Shows
Power Station#192 Joseph Leitmann-Santa CruzThis episode is a call to action for ending childhood poverty in America. Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CEO and Executive Director of Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) wants listeners to direct limited income families to the IRS Child Tax Credit (CTC) portal to apply for a refund by the November 15 deadline. We have, as Joseph explains, a once in a lifetime opportunity to lift more than half of low-income families out of poverty and keep them out. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit are this nation’s most effective poverty alleviation policies, but many eligible ho...2021-11-0839 minPower Station#191 Laura Herrin and Alex Tremble, American Conservation ExperienceHere is a fact that I hope we can all agree on. American is home to a vast array of public lands, from forests to beaches, wildlife refuges and national parks that require our stewardship. These natural resources are vulnerable to devastating man-made harms, from the former president’s defilement of Bears Ears in Utah to climate change caused wildfires and flooding. The consequences of these disasters are felt disproportionately by indigenous and other communities of color. American Conservation Experience (ACE) is a champion of public lands whose internships in 50 states and Puerto Rico train young people in the tech...2021-11-0141 minPower Station#190 Nicole Gill, Accountable TechIt is impossible to overstate the dominance of social media in our lives. We are tethered to Facebook, Google and Twitter to consume, communicate, track our followers and detractors, access news and interpret world events. Facebook is the behemoth among other highly unregulated tech platforms that cultivate, collect and capitalize on our personal data. We are the technology users, but it is advertisers who pay Facebook for our data making them the valued customers. Facebook’s algorithms, based on surveillance tracking, determines which media sources end up in our newsfeeds. And therein lies the danger. As Nicole Gill, co-founder an...2021-10-2537 minPower Station#189 Thomas Saenz, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational FundThe origin story of MALDEF-Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund-is rooted in the vision of the late Pete Tijerina. In 1967, he represented a Latina who was seriously harmed by corporate neglect and then again by a judge’s refusal, as constitutionally required, to seat Latinos on the jury. Discrimination against Latinos, fueled by misinformation, was escalating and the need for a dedicated civil rights infrastructure was clear. In 1968, Mr. Tijerina, fellow advocates and the general counsel of the NAACP, the model for civil rights activism, collaborated to form MALDEF. It’s mission, to promote the civil rights of all...2021-10-1836 minPower Station#188 Arekia Bennett, Mississippi VotesMississippi Votes starts with an awe-inspiring mission, the registration of 400,000 eligible unregistered residents, and then goes deeper. It is building a culture of civic engagement in Mississippi, where access to the ballot box is a high hurdle, from the archaic requirement to print, fill out and mail in registration forms to lifelong disenfranchisement for 23 categories of former offenders. Equally daunting is the disconnection that many Mississippians of color feel from civic life, a legacy of racism and marginalization. But the dynamic cohort of young people of color leading Mississippi Votes are reframing how voter registration, voting rights and civic...2021-10-1136 minPower Station#187 Ashley Kenneth, The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal AnalysisIn recent years disinformation has become the currency of political forces seeking power over truth. But as we know, facts and data matter. They reveal a true picture of the state of our nation, from which communities are prospering to those that are struggling. They are foundational to identifying the state of healthcare, education, transportation and housing and where disparities in access lies. At the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, 15 super-smart professionals dig into bills proposed by Virginia’s State Assembly, analyzing their implications for diverse communities, particularly those who have been marginalized and underserved by racially discriminatory policy ma...2021-10-0432 minPower Station#186 Ellen Buchman, The Opportunity AgendaHave you ever changed your mind about a pressing social or cultural issue? As we experience life and hopefully evolve so can our perspective and politics. For organizations in the business of advancing social change, interrogating how minds change and applying that knowledge to our communications is essential. At a time of dangerously divisive politics and cultural chasms the status quo for messaging, from disinformation to baiting on social media is inadequate. For 15 years the Opportunity Agenda has been at the forefront of bringing together experts from a range of disciplines to study and act on what makes an...2021-09-2738 minPower Station#185 Linda Nguyen, Movement TalentAt a time of profound turmoil in America, community-based and national nonprofits are demanding big bold social change. Progressive nonprofits are the frontline of movements with the capacity to remake inequitable systems affecting the environment, health care, housing and immigration. This is consequential culture-shifting work and nonprofits need infrastructure and staffing that is commensurate to the challenge. Linda Nguyen launched Movement Talent to position social change work for success by connecting the right people to the right organizations. She draws from her considerable experience in recruiting, sustaining and developing staff at Community Change and leverages her relationships with movement...2021-09-2032 minPower Station#184 Jonathan Mehta Stein, Common Cause CaliforniaIn 1964, the US Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit challenging how electoral districts were drawn and political representation was apportioned. Such cases were inevitable as people moved from urban to rural areas and new immigrant populations settled into both. The Supreme Court ruled that electoral districts of state legislative chambers must be of roughly the same population providing for a one person one vote rule. Redistricting is the process of redrawing district lines based on the most current data from the Decennial Census. When it is politicized, the outcome is gerrymandered districts that favor one group at the expense...2021-09-1331 minPower Station#183 Leigh Chapman, Deliver My VoteThe current assault on voting rights in America is both predictable and