Power Station

When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1981, he was determined to eliminate legal aid to the poor. He pressed Congress not to reauthorize the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), established in 1974 by President Nixon to provide lowest income Americans with access to high-quality legal counsel in civil cases. Congress stopped short of eradicating LSC but drastically cut funding and restricted th...

When the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was launched in 1970 its founders entered the fray with a compelling vision. They were renowned public intellectuals committed to creating a hub for newly elected Black officials shifting from civil rights activism to governance. The mission was to advance the socioeconomic status and civic engagement clout of African Americans through evide...

This 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...

Here 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 disas...

It 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 advert...

The 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 ded...

Mississippi 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. Eq...

In 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....

Have 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 messag...

At 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...

In 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 pe...

The 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 in...

Sometimes 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...

Bright 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...

Over 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 App...

The 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 way...

Thirty 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 powe...

What 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 commun...

Dr. Mary Calderone was a trailblazer in the normalization of contraception and family planning. Her tenure at Planned Parenthood Federation of America left her alarmed by how uninformed young people were about their bodies and human sexuality. In 1964, she founded SEICUS-Sexuality Information & Education Council of the US-to develop what are now regarded as our foremost guidelines for sex educatio...

Kiki Louya is a disruptor in an industry she loves and is determined to transform. She started working in restaurants at 15, learning every aspect of the business, eventually graduating from culinary school, becoming an executive chef and a restaurant owner. That journey included first-hand experience with injustices that are prevalent in restaurant life, from racial discrimination to sexual haras...

There are many metrics for effective leadership touted by the corporate and nonprofit sectors, but I doubt that lived experience is among them. It is just one of many strengths that Dr. Bambie Hayes-Brown brings to her leadership of Georgia Advancing Communities Together (Georgia Act), a statewide association that advocates for safe housing and vibrant neighborhoods for all. The mission is critica...

The culture of empathy that characterizes the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) can be traced to its origin story. Two women whose sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia, connected. They struggled to help their children and cope with the associated stigma. And both had been identified as the root cause of their son's schizophrenia. What started as a series of kitchen conversations 40 year...

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, thousands of Haitian and Cuban nationals escaped repressive regimes for the promise of safety and a better future on American shores. But once here their experience has been starkly disparate. Cubans were welcomed as political refugees, but Haitians, survivors of Duvalier's brutal dictatorship, were detained without due process rights in Miami's infamous Krome De...

So much goes into bringing fruits and vegetable to our tables. It starts with farmers who because of rising costs are increasingly selling off their land, often family legacies, to corporations and international investors. It relies on farmworkers brought to the United States on H-2A temporary visas who once here, migrate across states to harvest crops requiring a specialized workforce. In Florida...

How is legislation enacted? Do you picture Capitol Hill staffers scrambling to draft bills they have little connection to? Or back-room deal-making with corporations? That happens but more often nonprofit advocates press for legislation that will mitigate harms caused by policy making based in racism. Enacting legislation for the public good, let's say decreasing carbon emissions and increasing ac...