Daily Archives: May 3, 2022

Press release from Florida Department of Children and Families

Yesterday, Department of Children and Families (Department) Secretary Shevaun Harris announced the creation of a Family Navigator initiative to enhance the safety and well-being of Florida children after a report of potential child abuse or neglect.

After reviewing past child welfare cases and reports to determine commonalities and further evaluating current practices, the Department developed a new model aimed at addressing deficiencies in the child welfare system, including enhanced engagement and ensuring families receive the right supportive services at the right time. This new model will enhance the Departments engagement efforts with families, further promoting safe, resilient families.

Building on the recent momentum of historic funding for Floridas child welfare system, the Department has gathered industry leaders from all parts of our system to help create supports to enhance the well-being of Floridas families, saidSecretary Shevaun Harris. With the deployment of Family Navigators, the Department will use these clinicians to meet families where they are to help parents and children heal from trauma and overcome mental health and substance abuse challenges to help promote safe, resilient families.

Over the last few weeks, the Department has worked with child protection and behavioral health leaders across the state to form a new strategy, which will improve supports for child protective investigators (CPI) to enhance outcomes for Floridas families.

Secretary Harris push to enhance the engagement and support we provide to families in the system is the right way we should be approaching protection and prevention, saidWilmine Merilan-Louis, Child Protective Investigative Supervisor, Broward County Sheriffs Office. We must continue to examine our practices and figure out what is working and where we can make improvements. The children of our state deserve this kind of innovation and leadership, and the Broward County Sheriffs Office is energized by this new model and forward thinking.

Ensuring that our survivors have the resources they need to thrive in the community is our top priority, saidDr. Gail Patin, Chief Executive Officer of Hubbard House. We know that partnership among providers, advocates, and the state is vital to enhancing the system. We are encouraged by the Departments leadership and thank them for convening todays panel and for the Family Navigator initiative.

Integration of behavioral health and child welfare is at the foundation of our mission at Citrus Health, saidMaria Alonso, Chief Operating Officer of Citrus Health Network. Our vision will only come to fruition if we holistically wrap our services around our families to further ensure their well-being. This announcement by the Department is an encouraging step forward, and we are excited to be part of the implementation.

When we work with a family in crisis, it is imperative that the right supports are not only offered, but utilized to further stabilize and enhance recovery, saidMike Watkins, Chief Executive Officer of Northwest Florida Health Network. It is clear that, through intentional collaboration with community partners and with Secretary Harris recommendations, we can ensure that Floridas families have not just access, but engagement to the appropriate, timely help they need and deserve that will help them overcome the challenges they are presented with.

A cornerstone of the field of psychiatry is relying on evidence-based methods, and working with an administration that values enhancing accountability for mental health and substance abuse providers is encouraging for us to hear, saidDr. Courtney Phillips, Director of Behavioral Health, Health Care District of Palm Beach County. Most importantly, in order to improve the well-being of Floridas families, we must employ a model shift that focuses on implementing 24-7 access to evidence-based compassionate substance use care that is available throughout the lifespan of the patient due to its chronic nature.

As a person with lived experience of the system, I know that in concrete times of need, positive social connections and understanding can make a world of difference for a family, saidVictoria Camper, Parent Representative. This model has the capacity to support families through authentic engagement and coordination of services.

A key component of ensuring child safety, and family well-being, is activating community resources, supports, and mental health treatment services timely and appropriately. As trained clinicians, Family Navigators will work alongside the CPI and family to quickly help assess, locate, and provide pivotal services to ensure the family unit is stabilized, safe, and on a pathway to building a resilient family unit. Floridas child and family well-being system will continue to invest in fully embodying a trauma-responsive system of care where the Department, Community-Based Care organizations, and Managing Entities come together to provide more meaningful services that promote positive outcomes to enhance the overall, long-term well-being of the family.

The Department will create a new Family Navigators resource:

The Department will also implement the following additional actions:

These actions will ensure that the Department will work to activate communities across our state to wrap vulnerable families with intensive supports to maintain children in a safe, united home. Along with the Departments vast programs, partners, and providers, the Office of Child and Family Well-Being will work to closely integrate safety and well-being into the system of care to enhance service capacity and supports for families.

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DCF Announces Robust Child and Family Well-Being Initiative to Better Support Families - Alachua Chronicle

MOBItalks is back and ready to empower attendees with conversation around alternative wellness, understanding sex therapy, and black queer joy with industry leaders and community activists.

