Power Station

Two dynamic forces have come together to create opportunity and equity in Washington DC’s historically underserved neighborhoods. One is Martha’s Table, a nonprofit whose mission is to support strong children, strong families and strong communities. It transforms the lives of Ward 5, 6, 7 and 8 residents through high-quality education programs, access to healthy food, and ongoing family supports. Most recently, it opened The Commons, a 43,000 square foot facility in Ward 8, where babies are cared for, children learn to read, and parents shop in markets, at no cost, for delicious and healthy fruit and vegetables. The other factor is Kim Ford, an accomplished leader and DC native, who recently signed on as the new executive director. Kim, a veteran of the Obama Administration and the former Dean of Workforce Development at the University of the District of Columbia Community College, is a relentless champion of DC families. She sees herself as a partner to the residents that Martha’s Table serves. And, she reje

What does it take to unapologetically and intentionally show up in the world as your authentic self? How do you generate the cultural shifts required for all people to be free? These are thoughts that motivate David Johns in his leadership of the National Black Justice Coalition. David lives and works at the intersection of the Black and LGBTQ experience where these questions are fundamental to the everyday experience. He and his team advocate for public policies in housing, health, schools and criminal justice that are essential to the safety and security of African-American lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people. And he extends his advocacy to broader networks because, as he explains, “You cannot purport to care about Black people unless you care about all Black people.” He acts on this understanding by challenging Black civil rights organizations to recognize and honor their LGBTQ members and pressing majority White LGBTQ groups to do the same for their Black constituents. In other words, he is a v

As executive director of Groundswell, Michelle Moore leads with a deep conviction that solar power is an abundant source of energy that should also be a source of economic empowerment. She wants all communities to have access to clean energy and has developed a model for supplying it that has taken root in 5 states and Washington DC. The scriptural premise to love your neighbor as you love yourself is embedded in Groundswell’s Empower program. It enables market rate subscribers to purchase solar energy from a local power project and share the savings with low-income residents. This approach is cutting energy bills in half, creating a pathway for savings that low-income families need for rent, food and school. Groundswell also partners with community-based partners willing to host a power project on their land, rooftop or parking lot. These trusted institutions provide solar power to local households and engage them in bringing these projects to life. One example is in Washington DC’s Ward 7, where the Dupont

Chris Lu has spent the last 20 years at the hub of federal policy making, including as Deputy Secretary for the US Department of Labor, and he is still a champion of public service. As he says, government matters: it builds our roads and bridges, creates the laws that protect veterans, keeps our homeland secure and our air and water clean. In his long tenure with first Senator and then President Barack Obama, he has been guided by a belief in the capacity of government to make the American Dream possible for all families, including his own parents, who immigrated to the United States from China. Now a Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Policy, Chris speaks often to young people who want to affect policy change. His advice, in the current political environment, is to think more expansively about where and how change is made. Chris sees innovation and problem-solving on issues from climate change to job training and Census implementation resting in local and state government, nonpro

In Native American communities, conversations about building local economies start with a shared belief in tribal sovereignty. This belief is foundational to the Native CDFI Network, whose 50 nonprofit members based in 23 states, provide financial education, credit building, and make loans for housing and small businesses where traditional banks are not engaged. Jackson Brossy brings his experience of growing up in Navajo Nation to his leadership of the Network. The legacy of forcible removal of Native Americans from their land, the decimation of assets, including buffalo, and the more current failure of public and corporate to invest on tribal land are drivers of the Network's vision. As Jackson explains, people should not have to travel for miles to buy milk and groceries and invest their resources off reservation. But a lack of access to the capital needed to launch businesses in Indian country and the complications of investment on rural lands held in trust by the federal government are barriers to thrivi

When we hear about a natural disaster our first thoughts go to saving people and then to saving homes, roads and infrastructure. We expect a rapid response by government and relief agencies and, hopefully, we volunteer to help. Chef José Andrés launched World Central Kitchen in the wake of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. He found his way to the island, listened to people struggling to survive and used his unique skills as a chef and entrepreneur to feed and mobilize the community. Since then, World Central Kitchen has used food, our most shared cultural touchstone to uplift communities after floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados in North Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Mozambique. WCK listens before acting. And the goodwill this approach generates is incalculable. WCK galvanizes chefs, students, professionals and everyday people to produce thousands of meals in logistically impossible situations. And Chef Andrés is a moral voice on behalf of immigrants and refugees battered by poverty, p

A nonprofit organization that advocates for restaurant workers to receive equitable pay and treatment was borne in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. On that horrific day, 73 workers from the Center’s iconic restaurant, Windows on the World, were killed and their co-workers displaced. Sekou Siby, a Windows on the World cook from the Ivory Coast, organized those survivors to ensure their well-being and to find new opportunities in the industry. Their efforts started with a worker’s center in New York and has since expanded into Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a game changing national nonprofit with chapters across the United States. Their members, workers in the industry, decide which issues they address and shape the policies solutions that they advocate. In Washington DC, organizers Sophia Miyoshi and Candance Cunningham tackle wage theft and sexual harassment while promoting fair wages and paid family leave for tipped workers and racial equity in the in