shocking. We saw it in full force during the 2020 presidential election when then President Trump’s appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stripped mailboxes and “lost” ballots in targeted areas. Right now, state legislatures are devising new maneuvers to subvert the ability to vote by people of color. They include almost insurmountable barriers to the ballot box, from requiring copies of ID with requests for a mail-in ballot to banning the distribution of food and water for weary voters at voting sites. National nonprofits are rising to this histor...2021-09-0632 minPower Station#182 Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee ServicesSometimes an image is so powerful it breaks through political rhetoric, media noise and sears into the soul. A recent video of Afghani children being foisted over the Kabul airport wall and into the arms of American soldiers resonates in this way. What we don’t see is the organized process underway by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) to help Afghans who supported the U.S. Military as translators, drivers and guards, flee Afghanistan and resettle in America. LIRS has been at the forefront of this work for 80 years and is now mobilizing a network of churches, nonprofits an...2021-08-3026 minPower Station#181 Dr. Marla Dean, Bright BeginningsBright Beginnings is so much more than a beautiful and inviting space for a first-rate day care center. It is a nonprofit organization founded 30 years ago to provide evidence-based education, therapeutic and social services to children and parents who are experiencing homelessness. And it is based in Washington DC’s Ward 8, an historically Black and underinvested community that is now leading its own renaissance. Dr. Marla Dean, an exceptional educator, leads Bright Beginnings with a two-generation approach to breaking the cycle of poverty. It starts with caring for children from birth to 5 years old in ways that enable them to...2021-08-2334 minPower Station#180 Arturo Vargas, NALEOOver a long political life, Edward Roybal was true to a consistent theme. He fought for the material needs and civil rights of Latinos, both new immigrants and those with deep generational roots in the United States. When he was elected to Congress in 1963 he committed to making Latinos a force in the American political landscape. In 1976 Rep. Roybal founded the National Association for Latino Appointed and Elected Officials (NALEO), creating the infrastructure needed to spur community activism and support a new generation of civic leaders. This work, now led by NALEO’s esteemed CEO Arturo Vargas is more rele...2021-08-1637 minPower Station#179 Rinku Sen, Narrative InitiativeThe human brain, as Rinku Sen explains, loves and is even addicted to stories. A highly respected author, organizer, and political strategist driven to achieve racial and gender justice, Rinku has amplified the stories of many people whose voices are rarely heard, or communities fully represented in mainstream media. Now, as executive director of Narrative Initiative, Rinku is transforming the ways in which nonprofits communicate their stories to policymakers and the press. The work goes deeper than positioning organizations to be heard. Rinku and her team are a singular resource for nonprofits that are motivated to expand beyond strategic...2021-08-0939 minPower Station#178 Raul Raymundo, The Resurrection ProjectThirty years ago, six parishes in Chicago came together with a shared mission. They resolved to do more than pray about conditions that overwhelmed local neighborhoods, from drugs and crime to a lack of jobs and housing. Each parish donated $5,000 to jumpstart a safety-focused organizing campaign. They could not have foreseen that their investment would evolve into The Resurrection Project, a powerhouse nonprofit whose template for community development is based in putting faith and values into action. While the Resurrection Project has generated over half a billion dollars into neglected neighborhoods, from affordable housing to childcare centers, homeownership and...2021-08-0235 minPower Station#177 Dr. Akilah Watkins, Center for Community ProgressWhat do you think about when you see abandoned buildings and overgrown plots of vacant land? More importantly, how do you feel if they are fixtures in your own community? Dr. Akilah Watkins, CEO of the Center for Community Progress, sees the physical manifestation of housing segregation, disinvestment and other federal policies that have generated a devastating wealth gap in Black and Brown communities. And she has felt the despair those conditions evoke in people who experience them every day. Akilah envisions a better future for communities when deteriorated spaces are transformed into vital community assets. Her team is...2021-07-2631 minPower Station#176 Christine Soyong Harley, Sex Ed for ChangeDr. 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...2021-07-1932 minPower Station#175 Kiki Louya, Restaurant Workers Community FoundationKiki 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...2021-07-1240 minPower Station#174 Dr. Bambi Hayes-Brown, Georgia ACTThere 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...2021-07-0530 minPower Station#173 Daniel Gillison, National Alliance on Mental IllnessThe 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. Daniel Gillison, NAMI’s CEO, examines how the me...2021-06-2836 minPower Station#172 Marleine Bastien, Family Action Network MovementIn 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 direct...2021-06-2138 minPower Station#171 Antonio TovarSo 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, the agricultural industry is complex, risky an...2021-06-1426 minPower Station#170 Mark Newberg and John HoldsclawHow 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 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 go...2021-06-0738 minPower Station#169 Larry Curley, Native Indian Council on AgingLarry 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...2021-05-3138 minPower Station#168 Maria Rodriguez, Florida Immigrant CoalitionHow 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 t...2021-05-2428 minPower Station#167 Erica Williams, DC Fiscal Policy InstituteThose 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 bone-deep to the 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...2021-05-1737 minPower Station#166 Fran Hutchins, Equality FederationIn 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 threatened by changing cultural norms. 