NEW YORK, May 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI) is teaming up with local New York-based Entertainers, Entrepreneurs and Community Based Leaders for their signature MOBItalks presented by ViiV Healthcare accelerate initiative. MOBItalks, a free personal and professional development series for Black gay men, creates distinguished experiences while encouraging attendees to live stronger, longer, and healthier.

MOBI is excited to return where it all started with MOBItalks. MOBItalks New York will take place on May 14th at 265 West 37th Street, 17th floor, New York, NY 10018, from 12 pm to 4 pm. Attendees can look forward to hearing from Thaddeus Coates, Dr. Sean Larry Stevens, Jonathan Burke, Kevin E. Taylor, and Walter Kemp. Individuals will also enjoy the artistic expression of Chalvar Monteiro, and Jamel Franks. The evening will be hosted by the award-winning host of Surface Level Podcast. Attendees will also have the opportunity to receive free professional headshots by award-winning photographer, Laquann Dawson. Brunch bites will also be provided by Food Network highlighted cater, Cornbread26 Food Co.

"NYC is home for MOBI and we are extremely blessed to be back in person this year with so many familiar faces. These are the people that have helped MOBI continue to thrive and do intentional work where it is needed most," said DaShawn Usher, Founder and Executive Director. We are excited to connect, laugh, and give back to the people who give us so much." As an alternative to limited social gathering spaces, MOBI seeks to provide a platform for Black gay men and queer people of color to speak authentically about issues that affect them regarding health, wellness, and personal and professional development. All our events and initiatives are peer-led and connect community members across different social classes, education levels, and ages.

Along with MOBItalks, MOBI will host MOBIfest,a free interactive wellness experience that celebrates Black queer voices in fashion, music, visual arts and media on June 9-12, 2022. MOBI is in its 5th year of programming and has given over 1 million dollars back to the black queer community. "MOBI's impact is felt throughout New York City by providing opportunities for queer Black people and other queer people of color to connect with each other. Connection is important for health. MOBI creates spaces where queer POC can feel safe but also see themselves represented and celebrated," said Dr. Jorge H. Soler, Public Health Researcher at Project ACHIEVE. " We have all missed going to in-person MOBI events and can't wait to be with them again!"

For more information on MOBI or to register for the event, please visit https://mobi-nyc.com/nyctalks.

Media Contact:Alloric Riley - Communications and Digital Account Manager[emailprotected]

About ViiV Healthcare:ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV and for people who are at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Shionogi B.V. joined as shareholders in October 2012. The company's aims are to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV and AIDS than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver effective and innovative medicines for HIV treatment and prevention, as well as support communities affected by HIV.

For more information on the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline, and commitment, please visit http://www.viivhealthcare.com.

About Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative:Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI) is a series of curated social connectivity programming and events, launched in 2017, for Black gay men and queer people of color to see their holistic self while promoting community, wellness, and personal development. MOBI engages communities through free programming such as MOBIfest and MOBItalks. MOBI is committed to connecting individuals to opportunities to better themselves before, during, and after our signature programming. With a focus on health and wellness, MOBI seeks to cultivate a more informed, better equipped, and supportive network for the communities we serve.

In an effort to affect greater audiences, in 2020 we transformed our signature live programming MOBIfest into a virtual experience and MOBItalks into a 3 part digital series that documents the intersectionalities of LGBTQ life and culture through the themes of sex, mental health and identity.

For more information on MOBI please visit, http://www.mobi-nyc.com

SOURCE Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI)

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MOBI Makes Their Post-Pandemic NYC Debut - PR Newswire

MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- First Horizon Corp. (NYSE: FHN or "First Horizon") today announced that it has been selected for the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). For the fourth consecutive year, First Horizon is listed in the index which recognizes public companies for their commitment to supporting gender equality and advancing women.

Bloomberg GEI infographic

"First Horizon strives to create a workplace where all associates feel accepted and valued," said Tanya Hart, executive vice president and chief human resources officer at First Horizon. "We believe that championing diversity and inclusion fosters a more creative and innovative workforce. We are proud to be included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and thank them for this recognition."

First Horizon's strategic approach to diversity, equity and inclusion focuses on elevating equity in the 4 strategic pillars of workforce, workplace, marketplace and community.

