Ty Hobson Powell describes a childhood in Washington DC marked by the loss of close friends to gun violence, limited access to resources, from grocery stores and parks, and resilient and underestimated friends and neighbors. His pathway to activism included graduating from high school at 13, earning a bachelor’s degree at 15, and a master’s degree at 17, and since then, applying his skills in public service, political field organizing and an HBCU. In 2020, Ty founded Concerned Citizens Demanding Change, a nonprofit that grew organically from protests, in DC and nationally, against rising violence towards people of color at the hands of police. He invited a team of young Black leaders with expertise ranging from the environment to women’s reproductive rights, to reimagine with him how change is made. CCDC is the future of community-building, the bridge to statehood and a voice for marginalized people everywhere.
The roots of racism in America run so deep they even determine who benefits from life extending clinical trials. This truth guides Dana Dornsife in advocating for equitable access to medical treatment, which should be but is not, a standard of care in our medical system. When Dana’s brother-in-law Mike was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she immersed herself in enrolling him in a clinical trial. That experience, which allowed him to live another 19 months, inspired Dana to launch the Lazerex Cancer Institute. She knew that with all the challenges Mike faced, it was exponentially harder for people of color without financial support. Lazerex is upending the status quo for nonprofits in the cancer care arena. It connects people with all forms of cancer to clinical trials, covers the costs of travel for those without means, and engages stakeholders, from patients to hospital administrators in democratizing outdated government policies and profit-driven insurance systems. Lazerex Cancer Institute is building a bottom up movement for change with the capacity to move the FDA, state and national legislators, and medical institutions to prioritize racial equity. As Dana shows, problems are only intractable when we allow them to be.
If you are a nonprofit leader who thinks about fundraising with the same intensity that you bring to tackling your mission, this is your episode. Chances are you have been denied the level of funding needed to scale your most impactful strategies or turned down for general operating support, which enables you to deploy resources as needed. In this episode of Power Station, we explore what happens when our most open-minded philanthropic leaders design a new model for identifying and investing in solutions to our world’s most pressing challenges. Dr. Cecilia Conrad brings brilliance, intentionality, and a belief in the power of collaboration to her leadership of Lever for Change, an affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She is cultivating a cohort of donors, from the LEGO Foundation to the Kellogg Foundation and MacKenzie Scott, who agree that the most powerful solutions to complex challenges, from climate change to infant and maternal health care and the refugee crisis are generated by nonprofits. They have stepped up to invest $10 million in the winners of competitions among exceptional nonprofits. Dr. Gordon is the deeply committed change maker who tells this story best.
The acrimony in Congress and across the country reflects competing visions for America’s future. This is less a policy debate than a heated referendum on who is entitled to hold power in America. State legislatures are on a fast track to curtailing the rights of communities of color, immigrants, women, and LGBTQ people. Asian American Pacific Islanders, representing 50 ethnic groups, and speaking 100 languages, have been historically marginalized and are current targets of anti-Asian violence. Now accounting for 6.8 percent of the total U.S. population, the community is hardly a monolith. Disaggregated data compiled from the 2020 Census reveal that Indian Americans, Cambodian, Hmong, Filipino, Chinese and Koreans (among others) have distinctly different levels of economic well-being, educational attainment, political representation, and influence. Christine Chen, the indomitable executive director of APIA Vote, a vital component of America’s civil rights infrastructure is laser focused on delivering what local AAPI communities need, from resources to training, to engage in civic life, get out the vote and become decision makers. She brings an unshakable faith in local leaders, the tactical expertise of a field organizer and profound love of AAPI communities.
As a child born at the end of the 1960s, inspired by The Jetsons, Keith Jones dreamed of becoming an aeronautical engineer and taking vacations on the moon. He was part of the first generation to come up after the most powerful mass movement in American history led to passage of Civil Rights Acts prohibiting discrimination in voting, housing, education, and employment based on race, disability, religion, sex, and family status. Keith grew up as a Black child with cerebral palsy in St. Louis, Missouri, where children with disabilities were segregated into a single school and telethons were the cultural norm. Being Black and disabled in America has informed his powerful voice, creativity and impact. His critique of nonprofits that fail to center people with disabilities as decision makers and foundations that requires supplication is a clarion call to the social justice movement. At his organization, SoulTouchin’ Experiences he demonstrates how to advocate for systemic change with inclusion and a recognition of everyone’s humanity. At Krip Hop Nation, with friend and creative partner Leroy Moore Jr. he is building schools for disabled children internationally and producing Emmy winning music. Keith IS changemaking in action.
What happens when a well-resourced Community Development Financial Institution with a track record of $3B dollars in investments takes steps to become a measurably more racially equitable and power building nonprofit in the Black and Brown communities it serves? In Power Station’s first episode of 2023 I explore that question with Lucy Arellano Baglieri, one of the community development sector’s most impactful leaders. Lucy’s lived experience as a childhood immigrant from Mexico who navigated unjust systems for her parents inspired her to work for Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), which builds Latino wealth through community ownership and civic action. Now, as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) Lucy is a key player in expanding on and executing a strategic plan that will inevitably shake up organizational and sectoral norms. This work requires changing internal practices in lending, such as reimagining who is credit worthy and in external roles, including when to step back to prioritize the voices of CDFI CEOs of color. With trusted partner CEO Dan Nisenbaum and a highly engaged Board of Directors, Lucy is making systemic change possible.
How do you look back on 2022? It’s been a year in which political, digital, and sometimes physical assaults on the civil and human rights of Americans by their fellow citizens have become commonplace. From book banning and public demonization of LGBTQ youth to partisan campaigns to undo voting rights in Black and Brown communities to criminalizing homelessness and protecting assault weapons over people, extremism has taken hold as a feature of American life. In this episode of Power Station, CDFI maven, community builder and friend John Holdsclaw joins me in exploring how savvy and strategic nonprofits organize, influence policy making and solve seemingly intractable problems in embattled communities. We dig into the principles that position nonprofits to generate bold transformational social change in the face of anti-democratic forces. Requiring accountability from the media and political leaders, creating community ownership, and flexing organizational advocacy muscles to build community power are hallmarks of my amazing roster of guests in 2022. The way forward requires exceptional leaders like John. As President and CEO of Rochdale Capitol, a newly created CDFI Fund, he is re-envisioning what it means to believe and invest in community.
Every civil rights law enacted in America is preceded by a past we have not fully reckoned with. The Civil Rights Act of 1968, following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, was an antidote to the racism embedded in state and national policy making, from segregationist zoning laws to bank and insurance redlining. Known as the Fair Housing Act, it prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, religion, and national origin, later expanded to include gender as a protected class. After its passage, community members in Virginia strategized to make it enforceable. They landed on testing to demonstrate how white and Black families with the same means experienced disperate treatment and results when applying for apartment or bank loans. These forward-thinking volunteers launched Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia in 1971, now led by civil rights lawyer Thomas Okuda Fitzpatrick. He champions those who have been discriminated against, including on grounds of newly protected categories in Virginia: disability, sexual orientation, and source of funds. HOME advances systemic change in industry practices through education and legal action. And Tom reminds us that making headway on all social movements starts with ensuring justice in housing.
If you have lived through the harrowing experience of eviction and the long slide or quick jolt into homelessness or advocated for those who have, this conversation with Marisol Bello is a tribute to you. It is critical listening for journalists who report on homelessness without fully grasping the nuances of the insurmountable gaps between low wages and spiraling rents. It is for politicians with homeless constituents who can either criminalize them through sweeps or invest in affordable housing production. And it is for anyone that has not interrogated the systems that make homelessness with disproportionate impacts in Black and Brown communities inevitable. Marisol leads Housing Narrative Lab, a nonprofit that is building a new narrative about homelessness by giving voice to our collective need for and love of home. She and her team start with the understanding that homelessness is what happens when there is no housing justice. They are formulating a narrative powerful enough to pierce through biases and grow the public will to solve America’s housing and homelessness crisis. We know the policy solutions needed. When the narrative is strong enough we will collectively push them forward.
What will you do when your community is under assault? In our increasingly fractured society, in which elected officials demonize marginalized people and threaten violence when elections don’t go their way, this is a question based in reason, not hyperbole. Hate crimes in the form of mass shootings have become a regular feature of American life. For Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s largest advocacy organization for the civil rights and advancement of LGBTQ people, the answer is to strengthen connections and keep moving forward. She is still processing the killing of beloved community members at Club Q, long considered a safe and inclusive space in Colorado Springs. Her small and courageous staff of 13 are organizers, policy advocates, social workers and power-building champions of LGBTQ Coloradans and their families. Over time, they have achieved so much, from marriage equality to empowering LGBTQ students and their allies to expanding health and human services. They do not want the thoughts and prayers of politicians who ignite the hate. As Nadine says, they want accountability. Please hear her and act, in peace.
It takes a powerful amalgam of dynamics to produce a groundbreaking book. This is what Brandi Collins Dexter, lawyer, researcher, activist, and stand-out nonprofit advocate has achieved with the publication of Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future. She takes on, with curiosity, deep personal investment, and an openness to views she may not share, the reasons for and consequences of the disillusionment of Black voters with the Democratic Party. This sensibility mirrors the rise of a multiracial skinhead movement in England, post-World War II that eventually devolved into racially divisive factions. Her interviews with 50 voters from 18-108, reveal an increasing unease with how the party represents Black interests and whether government can generate solutions to the impacts of the racial wealth gap, student debt and the toll of unlivable wages. Brandi explores how social media, rather than encouraging shared cultural and political aspirations, splinters community and fosters alienation. And she points to the danger of losing a belief in linked fate, as personified by Kanye West, whose identification with white nationalism poses a literal threat to democracy. Let's make this required reading for the nonprofit social change sector.
How is your mental health? Schroeder Stribling, President and CEO of Mental Health America, believes we should all live in the open about our stories and support one another when we are challenged. She is inspired by Clifford Beers who founded Mental Health America in 1909 to dismantle the system of institutionalization of those, like him, who suffered from mental illness. MHA embraced Clifford’s vision for a reform movement, fundamentally changing America’s approach to mental health. MHA is a crucial resource in this moment. A global pandemic, deep civil divisions and social isolation have been disorienting and deadly with communities of color, immigrants and LGBTQ youth bearing its disproportionate impacts. In this time, MHA’s Prevention and Screening platform has been used by 15,000 people per day, providing real time data about those most at risk: those between the ages of 11-17, primarily LGBTQ and youth of color. MHA advocates in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill and partners with community-based affiliates that equip kids with the interpersonal skills, self-agency and resilience needed to make prevention of mental challenges possible. Listen and share this important episode.
When Cleofas Rodriguez says that leading the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association is his dream job, believe him. He knows first-hand the risks that farmworkers face because of their immigration status and exposure to dangers in the fields. As executive director of NMSHSA, Cleo honors farmworkers by ensuring that their children are educated. He does this by supporting Head Start agencies in over 30 states that serve families who may move multiple times a year to harvest crops. Doing so requires logistical coordination, expertise in early childhood education and a deep commitment to these families. In previous episodes, we have talked to children of farmworkers who are now in college and working as NMSHSA Fellows. Cleo is now realizing a vision for these families that originated during the pandemic. When millions of Americans received stimulus checks, farmworkers were excluded. The Biden Administration is now extending cash relief to farmworkers, meat packers and grocery workers. NMHSA is partnering with the USDA and the National Opinion Research Center to deploy these dollars to an incredibly skilled and underestimated work force. Cleo asks that we think about those who bring food to our Thanksgiving tables with gratitude. Adelante!
White House staffer and public health advocate Natalie Davis was all-in when President Barack Obama signed on to expand and transform our nation’s ailing health care system. And she was instrumental in navigating the choppy waters of its implementation after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010. As an advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Andy Slavitt, she was deeply engaged in one the country’s largest expansions of health care in modern history. This was also when Natalie welcomed, albeit three months early, the birth of her first child. She experienced, as so many Americans do, the live-changing urgency of health insurance. That moment paved the way to her co-founding, with Andy Slavitt, of United States of Care, the national nonprofit she now leads. USC asks people what they want from their health care and uses policy levers to generate results. The culture is open-minded and pragmatic, working with all sectors and across partisan divides. As Natalie explains, building a people-centered health care system that works for all of us in a bold ambitious and values-based agenda that is within reach.
At a moment of profound national and global upheaval it is important to consider what makes bold, transformational change possible. How can illicit conduct in industries ranging from banking to pharmaceuticals to technology and nuclear energy be exposed and repaired? Calling out corruption, waste and fraud may involve politicians and pundits, but it starts with brave individuals, employees of government agencies, corporations, and nonprofits who are driven by personal integrity. In this episode of Power Station we learn about whistleblowing, the laws that protect those who step forward of their own volition as truth-tellers, the significance of this act to the public and our planet, and the role of attorneys in defending them against retaliation by employers. Siri Nelson, the changemaking executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center explains how NWC advocates for protections in Congress, the courts and regulatory agencies and educates the public about non-disclosure agreements, retaliation, and rewards. Siri reminds us that whistleblowers are powerful assets who make their industries and our society better. She is building a culture that celebrates those who stand up for what is right, a culture shift that we can all endorse.
We are living in extraordinary times. The racism, misogyny and anti-immigrant vitriol unleashed by the Trump presidency has generated tremendous social discord in America. Decades of public policies crafted to bridge a cavernous racial wealth gap imploded under this administration. Even the most vigilant news consumers are hard pressed to keep up with right wing attacks on voting rights, bodily autonomy, and democracy itself. But mainstream reporting does not often tell the whole story of what is happening in America. Grassroots organizations are making transformational change in historically marginalized communities. The Workers Center for Racial Justice, a Chicago-based grassroots organization, is building power in Black communities from the ground up. Led by the gifted and inexhaustible DeAngelo Bester, WCRJ is producing a level of engagement and policy change that should be headline news. It’s Ban the Box Campaign is just one example of what community organizing, powered by formerly incarcerated citizens has made possible. In this episode DeAngelo tells the story of formerly incarcerated community leaders who stood up to discrimination in hiring and won. They are building a new narrative that we all need to hear.
In 1984, Billy and Debby Shore founded Share our Strength in response to famine in Ethiopia, a mission that soon expanded to ending hunger in America. Their singular focus on hunger deepened our collective consciousness and involved elected officials, the culinary industry, advocates, and low-income communities in securing solutions. They launched No Kid Hungry, a campaign that connects families, many of whom are working people of color with low wage jobs, to public resources, from WIC to SNAP. As Jillien Meier, Director of Partnerships & Campaign Strategy explains, ending hunger is complex and nuanced. It requires understand the byzantine rules and myriad of systems involved in accessing food, pressing Congress to reauthorize and improve the Farm Bill and Children Nutrition Act, and listening to directly impacted families with lived experience. Jillien reminds us that while No Kid Hungry has always held that hunger is a non-partisan issue, during the pandemic it became decidedly political. Flexibility to USDA programs granted during the pandemic enabled providers to bring food to children when schools were shut down. The next step is to make these changes permanent and fully commit to what is possible.
A conversation with Maritza Silva Farrell, executive director of ALIGN NY, is a master class in organizing for systemic and transformational change. She starts by listening to people, primarily low-wage workers from communities of color who are disproportionately harmed by unjust and economically extractive public policies and corporate practices. ALIGN NY was founded to unite the labor and environmental movements and position them to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time, income inequality and climate change. It brings all stakeholders to the table, from labor and climate advocates to impacted workers, researchers, and lawyers. The approach, facilitating conversation, crafting collaboration, building powerful alliances, and creating a path that makes bold structural change possible has proven 100% effective. This model resulted in the passage of the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act, the wholesale restructuring of NYC’s commercial waste system and shut down Walmart’s proposed entry into New York, to name a few victories. For all the gravity of the work, Maritza leads with joy, passion, and hopefulness. She demonstrates what is possible when we do the work.
An organization’s origin story reveals the values of its founders. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans was launched in 1990 by Vietnam-era veterans who met while attending conferences focused on expanding after-service employment opportunities. They volunteered in communities across the country, helping fellow vets to find needed resources. And they heard over and over that their peers were unable to access or afford housing and that veterans were disproportionately represented in the nation’s homeless population. Three years later NCHV opened its offices in Washington DC and has become a powerful force for ending veteran homelessness. It offers training and technical assistance to community-based housing providers who must navigate the requirements of multiple agencies and it advocates for policy reforms before Congress. Executive director Kathryn Monet points out that the most impactful solutions come from the ground, those who have experienced homelessness directly. She discovered her passion for the work while staffing the US Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs. Realizing that she has also experienced housing instability deepens her connection to the veterans she serves and strengthens her resolve to overcome this national crisis. Vital legislation is pending now.
The shockwave that rocked this nation after the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision, holding that the U.S. Constitution does not confer the right to an abortion, continues to reverberate across the nation. An ensuing onslaught of bills passed in state legislatures has restricted or banned abortions in many states. The implications are particularly devastating in marginalized communities where women’s sole access to health care is through visits to a gynecologist. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice champions equitable access to health care and bodily autonomy for Latinas. As executive director Lupe Rodriguez explains, Latinas face many barriers to care, from being on the lowest rung of our nation’s wage gap to being overrepresented in jobs lacking health insurance or paid leave. Despite these disparities, a conversation with Lupe is inspiring. She explains how the Poderosa program teaches organizing, skills women use as advocates in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill and in all areas of their lives. The Latina Institute is also a committed partner to other movement building organizations whose central issues may differ but whose communities are connected. This is transformation in action.
The shockwave that rocked this nation after the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision, holding that the U.S. Constitution does not confer the right to an abortion, continues to reverberate across the nation. An ensuing onslaught of bills passed in state legislatures has restricted or banned abortions in many states. The implications are particularly devastating in marginalized communities where women’s sole access to health care is through visits to a gynecologist. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice champions equitable access to health care and bodily autonomy for Latinas. As executive director Lupe Rodriguez explains, Latinas face many barriers to care, from being on the lowest rung of our nation’s wage gap to being overrepresented in jobs lacking health insurance or paid leave. Despite these disparities, a conversation with Lupe is inspiring. She explains how the Poderosa program teaches organizing, skills women use as advocates in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill and in all areas of their lives. The Latina Institute is also a committed partner to other movement building organizations whose central issues may differ but whose communities are connected. This is transformation in action.
When three urban planning students launched the news magazine Next City in 2003, they were pushing against the prevailing cultural tide. As their peers were building careers in emerging technologies, they were hyper focused on urban communities beset with deteriorated housing, broken transit systems and environmental hazards. Politicians and the media often characterized urban areas as places to escape and blamed community members for their circumstances. But founders Adam Gordon, Seth A. Brown, and Anika Singh knew that these conditions were legacies of disinvestment, redlining and other policies based in racial exclusion. And they believed that residents with first-hand experience were best suited to generate solutions to their problems. Structured as a nonprofit news organization, Next City approaches its coverage of cities with intentionality and rigor. Senior Economics Correspondent Oscar Perry Abello reports on resident led initiatives: commercial corridors developed from vacant properties and cooperative models for developing new businesses. He points out that all sectors, including nonprofit CDFIs, need to invest in organizations led by people of color. By amplifying stories of neighborhood transformation, Oscar and Next City informs, challenges, and inspires.
When three urban planning students launched the news magazine Next City in 2003, they were pushing against the prevailing cultural tide. As their peers were building careers in emerging technologies, they were hyper focused on urban communities beset with deteriorated housing, broken transit systems and environmental hazards. Politicians and the media often characterized urban areas as places to escape and blamed community members for their circumstances. But founders Adam Gordon, Seth A. Brown, and Anika Singh knew that these conditions were legacies of disinvestment, redlining and other policies based in racial exclusion. And they believed that residents with first-hand experience were best suited to generate solutions to their problems. Structured as a nonprofit news organization, Next City approaches its coverage of cities with intentionality and rigor. Senior Economics Correspondent Oscar Perry Abello reports on resident led initiatives: commercial corridors developed from vacant properties and cooperative models for developing new businesses. He points out that all sectors, including nonprofit CDFIs, need to invest in organizations led by people of color. By amplifying stories of neighborhood transformation, Oscar and Next City informs, challenges, and inspires.
Since its founding 10 years ago, Alliance for Youth Action has transformed how nonprofits build power and strengthen democracy in America. It was launched by young people who had seen first-hand what is possible when people in low-income and communities of color organize to access their voting rights, stop the separation of children from their immigrant parents and repair environmental degradation. They knew that local organizing is where progressive changemaking happens and that investing in a federation of autonomous on-the-ground nonprofits could create a national movement for a racially and economically just nation. As happens when young people are at the helm, they saw a problem and they fixed it. They launched the Alliance, a national nonprofit that provides unrestricted funds, technical support, and capacity-building to 20 federation members in 18th states. All are youth-focused, youth-led, and demonstrably effective. Dakota Hall, who now leads the Alliance, discovered his passion and talent for organizing as a teenager in Milwaukee. He uses it to leverage the collective power of a network that may not be on the nightly news, but it should be.
Since its founding 10 years ago, Alliance for Youth Action has transformed how nonprofits build power and strengthen democracy in America. It was launched by young people who had seen first-hand what is possible when people in low-income and communities of color organize to access their voting rights, stop the separation of children from their immigrant parents and repair environmental degradation. They knew that local organizing is where progressive changemaking happens and that investing in a federation of autonomous on-the-ground nonprofits could create a national movement for a racially and economically just nation. As happens when young people are at the helm, they saw a problem and they fixed it. They launched the Alliance, a national nonprofit that provides unrestricted funds, technical support, and capacity-building to 20 federation members in 18th states. All are youth-focused, youth-led, and demonstrably effective. Dakota Hall, who now leads the Alliance, discovered his passion and talent for organizing as a teenager in Milwaukee. He uses it to leverage the collective power of a network that may not be on the nightly news, but it should be.
If the last several years have taught us anything it is that democracy is fragile. And that all of us need to engage with the systems, institutions and policy processes that determine our collective fates. It takes nonprofit organizations with community roots, technical expertise, and advocacy capacities to make that level of social progress possible. The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), one of the nation’s leading anti-poverty organizations, emerged 50 years ago to highlight and address the needs of low-income Americans. It is now led by Indivar Dutta-Gupta, whose deep policy expertise and valuing of those living at the margins of our economy are setting the course for CLASP’s latest evolution. His team produces evidence-based research, informed by impacted communities, to shape legislative and regulatory solutions. They share their recommendations with decision makers in city halls, state legislatures and on Capitol Hill and are on-hand to ensure that new laws are implemented to ensure the greatest benefit for communities. Some recommendations were included in the Inflation Reduction Act. As Indi explains, those that did not make it, including paid family leave, remain a core value and top priority.
It is shocking, but no longer surprising, that the hate and disinformation which permeates social media provokes real-life harms. Conspiracy theories promulgated by a small cadre of hatemongers persuaded thousands to reject life-saving vaccines leading to preventable deaths. Children persecuted by anti-LGBTQ groups have succumbed to suicide. White nationalist groups breached the Capitol on January 6, based on an internet-based lie, that the presidential election had been stolen. This is the unsafe social media ecosystem that the Center for Countering Digital Hate, led by Imran Ahmed, intends to end. In 2016, Imran experienced the brutal murder of his colleague, member of Parliament Jo Cox, attacked during the referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union. The far-right Britain First party targeted MP Cox as a “traitor to white people,” setting her murder in action. CCDH counters social media companies’ failure to enforce their own code of ethics, a legislative framework that is woefully outdated and a business model that rewards hate. Imran suggests nonprofit leaders talk to staff about how social media induced hate impacts the implementation of their mission. As Imran says, this is our collective generational struggle.
The year was 1881 when 17 women gathered for an unprecedented meeting called by recent college graduate Margaret Talbot and her mentor, Ellen Swallow Richards. Having defied social norms by attending college and pursuing careers they were determined to increase women’s access to higher education. Their persistence led to the founding of the American Association for University Women, which has championed the civil, educational, and economic rights of women for 140 years. AAUW is devoted to achieving equal pay for women and to closing a pay gap, that disproportionately harms Black women and Latinas. Gloria Blackwell, who started her career educating girls in sub-Saharan Africa, led several of AAUW’s signature initiatives, including its celebrated Fellowship program and trainings in salary negotiations, before becoming its President and CEO. She honors the women who came before her by engaging a new generation of girls in fighting stereotypes to excel in STEM, advocating for paid family leave, affordable childcare, and student loan forgiveness. She is supported by a community that includes 170,00 members, donors, and supporters. Like Gloria, they want all women to know their rights and their value.
Words are powerful and whether Patrice Sulton is telling the story of Washington DC’s criminal justice system or drafting legislation to overhaul it, she uses hers to advance bold changes in its policing, courts, and jails. For years, as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, Patrice saw first-hand what the data confirms, that virtually all criminalized people in this city are poor, Black, and native Washingtonians. In 2020, she founded DC Justice Lab to reimagine failed systems through research, legislation and litigation tailored to this city’s specific issues, including having among the worst jails in the nation. As Patrice explains, DC Justice Lab is laser-focused on DC-centric solutions. And she is equally committed to drafting bills in-house and not outsourcing this role to national organizations without deep community roots. Moving policy makers and city residents who see themselves as progressive to act on their stated values is an ongoing challenge. At DC Justice Lab, Patrice is building a movement for functional and equitable criminal justice systems so that we can start to heal the multi-generational impacts of over policing and incarceration.
Every great organization has a compelling origin story. In the case of Native American Youth and Family (NAYA) Center, parents and elders came together in the 1970s, concerned about the low graduation rate, only 24%, of Native students in the Portland, Oregon school system. Their organizing generated after-school programming and eventually, in 1994, led to the nonprofit incorporation of the NAYA Center, which now serves the entire community from infancy to elders. And the needs are profound, from housing to hunger, a legacy of broken treaties and the displacement of 381 tribes from their land starting in the late 1800s. Paul Lumley (Yakama), executive director of the Naya Center, is proud that its Many Nations Academy for 9th to 12th graders, embraces all students and supports them in seeing the value in themselves. Many of the students are homeless, some because they identity as Two Spirit, the indigenous term for LGBTQ, and have been rejected by their families. Paul’s next step is to build a residential hall for homeless students, a welcoming gateway to defining the future of their dreams.