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 Rig...2021-05-1038 minPower Station#165 Rasmia KirmaniAs 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...2021-05-0343 minPower Station#164 Jasmin Benas and Cristian Campos, Yes! for EquityWe 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 f...2021-04-2628 minPower Station#163 Tram Nguyen, New Virginia MajorityIt 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 Tr...2021-04-1933 minPower Station#162 Fenika Miller, Black Voters MatterWhen 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 Mille...2021-04-1233 minPower Station#161 Abel Nuñez, Central American Resource CenterDid 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. H...2021-04-0538 minPower Station#160 Nicole Hobbs, EveryDistrictIt 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...2021-03-2942 minPower Station#159 Carlos Mark VeraWhen 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...2021-03-2234 minPower Station#158 Vimala Phongsavanh, Laotian American National AllianceThere 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 re...2021-03-1531 minPower Station#157 Mark Magaña, GreenLatinosA 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...2021-03-0834 minPower Station#156 Lupi Quinteros-Grady, Latin American Youth CenterHow 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...2021-03-0136 minPower Station#155 Maya Martin Cadogan, DC PAVEWhat 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 jo...2021-02-2242 minPower Station#154 Ted Piccolo, Northwest Native Development FundTed 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...2021-02-1530 minPower Station#153 Indira Henard, DC Rape Crisis CenterThe 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 discrimination based on race and gender. 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 launch 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 wo...2021-02-0835 minPower Station#152 Marco DavisWhat 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...2021-02-0137 minPower Station#151 Melissa Jones, Bay Area Regional Health Inequities InitiativeIf 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...2021-01-2534 minPower Station#150 Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, Capital Area Asset BuildersHere 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. To mark the moment, I reconnected with Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CEO and executive director of CAAB-Capital Area Asset Builders-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 th...2021-01-1843 minPower Station#149 Marla Bilonick, LEDCThis 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 Lati...2021-01-1135 minPower Station#148 John Holdsclaw, National Cooperative BankI 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 change making. We focused on intentionality, the practice of stepping back to...2021-01-0432 minPower Station#147 Anne Pasmanick and Rob FordIn this episode I have a great time with super-producer Rob Ford, talking about Power Station's beginnings, aspirations and lessons learned. I don't love talking about myself but I do love talking about nonprofit advocacy and how it is being amplified through this platform. I talk about how I got involved in community organizing and policy advocacy, which shapes how I think about what is effective and how to make an impact. And I have the opportunity to thank great friend and nonprofit leaders who have supported my crazy idea to enter into this uncharted territory. 2020-12-2849 minPower Station#146 Ashley Harrington, Center for Responsible LendingHere 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...2020-12-2135 minPower Station#145 Francella Ochillo, Next Century CitiesWe will look back on 2020 as the moment when our nation’s longstanding systemic inequities became impossible to ignore. Just look at our digital divide. Right now, over 17 million children lack the requisite connectivity plans or devices needed to participate in a remote learning mandate. It is not only a problem of broadband access. It is also a challenge of adoption, the ability of families to afford laptops and service plans. Which means that parents are also excluded from engaging in 21st century commerce, from banking, to health services, to shopping, that have increasingly, and sometimes exclusively, migrated online. Th...2020-12-1443 minPower Station#144 Karma Cottman, UJIMAThis nation is finally cracking open the conversations we need to have to make change possible. Systemic racial inequities have been exposed by COVID-19, particularly its disproportionate impacts on communities of color, which are stark and quantifiable. The loss of jobs, and by extension homes, for those with the most tenuous employment, demands that elected leaders act and affected communities are engaged. And we are confronting a less publicly discussed but longstanding challenge. Karma Cottman explains that domestic violence is on the rise, exacerbated by stay-at-home orders that have sequestered survivors with their abusers. As executive director of the...2020-12-0736 minPower Station#143 Paul Chaat Smith, NMAIWe know how nonprofits make change. They provide services, teach people how to organize and use those capacities to get legislation passed. Can cultural institutions also make change? In the case of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the answer is yes. While the experience of changemaking may be more personal at a museum, the same strategies are needed to be successful. It starts with a mission to amplify the voices of communities that are too often unheard. And it is powered by a governance structure that includes and is accountable to its constituency. In both cas...2020-11-3038 minPower Station#142 Deyanira Zavala, Mile High ConnectsMile High Connects is a nonprofit collaborative that is leading a movement for transit equity in the Denver Metro region. Sounds pretty straightforward and non-controversial, right? Of course, it isn’t. As data shows, public transit is crucial for connecting working people to jobs and schools, the building blocks for economic opportunity. The challenge in building or expanding a system is in setting priorities. Is it an amenity for high-income residents going to downtown offices or a component of economic recovery, particularly for low-income, Black and Brown residents whose jobs and homes are less accessible? With Deya Zavalas at th...2020-11-2332 minPower Station#143 Pedro Lira, Jolt TexasOne half of all Texans under the age of 18 are Latinos. The future of the state, and increasingly this nation, lies with an immensely diverse population that has been underestimated by mainstream political parties. That paradigm is changing, however, in large part due to Jolt Texas, a nonprofit launched by rising political star Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez after the 2016 election. Jolt is dedicated to inspiring