Workforce: At First Horizon, women represent approximately:

66% of the overall workforce

57% of manager roles

36% of the Executive Officers

24% of the Board of Directors

Workplace: The First Horizon Women's Initiative Associate Resource Group, founded more than 20 years ago, also played a major role in its GEI recognitions. The Women's Initiative helps female associates develop leadership skills, facilitate mentor-mentee relationships and network with leaders and executives.

Marketplace: Realizing that women have unique financial needs, First Horizon created Women and Wealth, a private client practice dedicated to empowering women's financial lives. More information about the practice may be found here. https://www.firsthorizon.com/products-and-services/private-client-category/women-and-wealth

Community: In 2021, Susan Springfield, Chief Credit Officer, served as the American Heart Association's 'Mid-South's Go Red for Women' chair. Through Susan's leadership, more than $325,000 was raised, marking the best 'Mid-South Go Red for Women' campaign to date. Go Red for Women is a national initiative of the American Heart Association that raises awareness of cardiovascular disease as the #1 killer of women. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/first-horizon-bank_memgored-goredforwomen-bettertogether-activity-6851191769141444608-w1dZ

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"A culture of equity is built and maintained by having a diverse base of vendors, grantees, talent and clients that are reflective of the communities we serve," said Dr. Anthony C. Hood, executive vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at First Horizon. "Having an intentional focus and strategic plan aligned to our business contributes to First Horizon's associate satisfaction, retention and loyalty in our markets across the Southeast." For more information visit https://www.firsthorizon.com/first-horizon-national-corporation/careers/diversity-and-inclusion

About First Horizon First Horizon Corp. (NYSE: FHN), with $88.7 billion in assets as of March 31, 2022, is a leading regional financial services company, dedicated to helping our clients, communities and associates unlock their full potential with capital and counsel. Headquartered in Memphis, TN, the banking subsidiary First Horizon Bank operates in 12 states across the southern U.S. The Company and its subsidiaries offer commercial, private banking, consumer, small business, wealth and trust management, retail brokerage, capital markets, fixed income, mortgage, and title insurance services. First Horizon has been recognized as one of the nation's best employers by Fortune and Forbes magazines and a Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. Bank. More information is available at http://www.FirstHorizon.com.

(PRNewsfoto/First Horizon Corporation)

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First Horizon Recognized for Investment in Women - Yahoo Finance

After igniting Sunday afternoon near Bursum Road, 18 miles southeast of Reserve in the Gila National Forest, the quickly growing Turkey Fire expanded by around 350 acres Sunday night and during the day Monday, pushing its total acreage to 800. However, much like the similarly sized Water Fire that firefighters battled near Mimbres at the end of last week, it is being contained.Today and yesterday, they did some strategic burning, so theres some line around the heel of the fire and the two flanks and [much of] the head, said Gila National Forest incident contact Andrew Mitchell on Monday. I suspect we will have a good containment number tomorrow morning right now its zero percent, but it looks like its pretty wrapped up and tight around three different sides.He added that although the total acreage of the fire grew since it started Sunday, some of that growth was intentional on the part of firefighters.Today was more about getting resources in place, finding opportunities to fight the fire directly and continue with hand crews [digging] line, Mitchell said Monday. We saw minimal fire activity maybe just some short runs in the grass so a lot of that new acreage is from the strategic burning.The cause of the fire still has not been determined, but Mitchell said it was definitely human-caused, as there was no lightning in the area when the fire started.Mitchell did not have an exact breakdown of resources currently allocated to the fire, but said that there are around 75 firefighters working on containing it.Another 50 firefighters are still at work monitoring the Water Fire that started 6 miles north of Mimbres last Thursday. That fire has not grown since the weekend, and is currently listed as 60 percent contained.Theres no fire activity on that one, so were just kind of searching out hot spots, Mitchell said. Its moving down in complexity to what we call a Type 4 the higher [the type number], the better.The cause of the Water Fire is also under investigation.Meanwhile, in the midst of an early onset fire season that is devastating forests and communities in other parts of the state, the federal Bureau of Land Management has implemented fire restrictions across public lands in the area.According to a Monday release from the BLM, the bureau is implementing fire restrictions across Doa Ana, Otero, Luna, Sierra, Grant and Hidalgo counties in hopes of reducing the risk of wildfire on public lands.Prohibited acts under the federal order include the building and maintaining of campfires or use of coal and wood stoves, smoking in open areas that are near flammable material, possessing or driving a motor vehicle off roads, except when parking in an area devoid of vegetation within 10 feet of the roadway, and operating a chain saw or similar machine with internal or external combustion engines without taking proper precautions.The purpose of this order is for the protection of public health and safety by minimizing chances for wildfire starts, a spokesperson said in the release. Abundant dry fuels, high fire danger and worsening fire conditions have promoted this action.In late April, the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department enacted similar restrictions on non-municipal, non-federal, and non-tribal lands statewide.David Marquez may be reached at [emailprotected] press.com.

