Power Station

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 ed

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

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

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. On this week’s episode, 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 intervent

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.

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 on Power Station, 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

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 race and 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 wit

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 wisd

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 e

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 to the bones of 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 an

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 who are threatened by changing cultural norms and growing public support for the LGBTQ community. 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 memb

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 truth t

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! F

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

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

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 i

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. N

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 unpa

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. Stori

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 re