a new generation of Latinos to become civic leaders and political candidates. It holds forums about health, housing and other pivotal issues, trains young people in community organizing, and brings civic engagement messaging to cultural g...2020-11-1637 minPower Station#140 Doran Schrantz, ISAIAHOur high-stakes national election is (almost) over and it is time to breathe and celebrate. For community-based nonprofits, which took root long before this election cycle and are base builders no matter who is in office, this is a moment for reflection. It requires taking stock of how differently our divided nation perceives the state of our union. It also validates their commitment to creating a shared vision for the future. This is the work of Doran Schrantz, executive director of ISAIAH, a multi-racial, state-wide, nonpartisan coalition of congregations and people of faith in Minnesota. Its vision is carried...2020-11-0937 minPower Station#139 Branden Snyder,In the final days before the most important election of our lifetime, we are consumed by thoughts about what comes next. There is the collective anxiety about defeating Donald Trump and how to achieve a peaceful transition of power. And there is the imperative, even with a new administration, to fully confront the deeply embedded structural racism that has disenfranchised people of color since our beginnings. This work is not for the faint of heart. And it will not be led by pundits, academics or editorial writers. In fact, it is already underway, led by nonprofits that expand on...2020-11-0232 minPower Station#138 Alejandra CastilloYou may not envision the YWCA as fighting on the frontlines of racial and gender justice, but you should. For 162 years, the YWCA has advocated for women and children who are survivors of domestic and sexual violence. And it has lived its stated values. In 1946, the YWCA became the first fully racially integrated organization in the nation. 50 years ago, it adopted a mission statement as its beacon: Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women. Its network of 200 associations, rooted in cities, suburbs and rural areas across the nation may be the sole resource in a community. These diverse chapters work on issues...2020-10-2630 minPower Station#137 Anat Shenker-OsorioWords matter. We rely on them every day to express our thoughts and connect with others. And when our intent is to use our words to move people, in policy and political campaigns, how we construct them to create winning messages, is profoundly important. It obliges us to do more than echo out the urgency we feel based in years of work on issues from housing to immigration to health care, or for a candidate whose election we see as crucial. What resonates for us may have a distinctly different and unintended impact on those we want to influence...2020-10-1943 minPower Station#136 Angela Manso, National Resources Defense CouncilHow can a powerful organization deepen its impact? For the National Resources Defense Council, our planet’s protector and champion of clear air and water, it starts with looking inward. At a time of national reckoning with structural inequity, NRDC is reevaluating its own practices through a lens of race, equity and justice. As Angela Manso, National Outreach Director, explains, this is challenging and vital work. Communities of color are harmed at disproportionate rates by contamination, pollution and climate change. And that is why she is forging partnerships within the most deeply impacted communities. These relationships, with groups advocating fo...2020-10-1235 minPower Station#135 Desmond Meade, The Florida Rights Restoration ProjectThirty days out from the 2020 election, America is grappling with the casting our vote and being counted in the most important election of our lifetime. COVID19 has made in-person voting possibly life-threatening and voting by mail is being manipulated by a president who is profoundly threatened by this democratic franchise. For many, however, barriers to voting go far deeper. Millions of returning citizens, Americans who have served time and come home, are now barred from the ballot box. In Florida, Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Project, is building a movement for the restoration of voting rights...2020-10-0539 minPower Station#134 Dara Baldwin, The Center for Disability RightsIf Americans learn any collective lesson in 2020, it should be that until we face our history of marginalizing whole populations, we will not be a true democracy. Social uprisings around the country demonstrate that racism is structural and is seared into our public systems. People with disabilities experience structural inequity daily. Until 1974, so-called “ugly laws” forced those perceived to be “maimed” to be removed from public view. It is moving to learn that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, landmark legislation, was modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ADA bars discrimination against disabled people in employment, transportation and publ...2020-09-2855 minPower Station#133 John Park, The MinKwon Center for Community ActionTo see how deep the impacts of COVID19 and racial inequity go, take a look at Flushing, Queens. With a population that is 70% Asian, it is also New York City’s fourth most congested business district. It appeared, pre-pandemic, to be a bustling neighborhood of working people. In reality, incomes for many were so limited they relied on food pantries to feed their families. Many now have no incomes at all. The truth, as John Park, executive director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action explains, contradicts the widely held model minority myth, a construct that has persisted for ge...2020-09-2132 minPower Station#132 Nathaniel Smith, Partnership for Southern EquityIt takes more than pundits and politicians to create a more just society. Change happens when those who have been hurt the most stand up to demand justice and craft solutions. And it takes nonprofits with courage and the infrastructure needed to leverage power. This is the formula embodied by Partnership for Southern Equity, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that is building an equity agenda for the American south. As PSE’s founder and Chief Equity Officer Nathaniel Smith sees it, the path to equity is a process, the next step in the civil rights movement that took root in Atlanta th...2020-09-1434 minPower Station#131 Andreanecia Morris, Housing NOLADid you know that the Lower Ninth Ward had the highest rate of homeownership in New Orleans, pre-Hurricane Katrina? And that the devastation of those homes and displacement of their African American owners was caused by breeches