Power Station

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The teachers are often overlooked and deserve so much credit for what they do Jun 20, 2022

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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.

They are holding up the constitution with one hand and crushing it with the other Jun 13, 2022

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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.

We are trying to mirror the collectivist action of African communities Jun 06, 2022

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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.

We cannot food bank our way out of hunger May 30, 2022

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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.

It goes back to 1938 when the National Labor Relations Act and Fair Labor Standards Act were passed providing benefits to all industries except agriculture. May 23, 2022

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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.

Making the invisible visible May 16, 2022

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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.

We are sitting at the multi-issue intersection of economic equity and climate equity. May 09, 2022

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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.

My charge as executive director of Tiwahe Foundation is to share how to indigenize philanthropy May 02, 2022

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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.

We are creating a permanent underclass that is slavery adjacent Apr 25, 2022

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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.

Facebook's rules are fantastic but their enforcement is that of a negligent parent Apr 18, 2022

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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.

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