What would your nonprofit be able to achieve with a law firm on its side? This question was tested when, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, a small group of experienced litigators launched Democracy Forward, taking on the Trump administration’s assaults on the voting, environmental, immigration, reproductive, and health care rights of low income and communities of color. They quickly mobilized a team of legal, communications and policy experts and partnered with nonprofits working on the frontlines of civil and human rights advocacy. Democracy Forward prevailed against attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, terminate Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs, and halt illegal investigations of individual’s voting histories. And since the election of President Biden in 2020, the drumbeat of right-wing antagonism towards democratic policies and institutions continues. Democracy Forward is expanding its staff and array of legal interventions, including deep engagement in the regulatory process, to meet the demand. President and CEO Skye Perryman starts every new project by listening to what community leaders have experienced and the solutions they seek. She and Democracy Forward are in this battle for democracy for the long haul.
The seeds of America’s subjugation of low income, indigenous, and people of color were planted at our founding. Ever since, public leaders have codified policies that strip these communities of wealth and power. It has taken social movements, including bold nonprofits, to demand equal rights and structural change. This divisive moment in history calls for collective action rooted in 21st century strategies. Media Justice, led by exceptional change maker Steven Renderos is laser focused on democratizing our media and technology sectors, largely unregulated industries with outsized influence on our culture and politics. News outlets and tech companies are willing purveyors of racist and misogynistic tropes that spill over into policy making. Media Justice believes there is a pathway to shaping the material conditions of people of color only when communities tell their own stories, with depth and nuance, and tech companies are held accountable for the disinformation they amplify. We have experienced, in the actions of January 6, the consequences of disinformation that cultivates violence and disrupts democracy. Media Justice and its network of grassroots organizations are telling authentic stories, and we all need to listen.
If you are despairing about the rise of racial hatred and the anti-democratic direction this country is embracing, consider what it takes to build a more just future. For marginalized communities, nonprofit organizations are essential to becoming visible, attaining legal rights, and exercising electoral clout. Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California exemplifies how organizational expertise, vision, and infrastructure make systemic change achievable. Led brilliantly by Connie Chung Joe, AAAJ SoCal was founded by civil rights titan Stewart Kwoh following the 1983 murder of Chinese American autoworker Vincent Chin by aggrieved white co-workers. Since then, it has evolved into the nation’s largest legal aid and civil rights organization serving Asian Americans. A conversation with Connie Chung Joe is a masterclass in how to implement a multi-layered strategy. The agenda includes direct services to community members facing eviction, bystander intervention training in response to rising hate crimes, advocating to end transfers from prison to deportation by ICE and expanding accreditation of Asian American teachers. Connie grounds her leadership in a deep commitment to racial equity for all communities of color. In the majority minority state of California, she is fortifying a new playing field.
Since its founding in 1966, the National Organization for Women has been on the frontlines of dismantling both sexism and racism. Its founders, including Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisolm and Pauli Murray saw these systems of oppression as inextricably linked, fortified by policies enacted to marginalize women, particularly Black women, and other people of color. NOW’s president, the immensely talented Christian Nunes is leading in another tumultuous time in America. And she is taking an intersectional, rather than a siloed approach, to meeting historical threats to bodily autonomy, mental health, and economic independence. Intersectionality, a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes a framework for understanding how overlapping forms of oppression codify injustice. NOW’s organizational structure includes its 501c3, a 501c4, a political action committee and hundreds of grassroots chapters in 35 states. All are at the heart of fortifying the rights of women and girls to reproductive and LGBTQ rights, constitutional equality, and racial and economic justice. Christian is unbowed and highly motivated in the wake of the Supreme Court’s dissolution of reproductive rights. She asks us to bring our passions and skills to this pivotal moment.
We are reminded daily, in every scroll through social media, disputed election, tense family function and divisive school board meeting that America is a fractured nation. The polarization is so extreme that increasing numbers of our public leaders no longer identify democracy as a core value. In this episode of Power Station, we learn how the humanities (the arts, history, and philosophy) can be instrumental in creating a safe space for challenging conversations. Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, describes what happens when people come together with a common purpose, leaving titles, biases, and egos behind. Oregon Humanities, one of 56 councils launched in 1971 by the National Endowment for the Humanities, uses poems, visuals, and stories to prompt non-combative dialogue. They train nonprofit leaders how to facilitate discussions that build bonds among people with disparate views and lived experience. Oregon Humanities is generating measurable impacts, most importantly a sense of agency among those who engage in these events. And the movement is growing, a hopeful sign for bridging gaps in a tenuous democracy.
Why are farmworkers, who provide our food security system, so marginalized by the nation they feed? They work in conditions that are unlawful in other sectors and have skills that American born workers lack. On this episode of Power Station, we hear from two guests who know that farmworker parents want more for their children. This aspiration is made possible by scores of migrant Head Start centers serving the educational, safety and emotional needs of farmworker children from 3 months to 5 years old. Cleofas Rodriguez, a son of immigrants who worked in cotton fields, leads the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, and created its unparalleled internship program. He advocates for these centers to be fully funded, for passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and is a passionate champion of farmworker children. His belief in them is validated by, among others, Jose Castellano, the son of a single farmworker mom who struggled until a Head Start center changed their lives. Jose now attends Tufts University. And he is a proud NMHSA intern, standing up for his community and telling his story on Power Station.
Launched as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 War on Poverty, Head Start provides low-income children, from 3 months to 5 years old, with the educational and emotional preparation required to thrive in kindergarten and beyond. This includes the children of farmworkers who face significant hurdles to attending school at all. Head Start centers serve 14,000 migrant and seasonal children in 24 states, educating the children of farmworkers who travel from state to state to cultivate the crops that grace our tables. In this episode of Power Station, we speak to Alma Hernandez and Gisela Gaspar, children of farmworkers who have graduated from Head Start to college and now, internships with the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association. Children in agriculture are the least protected compared to other sectors and Alma and Gisela have first-hand experience with exposure to pesticides, worsening conditions due to climate change and low wages for grueling and skilled work. They are an inspiration to their siblings, an advocate for the Head Start teachers who helped them launch and a powerful voice for their parents and communities here, on Capitol Hill and everywhere.
Once you experience Eric Ward, a shift in your thinking and your soul is inevitable. An expert on authoritarian movements with deep roots in the United States, Eric argues that we have the power to counter them by building the most inclusive multi-racial democracy possible. As executive director of Western States Center he is pragmatic, providing training and tools for parents whose children are targeted by hate groups, preparing community organizations to operate in hostile environments and standing with local governments on the front lines of defending democracy. And he is visionary, convening culture-shifting artists and supporting legislators in working across the partisan divide to expel colleagues who participate in hate crimes. On this episode of Power Station, Eric explains how antisemitism became the driving conspiratorial narrative for white supremacist groups. This narrative is used to undercut the transformative achievements of the civil rights movement, which defeated a system of white supremacy, by classifying African American leaders and communities as pawns of the Jews. It is foundational to replacement theory, a fear-based notion that is animating social media, Fox News, and members of Congress. The antidote to this threat is the truth and our collective action.
Domestic violence is a universally horrific experience, but the path to surviving it is considerably harder for women who are immigrants and refugees. In Washington DC, a hub for African immigrants, the violence may start at home but because many victims are undocumented, the police and court systems are often unsympathetic and become abusers as well. Few social service providers speak their language or have a cultural connection. And when the abuser is the person who brought them to this country, is the father of their children and has documented status, the power differential is overwhelming. These circumstances led Amelia Missieledies, an Ethiopian social worker, to launch the Person Center in 2013. Her sheer fortitude produced a new level of awareness about trauma-informed care and the potential of women to become their own best advocates. After her passing, Lul Mohamud, Amelia’s mentee, signed on to lead the organization. She is the daughter of Somali immigrants, is trained in restorative justice and is deeply connected to the women she serves. Lul is creating a new model of care for marginalized communities and is laying the foundation for her own transformation making legacy.
It is shocking that hunger is an everyday reality for 38 million Americans and 800 million people globally. The Alliance to End Hunger is the national nonprofit that convenes diverse sectors, from universities to health insurers, corporations and faith-based nonprofits to craft and advocate policy solutions. And with Eric Mitchell at the helm, members grapple with hunger’s root causes: Covid, climate, conflict, exacerbated by systemic racism. Members advocate on Capitol Hill for expanded Emergency Food Assistance, made necessary by the pandemic, and for the modernization of SNAP and WIC. It is pushing for passage of the Farm Bill, whose sweeping components include improvements to conservation, nutrition assistance, and agricultural subsidies. The Alliance operates similarly on the global stage, partnering with United Nations agencies and farmers to generate the resources needed to withstand man-made disasters, from war to climate shocks, including floods and draught. Eric looks forward to September 2022, when the White House will hold a conference on hunger, nutrition and health, a forum the Alliance has championed. As Eric says, ending hunger requires rethinking how systems, from transportation to agriculture, intersect and how they can be retooled to make ending hunger possible.
Ours is a nation obsessed with food. We expect crops to be grown free from pesticides, follow reality cooking shows, and demand access to great restaurants and bountiful produce in supermarkets, even during a global pandemic. But what connection do we feel to the men, women and, sadly, children whose labor makes it possible for fresh food to grace our tables? Ron Estrada, the former head of government relations at Univision and the new CEO of Farmworker Justice is committed to strengthening and leveraging that connection. It starts with elevating the stories of the 2.4 million farmworkers in the US, the majority of whom are immigrants and lack authorized work status. They often live in housing without running water or electricity and although they are skilled and work long hours, live in poverty. Increasingly they work for contractors and their pay is based on bushels and acreage. Last year, the Farm Worker Modernization Act passed the House and is before the Senate now. The political hurdle is that the bill provides a path to citizenship. As Ron says, it will take all of us to push it over the finish line.
Are you surprised to know that 70% of all Native American people in the United States live off-reservation and in urban settings? The reason why can be traced directly back to the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, crafted by Congress to press Native Americans to leave reservation life for the false promise of housing, jobs, health care and education across the country. The US government failed to honor the treaties they signed and used this forced migration to dilute the power of tribes and promote assimilation. Over the years, Native leaders stepped up to help their communities survive and thrive. Now more than 300 native-led nonprofits advocate for families in need of housing, health care and other essential services. Janeen Comenote, an enrolled member of the Quinault Native tribe, launched the National Urban Indian Family Coalition to strengthen their collective power in policymaking and civic engagement. They are educating policy makers about their native constituencies and involving community members in census organizing, redistricting, and voting rights. Janeen is realizing her vital mission to “make the invisible visible” and we are all the richer for her determination, vision, and exceptional strategic skills.
Can a nonprofit achieve transformative policy change in these politically volatile times? It may feel impossible but the answer, as demonstrated by the Greenlining Institute, is a resounding yes. It was founded in 1993 to tackle the wealth-stripping impacts of redlining, the deliberate practice of discrimination and disinvestment by banks, insurance companies and government agencies against communities of color. Sectors that mapped out which communities to exclude from the possibility of owning a home or starting a business, based on race and ethnicity, are now at the table with Greenlining, hearing directly from impacted community members. The Greenlining Institute is reimagining California, and our nation, as a place of shared opportunity and power. Its staff of data experts and advocates are laser focused on making the economic, energy, environmental and technology sectors more just. But their direction comes from a coalition of community-based groups, from faith leaders to housing and childcare providers and small business advisers who set the agenda and shape the solutions. Debra Gore-Mann, the incomparable president of Greenlining, brings unstoppable energy, expertise, and lived experience to changing institutions, systems and behavior.
What makes the Tiwahe Foundation intrinsically distinct from mainstream philanthropy is rooted in its name. In the Dakota language tiwahe means family, symbolizing the connection of Native people to all living things and their collective responsibility to family, community, and Mother Earth. Native philanthropy uses a seventh-generation mindset, based in Iroquois philosophy, to ensure that decisions made today will produce a sustainable world 7 generations into the future. For Nikki Pieratos, a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa who leads the Tiwahe Foundation, these values guide every aspect of its grantmaking. It starts with investing directly in individuals and families without the proscriptive requirements of most foundations. It makes grants to urban Native people, largely Dakota and Ojibwe, displaced from their land by early relocation era policies, in the Metro Minneapolis region. As Nikki explains, Native Americans receive only 0.4% of philanthropic dollars but they are making impactful changes in philanthropic practice. It is telling that Tiwahe Foundation’s endowment was funded by small but collectively significant contributions of grantees who have become donors. There are many lessons here for “big” philanthropy.
Mark Gaston Pearce wants all workers to know their rights and understand how to assert them through collective action. He advances this mission as executive director of the Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown University’s Law School. It draws on his deep experience as a labor lawyer and his service, during the Obama Administration, as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. At WRI, he brings together diverse stakeholders, from law students to litigators, nonprofit and worker center leaders to develop strategies for reaching and educating workers and identifying gaps in law and policy that need to be modernized. At the top of that list, according to Mark, is an updating of the National Labor Relations Act, which has not changed since its inception 86 years ago. The need for worker protections and unionization is painfully clear in a global pandemic. The workers we depend on for food, transportation and deliveries sacrifice their health for our comfort and suffer from income inequality. Recent labor victories at Amazon and Starbucks are inspiring but the lengths employers will go to stop them is chilling. Mark tells us how to do more than sit on the sidelines.
Imran Ahmed wants us to feel compelled to take responsibility for the horror we see in the world around us. And we must name the harm. As founder and CEO of the Center for Digital Hate he follows his own guidance. CCDH is disrupting the misogyny, racism, antisemitism, anti-Muslim and anti-vaccine disinformation that has taken root, flourished, and generated spectacular profits across social media platforms. He launched CCDH in the aftermath of the 2016 murder of his close friend and colleague, British Parliamentarian Jo Cox. She was killed by an attacker whose far-right views were inflamed by non-stop white nationalist digital rhetoric during the Brexit campaign. At the same time, in the run up to the presidential election, Donald Trump was energizing hate groups in America while Google, Twitter and Facebook were making billions in ad revenues from those bad actors and their deep pocketed sponsors. Research shows that as media consumers we are driven to engage by hateful messaging. We do this by sharing and amplifying patently false posts and memes. It’s time to silence the hate and persuade with truth.
Have you ever thought about the stories behind a set of statistical tables? How do political dynamics shape the questions asked on government forms and how the resulting data translates to federal resources and political representation? And how do we respond when the questions do not fully capture our identify, culture or community? Data about who we are is key to building a more inclusive and representative democracy. This month the 1950 Census was made public, marking the end of the 70-year period in which the individual data of its respondents is maintained confidentially. Historian Dan Bouk views the Census, created by the framers, and enshrined in the US Constitution, as flawed, messy and our best opportunity for a more representative democracy. He considers the act of sharing data on Census forms, the process for counting every person in the U.S. as a radical act. And he believes that those on the margins should count just as much as those who are quantifiable through big statistics. In his upcoming book, Democracy’s Data, Dan illuminates how data, from aggregation to disaggregation grapples with telling our collective American story.
In 2022, we live largely online and the future looks increasingly digital. It is fundamental to how we work, communicate, consume news, and connect to banking, health care and governmental services. But access to the internet is not equal or even guaranteed. Many rural and tribal lands lack broadband and in some urban neighborhoods, internet connections are spotty, and internet plans are unaffordable. These barriers constitute digital redlining, the marginalization of low-income communities by policy makers, internet providers and telecommunication companies. The pain of exclusion magnified during the pandemic, when students with limited broadband were unable to participate in their schooling. The movement for digital equity has been growing at the local level for decades and Angela Siefer has been at its forefront. As executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance she collaborates with local champions of digital access: nonprofits, libraries, schools, and mayors to advocate for inclusivity. NDIA’s success is reflected in the passage of the 2021 Infrastructure Bill, which includes $65 billion for broadband and $2.75 billion for digital equity. NDIA is now teaming up with these local champions to keep equity at the center of a digital transformation.
All people deserve to be seen and heard. Those who are not often feel invisible, from their cultural heritage to their material circumstances and societal contributions. This reality led a group of young Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in 2009 to found Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) a nonprofit dedicated to advancing social justice for Native Hawaiians, Chamorros (indigenous people of the Mariana Islands), Samoans, Tongans, Marshallese, and Fijians who call Washington, California, Utah, and Arkansas home. EPICS’s executive director Tavae Samuelu leads with deep respect for the lived experience and wisdom of her elders and with an explicitly pro Black and indigenous framework. EPIC connects NHPIs with policy makers to call for data disaggregation, which has identified disproportionate gaps in access to education, health, and immigration services. It also illuminates the devastating and under-reported impacts of the pandemic on Pacific Islanders. EPIC’s community leaders begin each meeting, even at the White House, with stories, their personal and most compelling data. As a result, Pacific Islanders are being seen and heard by government at all levels and policy makers are starting to prioritize their needs.
On a single night in January 2021, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recorded more than 580,000 people experiencing homelessness. During that same year, close to 1.45 million people were homeless at some time. These numbers have increased every year since 2015, a consequence of a severe shortage of affordable housing. Ann Oliva, Vice President for Housing Policy at The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) walks us through a plan for ending this crisis. It starts with facing up to America’s history of racist policy making, which has created generational inequities in communities of color. And she believes in our capacity to turn this crisis around with new policies, targeted resources and well-crafted implementation of large-scale solutions. Ann regularly testifies before Congress, making data-based policy recommendations for achieving transformational change. She points to the tsunami of evictions prevented by a robust investment in rental assistance in the American Rescue Plan. This is proof of concept of what policy making can do when the political will is there.
On the morning of March 8, moments before recording this episode, the Florida State Senate passed HR 1557, dubbed the Don’t Say Gay Bill. Pauline Green, executive director of the Alliance for GLBTQ Youth joined Power Station to break down the legislation and its potential impacts on students, teachers and school districts. She reported on the previous night’s hearing in which the sponsor was unable to articulate a rationale for the bill but worried that coming out is a result of social engineering. The Alliance serves middle and high school students in Miami Dade County with mental health counseling and services that affirm their sexual orientation and gender identity. It hones leadership skills and advocates for systems that support youg people. HR 1557, soon to be signed into law by Governor DeSantis, seeks to solve a problem that does not actually exist. It prohibits teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3, which is not done and allows parents to sue teachers and school districts. It is painful to see adults impose their ignorance on children. The Alliance will continue to uplift them and be a voice for change.
Our political parties are so divided they cannot agree that basic democratic principles, from the right to vote to the freedom to read the books of our choice are sacrosanct. Given the aggressively anti-democratic stances of many state legislatures we must remind ourselves that government can be a force for good. For that to happen the electorate must be fully engaged and community-based nonprofits must require policy making developed with a racial equity lens. As Richard Raya, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) explains, nonprofits can generate transformative change when they are rooted in community, collaborate across sectors and issues areas and have champions in elected office. MEDA is the proof of concept. It is where Latino families connect to an array of services, develop their voice, deepen their collective clout and gain the tools needed to thrive economically. MEDA is spurring a movement for community backbone agencies to become the standard-bearer for societal change, one neighborhood at a time. This requires foundations and government to make catalytic investments in data-driven strategies As Richard Riya says, it is time to evolve.
When Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Pennsylvania’s republican-led state legislature went into action, creating new barriers to voting. Ginned up by Donald Trump’s baseless claim of voter fraud, the republican majority on the Commonwealth Court successfully challenged a recent law making mail-in voting more expansive. The democratic governor and secretary of state are appealing this decision and navigating furthter attempts to suppress access to the ballot box. The partisan tug of war further alienates those who do not trust either party. Civil rights champion Kadida Kenner founded the New Pennsylvania Project to reach the 1.1million Pennsylvanians who are eligible to vote but are not registered or are not casting ballots. In a state where 27% of the population are people of color and the House and Senate are 90% white, the future is in the hands of young people and communities of color. Kadida’s team is knocking on doors and listening to what matters to potential voters. And this strategy is motivating young people to join the NPP team. Kadida wants all people to be inspired by the collective power of their vote.
At the core of the American Library Association’s membership of 50,000 public, school, academic, specialty libraries, librarians and allies, is one unifying principle, the right to read. ALA has weathered times of war, political unrest, funding cuts, and censorship. But this moment in time poses its greatest threat, state-backed book banning. ALA President Patty Wong joins us to talk about how book banning laws and book burnings are hurting libraries, librarians, children and communities. Bills have passed or are under consideration in nearly half of US states and the legislation extends beyond books. Librarians can be fined, fired, even imprisoned for keeping censored books on the shelves. What are the books that legislatures and school boards are so threatened by? They include fantasy, books celebrating children of color and virtually anything reflecting the experience of LGBTQ people. ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom tracks bills and acts of antagonism towards librarians and wants you to report (confidentially) what you see. We can all be in the battle to preserve the right to read books that mirror who we are and open doors to what can be. Patty Wong tells us how.
Thirty-five years ago, Nancy Sander started a conversation that has grown into a public health movement. She was struggling with her young daughter’s severe asthma and was not getting the support she needed from her doctors and insurance provider. She reached out to other parents and more enlightened medical professionals to learn ways to manage a chronic health condition that if untreated can lead to death. Nancy founded the Allergy and Asthma Network, which has grown into a collective voice for the 25 million Americans who suffer from asthma. And the Network is a force for change in communities, state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. It is now led by the indefatigable Tonya Winders, who is guided by what the data reveals. Asthma is a disease with both genetic and environmental roots. Black, Latino and Native American communities have been subjected to environmental degradation over decades and are disproportionately impacted by asthma and lung disease. The Network brings a racial equity lens to every aspect of its work. Its powerful partnerships, from barbershops to Congress, are making transformational change possible.
We are living in perilous times. Racism, homophobia, anti-immigrant violence and misogyny have been unleashed, normalized and embraced by elected leaders and regular citizens, from school boards to state legislatures and Capitol Hill. Organized hate groups are expanding their ranks by targeting an aggrieved citizenry and most recently children. Middle and high school students, who have been isolated and tethered to their devices throughout an ongoing pandemic are particularly susceptible to these manipulations. The Western States Center, acclaimed for its systems-based approach to building a 21-century civil rights movement, is standing up for these young people. It created a toolkit, Confronting White Nationalism to guide impacted schools in how to intervene when students are on the receiving end of abuse or are being recruited into the fold. Adrienne van der Valk, leads the training and is growing its footprint across the nation. She talks to Power Station about engaging students without shaming them, the pervasive role of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the heroism of teachers who navigate these conditions without support and the obligation we all share to confronting hate.
Twenty-five years ago, a brave Anacostia High School student asked a compelling question at an assembly. She asked how she could participate in an internship, one that might help her to move on to college. That question motivated Andrew Plepler, the guest speaker and a community development banker, to launch a nonprofit dedicated to making internships, a rite of passage for upper middle-class students, accessible to young and low-income people of color. Since then, the Urban Alliance has made internships possible for 6000 students in Washington DC, Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit. And the experience goes deeper than a 10-month stint with an employer. Urban Alliance provides a 6-week bootcamp to get students job-ready and places them with a company, nonprofit or public-sector agency that provides on-the-job training and a mentor. AS CEO Elizabeth Lindsey explains, the skills employers need and how to attain them are changing and not all pathways to careers are the same. She wants all students to dream about what is possible and about the impact they want to have. The next chapter for Urban Alliance is expansion and a policy presence that advances the mission.
When Zakiyah Johnson learned there was a summer social media internship at the Community Enrichment Project, she poured her heart into her application and made the position her first choice. She says she is a different person now because of the experience, not only because CEP gives young people a seat at the table where vital issues are discussed, from civic engagement to racial justice and police violence, but because their ideas are heard and acted on. Now in college, Zakiyah uses her talents in filmmaking and social media to advocate for her community, Washington DC’s Ward 7 and 8 youth. And when COVID19 made in-person convenings impossible, CEP pivoted, hosting International Youth Dialogues, which connected young activists around the world to address United Nations sustainable development goals. All of this was made possible by Lauren Grimes, a true visionary who founded the CEP to celebrate a culturally rich, historically relevant but politically disenfranchised part of our nation’s capital. CEP’s podcast, Youth Voices Amplified is a stunning example of what can happen when young people lead courageous conversations at a time of both turmoil and possibility.
What will persuade Congress to pass urgently needed legislation to correct the impacts of climate change on our planet? As with all our nation’s greatest challenges, the nonprofit sector is driving this ambitious agenda. For decades, environmental nonprofits have documented how deregulation harms our air, wildlife and oceans. And the data is crystal clear: these harms are disproportionately borne by communities of color. But the sector is made less effective by its failure to elevate people of color within their organizational ranks. Diverse leaders are crucial to crafting and advocating for solutions to climate migration, persistent health problems and a loss of housing caused by environmental degradation. Green2.0 is strengthening the movement by pushing it to become more accountable. Executive director Andrés Jimenez explains that inequities within the sector are deep rooted and require a shift in culture. Green2.0 is tracking how nonprofits and foundations are diversifying their top ranks. And the eye opening results can be found in published report cards. Andrés is up for this challenge. He brings deep political savvy, patience and endless energy to this earth-changing enterprise.
It is not hyperbole to say that nonprofits are essential to becoming a just democracy. The best nonprofits produce unimpeachable data and mobilize across sectors and geography to advocate for federal legislation informed by the lived experience of their members. This role has taken on greater urgency in the face of a global pandemic that has disproportionately impacted the physical and economic well-being of low-income households, exacerbating our national eviction and homelessness crisis. Diane Yentel, CEO of National Low Income Housing Coalition, exemplifies how intentionality makes transformational change possible. As Diane says, NLIHC is laser-focused on expanding housing resources for lowest income Americans, no matter who is in the White House or Congress. The story of how NLIHC was able to get $25 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance into the 2020 stimulus package, an extension of the eviction moratorium passed and build the internal infrastructure needed to ensure that these funds were deployed to states and municipalities is beyond impressive. And now there is the imperative to achieve an historic investment in housing through the Build Back Better Act. NLIHC is our path to democracy.