in levees that are still in disrepair 15 years later? Or that tens of thousands of those owners remain displaced from their own city? Unlike most cities grappling with a housing crisis, there are 19,000 vacant units in New Orleans. The fact that landlords have withheld them from the rental market is just one of the factors that compelled dozens of affordable housing developers...2020-09-1037 minPower Station#130 Cleofas Rodriguez, National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start AssociationAs we navigate extraordinary challenges, from COVID19 to the implosion of our economy, we can see which of us are truly essential workers. We rely on doctors, nurses, mail carriers and grocery store workers, but do we recognize those whose labor literally sustains us? Farmworkers, working 12-14 hours a day, often in unsafe conditions, harvest the strawberries, blueberries, lettuce and other crops that, if we are fortunate, grace our tables. Many are immigrants who have been targeted by a relentlessly hostile administration. And they are parents who want their children to thrive. As executive director of the National Migrant...2020-08-3131 minPower Station#129 Representative Gilda Cobb-HunterAs the saying goes, when you need something done, ask a busy person. This is definitely the case with Gilda Cobb-Hunter, who represents Orangeburg County in the South Carolina State Legislature. She also directs a nonprofit serving victims of family violence. And she is president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislatures, which creates community among policy makers of color. Now she is advocating for legislation that, if adopted across state legislatures, could transform policing entirely. It is what we need now, in the wake of a social uprising sparked by unbridled police violence against men and women...2020-08-2449 minPower Station#128 Radha Muthiah, Capital Area Food BankFood insecurity is our government’s somewhat clinical term for hunger, or in bureaucratese, a lack of access to the food needed for a full and active life. Hunger is an everyday reality for poor and working families in the nation’s capital and its surrounding suburbs, one of the wealthiest regions in the country. And in the shadows of COVID19 and a staggering loss of jobs and income, hunger is growing exponentially. Imagine what it takes for the Capital Area Food Bank to provide 30 million meals a year to 400,000 women, men and children who are food insecure. And then...2020-08-1737 minPower Station#127 Eddy MoralesEddy Morales has an amazing story to tell and he wants it to be your call to action. The last of 9 children and the first born in the United States to a single mother from Mexico, he has faced hardship first hand. He was influenced by his mother’s fearlessness and compassion, values that guide him now. In college, he made the connection between his childhood and systemic injustices that oppress people of color. In his next chapter, he was recruited to Washington DC to lead the US Student Association, where he mobilized young people to exercise their collective po...2020-08-1042 minPower Station#126 Jennifer Wang, National Asian Pacific Women's ForumIt should not take a pandemic and an uprising spurred by police violence against Black men and women to generate a national reckoning with racism, but here we are. If we want this moment to spark transformation, we need to crack open the full body of evidence about how non-White people are perceived and treated in America. And we need organizations like the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, that build power in communities made invisible by bias. Jennifer Wang, lawyer, strategist and one of the women at the helm of NAPAWF, is a power-builder. She recounts how st...2020-08-0344 minPower Station#125 Solana Rice, Liberation in a GenerationIn this moment of national reckoning with racism, important truths are unfolding. For those who resist the reckoning, the truth starts with recognizing that since America’s founding, our leaders, from the White House to Congress, have passed laws to benefit them at the expense of African Americans and other people of color. By enacting segregationist housing policies, excluding Black veterans from the benefits of the GI Bill, and denying mortgage loans in communities of color, the nation’s racial wealth gap was created with intention and persists today. Another truth is that nonprofits carry the weight of redressing thes...2020-07-2737 minPower Station#124 Rudy Espinoza, Inclusive ActionTen years ago, a group of friends, young professionals of color, began to incubate ideas to improve the lives of low-income people in Los Angeles. As the children of immigrant parents who worked hard only to subsist on the economic margins, they knew that systemic barriers to opportunity had to be dismantled. From the criminalization of being undocumented to the lack of access to bank loans, the proverbial American Dream left their communities out. They launched a nonprofit, Inclusive Action, that centers its strategies on the aspirations of underpaid and under-appreciated working people. Leading this ambitious effort, with a...2020-07-2032 minPower Station#123 Mark Winston Griffith, the Brooklyn Movement CenterI like to think that I choose my words carefully. I use terms like community organizing and movement building to describe a set of actions taken to meet social goals. But I realize that language that speaks to my own experience may ring hollow for others. Enter Mark Winston Griffith, who embraces the challenges of language and the hard, nuanced and unrelenting work of organizing and movement building in Central Brooklyn. He formed the Brooklyn Movement Center 10 years ago to reinvigorate what had become a calcified environment for change-making. And he committed to building a talented staff and engaging...2020-07-1339 minPower Station#122 Steven Choi, New York Immigration CoalitionA conversation with Steve Choi begins with his upending of assumptions about which immigrants and refugees live in New York State and where. It provides a view into how the New York Immigration Coalition, the nonprofit he leads, mobilizes 200 member organizations to influence local and state policy making. And it includes a review of the toll these tumultuous times are taking on immigrant communities. We associate immigrants with New York City, which remains a constant, but there are over 1 million immigrants residing outside of the City, from Long Island to Westchester to Rochester and Buffalo. And their national origins a...2020-07-0629 minPower Station#121 Meghan Maury, The National LGBTQ Task ForceThe best nonprofits tackle what lies beneath the economic and social wrongs that rock= our