TransUnion unveils research assessing pandemics effect on consumer finances

TORONTO, April 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nearly three out of five Canadians (57%) said their household income has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly released research from TransUnion (TRU) found that an additional 10% of Canadian adults said they expect their household income will suffer in the future.

Alberta (63%) and Saskatchewan (67%) were the provinces which reported the highest percentage of household incomes negatively impacted with both already dealing with economic shocks before COVID-19 as a result of oil price declines.

TransUnion has initiated a survey of adults in Canada and abroad to better understand the financial impact of COVID-19 on consumers. The survey (commenced March 31, 2020) of 1,064 adults marked the first for the country in what will be an ongoing series. Additional details as well as resources for consumers looking to minimize the potential negative impact of the pandemic on their credit, and access to self-serve, educational materials can be found at https://www.transunion.ca/covid-19.

Whether its their health, financial well-being or changes in day-to-day living, the lives of millions of people in Canada and abroad have been dramatically changed. The situation is evolving at an incredibly fast pace and we need to come together as a nation to solve the unique problems and situations that arise, said Todd Skinner, TransUnion Regional President for Canada, Latin America and Caribbean. The aim of our weekly consumer research is to better understand the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and better inform consumers, businesses and government decisions during these unprecedented times. It is important that businesses and consumers are able to continue to transact with confidence and we will do everything in our power to help facilitate the provision of lending and commerce during these uncertain times.

TransUnions research found that the youngest generations, particularly Millennials (those born 1980 to 1994) and Gen Z (born from 1995 onwards), felt most impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. While 70% of consumers who have had their household income impacted by COVID-19 are concerned about paying their bills, this increased to 78% for Millennials and 74% for Gen Z. On average, Canadian respondents said they will be short about $935 in the near future.

Our focus is on supporting Canadian consumers, businesses and the wider economy as a whole. We know this is an extremely difficult time, and were committed to helping people navigate any financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers are facing many unexpected challenges and its natural that people are concerned about their finances. Its really important that there is a dialogue between businesses and their customers at this time of uncertainty. Equally, we encourage consumers looking to minimize potential negative impacts of the pandemic on their credit to visit TransUnions COVID-19 website, concluded Skinner.

TransUnions research and credit education tools will be updated weekly on its COVID-19 website as the company continues to support consumers and businesses from around the globe.

About TransUnion TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good. TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people in more than 30 countries. Our customers in Canada comprise some of the nations largest banks and card issuers, and TransUnion is a major credit reporting, fraud, and analytics solutions provider across the finance, retail, telecommunications, utilities, government and insurance sectors.

For more information visit: http://www.transunion.ca

Read more:

57% of Canadians Say Household Income Negatively Impacted by COVID-19 - Yahoo Finance

Services and studies

Cornerstone Outreach Ministries A nondenominational ministry at 1229 California St., Columbus. The Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m.

Bible study is on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, call 812-375-4502.

Dayspring Church Apostolic Worship begins at 11:15 a.m. at the church, 2127 Doctors Park Drive, Columbus. Every visitor will receive a free gift.

The Sunday Education Session starts at 10 a.m.

Bible Study is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and is a group session sponsored by Heart Changers International, LLC on Depression, Perfection and Anger with hand out questions. These help build our Personal Empowerment and walk.

Our Prayer of Power starts at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and is preceded with requests and instructions on prayer.

Ignite is the Youth Growth Session that happens every third Friday.

For more information, call 812-372-9336, or email dayspringchurch@att.net.

East Columbus United Methodist East Columbus United Methodist Church services and Bible studies are canceled due to the pandemic.

Fairlawn Presbyterian Weekly Worship Service on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom (links and numbers below or folks can check fairlawnpc.net or visit our Facebook page for login and phone information).

Please use Zoom to call in by phone and/or login online.

Join the Online Zoom Meeting at https://zoom.us/j/431070245 with the Meeting ID of 431 070 245

Dial in using landline or cell phone: +1 253 215 8782 US; +1 301 715 8592 US; Meeting ID: 431 070 245

For more information, visit Fairlawns Facebook page or website (fairlawnpc.net), email office@fairlawnpc.net or call 812-372-3882.

All are welcome!

Please call or email the church office for most up to date information at 812-372-3882 or office@fairlawnpc.net

The church is located at 2611 Fairlawn Drive, Columbus.

Faith Lutheran Faith Lutheran Church will be streaming Palm Sunday worship on Facebook this Sunday, April 5, at 9 a.m.

During Holy Week, Maundy Thursday worship will stream live on Facebook on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m.

On Good Friday, April 10, worship will stream live on Facebook at 6:30 p.m.

On Saturday evening, April 11, Easter Vigil worship will stream live at 6:30 p.m. Then on Easter Sunday morning, April 12, we will gather together to worship again at 9 a.m.

Services are available on our Facebook site: Faith Lutheran Church Columbus. More information is at Faithontheweb.org or call 812-342-3587.

The church is located at 6000 W. State Road 46, Columbus.

First Christian Church The church will only be having an online service at 10:30 a.m. on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FCCOC) and at http://www.fccoc.org/sunday/watch-now.

Details at http://www.fccoc.org

First Baptist Columbus will not be holding public worship gatherings at present. The church does offer a live stream worship connection at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays.

First Presbyterian First Presbyterian Church has canceled all in-person gatherings, including worship and committee meetings, and our office is closed until further notice. If you need to be in touch with us, please call (812) 372-3783 and leave a message, and we will be back in touch with you as soon as possible.

Streaming of worship services is available here https://www.facebook.com/groups/56933406910/ each Sunday, until we are meeting back in the church. Join us as we worship together through technology!

Please know that we are praying for our church, our community and the world in this time of crisis, and we encourage you to join us in prayer. God bless you.

Information: fpccolumbus.org

First United Methodist Worship services at First United Methodist Church have been canceled through April 12. We will have a live stream version of worship every Sunday at 10 a.m. on our Facebook page.

The Life Planning Seminar that was scheduled for April 5th has been postponed.

With regards to our Holy Week Services (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday), FUMC will likely have some kind of video/live streaming services to view, but will not have services at the church.

Information: 812-372-2851 or fumccolumbus.org.

Flintwood Wesleyan The church is located at 5300 E. 25th St.

In response to the current Covid-19 (coronavirus) situation, Flintwood Wesleyan Church is canceling all in-person services and activities through April 5th. This includes Sunday worship, choir practice, Celebrate Recovery, I-Kids, Youth, and Bible study. Schools will be closed until May 1st, resulting in all our Wednesday activities being canceled until then.

A Livestream worship service will be available Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. via the Flintwood Wesleyan Church Group Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Please remember to check our various communication spaces Facebook, Website, Mobile App for updates. Your Flintwood staff will be doing everything possible to keep our congregation encouraged. We need to do all we can to keep our staff encouraged.

Above all pray!

For further information about services or our ministries, please call 812.379.4287 or email flintwoodoffice@gmail.com. Church office hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our website is http://www.flintwood.org

Garden City Church of Christ Garden City Church of Christ is canceling services until April 5.

We intend to provide weekly sermons at gardencitychurch.com or on our Facebook page. These sermons will be available at or before 10 a.m. each Sunday morning. In absence of our weekly gatherings, you are encouraged to continue giving your tithes and offerings through the website and the GivePlus app.

The offices will remain open throughout the week. If conditions change, we will provide an update.

Garden City Church of Christ is located at 3245 Jonesville Road, Columbus.

For more information, visit gardencitychurch.com or call 812-372-1766.

Grace Lutheran The Rev. John Armstrong will preach on Sunday. Worship is at 8 a.m. and can be livestreamed at http://www.gracecolumbus.org/livstream/.

The church is located at 3201 Central Ave., Columbus.

New Vision Community Church Friendship Sunday is April 5 at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the church, 1740 State St. The church welcomes everyone. Anointed singing and preaching in both services.

An Easter weekend revival will begin on Good Friday April 10 at 7 p.m. Communion will also be offered on Good Friday.

Saturday night April 11 at 6 p.m. will feature a gospel singing by the Riddells from Pendleton.

Sunday morning April 12 will feature special singing and preaching for Easter service.

Sunday School will be at 11:15 a.m.

For more information, call Chris Rutan at 812-447-2121.

Old Union United Church of Christ The Sunday worship service will being at 10 a.m. Sunday school will be at 9 a.m. with fellowship at 9:40 a.m.

The church is located at 12703 N. County Road 50W, Edinburgh.

Petersville United Methodist Church The Petersville United Methodist Church will be closed until further notice. Persons may check the Petersville United Methodist Church Facebook page for additional information.

Teresa Covert will post a childrens sermon on her Facebook page.

There will not be an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 4.

Information: 812-546-4438; 574-780-2379.

Sandy Hook United Methodist The church will be having a Bible study on the book of Jonah for seven spring Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. from April 1 through May 13. This video-based study is part of the Epic of Eden Bible studies.

Please contact the church office at 812-372-8495 or office@sandyhook.org if interested in participating (so books can be ordered).

The church is located at 1610 Taylor Road in Columbus.

St. Pauls Episcopal Church All in-person activities at the church are suspended until further notice. Sunday worship is being hosted on ZOOM at 10:15 am each Sunday morning (Meeting ID# 2912120372). Wednesday Stations of the Cross are hosted at 5:30 pm on ZOOM (same meeting ID). The First Thursday Ladies Lunch will also be on ZOOM (same meeting ID) April 2nd at 11:30 am. (Friends of Bill W. are still meeting on their regular schedule at this time).

St. Paul Lutheran In response to the Stay at Home order, St. Paul Lutheran Church has suspended regularly scheduled worship services through April 5th. For pastoral care, please contact the church at 812-376-6504.

Open enrollment for the 2020-2021 preschool and kindergarten registration continues. Classes are for children who are 3-, 4- or 5-years old by Aug. 1. Information: 812-376-6504 or stpaulcolumbus.org.

Information: 812-376-6504.

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus UUCCI building has been closed for services and all other gatherings until further notice.

Many of these programs can be or have already been moved online at https://uucci.org/

The church is at 7850 W. Goeller Blvd., Columbus.

Information: 812-342-6230.

Westside Community Until further notice, all in-person and onsite activities, including Sunday worship, are suspended. Please visit http://www.WCCShareJesus.com for recorded sermons, as well as Facebook for daily Points to Ponder by Pastor Dennis Aud.

When able, WCC has plans to host a community-wide garage sale. Be on the lookout for more details in the upcoming weeks. If interested in participating, while you are stuck at home this might be a good time to clean out your basements, closets, garages, etc.

For more information on studies or small groups that meet throughout the week, contact the church office at 812-342-8464.

Events

Community Church of Columbus An eight-week parenting course entitled Parenting with Love and Logic is designed for parents of children ages 6 and under. The course will be offered at Community Church of Columbus, 3850 N. Marr Road, as part of the Tuesday Connection series. Dinner is also available each week at 5:30 p.m. along with child care at no cost.

Eckankar of Southern Indiana All Eckankar events in Indiana are suspended through May 31, 2020. This is to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. This includes the monthly Eckankar Spiritual Discussion held the third Sunday of the month at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation building in Columbus, Indiana.

Check http://www.eck-indiana.org for the latest update on events in Indiana, and you are invited to browse the main Eckankar website for videos and reading material at http://www.Eckankar.org.

Fairlawn Presbyterian Joint Lenten Study with First Presbyterian Church on Jesus Sees Women on the following dates:

Tuesday, April 7 at First Presbyterian Church 512 Seventh Street about Out of Chaos Hope Presbyterian Disaster Assistance led by Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick.

Connect via your laptop or computer (if it has video and audio capabilities). Go to your internet browser and enter https://zoom.us/j/668104094 (or just click on the link). It is suggested that you log in a few minutes early because if youve never connected with Zoom, when you log in for the very first time it does require a small download for your browser.

Equally helpful is if you have a smart phone or iPad, then you can download the Zoom app and then join this meeting ID: 668-104-094.

If neither of these are options for you, you can still join via phone. Call (312) 626 6799 (Chicago) and enter this meeting ID when prompted: 668-104-094.

The church is located at 2611 Fairlawn Drive, Columbus.

Hope Community Church The free breakfast and Easter egg hunt on the April 11 is cancelled.

North Christian Church The church is temporarily suspending all church activities, effective immediately and for the foreseeable future due to caution concerning the coronavirus outbreak. The offices of the pastor and staff members will be closed as well. The church will reopen as soon as recommended by health officials.

Link:

Religion news April 4 - The Republic

During the first week of March, St. Olaf celebrated the 50-year anniversary of women being ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the 40-year anniversary of women of color being ordained and the 10-year anniversary of LGBTQIA+ individuals serving openly.

The College honored these anniversaries through themed daily chapels and a panel discussion. The anniversary is an opportunity to lament that women have been barred from serving, acknowledge how far women in the ELCA have come and identify what work still needs to be done, according to the Colleges Associate Pastor, Katherine Fick.

The week began with a chapel talk from Kristine Carlson 74, a retired ELCA pastor with nearly 40 years of ministry under her belt. She was one of the first women ordained in the Lutheran tradition, which also meant she was nearly always the first woman to hold any position she had throughout her career. Carlson shared the joys of her time as a pastor, but also the sexism and barriers that came along with it.

Regina Hassanally, the bishop of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod of the ELCA, led chapel on Tuesday. She was the first woman elected as bishop in the synod in which St. Olaf resides and is the youngest person ever elected bishop in the ELCA. She spoke to her vocational story, in which she found empowerment through a non-linear and non-traditional path.

On Wednesday, Fick gave a Lenten Liturgy of the Ordinary talk addressing how it is empowering that from her own personal experience, being a woman pastor is ordinary. Fick also stressed that if we want inclusive leadership not to be the exception, but the norm, we must normalize women of all backgrounds as leaders in the church.

I feel like there are still barriers to women of color, to trans women, to people who dont identify on a gender binary, for people who are gay or lesbian or queer, Fick said. I feel like those identities have not yet been normalized in the church.

Beverly Wallace, an African-American pastor and associate professor of congregational and community care at Luther Seminary, led a chapel talk on Thursday addressing the intersections of being a woman of color and a pastor. She called for the church to continue breaking down enduring structures of racism and sexism. For example, women of color still have longer waiting periods before their first call to serve a congregation than white women.

Thursdays chapel talk was followed by a panel discussion entitled Shes My Pastor: Fifty Years of Ordaining Lutheran Women.

When I think about the future, when we think of pastors, we see this beautiful range of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity represented, and that we can look at all of them, inclusive of identities and say, These are our leaders, Fick said. Thats what I look forward to.

brinke1@stolaf.edu

Continue reading here:

St. Olaf celebrates 50 years of ordaining Lutheran women - Manitou Messenger

The movie starts in the black-and-white humdrum existence of Kansas and soon switches to glorious technicolor when our intrepid heroine Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) gets carried away in a tornado, ending up in the magical Land of Oz. Even now with the advent of high definition screens more than eight decades later, The Wizard of Oz and its incredible effects are just as vibrant as they were back then. In fact, maybe even more so, as digital retouching has allowed for the films radiant color palette to shine even brighter.