It is humbling and exhilarating to talk to Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society for Landscape Architects. An esteemed nonprofit executive and social justice advocate he now leads a professional association whose highly skilled members create purposeful places using art, science, engineering and design. ASLA was founded in 1899 by innovators Frederick Law Olmsted and Beatrix Ferrand whose designs connected the built and natural environments, creating places of beauty and function. Landscape architecture has evolved into a laboratory for solving the most pressing problems facing people and the planet. In fact, ASLA’s policy recommendations on the environment and climate change have been recognized by the Biden Administration and codified by Congress into the Infrastructure Bill. Landscape architecture connects the lines between design, environmental justice, climate change and racial equity. And these values are acted on internally as well. Torey is fixing inequities within the field, including for women of color who face barriers to licensure, which can end professional advancement. This is a conversation about the power of intentionality and values.
What happens when a nonprofit organization reimagines how to deliver justice for victims of violent crimes? Network for Victim Recovery of DC took on this challenge when it launched in 2012, powered by Bridgette Stumpf, an exceptional advocate armed with a small seed grant. NVRDC now has a staff of 40 lawyers and advocates who operationalize a shared vision. It starts with the belief that survivors should not be left to navigate a complex system on their own and that they should be treated with dignity on their journey to justice. What makes NVRDC’s approach particularly culture shifting is its commitment to survivor defined justice. Not all victims want the same remedy, such as the incarceration of their assailant, but the data reveals that they all want to be heard by the public agencies engaged with their cases. In fact, survivors are informing and leading trainings in trauma education for pro bono attorneys assigned to them. NVRDC is pushing the parameters of legal representation of survivors, being an ally at every touchpoint and advocating for policies that expand their rights.
The National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development is driven by a central question: how to advance the economic and social progress of members, amplify their voices, and tell their stories. Few nonprofits approach this challenge with as much rigor as National CAPACD. It starts with knowing its complex and nuanced base, 100 community-based organizations, from renowned community development corporations to start-up tenant organizations in 22 states and the Pacific Islands. And it requires dispelling a persistent model minority myth, that AAPI communities are well-off and monolithic. National CAPACD’s Communications Director Nahida Uddin shares her experience with advancing a new narrative, one that centers the reality of AAPI poverty. And she recounts how National CAPACD is leading the way in achieving important wins, from the disaggregation of public data, which tells the story of specific communities, to guiding groups navigating gentrification and displacement and training members in financial empowerment strategies. Nahida is shaped by her family’s own immigration story and her mother’s advocacy for her community. She is the future of advocacy, which bodes well for this nation.
How would you build an American workforce for the 21st century? This question was relevant before a global pandemic exposed and exacerbated deep fissures of inequity in our nation and is urgent now. Sequane Lawrence, a Chicago-based community development innovator and a cohort of social entrepreneurs are tackling this challenge head on, and their approach is generating measurable results. They founded Revolution Works, a nonprofit that provides training and career development that leads to well-paying jobs in industries that open their doors to formerly incarcerated people. And it promotes a public policy agenda that advances its primary goal, to close our pervasive racial wealth gap. Revolution Works brings its diverse stakeholders to a common table. It engages industry leaders, academics, workers and trainers in identifying the skills employers need and a strategy for developing them. And it is creating social enterprises and worker-owned cooperatives rooted in workplace democracy, shared values and shared profits. Most importantly, Sequane does not view Revolution Work’s successes as proprietary. He is sharing what he has learned with a national network of nonprofits that are building a more equitable future.
If we want to speak honestly about the state of our nation, we must look first at how our children are doing. For Kimberly Perry, executive director of DC Action, this requires facing the fact that 1/3 of Washington DC’s children live in poverty, data that has barely shifted since the organization’s founding 30 years ago. An expert teacher, organizer and policy advocate, Kimberly is leading a movement to challenge this unacceptable status quo with unimpeachable data, solutions shaped by children and families and the investment of local and federal policy makers. As Kimberly explains in this episode of Power Station, it is the ongoing global pandemic and a racial reckoning that has exposed and exacerbated long-lived fissures in our public health, housing, education and criminal justice systems. The racial inequities that undergird these systems are the focus of DC Action’s bold, ambitious agenda for change. And that change is happening now, through programs that touch families from birth to early childhood to young adulthood and policy advocacy that has generated historical levels of investment in Black and Brown children. Kimberly is a change maker to watch, support and learn from.
When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1981, he was determined to eliminate legal aid to the poor. He pressed Congress not to reauthorize the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), established in 1974 by President Nixon to provide lowest income Americans with access to high-quality legal counsel in civil cases. Congress stopped short of eradicating LSC but drastically cut funding and restricted the use of class action suits, viewed by conservatives as the gateway to broader social impacts. Maryland Volunteer Legal Services (MVLS) was created in 1981 to represent Marylanders in cases involving evictions, child custody and loss of homes to tax liens. While MVLS is a key player in a robust statewide network, the demand remains overwhelming. As MVLS executive director Susan Francis explains, it is expensive to be poor. And public policies are not race neutral in their impacts. Black Marylanders are disproportionately hurt by payday lenders, lead poisoning and loss of homes due to flawed title transfers. MVLS recruits and trains private bar attorneys to represent clients and advocates for reforms to unjust policies. Their work transforms lives and proves what intentionality can generate.
When the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was launched in 1970 its founders entered the fray with a compelling vision. They were renowned public intellectuals committed to creating a hub for newly elected Black officials shifting from civil rights activism to governance. The mission was to advance the socioeconomic status and civic engagement clout of African Americans through evidence-based research and policy recommendations. And the work was rooted in a deep understanding that public policy is never race neutral. Since then, the Joint Center, known widely as America’s Black Think Tank, has become the go-to resource for the Congressional Black Caucus and rising leaders in local communities. Now led by Spencer Overton, the Joint Center remains a model for unimpeachable data and policy solutions. This episode of Power Station features Dr. Dominique Harrison who brings tremendous expertise and energy to producing original research and collaborating across sectors about the role of big tech, access to broadband, disinformation, and targeted advertising in Black communities. The work is high-stakes, promising and essential to our democracy.
This episode is a call to action for ending childhood poverty in America. Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CEO and Executive Director of Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) wants listeners to direct limited income families to the IRS Child Tax Credit (CTC) portal to apply for a refund by the November 15 deadline. We have, as Joseph explains, a once in a lifetime opportunity to lift more than half of low-income families out of poverty and keep them out. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit are this nation’s most effective poverty alleviation policies, but many eligible households are unaware of them. And to be clear, they are not public benefits. The CTC allows families whose incomes are limited or sporadic to collect refunds due to them. The payments can be transformational, allowing parents to start a college fund, pursue home ownership or start a business. The Biden Administration strongly supports the Child Tax Credit, and it was expanded but not made permanent in the American Rescue Plan of 2021. As Joseph says, we seem to lack the political will to position all families to reach their American Dream.
Here is a fact that I hope we can all agree on. American is home to a vast array of public lands, from forests to beaches, wildlife refuges and national parks that require our stewardship. These natural resources are vulnerable to devastating man-made harms, from the former president’s defilement of Bears Ears in Utah to climate change caused wildfires and flooding. The consequences of these disasters are felt disproportionately by indigenous and other communities of color. American Conservation Experience (ACE) is a champion of public lands whose internships in 50 states and Puerto Rico train young people in the technical and human skills needed to preserve these resources into the future. ACE President Laura Herrin approaches the mission, to create a culture of conservation, with intentionality and savvy. She partners with public agencies and is a trusted behind-the-scenes voice on Capitol Hill. Her action plan for keeping ACE relevant and robust led her to hire Alex Tremble as Chief Culture Officer. Alex is reimagining internal systems, from training to technology, so that ACE’s infrastructure can ensure the success of its critical mission.
It is impossible to overstate the dominance of social media in our lives. We are tethered to Facebook, Google and Twitter to consume, communicate, track our followers and detractors, access news and interpret world events. Facebook is the behemoth among other highly unregulated tech platforms that cultivate, collect and capitalize on our personal data. We are the technology users, but it is advertisers who pay Facebook for our data making them the valued customers. Facebook’s algorithms, based on surveillance tracking, determines which media sources end up in our newsfeeds. And therein lies the danger. As Nicole Gill, co-founder and executive director of Accountability Tech says, it is harder and harder to have a conversation with neighbors, policy makers or family, because we are not using the same language or set of facts. We are in a crisis of disinformation that is highly profitable for these companies and very dangerous for democracy. Accountable Tech is demanding legislative and regulatory interventions with the capacity to mitigate social harms and increase corporate transparency. We must embrace this opportunity. Accountable Tech tells us how.
The origin story of MALDEF-Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund-is rooted in the vision of the late Pete Tijerina. In 1967, he represented a Latina who was seriously harmed by corporate neglect and then again by a judge’s refusal, as constitutionally required, to seat Latinos on the jury. Discrimination against Latinos, fueled by misinformation, was escalating and the need for a dedicated civil rights infrastructure was clear. In 1968, Mr. Tijerina, fellow advocates and the general counsel of the NAACP, the model for civil rights activism, collaborated to form MALDEF. It’s mission, to promote the civil rights of all Latinos in the US in education, employment, immigration and voting rights could not be more relevant now. It was a rare honor to speak with MALDEF president Thomas Saenz, an expert in civil rights law and a champion for systemic reform to our immigration system. He believes that democracy will be realized when Latinos are seen in the full scope of their humanity and service to this nation, from the highest levels of public service to the frontlines of the pandemic.
Mississippi Votes starts with an awe-inspiring mission, the registration of 400,000 eligible unregistered residents, and then goes deeper. It is building a culture of civic engagement in Mississippi, where access to the ballot box is a high hurdle, from the archaic requirement to print, fill out and mail in registration forms to lifelong disenfranchisement for 23 categories of former offenders. Equally daunting is the disconnection that many Mississippians of color feel from civic life, a legacy of racism and marginalization. But the dynamic cohort of young people of color leading Mississippi Votes are reframing how voter registration, voting rights and civic engagement is done. Executive Director Arekia Bennett explains that everything at Mississippi Votes starts with listening to the community and creating the infrastructure needed to support their aspirations. That includes a footprint on 17 college campuses where students are informing a policy agenda and shaping outreach strategies. Change is happening, from 30,000 people registered since 2018 to research and policy centering the restoration of voting rights. Listen to Arekia tell the story. She is powerful in the very best sense of the word.
In recent years disinformation has become the currency of political forces seeking power over truth. But as we know, facts and data matter. They reveal a true picture of the state of our nation, from which communities are prospering to those that are struggling. They are foundational to identifying the state of healthcare, education, transportation and housing and where disparities in access lies. At the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, 15 super-smart professionals dig into bills proposed by Virginia’s State Assembly, analyzing their implications for diverse communities, particularly those who have been marginalized and underserved by racially discriminatory policy making. As CEO Ashley Kenneth explains, TCI Fiscal partners with a talented eco-system of advocacy and service organizations to generate solutions where they are needed most. Their formula, combining facts and analysis with civic engagement and advocacy is remarkably effective. TCI Fiscal is ahead of the federal policymaking curve in many areas, from curbing down payment requirements for fees and fines in the Court system, to increasing the minimum wage. This is how transformational change is made. And Ashley and TCI Fiscal are just getting started.
Have you ever changed your mind about a pressing social or cultural issue? As we experience life and hopefully evolve so can our perspective and politics. For organizations in the business of advancing social change, interrogating how minds change and applying that knowledge to our communications is essential. At a time of dangerously divisive politics and cultural chasms the status quo for messaging, from disinformation to baiting on social media is inadequate. For 15 years the Opportunity Agenda has been at the forefront of bringing together experts from a range of disciplines to study and act on what makes an actual narrative shift possible. They identify the tipping points that make readiness for a shift in support of the movements for racial, gender, LGBTQ, immigration and economic justice possible. Ellen Buchman, president of TOA, brings incredible heart, organizing savvy and policy proficiency to this challenging and optimistic enterprise. And TOA’s new report and podcast series, Shifting the Narrative, is a gift for all of us who want and need to learn more.
At a time of profound turmoil in America, community-based and national nonprofits are demanding big bold social change. Progressive nonprofits are the frontline of movements with the capacity to remake inequitable systems affecting the environment, health care, housing and immigration. This is consequential culture-shifting work and nonprofits need infrastructure and staffing that is commensurate to the challenge. Linda Nguyen launched Movement Talent to position social change work for success by connecting the right people to the right organizations. She draws from her considerable experience in recruiting, sustaining and developing staff at Community Change and leverages her relationships with movement organizations. Linda has an ambitious goal, viewing candidates beyond their fit for a particular group. She looks at the potential of each candidate to staff a high-capacity movement for change. And she is placing candidates into many organizational roles because it takes more than a great executive director to make an organization effective. This new candidate-centric approach is an exceedingly fresh take on building a movement. It starts by treating people and organizations with care and respect.
In 1964, the US Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit challenging how electoral districts were drawn and political representation was apportioned. Such cases were inevitable as people moved from urban to rural areas and new immigrant populations settled into both. The Supreme Court ruled that electoral districts of state legislative chambers must be of roughly the same population providing for a one person one vote rule. Redistricting is the process of redrawing district lines based on the most current data from the Decennial Census. When it is politicized, the outcome is gerrymandered districts that favor one group at the expense of another. At California Common Cause, Jonathan Mehta Stein leads a statewide effort to democratize the redistricting process with the participation of those who have the most at stake. He credits Kathay Feng, whose successful ballot initiative enshrined community-based redistricting into California law. Jonathan views redistricting as one critical way to strengthen our political institutions. And he wants you to be seen and heard no matter where you live so that your district elects school board members, state legislators and members of Congress that represent the full humanity of your community.
The current assault on voting rights in America is both predictable and shocking. We saw it in full force during the 2020 presidential election when then President Trump’s appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stripped mailboxes and “lost” ballots in targeted areas. Right now, state legislatures are devising new maneuvers to subvert the ability to vote by people of color. They include almost insurmountable barriers to the ballot box, from requiring copies of ID with requests for a mail-in ballot to banning the distribution of food and water for weary voters at voting sites. National nonprofits are rising to this historic occasion, challenging these punitive measures in courts and advocating for passage in the US Senate of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And new strategies are evolving and operationalizing. Leigh Chapman, a lawyer who has been on the frontlines of these legal challenges and national campaigns, now goes deeper as the executive director of Deliver My Vote. Leigh breaks down this hyper local strategy for educating and mobilizing voters who are most at risk. And she shares what we can do to make democracy possible.
Sometimes an image is so powerful it breaks through political rhetoric, media noise and sears into the soul. A recent video of Afghani children being foisted over the Kabul airport wall and into the arms of American soldiers resonates in this way. What we don’t see is the organized process underway by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) to help Afghans who supported the U.S. Military as translators, drivers and guards, flee Afghanistan and resettle in America. LIRS has been at the forefront of this work for 80 years and is now mobilizing a network of churches, nonprofits and volunteers to welcome these families. CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah knows that in these divisive times even resettlement work will be politicized and Afghan families will be demonized. LIRS not only resettles families it advocates in Congress for immigration policies that are long overdue. Having lived the refugee experience and served at the highest levels of the State Department during the Obama Administration she is committed to the mission and prepared for resistance. Krish perseveres to honor these families and her own.
Bright Beginnings is so much more than a beautiful and inviting space for a first-rate day care center. It is a nonprofit organization founded 30 years ago to provide evidence-based education, therapeutic and social services to children and parents who are experiencing homelessness. And it is based in Washington DC’s Ward 8, an historically Black and underinvested community that is now leading its own renaissance. Dr. Marla Dean, an exceptional educator, leads Bright Beginnings with a two-generation approach to breaking the cycle of poverty. It starts with caring for children from birth to 5 years old in ways that enable them to meet developmental milestones in a safe environment. The care extends to parents, giving them specialized support and resources. You can imagine how essential this connection is when parents, largely women, are raising children while homeless. Now they are working in frontline jobs, from hospitals to grocery stores during a pandemic. Dr. Dean and her team are also policy advocates, working to dismantle broken systems, enact progressive legislation, and empower parents to be a part of the journey. This is hard and often unseen work that should be celebrated.
Over a long political life, Edward Roybal was true to a consistent theme. He fought for the material needs and civil rights of Latinos, both new immigrants and those with deep generational roots in the United States. When he was elected to Congress in 1963 he committed to making Latinos a force in the American political landscape. In 1976 Rep. Roybal founded the National Association for Latino Appointed and Elected Officials (NALEO), creating the infrastructure needed to spur community activism and support a new generation of civic leaders. This work, now led by NALEO’s esteemed CEO Arturo Vargas is more relevant than ever. At a time in which our democracy is most fragile, Latinos need to be heard and counted. And no political party should assume their allegiance because Latino voters are consequential on both sides of the aisle. NALEO is unique in the civil rights eco-system for its dedication to Latinos at all levels of public service. And Arturo Vargas is uniquely suited to lead this challenging and essential journey.
The human brain, as Rinku Sen explains, loves and is even addicted to stories. A highly respected author, organizer, and political strategist driven to achieve racial and gender justice, Rinku has amplified the stories of many people whose voices are rarely heard, or communities fully represented in mainstream media. Now, as executive director of Narrative Initiative, Rinku is transforming the ways in which nonprofits communicate their stories to policymakers and the press. The work goes deeper than positioning organizations to be heard. Rinku and her team are a singular resource for nonprofits that are motivated to expand beyond strategic communications-the practice of setting short term policy goals supported by an organizing campaign and the communications strategy needed to advance it. They are experts in developing narratives that appeal not to supporters but to those whose minds must evolve to make big social change possible. It is a bold, ambitious and long overdue agenda. As America’s history with slavery and suffrage reveals, it takes generations to change mind-sets and make the most egregious policies and practices morally indefensible. These are seeds of change we can all cultivate.
Thirty years ago, six parishes in Chicago came together with a shared mission. They resolved to do more than pray about conditions that overwhelmed local neighborhoods, from drugs and crime to a lack of jobs and housing. Each parish donated $5,000 to jumpstart a safety-focused organizing campaign. They could not have foreseen that their investment would evolve into The Resurrection Project, a powerhouse nonprofit whose template for community development is based in putting faith and values into action. While the Resurrection Project has generated over half a billion dollars into neglected neighborhoods, from affordable housing to childcare centers, homeownership and leadership training, its success is measured in the relationships it fosters. Raul Raymundo, who stepped up to lead that campaign is now CEO of the Resurrection Project and he leads with singular purpose. He learned activism from his mother and maintains a faith, not only in his church but in his fellow Mexican Americans who have enriched Chicago for decades. As Raul explains, they are a microcosm of our future. As with all immigrant communities, their resiliency, cultural and economic contributions, are assets we should embrace.
What do you think about when you see abandoned buildings and overgrown plots of vacant land? More importantly, how do you feel if they are fixtures in your own community? Dr. Akilah Watkins, CEO of the Center for Community Progress, sees the physical manifestation of housing segregation, disinvestment and other federal policies that have generated a devastating wealth gap in Black and Brown communities. And she has felt the despair those conditions evoke in people who experience them every day. Akilah envisions a better future for communities when deteriorated spaces are transformed into vital community assets. Her team is highly skilled in community organizing, real estate financing, land banking and bill drafting, all requirements in bringing the vision to life. The Center invites residents to reimagine deteriorated spaces as affordable housing, parks, businesses and land banks. And it partners with municipalities to identify the resources, changes in zoning ordinances and state enabling legislation needed to make these material changes achievable. The Center for Community Progress brings a perfect fusion of vision and technical know-how to the future of community development. More power to them.
Dr. Mary Calderone was a trailblazer in the normalization of contraception and family planning. Her tenure at Planned Parenthood Federation of America left her alarmed by how uninformed young people were about their bodies and human sexuality. In 1964, she founded SEICUS-Sexuality Information & Education Council of the US-to develop what are now regarded as our foremost guidelines for sex education from kindergarten through high school. Now rebranded as Sex Ed for Change, SEICUS is led by Christine Soyong Harley, an equally visionary change maker. Christine is navigating a shift in the sex education conversation and providing a seat at decision-making tables for all communities. Preventing unplanned pregnancies and disease transmission are still goals but there is a much broader landscape to tackle. Young people deserve curricula and public policy centered on LGBTQ and students of color, building a culture of consent, and developing interpersonal skill sets based in empathy, kindness and inclusion. Sex education is now under attack by conservative groups who characterize the curricula as containing “divisive concepts.” And Christine is leaning in unapologetically to this historic challenge with a committed coalition of the willing.
Kiki Louya is a disruptor in an industry she loves and is determined to transform. She started working in restaurants at 15, learning every aspect of the business, eventually graduating from culinary school, becoming an executive chef and a restaurant owner. That journey included first-hand experience with injustices that are prevalent in restaurant life, from racial discrimination to sexual harassment and wage theft. And it propelled her into a more activist role within the industry. In 2018, Kiki became the first executive director of Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, which invests in nonprofits that serve and advocate for workers and organizes those in the industry, from managers to servers and cooks in determining how to fix broken systems. RWCF raised and distributed $7 million in relief funds for workers, including those not eligible for unemployment benefits and those struggling with mental health challenges. Most importantly, Kiki is energizing a powerful network of people and organizations who share a vision. They want to see businesses and the people who fuel them thrive.
There are many metrics for effective leadership touted by the corporate and nonprofit sectors, but I doubt that lived experience is among them. It is just one of many strengths that Dr. Bambie Hayes-Brown brings to her leadership of Georgia Advancing Communities Together (Georgia Act), a statewide association that advocates for safe housing and vibrant neighborhoods for all. The mission is critical in a state where 333,000 residents are very low-income, 72% pay more than 50% of their income on rent and utilities, and in rural communities, tarps often stand in for roofs. It matters that Dr. Hayes-Brown earned multiple degrees while homeless and a mother of three. She is also a licensed real estate broker and has managed residential properties, which deepens her conviction to make the industry more people centered. And she is an engaged member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Board of Directors. Even the aggression of white nationalists could not deter the caravan she led through rural counties to talk to Georgians about voting, the Census and their homes. This is how change is made.
The culture of empathy that characterizes the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) can be traced to its origin story. Two women whose sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia, connected. They struggled to help their children and cope with the associated stigma. And both had been identified as the root cause of their son’s schizophrenia. What started as a series of kitchen conversations 40 years ago became NAMI, the nation’s largest grassroots mental illness advocacy organization. NAMI supports and organizes families touched by mental illness into a force for effective policy change. Daniel Gillison, NAMI’s CEO, examines how the mental health field has evolved and where it is stuck. We learn about the generational shift in perceptions that has motivated pop culture icons to become mental health advocates. But the alarming criminalization of people with mental illnesses, particularly in communities of color, persists. The potential for taking the police out of mental health interventions is within our grasp. But it will take Dan Gillison's call to action to fulfill its promise. Remember 988.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, thousands of Haitian and Cuban nationals escaped repressive regimes for the promise of safety and a better future on American shores. But once here their experience has been starkly disparate. Cubans were welcomed as political refugees, but Haitians, survivors of Duvalier’s brutal dictatorship, were detained without due process rights in Miami’s infamous Krome Detention Center. Their path to citizenship has been tenuous at best with former President Trump’s termination of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) making deportation probable. President Biden has since extended TPS protections for Haitians. Marleine Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement (FANM), explains that Haitians are their own most fierce and effective advocates. A celebrated advocate in her own right, Bastien views the Haitian community in Miami as a village. For the village to be successful, families must achieve stability, which FANM makes possible through a menu of wrap-around services. And to become powerful they must become advocates. Just last week, a member of the village testified before Congress with his daughter, a rising youth advocate, by his side.
So much goes into bringing fruits and vegetable to our tables. It starts with farmers who because of rising costs are increasingly selling off their land, often family legacies, to corporations and international investors. It relies on farmworkers brought to the United States on H-2A temporary visas who once here, migrate across states to harvest crops requiring a specialized workforce. In Florida, the nation’s second largest agricultural producer, farmworkers, are subjected to environmental hazards, heat stress and pay based on piecework. As medical anthropologist and farmworker advocate Dr. Antonio Tovar explains, the agricultural industry is complex, risky and historically discriminatory. He wants Congress to listen to farmworkers and small owners for policy solutions, not just industry lobbyists, in the run-up to the 2022 Farm Bill. The Florida Association of Farmworkers has researched the impacts of heat stress on workers and the National Family Farmworker Coalition is modeling how small family farms can become major providers in their region. As consumers, we can leverage our collective power too. Listen and find out how.
How is legislation enacted? Do you picture Capitol Hill staffers scrambling to draft bills they have little connection to? Or back-room deal-making with corporations? That happens but more often nonprofit advocates press for legislation that will mitigate harms caused by policy making based in racism. Enacting legislation for the public good, let’s say decreasing carbon emissions and increasing access to affordable housing, impacts all sectors, nonprofit, public and business, so why not bring them together at the policy development table? That is exactly what leaders in the Impact Economy-an eco-system of nonprofits, entrepreneurs and investors driven to do good and do well-have advanced by creating The Desktop Manual, a digital guide to policy making. It supports collaboration across sectors and ensures that all sectors are invested in and accountable to the outcomes. In this episode of Power Station, John Holdsclaw and Mark Newberg break down a new paradigm for making change possible. It starts with a North Star challenge: What are you trying to do? How are you trying to do it? Why are you trying to do it? And it embeds racial equity lens in the process.