nation. They organize, litigate and advocate to undo discriminatory policies based on race, immigration status and sexual orientation. More recently, nonprofits, including The National LGBTQ Task Force, are using an intersectional prism to guide their advocacy. Intersectionality, a concept developed by scholar Kimberlee Crenshaw, refers to our overlapping identities, which shape how we view the world and how we are perceived. This prism also reveals how privilege and marginalization operate. As Meghan Maury, Policy Director for The Task Force explains, battling discrimination is not...2020-06-2929 minPower Station#120 Lauren Grimes, The Community Enrichment ProjectHow are young people processing the chaos of the current moment and how can we support them? We are all confronted by circumstances we did not foresee and cannot control. COVID19 has pummeled this nation, robbing low-wage workers of their jobs and far too many, of their lives. And the killing of George Floyd, a Black man at the hands of police officers, catapulted us into protests that continue today. The sense of uncertainty is palpable. But we are adults and have at least some agency over our lives. For young people in communities color, the challenges are more...2020-06-2234 minPower Station#119 Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, California Reinvestment CoalitionIt took years of activism by community leaders before Congress enacted the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977. This legislation was meant to undo decades of discrimination by banks against African Americans, Latinx and other non-white people seeking mortgages and small business loans. It required banks to lend and made them accountable to community interests. As Paulina Gonzalez-Brito explains, redlining create the predatory lending industry, which continues today. As executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, she engages 300 organizations across the state in requiring banks to meet their CRA obligations. And she is spearheadinga vigorous campaign to prevent the Trump Administration...2020-06-1527 minPower Station#118 Tony Walters, National American Indian Housing CouncilSelf-determination is a deeply embedded value within the National American Indian Housing Council. It is the driving force for its members, leaders from 570 tribes who advocate for the housing needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in 32 states. The shortage of affordable housing is a national crisis and is even more nuanced in native communities. Tribes own and manage their own housing stock and must navigate many levels of municipal, state and federal governance. And they often operate in rural areas, where a lack of running water and heating speak to profound infrastructure problems. It is all...2020-06-0830 minPower Station#117 Sarah Saadian, NLIHCOur democracy is imploding and that is not hyperbole. Across the nation, communities are protesting the murder of an African American man by a White police officer who carried out this execution under the watchful eyes of devastated onlookers, including a young woman who captured the images on her phone. And the pandemic that is ravaging communities of color is by no means over. How can ambitious champions of change be effective in these times? The best social change nonprofits are advocating for Congress to invest in communities that have been under resourced, segregated and marginalized for generations. That...2020-06-0126 minPower Station#116 with Frederick Isasi, Families USAIf you want to understand why the United States has the most expensive and worst performing health care system among developed countries, in terms of access, equity, efficiency, and outcomes, you have a unique and vital resource in Families USA. For forty years, this national nonprofit has investigated every aspect of our broken bureaucracy, from the cost of prescription drugs to the politicization of Medicare to the implicit bias deep within our delivery systems. And it has used this understanding to inform and engage consumers, from those willing to share their lived experiences to community-based health organizations in every...2020-05-2533 minPower Station#115 Jonathan Mehta Stein, Common Cause CaliforniaWhile we worry about how to restore our democracy, Jonathan Mehta Stein knows that in disenfranchised communities, many people feel that democracy has never worked for them. This is the starting point that Jonathan, the newly appointed executive director of Common Cause California, embraces. He is a civil rights attorney who believes that at this moment in time, relying on litigation and legislation alone is not enough. He argues that we need more community organizing to inspire those who have been left behind to believe that voting can make a difference for them. The stakes are high as we...2020-05-1832 minPower Station#114 John Holdsclaw, National Cooperative BankSmall businesses have been devastated by COVID19, and by extension, so have their owners, workers and communities. We are talking about true small businesses, not Shake Shack or Ruth’s Christ Steak House. Their role in our economy is so significant that Congress appropriated federal funding for them through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) within the CARES Act. This moment underscores the importance of federal investment in small businesses that meet needs in underserved communities. The most impactful resource for this is the CDFI Fund, a US Department of Treasury based program that deploys capitol into communities that banks do...2020-05-1132 minPower Station#113 Lizette Escobedo, NALEOCan we ensure that the Decennial Census, our most inclusive civic enterprise, will not become a casualty of the COVID19 pandemic? The answer is unfolding in real time. Nonprofits have spent years mounting campaigns to combat an historical undercount in communities of color, of children, immigrants and LGBTQ people. Fortunately, some people and organizations, thrive in challenging times and that is definitely the case with Lizette Escobedo, who directs the Census 2020 campaign for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO). Lizette leads operations in 6 states where Latinx communities stand ready to be counted, despite the president’s attempt to...2020-05-0429 minPower StationPower Station with Ana NdumuGallup polls indicate that Americans have lost confidence in Congress, the courts and the media but one institution, the library, remains a trusted resource. Libraries provide access to books, computers, literacy classes, and social services, often in partnership with nonprofits. And while we may perceive libraries as static, they are evolving organizations. In fact, the American