The Wizard of Oz follows young Dorothy in Kansas where her biggest problems are boredom and the nasty woman Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton), who is at war with Dorothys dog Toto. After Toto attacks Miss Gulch one more time, Gulch goes to the police and gets permission to seize the dog, who she plans on euthanizing herself, with gusto. Toto escapes, and, thinking she has no other way to save his life, Dorothy packs a suitcase and runs away from home. But while shes on her journey, a huge tornado makes its way toward her aunt and uncles house. In her efforts to find them, Dorothy, Toto, and the house get swept off into the skies to land with a solid thump in an entirely new world.

In Oz, Dorothy learns she accidentally killed the Wicked Witch of the East by dropping her house on her. Big oops. Vowing revenge, the Wicked Witch of the West (also played by Margaret Hamilton) tries to kill Dorothy, but cannot because the Good Witch Glinda (Billie Burke) has bestowed upon Dorothy the enchanted ruby slippers once worn by the Witch of the East. Dorothy must make the arduous journey through hallucinatory Oz in order to ask its highest ruler, the Wizard (Frank Morgan), to get her home. Because as marvelous as Oz might be, Dorothy cannot stop missing the Kansas she once wanted to escape so badly.

On her way down the Yellow Brick Road, she collects a strange coterie of friends: the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who also have requests from the Wizard. After more wild hijinks that include Dorothy killing the Witch of the East, she discovers that the power to get back to Kansas was with her all along. Theres no place like home, Dorothy Gale says once she finally returns home after a whirlwind adventure to the Land of Oz. Im not going to leave here ever again! Dorothy promises her family and friends.

While The Wizard of Oz closes with a message of personal empowerment and realizing how much power we have in ourselves if we would access it, it also includes a disturbing nativist lesson of not straying too far from your own back yard a concept that resonates with the MAGA America First crowd which also continues to hold strong eight decades later. In these years, and in particular, since 2016, we have seen the US government exit historic international treaties such as the Paris Agreement, NAFTA, UN Human Rights Council, UNESCO, NATO, and even the G7 in the guise of making America stronger, but this withdrawal has only painfully damaged Americas participation in global politics as well as necessary international oversight, especially with regards to issues of human rights violations and climate change. This nativism has led to increased attacks on immigrants of color where the racist phrase Go home to your country is used against even generations of American-born immigrants. For many of those, the only home they have known is the United States. And with these assaults, the idea of there is no place like home takes on an even more disturbing spin.

But with the current COVID19 global pandemic 81 years later, The Wizard of Ozs notion of theres no place like home has certainly taken on a new meaning as quarantine and stay-at-home orders dominate our lives in the battle to stop the exponential contagion of this viral pathogen. For some, the idea of no other place like home in the midst of a global crisis is a positive one that signifies protection, health, and safety. For many others, though, home has become a new prison as domestic violence reports have spiked dramatically since the first stay-at-home orders were announced.

Theres also a tragic irony in the message of no place like home today: We have thousands of homeless folks who have no place to shelter. Thanks to the toxic capitalism that drives America, they remain homeless and at risk. The city of Las Vegas drew social distancing markers in an empty parking lot as temporary shelters where homeless folks can sleep instead of opening even one of their now-empty hotels for this vulnerable segment of American society. And, just as horrifying, in America 2020 we have concentration camps at the southern border where asylum seekers and refugees are being held with no home to go back or forward to, who are also particularly at risk for coronavirus infection thanks to the degrading conditions theyve been left in. Theres no place like home indeed.

Home isnt just a place, as Dorothy finds out in The Wizard of Oz. It is also the social networks that keep that place thriving and supporting everyone who lives in it. Home is also where we feel we belong, whether that be a country, community, or something else entirely that gives us a sense of connection and can even contribute to our identity. At the same time, the physical shelter of a home, literally speaking, is also vital to our survival and good health. For segments of vulnerable Americans across the spectrum of economics, race, gender, and immigration status, unfortunately, the idea of having no place like home has become a messy notion steeped in many levels of uncertainty. Eighty-one years after The Wizard of Oz first enchanted audiences with its escapist fantasy, theres no place like home has become a multilayered statement for our current times.

Read more:

The 'The Wizard of Oz' is Fit for a Pandemic 81 Years Later - Black Girl Nerds

GREENSBORO, April 9th, 2020 -- The Annual Human Race event has always been about fundraising, but it has now become a platform for local non-profit organizations to raise the funds needed to aid their missions and the vulnerable populations they serve during this pandemic. The Volunteer Center has a collective goal to raise $157,500 before June 20th, 2020. Over 75 local nonprofits have signed up with teams of fundraisers that can easily be supported online. Several for-profit companies have also created fundraising teams to raise money for nonprofits that align with their values. These organizations are still fundraising and now is more important than ever.

On a regular day, these organizations are serving food to those that are hungry, freeing dogs from heavy chains, empowering the next generation, building homes for those without, showing support for those who need it, gathering resources for veterans, supporting those with disabilities, educating children at every level, offering health and wellness to all, and more. With the effects of the pandemic, fundraising for many of them has completely stopped or reduced significantly. Many have small teams that are trying to reach the masses with small volunteer crews. The number of people knocking on the doors of these organizations has doubled in some cases as more are out of work and in need of resources.

We need your help. Just $25 could feed a family, replenish supplies, pay for gas needed to deliver medications to those in need, and more. You can choose an organization or team to donate to HERE or you can donate to the overall cause HERE.

Participating Non-Profit Organizations include American Cancer Society, After Gateway, Animal Rescue and Foster Program, Break of Life Church, BackPack Beginnings, Beautiful Butterflies, Bingo Pet Hospice, Black Child Development Institute, Break the Chain Kennel Kru, Ronald McDonald House, Child Evangelism Fellowship of Greater Greensboro, Chosen Generation Connection, Church World Service Greensboro, Combat Female Veterans Families United, Communication Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Community Housing Solutions, Corporation of Guardianship, CreateME, Empowered Girls of North Carolina, Epilepsy Alliance NC, FaithAction International House, Feral Cat Assistance Program, Future Hope Single Parents Ministry, GCS American Indian Education, GMCPD, Grandmas Handz, Greensboro Bar Association, Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, Guilford Green Foundation, Hand In Hand Water Safety Awareness, Haynes-Inman Education Center PTA, Helping Hands of High Point, Herald Charters, Herbin-Metz Education Center PTA, Authoracare (formerly Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro), Interactive Resource Center, Kellin Foundation Smiles 4 Miles, Keris Crusade for ALS,

maCares, Manasseh Baptist Church, Mental Health Greensboro, National MS Society, MBCC Foundation, NC African Service Coalition, Nehemiah Community Empowerment Center, One Step Further, Operation Xcel, People to People Liason, Resources for Artful Living, Ruff Love Rescue, Senior Resources of Guilford, SHIELD Mentor Program, Singing Dog Farm, The Sparrows Nest and Black Suit Initiative, TC Mens Ministry, The Arc of Greensboro, The Circle Foundation NC, The Servant Center, The Volunteer Center, This is My Sexy, Tiny House Community Development, Triad Golden Retriever Rescue, Triad Health Project, Triangle Beagle Trotters, United Way of Greater Greensboro, Victory Junction, and the Womens Resource Center.

You can donate to any of these teams HERE. Non-profits not listed above can still create fundraising teams. Contact jordan@volunteergso.org for more information.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC OR NCDHHS. The state also has a special hotline set up where you can call 866-462-3821 for more information on the coronavirus. You can also submit questions online at ncpoisoncontrol.org or select chat to talk with someone about the virus.

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Thank you to our sponsors:

Bank of America has sponsored since 2001 and has been the presenting 5k sponsor since 2004 and is returning for this 26th annual Human Race. They also participate as fundraisers for 12 different nonprofit organizations and have been the top company fundraisers ever year.

Additional repeat sponsors are Dicks Broadcasting, WFMY News 2, Arch Mortgage Insurance, Jimmys Plumbing, American National Bank, Griswold Home Care, Zos Kitchen, Kneaded Energy, Little Guys Movers, and Palmetto Equity Group.

New this year, we have support and sponsorship from Novant Health, Renewal By Andersen, Truliant Federal Credit Union, Sequoia Services, Right Fit Storage, Smoothie King, Joy Squad, Shift, YES! Weekly, Hand in Hand Water Safety, Good Health Chiropractic, and Biscuitville.

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Registration for timed runners is $35. Day of registrations are $40. Walkers and those utilizing the short-route turnaround will not be timed, and can register at no cost but are encouraged to make a donation at registration. All registrants receive a link for personal fundraising pages as well as a link for the fundraising page for the team they join. These links offer a way for people everywhere to donate and support the cause whether they are near or far, participating or not.

Awards include best times for the top three individuals in each age group and gender, top ten fundraising individuals and teams, most spirited team awards, and more.

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About The Volunteer Center

The mission of The Volunteer Center is to strengthen our community by creating meaningful volunteer connections. We connect people, promote volunteerism, support nonprofits, and build partnerships. For more information about TVC, please visit http://www.volunteergso.org

Follow us on Facebook here and here, as well as on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

More here:

OUR LOCAL NONPROFITS NEED YOUR HELP | Business - Yes! Weekly

Continued from yesterday

With their proficiency, some Tech-U students engage in technical jobs outside the university at their leisure. The Students Start-Up Fund to has been helpful for innovative students who have ideas that have already been transformed into startups.

The fact is that two things happen when the entrepreneurial capacity of youths is developed; the economy is strengthened because it has a direct contribution to the socio-economic development process through the development of indigenous expertise and it also helps to address youth unemployment. Policy and support programmes for TVET, therefore, need to be well-coordinated in Nigeria to achieve desirable results. While awareness for TVET programmes continues to increase, the same cannot be said about the coordination among the different sectors and ministries that offer TVET courses; this is evidenced by their different standards and the many inadequacies being faced. In many centres, the capacity of the trainers themselves still needs to be adequately developed. There is also the issue of financing as well as that of inadequate infrastructure.

Not only should entrepreneurship education be tailored towards the needs of the industry, but it should also be designed and administered according to the need of the target clientele. It should be put in mind that only entrepreneurial faculties will effectively deliver entrepreneurship instructions. The capacity of lecturers will, therefore, have to be developed from time to time. While the country eagerly awaits the formulation of a proper policy on skills acquisition, private enterprises can support collaborative research to identify skill gaps in the industry and also partner the ivory tower to develop training contents for youth development in response to the identified skill gaps. They could also be of help through the provision of opportunities for industrial work experience for students in training as well as the offering of an apprenticeship programme for unemployed youths.

Though youths are being trained in TVET, the outcome is not yet commensurate with the efforts being put in. And the higher a country ranks in terms of TVET training, the better for the country in the world economy. It is therefore not wrong to say that TVET development has a lot to do with economic and national development in the long run. It is obvious that no country develops without developing its science and technology. As such, enduring technological development may not take place without skilled technicians. Skilled technicians play major roles in the development of a technology-driven economy anywhere in the world. And TVET is the key that can ensure the required potential and productive workforce with the right scientific and technological competence. Matthew Lauer in his article titled: The future of work requires a return to apprenticeship, published in The Nation of March 9, 2020, put it succinctly when he noted that the skills required for the skilled jobs are not taught in the traditional university. He argued that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will eliminate many white and blue-collar jobs. This is perhaps the reason many countries are now prioritising TVET, and he cited the example of Switzerland where 2/3 of young people are pursuing dual-track classroom and vocational training.

It is undeniable that Nigeria has adopted TVET as an integral part of her national development strategy. TVET that was rejected by many only a few decades back is fast becoming the cornerstone for the development and transformation of education and training. To ensure, however, that the objectives of TVET, which include the impartation of knowledge and skills for increased efficiency in the world of work, personal empowerment and socio-economic development, are achieved, proper execution and management will be of absolute necessity.

Since TVET involves applying skills to support life, it will make a country technologically relevant and internationally competitive. It will also improve the quality of life through technological improvement. And of course, with those, there will be a reduction of poverty and it will culminate in the reduction of social vices. The absence of a national skills policy calls for urgent attention.

It will do the nation a lot of good for the government to invite stakeholders in the industry and the education sector to formulate a comprehensive national skill acquisition policy that aims at arming the youth against unemployment, building self-reliant youths and ultimately improving the economy. The government should also back this up with appropriate legislative instruments to compel and guide implementation.

The point must be made that nations do not just become great. Greatness is assured only on the heels of concerted investment in their people. Therefore, for Nigeria to emerge as a superpower, as commensurate with its latent potential, there has to be a calculated investment in people and skills. This, of course, will be with a view to fully developing comparative areas of strength and positioning for global relevance.

Nigeria will do well to learn from the stories of such outstandingly successful models as you find in Asia, for instance. The phenomenal progress countries such as China, South Korea and India have made with technology show what is possible when nations own their destinies and follow through with definite strategic roadmap. There are indications that the growth rate of Chinese students studying STEM-related courses in America in the last few decades, for instance, is not unconnected with a covert agenda for technological transfer.

Back home in Nigeria, while it is heartwarming that Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education is increasingly being considered as potent tools for stimulating the economy, it has become necessary to have it codified in a strategic response for achieving national industrial development.

Taking a cue from similar policies deployed in advanced economies like the industrially-rich Germany, the imperativeness of the policy stems from its usefulness in providing sharp strategic direction to the overall formal and informal skills development processes in the country. Covering such broad areas as institution-based skills development and sectoral skills development which includes formal and informal apprenticeship models, the policy would assist to align the developmental priorities of the nation with active measures to produce the relevant manpower for both immediate and future needs of the nation.Sadly, there was a time the country thought better and acted in consonance with best global practices. Just sixty years ago, through the 1959 Ashby Commission Report, the Nigerian government had been counselled on her manpower needs for post-school certificate and higher education over a 20-year period. That report had enunciated both the intermediate and high-level manpower needs of the country, detailing the actual supply rate and estimated capacity of the nations tertiary educational institutions.

Parts of the recommendation of the Eric Ashby-led Commission for the nations educational system were the production of 2,000 graduates a year by 1970, a proposal on the establishment of a National Universities Commission (NUC) and it insisted that enrolment in the universities should reflect national needs in terms of technical and non-technical fields.

Also diligently envisaged in that report were recommendations on teacher production and estimation of enrolment rates in our university system by 1970 and1980. One feels very sad that the country failed to implement the recommendations faithfully and also sustain such enviable planning tradition. But, it is not too late to reinvent that culture of diligence. The formulation of a skills development policy and the proper realignment of existing developmental structures are stepped in that direction.

It should be said that Nigeria needs to now urgently implement thorough skills gap analysis to help provide real-time data and on the actual human capital needs of the country. With such data, the nation is better informed on the extent of skills deficiency and the opportunities available for transformation. Anything short of this is tantamount to paying lip-service to solve the current job crises in the country.

Like Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, said, Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation, there is sure to be a failure. Without a national policy in place, it will yet be a long walk to the ideal situation in skill acquisition.

Concluded.

Professor Salami is Vice-Chancellor, First Technical University, Ibadan.