Larry Curley has felt the destructive force of US government policy on Native Americans first-hand. A member of the Navajo Nation he lives with the legacy of dislocation and stripping of identity caused by the Removal Act of 1830 and the Assimilation Act of 1887. He has directly experienced the Termination Act of 1953 and Relocation Act of 1956 as blunt instruments of a federal power grab. As a young and fearless advocate in 1978, he drafted Title VI of the Older Americans Act, requiring federal funding for elders to be deployed to tribes instead of states. And to guarantee that elders were taken seriously by policy makers he founded and now leads the Native Indian Council on Aging. NICOA is a force to be reckoned with. During the pandemic, which stole 5000 Native lives, predominantly seniors, its leaders adapted by advocating through Zoom. They are now gearing up for an in-person conference to build a policy agenda focused on the physical, mental and spiritual needs of Native elders. It will be based in wisdom, respect and advanced by collective action. Next stop: Capitol Hill.
How would you undertake the bold, ambitious and critical mission of building a path to citizenship for the over 775,000 undocumented African, Jamaican, Latinx, Haitian and Asian immigrants who raise families, bolster the workforce and create communities throughout the state of Florida? This is the charge that Maria Rodriguez, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, embraces. She is also focusing on the 1 million immigrants in Florida who are citizens as partners in change making. FLIC is where influential member organizations, from labor unions to service providers and faith-based organizations come together and leverage their considerable powers to advocate for the community. And this hub for movement building is generating big wins on the issues that matter to immigrants, from wage theft to access to DACA and the election of candidates who share the immigrant experience. FLIC is leading this movement in the state run by Governor Ron DeSantis, a striving Trump acolyte who resists progress at every turn. This is why FLIC has expanded its reach and impact by creating FLIC Votes, which is mobilizing the community, producing ballot initiatives and demonstrating that engagement counts.
Those of us fortunate enough to have survived the Trump era, police violence against Black and Brown communities, a global pandemic and a punishing economic fallout, bear responsibility for what comes next. Organized resistance by impacted communities has forced the beginnings of a power shift but that alone will not ensure a more equitable future. Transformation requires going bone-deep to the truth. White people in powerful positions have enacted public policies in race and racism for centuries. The only way to counter this injustice is to explicitly advance policies founded in racial equity. And not just any policies. The heart of structural change is embedded in tax and fiscal policies. Erica Williams, the new executive director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute is exactly the right person to meet the challenges and opportunities of this moment. She has lived the consequences of unjust policies and led a state-based network of fiscal policy advocates at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Erica and her team are incubating new ideas, imagining what could be, including DC statehood, and inviting policy makers, community members and organizational partners to join them in making change happen.
In 2021, our nation’s deep political divide is reflected in a flood of legislation targeting LGBTQ people. The 1,100 bills now pending in state legislatures are in part the handiwork of GOP leaders threatened by changing cultural norms. They are particularly fixated on demonizing transgender children and criminalizing doctors who care for their needs. But there is also a surge of pro-LGBTQ bills, including proposed bans on conversion therapy and discrimination in the workplace. And we are in a pivotal moment at federal level too. This could be the year to finally enact the Equality Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by extending protections against discrimination in employment, housing and public spaces to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Fran Hutchens, Executive Director of Equality Federation, describes this moment as a reaction to the movement’s cultural, policy and political gains over the 20 years. The Federation’s member organizations are tackling each challenge and opportunity in their respective states and they are leveraging their collective powers to ensure that all families are treated justly. As Fran says, it all starts with building relationships.
As a society we claim to value our public systems. We view parks, education and the arts as being in service to the common good. But the narrative about public housing is persistently negative and steeped in racism. Public housing was created in the 1930s, leading to slum clearance, the displacement of Black families and sanctioning of segregated neighborhoods. Nationally, over 3,300 local authorities are charged with managing aging housing stock through decades of federal disinvestment. The NYC Housing Authority oversees 180,000 residential units and is the largest landlord in North America. Residents, demonized in TV shows and by pandering politicians, are simply trying to live their lives. They are also engaged community members advocating for solutions to aging infrastructure. As Rasmia Firmani, a passionate champion of NYCHA residents explains, they do this after coming home from jobs that are overwhelming at NYC agencies, from the NYPD to the Department of Education and NYCHA itself. Rasmia is a champion and connector of the people and resources needed to generate change. And she is changing the narrative.
We think we are a youth-oriented culture but young people will point out that perception is not reality. While those under the age of 18 make up more than ¼ of the U.S. population youth are not consulted when elected officials craft legislation on issues that will determine the quality of their futures, from health care to education. And youth of color whose direct experiences with racial inequity make them uniquely positioned to generate solutions are overlooked and under-estimated. This is why Yes! For Equity is a youth-powered organization whose time has come. It provides the opportunities and tools needed for effective change making. Yes! For Equity has a new home at Partnership for Southern Equity, which is leading an equity agenda for the American South. In this episode, Yes! For Equity leaders Jasmin Benas and Cristian Campos explain how critical awareness and leadership training prepares young people to not only sit at policy making tables but to lead the discussions. And the receipts are in: Yes! For Equity youth are mobilizing, changing outdated policies and requiring public and corporate accountability. This is a conversation for your soul.
It is impossible to overstate the depth of transformation that is taking place right now in Virginia. Once the cradle of the confederacy, and for decades a bastion of hard-edged Republican leadership, Virginia’s future is being rewritten by shifting demographics and community organizations centered on equity. In the 1980s, only 1% of Virginians were foreign born; today 1 in 7 are immigrants. These communities struggle with inequities experienced by many Virginians, from insecure housing, under-funded public schools to mass incarceration and polluted environments. New Virginia Majority was founded it 2007 to leverage the collective power of its multi-racial and multi-issue base. As Tram Nguyen, NVM’s co-executive director explains, NVMs bold plan for change is working. In 2019, Democrats took control of the state legislature and it recently made history by being the first southern state to ban the death penalty. All eyes are now on Virginia in anticipation of its 2021 elections, from the Governor’s race to 100 house seats on the ballot, the nation’s first contests after the presidential election. Tram brings her lived experience, belief in democracy and trust in the vision of community to this most vital enterprise.
When Georgia’s state legislature enacted Senate Bill 2020, an unabashedly regressive voter suppression law, it revealed more than an assault on Black and low-income voters. Governor Brian Kemp was making a direct attack on Black Voters Matters, the nonprofit that partners with Black voters to make real change happen, particularly in rural southern states. This legislation is retaliation against BVM’s historic win in Georgia, which sent Senators Warnock and Ossoff to the U.S. Senate. It reveals a white backlash against a highly effective organization whose leadership dares to speak explicitly about race, politics and power. As Fenika Miller, State Coordinator in Georgia explains, BVM was founded in 2016 to build out the infrastructure of local organizations that are lifelines in their communities but are often underinvested and underestimated. It invites marginalized communities to radically reimagine what access and equity looks like. Now in 10 states, with forty staff members, BVM exemplifies what can happen when organizations are founded in core beliefs and led by those who honor their community every day. Listen to Fenika to know what unstoppable leadership looks like.
Did you know that Salvadorians are the third largest Latino population in America? If not, consider that their relative invisibility is no accident. The migration of El Salvadorans into the US began at the onset of a civil war that started in 1980 and continued for more than a decade, displacing families from first urban and then rural communities. They were denied refugee status by President Ronald Reagan, whose administration invested millions of dollars in the government that starved and drove them out. Abel Nuñez, executive director of Central American Resource Center, lived that migration experience as a child. He knows how an uncertain immigration status pushes people into the shadows, depriving them of opportunities and a political voice. Abel is now an accomplished power builder in the El Salvadoran communities of DC, Maryland and Virginia and a partner to others across the country. And he is building power at CARACEN, a home to Salvadorans across generations. It is where classes are taught, culture is celebrated, and collective action is honed. Abel is a true leader and a tireless truth teller.
It is not hyperbole to state that America is under siege. Yes, the 2020 election ousted Donald Trump after a 4-year reign of racist policies, the undermining of institutions and bungling of a global pandemic. And the brilliant organizing of Stacey Abrams and LaTosha Brown produced the historic ascension of Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate, flipping Georgia from red to blue. The fear of losing power is motivating Republican governors to weaken the voting rights of their own electorate, specifically Black voters. These blatant efforts to disenfranchise people of color are a clear and present danger to democracy. That brings us to EveryDistrict, founded by Nicole Hobbs to cultivate power from the ground up by electing the best candidates from the most competitive districts in their states. It provides the data, fundraising support and messaging expertise state legislative candidates need to reach and engage voters. EveryDistrict is building the playbook for the political organizing that we need now. Nicole’s tells the story, and her 2040 Report backs it up. Power building starts here.
When Carlos Mark Vera started out at American University he imagined a life in politics. It happened but in a very different way then he expected. He won an internship on Capitol Hill, experience that employers in the political ecosystem deem essential. But when he walked the halls of Congress, he did not see himself, a young person color, among his fellow interns. Most wore nicer clothes than even the paid staffers and because they were not juggling school and an internship with paid jobs, were able to socialize after work. He realized that unpaid internships benefit white and well-off students and virtually exclude low-income people of color from tables where the most critical policy decisions are made. What happened next, from an advocacy perspective where change is slow at best, is extraordinary. It started with knocking on the doors of 535 members of Congress to survey who paid their interns to the passage of a congressional line item. And now, Pay Our Interns, the nonprofit he founded, is tackling unpaid internships in the nonprofit and corporate sectors. Carlos is the best of a new and brilliant breed of organizers. Hear him.
There are many moments that resonate in a conversation with Vimala Phongsavahn, Board President of the Laotian American National Alliance. They include the story of her parents, Laotian refugees who fled a repressive government and the aftermath of America’s covert bombing during the Vietnam War. Vimala describes their resettlement in Rhode Island in 1981 where they started jobs, her mother in a factory with no benefits and her father as a machinist, two days after their arrival. The story extends to the broader Laotian American community, a population of 265,000, 27% of whom are economically and educationally disadvantaged. They have been rendered almost invisible by a pervasive model minority myth, which presents Asian Americans from 50 subgroups as a prosperous monolith. This narrative can only be undone, Vimala explains, through data disaggregation, civic engagement and policy advocacy. It also requires partners in the Asian American eco-system to include Laotian Americans at decision-making tables. Stories and data reveal the experience of a nuanced multi-ethnic community. And LANA is creating a platform for a new generation of leaders to take flight.
A sea change is underway in the nonprofit sector and it is long past due. For decades, white-led organizations have been privileged by levels of funding and political access denied to nonprofits led by people of color. This is not news. But in environmental organizations, those brand name groups have become synonymous with preservation, conservation and climate change. Far less visible are the Latinos laboring within these organizations and those leading groups at the local level to take on persistent and urgent challenges, from a lack of access to clean water to industrial pollutants flooding their communities. This reality led Mark Magaña to found GreenLatinos, a national nonprofit that convenes Latino leaders working to preserve land and conserve natural resources. As an expert in federal policy making whose experience includes senior positions in congressional leadership and the Clinton White House, Mark has created a platform for Latinos, whose own families have been ancestral stewards of the land, to reimagine a more just environmental movement. GreenLatinos is a study in building power and equity and Mark is the values-driven leader making it happen.
How many of us can look back on a single foundational experience that shaped how we see ourselves? Lupi Quinteros-Grady can. She was 14 years old and an immigrant when she attended a program at Latin American Youth Center. She connected to a diverse group of young people and over time honed the confidence and skills needed to advocate on issues, including HIV, that directly affected the community. Years later, Lupi graduated from college, the first in her family to do so, and was offered a position at LAYC, managing the same program she once attended. She accepted and after 23 years of developing its holistic approach to academics, conservation, workforce development, housing and mental health, Lupi became LAYC’s CEO. She is now shifting programs and resources to meet the almost unimaginable needs generated by Covid19. LAYC has created new systems to support families with food, emergency rental assistance and mental health counseling. And it intervenes when young people become disconnected from school, a result of caring for younger siblings when parents are ill. This is powerful work with local roots and national relevance.
What I love most about DC PAVE-Parents Amplifying Voices in Education-is that it reinvents an outdated model for building parent leadership. In the conventional model parents meet with teachers to assess their children’s progress and attend school-wide events largely to affirm decisions that have already been made. PAVE wants parents to be in the room where the real decision making is made and prepares them to do exactly that. It focuses on Black and Brown lower-income parents who often feel overlooked by school and city officials and in the era of Covid19, are stressed by a loss of jobs, income and housing. PAVE teaches parents how educational systems work and invites them to shape and propose their own policy platform. Most importantly, parents learn how to partner with city officials to make change possible. PAVE was founded by Maya Martin Cadogan, whose earliest lessons in advocacy came from her mother, an activist devoted to educational equity. There is so much information, nuance and richness in a conversation with Maya that you may have to listen twice. I know I did.
Ted Piccolo refers to himself as an accidental advocate. It all started when he helped a fellow member of the Colville Indian Reservation craft a business plan for a promising new venture. The plan was sound, but her application for a bank loan was rejected. The bank required her to have $2,500 in equity to make the loan. Like many others on the reservation in rural northwest Washington state, she did not have the assets needed (credit, savings or a home) to meet that threshold. It was a crushing setback and it motivated Ted to find a solution for those whom banks do not serve. He found his answer in the Community Development Financial Institution Fund, a resource within the US Department of Treasury, that deploys funds to underinvested communities. Ted took the many steps needed to become a certified CDFI and now operates the Northwest Native Development Fund, which has made $8 million in loans to tribes throughout Washington, Idaho and Montana. As Ted explains, Native people have a long tradition of sustaining their land and prospering through trade. Ted is a voice for the right of all communities to thrive.
The world needs to catch up to Indira Henard, executive director of the DC Rape Crisis Center. She champions survivors of sexual violence, which she views as inextricably linked to other forms of oppression, including discrimination based on race and gender. And she applies this intersectional lens to all areas of the Center’s work, from clinical therapy to advocacy for public policies that support survivors. Indira believes that we need to launch an inter-generational conversation about sexual violence: how it is defined, whom we believe when it is reported and what accountability looks like. Women that the Center works with have been re-traumatized by the pandemic and the brutal insurrection at the US Capitol. Indira and her team are standing up for them all. As bleak as this work might seem it brings Indira joy. Having swapped out a career on Capitol Hill and the White House to become a voice for and with survivors in the real Washington DC, she is exactly where she needs to be.
What if your job was to ensure that Latino leaders have a seat at decision making tables in the public and private sectors? This is the work that Marco Davis leads as President & CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Its fellowships place talented young Latinos with members of Congress who are themselves Latino change makers. This experience, coupled with real-time training, prepares the next generation to navigate the policy making process and the nuances of Capitol Hill culture. With 63 million Latinos in the nation, almost 20% of the population, claiming these seats at the table is long past due. And given the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Latinos, from rates of infection to loss of businesses to exposure as frontline workers, their engagement in equitable recovery planning is urgent. If you need more evidence of CHCI’s efficacy, its alumni network of 4000 Latino leaders speaks volumes. This pipeline of talent represents the future of our country. And don’t miss the opportunity to hear great leaders speak from the heart on CHCI’s new podcast, Here to Lead.
If you worry about our nation’s capacity to recover from Covid19, this episode may change your perception of what is possible. Melissa Jones is executive director of BARHII- Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative- a collaborative that is charting a course for recovery in 9 hard-hit counties. This partnership between public health agencies, municipalities and community organizations was launched in the mid 1990s to tackle inequities that are often the underlying cause of illness. They apply the same framework to Covid19, which has disproportionately impacted African Americans, Pacific Islanders and Latinx people, from a loss of jobs to loss of life. BARHII focuses on the social determinants of health, factors that are not addressed in the doctor’s office: housing conditions, isolation, and lack of a living wage. Melissa lays out changes in public policy needed to ensure an equitable recovery. New policies include the provision of housing by municipalities for those who cannot quarantine in crowded households. And BARHII advocates for philanthropy to act with urgency, making grants to cover these costs. Melissa is a leader whose voice must be heard, from here to the White House.
Here it is, my 150th episode, a milestone in the lifecycle of a podcast. It has been a journey, creating a platform for progressive nonprofit change making. To mark the moment, I reconnected with Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CEO and executive director of CAAB-Capital Area Asset Builders-one of the most tenacious seekers of justice that I know. CAAB connects underinvested Black and Brown communities with strategies for creating assets (home ownership, small businesses and higher education) that are the basis for building generational wealth. This population includes the one in five individuals in the nation’s capital who live below the poverty line. And that statistic is particularly jarring because it is based in pre-pandemic data. CAAB embeds itself in the “unofficial” DC and metropolitan region where work opportunities are limited and low paying. And low-wage workers are often unaware that claiming a refund, through the Earned Income Tax Credit, can yield significant and lifechanging returns. As Joseph says, “When everyone is given an opportunity to succeed, we all benefit.” This is the vision and purposefulness we should all aspire to in 2021.
This episode tells the story of LEDC- the Latino Economic Development Corporation-a nonprofit at the epicenter of our nation’s multiple crises, from COVID19 to the loss of businesses, jobs and housing to the assault on Latinos by the outgoing President and his congressional allies. Marla Bilonick, LEDC’s executive director, credits her staff and the indispensable partnerships she has built with municipalities from Washington DC to Baltimore County and Puerto Rico in creating policy solutions to seemingly intractable challenges. As a CDFI-Community Development Financial Institution-an alternative and more flexible provider of capitol to non-traditional borrowers, LEDC has kept Latino small businesses afloat where banks could or would not. Keeping families whole, through counseling, capitol, organizing and advocacy requires 24/7 responsiveness. And Marla expects a next wave of foreclosure and evictions. We were talking about the toll of anti-Latino rhetoric and policies on the community when we learned the terrible news about the storming of our Capital. We were shaken to the core. But Marla is positive and undeterred. That is the leadership we need in Washington DC and nationally. Listen.
I was deliberate in choosing John Holdsclaw as my first guest of 2021. It is not only because he is a friend and EVP of Strategic Initiatives for National Cooperative Bank, whose investments yield resources ranging from rural electric co-ops to grocery stores in urban food deserts. Or because he is Board president of the CDFI Coalition, the voice for over 1100 lenders in underinvested communities. I was curious about John’s takeaways from 2020, a devastating year particularly for low income and communities of color and his thoughts about nonprofit change making. We focused on intentionality, the practice of stepping back to assess how nonprofits align their stated values with their behavior. John suggests taking a hard look at how your organization engages members, hires and retains executives of color, and works collaboratively within the sector. And he argues that a new administration creates an opportunity to expand which nonprofits have a seat at policy making tables. With thanks to John, this is our year of intentionality. (see below).
Acronym Alert! Here are a few references we failed to decode:
-National Credit Union Association.
-Community Development Bankers Association
-Community Development Credit Unions
-National Credit Union Association
In this episode I have a great time with super-producer Rob Ford, talking about Power Station's beginnings, aspirations and lessons learned. I don't love talking about myself but I do love talking about nonprofit advocacy and how it is being amplified through this platform. I talk about how I got involved in community organizing and policy advocacy, which shapes how I think about what is effective and how to make an impact. And I have the opportunity to thank great friend and nonprofit leaders who have supported my crazy idea to enter into this uncharted territory.
Here is a staggering statistic. Right now, 45 million Americans are struggling under the weight of $1.7 trillion in student debt. The college education that was supposed to create economic opportunity has far too often, particularly in communities of color, created deep generational harm. Parents have financed their kids’ educations while still paying off their own college loans. And while student borrowing is a reality across race and class lines, the burden is deepest in Black and Brown communities where the racial wealth gap persists. As Ashley Harrington, Federal Advocacy Director of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) explains, the majority of borrowers are crushed by less than $10,000 in debt. CRL, an indispensable champion in the fight against predatory lending, is teaming up with advocates from civil rights, veterans and consumer groups to create a new path forward. On this episode, we explore an important question: What if President Biden authorized the cancellation of student debt on day one of his administration? The solution is in hand and the opportunity to remake America is here.
We will look back on 2020 as the moment when our nation’s longstanding systemic inequities became impossible to ignore. Just look at our digital divide. Right now, over 17 million children lack the requisite connectivity plans or devices needed to participate in a remote learning mandate. It is not only a problem of broadband access. It is also a challenge of adoption, the ability of families to afford laptops and service plans. Which means that parents are also excluded from engaging in 21st century commerce, from banking, to health services, to shopping, that have increasingly, and sometimes exclusively, migrated online. The impacts are felt most acutely by those already grappling with housing and food insecurity. While federal resources are limited, municipalities have become the change makers, creating solutions and taking action to implement them. And these mayors, tribal leaders, state regulatory bodies and residents have an indefatigable partner in Next Century Cities, a national champion of digital equity, led by the remarkable Francella Ochillo. It is exciting, essential and inspiring work.
This nation is finally cracking open the conversations we need to have to make change possible. Systemic racial inequities have been exposed by COVID-19, particularly its disproportionate impacts on communities of color, which are stark and quantifiable. The loss of jobs, and by extension homes, for those with the most tenuous employment, demands that elected leaders act and affected communities are engaged. And we are confronting a less publicly discussed but longstanding challenge. Karma Cottman explains that domestic violence is on the rise, exacerbated by stay-at-home orders that have sequestered survivors with their abusers. As executive director of the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence and its national sister organization, UJIMA, Inc, Karma brings so much to this conversation, from great successes in systems change to an inexhaustible energy and love of her community. Hear her and be grateful to the frontline domestic violence responders in your community.
We know how nonprofits make change. They provide services, teach people how to organize and use those capacities to get legislation passed. Can cultural institutions also make change? In the case of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the answer is yes. While the experience of changemaking may be more personal at a museum, the same strategies are needed to be successful. It starts with a mission to amplify the voices of communities that are too often unheard. And it is powered by a governance structure that includes and is accountable to its constituency. In both cases, they meet members/visitors where they are and hope they carry what they learn forward. As NMAI's incomparable curator Paul Chaat Smith explains, the museum is about deepening awareness, not promoting cultural tourism. A Comanche author, essayist and curator, Paul walks us through Americans, the powerful exhibit he co-curated with Cécile Ganteaume, to explore how Indian imagery is embedded in virtually every area of American life. Listen to Paul and visit NMAI online until the doors are open to us all again.
Mile High Connects is a nonprofit collaborative that is leading a movement for transit equity in the Denver Metro region. Sounds pretty straightforward and non-controversial, right? Of course, it isn’t. As data shows, public transit is crucial for connecting working people to jobs and schools, the building blocks for economic opportunity. The challenge in building or expanding a system is in setting priorities. Is it an amenity for high-income residents going to downtown offices or a component of economic recovery, particularly for low-income, Black and Brown residents whose jobs and homes are less accessible? With Deya Zavalas at the helm, Mile High Connects is building the table at which community residents, organizing groups, public agencies and community foundations are coming together to advocate for a more inclusive system. And they are tackling more than transit. Their proposals include policy solutions for the region’s inter-related and highly stressed housing and health systems. Nonprofits are where expertise and the public good co-exist. And Mile High Connects leverages its collective powers to achieve a more equitable future.
One half of all Texans under the age of 18 are Latinos. The future of the state, and increasingly this nation, lies with an immensely diverse population that has been underestimated by mainstream political parties. That paradigm is changing, however, in large part due to Jolt Texas, a nonprofit launched by rising political star Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez after the 2016 election. Jolt is dedicated to inspiring a new generation of Latinos to become civic leaders and political candidates. It holds forums about health, housing and other pivotal issues, trains young people in community organizing, and brings civic engagement messaging to cultural gatherings, including a young women's Quinceañera. Pedro Lira, Jolt’s Civic Engagement Director, has been hooked on politics since high school and is already a veteran of national electoral campaigns. He is passionate about the potential of young Latino voters in Texas to represent their community and generate a more equitable future. And he is patient. While this election cycle did not turn Texas blue, it built the foundation that makes change inevitable.
Our high-stakes national election is (almost) over and it is time to breathe and celebrate. For community-based nonprofits, which took root long before this election cycle and are base builders no matter who is in office, this is a moment for reflection. It requires taking stock of how differently our divided nation perceives the state of our union. It also validates their commitment to creating a shared vision for the future. This is the work of Doran Schrantz, executive director of ISAIAH, a multi-racial, state-wide, nonpartisan coalition of congregations and people of faith in Minnesota. Its vision is carried out by its stakeholders, from the Barbershops and Black Congregations Cooperative to Latinx and Muslim faith-based coalitions. And the vision is furthered by Faith in Minnesota, a 501(c)4, which expands ISAIAH’s (501(c)3) vision into the state electoral arena. Collectively, they have created the Greater Than Fear Campaign, to push forward, through messaging and narrative building, a movement centered in people whose voices are often overlooked. It is gaining momentum and is antidote to the noise and division of our time.
In the final days before the most important election of our lifetime, we are consumed by thoughts about what comes next. There is the collective anxiety about defeating Donald Trump and how to achieve a peaceful transition of power. And there is the imperative, even with a new administration, to fully confront the deeply embedded structural racism that has disenfranchised people of color since our beginnings. This work is not for the faint of heart. And it will not be led by pundits, academics or editorial writers. In fact, it is already underway, led by nonprofits that expand on traditional models of service to build power and transform systems. Detroit Action, led by native son Branden Snyder, is one such model. It is active on all fronts: canvassing, organizing, connecting residents to resources and influencing state policy decisions. Detroit Action is leading in the aftermath of decades of disinvestment, redlining and white flight. They are forging their way to a more just future.
You may not envision the YWCA as fighting on the frontlines of racial and gender justice, but you should. For 162 years, the YWCA has advocated for women and children who are survivors of domestic and sexual violence. And it has lived its stated values. In 1946, the YWCA became the first fully racially integrated organization in the nation. 50 years ago, it adopted a mission statement as its beacon: Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women. Its network of 200 associations, rooted in cities, suburbs and rural areas across the nation may be the sole resource in a community. These diverse chapters work on issues ranging from lack of access to childcare to inadequate healthcare and low-wage jobs. And, as always, leadership matters. Alejandra Castillo, whose work and life are already an inspiration, leads the YWCA with a passion that not even COVID19, an economic recession and a national reckoning with racial injustice could undermine. Listen and you will believe in Alejandra and her team of problem-solving network leaders. They are the change makers the world should know.
