Power Station

  • Author: Vários
  • Narrator: Vários
  • Publisher: Podcast
  • Duration: 239:25:32
  • More information

Informações:

Synopsis

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 dont 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.

Episodes

  • Something that disabled people in the South have is power, it just isn't recognized

    17/02/2025 Duration: 36min

    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

  • We do not want nonprofits losing their 501c3 status because of any unfounded implications

    10/02/2025 Duration: 37min

    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 Indep

  • We are getting very close to a litmus test on what makes you an American

    03/02/2025 Duration: 42min

    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 resou

  • The perception of risk in CDFIs and Community Development Banks has always been far greater than the reality

    27/01/2025 Duration: 42min

      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 communi

  • There is a part of Washington DC that the nation doesn't know exists

    20/01/2025 Duration: 35min

    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

  • In the Jewish community, 15-25% are Jews of color and we are not seeing that racial diversity reflected in our congregations

    13/01/2025 Duration: 36min

    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 sy

  • We are in the business, at Power Station, of amplifying the true changemakers

    06/01/2025 Duration: 16min

    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 infrastructur

  • I write the show number on my hand

    30/12/2024 Duration: 23min

    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.  

  • We are literally led by the people we have the privilege of serving

    23/12/2024 Duration: 39min

    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.

  • An America without poverty is possible

    16/12/2024 Duration: 31min

    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 colo

  • We need films and books that talk about us, that dispel myths about our culture and history and how we exist in the world

    09/12/2024 Duration: 34min

      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 music industry is dependent on underpaid workers

    02/12/2024 Duration: 29min

    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 industr

  • We are pulling back the curtain to see how the cooperative functions

    25/11/2024 Duration: 38min

    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 an

  • Comic books, particularly the superheroes, in their DNA have always been about fighting for democracy and combatting bigotry

    18/11/2024 Duration: 37min

    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-democr

  • There is a lot to unpack with cooperative ownership, it is like a marriage

    11/11/2024 Duration: 33min

    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 Owners

  • We know that in the world there is an abundance of capital

    04/11/2024 Duration: 35min

    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 b

  • As Sikhs, we want to have a country where everybody can be who they are without fear or restriction

    28/10/2024 Duration: 31min

    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

  • Every week I learn something that moves me, changes me and informs me about how to act in support of democracy

    21/10/2024 Duration: 26min

    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, f

  • The people I have the privilege to work with people who are the American Dream.

    14/10/2024 Duration: 34min

    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 provi

  • I think there is a correlation between hopefulness and homelessness

    07/10/2024 Duration: 34min

    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 shelte

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