Read more:

National policy on skill acquisition for youths Part 3 - Guardian

Miracle cures, detox cleanses, and vaccine denial may seem to be the products of Hollywood and the social media age, but the truth is that medical pseudoscience has been a cultural touchstone in the U.S. since nearly its founding. At the dawn of the 19th century, when medical journals were still written almost entirely in Latin and only a handful of medical schools existed in the country, the populist fervor that animated the Revolutionary War came to the clinic. And while there was no shortage of cranks peddling phony medicine on a raft of dubious conspiracy theories in the early 1800s, none was more successful and celebrated than Samuel Thomson.

Portrait of Samuel Thomson

Visual: Wikimedia Commons

Portraying himself as an illiterate pig farmer (he was neither), Thomson barnstormed the Northeast telling rapt audiences things they wanted to hear: that natural remedies were superior to toxic chemical drugs; that all disease had a single cause, despite its many manifestations; that intuition and divine providence had guided him to botanical panaceas; that corrupt medical elites, blinded by class condescension and education, were persecuting him, a humble, ordinary man, because of the threat his ideas and discoveries posed to their profits.

For decades, Thomson peddled his dubious system of alternative medicine to Americans by playing to their cultural, political, and religious identities. Two centuries later, the era of Thomsonian medicine isnt just a historical curiosity; it continues to provide a playbook for grifters and dissembling politicians peddling pseudoscientific solutions to everything from cancer to Covid-19.

An acquisitive paranoiac with the steely-eyed look of a fundamentalist preacher, Thomson lectured on the same circuit as the Second Great Awakenings theatrical revivalists, one of countless unschooled peoples doctors as the esteemed orthodox physician Daniel Drake called them. In addition to his lectures, Thomson spread his gospel in his mega bestseller, New Guide to Health, a catalog of herbs accompanied by anecdotes testifying to their medicinal utility. Credulous readers learned that simple preparations of herbs like cayenne pepper or Lobelia inflata also known as puke weed not only relieved minor complaints like headaches and coughs but also rapidly cured progressive, terminal diseases like cancer. In breathless testimonials and self-aggrandizing anecdotes, Thomson and his followers attested to individuals being cured of dysentery, smallpox, and measles using the Thomsonian system. Between sales of the book, which went through 13 editions, and the family rights to buy his patented botanical nostrums, Thomson grew fabulously wealthy.

Though he was dismissed at the time as a dangerous fraud by mainstream physicians, Thomson was nevertheless held in high esteem by millions of Americans, who saw him as an avatar of self-reliance and entrepreneurial ambition. His followers wrote songs, poems, and prayers in homage to him. They congregated in Friendly Botanic Societies that more closely resembled churches than scientific seminars. His most zealous supporters, including some state legislators, hailed him alternately as the American Hippocrates or Jesus. That Thomson was regularly accused of killing patients and was even tried for murder once in Massachusetts seemed only to burnish the legend of his persecution and martyrdom.

In retrospect it can be hard to see how Thomson garnered so much influence. None of his botanical remedies were new to medicine, nor were they very effective for treating any serious condition. Yet in some states, such as Ohio and Mississippi, between a third and half of residents were said to have eschewed orthodox medicine in favor of Thomsons patented system. What made the Thomsonian sales pitch so successful was not just its blanket condemnation of the medical establishment, but its populist conception of healing itself. Just as Americans were free to be their own governors, lawyers, and priests, Thomson argued, so too should they be free to act as their own physician and surgeon. In this view, attempts to enforce state licensure laws or raise standards for medical education and practice were merely assaults on therapeutic choice and medical freedom as anti-American as government establishment of religion.

The parallels between our post-truth era and the age in which Thomsonian medicine prospered are striking. Though rural Americans were highly literate by the standards of the time, they had quickly come to associate intellectualism with the hated urban ruling class. The Thomsonians, the sociologist Paul Starr has written, viewed knowledge as an element in class conflict. In other words, Americans then, as today, were deeply distrustful of an ostensibly egalitarian government led by learned patricians or at least by those who looked and spoke the part. The simplicity of Thomsons system and his elaborate pantomime of socioeconomic solidarity were thus vital elements of his commercial success.

Thomsonian medicine could only succeed in a nation lacking scientific medicine and sharing a widespread belief in the superiority of inborn, intuitive, folkish wisdom over the cultivated, over-sophisticated, and self-interested knowledge of the literati and well-to-do, as Richard Hofstadter put it in his landmark Anti-intellectualism in American Life. Glorification of what one Thomson biographer later called the native practical sense of the ordinary man with direct access to truth would later reach its zenith in national icons like Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett. But Thomson provided a template thats still followed today.

The parallels between todays post-truth era and the age in which Thomsonian medicine prospered are striking.

Thomson and his followers also shared the conviction that access to information is not only an adequate substitute for formal education but preferable and superior to it. As steam-powered presses enabled the mass production of newspapers, early 19th century Americans were deluged with information of questionable provenance and reliability. The effect, as with the internet today, was to generate pervasive cynicism about what can actually be known; truth becomes whatever is believed most widely or fervently. Nowhere was this more evident, and to some extent warranted, than in pre-scientific medicine. In 1825, you might well have been better off seeing a pig farmer about your headaches than seeing an M.D., who probably would have recommended mercury-based purgatives and bleeding to ooze you back to humoral harmony and health.

Yet today, when medicine can claim more successes than ever and is among the most respected professions, people of all political persuasions are embracing pseudoscientific alternative therapies in truly staggering numbers. In 2012, the last year for which authoritative statistics are available, Americans spent over $30 billion out-of-pocket on so-called complementary and alternative medicine, despite a dearth of evidence suggesting any of it works. In fact, about the same proportion of Americans use such products and services today as used Thomsonian medicine in the 1830s. And despite the perception, even among some physicians, that alternative medicine is harmless, its use today is associated with significant adverse public health outcomes, such as vaccine noncompliance and a greater risk of death in cancer patients. How did we arrive at this strange place, where so many educated Americans in the 21st century reject proven, evidence-based medicine in favor of 19th century magic?

The answer is complex. Surely part of it is that we have become victims of our own success. Life expectancy is long. Infant mortality is low. Most of us get more than enough to eat and, at least prior to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, have worried little about dying in an infectious disease outbreak, as so many of our ancestors did. Since we enjoy a relatively high standard of health, were free to focus on newer and harder problems like chronic diseases and developmental disorders precisely the conditions that modern medicine lacks good treatments for. Then there are the long-term crises of knowledge and authority that have been well-chronicled by others: the glut of misinformation online, declining trust in institutions, the devaluation of expertise, and the disturbingly common belief that much if not most of what happens in our world is the result of vast, invisible conspiracies.

But Americans embrace of pseudomedicine is also a reaction to less abstract and more personal problems: the inaccessibility of proper care, the alienating experience many have receiving it, and its intolerably burdensome costs. Research has shown that patients in highly commodified health care systems like ours express the highest mistrust of physicians, and while the exact reasons for this are unclear, its reasonable to suppose that perceived conflicts of interest play a role. Enter the white-coated naturopath or chiropractor, resembling a physician in all but training, education, and experience, and eager to confirm the worst suspicions of their frustrated marks. Just as in Thomsons time, dissatisfaction and distrust drive otherwise reasonable people into the arms of unregulated quacks who, in Hofstadters words, flatter their intuitive, folkish wisdom, provide an outlet for their political anger, and sell them an expensive illusion of empowerment and control over their health.

If we hope to limit the spread of modern medical denialism and the predatory industry feeding on and profiting from it, we must acknowledge this reality. Until we do, the neo-Thomsonians among us will continue to rake in cash and put all of us at risk with their pre-scientific, 19th century ideas.

John Charpentier is a Ph.D. candidate and immunology researcher at the University of Michigan.

See more here:

The 19th Century Roots of Modern Medical Denialism - Undark Magazine

Apr. 08 /CSRwire/ - Cisco Blogs | Corporate Social Responsibility

We know that the most vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of global crises, and continue to be impacted after a crisis is over. Those who are unemployed or underemployed. Small business owners. Women. The poor. People who are un/underbanked. At Cisco, we bring to bear all our available resources our funding, our technology, and our expertise to support nonprofit organizations that have technology-based solutions to connect the unconnected and help people become economically self-sufficient.

Ciscos model of investing in innovative organizations with early-stage, technology-based initiatives means that our nonprofit partners are already using technology to deliver many of their programs and services. This has enabled them to quickly pivot to deliver different types of services to address new and emerging needs, and also to rapidly accelerate their reach to meet increased needs of the individuals and communities they are serving.

These are some of nonprofits Cisco supports through our economic empowerment portfolio, and how they are responding to support people and communities in need right now:

Skills Training

Anudip:Provides technology skills training, professional development skills, mentoring, and employment opportunities to low-income and underserved populations (youth, women, people with disabilities) in India, delivered both face-to-face and online. Cisco has supportedAnudips work with cash grant investments, donations of WebEx and other Cisco technologies, and our expertise.How are they helping?Anudip has temporarily transitioned their services to 100 percent remote learning.

AnnieCannons:Provides technology skills training, professional development skills, mentoring, and employment opportunities to survivors of human trafficking in the Bay Area of California. We have supported AnnieCannons with cash grant investments, and donations of WebEx and other Cisco technologies.How are they helping?AnnieCannons has temporarily transitioned its online technology skills training to 100% remote learning. In addition, their staff have increased their outreach to human trafficking and domestic violence survivors who are particularly vulnerable during times of crises.

Upwardly Global (UpGlo):Provides training and support to skilled refugees and immigrants to eliminate barriers and help them integrate into the professional American workforce. Cisco has supported this work via an initial cash grant investment, and we are partnering to support virtual networking and mentoring opportunities with our employees.How are they helping?UpGlo is scaling its online skills training and job readiness resources, enhancing virtual coaching and volunteer services, and helping clients find immediate jobs in high demand areas like healthcare.

Financial Inclusion

Opportunity International (Opportunity):Provides financial products (regular and emergency loans, savings accounts, insurance) and services (capacity building for entrepreneurs, educators, farmers, and financial literacy training) to low income populations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With Cisco support,Opportunitydesigned, implemented, and scaled mobile enabled financial products and services to more than 20 million people across Africa and Asia.How are they helping?Access to these types of financial products and services is critically important for vulnerable populations who now are unemployed or without a steady source of income.

Kiva:Expands financial access through its peer-to-peer lending platform that enables individuals to make interest-free loans to students and entrepreneurs globally. Small businesses are already being negatively impacted by the spread of COVID-19, including many members of the Kiva community.How are they helping?In the United States, Kiva isofferinglarger loans, flexible repayment schedules, and expanded eligibility. They are working to provide support to their partner financial institutions and individuals outside the United States.

Social Enterprise

Vispala:Started by the CEO of Anudip, Vispala uses 3D printing technology to print low cost prosthetic arms for underserved populations in India. Cisco provided early stage funding to help them develop and test their products, scale, and become a financially sustainable social enterprise.How are they helping?They have now pivoted their focus to 3D printing surgical masks for healthcare providers.

NESsT:NESsT develops sustainable social enterprises that solve critical social problems in emerging market economies, likePIXED, a Peruvian social enterprise that manufactures 3D-printed prosthetics.How are they helping?PIXEDhas shifted its manufacturing of prostheses into personal protective equipment (PPE) for physicians and hospitals in Peru. NESsT is working closely with PIXED management (and all of its portfolio companies) to create contingency plans that address short- and longer-term needs that must be addressed during an impending global recession.

To accelerate global problem solving, we need financially sustainable solutions that address different issues in different parts of the world. Thats why Cisco invests in early-stage solutions that leverage technology to create meaningful impact at scale.

Our nonprofit partners in economic empowerment are able to quickly adapt to the way they serve others in order to address the biggest challenges that we face. To learn more about these amazing nonprofits and how you can get involved, please visit oureconomic empowermentpage.

Here is the original post:

How Cisco's Nonprofit Partners Are Pivoting and Innovating to Address Unexpected Needs - CSRwire.com

As much of the world has entered into a bleak period of social confinement and dramatic economic decline, there has been an understandable urge to identify the upshot of this dark moment in global history. In particular, the desire to regard the pandemic as an opportunity to spark a kind of social, economic and political reset, reinstating a nostalgic vision of a simpler, more community-focused time.

In 1887, Friedrich Engels predicted that only a brutal war would provide the necessary chaos and economic disruption to precipitate a revolution. In 2020, these kinds of hopefully utilitarian aspirations for the pandemic are not confined to any one political tradition. In Western nations in particular, COVID-19 has been portrayed as the Great Leveller. Yet, it is difficult to afford this notion any credence beyond the superficial universal requirements of behavioural change.

The flagrant use of this term reveals much about the social challenges in Western liberal democracies, which pre-dated this pandemic. As our societies have become more diverse in every sense, and more empowered, the task of conjuring the imagined community that Benedict Anderson espoused has become more difficult. And with the arrival of pandemic, the public sphere itself is reconfigured to some degree, with millions tuning in to watch national broadcasts from leaders and their advisers, providing the backdrop of that most elusive quality of modern life: a shared reality.

A survey I published just before the crisis showed that the desire for a greater degree of national unity was one of the few consensus positions in European nations. The outsized salience of nostalgia in Western politics and its cultural resonance at least in part captures the absence of community-forging national tests over recent decades, and strengthens the potency of historical crises such as the Second World War. Leaders and citizens alike have been desperate to chart a course towards a rejuvenation of social ties, because the fragmentation of communities on the back of economic and technological change has made it more difficult to govern and embedded a persistent sense of insecurity.

Over recent years, new identities have emerged and assumed an astonishing degree of power and influence, with societies polarising around generational, socio-economic, educational, regional and gender lines. Over the past five years, policy-makers and researchers and have frequently discussed how an effective invocation of the community underpinning the nation could provide the key to softening some of these seemingly insurmountable barriers repairing the atomising effects of our late-stage capitalist, digital era lives.

There was a considerable desire amongst citizens, too, to believe in the crisis alchemy of social trust. At the outbreak of the crisis I appeared on Sky News discussing, amongst other things, the feverish stockpiling of toilet paper and penne pasta that had consumed the United Kingdom. It was suggested that this behaviour, disadvantaging the elderly and vulnerable, was completely out of character this is, after all, the land of the Blitz Spirit. When I made the point that the Blitz saw moments of great heroism and selflessness, but also precipitated astonishing spikes in the levels of violent, sexual and petty crime, I received a torrent of threats and abuse on social media and via email for having tarnished the legacy of this crucial period in the national consciousness.

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out some of the best traits of the people of the United Kingdom, a nation that prides itself on its generosity; not least of all, the staggering number of applications to volunteer for the National Health Service. Yet, it cannot come as a surprise that stressful situations that inspire a degree of competition around access to scarce resources do not always lead to the highest expression of the immense capacities of human nature. Many other less visible and more troubling forms of destructive social behaviour, whether child abuse, domestic violence, or the tinder box compelled in council estates by confining large families in cramped, unsatisfactory accommodations have predictably flared, with devastating and lasting consequences for the victims.