Words matter. We rely on them every day to express our thoughts and connect with others. And when our intent is to use our words to move people, in policy and political campaigns, how we construct them to create winning messages, is profoundly important. It obliges us to do more than echo out the urgency we feel based in years of work on issues from housing to immigration to health care, or for a candidate whose election we see as crucial. What resonates for us may have a distinctly different and unintended impact on those we want to influence. This is where Anat Shenker-Osorio comes in, fortified with social science research and significant experience in testing messages. She walks us through what nonprofits and campaigns get wrong and, thankfully, provides guidance about how to do better. It starts with ordering. Leading with a message of shared values enables the persuadable middle to be open to hearing more and to seeing policy solutions as common sense. Anat’s podcast, Words to Win By, explores how saying what you are for, not what you are against, makes bold, transformational change possible.
How can a powerful organization deepen its impact? For the National Resources Defense Council, our planet’s protector and champion of clear air and water, it starts with looking inward. At a time of national reckoning with structural inequity, NRDC is reevaluating its own practices through a lens of race, equity and justice. As Angela Manso, National Outreach Director, explains, this is challenging and vital work. Communities of color are harmed at disproportionate rates by contamination, pollution and climate change. And that is why she is forging partnerships within the most deeply impacted communities. These relationships, with groups advocating for better housing, access to health care and against environmental degradation, are key to creating a next-level environmental movement. NRDC’s president, Gina McCarthy, who led the Environmental Protection Administration under President Obama, is committed to building an explicitly anti-racist organization. Angela, also an Obama appointee, is advancing the mission by creating a place for all communities to have a voice in the environmental policy making that affects their homes, health and futures.
Thirty days out from the 2020 election, America is grappling with the casting our vote and being counted in the most important election of our lifetime. COVID19 has made in-person voting possibly life-threatening and voting by mail is being manipulated by a president who is profoundly threatened by this democratic franchise. For many, however, barriers to voting go far deeper. Millions of returning citizens, Americans who have served time and come home, are now barred from the ballot box. In Florida, Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Project, is building a movement for the restoration of voting rights. He achieved the near-impossible, organizing statewide support for re-enfranchisement, validated by Amendment 4, a statewide ballot initiative. Desmond leads with empathy and love and rejects partisanship and rancor. He knows that this movement’s wins will be resisted, and this is a tension that he embraces. His story is a testament to second chances and to the sanctity of using one’s life with purpose.
If Americans learn any collective lesson in 2020, it should be that until we face our history of marginalizing whole populations, we will not be a true democracy. Social uprisings around the country demonstrate that racism is structural and is seared into our public systems. People with disabilities experience structural inequity daily. Until 1974, so-called “ugly laws” forced those perceived to be “maimed” to be removed from public view. It is moving to learn that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, landmark legislation, was modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ADA bars discrimination against disabled people in employment, transportation and public accommodations. The current practice of institutionalizing disabled people compelled the Center for Disability Rights to advocate for new legislation, the Disability Integration Act. Dara Baldwin, National Policy Director of CDR is committed to liberating disabled people from institutions into safe environments within their own communities. And in this fight for justice, Dara honors the many courageous Black disabled leaders who have dedicated their lives to the cause. She is shaking up the white-led business-as-usual advocacy sector in DC. And in doing so, she raises the bar for us all.
To see how deep the impacts of COVID19 and racial inequity go, take a look at Flushing, Queens. With a population that is 70% Asian, it is also New York City’s fourth most congested business district. It appeared, pre-pandemic, to be a bustling neighborhood of working people. In reality, incomes for many were so limited they relied on food pantries to feed their families. Many now have no incomes at all. The truth, as John Park, executive director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action explains, contradicts the widely held model minority myth, a construct that has persisted for generations. He points out that Asian Americans have the highest level of poverty within working age populations of any major ethnic group in New York. And while the impacts of the pandemic have been cataclysmic, there is reason for hope and inspiration. Despite a loss of lives and jobs, the community is engaged and resilient. MinKwon is leading a campaign to overcome a waterfront development plan and young community members are testifying at public hearings to save their community. This is, as John says, hard emotional work, and it is essential.
It takes more than pundits and politicians to create a more just society. Change happens when those who have been hurt the most stand up to demand justice and craft solutions. And it takes nonprofits with courage and the infrastructure needed to leverage power. This is the formula embodied by Partnership for Southern Equity, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that is building an equity agenda for the American south. As PSE’s founder and Chief Equity Officer Nathaniel Smith sees it, the path to equity is a process, the next step in the civil rights movement that took root in Atlanta through the 50s and 60s. He leads a corps of organizers, researchers and communications experts in taking on the devastating impacts of systemic racism in health, housing, climate, energy and community development. All of PSE’s work is guided by a prism of equity and shared values. It is the heart and intentionality of PSE’s approach in Atlanta that establishes them as a blueprint for the region and beyond. There is much more to come from Nathaniel Smith.
Did you know that the Lower Ninth Ward had the highest rate of homeownership in New Orleans, pre-Hurricane Katrina? And that the devastation of those homes and displacement of their African American owners was caused by breeches in levees that are still in disrepair 15 years later? Or that tens of thousands of those owners remain displaced from their own city? Unlike most cities grappling with a housing crisis, there are 19,000 vacant units in New Orleans. The fact that landlords have withheld them from the rental market is just one of the factors that compelled dozens of affordable housing developers, homeless and housing advocates, and community residents to create Housing NOLA. Their mission is crystal-clear: to produce a data-based plan for meeting affordable housing needs in New Orleans over a 10-year period. It takes an uncommon leader to publish a yearly report card on such a plan’s progress and failings. Andreanecia Morris is the exceptional leader that Housing NOLA deserves. From her expertise in housing development and policy advocacy to her deep commitment to racial equity and justice, this is a story we all need to hear and follow.
As we navigate extraordinary challenges, from COVID19 to the implosion of our economy, we can see which of us are truly essential workers. We rely on doctors, nurses, mail carriers and grocery store workers, but do we recognize those whose labor literally sustains us? Farmworkers, working 12-14 hours a day, often in unsafe conditions, harvest the strawberries, blueberries, lettuce and other crops that, if we are fortunate, grace our tables. Many are immigrants who have been targeted by a relentlessly hostile administration. And they are parents who want their children to thrive. As executive director of the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association (NMSHSA), Cleofas Rodriguez is tasked with a responsibility that he embraces. NMSHSA connects families that move 3 times a year to harvest crops to providers of early childhood education. These teachers and administrators are often former farmworkers themselves who understand the needs of the community. As Cleo explains, farmworkers are a skilled workforce; they are parents and they are not included in congressional relief bills. But they should be.
As the saying goes, when you need something done, ask a busy person. This is definitely the case with Gilda Cobb-Hunter, who represents Orangeburg County in the South Carolina State Legislature. She also directs a nonprofit serving victims of family violence. And she is president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislatures, which creates community among policy makers of color. Now she is advocating for legislation that, if adopted across state legislatures, could transform policing entirely. It is what we need now, in the wake of a social uprising sparked by unbridled police violence against men and women of color. The bill, which is informed by diverse policy partners, including police officers, starts with a framework called Ethical Policing. It codifies standards that set expectations for police departments. And it creates standardized systems for tracking behavior. It ends the shifting of abusers from one precinct to another. And it includes young people, often the target of police violence, in a review process. Representative Cobb-Hunter is hopeful and determined, and she needs you to use your voice to support this call to action.
Food insecurity is our government’s somewhat clinical term for hunger, or in bureaucratese, a lack of access to the food needed for a full and active life. Hunger is an everyday reality for poor and working families in the nation’s capital and its surrounding suburbs, one of the wealthiest regions in the country. And in the shadows of COVID19 and a staggering loss of jobs and income, hunger is growing exponentially. Imagine what it takes for the Capital Area Food Bank to provide 30 million meals a year to 400,000 women, men and children who are food insecure. And then realize that these figures reflect pre-pandemic times. Radha Muthiah, CAFB’s President and CEO, manages the complexities of supply chains and delivery systems to meet growing demands. And her vision extends beyond the unprecedented challenge of the moment. She is working towards a new normal, which requires collaboration across issue area silos and an insistence on righting the wrongs of systemic injustice. She is a woman who makes change happen.
Eddy Morales has an amazing story to tell and he wants it to be your call to action. The last of 9 children and the first born in the United States to a single mother from Mexico, he has faced hardship first hand. He was influenced by his mother’s fearlessness and compassion, values that guide him now. In college, he made the connection between his childhood and systemic injustices that oppress people of color. In his next chapter, he was recruited to Washington DC to lead the US Student Association, where he mobilized young people to exercise their collective power. And in successive roles at the Center for Community Change, Voto Latino and Democracy Alliance, Eddy honed his skills as a trainer, political organizer and adviser to foundations on investing in Latinx nonprofits. After the crushing election results of 2016, life took another turn when he returned to Gresham, Oregon. That is the chapter you will hear today. It is about the deliberative and rewarding process of building power, from a PAC to a slate of political candidates, from the ground up. Eddy is making change in real time. Bonus points for creating a template for us all.
It should not take a pandemic and an uprising spurred by police violence against Black men and women to generate a national reckoning with racism, but here we are. If we want this moment to spark transformation, we need to crack open the full body of evidence about how non-White people are perceived and treated in America. And we need organizations like the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, that build power in communities made invisible by bias. Jennifer Wang, lawyer, strategist and one of the women at the helm of NAPAWF, is a power-builder. She recounts how stereotypes of privilege overshadow the lived experience of AAPI people, a non-monolithic community of over 50 ethnicities. And she explains why NAPAWF has taken on a singular mission, the reproductive rights of AAPI women and girls. Our conversation is particularly salient in a moment in which discrimination against AAPI women is rampant, from the White House to the streets. Jennifer shares what happened when her boss, Sung Yeon Choimorrow, was assaulted by hate speech while on a walk with her daughter. This is essential listening: painful, heartening and invigorating.
In this moment of national reckoning with racism, important truths are unfolding. For those who resist the reckoning, the truth starts with recognizing that since America’s founding, our leaders, from the White House to Congress, have passed laws to benefit them at the expense of African Americans and other people of color. By enacting segregationist housing policies, excluding Black veterans from the benefits of the GI Bill, and denying mortgage loans in communities of color, the nation’s racial wealth gap was created with intention and persists today. Another truth is that nonprofits carry the weight of redressing these wrongs. And while their solutions have been impactful, in this moment, they are simply not enough. These truths compelled Solana Rice and Jeremie Greer, to take their advocacy for economic justice to the next level. They formed a new nonprofit, Liberation in a Generation, that uplifts the big, ambitious transformational policies that communities are demanding today. Solana talks about building a liberation economy, shifting the conversation from personal behavior to ending our dual financial systems.
Ten years ago, a group of friends, young professionals of color, began to incubate ideas to improve the lives of low-income people in Los Angeles. As the children of immigrant parents who worked hard only to subsist on the economic margins, they knew that systemic barriers to opportunity had to be dismantled. From the criminalization of being undocumented to the lack of access to bank loans, the proverbial American Dream left their communities out. They launched a nonprofit, Inclusive Action, that centers its strategies on the aspirations of underpaid and under-appreciated working people. Leading this ambitious effort, with a team of savvy advocates, is Rudy Espinoza, the son of an industrious immigrant mother from Zacatecas, Mexico. Their campaign to legalize street vendors and provide financing through Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) funding has toppled tired norms and changed lives. While COVID19 has brought new pain to the community, the story is far from over. No one can tell that story like Rudy, informed by the past but aimed squarely at a more equitable future.
I like to think that I choose my words carefully. I use terms like community organizing and movement building to describe a set of actions taken to meet social goals. But I realize that language that speaks to my own experience may ring hollow for others. Enter Mark Winston Griffith, who embraces the challenges of language and the hard, nuanced and unrelenting work of organizing and movement building in Central Brooklyn. He formed the Brooklyn Movement Center 10 years ago to reinvigorate what had become a calcified environment for change-making. And he committed to building a talented staff and engaging community members in the work needed to dismantle systemic inequities, including policing, housing, food access and environmental hazards. This is what community organizing and movement building really means. It is not easy to generate, sustain or fund but it is essential to the world we say we want to live in.
A conversation with Steve Choi begins with his upending of assumptions about which immigrants and refugees live in New York State and where. It provides a view into how the New York Immigration Coalition, the nonprofit he leads, mobilizes 200 member organizations to influence local and state policy making. And it includes a review of the toll these tumultuous times are taking on immigrant communities. We associate immigrants with New York City, which remains a constant, but there are over 1 million immigrants residing outside of the City, from Long Island to Westchester to Rochester and Buffalo. And their national origins are so diverse that no single group dominates. The NYIC vigorously protects their legal rights and economic opportunities in a virulently anti-immigrant federal environment. And the needs are growing because immigrants are on the frontlines of service in restaurants, hospitals, and grocery stores during the COVID19 pandemic. While they are losing jobs and even their lives, immigrants have been left out of congressional relief packages, a stunning omission that the NYIC is working to correct. Steve and the NYIC are building influence and power, from the ground up.
The best nonprofits tackle what lies beneath the economic and social wrongs that rock= our nation. They organize, litigate and advocate to undo discriminatory policies based on race, immigration status and sexual orientation. More recently, nonprofits, including The National LGBTQ Task Force, are using an intersectional prism to guide their advocacy. Intersectionality, a concept developed by scholar Kimberlee Crenshaw, refers to our overlapping identities, which shape how we view the world and how we are perceived. This prism also reveals how privilege and marginalization operate. As Meghan Maury, Policy Director for The Task Force explains, battling discrimination is not enough. LGBTQ people are also over-represented in homeless shelters and the criminal justice and immigration systems. And the Task Force is active on all fronts. Valuing intersectionality is reflected in a staff comprised primarily by people of color, people with disabilities and with lived experiences of homelessness and poverty. It informs the Task Force’s campaigns to increase the count of LGBTQ people in Census 2020 and to scuttle the Administration’s schemes to deregulate Obama era protections. And it shines through in Meghan, whose resistance is savvy, tireless and relentlessly positive.
How are young people processing the chaos of the current moment and how can we support them? We are all confronted by circumstances we did not foresee and cannot control. COVID19 has pummeled this nation, robbing low-wage workers of their jobs and far too many, of their lives. And the killing of George Floyd, a Black man at the hands of police officers, catapulted us into protests that continue today. The sense of uncertainty is palpable. But we are adults and have at least some agency over our lives. For young people in communities color, the challenges are more complex. They are suddenly attending school online, confined to homes that are under stress and may lack access to Wi-Fi. Lauren Grimes is one adult who stepped up for young people long before these dual pandemics launched a national conversation about racial justice. A rising professional in the federal government, Lauren founded The Community Enrichment Project to spur youth organizing in Washington DC’s Wards 7 & 8. They have great insights to share. We just need to listen.
It took years of activism by community leaders before Congress enacted the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977. This legislation was meant to undo decades of discrimination by banks against African Americans, Latinx and other non-white people seeking mortgages and small business loans. It required banks to lend and made them accountable to community interests. As Paulina Gonzalez-Brito explains, redlining create the predatory lending industry, which continues today. As executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, she engages 300 organizations across the state in requiring banks to meet their CRA obligations. And she is spearheadinga vigorous campaign to prevent the Trump Administration from dismantling this essential civil rights law. The story of who is leading this assault, and how, is essential listening. The pandemic of racism calls for action and saving the CRA is at the heart of the matter. We must all participate in the next chapter.
Self-determination is a deeply embedded value within the National American Indian Housing Council. It is the driving force for its members, leaders from 570 tribes who advocate for the housing needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in 32 states. The shortage of affordable housing is a national crisis and is even more nuanced in native communities. Tribes own and manage their own housing stock and must navigate many levels of municipal, state and federal governance. And they often operate in rural areas, where a lack of running water and heating speak to profound infrastructure problems. It is all the more noteworthy, then that NAIHC, led by executive director Tony Walters, has moved Congress to commit considerable funding to native housing in CARES Act legislation. It reflects a congressional recognition of the disproportionate impact of COVID19 in native communities, attributed in part to overcrowding in tribal housing, which makes social distancing impossible. Tony brings his lived experience, from growing up in Oklahoma to working in the executive and legislative branches, to amplifying the voices of powerful native practitioners on Capitol Hill. This is how change is made.
Our democracy is imploding and that is not hyperbole. Across the nation, communities are protesting the murder of an African American man by a White police officer who carried out this execution under the watchful eyes of devastated onlookers, including a young woman who captured the images on her phone. And the pandemic that is ravaging communities of color is by no means over. How can ambitious champions of change be effective in these times? The best social change nonprofits are advocating for Congress to invest in communities that have been under resourced, segregated and marginalized for generations. That is how the National Low-Income Housing Coalition approaches their mission of increasing access to decent and affordable housing for lowest income people. In this episode of Power Station, Sarah Saadian tells us how NLIHC mobilizes a diverse constituency of public housing residents and authorities, local housing and homeless serving groups, municipal and national leaders, to secure resources now, through the latest CARES Act legislation. This is literally life-saving work made possible by a laser focused approach and a demonstrated commitment to equity.
If you want to understand why the United States has the most expensive and worst performing health care system among developed countries, in terms of access, equity, efficiency, and outcomes, you have a unique and vital resource in Families USA. For forty years, this national nonprofit has investigated every aspect of our broken bureaucracy, from the cost of prescription drugs to the politicization of Medicare to the implicit bias deep within our delivery systems. And it has used this understanding to inform and engage consumers, from those willing to share their lived experiences to community-based health organizations in every state to the media and policymakers in state houses and on Capitol Hill. Families USA Executive Director Frederick Isasi talks about how the powerful stressor that is COVID19 has rocked this fragile system and exposed its profound weaknesses. He believes in, and Families USA is based on, a theory of change that honors the perspective and experience of many while working towards justice for all. This is the story of our times.
While we worry about how to restore our democracy, Jonathan Mehta Stein knows that in disenfranchised communities, many people feel that democracy has never worked for them. This is the starting point that Jonathan, the newly appointed executive director of Common Cause California, embraces. He is a civil rights attorney who believes that at this moment in time, relying on litigation and legislation alone is not enough. He argues that we need more community organizing to inspire those who have been left behind to believe that voting can make a difference for them. The stakes are high as we head into the most consequential election of our lifetime. While voting in America is a constitutional right, the election process varies wildly across municipalities and is comprised by under-resourced bureaucracies, entrenched party politics and racism. And a devastating global pandemic raises deep concerns about how to carry out fair elections in 2020. California has raised the bar on lowering barriers to voting. Now the challenge is to motivate people to mail in ballots and turn out to polls. Jonathan talks about tackling the Common Cause mission and the transformational power of participation.
Small businesses have been devastated by COVID19, and by extension, so have their owners, workers and communities. We are talking about true small businesses, not Shake Shack or Ruth’s Christ Steak House. Their role in our economy is so significant that Congress appropriated federal funding for them through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) within the CARES Act. This moment underscores the importance of federal investment in small businesses that meet needs in underserved communities. The most impactful resource for this is the CDFI Fund, a US Department of Treasury based program that deploys capitol into communities that banks do not serve. They are run by nonprofits and mission-driven lenders that build affordable housing and launch businesses. And CDFIS are having a moment. The New York Times just reported on the campaign to fund CDFIs at $1 billion in the next spending bill. This is the life’s work of John Holdsclaw, Executive VP at National Cooperative Bank, a rare financial institution dedicated to funding cooperatives in LMI communities. We talk about CDFIs that are literally changing lives and powering communities.
Can we ensure that the Decennial Census, our most inclusive civic enterprise, will not become a casualty of the COVID19 pandemic? The answer is unfolding in real time. Nonprofits have spent years mounting campaigns to combat an historical undercount in communities of color, of children, immigrants and LGBTQ people. Fortunately, some people and organizations, thrive in challenging times and that is definitely the case with Lizette Escobedo, who directs the Census 2020 campaign for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO). Lizette leads operations in 6 states where Latinx communities stand ready to be counted, despite the president’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the Census. Lizette is motivated by a desire to see her community counted so that more federal resources are deployed as needed and district lines are drawn equitably. And she sees opportunity in the chaos: a longer timeline, tech companies stepping up to create hot spots and a deepened staff capacity to operate digitally. NALEO is balancing the devastating impact of COVID19 on their staff and community with their drive to produce a representative count. There is so much in this conversation to inform and inspire.
Gallup polls indicate that Americans have lost confidence in Congress, the courts and the media but one institution, the library, remains a trusted resource. Libraries provide access to books, computers, literacy classes, and social services, often in partnership with nonprofits. And while we may perceive libraries as static, they are evolving organizations. In fact, the American Library Association, in conjunction with national civil rights groups, spent 2019 preparing to become the go-to resource for those lacking digital connectivity, to complete their 2020 Census. Now, given closures due to the pandemic, libraries are pivoting again. They continue to serve communities and advocate for a complete Census count, primarily digitally. And some institutional change is inspired by librarians themselves. Ana Ndumu, Assistant Professor of Information Services at the University of Maryland, has become a leading library influencer. She identifies ways in which libraries can overcome social exclusion of marginalized communities, primarily Black diasporic immigrants. Her work demonstrates the value of acculturation over assimilation and supports a growing movement of libraries trading neutrality for inclusion. #Changemaking.
We are all uncertain about life in an ongoing global pandemic. We know that conditions are most dire for those who have lost family members, jobs, and housing. And this time is dizzying for nonprofits and think tanks whose mission is to improve the quality of life for the most impacted communities. The issues they have worked on for decades are suddenly leading the national conversation. As Co-Executive Director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University, Indivar Duta-Gupta grapples with what are often considered intractable problems. His tools include socio-economic research, legislative strategies and advocacy with policy makers. We talk about the potential for bold systemic change at a time when so much, from health, to policing, to housing is at stake. It is a sobering and a hopeful conversation. Change is possible when leaders like Indi pave the way.
In 110 Power Station episodes, one consistent theme resonates: The ability to advance progressive change is based in intentionality. It starts with documenting inequities, analyzing who is impacted, building a constituency of impacted people, and advocating for the policies and resources required to achieve systemic change. Rebecca Sive is a change maker. She champions women’s leadership in politics, corporations and nonprofits. As she points out, no sector, including nonprofits, is immune to the sexism and racism that blocks women from executive leadership and diminishes their voices within organizational structures. Her new book, Vote Her In, is a guide to electing the first woman president and her podcast of the same name is a platform for women who have toppled glass ceilings and have lessons to share. And while Rebecca is disheartened that four highly qualified women did not rise to become our democratic candidate for President, she is not defeated. She believes the movement for a woman president is growing. And she is seizing every opportunity to challenge structural sexism and racism to elect more women to all levels of political office. Her message to us all: Stand up and be counted. In this collective endeavor, intentionality is everything.
As a nation, we are learning, in real time, how to function and survive in a pandemic. We look for national leadership rooted in integrity and competence. And we are finding that, not in our president, but from governors, mayors, medical professionals and, while less recognized, nonprofit leaders. Nonprofits continue to serve communities, even in a lock-down. Housing groups are organizing online for spending bills that support lowest-income renters, homeless people and shelter providers. Nonprofit credit unions are counseling small business owners in how to sustain themselves in an economic shutdown. And Asian Americans Advancing Justice/AAJC advocates for all communities to participate in Census 2020. It is also working with a cohort of AAPI serving organizations to track a terrible upswing in violence against Asian Americans. John believe that this violence is entirely predictable given a president who has used every opportunity to identify COVID19 as the Chinese or Wuhan virus. John shares his thoughts on tracking hate, generating support through congressional resolutions, and managing an organization whose staff is working harder than ever.
Think about this: messaging campaigns about complex issues, from climate change to drug pricing, have 280 characters in a tweet (up from 140) and less then 20 seconds of audio, to inform and persuade. Celinda Lake, renowned pollster and political strategist, helps labor unions, nonprofit advocates and political hopefuls to craft messages based on feedback from focus groups, surveys and message testing. Celinda says that Lake Research Partners approaches its work with two core values, the importance of government and the imperative of inclusivity to advance progressive social change. When issues are reframed based on these values, the resulting messages change how issues, organizations and politicians are perceived. It turns out that empathy, not fear, motivates people to respond with an open mind. Celinda speaks to the potential of increasing community engagement during a global pandemic, from early voting in the 2020 elections to a more robust online response to Census 2020. Celinda Lake is an invaluable leader in her field.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our nation’s broken systems but has also revealed what works. As our president equivocates about what can be done, mayors and governors are stepping up to fill the void. They are setting up testing sites, procuring ventilators, and building hospital units. And nonprofit leaders are using their resources to keep families and communities whole. Carla Decker, President and CEO of DC Credit Union, is maintaining 2 open branches (with social distancing) to serve members. They include dislocated workers from DC’s normally booming hospitality industry, many new immigrants and multi-generational African American households who are not adequately served by mainstream financial institutions. Credit union members receive access to credit, flexible underwriting, help in sending remittances to their home countries and the support that only a staff with shared experiences cannot provide. Carla is a leader in the credit union, CDFI and cooperative movements, both locally and through her considerable national networks. Hers is the voice we are fortunate to hear now.
It is safe to say that we are living in extremely stressful times. The president rules more than governs and his rhetoric and policies reflect and encourage overt acts of racism and sexism. His relentless focus on border walls and deportations have created chaos in immigrant communities. And now we are grappling with COVID-19, a pandemic for which we are unprepared, and which the president framed in xenophobic terms. The failure to respond quickly to this crisis raises questions about our health care system, insurance industry, income security for low wage workers, and access to food for children when public schools are closed. And a national conversation is taking place about the toll these conditions are taking on our physical and mental health. The American Psychological Association engages its 118,000 members in advocating for public policies that meet human needs and combat racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia and more. Dr. Brian Smedley, APA’s Chief of Psychology in the Public Interest, talks about how using science to separate bias from fact. A moving and important conversation.
