Power Station

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If you don't see our faces when working on issues that affect us, that's an issue Jan 23, 2023

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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.

You can't talk about eliminating oppression while being oppressive Jan 16, 2023

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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.

The decision makers are not often from the communities they serve Jan 09, 2023

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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.

Statistically, I shouldn't even be on this podcast right now Dec 26, 2022

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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.

Here in the heart of the confederacy some forward-looking folks worked to put teeth in a law intended to stop discrimination Dec 19, 2022

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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.

Storytelling is in my soul Dec 12, 2022

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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.

You can keep your thoughts and prayers, what I want is for you to be accountable Dec 05, 2022

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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.

I see Kanye as the late stage black skinhead, people who have completely lost a sense of community, obligation and a sense of linked fate Nov 28, 2022

Show notes

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.

It is incumbent upon us to be open and repudiate shame and stigma Nov 21, 2022

Show notes

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.

The Biden White House created this opportunity, $650m in cash relief for formerly excluded farmworkers, meatpackers and grocery workers. Nov 14, 2022

Show notes

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!

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