As I discussed last week, there is nothing endemic in this crisis that naturally suggests that populism in the West will fall by the wayside in its aftermath even despite the rallying we have seen around the flag in many nations, and the renewed empowerment of our institutions. Similarly, any sense of national unity the pandemic inspires is vulnerable to erosion as we over-compensate for our confinement in the transition, and in the face of the acceleration of social conflict and competition seething beneath the surface of this collective test. At the heart of this pandemic is in fact a very unevenly experienced situation.

While it began as the globalists disease, striking down politicians and political staff, those attending international conferences, or partaking in skiing holidays in the Dolomites, the citizens who bear the brunt of hospitalisations, and indeed deaths, are those with underlying medical and health conditions. Conditions that often reflect deep structural inequalities including the higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and respiratory illness affecting citizens from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Those in cities are especially vulnerable, with air pollution linked to a higher propensity for complications and even death. As are those with mental health conditions. In some nations, including the United States, socio-economic disparities are fused onto racial inequalities meaning citizens from BAME backgrounds are disproportionately likely to be hospitalised, and to pass away.

The trauma of another economic recession of this nature will be collectively shared, yet ultimately, the personal financial impacts of this pandemic will also be asymmetrical. While governments are offering unprecedented interventions to help shield workers and employers from the brunt of the disruption, as in the 2008-09 Financial Crisis, it will be the young who are most vulnerable to its immediate and long-term effects. As the Resolution Foundation noted, The Government is rightly socialising much of the costs of this crisis [] But these approaches create insider/outsider dynamics in which the young come off worst compensating people for the earnings they already had rather than the potential earnings they would otherwise have received. So too are many women, already disadvantaged in their career earnings by the structural inequalities of child-bearing, housework and family caring responsibilities, bearing the brunt of burden of this crisis to the working lives of parents.

The daily experience of this allegedly unifying crisis is also deeply subject to personal circumstance. While we all must undertake social distancing, limiting many of the pleasures of life and certainly the fall is greatest for those who are able to regularly partake in a vibrant social calendar, excursions to restaurants and the theatre, and overseas travel the environment in which we live through this lockdown varies tremendously. While abuse and violence are of course the extreme, though distressingly common, expressions of disadvantage, many citizens safe in their homes are also due to prohibitive housing costs living in small, dark flats with no outdoor spaces. Contrast this with the experience of those living in the countryside, or with large gardens, and the scale of the disparities of constraint and sacrifice become clear.

While images of middle-class runners sprinting buoyantly through parks in their Lululemon athletic gear feature heavily on the news, policy-makers are all too aware that every day that the lockdown continues, many other citizens are eating more, smoking more, drinking more, and experiencing a greater degree of mental strain than they would in their ordinary lives. The elderly have lost many of the activities and support services that maintain their quality of life. Children are forced to confront dark sides of the world previously unbeknownst to their innocent minds. Those who rely on medical support and interventions, including cancer patients, are treading water, and those with undiagnosed conditions may now only discover their illnesses at a dangerous moment in their spread.

The costs to society, and to the state, mount day by day forcing governments to balance choices about which groups of individuals, and which types of afflictions, are to be privileged.

Worryingly, many of the groups disproportionately affected in a negative manner by the economic, social and daily experiences of the crisis, are those most vulnerable to political disengagement. If there is an eventual backlash from this crisis and remembering that the lag on shaping political behaviour can be relatively long it could potentially deepen and embed disenfranchisement amongst certain social groups, or equally, create the conditions for a new wave of anti-establishment movements predicated on correcting injustices and inequalities revealed by the crisis. Depending on your personal politics, this second scenario may appear to be a positive option; however, simply from the perspective of governance and social cohesion, it would undoubtedly foretell more rocky years ahead.

I do not wish to appear to forecast only lasting doom and gloom from this crisis. Indeed, there are many ways in which it could indeed offer a pathway towards some profound social reckonings lighting a fire under burgeoning movements towards a recalculation of our relationship with nature, with work, and with one another. Amidst the obvious stresses, parents are given the chance of a modern lifetime to bond with their children. There will be tremendous opportunities for third sector organisations to have their work more visible and valued, and to build on the momentum of charitable and community acts compelled by the pandemics swift hand. It also feels inevitable to some extent that lower-paid workers (often described as unskilled) on the frontline of this crisis will be afforded a greater degree of respect, and that there will be increased public pressure to reduce the pernicious environmental impacts of industry and transport.

The pandemic has already compelled a surge in public sector innovation and an unprecedented degree of speed in policy responses, and enacted changes to the welfare state that will be difficult to reverse including the long-called-for adjustments to the payment level and access period of Universal Credit, the UK Governments flagship centralised welfare payment system. It is also difficult to imagine that the red lines of the first iteration of the UK Governments new immigration policy will remain as fixed, with thousands of desperately needed frontline NHS migrant workers having had their visas extended in the heat of the crisis.

Ultimately, governments will need to ask themselves why is it unacceptable for citizens to experience acute poverty or social deprivation during a pandemic, and acceptable at other times? Why must social media organisations intervene to combat conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, but are allowed wash their hands of the harmful proliferation of conspiracy theories that work daily to undermine social and political trust? Why is it outrageous for a woman to suffer at the hands of her partner during a lockdown, and somehow not worthy of our outrage on a normal day? Is it because the circumstances conjured by the pandemic are seen as so outside of reasonable individual agency? In asking ourselves these questions, we may well begin to expand our common societal understanding of what is beyond a persons control, and in doing so, find ourselves willing to look with fresh and frank eyes at some of the more enduring structural barriers that have persisted in plain sight.

Yet, it is nonetheless important to caution and particularly in light of the very human desire for this crisis to somehow, naturally lead us towards salvation that its harmful social effects will be profound and potentially long-lasting. And that governments will find themselves at the end of all of this, with a list of unresolved problems that pre-dated the crisis, as well as these more recent consequences of the pandemic itself.

While it is perfectly possible that leaders can rise to this tremendous challenge, we do not have ample evidence from the past five years which has brought up the bodies of many simmering tensions and conflicts and inequalities of their will and capacity to do so. Perhaps the trauma and jolt of this fast-moving, wide-reaching pandemic will provide the grist to the mill to support this in a manner that was not possible before its emergence. It is too early to say. All we can assert with certainty, is that no outcomes are inevitable.

Read more:

What does COVID-19 mean for the social fabric of our nations? - BFPG

Even conspiracy theories need to be partly built on facts in order to be plausible enough to market.

It is impossible to convince any sane person with blatant nonsense, or pathological illusions that ignore solid developments, and actions and quotes by authorities with well-known experience in their fields. Indeed, this is exactly what we are witnessing in these exceptional times as Covid-19 sweeps the world, bringing down all barriers.

A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me a recorded interview with a controversial British personality self-regarded as a visionary crusader against forces of global hegemony. This interview almost appeared with two valuable contributions by Jacques Attali, the Algerian-born French economist, thinker and political adviser, and Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli (of Lebanese origin) historian and professor.

I had followed the career of the British personality since his early days as footballer, and then as a prominent sports journalist. His next step, however, took him to a totally different career; as he became an anti-establishment activist, first becoming an environmentalist with The Greens, and later a campaigner against political and economic elites, which he doubts and ruthlessly demonizes, and feels that it is his mission to uncover and warn against its evil conspiracies!

In his interview, the British conspiracy theorist dismisses the Covid-19 virus, and sees it as a new chapter in the global 1% elites conspiracy designed to strengthen its world domination. This is done as he claims by destroying the current world economys institutions and rebuild them in a way that further serves their interests.

In his argument, in addition to the global companies, and Davos World Economic Forum, he includes the World Health Organization (WHO), among the leading co-conspirators!

Some of the data mentioned by the controversial gentleman is true; more so for any political and economic researcher or expert, who understands the dynamics of the market economy and the role of accumulation, concentration, monopoly and speculation in capitalism.

Furthermore, anybody who has been following the progress of technology through the centuries would know the impact of technologies, from the discovery of the gunpowder and paper, the invention of printing, and recently, the development of the computer, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence (AI).

What I mean to say is that with or without Covid-19 we have been marching towards a new world. The only thing this pandemic has done is merely accelerating this march, and negating all reservations against it.

This is where Harari hits his target. He acknowledges the historical importance of the world crisis we are all facing.

Humankind is now facing a global crisis, he says, adding, perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive but we will live in a different world.

Harari goes on many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everybody works from home and communicates only at a distance? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these arent normal times. In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.

The first choice therefore is between a Chinese model of totalitarian surveillance and the respect of human rights, including personal privacy; and the second is between isolationism and globalization.

Jacques Attali, who was the first head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1991-1993, and a former adviser to ex-French President Francois Mitterrand, seems somehow to agree with Harari on more than one issue. He also believes that great historical disasters caused by various plagues led to profound changes in the political structures of nations, as well as the cultures embodied in those structures.

Talking of the bubonic plague (The Black Death) of the 14th century, which killed almost one third of Europes population, Attali says that among its most significant repercussions was the change in the position of the clergy. The clergy lost out influence to the benefit of the police, which became the only protector of the people after the churchs failure to protect them.

However, as Attali explains, this situation did not last long either; after the real power shifted from the authority of religion as represented by the Church to the authority of enforcement as represented by the police, it shifted again from the authority of enforcement to the authority of the state and the laws.

This point, in particular, will bring us back to ongoing argument about who would be the main beneficiary from the repercussions of Covid-19 in the Arab World. Is it the political and security, which has decisively taken the initiative in confronting the pandemic? Or is it some religious groups which are waiting until the worst passes, and then emerge to say Well, where were your science and scientists when God attempted to test our beliefs?

Indeed, contradicting theories and arguments about our lives and futures mushroom here and there, as the world, as a whole finds itself fighting against time.

From one side there are voices insisting that the top priority now must be saving lives, as saving the economies can wait, especially, that they are built on lending and debts, and can be rebuilt after recessions. From the opposite direction, many voices argue that life and death are existential facts, and the world must never sacrifice its economic well-being for the many to save the lives of the few.

Personally, I am - without hesitation - with the first opinion.

Read the original here:

Covid-19 and the Conspiracy Theorists | Asharq AL-awsat - Asharq Al-awsat English

Since she started telecommuting a few weeks ago, she has faced more verbal and physical abuse from her husband, who has always worked from home.

Friction between the couple has become worse now that they are together almost all the time, the woman's social worker, Ms Kristine Lam, told The New Paper.

One of the flashpoints is her husband's harsh disciplining of their two young children, who stopped going to kindergarten a while ago because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

When she tries to help them, he would turn his anger towards her and become violent.

"Her husband would accuse her of being a lousy mother who was incapable of managing the kids," said Ms Lam, who declined to reveal their personal details due to confidentiality.

"He would push her and bang her head against the wall. He also hit her with his hands."

She said the man had always been abusive and controlling, such as checking his wife's phone and laptop, but the frequency of his violence rose after she began working at home.

Ms Lam, a lead social worker at Care Corner's Project StART, and advocacy groups are concerned about a potential rise in domestic abuse as families are forced to stay home during this circuit breaker month.

Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee addressed this issue in Parliament on Monday when he noted a trend in "higher rates of domestic violence, domestic quarrels and friction in the family" in countries that had imposed movement restrictions.

He said a national care hotline will be set up for callers to get support from psychologists, counsellors and others.

Family Violence Specialist Centres (FVSC) and Child Protection Specialist Centres will be "adequately resourced during this time" as they are essential services, Mr Lee added.

The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) said it received 619 inquiries last month, a 35 per cent jump from March last year.

Aware's head of research and advocacy Shailey Hingorani told TNP: "Crises, such as pandemics or economic recessions, have historically corresponded with a surge in domestic violence cases."

She said social workers told Aware last month that they had observed a rise in family violence cases.

One social worker said 60 per cent of her daily referrals were family violence-related, up from 30 per cent last year.

United Women Singapore president Georgette Tan said such cases may continue to rise as virus containment measures may inadvertently trigger domestic violence.

Nanyang Technological University's associate professor of psychology, Dr Andy Ho, noted that physical isolation also makes it harder for victims to get help.

He said: "Victims are now constantly in close physical proximity with their abusers. This exposes them to a higher likelihood of abuse.

"And they might not have the privacy and personal space to contact their support network for help even if they have one."

Stress arising from the Covid-19 crisis may also result in more abusive behaviour by perpetrators, said Ms Hingorani of Aware.

She added: "Abusers may seek a sense of control in their disrupted and uncertain lives, which may trigger them to lash out at those around them."

Ms Lam, whose centre is one of two FVSCs here, said she has seen a recurrence of violence in cases involving those who were previously on stay-home notices or quarantine orders.

Like NTU's Dr Ho, she feels that victims are now more isolated from their support networks. For example, school counsellors and teachers can no longer monitor how potential child abuse victims are doing now that they are not in school.

Work-from-home arrangements may also impact victims' level of empowerment, as many find their identity through their jobs, and this could affect whether they seek help, said Ms Lam.

Stressing that physical isolation does not mean social isolation, Dr Ho said: "It is crucial for victims to have a contact point that checks in on them. Technology makes that possible, but only if they can have privacy or time alone."

Link:

Rise in domestic abuse cases as families forced to stay home - The New Paper

War against virus: The new nightingales of India, lighting the lamp of hope (IANS Special)

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) As thousands of nurses across the country light the lamps of hope in the hospitals, several leading ladies play a vital role in India''s war room to contain the spread of dreaded pandemic.

From developing India''s first test kit for COVID-19, to despatching life saving medicines in remote areas, and from chalking out strategies for the government to tackle the spread of the virus to building treatment protocols, women from various walks of life burn midnight oil to counter the virus which is gradually spreading in world''s second most populated country.

Just a day before she delivered a baby, Minal Dakhave Bhosale, a Pune based virologist, managed to deliver the first testing kit for COVID-19 to India. In just a record time of six weeks, Minal and her team including some of the best scientists gifted its first test kit to conduct COVID-19 tests at a large scale in the country, an exercise required to identify and isolate carriers of the dreaded virus.

A few kilometers away from Minal''s laboratory in Pune, another virologist, Dr Priya Abraham, made an important breakthrough by isolating the virus. This breakthrough, by Dr Abraham, Director of the National Viral Institute, helps the scientists and immunologists in developing a vaccine or a drug for the treatment for new coronavirus.

Around 1500 kilometers away from Pune, in India''s seat of power, New Delhi, several women bureaucrats, policy makers, health strategists, joined hands with the Prime Minister''s Office (PMO) in chalking out strategies and initiating quick steps to prevent the country from slipping into stage 3, where disease is transmitted into communities.

Preeti Sudan, an alumni of London School of Economics, and presently the Secretary of Union Ministry of Health and Welfare, became the nodal point for the PMO to execute the key medical strategies on ground through health departments of various states."

Preeti is a workaholic. Fortunately she has rich experience of public food distribution, disaster management and PM''s mega health Insurance scheme. She seems to be the fittest person to be the nodal point for coordinating the war against a pandemic, " says a 1983 batch IAS and batchmate of Preeti Sudan.

Incidentally, the person in charge of viral diseases in India''s premiere medical body, Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), happens to be a well known woman scientist, Dr Nivedita Gupta. Her contribution in containment of virus Nipah in India''s southern most state of Kerala is widely acknowledged in the research fraternity.

