Power Station

Words are powerful. Whether Patrice Sulton is telling the story of Washington DC's criminal justice system or drafting legislation to overhaul it, she uses hers to advance bold changes in its policing, courts, and jails. For years, as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, Patrice saw first-hand what the data confirms: virtually all criminalized people in this city are poor, Black, and nati...

Every great organization has a compelling origin story. In the case of Native American Youth and Family (NAYA) Center, parents and elders came together in the 1970s, concerned about the low graduation rate, only 24%, of Native students in the Portland, Oregon school system. Their organizing generated after-school programming and eventually, in 1994, led to the nonprofit incorporation of the NAYA C...

What would your nonprofit be able to achieve with a law firm on its side? This question was tested when, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, a small group of experienced litigators launched Democracy Forward, taking on the Trump administration's assaults on the voting, environmental, immigration, reproductive, and health care rights of low income and communities of color. They quickly m...

The seeds of America's subjugation of low income, indigenous, and people of color were planted at our founding. Ever since, public leaders have codified policies that strip these communities of wealth and power. It has taken social movements, including bold nonprofits, to demand equal rights and structural change. This divisive moment in history calls for collective action rooted in 21 st century...

If you are despairing about the rise of racial hatred and the anti-democratic direction this country is embracing, consider what it takes to build a more just future. For marginalized communities, nonprofit organizations are essential to becoming visible, attaining legal rights, and exercising electoral clout. Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California exemplifies how organizational exp...

Since its founding in 1966, the National Organization for Women has been on the frontlines of dismantling both sexism and racism. Its founders, including Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisolm and Pauli Murray saw these systems of oppression as inextricably linked, fortified by policies enacted to marginalize women, particularly Black women, and other people of color. NOW's president, the immensely talent...

We are reminded daily, in every scroll through social media, disputed election, tense family function and divisive school board meeting that America is a fractured nation. The polarization is so extreme that increasing numbers of our public leaders no longer identify democracy as a core value. In this episode of Power Station, we learn how the humanities (the arts, history, and philosophy) can be...

Why are farmworkers, who provide our food security system, so marginalized by the nation they feed? They work in conditions that are unlawful in other sectors and have skills that American born workers lack. On this episode of Power Station, we hear from two guests who know that farmworker parents want more for their children. This aspiration is made possible by scores of migrant Head Start center...

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...

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 t...

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 langu...

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, clim...

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 govern...

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 hon...

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 commun...

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 decisio...

  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, h...

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...

Have you ever thought about the stories behind a set of statistical tables? How do political dynamics shape the questions  asked on government forms and how the resulting data translates to federal resources and political representation? And how do we respond when the questions do not fully capture our identify, culture or community? Data about who we are is key to building a more inclusive and re...

In 2022, we live largely online and the future looks increasingly digital. It is fundamental to how we work, communicate, consume news, and connect to banking, health care and governmental services. But access to the internet is not equal or even guaranteed. Many rural and tribal lands lack broadband and in some urban neighborhoods, internet connections are spotty, and internet plans are unafforda...

All people deserve to be seen and heard. Those who are not often feel invisible, from their cultural heritage to their material circumstances and societal contributions. This reality led a group of young Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in 2009 to found Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) a nonprofit dedicated to advancing social justice for Native Hawaiians, Chamorros (indigenous...

  On a single night in January 2021, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recorded more than 580,000 people experiencing homelessness. During that same year, close to 1.45 million people were homeless at some time. These numbers have increased every year since 2015, a consequence of a severe shortage of affordable housing. Ann Oliva, Vice President for Housing Policy at The Cen...

On the morning of March 8, moments before recording this episode, the Florida State Senate passed HR 1557, dubbed the Don't Say Gay Bill. Pauline Green, executive director of the Alliance for GLBTQ Youth joined Power Station to break down the legislation and its potential impacts on students, teachers and school districts. She reported on the previous night's hearing in which the sponsor was unabl...

Our political parties are so divided they cannot agree that basic democratic principles, from the right to vote to the freedom to read the books of our choice are sacrosanct. Given the aggressively anti-democratic stances of many state legislatures we must remind ourselves that government can be a force for good. For that to happen the electorate must be fully engaged and community-based nonprofit...

When Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Pennsylvania's republican-led state legislature went into action, creating new barriers to voting. Ginned up by Donald Trump's baseless claim of voter fraud, the republican majority on the Commonwealth Court successfully challenged a recent law making mail-in voting more expansive. The democratic governor and secretary of state are appealing this...