Power Station

As Isaac Bowers of Equal Justice Works explains, early exposure to public interest work can change the trajectory of a law student's career. That is why EJW partners with law schools, law firms and foundations to engage and mobilize the next generation of public interest lawyers. These lawyers are making a life changing difference for homeless veterans, immigrants facing deportation and families f...

Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA For All, and a national leader on immigrants' rights, is remarkably optimistic. His organization not only serves, through legal services, financial education and language classes, it deeply engages day laborers and domestic workers who are vulnerable to abuse, deportation and financial exploitation. Rather than seeing themselves as victims, they become in...

What happens when a financial adviser for high-wealth individuals takes his talents to a new platform: building wealth and assets for low-income and communities of color? Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz tells the story of his transition to Capital Area Asset Builders, the power of the Earned Income Tax Credit campaign to create a more equitable financial future, and how CAAB staff engage DC residents i...

As Dedrick tells us, the nation's racial wealth divide is a legacy of centuries of public policies enacted to favor White Americans and bar Black Americans from economic prosperity. That historical context and the impacts of the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, have generated entire communities of low-wealth. Research by Dedrick and other scholars confirms that recognizes that income alone is not en...

Marla has mastered community engagement and policy advocacy in Latino communities. It starts with providing families with the highest level of support for starting businesses, buying homes, challenging and winning repairs to unsound rental housing conditions. LEDC's success, she says, is a result of a committed staff, who "change people's lives." As a result, elected officials  look to LEDC to inf...

In the opening episode of Power Station, community development innovator Ron Hantz talks about changing up old paradigms and, as he explains it, elevating the vibrational levels in communities. Ron is an expert in financing and developing housing in disinvested communities of color. He believes that nonprofits must engage communities at all levels of development, including being at the table with...