Dr Gupta, who played a key role in setting up a viral and diagnostic network for ICMR, is presently building testing and treatment protocols in India. Such protocols, adhered by the medical practitioners are vital in the fight against the virus.

The actual battle against COVID-19 could be won only through a repurposed drug or a vaccine, a field which usually comes under biotechnology ministry. As several groups of scientists launch the project of developing repurpose drugs or a vaccine to combat the virus, Renu Swaroop, a top class scientist and secretary in the Union Ministry of Biotechnology, looks after all these projects.

She hopes that repurpose drugs could be an answer to quickly deal with the highly infectious virus.Seeing her deep involvement in the going projects, the union government has given Renu Swaroop one year extension in her service.

While these scientists and bureaucrats hold the key in fighting the pandemic, thousands of nurses, who form the frontline of the battle, work tirelessly in hundreds of hospitals where patients are being treated.

"We are thankful to Prime Minister Modi. For the first time we were invited in a video conference with the PM and I am happy to say all our requests ranging from suitable insurance package to availability of Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs) were heard and sorted out, " said Professor Roy George, the President of The Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) the apex body of nurses founded in 1908.

India has over 1.2 million workforce of trained nurses, who seem to brave this highly contagious virus and redefine women empowerment as the country gears up to battle coronavirus.

--IANS

ds/rt

Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: IANS

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War against virus: The new nightingales of India, lighting the lamp of hope (IANS Special) - Outlook India

With the womanhood fervor coloring us purple and feminism wind blowing all strong and powerful, the month of March, also coined as Womens History Month has kicked off on just the right and vivacious note. In a society that has long favored men, the special day, 8th March, just like the previous year, woke up to the celebration and recognition of women and their accomplishments all across the board.

Amidst all the feminist and womens liberation messages making the rounds this month, I want to take a moment to share my two bits on the same.

As we all know, this years theme #eachforequal signifies equal rights, equal opportunities and equal benefits for both the genders. It is majorly about strengthening the idea of creating an equal world which makes perfect sense as the equal world is indeed the enabled world.Put simply, it is predominately about levelling the playing field between genders and bridging the gap between sexes.

And as much as I respect this quest for equality, there is something I consider just as much significant.

And it is:

Empowering oneself on a personal level aka self-empowerment.On a humorous note, just as the equality phrase is all the rage this month, this self-empowerment also holds equally good for both the genders:).

Nevertheless, for now, lets not deviate from the topic at hand and keep the spotlight on women specifically.

Here is the thing:

Feminism and Womens day means a million things to a million people. But by my reckoning, Womens Day is synonymous to the personal empowerment of all women.

Self empowerment is what I consider foundational to all-round success in life. Not only it is about getting a grip on life back and taking control of it but it also extends to enabling and transforming the lives of fellow females around you.

Bit by bit, a tribe is formed.

A tribe of independent, motivated and empowered women who believe in together we soar mantra.

So here is something to chew on, for all the ladies out there!

This life is a gift and it is absolutely yours to shape.

# Fill your cup first

While juggling multiple roles at home and work, dont loose yourself.

Note that a strong footing in a relationship with yourself guarantees smoother and saner relationships with everyone around you. Love yourself. Celebrate yourself.

Sign an agreement to endow yourself with self-love. The time is now.

As they say, you cant pour from an empty cup.

# Let no one imprison your dreams. Dont forget that they are yours

Take charge of the wheel of your life and keep driving it along a direction that well aligns with your goals and happiness.

To be able to do that, you need to tap into your psyche and identify what triggers your happiness. Once you find that, keep treading towards it, in defiance of all the odds and ambiguities that keep popping up on the way.

# Be a trooper. The Unshakable one

In the face of all the odds stacked against you, keep pushing through.

Never settle when it comes to self-respect. and for that, the first thing you need to do is to brush aside the self-depreciating attitude that is ingrained in us through generations.

For long enough, we have been settling for crumbs when what we deserved was the full cake.

# Keep doing you

Be bullet proof to all the unsolicited, uncalled-for opinions and counsels while you are on a march towards your dreams. We women are not meant to be tossed around based on the perspective of others.

# No stamps of approval needed

Dump the attitude of seeking validations of well thought out decisions for yourself. As long as you are clear about the choices you make, no stamps of approval are needed.

Borrowing a quote from Madonna here:

Im tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.

# Brace yourself

.Whenever your personal or professional decision would involve the crushing of stereotypical views

Eyebrows are bound to be raised.

Debates are bound to be sparked.

And

You are bound to be judged.

Dont fear them. Be a rebel but with a cause!!!!

In a nutshell-

We all have that unyielding spirit within that lays hidden inside all of us, without us having the faintest idea about its existence. It is only when push comes to shove that we encounter our inner gem of fortitude and grit. Time to say hi to her.

Make your voice count. Be the change-maker. Not only for your life but also for fellow women around.

Dont forget that the change starts with you.

THE TIME IS NOW!

FEED YOUR DESIRES!

See more here:

To all the women with dreams- Dream on! - Thrive Global

Services and studies

Dayspring Church Apostolic Worship begins at 11:15 a.m. at the church, 2127 Doctors Park Drive, Columbus. Every visitor will receive a free gift.

The Sunday Education Session starts at 10 a.m.

Bible Study is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and is a group session sponsored by Heart Changers International, LLC on Depression, Perfection and Anger with hand out questions. These help build our Personal Empowerment and walk.

Our Prayer of Power starts at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and is preceded with requests and instructions on prayer. The Celebrate Recovery Group session starts at 6:30 p.m. for about an hour.

Ignite is the Youth Growth Session that happens every third Friday.

For more information please call (812) 372- 9336, or email dayspringchurch@att.net.

East Columbus United Methodist Sunday events begin at 9 a.m. at East Columbus United Methodist Church at 2439 Indiana Ave., with fellowship time in the foyer with beverages and snacks. Worship begins at 9:30 a.m.

Sunday School begins at 10:40 a.m. for all ages and Bible interests.

Faith Lutheran The Sunday service will start at the 9 a.m. with Pastor Todd Riordan preaching, with Sunday school at 10:30 a.m.

Mens Bible study on Romans at Lincoln Square restaurant on State Road 46 West, 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday. Womens Bible study on Romans at Faith Lutheran from 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Choir meets on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and all are welcome!

Preschool enrollment is open now and after school care is also offered, call 812-342-3587.

Lenten services have begun and are every Wednesday, until March 25, at 6:30 p.m., with communion. They will be preceded by a meal at 5:30 p.m. The theme for our Lenten series is The Body of God.

Services are available on our Facebook site: Faith Lutheran Church Columbus. More information is at Faithontheweb.org or call 812-342-3587.

The church is located at 6000 W. State Road 46, Columbus.

First Presbyterian As we continue with passages from Mark this Lent, we come across another contrast Jesus is highlighting between the Realm of God and the way humans do things. Mark 12:1-17 will be the focus, with a sermon titled Which Bucket? All are welcome!

Worship begins at 9:30 a.m., 512 Seventh Street in Columbus. Infant and toddler care is available 9:15 a.m. to noon. The Mens and Womens Support Groups meet on Fridays at 7 a.m., and a second Mens Support group (working age men) meets every Monday at 6:15 a.m.

People in the community in need of a meal are invited to our Hot Meals offered Friday at 5 p.m. (please enter through the glass doors on Franklin). We are an LGBTQ-friendly church. Open and affirming to ALL.

Information: fpccolumbus.org

First United Methodist On Sunday, March 15, at the 9 a.m. Traditional Service and 11 a.m. The Table, Rev. Howard Boles will deliver the message, Life as Worship: Passing the Peace at the church, 618 Eighth St. The scripture will be John 4:5-42.

Sunday School for all ages begins at 10:10 a.m. Childcare is available during the service.

Every Wednesday at noon through April 8 there will be a Lenten organ recital at various churches throughout Columbus. March 18 will feature Lindsey Fugill and John Simpson at St. Peters Lutheran.

On Friday, April 3, as part of our Fridays@First series, FUMC will host the group Echoing Air at 7 p.m. Echoing Air is an ensemble of voices with Baroque instruments that is dedicated to the exploration of and advocacy for music and features the pairing of two countertenor voices. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged and appreciated.

On Sunday, April 5, FUMC will host a Life Planning Seminar: Help with Estate Planning, Trusts, and Wills at 6 p.m. (Dinner will be served at 5:15). Lorie Mount of Voelz Law and other experts will lead a discussion on estate planning, trusts, and wills. This session is free and open to anyone in the community. Contact Rob Heathcote at 812-344-8437 with any questions.

Information: 812-372-2851 or fumccolumbus.org.

Flintwood Wesleyan The church is located at 5300 E. 25th St.

Sunday services are Amplify (non-traditional) at 9 a.m. and The Well (traditional) at 11 a.m. Both Amplify and The Well are in the main sanctuary and led by the Rev. Wes Jones, senior pastor. Sunday School classes meet in their regular rooms at 10 a.m.

The Prayer Team meets at 8 a.m. Adult Choir Practice is 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Sunday evenings Celebrate Recovery begins with a meal at 5:25 p.m. in The Friendship Center and the meeting starts at 6 p.m. upstairs in Curry Hall.

Connections, a ladies study group, is led by Pastor Teri Jones. The group meets the second and fourth Monday of each month at 10 a.m. in The Friendship Center.

In the Beginning, a small group Bible study, meets Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. They are now meeting in the basement of the church in the young adult classroom. They are studying the book of Genesis. You can start at any point so new members are welcome to join.

Wednesday activities begin with a meal at 5:30 p.m. The program, iKids (Ignite Kids) On Fire For Jesus! starts at 6:15 p.m. This program is for kids in Pre-K through the sixth grade. The Prayer Team meets at 6:15 p.m. in the Prayer Room and youth meets at 6:30 p.m. downstairs in the church. Bible study is at 7 p.m. in the sanctuary.

On Thursday, Cub Scout Pack #588 will meet at 7 p.m.

Small group Cover to Cover is a Christian book club that meets the second Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. to select a new book and discuss the book they just read. Group meets in The Friendship Center. If interested contact Kim Rutan at 812-343-2217 (call or text) or via email at flintwoodoffice@gmail.com.

March 8 is Baptism Sunday. If you wish to be baptized, please get in touch with Pastor Wes.

For further information, call 812-379-4287 or email flintwoodoffice@gmail.com. Church office hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our website is flintwood.org.

Garden City Church of Christ On Sunday, at the 10 a.m. service, Garden City Church of Christ will begin the four-week sermon series called Grace is Greater. The message this week is Grace is Greater Than Your Guilt.

Garden City Church of Christ is located at 3245 Jonesville Road, Columbus.

For more information, visit gardencitychurch.com or call 812-372-1766.

Grace Lutheran The Rev. John Armstrong will preach on Sunday. Worship is at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., with Sunday School for all ages at 9:30 a.m.

Alpha, an introduction to the Bible continues Tuesday, March 17, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. with the topic Why & how should I tell others?

Searching Scripture begins Tuesday, March 17, 6 to 8 p.m. with the topic The Apostles Creed.

Midweek Lenten Service Eating your way through the Bible, from Genesis to Jesus continues on Wednesday, March 18, 6:30 p.m.

Lenten fellowship meal is Wednesday at 5:45 p.m.

The church is located at 3201 Central Ave., Columbus.

Old Union United Church of Christ Scriptures for the 10 a.m. Sunday service will include Matthew 20:20-26 and Luke 13:18-19. The message will be Small Things, Great Love.

Sunday school will be at 9 a.m. with fellowship at 9:40 a.m.

The church is located at 12703 N. County Road 50W, Edinburgh.

Petersville United Methodist Church The Rev. Stormy Scherer-Berry will give her message, The Teaching: Risking Challenge, on Sunday morning at the Petersville United Methodist Church at the 9 a.m. worship service. Scriptures from Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 20 will be shared by the liturgist Deborah Loper. The focus will be on the fact that Jesus had the ability to draw the people to his teachings, and that posed a threat and challenge to the authorities. Had we been in the crowd, what would we have seen, heard and felt, and what would we have done?

Teresa Covert will share the childrens story, and the choir will present special music. A time of fellowship will follow the service, and the pastor will continue with the study of Shaped by Gods Heart at 10:30 a.m. Anyone is welcome to join the class.

The Bakers Dozen Bible study group will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday night at the Nolting home, while the Journey study group will meet at the same time and day at the Kimerling home. The Sit and Stitch Tuesday night group will be on hiatus through the month of March.

Choir practice will be held Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.; persons wishing to sing with the choir during the Easter season are invited to join the choir.

Bible Study/Prayer Time will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday morning at the church; anyone is welcome to attend.

The United Methodist Womens group will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 19 with Kathy Pershing as hostess. President Kathy Bush will conduct the meeting and Chris Kimerling will be in charge of the program. The group will discuss the Community Easter Egg Hunt to be held on the church grounds Saturday, April 4 at 1 p.m. Toddlers thru sixth graders are invited to attend.

At 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, Movie Night will be held at the church; the movie will be appropriate for both children and adults. Those attending are invited to bring a comfortable folding chair if they wish, but metal folding chairs will be available. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Information: 812-546-4438; 574-780-2379.

Sandy Hook United Methodist The church will be having a Bible study on the book of Jonah for seven spring Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. from April 1 through May 13. This video-based study is part of the Epic of Eden Bible studies.

Please contact the church office at 812-372-8495 or office@sandyhook.org if interested in participating (so books can be ordered)

The church is located at 1610 Taylor Road in Columbus.

St. Paul Lutheran Grace Upon Grace will be the theme during Lent at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 6045 E. State Street, as Pastor Doug Bauman presents the message Grace for The Woman At The Well based on John 4:5-30, 39-42 Sunday at the 8 & 10:45 a.m. services.

Christian Education classes begin for all ages at 9:30 a.m. The Spanish Worship Service begins at 10:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Room led by Vicar Fickenscher with Spanish Sunday School following at Noon.

The theme for the Wednesday 6:45 p.m. Lenten service will be based on Chief of Sinners Though I Be with Vicar Fickenschers message entitled Sin Is A Debt.

A meal of various soups with appropriate sides will be served in the Fellowship Room from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. for a free-will donation benefiting evangelism projects. Prior to the service a hymn sing will begin in the church at 6:30 p.m.

Open enrollment for the 2020-2021 preschool and kindergarten registration continues. Classes are for children who are 3-, 4- or 5-years old by Aug. 1. Information: 812-376-6504 or stpaulcolumbus.org.

Information: 812-376-6504.

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus On Sunday at 10 a.m., What Moves You? will be presented by Rev. Nic Cable and Pam Lee.

Everyone, at some point in life, has had a moving experience. It may be the birth of a child or seeing a powerful piece of theater. It might be from the death of loved one or in response to a crisis or injustice in community. As a congregation, we dont stay put, we move. So whatever moves you, whatever gets you up and engaged in this life, lets gather to explore this theme in community.

The church is at 7850 W. Goeller Blvd., Columbus.

Information: 812-342-6230.

Westside Community Pastor Dennis Aud will lead the service this Sunday at 10 a.m. at the church at the corner of 46 West and Tipton Lakes Blvd. This Sundays sermon will be the fifth in a series titled, The Malicious 7: Lust.