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Two fires on the Gila slow down - Silvercity Daily Press - Silver City Daily Press and Independent

St. Anthonys Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital, and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg have committed to using their economic power to improve the well-being of surrounding neighborhoods and communities. Pictured, Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg President and CEO Randall H. Russell

ST. PETERSBURG Three major downtown institutions are joining with the City of St. Petersburg to embrace shared, collaborative, and intentional practices focused on moving the needle on race equity.

The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg introduced the idea to these institutions who developed this historic focused effort on their needs coupled with the aspirations of a healthier community by race, Foundation President and CEO Randall H. Russell said. The leadership shown by these entities fundamental to a healthy community advances race equity forward with their focused intent.

In addition to city government, the St. Petersburg Anchor Institution Initiatives inaugural members include St. Anthonys Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital, and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. All three institutions have committed to using their economic power to improve the well-being of surrounding neighborhoods and communities.

The outcome is explicitly directed at improving race equity, impacting the economic well-being of residents, and contributing to transforming neighborhoods and communities. It is also likely that the anchor institutions will experience cost savings, a steadier workforce, and enhanced data enabling smarter approaches to improve population health.

Race equity is required to reach health equity. These leaders have taken a bold step to improve the health of our entire community, Russell said.

This initiative comes as awareness is growing about how systemic bias in institutional and government decision-making over the centuries has resulted in communities being denied many of the opportunities afforded to other neighborhoods. That systemic racially focused bias has led to worse health outcomes for many in these communities after sustained underinvestment that shapes the social determinants of health. Evidence of this reality is that just blocks south of these hospitals, life expectancy at birth is 16 years less than two miles north.

Intentional equity is at the core of my administrations priorities in everything we do. It is not enough to be equitable; we must also be intentional, said Mayor Ken Welch. Im pleased to support and participate in the St. Petersburg Anchor Institution Initiative aimed at just that. The participating businesses employ thousands within our citys workforce, and they set an example for all businesses to ensure fair and accessible hiring practices and equitable access to health care services.

John Moore, president of Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, is also extremely pleased to partner with like-minded organizations on this initiative.

Serving as an Anchor Institution is especially meaningful to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, which has served the community for more than 100 years. We are excited about how this collaboration dovetails with our own ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. We look forward to the positive results that will stem from it, Moore stated.

At St. Anthonys Hospital and BayCare, we believe in continuous improvement, and that includes doing better for and by our community, said Scott Smith, president of St. Anthonys Hospital. Were excited to join with our health care colleagues and the city to develop new, more inclusive ways of serving our community to support racial equity and build a brighter future for our entire city.

As a leader in childrens health and the top-ranked childrens hospital in the state of Florida, Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital understands the critical need to work with others in the community and find ways to eliminate racial disparities and improve access to both basic and specialized pediatric care, particularly in some of our most vulnerable areas.

As an Anchor Institution, it is important for us to bring together the resources to enhance the safety, nutrition, health care, and access to these services in order to improve mental and physical health for families in our community, stated Alicia Schulhof, M.H.A., F.A.C.H.E., president of Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital.

The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg fueled a learning partner, Marga, Inc., to bring knowledge from across the country into developing this effort.

The proximity of these four institutions makes St. Petersburg a prime location to initiate an Anchor Institutions Initiative. The intention is to move health equity forward through a focus on race equity. We look forward to the next steps of this fantastic partnership modeling cross-sector collaboration to bring about positive change, said Russell.

David Maurasse from Marga, Inc. added, The St Petersburg Anchor Institutions Initiative is a monumental development that has rapidly taken shape. The participating institutions have demonstrated extraordinary readiness and willingness to collaborate and adapt their systems and thinking toward the well-being of local residents with a race equity lens.

The institutions will continue to be convened by the Foundation as they form a structure, hire staff, and move forward with the launch of this effort. The St. Petersburg Anchor Institution Initiative efforts will continue finalizing plans in 2022.

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Major downtown institutions come together to address race equity and institutional needs - Weekly Challenger

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.