If you think that young people are disconnected from public policymaking, you need to reconsider your assumptions. United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led nonprofit in the nation is on the frontlines of policy advocacy and activism for undocumented immigrants. Its organizational perspective and strategy is rooted in lived experience. Staff and members are youth for whom immigration, detention, deportation, enforcement and citizenship are personal and political. In the current moment, United We Dream is a force for shaping and advocating for national and state level immigration policies. It is instrumental in organizing for passage of the Dream and Promise Act and against federal funding of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. United We Dream also builds pipelines of leadership for the future. As Sanaa Abrar, Directory of Advocacy, explains on Power Station, United We Dream is training young immigrants across the nation to create an immigration right's ecosystem. That ecosystem includes and embra

The National Skills Coalition (NSC) is building the workforce needed for our nation’s future by advocating for public investment in skills development now. This national nonprofit was launched twenty years ago when public support for job training was lagging and both labor and business leaders were concerned about the resulting lack of job opportunities and readiness. NSC’s message is now bolstered by 28,000 members representing industry, labor unions, community colleges and Chambers of Commerce. As Amanda Bergson-Shilcock, NSC’s Director of Upskilling Policy says about this disparate and broad-ranging coalition, “They may not agree on much, but they all agree on the importance of workforce development.” And they are committed to making the change they want to see. They meet with state and federal policy makers to advocate evidence-based positions and now, to share the results of a new NSC poll of 2020 voters. It demonstrates overwhelming support for increased public investment in people’s skills to meet empl

The Center for Responsible Lending was founded in the belief that all communities should have access to fair banking and lending services. And that the nation’s financial marketplace, from Wall Street to banks, should be reformed. It was rooted in the civil rights and economic justice movements and grew out of Self Help, a credit union launched in North Carolina in 1980. What started as a small operation and an experiment in lending to rural and other underserved communities, has become a $7 billion-dollar lender and a community development leader. Self Help proved the theory that a credit union with bonds of trust in a community can provide needed resources and be repaid. It proves, as Power Station guest Niktra Bailey, CRL Executive VP says, “Race does not equate to risk.” "Low income families shouldn’t have to pay more for financial services.” We discussed the state-based advocacy that CRL leads, its unimpeachable research and data and its field building among diverse organizations. We looked back at the p

Share Our Strength is an organization rooted in the conviction that hunger is a solvable problem. It is led by Billy and Debby Shore, a brother and sister whose father ran the political office of a congressional member in Pittsburgh and made the everyday realities of constituents a part of the dinner table conversation. Billy Shore went on to advise political campaigns and was motivated by the devastating famine of the early 1980s in Ethiopia to become an anti-hunger advocate. Billy and Debby now lead a thriving organization that deploys staff across the country to collaborate with schools, parents, chefs, corporate allies and policy makers to solve our nation’s hunger and nutrition challenges. As Monica Gonzales, Associate Director of Government Relations for No Kid Hungry, a key initiative of Share Our Strength, says on Power Station, “Hunger is non-partisan and does not discriminate. It affects children in urban, rural and suburban communities alike. And it is an indicator of other unmet needs that stem fr

If you want to see justice in action, go to DC Superior Court and look for the lawyers with the blue clipboards and a sign offering free help. They position themselves there for the 2 days a weeks dedicated to debt collection and are a counterpart to a sea of for-profit debt collectors. Picture this in Washington DC, where only 5% of residents get help with debt cases that disproportionately impact low-income people of color. The justice gap for people marginalized by debt is what led Ariel Levinson-Waldman to create Tzedek DC, a public interest nonprofit that advocates for just public policies. Debt can have devastating consequences for people with a limited ability to repay. It can mean the suspension of a driver's license, leading people who need to drive to get to work or take kids to school to risk arrest by doing so. And non-payment of utility bills can lead to wage garnishment that makes it impossible for low-wage workers to pay rent. Judgements on permanent records create significant obstacles to empl

The path to legal services for the poor in the U.S. has a rich and complex history. It includes support from the Freedman’s Association post Civil War to philanthropic investment by the Ford Foundation in the 1960s and the adoption of federal funding in 1974. Although legal services programs have flourished since then, they remain a target for cutbacks in the federal budget process.    A conversation with Maryland Legal Aid's Amy Petkovsek and Dimitri Degbeu, however, places us firmly in the present and demonstrates how innovative and life-changing a nonprofit law firm can be. It starts with 350 staff deployed to 12 offices throughout a demographically diverse state, from the mountains to the shore. In both rural communities and urban centers, MLA's  lawyers represent poor people who face eviction, predatory debt collection and foreclosure. They may be in in custody disputes, have wage claims, are struggling to gain veteran’s benefits and are tethered to criminal charges that deprive them of employment and ho