What happens when a nonprofit decides to make a shift and tackle its mission at a deeper level? That is the journey that Bread for the City, frontline service provider to Washington DC’s lowest-income residents started on 8 years ago. Since its founding in 1974, BFC has been the go-to resource for people in need of food, clothing, medical and legal assistance. It modeled how to provide high-quality services with, as BFC promises, “dignity, respect and justice.” The shift began in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin killing, which jarred the community, including BFC’s staff. That tragedy spurred a conversation about the deep-seated impacts of structural racism in Black and Brown communities. Chief Executive Officer, George Jones began to reconsider his race neutral approach to the work. He signed himself up, with staff and community members, for an ‘Undoing Racism’ workshop, which examined how racist policies created the conditions faced by those seeking their help. This transformative experience led to the addition of community organizing and advocacy as key pillars of its work. George Jones continues the journey, with intentionality and commitment.
What makes an advocacy organization exceptional? It starts with a vision for tackling inequity that centers constituents in advocating for themselves. In the case of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, it is also dedication to social policy that ensures decent housing for our nation’s lowest-income renters. These are residents of public and subsidized housing - families with children, seniors, the disabled and low-wage workers - who are often one step away from homelessness. The Coalition achieves its mission through an integrated set of strategies: communications, organizing, and data-driven advocacy. As Sarah Saadian, VP of Public Policy, explains, the Coalition is laser focused on building congressional support for federal housing appropriations with residents engaged in the advocacy. The current proposed 15% funding cut to federal housing programs by the President, if implemented, would certainly lead to increased homelessness. And the same can be said for rollbacks proposed by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, whose lack of understanding of his own agency’s mission is alarming. Sarah walks us through the Coalition’s proven approach to advocacy, a difficult road leading to consistent and significant wins.
How is it possible for laws that determine the fate of Muslim Americans to be decided without them having a seat at the decision-making table? That is the power imbalance that motivated the launch of Muslim Advocates by Farhana Khera in 2005. Muslim Advocates works “in communities, the courts and in Congress”, to address discriminatory public policies and corporate practices impacting the lives of our nation’s over 400 Muslim Americans. The challenges faced by Muslim Americans require more than legal and legislative solutions. Our news media needs to tell the stories of who Muslim Americans are and how their lives have been impacted by misguided policy actions. Those include Mayor Bloomberg’s surveillance of community members simply for being Muslim and President Trump’s recently expanded Muslim Travel Ban. As Scott Simpson, Muslim Advocates Director of Policy Advocacy explains, working in partnership with other civil rights champions is critical to raising the profile of Muslim Americans and the hateful policies and rhetoric that harm them. Muslim Americans are standing up for themselves, their families and communities and all of us need to stand with them.
PFLAG may not be the most high-profile LGBTQ+ organization, but it is the oldest, largest and the first, in 1973, to create a safe space for the parents, friends and families of LGBTQ+ youth. It was organized by Jeanne Manford, after seeing her son Morty, a young gay man, beaten at a demonstration covered on the nightly news. She became his advocate, joining him at a gay rights rally wearing a sign that read, Parents of Gays United in Support for Our Children. She was applauded by young people appreciative of her support. From this experience, PFLAG was founded and is now powered by 400 volunteer chapters across the country. Its pillars of support, education and advocacy describe their chapters as places to be heard, learn, and stand up for loved ones. Advocacy takes place in hearings on Capitol Hill and in state capitols, where hostile political environments are generating punitive legislation, often aimed at transgender youth. The work is challenging but executive director Brian Bond remains positive, he says, because of the love and commitment of parents to their children. Hear Brian speak about his own journey and the path forward for PFLAG.
Some of the most effective nonprofits are designed to both help individuals in need and build collective community power. This is the case with NALEO-the National Association for Latino Elected Officials, founded in 1977 by Rep Edward Roybal, then one of just 5 Latinos elected to Congress. In 2020, NALEO supports 38 Latino congressional members and a bi-partisan bench of over 6,800 Latinos serving in municipal, state, and federal level positions. Consider the potential of a cohort of powerful leaders organized around the common aspirations of their communities. NALEO deploys its resources to meet 3 primary goals. First, it offers training that deepens the capacity of members to effectively serve their constituencies on topics ranging from emergency management and water conservation to census participation. Second, it provides direct services to community members, encouraging them to civically engage and become change makers themselves. Third, it advocates for public policies that promote citizenship, even in the face of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. NALEO’s Legislative Counsel, Erin Hustings, considers herself the community’s lobbyist, an advocate with clout, speaking for and with grassroots communities across the country.
Ron Hantz, a great friend of Power Station, and our first guest returns for Episode 100. Ron is back to talk about a current threat that has been largely obscured by the presidential impeachment hearing. At another congressional hearing, Comptroller of the Currency and Trump appointee, Joseph Otting, testified before the House Financial Services Committee, feeling the heat of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as he attempted to rationalize dismantling the Community Reinvestment Act. Ron takes us back to an era when banks refused to serve African Americans and other people of color, leaving whole communities without access to credit and capital. The practice of redlining used maps drawn to exclude whole neighborhoods from banking services. And this practice became policy, leading to the rise of predatory lenders. It took organizing and engagement at the local and national levels to move the US Congress to enact the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977. The CRA, overseen by bank regulators, the FDIC and the OCC, requires banks to meet lending and investment obligations in order to pursue mergers and acquisitions. This is a seminal moment for those committed to investment in underserved urban and rural communities.
It took a century long struggle for American women to “win” the right to vote in 1920. And win does not accurately reflect a struggle in which women were jailed and beaten in pursuit of that right. This victory led suffragist Carrie Chapman Cott to establish the League of Women Voters (LWV), a non-partisan champion of voting rights. Now, LWV is convening national conversations about issues from the census to voting to the environment and immigration. And LWV is vigilant about local threats to voting access and rights. It works to prevent gerrymandering, the intentional dilution of political power by one party over another and by majorities over minorities. The LWV is making the structural changes needed to remain powerful and relevant into the future. It is retooling itself into a more inclusive and diverse organization and Alma Couverthie, the new National Organizing Director, is an important part of its evolution. A longtime community organizer, Alma is opening doors to new participants while honoring the contributions of veteran members. When you hear her, you will want to head to LWV.org and get involved. With LWV’s 100 Anniversary just around the corner, the time is now!
National CAPACD is painfully aware of gentrification and displacement hurts its AAPI membership. They look at the challenge through an historical lens, starting with colonialism to more recent strategies for driving renters and homeowners out of their homes based on rising prices, tax liens, intimidation and buy-outs. Anjan Chaudhry, Director of Community Empowerment, reviews the legacy of colonialism within AAPI communities in their home countries and explains how that experience shaped a new and important resource, National CAPACD’s Our Neighborhoods Anti-Displacement Toolkit. The Toolkit is guide for people and organizations challenged by public agencies and private developers whose proposed plans would destroy Chinatowns and other established neighborhoods. It is also a pro-active tool for generating the resources that many communities lack, from affordable housing to grocery stores. Chhaya CDC in Queens, and ACT LA are just some of the organizations that are leading effective campaigns, some of which are youth led, to create the change they want to see.
We rely on access to high-speed internet to meet the demands of everyday life. We pay bills, apply for jobs, look up children’s school assignments, and get real-time updates on bus arrivals. But at least 20 million Americans live without digital access. They are our neighbors and family members from cities and rural regions who lack the infrastructure (physical wires) and/or the financial means to afford internet connectivity. How do we solve this opportunity gap? Francella Ochillo leads Next Century Cities, a resource to a growing cohort of mayors from 200 cities and counties in 40 states that are building out broadband infrastructure and getting constituents connected. NCC is also at the forefront of a movement to ensure that those without digital access participate in the 2020 Census. So much is at stake, from federal resources to political representation, that NCC published a census toolkit and is working with local leaders to make Wi-Fi enabled kiosks available to those without connectivity. Francella opens minds and hearts about our collective responsibility to become stewards for those who are disenfranchised from our digital world.
In our first Power Station episode of 2020, we welcome celebrated advocate Marco Davis, eight months into his role as President & CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI). Marco shares his vision for deepening the impacts of CHCI’s programs, known for the powerful pipeline of talented Latino leaders they generate. He explains how it all began in 1976, when the first 5 members of Congress of Hispanic descent, came together to support each other and to grow their numbers. Now, 44 years later, the Caucus is comprised of 38 members and is growing. Its nonprofit arm, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, operates Fellowships and Internships that engage participants in the public policy process. As Marco explains, that knowledge is carried into their careers in public service, nonprofits and corporate America. We talk about what is at stake at a time when Latinos have been demonized and under siege. And Marco identifies a more benign form of bias, a profound lack of appreciation for who Latinos are that persists in the media and the public at large.
Join me for an entirely different kind of Power Station episode. This is a look back, with the very talented audio engineer and producer Rob Ford, at why I created Power Station, how personal experience shaped my vision for nonprofit advocacy, the under-reported role of nonprofits in crafting policy solutions to seemingly intractable societal problems and how our guests are thriving in unimaginably challenging times. We talk through the defining characteristics shared by Power Station guests, including their lived experience with the communities they serve and ability to pivot when political circumstances require it. And we credit their influence on democratic candidates whose policy positions on issues ranging from climate change to housing are based in research, data and analysis generated by local and national nonprofits. I express my gratitude to friends and colleagues, including Luis Granados and John Holdsclaw, who have been advisors and supporters since I first thought of creating Power Station as a platform for amplifying the voices of nonprofit change makers. There are many more stories to tell and Power Station intends to tell them. I am grateful to my guests for sharing their vision and to Podcast Village for making it possible.
So much is at stake in America in the year ahead. The 2020 presidential election and decennial census will be markers in history, a time for communities to stand up and be counted or a perilous step backward. For low-income, immigrant and communities of color, in particular, the stakes are tremendously high and civic engagement is an imperative. Latinos have suffered because of the President’s hateful rhetoric and policies, and the violence, including the massacre in El Paso, his leadership has inspired. It will require nonprofit organizations with deep ties to these communities, to mobilize. This is the work that UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, and UnidosUS Action Fund, its sister nonprofit, which focuses on political action, are leading. Orson Aguilar, the new executive director of the Action Fund, is energized for the challenge. Contrary to the media’s perception that Latinos are moved to action exclusively on immigration, survey results tell a different story. It turns out that the top 4 issues of interest to Latinos are: jobs and the economy; health, immigration and climate change. Much great work is ahead.
Jon Pratt builds community, influence and power every day. He leads the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, a trade association for nonprofit organizations that provide services in the arts, education, affordable housing, health and the environment. Just as chambers of commerce represent the interests of the business community, MCN amplifies the voices of the nonprofit community. It is where members learn about legislation affecting their mission and tax status, new research from the field, and resources for building advocacy capacities. And their considerable collective power is making an impact. MCN members meet regularly with elected officials, identify unmet needs and recommend policy solutions to solve them. Now they are upping their game with Grant Adviser. This new initiative will resonate with anyone who has ever applied for a grant or reported to a funder on grant outcomes. Think of Grant Adviser as Yelp for philanthropy. Nonprofits provide anonymous feedback about foundations, from the application process to their communications with applicants. And foundations are (mostly) taking the feedback seriously. There’s more to come from MCN and Grant Advisor. That is always the case when change makers are at the helm.
Diane Yentel leads the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, the nation’s most influential champion for ending housing poverty and homelessness in America. It is a respected presence on Capitol Hill and in state houses where legislators know that their reports and testimony are evidence-based and accurate. In recent years, NLIHC has stopped every effort rolled out by the Trump Administration and US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Secretary Carson to weaken housing policies and demonize low income renters. Given this context, Diane is alarmed but not entirely surprised by the president’s appointment of Robert Marbut to head the US Interagency Council on Homelessness. It coincides with the administration’s proposal to use empty barracks in Los Angeles to warehouse a growing homeless population, an opportunity to demean a democratic mayor and hurt people with no options other than to live on the streets. This new challenge does not overwhelm the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. They will mobilize, create new partnerships and stand up for the real solution to solving homelessness: access by low income people to safe and affordable homes. Diane tells the story here.
This nation values higher education but make it hard to access, particularly for low-income and people of color. Students may not have counselors to guide their search and the cost of applications can be prohibitive. It takes motivated adults to connect young people to opportunities and Sean Lanier is deeply dedicated and driven in this mission. Although he has retired from the military, he continues to serve his country. When his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute, reached out and asked him to help recruit African American students to the school, he embraced the challenge. But he discovered that his vision for how to create a pipeline of underserved students went further. He now helps not only VMI but also other schools to recruit talented young people and founded a nonprofit to advance this mission. He travels to cities across the country, meets with students, their parents and community-based partners to demonstrate what is possible, from education in STEM and technology, as well as military careers. In doing so, he is building community among those who need the assistance and those who are motivated to help. Maybe you want to participate too.
When Eddy Morales first moved back to Gresham, Oregon from Washington, DC, he did not plan to run for elected office. He expected to continue his business as a political campaign adviser and reconnect with family and community. Years in DC working with Voto Latino and Democracy Alliance had sharpened his considerable talents as a national policy advocate, and he wanted to engage civically at the local level. But when he watched the 2016 election returns with his nieces and nephews, intending to celebrate the election of the nation’s first women president, his heart sank. The election of Donald trump and its implications for family members who were not citizens, motivated him to act. He advocated that the Gresham City Council assume Sanctuary City status and challenged the intrusion of ICE into community life. When responses ranged from indifference to hostility, he took stock of the political landscape and determined that transforming the status quo meant getting involved at more structural level. He formed East County Rising and a new era of political activism and community engagement was born.
Gun violence continues to devastate families and communities. When 20 first graders and six adults were murdered by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, the nation’s shock and grief were palpable. President Obama spoke passionately about the urgency of passing background checks and stronger gun control laws. But pushback by the NRA and members of Congress prevailed. When parents of murdered children at Sandy Hook came together after the assault, their first instinct was to advocate for background checks. When that effort failed, they embraced a new strategy and focus. They formed Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization whose emphasis is on school safety, violence reduction and mental health. As Nicole Hockley, co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise who lost her son Dylan explains to Power Station, these efforts are resonating in school districts across America. There is training for children on the power of kindness and inclusion of their classmates. And for those in middle and high school, there is training and on how to identify and report signs of depression and violence. Sandy Hook Promise is making transformational change possible.
We all want to be heard and understood, a fair expectation. But being heard takes more than engaging an attentive listener. It requires purpose, knowing what we want to say and how to express ourselves. We must know how to adapt communication styles, from a private conversation to a conference room to social media. It can be humbling, frustrating and even costly when we fail. Tia Blount brings her passion for communication to nonprofits where the mission is vital and the stakes for persuasion are high. A mission statement alone will not persuade women in Tanzania to participate in health trials whose benefits will accrue to the generation after their own. An affordable housing group in Washington, DC, cannot inspire the communities they serve by using real estate jargon. Tia's work addresses the gap between organizational intention and what it takes to make an impact. It turns out that Tia's childhood passion for writing was the beginning of a lifelong journey to bring the power of communication to us all.
Since 1991, Latino Economic Development Center, a DC based nonprofit, has worked side by side with Latino families to make their American Dreams possible. These families, both citizens and undocumented immigrants, have aspirations of safe and affordable rental housing, home ownership and the launching and expansion of small businesses. But they are under-resourced in the federal budget and underserved by banks that view them as too risky to invest in. This is why LEDC became a Community Development Financial Institution, a lender certified by the US Department of Treasury, to make the investments that others will not. As executive director Marla Bilonick explains, an ethos of service, expertise in asset building and commitment to progressive policy advocacy has enabled LEDC to thrive in a very divisive political climate. LEDC has opened new offices in Baltimore, Wheaton, Maryland, Arlington, Virginia and recently, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. A local organization is now a national change maker.
America has a conflicted relationship to science. Presidents and Congress love science until data is at odds with their beliefs, political and economic interests. Public confidence in science is growing as evidence of the impacts of climate change on rising sea levels, displacement and migration in coastal communities is now widely accepted. Jacob Carter, biologist and research scientist from the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy points out the unprecedented suppression of science by the Trump Administration, including reports issued by federal agencies ranging from the US Environmental Protection Agency to the US Fish and Wildlife Services. Scientists within the federal system are being defunded, censored and prohibited from attending meetings on their areas of study. This aggressive stance has left our federal scientists with a serious morale problem and is dissuading early career scientists from entering the public service pipeline. Jacob is heartened by the outpouring of scientists and community members who showed up for the March on Science and the fact that public trust in science is at an all-time high.
It’s hard to describe how energy shifts when Patrick Gaspard is in the room. He is positive, ready to engage, and most importantly, completely present. As president of the Open Society Foundations, whose philanthropy supports democratic practice, human rights and equal access to justice in 120 countries, Patrick is a powerful presence in many rooms. His ability to listen to and act on what communities are saying in those rooms is grounded in his personal experience as an organizer. He knows that listening yields critical information and validates those who are not heard enough. Steeped in the convictions of founder George Soros, Open Society Foundations advocates for persecuted communities across the globe, from the Rohingya forced into statelessness by Myanmar to the LGBTQ community in Kenya. In the United States, Open Society Foundations supports organizing, social mobilization and civil rights. Patrick is optimistic about what a new generation of organizing has generated. He sees young people breaking through the silos and thriving in a world of intersectionality. He reminds us, that change making is urgent, unstoppable and fun, an important message in these chaotic times.
How do we know that the nonprofit programs we believe in are effective? Without evaluating them against pre-determined measures we cannot make a case for their efficacy, replication or scaling. It starts with a process that ensures that stakeholders are engaged in developing them, measurable goals are identified and the vision for success is shared. And, for these measures to be impactful, they must be shaped through a racial equity lens. Whether the policy goal is reductions in teen pregnancy, increases in child literacy or access to capital, we need to start with enough humility to know that evidence-based data empowers us to test and learn from our theories. And this is where Dr. Bahby Banks reigns supreme. As a doctoral student, she fell in love with logic models and metrics that form the basis of program design and evaluation. Now she is a much sought-after facilitator for organizations that pursue social impact change making. She has a great capacity to connect, listen to and honor the stakeholders in the room. And she teaches us all how to use data to negotiate effectively for community needs.
Ilda Martinez was 3 years old when she arrived at a migrant Head Start center in Plant City, Florida. Her first language was Mixtec, an indigenous dialogue of Oaxaca, Mexico. She learned Spanish and then English in Head Start programs. These migrant and seasonal programs are critical resources for families like Ilda’s that move several times a year to harvest crops, from blueberries in North Carolina to strawberries in Florida and asparagus in Michigan. The work is arduous, the weather can be brutal, and housing situations are often meager. Less noted is that farm work requires significant skill and commitment. As National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association executive director Cleo Rodriguez explains, without migrant farmworkers, the US agricultural sector would collapse. Ilda's childhood in Head Start led her to the NMSHSA Internship Program, which brings young people to Washington for eight weeks each year, an opportunity that as Ilda describes, is game changing. As Ilda explains, the characteristic that best defines migrant families is resilience.And remember her name because Ilda will be an influential voice for social justice well into the future.
Head Start is known for making early childhood development and education a reality for all families. Developed as part of the 1960’s War on Poverty, Head Start is an example of public policy that serve the educational needs of underserved children. But the Head Start model was organized around the school calendar, an approach that works for most but not all of our nation’s families. It does not meet the unique needs of migrant families, who travel from state to state to harvest our nation’s crops. The National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association was created specifically for farmworkers whose expertise and labor are responsible for the produce in our stores and the bounty on our tables. They are served by dedicated community-based Migrant and Seasonal Head Start providers, 27 programs in 40 states. Many providers come from farmworker families themselves and are highly committed to serving families that move 3 times per year. Cleofas Rodriguez Jr, executive director of The Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, speaks to the foresight of President Johnson in creating these program and to his love for the families he serves.
Have you been to the 14th street corridor of Washington DC lately? It is a destination spot for upscale restaurants, furniture stores, galleries and newly constructed apartment buildings. If you venture to a leafy side street you will find a courtyard that leads to N Street Village, a local nonprofit whose programs and advocacy serve 2000 homeless and low-income women annually year. Many of these women grew up in the shadows of an earlier incarnation of 14th Street, devastated by rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King and in the clutches of poverty and the crack epidemic for decades. As N Street Village CEO Schroeder Stribling, explains, when these women arrive, they are looking for what we all need: a supportive community, safe and affordable housing, and attention to mental and physical health challenges. It is Schroeder’s mission to provide a “radically welcoming” environment. Schroeder and the N Street Village staff and volunteers manage an array of facilities and services in a fashion that Schroeder describes as emergency room triage. The bigger picture, she reminds us, is that housing solves homelessness. We just need to create the political will.
In 1980, James Abourezk, US Senator from South Dakota and the first Arab-American elected to Congress, founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. It is now the nation’s largest grassroots nonprofit advocating for the civil and human rights of Arab Americans. With a small staff of lawyers, and community-based supporters in 50 states, ADC, under the leadership of Samer Khalef, represents Arab Americans in cases involving hate crimes, discrimination and deportation. And it educates the public and policy makers about who Arab Americans are, from their rich cultural backgrounds to their experience in America. Arab-Americans face specific challenges as immigrants, including the reality of being stateless and having no country to claim as their own. Those who are able to remain in the US exist in a sort of legal limbo. They are on essentially on parole, unable to work and ineligible for public resources. Samer is optimistic about the determination of Arab Americans to turn out for the 2020 elections but concerned about voter suppression. He will definitely make the voice of his community heard.
An innovative nonprofit is requiring us to rethink our assumptions about who works in the digital economy. Byte Back, a DC based training organization led by the dynamic Elizabeth Lindsey, is shaking up the workforce and technology sectors by bringing non-traditional workers into the sectors. In many cases, these students have never used a computer or even had broadband access. So it follows that Byte Back meets students where they are. While the process may take longer, classes are rigorous and require discipline to complete. Byte Back cultivates teachers who are committed to their students’ success. And it works. Students are graduating with certificates that make them valuable employees for companies that pay living wages and benefits. The issues that Byte Back addresses cannot be fixed by training alone. Byte Back is increasingly active in public policy advocacy. You will want to stay tuned for the next chapter of their work.
When Ali Noorani visited Honduras, he met migrants desperate to escape poverty and violence for presumed safety and opportunity in the United States. As Ali sees it, this administration's hateful rhetoric and treatment of immigrants is robbing our entire nation of its dignity. The Forum was launched in 1982 to coalesce civil rights organizations in advocating for a just immigration system. After President Obama was elected there was growing optimism about the potential for a path to citizenship. When momentum for change came crashing down in 2010, Ali had a realization that defined the next generation of the National Immigration Forum’s strategy. He noted that while political parties talked about immigration in political terms, the rest of the country viewed it in cultural terms. In 2012, Ali began engaging with cultural influencers: faith, law enforcement and veterans’ leaders in traditionally conservative parts of the country. The resulting conversations about their fears, questions and concerns, have generated unprecedented trust. As a result, a collective willingness to stand for and with immigrant communities, has brought some of these leaders to advocate for pro-immigrant public policies on Capitol Hill.
Do you envision think tanks to be old-school institutions far-removed from real life community experiences? Solomon Greene, Senior Fellow at The Urban Institute, will make you reconsider those assumptions. The Urban Institute was founded in 1968 by President Johnson to generate evidence-based strategies for ending urban poverty. It has evolved into an organization that partners with diverse stakeholders to tackle our nation’s most intractable problems, primarily those founded in policies of racial segregation. Solomon talks about the potential of popularizing zoning strategies to create more racially and economically inclusive communities. Minneapolis is leading in this movement and the story of how it banned single-family housing development is both unexpected and inspiring. He is excited about the emergence of affordable housing, land use and zoning proposals by our presidential candidates. We await the moment when moderators ask candidates questions about those positions at the next presidential debate..
As Sookyung Oh explains, Annandale, Virginia is much more than a destination spot for Korean BBQ and Pho. It is home to Korean and Vietnamese Americans and a new wave of Caribbean and African immigrants. Sookyung leads NAKASEC (National Korean American Service and Education Consortium) a grassroots organization with affiliate offices in Los Angeles, Orange County and Chicago. Its power building mission This mission is particularly meaningful for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, which sometimes feels invisible to the broader public. A small staff and a dedicated corps of young Korean American and Vietnamese American organizers, from local high schools and colleges, canvass neighborhoods and engage in one-on-one conversations with community members. They ask questions to gauge which issues are animating the community and then draw them into organizing efforts. Legal permanent residents are absorbing hateful rhetoric and policies by the Trump Administration and fear deportation. An uncertain future for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is another key concern. This scenario is causing young people get involved in the 2020 elections.
Eshauna Smith knows first-hand what it takes to break through barriers and achieve success. The eldest child in a family struggling with poverty, she forged a different future. This experience informs her leadership of Urban Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young people from challenging backgrounds attain economic success. As Eshauna learned, having adults stand up for her was transformation. Their support, from helping with Girl Scout camp applications, to summer jobs and internships, propelled her through degrees from UC Berkeley and UT Austin. Now Eshauna is persuading a new set of adults, in high schools and corporations, to stand up for the young people Urban Alliance serves. She does this by engaging them in a model that prepares high school students for higher education and successful employment. Urban Alliance partners with high schools to place motivated seniors into 9-month paid internships with corporations seeking good employees. Front line staff provide students with soft skills training and are available 24 hours a day to corporate supervisors. The model is working. Urban Alliance is celebrating the graduation of 500 high school seniors from these internships and expanding to new cities and industries.