The childrens program for birth through sixth grade meets at the same time as the 10 a.m. worship service.

For more information on studies or small groups that meet throughout the week, contact the church office at 812-342-8464.

Music

North Christian Church The church is looking for singers to join their Chancel Choir. Rehearsals are Wednesdays at 6 p.m. at the church, 850 Tipton Lane, Columbus.

For more information, contact the Music Director, Travis Whaley, at music@northchristianchurch.com.

Events

Community Church of Columbus An eight-week parenting course entitled Parenting with Love and Logic is designed for parents of children ages 6 and under. The course will be offered at Community Church of Columbus, 3850 N. Marr Road, as part of the Tuesday Connection series. Dinner is also available each week at 5:30 p.m. along with child care at no cost.

East Columbus Christian Church Meal is at 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, with a menu of pulled Pork BBQ, slaw, baked beans, chips, desserts, and drinks.

The program will start at 7:15 p.m., lead by Brian Ebersold of Flat Rock Christian Church.

Acts 2:17 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. The theme song is Be Thou My Vision.

The church is located at 3170 Indiana Ave., Columbus.

Eckankar of Southern Indiana The public is welcome to attend a Spiritual Discussion meeting on Sunday, March 15, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. The topic of discussion will be Eckankar Wisdom on Dreams.

Why do we dream? And how can dreams help us in our daily life? Well discuss these questions and also ways to explore and understand our dreams more fully.

The meetings focus on an aspect of Eckankar and will feature readings from the books of Eckankar with group discussions of the spiritual principles at work in our lives. Please join others to bring more spiritual insight and divine love into our daily lives.

The Spiritual Discussion group meets the third Sunday of each month at 1:30 p.m. Fellowship and light refreshments will follow. The meeting is at 7850 W. Goeller Blvd. located in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbus building.

For more information, please see eckankar.org

Information about this meeting: 812-418-8392.

North Christian Church The Centering Prayer Group that meets in the North Christian Prayer Chapel, Lower Level #6, on Friday mornings from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. This is a drop-in prayer group, meaning that you can come as your schedule allows. Familiarity with Centering Prayer and its spiritual practices is not necessary. For more information, consult the Centering Prayer page at northchristianchurch.com.

The church is hosting the senior project of a Columbus North High School student who is collecting items for children who are in the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program. The CASA program helps children who have been the victims of abuse and neglect. Items being collected include things to help comfort the kids like stuffed animals, blankets, etc., and hygiene items like toothbrushes, shampoo, lotions, etc. Donations should be brought to North Christian Church 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday.

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Religion news March 14 - The Republic

Me, myself and I is one of the favorite songs of Beyonc. He was part of their first solo-cd, Dangerously in love (2003), and conveys a message of female empowerment: Tells the story of a girl whose boyfriend is cheating on you. Usually women feel stupid and silly and self-blame. And this song is a kind of celebration of the fraction () of women listen to their inner voice and know that you will never disappoint yourself.

Beyonc he reigned in LOS40 Me, myself and I between the 3. and 9. April 2004 and stayed there for nine consecutive weeks in the top 40 songs in the main music system. It was not the first time that the ex Destinys Child was in the nr. 1, the previously Crazy in lovand on 16 august 2003. Later, the man returned to in the first post If I were a boy and with Halo.

One of 15 songs, the Beyonc recording his solo debut. Was as the third single from the album, then Crazy in love and Bad boy. The decision for this theme as well as a third single was the own artist, because I wanted a song is more deep and personal relationship.

It is a ballad, R&B/ funk the Beyonc sings with passion and certainty. More than one regret, it is a hymn to the independence and liberation of women. Describes a habitual reality. Its really energetic. Speaking of women, basically listen to your inner voice and know that you will never be disappointed in yourselfBeyonc MTV News commented. His writing is rich in messages of empowerment of women to keep the head high, after a rupture traumatic, adds the artist.

Beyonc Johan turned Renck, so that the address of the video would. If premiere described the singer as it was designed: The video and also the song I wrote, it is for women, because I know that sometimes we have relationships that dont work and blame the guy or blame it on other girls, or blame us, we. And we listen to the inner voice that warns us, the right decision. I want the video reflects that. I tried to do something different, something fresh, something new in the optically. Exceeds the 66 million visualizations.

According to Beyonce, the video was made more difficult and never. In principle, it is not worked and the singer had to re-burn in your the most part. During the post-production, decided to Beyonc, its more artistic if the development of the story would have went backwards. The plot of the clip, Beyonc discovers that her fianc is unfaithful, if the red panties of her lover. Then all the memories, gets rid of the hair cuts and barefoot running, freed, transformed into a new woman. This whole story is backwards on the video rewound to the scene at the end of the first

/ Beyonce Knowles acts live in New York city in the year 2005. / (Joe Shield, Horn/Patrick McMullan)

The album Dangerously in love fed Beyonce as a soloist worldwide. 317.000 copies in its first week and debuted sold at number 1 on the Billboard 200 charts and made it five Grammy Awards. Has sold 11 million copies in the whole world.

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Me, myself and I, the subject of Beyonc on the empowerment of women, it was 1 of LOS40 | LOS40 Classic - Matzav Review

Spread the love by practicing mindfulness!

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool for men dissatisfied with dating, wondering how to get a girlfriend, or how to improve their current relationship. When practiced consistently, this method of thinking iseffective way of attracting and building the relationship you want.

With that said, mindfulness is the key to a loving and healthy relationship that will help you be a better husband and partner.

And the good news isyou can learn how to practice mindfulness in all your relationships.

RELATED: 15 Real Men Reveal Their #1 Struggle When It Comes To Relationships

In my personal empowerment coaching practice, I've had the opportunity to partner with some really brilliant, hardworking, and amazing men from physicians to corporate executives to the "Mr. Moms,"if you will.

Interestingly, the number one reason why men seek me out for relationship advice is togain clarity and direction in shifting their current relationship experience with their significant other into what they desire to experience.

So, how do you employ mindfulness to shift your relationship from where it is now to what you truly desire?

1. Be grateful.

Every day, list at least 10 things you are thankful and grateful for about your mate.

When we're able to sincerely and authentically express our gratitude, we are opening ourselves up to experiencing and receiving even more opportunities to express our gratitude.

After mastering the ability to express gratitude for what you see in your mate now, I challenge you to express gratitude for the qualities in them that you desire to see.

2. Just say no to the "blame game."

Unless we're mindful of the power of our speech, it is not always innately easy to keep our focus on the positive aspects of our mate.

In fact, I would venture so far as to say that it is much easier to point our finger and play the blame game when our relationships fall apart.

But where does that get us, really?

Energy flows where our attention goes. By engaging in the blame game, we focusour energy on everything we dont like about what our mate did or did not do, said or did not say.

All this behavior actually creates more of what you dislike. There is no sense in blaming yourself either, so dont even go there.

Say, "no" to the blame game, find out what you're grateful for about your partner, and then choose to shift your focus to what actually went right is it your children, pets, adventures, or experiences?

RELATED: Men, Here Are The 10 Most Important Things You Should Do On A First Date (And 6 Things You Should Never Do)

3. It's not your job to make your partner happy.

Of course, we want our mate happy. For most of us, it is our pleasure to contribute to anothers happiness.

At the same time, however, happiness is an individual choice that is not dependent upon any external forces.

A person may live in luxury and still be unhappy, while another person may have no idea where the next meal is coming from and still be able to "count it all in joy."

If we find ourselves exhausting our own energy trying to satisfy the happiness factor of our mate, it is past time to turn inward and start focusing on what makes us happy.

When we are able to step into our own joy, we become like the light of the candle shining for others who are receptive.

So, once you begin practicing mindfulness and take the above relationship advice to heart, you'll be able to find love and build the relationship you truly want in your life.

RELATED: Men, Here's 16 Traits That Women Are Really Looking For In A Partner

LeNae Goolsby is a lawyer turned intuitive personal empowerment life coach. If you would like LeNae to help you create the love relationship of your dreams, visit her website.

Continued here:

3 Keys To Mindfulness In Love Every Guy Should Follow For A Healthy Relationship That Lasts - YourTango

The Aurat March manifesto revolves around Khud Mukhtari or independence of women. It envisages a right recognised centuries ago in the early phase of the industrial revolution: that every individual has the right to mould the quality of his life as he deems fit but no one has the prerogative to usurp the rights of others.

Implicit in this concept is that rights and responsibilities go together. For example, in a representative democracy, the right to govern is linked with the duty to honour the electoral mandate. Though still hamstrung by a stubborn status quo, the space for individual rights is widening with growing pluralism within national societies. The fast-emerging multi-polar world is creating room for a more effective exercise of national sovereignty.

The footprints of individual self-determination (autonomy or Khud Mukhtari) are becoming more pronounced in semi-industrialised Pakistan, though not yet comparable to the extent observed in developed economies. The countrys women are choosing life partners, rejecting arranged marriages, even at the threat of losing their lives. Professionals are building their life-long careers through job-hopping instead of sticking to one institution or one country, helped also by managements flexible labour policy.

The footprints of Khud Mukhtari are becoming more pronounced in semi-industrialised Pakistan, though not yet comparable to the extent observed in developed economies

Corporate enterprises are no longer able to offer life-long careers to many of their employees owing to frequently recurring crises. To become lean, thin and agile, business outfits, helped by the latest technologies, quite often prefer to outsource jobs for other than their core activities. To suit the personal convenience of the staff, the rigid office timings are blended with flexible working hours. The wage labour system is being eroded by contract labour. Enabled by IT, individuals run businesses or work for foreign firms from their home with access to particularly developed markets. The labour market is undergoing a transformational change.

The movement for autonomy has gained much ground against over-centralisation over the past few decades. Institutional autonomy is generally recognised as a superior mode of governance. The State Bank of Pakistan wants more autonomy to manage its monetary policies. Many government activities are conducted through semi-autonomous organisations or corporate entities which operate within the policy framework and regulations set by the authorities. Similarly, all businesses enterprises enjoy operational freedom.

In the realm of political economy, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto says the separatist movements ran out of steam when the provinces were granted financial, legislative and administrative autonomy under the 18th Amendment. In fact, autonomy and majority are two inseparable aspects of democracy. Autonomy has provided huge space for sub-nationalities to make their own decisions at the sub-federation level. Institutions are also in place for functional coordination of economic activities between the federation and the federating units and among the provinces.

However, the provinces, managed largely by the sub-nationalities, are denying the local governments the financial and administrative autonomy provided under the 1973 Constitution. Even though it is well recognised that grassroots development can be best be carried out through participatory democracy.

In the conduct of external affairs, the issue of economic sovereignty (Khud Mukhtari) crops up from time to time, particularly when popular discontentment against externally influenced domestic economic policies hit its peak. One may recall here the title chosen by Ayub Khan for his autobiography, written after a decade of rich experience in governance, was Friends and Not Masters.

With domestic pressure mounting for moderating the pace of ongoing reforms, State Bank Governor Dr Baqir Raza says the building of foreign reserves with hot money will help the country exercise sovereignty and, coupled with the undergoing reforms, obviate the need to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) again. On the other hand, the womens manifesto has demanded an immediate end to the IMF policies, inflation of food prices and called for an increase in workers minimum wages to Rs40,000.

The inequality among and within nations widened by globalisation has been followed by a return of nationalism and protectionism. The world is entering a new phase of globalisation whose course is being set by growing self-assertion of nations while, with rare exceptions, not losing sight of the spirit and benefit of collectivism. It is cooperation between independent entities, not conflict, that stimulates economic and social development.

In his book, The Price of Inequality, Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, wrote that though microeconomic policies affect the wellbeing of most citizens, standard macroeconomic models dont even recognise that distribution of incomes matters. In the US, productivity is growing six times faster than wages. The eminent economist is of the view that inequality cannot be eliminated but it can be reduced by better policy options.

Addressing the first women conference on Economic Empowerment of Women held in Karachi on March 7, the former caretaker finance minister and ex-central bank governor Shamshad Akhtar informed the audience that cumulatively only 7 per cent of the women in Pakistan have access to financial inclusion services out of the total female population of 49pc. A mere 2pc of females are part of corporate boards. She emphasised that the empowerment of women requires massive investment in female education, literacy and healthcare.

Speaking at an event organised jointly by the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the International Labour Organisation, development economists called for implementation of the Women Property Rights Act 2019. They considered access to land and property crucial for empowering rural women who have been left behind.

Economic progress is hamstrung by a lag in social progress. The womens manifesto calls for an end to economic exploitation and social oppression. Quoting an IMF report, a businesswoman says if gender discrimination in workplaces is removed, Pakistans GDP would go up by 30pc The womens demand for their rights is an inseparable part of an international movement to build an equitable, egalitarian, right-based and prosperous society.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, March 16th, 2020

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This Q&A is with Kimberly Gire, Founder of Global Women Leaders Strategic Philanthropy. It ispart of Salaam GatewaysInternationalWomen's Day 2020series that isco-designedand curated byNyraMahmood, MD of UK-based Simply Sharia Human Capital (SSHC LTD), the publishers of the 2016 report "Women in Islamic Finance & Islamic Economy.

1. Salaam Gateway: What is the biggest gap and hence biggest opportunity for women and philanthropy?

Kimberly Gire: I feel it is important that I start off by framing this conversation in the context of global events. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness for all of us on just how interconnected our world is, highlighting the need for immediate response and the importance of ensuring all countries are well-prepared with strong primary health systems.

TheBill & Melinda Gates Foundationhas moved quickly and joined forces withWellcome TrustandMastercardto create a COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator backed by $125 million to identify potential treatments for COVID-19, accelerate their development, and prepare for the manufacture of millions of doses for use worldwide. This is an example of the critical role philanthropy can play, through pooled funding as well as through catalysing innovation and leveraging well-respected voices to draw in additional partners and funds.

This agile leadership and expertise stems from the role the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and founding partners, demonstrated in establishing GAVI - the global vaccine alliance. GAVI has helped countries broaden vaccine coverage and very importantly - strengthen their primary health systems. This makes them less susceptible and better able to prevent disease outbreaks that pose a threat to people in these countries, protecting millions of others around the world.

For many women, philanthropy often starts very close to home, and women throughout history have supported the most vulnerable, giving their time, voices and raising much-needed resources directed to causes in their own communities. In our increasingly interconnected world, and with women leading at the highest levels in business, government and beyond, there is both the need and the opportunity for women to contribute to regional and global challenges on a much larger scale, leveraging their expertise, voices and funds both at home and beyond borders.

2. Do we need to look at womens philanthropy differently for Muslim-majority countries, compared to how organisations in the Western hemisphere work with female philanthropists in Europe and the U.S.?

Womens collective giving is an extremely popular and effective model of philanthropy in the Western hemisphere, which I can speak to from my personal experience founding and leading womens philanthropic initiatives - including giving circles, advocacy collectives and skills-based strategic philanthropy.

When looking at the opportunity to accelerate and grow the impact of womens philanthropy in Muslim-majority countries, it is important to recognise that many womens collectives and Quranic groups around the world make their own donations and fundraise for those most in need, therefore women are active givers and receivers of philanthropic efforts and of Islamic charity including zakat and sadaqah.