A newreport from O'Reilly and Instaclustr draws a stark contrast between the advantages of open source flexibility compared to software sold under constrictive open core licenses. Instaclustr, which helps organizations deliver applications at scale by operating and supporting their open source data infrastructure, today announced the findings of The Benefits of Open Source and the Risks of Open Core, a report created by OReilly with collaboration from Instaclustr.

The 40-page report delineates the critical but often misunderstood differences between open source and open core models. It highlights the distinctive and specific advantages of open source, including global communities that collaborate to continually improve software, transparent communications and open archives, and licenses that guarantee the rights to use, change, and share software. Organizations leveraging fully open source technologies also benefit from the ability to own, port, and utilize their code however they like and do so regardless of the vendors they work with. Open core, in contrast, mixes open source and proprietary code into what are ultimately proprietary offerings. While open core vendors often lure customers with the promise of both uniquely valuable proprietary features and open source freedoms, this is most often not the case.

Among the key findings from the OReilly report:

Open source adopters like the flexibility and freedom as much as the free licensing.

Technology leaders with deep software procurement experience tend to prefer free and open source solutions for several reasons. Open source software enables organizations to avoid vendor and technical lock-in. Building their applications around open standards enables strategic shifts to alternative technologies, as needed, without the need to alter code or change established processes. Technology leaders also find that new staff can often work productively with familiar open source tools from day one, eliminating much of the time-consuming training required with less-known proprietary offerings. Community participation to steer healthy open source projects, adaptability, tool compatibility, and freedom from licensing limitations round out the open source advantages cited in the OReilly report.

Customers of open core vendors often take on risks they dont understand.

In part due to the similarity of the two terms, the report found that many organizations actually have trouble understanding whether they have access to open source or open core solutions. While honest presentations of open core offerings simply amount to a legitimate business model, many open core vendors are not as transparent. For example, open core vendors may draw in customers with fully open source community editions that arent actually viable, or suddenly end community edition support in an attempt to force customers into their paid proprietary offerings. Open core licenses then often restrict customers from owning their own code, sealing an intentional trap that captures users with vendor lock-in.

Open core practices have negative long-term impacts on both customers and vendors themselves.

In addition to customers losing out on the open source flexibility and freedom they likely believed they were getting, open core often negatively impacts vendors as well. Open core vendors might begin with good intentions, but fall into their own trap when trying to balance community stewardship and commercial pressures. Those pressures result in incentives that then limit community contributions especially when vendors fear losing control of their solutions to their more innovative communities.

When we say open source software is free, thats not just about the price, said Peter Lilley, CEO and Co-Founder at Instaclustr. The freedoms that fully open source technologies provide enterprises amount to transformative advantages for building powerful and versatile technology stacks. Unfortunately, many open core solutions serve as a cautionary tale on what can happen when end users (and even vendors) dont prioritize freedom, flexibility, and community. The OReilly report digs deep to offer comprehensive clarity on the state of open source vis--vis open core, and is worth a read in its entirety for any technology leadership team.

Read the full report here: https://info.instaclustr.com/OReilly_Open_Source_vs_Open_Core.html

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Instaclustrhelps organizations deliver applications at scale through its platform for open source technologies such as Apache Cassandra, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, Redis, OpenSearch, Apache ZooKeeper, and PostgreSQL. Instaclustr combines a complete data infrastructure environment with hands-on technology expertise to ensure ongoing performance and optimization. By removing infrastructure complexity, Instaclustr enables companies to focus internal development and operational resources on building cutting-edge, customer-facing applications at lower cost. Instaclustr customers include some of the largest and most innovative Fortune 500 companies.

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Report Sheds New Light on the Risks of Open Core Software - CIO Dive

"We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest." Women's gospel voices repeatedly sing that refrain in the introductory video to The Women's Project, an online exhibit (womensprojectstory.org) that the Arkansas People's History Project (APHP) launched this spring.

In 1980, women from around the state began coming together to protect women and children as part of a wide-reaching and influential activist organization that would become The Women's Project. Forty-two years later, it's The Women's Project's groundbreaking history and legacy that exhibit co-producers Acadia Roher and Anna Stitt have begun to promote and protect.

Roher is a public historian, and Stitt is a journalist with a background in major podcast production. The two are part of the APHP, an initiative to "research, document and share the state's resistance narratives," to make Arkansas' activism history accessible to a wider and potentially younger audience.