The numbers are staggering: 70% of American college graduates carry student debt and our outstanding national student debt level now exceeds $1.5 trillion. A new report, Quicksand: Borrowers of Color and the Student Debt Crisis, authored by Center for Responsible Lending CRL) and the NAACP describes the scope of the problem, identifies which communities are most impacted and recommends systemic reforms. Debt impacts which jobs borrowers take, communities they live in, schools their children attends and delays home purchases by 7 years. Ashley Harrington, CRL’s Senior Policy Council and co-author of Quicksand, explains that our national narrative about education as a pathway for advancement is at odds with the lived experience of students who are not wealthy and White. If access to education is a national value, why has there been a steady disinvestment by the federal government in public colleges? The opportunity for higher education to lessen the racial wealth gap is undermined by federal policies that enable private colleges to manipulate their students and loan servicing that makes repayment almost impossible. Quicksand offers solutions and ways for us to support those solutions. Our voices matters and we need to use them.
Have you ever wished that a public agency official understood the problem you are trying to solve as a nonprofit leader? Tameka Montgomery, appointed by President Obama as Associate Administrator to the Small Business Administration’s Office of Entrepreneurial Development, understands. She came to the position after creating a business incubator in Denver and leading its award-winning Small Business Center. During her tenure, she launched the Main Street Mentor Walk, a 5k that swapped out running for walking and matched new entries into the business sector with experienced business leaders. And she started the first Latino Small Business Summit to provide entrepreneurs with culturally specific resources and guidance. While at the SBA, Tameka elevated training and technical assistance resources for formerly incarcerated people seeking jobs. She founded Core Strategy Partners to help those working at the intersection of business value and social impact. And she hosts a wonderful podcast, Raising Entrepreneurs, that helps parents to foster entrepreneurship in their children. Did I mention that she is also the mother of 3 boys, 9, 11 and 13? You can hear them all here.
Domestic violence, as Karma Cottman explains, is motivated by a drive to maintain power and control within an intimate partner relationship. It is abuse of power that is conveyed in many forms: physical, psychological, economic and coercion. Domestic upends families and traumatizes victims, including children who witness violence within their own households. And It is pervasive across boundaries of race and class. DCADV is where everyday heroes, counselors, lawyers and organizers. work in support of survivors. advocate for systems change. It hosts Listening Sessions where survivors tell their stories, trains teachers to support students impacted by domestic violence, and engages young men in changing our nation’s culture of violence. It is also a winning advocate for policy change at both the local and national levels. DCADV won passage of the School Safety Act by the DC City Council and is now a leader in national advocacy as well. Its sister nonprofit, UJIMA, focuses on violence against African-American, African Immigrant, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino communities. DCADV is home to a remarkable collection of change makers and Karma is the leader they need and truly deserve to have.
What does it take to eliminate housing discrimination and ensure equal housing opportunity? According to Lisa Rice, President of the National Fair Housing Alliance, (NHFA) it starts with recognizing that discrimination and inequity are rooted in federal policies, most fundamentally, residential segregation. The legacy of racist policies, from redlining to unequal access to credit, persists in communities of color. Disinvestment creates desperation for those seeking credit, a vacuum that has been filled by payday lenders and other predatory actors. NFHA is dedicated to the equal and fair access of all people to live in the housing and community of their choice. And while NFHA advocates for just policies no matter who is in the White House, the extreme actions of the current administration have created unforeseen circumstances. They include the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s eradication of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule, which NFHA legally challenged and was able to restore, but without the tool that enables municipalities to meet fair housing act requirements. We are all responsible to raise our voices in the name of justice.
Sunrise Movement is changing the conversation about this nation’s climate crisis and what can be done to turn it around. It builds on the work of scientists and advocates who have long warned about the consequences of our reliance on fossil fuels, the inevitability of environmental degradation, and the influence of industry lobbyists on our elected representatives. And a surge of devastating wildfires and floods due to rising sea levels, which displaced whole communities, has shifted our collective consciousness about the change that needs to happen. College student Yasmeen Pauling is devoting her considerable talents and energy to Sunrise Movement as a Policy Fellow. In the wake of the 2018 mid-term elections, Sunrise Movement, led by the dynamic Varshini Prakash, and powered by a legion of young organizers, convened scores of town halls and meetings with policy makers on Capitol Hill. They are building support for the Green New Deal, an ambitious plan to end our dependence on fossil fuels and create a clean energy economy. And while some political detractors dismiss their credibility, Sunrise has formidable champions as well. And it is not stopping.
Liberation in a Generation is a new organization that takes a fresh, laser-focused and unapologetic approach to breaking down systems that oppress people of color and building an economy that raises them up. It is co-directed by Jeremie Greer and Solana Rice, whose vision for change is informed by their collective experiences as community and political organizers, researchers and policy advocates. They are reimagining how policy change at the intersection of race and economics is made and opening the door to engage new partners in the journey. It starts by working directly with local organizing networks, including PICO, Faith in Action and Center for Popular Democracy, that build power in communities of color. Jeremie and Solana are asking us to challenge the elite systems, from corporations to academia to the media, that perpetuate institutionalized racism and create a new and more just system. And they are inviting philanthropy to invest in organizations led by people of color that are at the forefront of a movement for economic and racial justice.
Let’s start with this statistic: One in five Americans lives in rural America. And these communities are far more diverse than the archetypical bucolic New England town. They include tribal lands, the Mississippi Delta, border Colonias, and Appalachia where the legacies of injustice include barriers to the capital needed to build homes and multi-family housing. As David Lipsetz, CEO of Housing Assistance Council (HAC), says, these communities are home to rich histories, assets and opportunities. But in many cases, they are also epicenters, over decades, of persistent poverty. A product of rural towns, David has spent his career focused on changing the fortunes of rural Americans. Before leading Housing Assistance Council, he worked in the Obama Administration at both HUD and USDA. He knows first-hand, the difference federal investment can make in struggling communities. HAC is well-known as a fierce champion for rural America. And as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), HAC is a lender in places that traditional banks do not serve.
When Paty Funegra was on Power Station one year ago, she told La Cocina VA’s founding story and promised to return with an update on a new capital campaign. La Cocina VA was already training and certifying unemployed Latino immigrants as food industry professionals. The next step was to scale up the model, teach entrepreneurship, and serve a growing refugee population. La Cocina VA is now recognized as a model for workforce development both nationally and internationally. It is a disruptor in a sector and field that needed this burst of energy and innovation. Which brings us to this latest conversation about La Cocina VA. Its capitol campaign generated over $2 million for construction costs and ground has been broken for the Zero Barriers Training Center. It will include include a training center, kitchen incubator, Café, and technology center and promises to be a beacon for a immigrants, refugees, friends and neighbors. There is so much more to this conversation. Don’t miss it.
What makes health equity, the opportunity for all people to be healthy and thrive, possible? According to Dr. Brian Smedley, it starts with recognizing our nation’s profound health disparities and the role of place and race in determining health outcomes. Data shows higher rates of mortality in communities of color where food options, quality of air, soil and the physical state of schools and housing, including exposure to lead, endanger residents. And people in rural areas are compromised by a lack of access to health resources and care. As executive director of National Collaborative for Health Equity, Brian Smedley believes that until we grapple with the injustice of these disparities we cannot change the conditions that marginalize whole communities. The Collaborative harnesses the talents of communities and health professionals, to transform systems and change lives.
Two dynamic forces have come together to create opportunity and equity in Washington DC’s historically underserved Black neighborhoods. One is Martha’s Table, a nonprofit whose mission is to support strong children, strong families and strong communities. It transforms the lives of Ward 5, 6, 7 and 8 residents through high-quality education programs, access to healthy food, and family support services. Most recently, it opened The Commons, a 43,000 square foot facility in Ward 8, where babies are cared for, children learn to read, and parents shop in markets, at no cost, for delicious and healthy fruit and vegetables. The other factor is Kim Ford, an accomplished leader and DC native, who recently signed on as the new executive director. Kim, a veteran of the Obama Administration and the former Dean of Workforce Development at the University of the District of Columbia Community College, is a relentless champion of DC families. She sees herself as a partner to the residents that Martha’s Table serves and rejects the notion of organizations as saviors and providers of second chances. This is the model of development that our communities need and deserve.
What does it take to unapologetically and intentionally show up in the world as your authentic self? How do you generate the cultural shifts required for all people to be free? These are thoughts that motivate David Johns in his leadership of the National Black Justice Coalition. David lives and works at the intersection of the Black and LGBTQ experience where these questions are fundamental to the everyday experience. He and his team advocate for public policies in housing, health, schools and criminal justice that are essential to the safety and security of African-American lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people. David came to NBJC after serving, during the administration of President Barack Obama, as the first executive director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence. David is an unrelenting advocate who views the world as the kindergarten teacher he once was. He passionately pursues a better future for his students.
As executive director of Groundswell, Michelle Moore leads with a deep conviction that solar power is an abundant source of energy that should also be a source of economic empowerment. She wants all communities to have access to clean energy and has developed a model for supplying it that has taken root in 5 states and Washington DC. Groundswell’s Empower program enables market rate subscribers to purchase solar energy from a local power project and share the savings with low-income residents. This approach is cutting energy bills in half, creating a pathway for savings that low-income families need for rent, food and school. Groundswell also partners with community-based partners willing to host a power project on their land, rooftop or parking lot. Michelle knows the energy sector’s strengths and weaknesses including a lack of racial and gender diversity in its executive leadership. She is a disruptor in the energy sector who wants the sector to look much more like the communities Groundswell serves. And she wants rural communities, like her own in La Grange, Georgia to be included in the energy conversation too.
Chris Lu has spent the last 20 years at the hub of federal policy making, including as Deputy Secretary for the US Department of Labor, and he is still a champion of public service. As he says, government matters: it builds our roads and bridges, creates the laws that protect veterans, keeps our homeland secure and our air and water clean. He is guided by a belief in the capacity of government to make the American Dream possible for all families, including his own parents, who immigrated to the United States from China. Now a Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Policy, Chris speaks often to young people who want to affect policy change. His advice is to think more expansively about where and how change is made. Chris sees innovation and problem-solving on issues from climate change to job training and Census implementation resting in local and state government, nonprofits and even mission-driven corporations. And he sees technology as crucial to the mostly calcified systems that nonprofits and companies use to manage government relations. Chris Lu is a believer in our collective potential to make change.
In Native American communities, conversations about building local economies start with a shared belief in tribal sovereignty. This belief is foundational to the Native CDFI Network, whose 50 nonprofit members based in 23 states, provide financial education, credit building, and make loans for housing and small businesses where traditional banks are not engaged. Jackson Brossy brings his experience of growing up in Navajo Nation to his leadership of the Network. The legacy of forcible removal of Native Americans from their land, the decimation of assets, including buffalo, and the more current failure of public and corporate to invest on tribal land are drivers of the Network's vision. As Jackson explains, people should not have to travel for miles to buy milk and groceries and invest their resources off reservation. But a lack of access to the capital needed to launch businesses in Indian country and the complications of investment on rural lands held in trust by the federal government are barriers to thriving economies. Change is coming.
When we hear about a natural disaster our first thoughts go to saving people and then to saving homes, roads and infrastructure. We expect a rapid response by government and relief agencies and, hopefully, we volunteer to help. Chef José Andrés launched World Central Kitchen in the wake of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. He found his way to the island, listened to people struggling to survive and used his unique skills as a chef and entrepreneur to feed the community. Since then, World Central Kitchen has used food, our most shared cultural touchstone to uplift communities after floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados in North Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Mozambique. WCK galvanizes chefs, students, professionals and everyday people to produce thousands of meals in logistically impossible situations. And Chef Andrés is a moral voice on behalf of immigrants and refugees battered by poverty, political turmoil and a hostile White House. As WCK executive director Nate Mook explains after his recent return from Mozambique with José, “the first step we take is to connect to local networks.” WCK is both a collaborator and a disruptor in the government and nonprofit sector.
Restaurant Opportunities Center, a nonprofit that advocates for restaurant workers to receive equitable pay and treatment. was borne in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. On that horrific day, 73 workers from the Center’s iconic restaurant, Windows on the World, were killed and their co-workers displaced. Sekou Siby, a Windows on the World cook from the Ivory Coast, organized those survivors to ensure their well-being and to find new opportunities in the industry. Their efforts started with a worker’s center in New York and has since expanded into Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a game changing national nonprofit with chapters across the United States. In Washington DC, organizers Sophia Miyoshi and Candance Cunningham tackle wage theft and sexual harassment while promoting fair wages and paid family leave for tipped workers and racial equity in the industry overall. Sophie and Candance are coalition builders and they want you to be informed consumers about the restaurants you support.
If you think that young people are disconnected from public policymaking, you need to reconsider your assumptions. United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led nonprofit in the nation is on the frontlines of advocacy and activism for undocumented immigrants. Staff and members are youth for whom immigration, detention, deportation, enforcement and citizenship are both personal and political. Their hard work has been instrumental in organizing for passage of the Dream and Promise Act and against federal funding of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. United We Dream also builds pipelines of leadership for the future. And Sanaa and her network of leaders are active both on Capitol Hill and in states where the stakes are highest, including New Mexico, Texas, Florida and Maryland. These are change makers to watch and learn from.
The National Skills Coalition was launched twenty years ago when public support for job training was lagging and both labor and business leaders were concerned about the resulting lack of job opportunities and readiness. NSC’s is now bolstered by 28,000 members representing industry, labor unions, community colleges and Chambers of Commerce. As Amanda Bergson-Shilcock, NSC’s Director of Upskilling Policy says about this disparate and broad-ranging coalition, “They may not agree on much, but they all agree on the importance of workforce development.” They meet with state and federal policy makers to advocate evidence-based positions and to share the results of a new NSC poll of 2020 voters. It demonstrates overwhelming support for increased public investment in people’s skills to meet employers’ workforce needs. That demand rests with “middle skills” jobs, such as those in the culinary arts and the medical field. They require training that falls between high school and a 4-year college and create an opportunity as a society that we cannot afford to miss.
The Center for Responsible Lending was founded in the belief that all communities should have access to fair banking and lending services. And that the nation’s financial marketplace, from Wall Street to banks, should be reformed. It was rooted in the civil rights and economic justice movements and grew out of Self Help, a credit union launched in North Carolina in 1980. As Niktra Bailey, Executive VP says, "Low income families shouldn’t have to pay more for financial services.” We talk about CRL's unimpeachable research and its field building among diverse organizations. We looked back at the promise of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the hard-fought “win” of the small dollar loan rule, which over 700 nonprofit and faith-based organizations advocated for. Nikitra, a lawyer with an expertise in financial services is a leader committed to those who have been hurt by the debt trap. She is ready, as always, for what comes next.
Share Our Strength is an organization rooted in the conviction that hunger is a solvable problem. It is led by Billy and Debby Shore, whose father ran the political office of a congressional member in Pittsburgh and made the everyday realities of constituents a part of the dinner table conversation. Billy and Debby now lead a thriving organization that deploys staff across the country to collaborate with schools, parents, chefs, corporate allies and policy makers to solve our nation’s hunger and nutrition challenges. As Monica Gonzales, Associate Director of Government Relations for No Kid Hungry, says, "hunger affects children in urban, rural and suburban communities alike. And it is an indicator of other unmet needs that stem from poverty.” Monica draws on her experience as a child who benefited from school-based breakfast programs when she meets with policy makers on Capitol Hill. And she underscores what the data shows: nutritious food, like early exposure to reading, is critical in early childhood development and is a predictor for positive life outcomes. By building bi-partisan support on Capitol Hill, Monica stands up for policies that nurture children and families and she stands with the elected leaders that champion them.
If you want to see justice in action, go to DC Superior Court and look for the lawyers with the blue clipboards and a sign offering free help. They position themselves there for the 2 days a weeks dedicated to debt collection and are a counterpart to a sea of for-profit debt collectors. The justice gap for people marginalized by debt is what led Ariel Levinson-Waldman to create Tzedek DC, a public interest nonprofit that advocates for just policy solutions. Debt can have devastating consequences for people with a limited ability to repay. It can mean the suspension of a driver's license, leading people who need to drive to get to work or take kids to school to risk arrest by doing so. And non-payment of utility bills can lead to wage garnishment that makes it impossible for low-wage workers to pay rent. Judgements on permanent records create significant obstacles to employment, housing and credit. Tzedek DC is based in the central Jewish tenet of seeking justice. It is making justice possible, in collaboration with a growing cohort of inter-faith partners, in DC and nationally.
The path to legal services for the poor in the U.S. includes support from the Freedman’s Association post Civil War to philanthropic investment by the Ford Foundation in the 1960s and the adoption of federal funding in 1974. A conversation with Maryland Legal Aid's Amy Petkovsek and Dimitri Degbeu demonstrates how innovative and life-changing a nonprofit law firm can be. In both rural communities and urban centers, MLA's lawyers represent people facing eviction, predatory debt collection and foreclosure. They may be in in custody disputes, have wage claims, are struggling to gain veteran’s benefits and are tethered to criminal charges that deprive them of employment and housing rights. Amy, MLA’s Director of Advocacy, and Dimitri, a paralegal, talk about the Lawyer in the Library program, which provides counsel on these issues in a safe community space. MLA also provides assistance on the City's workforce development buses, sees public schools as their next frontier and educates state policy makers about the change that is needed. As Dimitri says, We need to recognize the humanity in folks that are often left out. The harm we cause to others is the harm we will eventually feel ourselves.
What does it take to build wealth in low-income and communities of color? It requires more than personal responsibility and savings. Bridging our nation’s gaping racial wealth divide means taking on systemic barriers: racism, student debt, low wages and resistance to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. We need changes to the US Tax Code, which, as Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, Acting Director of Capital Area Asset Builders explains, “rewards the rich, misses the middle and penalizes the poor.” In combination with other financial education and resources, families that file for and receive a credit can aspire to and reach financial goals, from a college education to the purchase of a home or the launch of a small business. In Washington DC, where over 1/3 of the residents are unbanked or underbanked, Capital Area Asset Builder leads a network of nonprofits, City government, corporate and foundation partners, in advocating for the EITC. CAAB also promotes the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, a critical alternative to the unregulated tax preparers who strip wealth wealth in poor communities.
A new organization is amplifying the voices of those who are often invisible in the immigration narrative, undocumented Black people. The UndocuBlack Network started when a group of currently and formerly undocumented Black people came together after Freddy Gray, a Baltimore resident, died from injuries sustained while in police custody. In just 3 years, the UndocuBlack Network has blossomed into a national nonprofit. As Gabrielle Jackson, co-founder and Mental Wellness Director explains, undocumented people from the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Latin America and the African Continent are deported at significantly higher rates than other populations and their stories are often underreported. A childhood arrival from Trinidad and Tobago, Gabrielle wants no one else to feel the kind of aloneness that she did. As she says, We focus on both policy advocacy and mental illness and mental wellness issues. You have the right not just to survive but to thrive.
Dr. Imani Woody has a vision and she is bringing it to life. It reflects a lifetime of working at the intersection of LGBTQ, race, cultural diversity, and aging issues. It is informed by her experience with her father, an accomplished entrepreneur, who, after entering a "good" nursing home, experienced a decline in self-worth and physical health. She took her father out of the facility, into her home, and reimagined what is possible.The model Dr. Woody has developed is based in research, including her own PhD thesis, which chronicled the challenges of aging, particularly for LGBTQ elders who are most likely to suffer from isolation, discrimination and marginalization. She formed a nonprofit, and drew on her experience with the Whitman Walker Center, the Mautner Project for Lesbians, the AARP Foundation Sage Metro DC and as an appointee to the DC Office of LGBTQ Affairs. In September 2020. she will break ground on the first Mary's Center for Older Adults, communal living for LGBTQ elders.
Alison Feighan learned about the power of community development to change communities and lives as a Fair Housing advocate in Quincy, Massachusetts. In her first "real" job out of college, Alison became a Fair Housing advocate for Quincy Community Action Agency where she worked for and was mentored by her executive director, the late Rosemary Wahlberg. The lessons learned from Rosemary - listening to the community, being problem solving and taking local stories to a national stage on Capitol Hill - are foundational to Alison's work. As Founder of The Feighan Team, an advocacy and lobbying firm for nonprofits, Alison gets her clients seats at the table on the Hill and then "gets out of the way." She works with them to identify their goals, understand the Congressional timeline, and build their "muscle memory" as advocates on their issues. And she encourages a non-partisan approach, a significant challenge in the current political environment. Her clients, which include the Native CDFI Coalition, National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Association and the Responsible Business Lending Coalition, have become resources to Congressional members and their staffs. They are developing and using their muscle memory to make their case, push back against Budget cutbacks and create bi-partisan champions in the US Congress.
This episode of Power Station tracks the latest news on the lawsuit, filed by Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, challenging the inclusion of an untested citizenship question on the decennial U.S. Census. John Yang, President of AAJC, explains what the lawsuit alleges: that adding the question represents collusion by President Trump, Kris Kobach, Steve Bannon and Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to deprive Asian-American, Pacific Islander, Latino and Native Americans of their constitutional right to representation in the Census. Census data is what drives more than $600 billion in federal funding allocations annually to schools, hospitals, roads and all of the systems that make communities whole. It is also what determines how districts are drawn and the number of congressional seats each state has within the U.S. House of Representatives. The proposed addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census undermines the very purpose of this singular enterprise: to count all people in the U.S. and create a data-driven roadmap for public investment where and for whom it is needed the most.
As Mike Koprowski, National Campaign Director of Opportunity Starts at Home says, eyes widen on Capitol Hill when they see the logos on our letterhead. That is because policymakers are not used to seeing powerful nonprofits outside of the housing sector advocate for a housing centered policy agenda. The data makes the case that decent and affordable housing is foundational to the well-being and economic security of all communities. A growing understanding of the intersectionality of social and economic justice concerns has moved the nation's leading civil rights, education, health and children's organizations to join and shape the agenda of the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign. Mike and Campaign Coordinator Chantelle Wilkinson joined Power Station to talk about this dynamic coalition and about Within Reach, its just-released policy agenda. Within Reach is a comprehensive template for solving the housing crisis for lowest income Americans. It advocates for demand side, supply side and prevention solutions, including new initiatives that create resources for lowest income tenants when emergencies arise. A shift in housing advocacy is happening.
A conversation with Daniel del Pielago, Organizing Director at Empower DC, is a good reminder that public policy change cannot be made or sustained without an organized community. And when the community seeking change is public housing residents, the barriers to becoming organized are considerable and the stakes are extremely high. Daniel tells the story of Berry Farms, a public housing complex beset by deteriorating conditions and a lack of public investment. Berry Farms is slated to be demolished and replaced by mixed-use housing, featuring market rate apartments and town homes. Many residents have been dispersed throughout the City with promises to be returned. But they are organizing and making their voices heard in City Council hearings. The DC Court of Appeals recently vacated approval of the development plan, finding that resident needs are not adequately represented. Empower DC is clearly in the fight for the long haul.
As Diane Yentel, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) explains, Only 1 in 4 households that need and are eligible for housing assistance, gets it. They are the winners in what is basically a housing lottery.Lowest income Americans who need project-based housing subsidies and public housing are the focus of NLIHC's research, analysis, education and policy advocacy. They are also part of the organizational infrastructure that NLIHC has created to advocate for increased investment in affordable housing. Now, in the face of the longest government shutdown in US history, resources generated through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are at risk. Diane tells us how the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF), a collaboration of 70 high-profile organizations and industry experts, has reached out to Congress about the impact of the shutdown on their constituents. Don't miss this conversation with one of our most formidable nonprofit leaders!
New America is a think tank devoted to America's renewal in a time of unprecedented social and technological change. Under the leadership of Anne-Marie Slaughter, it is building a new field of endeavor, known as Public Interest Technology. This emerging sector convenes municipal leaders, public agencies and nonprofits to generate nuanced solutions to systemic problems, from foster care, to opioid abuse and criminal justice. It pairs policy makers with technologists, an area of expertise more closely associated with Silicon Valley than government and NGOs, to create cost-effective and transformative solutions. This effort is led by Cecilia Munoz, a beloved leader at the forefront of progressive change making. Cecilia explains how Public Interest Technology is upending entrenched ideas about the process of change making and uplifts what actually works. Redefining policy change has arrived!
Quyen Dinh, Executive Director of Southeast Asia Resource Center (SEARAC), is deeply connected to the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian communities she serves. As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees she knows first hand the challenges faced by new immigrants with limited resources. SEARAC, a national civil rights organization, is energized by a network of 40 community-based nonprofits that advocate for pro-immigrant policies at the state and federal levels. SEARAC trains young people to share their stories and policy recommendations to their elected representatives. Quyen explains the looming threat of the Trump administration's Public Charge proposal, which would penalize immigrants who access programs that aid families in need. She updates us on the latest round of deportations that are returning Vietnamese and Cambodian people to home countries that some have only fragile connections to. Quyen's trajectory in America fuels her belief in, and support for, others following her path.
Bob Friedman has been at the forefront of building wealth in low-income communities for decades. He founded Corporation for Enterprise Development in 1979, (recently renamed Prosperity Now) to develop, test and implement the strategies needed to move low-income people into the economic mainstream. These now fully vetted strategies are the foundation for Prosperity Now's public policy proposals at the local, state and federal levels. Bob joins Power Station to discuss his new book, A Few Thousand Dollars, which provides a template for building wealth and creating a more equitable America. Bob's hopefulness is unfaltering. He agrees with Sen. Cory Booker, who wrote the book's afterword, that we know how to address the challenge. The question is whether we have the will.
Josh Hoyt explains that the way you make democracy work is by organizing the people who are left out. This is the proposition that guides his leadership of the National Partnership for New Americans, a multi-ethnic and multi-racial organization comprised of the nation’s largest immigrant-serving coalitions, 37 nonprofits in 31 states. These organizations serve both traditional hubs of immigration, such as California and New York, and emerging communities in Minnesota, Alabama, Idaho and Nebraska. Those they serve, Latinos, Asians, and Africans, have been marginalized by a lack of public resources, corrosive rhetoric and the politics of fear. Their collective voices are heard at the National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC). A hallmark of the event is the New American Dreams Platform, whose plank includes Full Citizenship For All and America As A Refuge. As Josh says, an organizer listens and brings people together.