Library Association, in conjunction with national civil rights groups, spent 2019 preparing to become the go-to resource for those lacking digital connectivity, to complete their 2020 Census. Now, given closures due to the pandemic, libraries are pivoting again. They continue to serve communities and advocate...2020-04-2731 minPower Station#111 Indivar Dutta-GuptaWe are all uncertain about life in an ongoing global pandemic. We know that conditions are most dire for those who have lost family members, jobs, and housing. And this time is dizzying for nonprofits and think tanks whose mission is to improve the quality of life for the most impacted communities. The issues they have worked on for decades are suddenly leading the national conversation. As Co-Executive Director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University, Indivar Duta-Gupta grapples with what are often considered intractable problems. His tools include socio-economic research, legislative strategies and advocacy with...2020-04-2037 minPower Station#110 Rebecca SiveIn 110 Power Station episodes, one consistent theme resonates: The ability to advance progressive change is based in intentionality. It starts with documenting inequities, analyzing who is impacted, building a constituency of impacted people, and advocating for the policies and resources required to achieve systemic change. Rebecca Sive is a change maker. She champions women’s leadership in politics, corporations and nonprofits. As she points out, no sector, including nonprofits, is immune to the sexism and racism that blocks women from executive leadership and diminishes their voices within organizational structures. Her new book, Vote Her In, is a guide to el...2020-04-1329 minPower Station#109 John Yang, AAJCAs a nation, we are learning, in real time, how to function and survive in a pandemic. We look for national leadership rooted in integrity and competence. And we are finding that, not in our president, but from governors, mayors, medical professionals and, while less recognized, nonprofit leaders. Nonprofits continue to serve communities, even in a lock-down. Housing groups are organizing online for spending bills that support lowest-income renters, homeless people and shelter providers. Nonprofit credit unions are counseling small business owners in how to sustain themselves in an economic shutdown. And Asian Americans Advancing Justice/AAJC advocates for...2020-04-0628 minPower Station#108 Celinda LakeThink about this: messaging campaigns about complex issues, from climate change to drug pricing, have 280 characters in a tweet (up from 140) and less then 20 seconds of audio, to inform and persuade. Celinda Lake, renowned pollster and political strategist, helps labor unions, nonprofit advocates and political hopefuls to craft messages based on feedback from focus groups, surveys and message testing. Celinda says that Lake Research Partners approaches its work with two core values, the importance of government and the imperative of inclusivity to advance progressive social change. When issues are reframed based on these values, the resulting messages change how...2020-03-3037 minPower Station#107 Carla Decker, DC Credit UnionThe COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our nation’s broken systems but has also revealed what works. As our president equivocates about what can be done, mayors and governors are stepping up to fill the void. They are setting up testing sites, procuring ventilators, and building hospital units. And nonprofit leaders are using their resources to keep families and communities whole. Carla Decker, President and CEO of DC Credit Union, is maintaining 2 open branches (with social distancing) to serve members. They include dislocated workers from DC’s normally booming hospitality industry, many new immigrants and multi-generational African American households who are...2020-03-2327 minPower StationPower Station with Dr. Brian SmedleyIt is safe to say that we are living in extremely stressful times. The president rules more than governs and his rhetoric and policies reflect and encourage overt acts of racism and sexism. His relentless focus on border walls and deportations have created chaos in immigrant communities. And now we are grappling with COVID-19, a pandemic for which we are unprepared, and which the president framed in xenophobic terms. The failure to respond quickly to this crisis raises questions about our health care system, insurance industry, income security for low wage workers, and access to food for children when...2020-03-1629 minPower Station#105 George Jones, Bread for the CityWhat happens when a nonprofit decides to make a shift and tackle its mission at a deeper level? That is the journey that Bread for the City, frontline service provider to Washington DC’s lowest-income residents started on 8 years ago. Since its founding in 1974, BFC has been the go-to resource for people in need of food, clothing, medical and legal assistance. It modeled how to provide high-quality services with, as BFC promises, “dignity, respect and justice.” The shift began in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin killing, which jarred the community, including BFC’s staff. That tragedy spurred a conversati...2020-03-0934 minPower Station#104 Sarah Saadian, NLIHCWhat makes an advocacy organization exceptional? It starts with a vision for tackling inequity that centers constituents in advocating for themselves. In the case of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, it is also dedication to social policy that ensures decent housing for our nation’s lowest-income renters. These are residents of public and subsidized housing - families with children, seniors, the disabled and low-wage workers - who are often one step away from homelessness. The Coalition achieves its mission through an integrated set of strategies: communications, organizing, and data-driven advocacy. As Sarah Saadian, VP of Public Policy, explains, the Co...2020-03-0237 minPower Station#103 Scott Simpson, Muslim AdvocatesHow is it possible for laws that determine the fate of Muslim Americans to be decided without them having a seat at the decision-making table? That is the power imbalance that motivated the launch of Muslim Advocates by Farhana Khera in 2005. Muslim Advocates works “in communities, the courts and in Congress”, to address discriminatory public policies and corporate practices impacting the lives of our nation’s over 400 Muslim Americans. The challenges faced by Muslim Americans require more than legal and legislative solutions. Our news media needs to tell the stories of who Muslim Americans are and how their lives have be...2020-02-2437 minPower Station#102 