Power Station

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

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 system to support families with food, emergency rental assistance and mental health counseling. And it intervenes when young people become disconnected from school, a resul

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 conve

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 sustain

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 racial and gender inequity. 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 take a bold next step, 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 influence and expertise represents to future of our country. And don’t miss t

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 hous

    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, one that will expand in 2021. To mark the moment, I reconnected with Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CEO and executive director of CAAB-Capital Area Asset Builders-and 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

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 terr

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 changemaking. 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

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