Tanya Fiddler (Cheyenne River Sioux), Executive Director of the Native CDFI Network, is a self-proclaimed wayuiyeska, a Lakota word for translator. In her interactions with policy makers, funders and fellow nonprofit leaders, she translates the experience of Native Americans to those of us who do not fully know it. She \explains that, according to Native spirituality and culture, the concept of asset building is based in the idea that, Everything is for us, but we don't have to own it."The Network's 74 member organizations are certified and emerging CDFIs (Community Development Financial Institutions), Native-run nonprofits that invest in their community's economic future by making home ownership and small business development possible. And financial education is becoming enshrined in early childhood education. Tanya talks about navigating multiple layers of government - tribal, state and federal - to make the needs and capacities of over 500 federally recognized tribes understood. And she relates the ongoing challenge of inclusion at nonprofit tables as well.
How do you create a more just financial marketplace? We explore this question with Diane Standaert, Executive Vice President, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a nonprofit dedicated to economic justice and the elimination of predatory lending. As Diane explains, the problem is rooted in racially exclusionary and discriminatory policy making, exacerbated by the 2008 mortgage crisis. Payday lenders prosper by pulling poor people in need of small dollar loans into a debt trap. CRL conducts empirical research to demonstrate the scope of the problem to state and national policymakers. It partners with local nonprofits, the faith community and veteran's groups to advocate for solutions, from ballot initiatives to state-based legislation. And it advocates on a national level for the embattled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a champion of consumer rights. Check out the vital work led by CRL and Self-Help, it's influential and innovative lending partner.
If you want to know DC as more than the nation's capitol, listen to this conversation with Ed Lazere. As executive director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, he has mastered the formula for influencing the City's legislative and budget making process. He and his team of nine use research and data analysis to shape an advocacy agenda around the issues that are most crucial to low-income DC residents: affordable housing, quality schools, economic development, jobs, training and health care. On this episode, Ed breaks down Initiative 77, a DC ballot measure about tipped wage earners that took an unexpected turn. DCFPI is a force to be reckoned with and we are fortunate to have Ed's insights here.
John Holdsclaw, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs, National Cooperative Bank, refers to himself as an "accidental banker." In this episode, we discuss his evolution from community development practitioner to public policy advocate to a champion for the financing of affordable housing and worker-owned cooperatives. At Capitol Impact Partners, John became a trusted voice on Capitol Hill, known for his support for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which provide capital grants and equity investments in affordable housing and small businesses. At NCB, John is an unstoppable force for investments in high-quality nonprofit CDFIs. John explains how CDFIs fill in where traditional financial services are lacking and our nation's racial wealth gap seems intractable. John talks about what's next in the community development field and how, as his father counseled him, to always be prepared with "facts and stats."
Kathy Tran is a change maker and an advocate for all people seeking to fully live the American Dream. Her own journey started as a 2 year old with her family's exodus from Vietnam to America in search of opportunity and freedom. Kathy witnessed her parents perseverance after settling here and making the sacrifices needed to sustain their family. She was inspired to carry on their legacy through her service at the US Department of Labor, where she focused on education and skill building for immigrants and refugees and on veterans transitioning to the civilian workforce. At the National Immigration Forum, Kathy launched a workforce development program to address the needs of low and high skilled refugees. The 2016 election prompted Kathy to rethink her path and to find a new way to uplift communities. She ran for the Virginia House of Delegates and won, the first Vietnamese American to serve in this important body. We talk about advocacy campaigns and how to be hopeful in challenging times.
Ashley Allison, Executive Vice President of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, talks to Power Station about the All Voting is Local Campaign, which is building support for, and tackling systemic barriers to voting in Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona. This campaign operates as a collaborative with national partners including the ACLU, the American Constitution Society, and local nonprofit partners. Their collective advocacy, litigation, organizing and where possible, partnership with supervisors of elections, has increased the numbers of poll workers and bilingual translators, improved accessibility to voting sites in communities of color and by disabled people. As Ashley explains, this campaign is one of many embraced by The Leadership Conference, a voice for over 200 powerhouse coalition members, including labor unions, civil rights and LGBTQ organizations. She shares her own journey in social change advocacy, informed by her childhood in Youngstown, Ohio, her experiences as a young teacher in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and as a lawyer, serving in the Obama Administration's Office of Public Engagement. Ashley is strategic, passionate and inspiring.
John Yang brings layers of life experience to his leadership of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. His family moved to the US from China when he was a child and coped with losing their documentation, temporarily, after overstaying a work visa. After becoming a lawyer, he litigated for a DC based law firm and was legal director for a fortune 500 company in Shanghai, China. And he served in the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor on Asian issues to US Department of Commerce Secretary Pritzker. As President and Executive Director of AAJC, the largest Asian American policy organization in Washington DC, John leads a team of 20 staff members in advocating for the civil rights of a diverse, and growing constituency. AAJC's work is informed by community partners, locally based nonprofits in 32 states that provide day-to-day services to Asian American. AAJC is now a powerhouse advocate on the most pressing issues of the day: Census 2020, affirmative action, immigration and civic engagement in the policymaking process. AAJC embraces data, debunks stereotypes and collaborates with nonprofit partners to make change possible.
Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, Associate Director of Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB), returns to Power Station with news about the expansion of its Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) campaign into Washington DC’s historic Wards 7 and 8. The EITC enables working people, whose employment is low-wage and sporadic, to claim a tax credit through through their annual tax filing. This return can be instrumental in providing savings towards a home, college education or a small business. The challenge is to get the word out, which is why CAAB launched DC Community Conversations. It raises awareness about the EITC through presentations in schools and community centers in neighborhoods where disinvestment has stripped communities of resources and families of personal wealth. Joseph is exactly the right person to lead this effort. He is a former financial advisor and the product of a single parent household with high aspirations but limited means. His energy and commitment seem boundless and he is a consummate collaborator with the public and corporate partners that share his vision.
Get ready for a dynamic conversation! Becky Belcore, Co-Director, and Jung Woo Kim, Organizer, at National Korean American Service & Educational Consortium (NAKASEC) talk to Power Station about their holistic approach to serving, engaging and advocating for Asian-Americans, this country's fasting growing population. NAKASEC, based in Virginia, has robust affiliates in Chicago and Los Angeles. They help new immigrants and multi-generational AAPI families access services and develop a voice on the issues that directly impact their lives. Becky's background in labor organizing and Jung Woo's experience as an undocumented young person inform their approach to organizing and policy advocacy. Jung Woo's launched Journey 2 Justice, a 37 day bike ride from Seattle to San Diego, in support of Citizenship for All. Once you hear him. you will want to join their next campaign!
Terry Ao Minnis and Angela Manso joined me for a conversation about Census 2020 at Power Station. As you will hear, the stakes for the Census could not be higher. The Census determines the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and the allocation of federal dollars to states. And it is an inventory of who lives in this country, vital information for building a just society. It is important and hopeful that these powerhouse nonprofits, are collaborating with other high-level stakeholders, including MALDEF, through a coalition led by the Leadership Conference of Human and Civil Rights. We talk about implementing a Census in a volatile political environment, the significance of the President's attempt to add a citizenship question to the form and the status of lawsuits regarding the Census. They are Census obsessed and we are the better for it.
The Congressional Black Caucus, known as the conscience of Congress, has been an unabashed advocate for communities of color since its founding in 1971. As executive director of the CBC, Fabrice Coles serves 48 members, including the Chairman, Cedric Richmond, Congressman from Louisiana's 2nd District. His work informs the CBC's on-the-record responses to the issues of the day, including the current Supreme Court nominations process, and the issuance of new and forward looking legislation. Witness the Jobs and Justice Act of 2018, which proposes reforms to and investment in criminal justice, community development, affordable housing and education. The Act reflects the CBC's commitment to working with prized external nonprofit partners, including the National Urban League. In addition to his legal and Capitol Hill expertise, Fabrice has the heart and soul of an organizer. He makes the case for nonprofits to use the power of their station, starting at the local District Office level, where visits have the potential to inform, engage and influence policy makers.
When Carmen Huertas-Noble was a law student she expected a future in public interest law but she did not expect to excel in contracts. Now a tenured professor at the City University School of Law and Director of the Community and Economic Development Clinic, Carmen uses her business acumen to help workers, often in low-wage industries, to develop worker owned cooperatives. This growing movement to create and scale cooperatives, is supported by resources and pending legislation in New York City and State. Carmen collaborates with nonprofits, worker cooperatives, policymakers, organized labor, and community leaders to build an eco-system that is generating a new generation of coops. She honors workers and their advocates and is teaching her students to do so as well. The ability for low-income, workers of colors and immigrants to build an economic future for themselves and their families is especially meaningful in such a challenging political era.
Ron Hantz is back! Our first Power Station guest returns with updates about the Network for Developing Conscious Communities, and the role of intentionality in community development planning and implementation. Ron reports on an NDCC Conference, held last May in Baltimore, that was rooted in the idea that community development requires not just bricks and mortar and access to capital. It requires the deep engagement of neighborhood people in change making. Ron talks about putting his theory of change into action. He is working with nonprofits in New Jersey, Alabama and Indiana, focusing on young leaders who are poised to lead change in their communities. They are building new eco-systems for change and scaling up. Ron believes that we can and should elevate the voices and view of local leaders making progressive change..
Janis Bowdler's road to the JPMorgan Chase Foundation started with a personal realization. As a child, she saw that her neighborhood did not have the same resources as others and she was determined to change that paradigm. As Policy Director at National Council of La Raza, now UnidosUS, Janis worked with member organizations whose zip codes have been considered pre-determinants for a lack of access to quality housing, education and jobs. She brought those groups to meet with their elected leaders on Capital Hill where they explained the problems those families face, from foreclosure to unsound housing conditions. and the need for both resources and policy change. As Janis says, their advocacy potential was incredible. They had the data, the stories, the evidence in the thick of the crisis. Now, as President of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Janis applies her experience and deep knowledge about community economic development to global philanthropy. Janis is the right person, in the right seat.
Glenn Cantave, founder of Movers and Shakers NYC, uses virtual reality, augmented reality and performance art to reframe and reclaim the narratives of marginalized communities. His use of technology to inform and provoke conversation is more than innovation; it is revolutionizing how the nonprofit sector engages communities and advocates for policy change. Glenn and his creative cohort at Movers and Shakers are working on several fronts, collaborating with NYC schools on curriculum development, creating a system of corporate accountability for community harms and re-envisioning the leaders we choose to champion.
Learn more:https://www.moversandshakersnyc.com
Jeremie Greer, VP, Policy and Research, at Prosperity Now, is clear and uncompromising about the state of our nation. He underscores that poverty cannot be overcome by individual will alone. Poverty alleviation requires systemic change, which Prosperity Now's Network of Champions is advancing. These are community-based nonprofits that advocate for reform using original research, data and on-the-ground experience to build their case. Jeremie talk about Catalyst Miami, which is organizing to address our nation's racial wealth gap, the promise of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Trump Administration's unbridled efforts to dismantle the agency. And he invites us to register for the upcoming Prosperity Summit, which brings together over 1,000 advocates for wealth building and a more equitable future. Learn more at https://prosperitynow.org
Haley Griffin guides nonprofit staff and boards of directors through the always challenging process of strategic planning. A Principal in The Raben Group, a leading DC-based national public affairs and strategic communications firm, Haley brings deep experience in organizational development to each interaction with her nonprofit clients. Luckily for them, she also brings rigor, humor and patience. As Haley explains, she frames the experience with her clients by asking what success looks like to them. That question invariably galvanizes an important conversation. And she expands on Robert Raben's most reliably surprising question about a client's nonprofit competitors. Listen, learn and check out The Raben Group and its podcast, The Beat DC.
When Hurricane Maria landed, it wreaked havoc on an already economically unstable Puerto Rico. Since then, nonprofit groups have worked tirelessly to recover homes, rebuild "resilient housing" and move Congress to enact needed policy reform, including operationalizing FEMA's Disaster Housing Assistance Program. Marion McFadden, Enterprise Community Partners, and Sarah Mickelson, National Low Income Housing Coalition, talk to Power Station about the challenge and opportunity of helping people rebuild homes and lives. An expert on disaster recovery, Marion brings years of experience at HUD and with FEMA to push for policies that will embed best practices and accountability measures into these public-serving agencies. Sarah, NLIHC's highly effective public policy director advocates for equitable reforms to systems in need of change. Their breakdown of NLIHC's Disaster Recovery Coalition is both urgent and hopeful.
Renata Soto is the dynamic executive director of Conexion Americas, an immigrant serving nonprofit in Nashville, Tennessee. She spoke to Power Station, at the 2018 UnidosUS Conference, about how she balances the provision of programs and services for Latino families with their engagement in policy advocacy. The Escalera Program, a UnidosUS initiative, helps immigrant children succeed educationally and teaches their parents how to hold schools accountable for their children's educational and social experience. The Culinary Incubator is a resource for parents with entrepreneurial aspirations. And Casa Azafran is a consortia of progressive and immigrant serving organizations that provide a welcoming community in Nashville. Renata provides a lesson in how to grow, empower and elevate an inclusive immigrant powered organization. Listen, learn and be inspired.
Rob Randhava is Senior Counsel to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which brings together our nation's leading progressive organizational voices on education, housing, labor and immigration and advocates for policies that create equity and opportunity in marginalized and communities of color. Rob brings his legal expertise and commitment to justice to LCCR's network of advocacy groups and to members of Congress. And he is legendary for his pursuit of fairness in our nation's financial services systems. He is a quiet force of Capitol Hill and somehow remains resilient, funny and a force to be reckoned with.
The New York Foundation is a singular resource for neighborhood based organizations in NYC, often start-ups, that prioritize organizing and community engagement. These groups may have modest resources but their voice, impact and influence is growing. They are identifying problems and solutions within failing systems, from housing to schools to immigration. As executive director Maria Mottola explains, NYF's theory of change making is rooted in its values and history. Whether funding Nepalese women in Jackson Heights, Queens, or tenant organizers in the Bronx, NYF is expanding on the legacy of believing in, and building the capacity of, community members to make the change they want to see. Maria and the New York Foundation are engaged where it matters most, supporting neighborhood leaders and developing community infrastructure.
Maryland Legal Aid is a lifeline for low-income people facing eviction, living with substandard housing conditions, seeking veteran's benefits and overcoming domestic abuse. MLAB, under the leadership of bridge-builder and advocate Wilhelm Joseph, is a robust nonprofit organization with 12 offices across the state. The newest program innovation, The Community Lawyering Initiative, is a mobile resource that partners lawyers with libraries, offering people help in non-threatening and comfortable surroundings within their neighborhoods. Having decades old convictions expunged from their records is transformative in ways that are both pragmatic and psychological. They are now able to access employment, housing and benefits. Amy and Meaghan's make transformation possible in real time.
talk about their innovative approach to helping low-income residents of Baltimore County expunge old criminal charges from their records.
Alejandra Castillo has been a Special Advisor in the Clinton administration and National Director of the Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency under President Obama. Even so, she says that being CEO of the YWCA National is the hardest job she's ever had. Now celebrating its 160th year, the YWCA, this nation's first fully integrated institution has an explicit mission to eliminate racism and empower women. In addition to providing day to day programs and services for women and children impacted by domestic violence and trauma, the YWCA advocates for progressive policies in state houses and on Capital Hill. And, as Alexandra points out, there is the ongoing challenge of raising foundation dollars and seeking new forms of revenue that allow for innovation. Whether meeting with members of Congress or engaging with separated families in McAllen, Texas, Alejandra is a change maker. Stay tuned for more information abut the YWCA's Exchange Traded Fund!
Washington, DC is not only our nation's capital, it is a city of neighborhoods, rich in African American arts and culture. In this episode of Power Station, Fair Budget co-director Monica Kamen, explains how shifting demographics and significant public and private investment in affluent communities, have made citizen engagement in policy and budgetary decisions all the more critical. Monica and co-director Stephanie Sneed, train local nonprofits and their grassroots constituencies in how to engage with the City Council budget process, testify at public hearings and advocate for their own policy and budget positions. The Fair Budget Coalition has developed a network of 60 nonprofit members who collaborate to demand a Fair Budget process that prioritizes racial justice. They are creating capacity and shaping better, and more, transparent, policy decisions.
Isabel Rubio, executive director of Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, which serves the Latino immigrant community, explains the push and pull between progressiveness and regressiveness in Birmingham. In 2011, the passage of HB 56, allowed law enforcement to detain and arrest people for "reasonable suspicion" of unlawful status, creating profound fear in the community. More recently, the Latino community was an essential part of electing Randall Woodfin, a former Board member as Mayor of Birmingham and Doug Wood as US Senator. Isabel underscores the importance of organizing, advocacy, capital and assets in building community, influence and power. And, as always, Isabel advocates for the building of capacity to make all of the above possible.
For Evelyn Brito, access to healthy food is more than an abstract policy goal. It is a driving motivation for her new web-based series, My Bodega Makeover, which documents her collaboration with bodega owners and customers in her own neighborhood of Lynn, Massachusetts. The goals are ambitious. She is confident that bodegas can be a source of healthy foods if struggling owners can access produce, compete for city grants and improve store design. The series is both entertaining and education, encouraging healthy food choices and showing how bodegas cab building cohesive communities. How is Evelyn pulling off this innovative strategy? She is an independent producer, whose company, Keep it Simple Productions, explores social justice themes from a community perspective. Do you want to bring My Bodega Makeover to your community? Evelyn would love to help!
An important sea-change is underway in the housing and community development field. Opportunity Starts at Home, a new campaign launched by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, has drawn our nation's leading civil rights, education, economic mobility, housing, homelessness and health nonprofits into a multi-sector effort to support the expansion of rental housing for lowest income Americans. Mike Koprowski, National Director, Opportunity Starts at Home and Eric Rodriguez, Vice President, Policy, at UnidosUS, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, tell the story of this Campaign and the committed organizations that are moving it forward. Funders for Housing & Opportunity, a collaborative including the Ford Foundation, Melville Charitable Trust and the Kresge Foundation share the vision and are all-in supporters of this new and promising model.
Amelia Lobo is an all-in advocate for women and immigrants who aspire to be small business owners. She has underwritten loans to new small business owners in NYC and trained Latinas in Iowa in how to open and expand a business. She has grappled with the limitations of the federal Small Business Administration and wants nonprofits to advocate for systems changes to better serve their communities. Amelia has seen first-hand how Latino-owned small businesses have transformed the viability of Main Streets in rural communities. Even so, the rhetoric in this country about immigrants has become so poisonous that immigrant owners are rethinking their investments. You will be moved and amazed by the stories of people who have made their businesses work!
Kris Siglin believes deeply in the members of Housing Partnership Network. This collaboration of 100 high-performing housing developers of single and multi-family housing extends to 50 states. As Senior VP of Policy at HPN, Kris engages members in advocating for public resources to increase the scale of affordable housing solutions for low-income Americans. As a trade association, HPN values both social mission and business acumen. Members not only contribute benefits to the field such as an insurance and a direct buying company, they share strategies that work in their region of the country. Kris recently testified before the House Financial Services Committee about the expansion of HUD's Family Self-Sufficiency program. This program provides escrow accounts, instead of rent increases, for families in subsidized housing whose income increases over time. HPN is about solutions. And we are a nation in need of them.
As Sarah Mickelson explains, the National Low Income Housing Coalition views it members, low-income people living in federally assisted housing, as experts on our nation's severe housing shortage. They are included in every organizational conference and convening and meet regularly with members of Congress about their experiences and recommendations. NLIHC is a relentless champion of the housing needs of lowest income Americans. At a time in which federal budget cuts to programs serving people living in poverty are commonplace, the Coalition actually secured a public funding increase. Sarah credits this accomplishment to the engagement of NLIHC's members with their Congressional representatives. And its partnerships with nonprofits focused on intersecting issues, including health, children and education, makes them even stronger.
Luis Granados, executive director of Mission Economic Development Agency, believes in and uses the power of organizing, services, policy advocacy and capital to strengthen the foothold and economic futures of Latino families in San Francisco's Mission District. MEDA's new 501c4 initiative adds political engagement to the mix, elevating MEDA's role in determining representation of the community. Luis sees policy advocacy as an imperative for nonprofits and his vision is proving him right. Even in a time of hyper-gentrification in San Francisco, MEDA's strategies and capital investment are enabling Latino families to return to and prosper in the Mission District.
Before Seema became executive director of National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (CAPACD), she led Chhaya CDC, an influential nonprofit representing South Asians in Queens, New York. That experience informs her work with National CAPACD, whose 100 member organizations provide housing, youth, and small business services for East Asians and South Asians across the nation. It focuses on asset building, from homes to businesses, that create stability and generational wealth in low-income communities. This work is vital in an increasingly hostile political environment. As Seema explains, an attack on immigrants is an attack on CAPACD's staff and members. Far from being discouraged, Seema sees the current moment as the time to exercise CAPACD's advocacy muscle.
Access to affordable housing is a national imperative but, as Frank Woodruff will tell you, it takes more than bricks and mortar to build a community. Frank leads National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) an organization whose members are local and state level nonprofits serving CDCs (Community Development Corporations) in their communities. NACEDA's members have the technical-know how and the relationships with funders, community members and policymakers needed to fill the housing, jobs and public needs gaps where they live. Now, more than ever, the capacity to advocate for public policy that supports these needs, matters. As Frank explains: the ideas of how we advance ourselves in changing.
Paty Funegra drew on her experience as an immigrant and a businesswoman to create a new model for generating economic and social change. The result, La Cocina VA, is a nonprofit, rooted in social entrepreneurship where women improve their English, sharpen their culinary skills, connect to employers and in some cases become business owners. La Cocina's bi-lingual culinary training program produces certified workers and it's partnerships with employers, from Hyatt to MGM Resorts, ensures that the employment is sustainable and successful. Women emerge from the shadows of abuse to having a voice and being able to take care of their children. Learn more about La Cocina's $2.5m expansion plan and how you can get involved.
As Isaac Bowers of Equal Justice Works explains, early exposure to public interest work can change the trajectory of a law student's career. That is why EJW partners with law schools, law firms and foundations to engage and mobilize the next generation of public interest lawyers. These lawyers are making a life changing difference for homeless veterans, immigrants facing deportation and families facing foreclosure. But their ability to remain in these jobs, at less than stellar salaries, often depends on the Public Interest Debt Forgiveness Act, legislation passed with bi-partisan support in 2007. It provides a level of relief for professionals in the public interest arena. Congress has slated the Act for elimination in the 2018 Budget. Isaac is leading a powerhouse coalition of nurses, teachers, first responders and others for whom debt forgiveness is essential. This might include you too.
Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA For All, and a national leader on immigrants' rights, is remarkably optimistic. His organization not only serves, through legal services, financial education and language classes, it deeply engages day laborers and domestic workers who are vulnerable to abuse, deportation and financial exploitation. Rather than seeing themselves as victims, they become informed members of CASA, with a vested interest in the well-being of the broader community. They attend monthly community meetings where they learn about state and federal policies relevant to them and they are invited to organize around these concerns. CASA has now taken the next step in building power and political influence by forming a 501c4 sister organization. As Gustavo says, "It's not that radical if you care about your community." His caring is galvanizing a community that has so much at stake and they are rising to the challenge
What happens when a financial adviser for high-wealth individuals takes his talents to a new platform: building wealth and assets for low-income and communities of color? Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz tells the story of his transition to Capital Area Asset Builders, the power of the Earned Income Tax Credit campaign to create a more equitable financial future, and how CAAB staff engage DC residents in learning about savings, budgeting and planning for home ownership, college and their small business aspirations. #Advocacy!
As Dedrick tells us, the nation's racial wealth divide is a legacy of centuries of public policies enacted to favor White Americans and bar Black Americans from economic prosperity. That historical context and the impacts of the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, have generated entire communities of low-wealth. Research by Dedrick and other scholars confirms that recognizes that income alone is not enough to bridge the economic divide. Savings, education, living in a safe neighborhood, and health benefits are assets that strengthen the economic prospects of families and communities. Dedrick takes this message, and the data that supports it, to a broad array of stakeholders, from on-the- ground community groups to media outlets and policy makers.
Check out the Racial Wealth Divide podcast:
@rwdpodcast
and the Bridging the Racial Wealth Divide Facebook
page, www.facebook.com/racialwealthdivide/
Marla has mastered community engagement and policy advocacy in Latino communities. It starts with providing families with the highest level of support for starting businesses, buying homes, challenging and winning repairs to unsound rental housing conditions. LEDC’s success, she says, is a result of a committed staff, who “change people’s lives.” As a result, elected officials look to LEDC to inform their policymaking. And LEDC's advocacy at the national level has become a necessity, given its deep connections to the immigrant community and their peril in the current political climate. In the past, Marla explains, our advocacy was about the technical areas of small business and housing programs. Now we have different battles to fight. Find out about LEDC’s upcoming event!
www.ledcmetro.org
www.facebook.com/ledcmetro/photos…/?type=3&theater
In the opening episode of Power Station, community development innovator Ron Hantz talks about changing up old paradigms and, as he explains it, elevating the vibrational levels in communities. Ron is an expert in financing and developing housing in disinvested communities of color. He believes that nonprofits must engage communities at all levels of development, including being at the table with policy makers, developers and neighborhood institutions, from churches to schools. Those values are core to his newest mission: building a network of African American led community development organizations that approach their work with consciousness and intention.
NDCC’s upcoming event is a great opportunity to learn, collaborate, and help create a new paradigm for the future of community economic development. Join us! Register now for the NDCC Conference, May 30-June 1: ndccnetwork.org/national-conference- 2018/