What does it take to build wealth in low-income and communities of color? It requires more than personal responsibility and savings. Bridging our nation’s gaping racial wealth divide means taking on systemic barriers: racism, student debt, low wages and resistance to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. We need changes to the US Tax Code, which, as Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, Acting Director of Capital Area Asset Builders explains, “rewards the rich, misses the middle and penalizes the poor.” A former wealth adviser, Joseph now uses his financial acumen to advocate for the Earned Income Tax Code, our nation's most effective poverty alleviation tool.  The EITC is critical public policy that makes low-income wage earners eligible for a credit that could be transformational in their family's fortunes. In combination with other financial education and resources, families that file for a receive a credit can aspire to and reach financial goals, from a college education to the purchase of a home or the launch

A new organization is amplifying the voices of those who are often invisible in the  immigration narrative, undocumented Black people. The UndocuBlack Network started when a group of currently and formerly undocumented Black people came together after Freddy Gray, a Baltimore resident, died from injuries sustained while in police custody. A group of young people organized the Undocumented and Black convening in Florida, sparking national interest and participation. In just 3 years, the UndocuBlack Network has blossomed into a national nonprofit whose advocacy is building community, influence and power.  As Gabrielle Jackson, co-founder and Mental Wellness Director, explains on Power Station, the challenges of the undocumented from the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Latin America and the African Continent are complex. They are deported at significantly higher rates than other populations and their stories are often underreported. Those in line for citizenship drop out of the process for many reasons and asylum see

Dr. Imani Woody has a vision and she is bringing it to life. It reflects a lifetime of working at the intersection of LGBTQ, race, cultural diversity, and aging issues. And it is informed by her experience with her own father, an accomplished entrepreneur, who, after entering a "good" nursing home, experienced a decline in self-worth and physical health. She took her father out of the facility, into her home, and reimagined what is possible. The model Dr. Woody has developed is based in research, including her own PhD thesis, which chronicled the challenges of aging, particularly for LGBTQ elders who are most likely to suffer from isolation, discrimination and marginalization, even in "the best" of senior facilities. She formed a nonprofit, and drew on her considerable professional experience with the Whitman Walker Center, the Mautner Project for Lesbians, the AARP Foundation Sage Metro DC and as an appointee to the DC Office of LGBTQ Affairs. In September 2020. she will break ground on the first Mary's Cent

Alison Feighan learned about the power of community development to change communities and lives as a Fair Housing advocate in Quincy, Massachusetts. In her first "real" job out of college, Alison became a Fair Housing advocate for Quincy Community Action Agency where she worked for and was mentored by her executive director, the late Rosemary Wahlberg. The lessons learned from Rosemary - listening to the community, being problem solving and taking local stories to a national stage on Capitol Hill - are foundational to Alison's work. As Founder of The Feighan Team, an advocacy and lobbying firm for nonprofits, Alison gets her clients seats at the table on the Hill and then "gets out of the way." She works with them to identify their goals, understand the Congressional timeline, and build their "muscle memory" as advocates on their issues. And she encourages a non-partisan approach, a significant challenge in the current political environment. Her clients, which include the Native CDFI Coalition, National Migra

This episode of Power Station tracks the latest news on the lawsuit, filed by Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, challenging the inclusion of an untested citizenship question on the decennial U.S. Census. Guest John Yang, President of AAJC, explains what the  lawsuit alleges: that adding the question represents collusion by President Trump, Kris Kobach, Steve Bannon and Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, to deprive Asian-American, Pacific Islander, Latino and Native Americans of their constitutional right to representation in the Census. Imposing a citizenship question on the Census will inevitable deter households from participation, and an accurate count of these communities will not be collected.  Good data is not a partisan issue. The good data he refers to is what drives more than $600 billion in federal funding allocations annually to schools, hospitals, roads and all of the systems that make communities whole. It is also what determines h

As Mike Koprowski, National Campaign Director of Opportunity Starts at Home  says, eyes widen on Capitol Hill when they see the logos on our letterhead. That is because policymakers are not used to seeing powerful nonprofits outside of the housing sector advocate for a housing centered policy agenda. Now, the paradigm is changing and for an important reason. The data makes the case that decent and affordable housing is foundational to the well-being and economic security of all communities. A growing understanding of the intersectionality of social and economic justice concerns has moved the nation's leading civil rights, education, health and children's organizations to join and shape the agenda of the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign. Mike and Campaign Coordinator Chantelle Wilkinson joined Power Station to talk about this dynamic coalition and about Within Reach, its just-released policy agenda. Within Reach is a comprehensive template for solving the housing crisis for lowest income Americans. It advoc

A conversation with Daniel del Pielago, Organizing Director at Empower DC, is a good reminder that public policy change cannot be made or sustained without an organized community. And when the community seeking change is public housing residents, the barriers to becoming organized are considerable and the stakes are extremely high. In this episode of Power Station, Daniel relates how Empower DC builds power, through tenant organizing and community engagement, in Washington DC's lowest income neighborhoods. He tells the ongoing story of Berry Farms, a public housing complex, beset by deteriorating conditions and a lack of public investment. It is now the focus of a Mayoral initiative. Berry Farms is slated to be demolished and to be replaced by mixed-use housing, featuring market rate apartments and town homes. Many residents have been dispersed throughout the City with promises to be returned. Others are left in place with an uncertain future. But they are organizing and making their voices heard in City Coun