Muslim women are increasingly changing the wealth and economic landscape. For example, women in the Middle East now control 22% of the regions wealth, and women in Saudi Arabia hold a combined fortune of $11.9 billion, in cash. Working Muslim women are now a trillion-dollar market, representing 30% of the 450 million women in Muslim-majority economies.

There is a need to create new spaces where Muslim women can take the lead as decision-makers in expanding their philanthropic efforts, impacting lives and creating pipelines for sustainable action regionally and globally.

3. Following on from the Question 2,how do we leverage the growing wealth, influence and expertise of women in Islamic countries?

It is important to mention that Muslim women are already involved in global philanthropic activities. Indonesian philanthropist, PeggyMelati Sukma has devoted herself to charitable endeavours, collaborating withAksi Cepat Tanggap or ACT, a charity focussed on social care and humanitarian relief. In a project with ACT,Peggy launched the Akhwat Bergerak or Sisters Who Moveaimed at raising awareness among Muslim women and inviting them to contribute to humanitarian activities. Incidentally, Indonesia topped theCAF World Giving Index in 2018 with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates named in the top twenty most generous countries.

New pathways for womens giving have neither been properly identified nor framed by Muslim women as donors and leaders, enabling them to accelerate their own collective journey towards critical impact, addressing the needs of people and other women and girls at the margins in the region and globally. There is an opportunity to mobilize Muslim women's collective giving and strategic philanthropy, empowering, enabling and listening to women in Muslim-majority countries through an approach which gives them the tools to lead.

4. Are there specific Islamic social financial tools you think are suitably matched to Muslim women philanthropists across the OIC?

It is not often that you find a financial tool which embodies the holistic empowerment of society, alleviates poverty and examines the long-term and continued benefit of communities and sustainable development. Waqf - a voluntary and irrevocable dedication of a persons wealth or a portion of it in cash or in kind for the perpetual benefit of a community is the embodiment that does just that. It is probably one of the mostunderutilizedtools in Islamic social finance.

What is even more remarkable is that the tradition of waqf investments was once the domain proliferated by women across 16thand 17thcentury Ottoman empire. In fact at one pointin Jerusalem 56% of waqf fundswere run by women, notable women with means supporting the most vulnerable in their communities, whether through a physical endowment in the shape of a property (shelter) or though cash endowments. This was all made possible because of the frameworks established through Islamic law and traditions, which facilitated women to serve as waqf managers, foundation officers, and beneficiaries.

Reviving that once rich Islamic tradition, which became a practice of solidarity, cultivating civic duty and moving outside the traditional purview of women as only care-givers, legitimized the invested stake women had in their community and wider society.

5. How can women use the tools of finance, including Islamic social finance, to take the lead and drive transformative changes needed to support the most vulnerable communities, which are disproportionately women and girls themselves?

Based on my personal experience - leveraging my global banking and finance career and expertise gained in structured finance women can use the tools of finance and Islamic social finance to bridge the gap between philanthropy and finance.

Women in finance and business can work together to create new pathways to support the most vulnerable communities, especially women and girls at the margins.

There is an amazing cohort of women in finance, including Islamic finance, in the GCC and Malaysia, for example, who bring a depth of experience, and local, regional and global perspectives. Women such as Saudi Arabias Rania Nashar, the first female CEO of Samba Financial Group and named as one of Forbes Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women 2019 who in 2020 is also leading the B20 Saudi Arabia Women in Business Action Council. Maya Marissa Malek, Executive Director for Global Shariah Advisory and Compliance business for Amanie Group and the Chief Executive Officer of Amanie Advisors global office, UAE who is passionate about innovating solutions though Islamic finance. And Elissar Farah Antonios, CEO for Citi UAE since 2016 and Citi Cluster head for UAE, Levant & Iraq from 2019 who is a seasoned banker with over 25 years of experience focused on the Middle East.

There is no shortage of women of talent and expertise in Muslim-majority countries to lead transformative change.

6. You are resolute in the belief that women should be at the centre of design, when it comes to mechanisms which look at sustainable and scalable solutions for areas disproportionately affecting women, such as health and education. How do we make this a reality?

Absolutely. It is critical to look at solutions through a gender lens when it comes to issues and areas impacting women and girls.

We are achieving this by creating new spaces, such as our Global Women Leaders community, with women at the center of the design process. To have long-term sustainable impact, it is imperative to include women from not only business and philanthropy, but also from NGOs, grass-roots organizations, and with input from the women and girls we seek to support.

As a member of the B20 Advocacy Caucus, I also believe the lead up to the B20 Saudi Arabia in October 2020 offers a high-profile, global platform to bring more women leaders in finance and business to the philanthropy design table. I am excited by the opportunity to work in partnership with women leaders from the MENA region and OIC countries, pooling and leveraging our skillsets, connections and knowledge to create new philanthropic pathways to contribute to global public goods, including key challenges in health, education and emotional and economic empowerment.

7. In your experience, have you seen women become more strategic in their philanthropic efforts and reaching beyond traditional giving pathways, pivoting to grassroots communities and causes?

Women do not simply want to donate, but they want to see proper governance and be involved in impactful projects which can be scaled and sustained. What theyve managed in the last decade is to democratize philanthropy through collective giving circles, which is changing the face of philanthropy. Giving circles are not a new concept and have existed throughout history in different forms globally and across traditions, including within Muslim women-led groups.

What is also important to note is that women, especially in the GCC are also playing a vital role in family businesses. A Strategy& report conducted a GGC-wide study of family-run offices and found that 50% of those interviewed said women are leading their families philanthropic activities, and 90% expected women to take on even larger philanthropic roles in the coming years. These women, like many young millennials in the region, want sophisticated ways in which their philanthropy can enable and engage wider audiences and create sustainability as well as bring technical know-how and innovations to their regions.

To build on the work and success of women within philanthropy, and across Muslim-majority countries with rising social mobility, increasing labor participations and women taking the lead in philanthropic activity in family-run businesses - we need to lay down more direct pathways for them to navigate beyond local charity, enabling them to build that value chain of impact, so they can support local community and grassroots charities, when they choose, but also participate as global citizens.

8. There is an opportunity to engage and draw in Muslim women philanthropists in the OIC by institutions government, NGOs, private foundations why is this not happening on a large scale and how do we change that to engage more women?

To date, there has been very little engagement with Muslim women philanthropists due to a lack of visibility / profile and lack of obvious pathways for them to engage. For the past three years, Global Women Leaders has stepped in as a global collective of strategic philanthropists, sharing experiences from around the world and collaborating with Muslim women diaspora and particularly with women in MENA.

It is important for women in the region to explore new philanthropic models, with the narrative they want to create and lead, mapping out their expectations, how they can take ownership of their philanthropic efforts, while shaping their own agenda. Taking ownership, steering conversation, shaping agendas and being decision-makers in philanthropy through a MENA women-lens. Finding the language that tells their story demonstrates the value sets and ideas of the region and its women.

9. As women advance in the workforce and their wealth increases, they are more likely to give to charity than men (according to the Institute of Fundraising research 2017 and the US Trust Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy 2018), so how do we utilize and develop the pipelines for more strategic giving among women?

Women are not new to the philanthropic space both in the OIC and across the globe. They have arguably lacked the visibility on par with their male counter-parts, despite womenvolunteeringtheir time and expertise to philanthropic activities and making75% of the non-profit workforce. In creating the pipelines and developing strategic thinking for women donors and philanthropists, first we need to understand the motivations behind womens giving - what are the expectations of this key audience and how do you as an organization facilitate that deeper and long-term connection with women.

One of the critical successes for developing womens giving, especially at an institutional level, is to have strong, engaged and knowledgeable women as a part of the process in advisory, on boards, in decision-making and in designing tools and mechanisms for scale and impact.

In my experience women are much more practical and hands-on in their approach to giving, so pipelines and pathways for giving must engage women on the issues that matter to them and look further than the dollar amount raised, connecting with their expertise, networks and influencing power in a meaningful and authentic way.

10. What personally drives you in this space and to work with women specifically?

From a personal perspective, I know that the skills and expertise built up through a career in banking and finance is a valuable and largely untapped philanthropic asset that can be given back alongside traditional giving.

As demonstrated by the GAVI model, innovative, collective models of giving can be extremely effective and impactful. There is an enormous opportunity for women to step forward and contribute on a significant scale, with a gender lens, to creating new philanthropic models tailored to the OIC and utilizing finance and Islamic financial mechanisms.

The time is now, to elevate, amplify and accelerate the collective action of Muslim women, who are defying labels and definitions constructed on their behalf.

Global Women Leaders are committed to working collectively - supporting an environment, based on equity and equality, that helps create the pathways needed to mobilize women donors and design mechanisms they can access and direct. It is my absolute privilege to do all I can to encourage and inspire more women to join us on this collective journey.

Continue reading Salaam GatewaysInternationalWomen's Day 2020series.

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Toronto, March 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Precision Nutrition, the worlds largest online nutrition and healthy lifestyle coaching and certification company is partnering with Renaissance Periodization, leaders of science-based nutrition and exercise, the Online Trainer Academy, the worlds first certification for online fitness and nutrition training, Trainerize, a client engagement mobile app for fitness professionals, and Girls Gone Strong, a global leader in womens health, fitness, and pre- and postnatal education to share their knowledge with professionals in the nutrition and fitness industry in an effort to help them navigate challenges resulting from COVID-19. As individuals are exercising social distancing, these companies have created new, free resources to help fitness professionals address concerns from their clients, and also evaluate the steps required to maintain a business remotely.

In recent weeks, our community has raised real concerns about how they will continue their livelihood in the midst of closing gyms and cancelling appointments. Precision Nutritions more than 20 years of experience coaching nutrition online, combined with the expertise and support of our partners has encouraged us to try to help nutrition and fitness professionals with the challenges presented by COVID-19, said Tim Jones, Precision Nutrition Chief Executive Officer. During these stressful times, we are proud to continue focusing our efforts on helping fitness professionals take care of themselves, so they may help others do the same.

An unprecedented, rapidly changing business environment has emerged and new, urgent client concerns are being faced by coaches and personal trainers. In response, Precision Nutrition, Renaissance Periodization, the Online Trainer Academy, Trainerize, and Girls Gone Strong have formed the Coalition of Health and Fitness Leaders (CHFL). This coalition aims to share their collective experience in coaching hundreds of thousands of clients with nutrition and fitness professionals navigating these challenges, as well as identifying opportunities to build more resilient business practices. These companies hope to help those coaches and trainers seeking additional support to move from fear, uncertainty, and confusion and towards empowerment, clarity, and productive action.

Dr. Spencer Nadolsky of Renaissance Periodization added, At times of worry, it is imperative that we evaluate our priorities to understand how we can have the largest impact on those who need it most. The creation of this coalition is the beginning of a unified movement within our industry to support the communities we serve.

The first initiative of the CHFL is a free digital panel discussion that will provide coaches with guidance on how to transition from in-person to online training and how to maintain and support their clients. Facilitated by Precision Nutritions director of curriculum, Krista Scott-Dixon, PhD, the panel of experts will include:

The panel discussion will be available on Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 1:00pm EST. Those interested in viewing the discussion can do so by clicking the following link at the aforementioned date and time: get.pn/CHFL-Expert-Panel-Discussion.

With quarantines imminent and a growing general fear surrounding crowds, fewer and fewer people are venturing outside and they definitely arent going to the gym, said Jonathan Goodman of the Online Trainer Academy. People who work in fitness are facing serious financial trouble. That, and its more important now than ever to keep our population healthy during this trying time. Effective remote training is paramount right now for fitness industry personnel and exercisers looking for ways to stay engaged with their fitness and training regimens.

Following the panel, complimentary resources will be made available with actionable next steps coaches can immediately take. This includes programming recommendations, answers to common client FAQs, and the latest medical information available.

The current situation we are all facing is uncharted territory in many ways, but I know we will all get through this and come out on the other side stronger for it. To do that though, we will need to collaborate as one unified community to raise each other up, share our knowledge, and use every tool available to us, said Sharad Mohan of Trainerize. Were proud to be part of the Coalition of Health and Fitness Leaders during this time when the industry now more than ever needs to work together.

To help extend the reach of these resources, the CHFL is looking for other companies and organizations within the larger health and fitness industry to join as partners of the Coalition. Those interested in exploring this opportunity are encouraged to reach out to partners@healthandfitnesscoalition.com to learn more and receive additional information.

"At Girls Gone Strong, we're proud to be working alongside Precision Nutrition, Renaissance Periodization, the Online Trainer Academy, and Trainerize as part of the Coalition of Health and Fitness Leaders. Together, we have a powerful opportunity to create a platform from which we can share evidence-based, practical, and compassionate information and concrete steps health and fitness professionals can use to navigate these uncertain times, said Molly Galbraith of Girls Gone Strong. We hope you accept this invitation to join us in our mission of getting this valuable information to as many professionals as possible."

About Precision Nutrition

Precision Nutrition offers a sustainable, practice-based approach to losing fat, building strength, and getting healthy. As a global leader in providing health and fitness professionals the education, tools, and coaching they need, nearly 100,000 coaches in 120 countries use the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certificationalong with ProCoach, the companys proprietary coaching softwareto improve client results, increase operational efficiency, and drive business growth. Precision Nutrition offers the only nutrition certification endorsed by CrossFit, the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The American Council on Exercise (ACE) and The National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) also approve Precision Nutrition for its professionals continuing education credits.

In addition, Precision Nutrition Coaching for Men and Women is a personalized, evidence-based healthy nutrition and lifestyle program, which has been validated in multiple peer-reviewed studies, and helped over 100,000 people improve their nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle. For more information, visit http://www.precisionnutrition.com.

About Renaissance Periodization

At Renaissance Periodization (RP), we see our mission as that of delivering the most effective, scientifically sound and reliable diet and training consultation to anyone who wants to use it to achieve results. When it comes to your goals and aspirations in the areas of physique alteration, sports performance, and health, we're passionate about helping you target your time and efforts doing what works, and avoiding what doesnt.

With a staff comprised of an unrivaled number of PhDs, RDs, physicians, top researchers, and athletes in the industry, RP is proud to leverage the collective knowledge and experience of our staff to guide you towards success on your fitness journey. The transformations we're well-known for on social media are more than skin deep, but also help our clients make permanent, healthy lifestyle changes. We've helped more than 100,000 people across the globe change their lives with our diet and exercise templates and app along with more than 10,000 clients one-on-one with our highly educated coaches. For more information, visit http://www.RenaissancePeriodization.com.

About the Online Trainer Academy

The Online Trainer Academy (OTA) is the premier online training certification for ambitious, passionate fitness professionals. Founded by Jonathan Goodman in 2013, OTA has now certified coaches in 83 countries. Accompanying the certification is the first-ever textbook for online fitness trainers, The Fundamentals of Online Training, now in V2.0. OTA is a preapproved continuing education provider endorsed by most worldwide accredited certification bodies including NASM, ACE, CanFitPro, PTA Global, UK Reps, and Fitness Australia. For more information, visit http://www.theptdc.com/ota.