It started in 2015 when they ran into Suzanne Pharr, a grassroots activist and author with a national reputation. Pharr lived in Arkansas for decades and founded The Women's Project, a statewide multiracial network that tackled racism, sexism, homophobia and economic injustice, most actively in the 1980s and 1990s. Stitt and Roher weren't familiar with the project, but their curiosity was piqued.

"Anna and I started this back in 2017, really because we saw this lack of these stories that were available to others," Roher explains. "... Then we realized there was still this really strong network here," Roher says. "Some of the members are in their 80s now. Still friends, still organizing. We started getting curious and asking people about [The Women's Project], then all these stories started coming out, and it was like, 'Whoa.'"

Those stories, told in text, photos, documents, links, videos and audio clips, comprise the new interactive exhibit. They tell of women from radically different backgrounds coming together to stand up to the Ku Klux Klan, teach HIV/AIDS education, organize to help battered women, protect children from sexual abuse, fight racism and homophobia, document hate-based homicides and make minority cultural voices more widely available to Arkansans pre-internet.

Pharr explains, "What we had learned from the '70s was seeing that racism, sexism and social injustice are inextricably connected. We couldn't work on one without working on the others. ... This way we could bring the most people together in a way that would really make change."

Stitt and Roher involved The Women's Project's activists at all levels of their research. Stitt says that often outside documentarians or academics will come in "with their own lens" to mine Arkansans' history for their needs, but that what emerges is rarely made for or with the people who lived it. "The narrative control is taken away," she says. "It ends up taking this whole other turn, and people are like, 'That's not true! That's not how we saw that! That's your story, not our story!'"

Pictured during a leadership transition are Janet Perkins (from left), Kerry Lobel, Damita Jo Marks and Suzanne Pharr. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)YOUR STORIES, NOT OURS

For this exhibit, they sought the opposite. Not only could the participants tell their stories in their own voices (Roher says they often conducted oral histories, story circles and panel discussions with the women via Zoom during the pandemic), they helped shape what the exhibit would be, choosing the aspects of their experiences they felt were most important to share.

An important aspect of the project, Pharr says, was its innovative structure, later modeled by grassroots organizations around the country. The Women's Project representatives traveled across the United States, training others in their methods.

"We thought that in order to make change in the world, you need to have an organization that mirrors that change," Pharr says. To practice the equitable society they sought to create, the Women's Project had an executive director (initially Pharr) in name only; all staff were paid the same wage. Rather than have an organization of majority white, urban, heterosexual women, the project prioritized the traditionally underrepresented, ensuring their board and staff makeup had majorities of rural women and women of color.

Likewise, while all women were welcomed, they actively sought to include gay women and those from religious minorities. Without hierarchical structure for decision-making, they relied on group discussion to reach consensus. And rural organizing, something Phar says is too often neglected by "social justice people" today, was their dominant focus rather than an afterthought.

In an audio clip from the exhibit, Sofia Ali-Khan, a young woman when she got involved, talks about the group's structure. "To be valued that way as a stranger who walked in the door, who didn't look like anybody else in the building, but just had a commitment to the same values that sort of way of putting one's ideological commitments into cold cash practice was something I had never seen anybody do before and haven't seen anybody do since."

Stitt says that while imperfect, The Women's Project tried to be intentional about how power and care looked. "Living out this philosophy gave the project staying power, helped them develop a strong, core group with many arms into the wider community."

Damita Marks joined the Women's Project staff in the late 1980s. She couldn't believe she got a job in the Little Rock office. "I was shocked because I was a young, rural Black woman coming from Gurdon, Arkansas, competing with other women who were more conscious [of women's issues] than I was," Marks says. "But my compassion grew to look at women differently. It increased my strength and awareness."

The Women's Project also founded the Women's Watchcare Network, a key element they trained groups across the country to implement.

WITNESSES TO HISTORY

Initially focused on gender-based violence against women, The Women's Project's growth coincided with another rise of the Klan, which had a compound and training center in Harrison. Black people and communities were being attacked, churches burned. "We said, 'Well, who's monitoring them?' We looked around, and there was nobody. So, we took it on," Pharr says.

The Women's Project created a monitoring program to track activity in Arkansas by the Klan and other hate groups, showing up to protest any pre-announced events. "But what people kept saying to us was, 'This far-right violence is terrible, but what's way worse is the everyday violence,'" Pharr says.

"We decided we would record best we could any violence that was occurring against people of color, against women, against queers, against religious minorities. But in the end we had to limit it to murders. There was just too much violence to keep up with."