Brian Bond, PFLAGPFLAG may not be the most high-profile LGBTQ+ organization, but it is the oldest, largest and the first, in 1973, to create a safe space for the parents, friends and families of LGBTQ+ youth. It was organized by Jeanne Manford, after seeing her son Morty, a young gay man, beaten at a demonstration covered on the nightly news. She became his advocate, joining him at a gay rights rally wearing a sign that read, Parents of Gays United in Support for Our Children. She was applauded by young people appreciative of her support. From this experience, PFLAG was founded and...2020-02-1744 minPower Station#101 Erin Hustings, NALEOSome of the most effective nonprofits are designed to both help individuals in need and build collective community power. This is the case with NALEO-the National Association for Latino Elected Officials, founded in 1977 by Rep Edward Roybal, then one of just 5 Latinos elected to Congress. In 2020, NALEO supports 38 Latino congressional members and a bi-partisan bench of over 6,800 Latinos serving in municipal, state, and federal level positions. Consider the potential of a cohort of powerful leaders organized around the common aspirations of their communities. NALEO deploys its resources to meet 3 primary goals. First, it offers training that deepens the capacity...2020-02-1043 minPower Station#100 Ron Hantz, NDCCRon Hantz, a great friend of Power Station, and our first guest returns for Episode 100. Ron is back to talk about a current threat that has been largely obscured by the presidential impeachment hearing. At another congressional hearing, Comptroller of the Currency and Trump appointee, Joseph Otting, testified before the House Financial Services Committee, feeling the heat of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as he attempted to rationalize dismantling the Community Reinvestment Act. Ron takes us back to an era when banks refused to serve African Americans and other people of color, leaving whole communities without access to credit and capital...2020-02-0340 minPower Station#99 Alma Couverthie, League of Women VotersIt took a century long struggle for American women to “win” the right to vote in 1920. And win does not accurately reflect a struggle in which women were jailed and beaten in pursuit of that right. This victory led suffragist Carrie Chapman Cott to establish the League of Women Voters (LWV), a non-partisan champion of voting rights. Now, LWV is convening national conversations about issues from the census to voting to the environment and immigration. And LWV is vigilant about local threats to voting access and rights. It works to prevent gerrymandering, the intentional dilution of political power by one...2020-01-2733 minPower Station#98 Anjan Chaudhry, National CAPACDNational CAPACD is painfully aware of gentrification and displacement hurts its AAPI membership. They look at the challenge through an historical lens, starting with colonialism to more recent strategies for driving renters and homeowners out of their homes based on rising prices, tax liens, intimidation and buy-outs. Anjan Chaudhry, Director of Community Empowerment, reviews the legacy of colonialism within AAPI communities in their home countries and explains how that experience shaped a new and important resource, National CAPACD’s Our Neighborhoods Anti-Displacement Toolkit. The Toolkit is guide for people and organizations challenged by public agencies and private developers whose prop...2020-01-2143 minPower Station#97 Francella Ochillo, Next Century CitiesWe rely on access to high-speed internet to meet the demands of everyday life. We pay bills, apply for jobs, look up children’s school assignments, and get real-time updates on bus arrivals. But at least 20 million Americans live without digital access. They are our neighbors and family members from cities and rural regions who lack the infrastructure (physical wires) and/or the financial means to afford internet connectivity. How do we solve this opportunity gap? Francella Ochillo leads Next Century Cities, a resource to a growing cohort of mayors from 200 cities and counties in 40 states that are building ou...2020-01-1342 minPower Station#96 Marco Davis, Congressional Hispanic Caucus InstituteIn our first Power Station episode of 2020, we welcome celebrated advocate Marco Davis, eight months into his role as President & CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI). Marco shares his vision for deepening the impacts of CHCI’s programs, known for the powerful pipeline of talented Latino leaders they generate. He explains how it all began in 1976, when the first 5 members of Congress of Hispanic descent, came together to support each other and to grow their numbers. Now, 44 years later, the Caucus is comprised of 38 members and is growing. Its nonprofit arm, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, operates Fe...2020-01-0642 minPower StationPower Station: A conversation with Anne Pasmanick & Rob FordJoin me for an entirely different kind of Power Station episode. This is a look back, with the very talented audio engineer and producer Rob Ford, at why I created Power Station, how personal experience shaped my vision for nonprofit advocacy, the under-reported role of nonprofits in crafting policy solutions to seemingly intractable societal problems and how our guests are thriving in unimaginably challenging times. We talk through the defining characteristics shared by Power Station guests, including their lived experience with the communities they serve and ability to pivot when political circumstances require it. And we credit their influence...2019-12-3034 min
Backroom PoliticsSPECIAL GUESTS ANNE PASMANICK & CHARLIE BIRNEY SIT IN WITH THE ROUND TABLECommunity Leader and Host of THE POWER STATION Podcast Anne Pasmanick and PODCAST VILLAGE founder Charlie Birney sit in on the Roundtable to discuss affordable housing, immigration, the role of migrant workers in our economy, and even gentrification!2019-04-1751 minPower Station#44 Cecilia Munoz, New AmericaNew America is a think tank devoted to America's renewal in a time of unprecedented social and technological change. Under the leadership of Anne-Marie Slaughter, it is building a new field of endeavor, known as Public Interest Technology. This emerging sector convenes municipal leaders, public agencies and nonprofits to generate nuanced solutions to systemic problems, from foster care, to opioid abuse and criminal justice. It pairs policy makers with technologists, an area of expertise more closely associated with Silicon Valley than government and NGOs, to create cost-effective and transformative solutions. This effort is led by Cecilia Munoz, a beloved lead...2019-01-0739 min