About Trainerize

In this digital age, working out is no longer connected to a physical space. Trainerize is a client engagement mobile app for fitness professionals that empowers fitness professionals and fitness studios worldwide to reach, engage, and motivate people to change their lives for the better. Trainerize is making fitness more accessible by connecting more people to fitness professionals who can help them workout, eat better, and improve their habits. By combining online workouts, nutrition tracking, meal planning, client communication, and access to the world's best fitness add-ons, Trainerize allows fitness professionals to focus on what they love to do most: train and motivate their clients.

To learn more about Trainerize visit: http://www.trainerize.com.

About Girls Gone Strong

Girls Gone Strong (GGS) is the world's largest platform dedicated to providing evidence-based, interdisciplinary, women-specific health, fitness, and nutrition education for women and the professionals who work with them. At GGS, youll find industry-leading education materials, certification programs, and coaching, all focused on women and designed to help you reach your goals whether youre a health and fitness professional looking to level up your knowledge or a woman wanting to feel stronger, healthier, and more confident.

Thousands of health and fitness professionals in more than 70 countries use our Pre- and Postnatal Coaching Certification and Women's Coaching Specialist Certification to help keep their pre- and postnatal clients safe, healthy, and strong, and to confidently help their female clients with issues like body image struggles, pelvic floor dysfunction, menopause, and more all within their scope of practice. For more information, visit: http://www.girlsgonestrong.com.

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Activist and actor Matt McGorry is the co-founder of Inspire Justice.

Netflix may not be one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about inspiring social change but maybe it should be. Increasingly, writers, actors, and directors are considering the social implications of their content. Its why in the midst of the immigration crisis at our southern border, we saw actors from TV prison-drama Orange is the New Black lend their platforms to our Real Money Moves campaign, keeping money out of private immigrant detention centers and instead, looking at ways to invest back into communities. And why (spoiler alert) the plot of season three takes on the issue of for-profit incarceration, by demonstrating the potential real consequences for inmates when the prison is bought by a private company.

Another of the original OITNB cast members, known for his role as Corrections Officer John Bennett, Matt McGorry has made a name for himself as an artivist constantly looking for opportunities to use his celebrity and media presence to illuminate the struggles of the most marginalized, and to ask people to join him in examining their own power, privilege, and opportunities to create change. His company Inspire Justice sets out to educate, organize and train celebrities, influencers, and media companies to best leverage their hearts, creativity, and platforms to transform culture toward social good. I sat down with McGorry to learn more about this venture, and dive into the role of money and cultural change in forging a better future for all of us.

Youve made your mark in Hollywood not only for your contributions to hits like Orange is the New Black and How to Get Away With Murder, but for your role as an outspoken advocate for social justice across the board. How do you see the fight for economic justice intersect with the fight for racial and gender justice?

Quite simply there is no racial and gender justice without economic justice. In order for people to even have a chance to thrive, they need to be able to meet their basic needs. And in a country where the number-one cost of bankruptcy is people trying to pay their medical bills, its impossible for people to really live their best lives if they have to worry about how to pay for the basic costs of living.

Because of systemic racism and sexism, women of color are more likely to be in poverty. So really gender justice without economic justice means that at the end of the day, wealthy white women may benefit, while leaving poor women and especially poor women of color behind. My understanding of how all these different pieces come together was definitely a journey, and was not something that I initially knew as I began stepping into my role as an activist.

I think for many of us, theres this fear of talking about money. Whether we grew up with it or without it, theres a lot of money trauma that perpetuates in communities. I wanted to ask what your personal money story has been over time. What was your relationship to money at a young age, how did that shift, and then how is that impacting your activism?

I grew up in a family that had money, and I was not given a political analysis of how that money accumulated. And I think when we dont understand the systemic factors, were left to fill in the blanks. And those blanks are usually filled with ideas of individualism and this American bootstrapping mythology. Simultaneously, I had a feeling of guilt that my family was able to be comfortable while knowing that other families were not. And that of course had made it difficult to talk about.

It was about six years ago when I first became aware of the concept of feminist politics and my own privilege as a man like when I realized I projected an expectation on a woman that I would not have on a man. And at the same time, I was talking to a woman in my life about being an entrepreneur, trying to start a business, and having to deal with all of the things that women have to deal with, including riding this fine line between not being so friendly to not seem like youre flirting, while also not being too cold. I realized, though I might not necessarily be as bad as some of the people that I was hearing about, , the ideas that I had and the ways that filtered into my being were of the same system.

My initial foray in getting into activism was looking at feminist politics solely through a gender lens. I had been unconsciously looking to mostly white women to understand how to be an ally. It shows how systems of privilege filter into all areas, right? And as I began to grow, reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, for example, I came to understand that anti-racism was a really essential part of this as well. My own analysis and politics was actually inadequate. Because women of color experience both sexism and racism, its a unique combination that is not just the sum of its parts, but becomes something entirely different.

bell hooks wrote a book called Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center that talks about racism historically even in the feminist movement. Feminist women like Betty Friedan for example, wrote the Feminist Mystique which rang true for many women of the time and was an important experience to be talking about but at the same time it was erasing the experiences of many poor and working class Black women. Over time I was able to understand that essentially if I wasnt being explicit with really fighting racism and classism in my feminism, then I would be tending to be lifting up those who still have the most privilege.

And now youre in business with lots of amazing women. Tell me more about Inspire Justice, how it came together, and what are you looking to build.

JLove Caldern became a social impact advisor to me about two years ago. At the time I had met her I was in a place where I frankly wasnt sure if I was going to be able to continue being an actor or not. There was so much personal development work that was lacking, so much lacking in terms of really understanding how to move through conflict and have conversations in a productive and generative way. As I began to really understand more and more about how systems of power operated and how I was complicit with them, the specific model that she used and that we ended up developing together really completely changed my life. Its a combination of both social impact advising and empowerment coaching. And really to be able to hold people accountable with love in the way that JLove did for me.

We start with our core values: we believe that accountability plus love equals liberation. Some of what we see in our coaching a lot is that the Hollywood industry is just like the industry of the world of business or non-profits. Theyre all very ripe with racism and sexism and are primarily controlled by white men who are not necessarily aware or are trying to actively de-construct those things. Theres been a great hunger and gratitude for the integrity that were able to bring to the work. And to support people to act in integrity with their values, while still being able to live in this career.

As social entrepreneurs, we have a triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. We do one-on-one coaching as well as trainings. For example we were able to lead a series of trainings for How to Get Away With Murder, that were aimed toward producing a more thriving culture for the entire cast and crew and creatives.

When we recognize the system has been designed to exploit, we also know that we must do the best that we can. And unfortunately in the non-profit system, a lot of times harm can be reproduced by those who are funding the work, by maintaining a really tight grip over how much money will get spent. And in order to truly move resources in a way that empowers people, communities, and grassroots organizations, we believe that money should not be contingent on it being used in a certain way. Ninety-two percent of foundation CEOs are white, and 98% of foundation boards are white. It means that those who are farthest from the problem, from the pain of how the systems impact them, are not the ones making those decisions we need to shift this dynamic.

Decolonizing Wealth Event with Inspire Justice co-CEO's and Social Impact Advisors. Left to right: ... [+] Dayanara Marte, JLove Caldern, Siva Kaneswaran, Edgar Villanueva, Favianna Rodriguez, Matt McGorry, Ella Turenne, Richard Reseda.

Knowing that a number of people that youre advising, whether or not they came from wealth, have had the opportunity to have thriving careers as cultural influencers, Im curious what youve been learning or sharing with folks about how they can use their role as wealth owners for good.

A big part of how we do this work is advising folks on where to put their time, their creativity, and their resources. Specifically, our model of change at Inspire Justice is one that supports grassroots organizing. In order to make the largest changes that we really believe are necessary, in order to shift the country from the way that its been for the last several hundred years, we believe it requires deep and radical work. And we find oftentimes that grassroots organizations are the ones doing that work. And they tend to exist outside the nonprofit structure as well. Obviously the nature of 501(c)(3)s is that they are apolitical but at the end of the day, nothing is apolitical.

Can you share more in terms of the decision to make Inspire Justice a for-profit as opposed to a non-profit? I think nowadays a lot of young folks are looking at the landscape of social enterprises and trying to figure out what structures are best. Theres so many different options; you could be a non-profit, a for-profit, a co-op, or a collective how did you decide which organizational structure was going to best serve your purposes?

Often, activists dont get paid for the work that they do. Id see this with other friends of mine who are actors or artists or public figures where they would ask folks who were primarily organizers or activists questions about should I take this project? And its beautiful and great to be able to have a deep relationship and connection with folks across the spectrum from organizers to artists. But at the same time, there ends up being a lot of unpaid labor. And its an injustice to see people who are fighting so hard for the world that we all need, sometimes not even be able to make ends meet.

Obviously theres important work thats done in the non-profit sector, including services that are provided in the meantime while our government does not provide those services. Through this work, though, to be able to have folks be supported, we can also allow them to continue in the more radical politic that they have, without feeling like they may have to regretfully go to a nonprofit or be in a place where they might have to shave off the more radical edges of the work that they are doing.

As a business, folks who have class privilege and can pay us are doing that, and out of that were also able to run a reparations platform and use a profit-sharing platform.

Amen to paying activists. Were a fan of that philosophy. And I think that goes back to really thinking about how your work can not just transform money, but also transform the culture of money.

Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth, is a part of your very robust team of social impact advisors. Im curious how you think about decolonizing wealth when youre talking to some of your clients about what their relationship to money should be. Knowing that a number of actors or athletes might be first-time wealth holders asking Where do I donate? or Where do I invest? for the first time how do you help this process become transformational both for them and for communities?

Edgars an incredible thinker and activist, and his work has obviously had such a huge impact in the world of philanthropy and beyond. The part of Edgars message that really resonated with me and is a part of my own personal politic and the way that we work at Inspire Justice is this idea of mutual liberation. The mindset I grew up with, which is often what is propagated in the nonprofit world, was that poor people were underserved or needy. And these words often come with the connotation that its unfortunate. And I think that its a real problem when we begin to see injustice as unfortunate, because injustice means that there is the possibility of justice to be done, and it means that people have been deprived of that by the system. Viewing people with pity I think actually reinforces separation between people.

I love that Edgar really talks about money being medicine. Its not inherently evil. And it opens the opportunity for healing. Theres this sort of scarcity approach that still exists that even if theres not real scarcity, there's a hoarding of resources and power and control. That actually is really detrimental to everyone in a way, though poor and working class folks are affected by it most. For me it actually feels like a spiritual harm. To be out of integrity with my deepest values is to mean that I cant face the truth. And if I cant face the truth about the world around me, facing my own truth is going to be that much harder, and therefore my evolution as a human being is going to be much harder.

In our Real Money Moves campaign, we talked a lot about expanding our definition of legacy as it applies to ones personal investment philosophy. That its great to look at your kids and your grandkids one day and be able to say, Here is the wealth that I built for you but that joy is greatly diminished, in the context of, for instance, investments in private prisons and immigrant detention centers, that may mean you have to lock up someone elses family in order to serve your own.

Im curious in particular, working with people in the public eye, do you feel like youre able to shift that concept of legacy and how it connects to capital accumulation? Can we build legacies for our own families, without hurting the families of others?

I do. And obviously different folks of different identities have all sorts of different relationships with money as well, and rightly so. Because even if one person in a family that came from a poor working class background is doing well, that often might mean that they are supporting other folks, for example, in a way that I would not necessarily have to.

What was a big realization for me a couple of years ago was that the accumulation of privilege and that sort of general wealth that youre talking about was building before I was born, from the racist policies that were in place, that might not even be in place anymore. So if members of my family benefited from the New Deal, bank loans, and policies that were pretty much exclusively for white people that is part of how the wealth got accumulated.

Theres this great quote from Edgars book:

White supremacy is a story that humans created. Race is just a story that humans created. Resources and scarcity, greed, as an inescapable aspect of human nature, and that money is the root of all evil, are all stories. Over time these stories have become so solidified and familiar and true, that they begin ruling our view of the world and our choices.

I think that theres so much in that. That again, even if, for example, folks with class privilege are not necessarily materially impacted by the systems of scarcity that exist even the fact that we live in a country where frankly the possibility of destitution can get so real, so deep, and so scary I think it makes us cling on to control in a way thats even toxic for those that have wealth. And I do believe in this idea of being able to redistribute wealth as fulfilling, even for those who have class privilege in the first place.

Absolutely. I really appreciate what you were saying through Edgars work around the need for new stories around money and policy. Thats been really integral to the energy that Bernie Sanders has brought to this election, and you've been an active supporter of his campaign for President. Could you talk about why you think hes the best candidate to dismantle the inequity so entrenched in our country?

I love that he has essentially been for all of the things were currently talking about, for as far back as we can look. Hes had a consistency in values. Oftentimes these ideas of justice and equity and fairness seem radical, but more people begin to accept them. It requires someone really willing to stay the course of that over the long haul.

Its been really great for me to see these ideas that hes been pushing for since the 2016 election, and really since Occupy Wall Street, that started to come to the forefront of consciousness around the 99%. And the need to redistribute wealth is exciting to me that these have now become topics that are part of the mainstream conversation. That through organizing workers, Bernie was able to raise the minimum wage for a number of the largest corporations in the country, is huge and very telling about the energy that he brings, and the energy that he creates and sustains in those who are following him.

We have in this country three men who own more wealth than the bottom half of the entire country. And its an unsustainable model, it doesnt make sense. To be living in a city like Los Angeles where there are so many billionaires and yet there are close to 60,000 unhoused people, I think theres a new story that needs to be told. Its not just unfortunate that people are having to sleep out in the streets, but its actually an injustice. And in this political system, where money buys power and power buys leverage, its so important that those who have that power and that leverage are willing to redistribute it in the most effective way possible.

In order to be able to do that, as part of the model of change at Inspire Justice, folks on the ground who are closest to the pain of the problems and really have the solutions are the ones who drive them. Because no matter how many books Ive read and Ive read many books trying to figure it all out or how many direct actions Ive been to, or lectures Ive been to at the end of the day, there needs to be a community that is supporting this work and its critical for me as an actor to be able to lean on our community of incredible advisors to say I dont actually have to do this all myself. This is what I have this community for. To show me the areas that I cant see, and to point me in the right direction.

Share a bit more about some of the specific initiatives with Inspire Justice that youre excited about, and how people can connect with your work.

For folks that are wanting to follow on the journey and the development, social media is a great tool for that. Our instagram is @weinspirejustice. A lot of times well help people plug into campaigns, like the Measure R campaign which just passed in LA and is really exciting.

For folks that are artists who have public platforms, who are interested in doing this deep work of personal transformation towards collective liberation, they can reach out through the website: weinspirejustice.com.

Were going to continue expanding and we have so many brilliant minds in the company who just blow me away in terms of their ideas for building out the organizing capacity. So I think its been an exponential growth process as new ideas are born and created and interacted with. Im excited to see where that continues to grow.

Thanks to Jasmine Rashid for her contributions to this piece. Full disclosures related to my work here. This post does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, and the author is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided herein.

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Matt McGorry Talks Money And Inspires Justice - Forbes