Although they were not affiliated, Pharr says the United Methodist Women's groups nationally and locally supported The Women's Project with funds from its earliest days. To track violence statewide, Pharr asked for help. "We'd ask the United Methodist Women in different communities to create small groups that would monitor each of those areas: racism, sexism, anti-gay violence, and expand those networks wherever they could."

Methodists and other Arkansas women clipped and sent to the Women's Project any local news stories of violence toward minorities. The rule was it had to have been reported in print to be recorded, Pharr says. "We knew we wouldn't be believed if these events were not documented somewhere; there were so many clippings." Using any published details to tell the stories, they chronicled each murder in their newsletter, Transformation. (These newsletters can be read online through the exhibit's Resources page.)

Clipping news accounts empowered the volunteers. Pharr says in face of widespread violence, it was something they could do, even if they didn't know how or when it would be used. "We kept saying to ourselves, 'Even if nothing else comes out of this, we will have stood as witness to this time in Arkansas.'"

As different kinds of women joined the project to work on their own particular focus (gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS education, homophobia, racism, etc.), they were exposed to people and perspectives different than they'd known. And they began to learn from each other.

Pharr says growing that mutual respect and understanding was built into the mission. "We knew if they would tell their stories in these small groups, people would begin to understand we are awfully alike," she explains. "We believed greatly in stories."

An audio clip of member Kelly Mitchell-Clark in the exhibit speaks to this personal growth. "When I arrived at the Women's Project, my voice, my understanding of race was very clear. I was raised that way. ... I felt a lived experience. But being at the Women's Project meant I had to overlay those, had to stretch myself, had to understand more about gender and sexism and homophobia. And these were new to me."

The featured voice of another member, Janet Perkins: "I didn't know what homophobia [was], but I was willing to learn. ... And that was one of the commitments that we all had to make, is that you can't just fight for your own issue."

Marks says the women formed real connections. "The women, we groomed each other, we pampered each other. When we were doing good, we stroked each other. When things weren't doing good, we comforted each other. I loved that," Marks says.

It's something she's carried forward in her life: mentoring younger women. Marks' friend and mentee, Carolyn Jefferson, grew from a young certified nursing assistant from Helena with big dreams 14 years ago to being a surgical and oncology nurse and owning a medical staffing agency. Both women say they credit the experience and confidence Marks gained from the project with helping propel their growth.

"Everything I wanted to achieve, Damita has helped me do," Jefferson says, "by encouraging and believing in me."

"I think it is so important," Marks says, "to bring a young woman with me to hand off the baton of this work. If I can be a power to help someone all of this comes from the Women's Project validating who I am."

Board and staff members of activist group The Womens Project pose on steps in Little Rock in an archival photo from 1990. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)THE EXHIBIT

The interactive exhibit was created with financial support from the Arkansas Humanities Council, Black History Commission of Arkansas, Highlander Research and Education Center and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

For the exhibit, Roher, Stitt and others worked to find photos, documents and videos. The site links to documentation and related materials and includes a Resources page with a discussion guide for educators and other visitors.

Tracking down multimedia from that time was made more difficult by the fact that the Women's Project rarely focused on documenting the project itself. "We didn't seek publicity in the way people do now," Pharr explains. "It didn't occur to us to take pictures of ourselves when we were standing against the Klan and marching in song."

Roher and Stitt led the project, but they credit extensive support by the state's history community and the Women's Project members with making the exhibit possible. They say it's the Arkansas People's History Project's first major project, but not its last.

"As a group, we are very happy with the exhibit, and we think they have done a magnificent job of representing who we were," Pharr says. "We think it also is a gift to other people who are doing social justice work."

Pharr, 83 and once again living in Little Rock, is still one of those people. "Oh, I'm very active," she says. "I don't believe in social justice people retiring."

Marks understands that. "Each one of us that was in the Women's Project, we have a connection to it still. Our passions are still there. It's not like you look at it and say, 'Oh, I used to do so and so.' It's still in you. You still do it.

"I take my hat off to the young women for doing this, revitalizing our work and bringing it back up to the forefront so someone else can pick it up," Marks continues. "That's the whole thing about a 'movement.' Once you've been 'moved,' you're 'meant' to give it to someone else."

See more here:

Women's work: 42 years of activism chronicled in new website for The Women's Project - Arkansas Online

OFHE T MONEY TO UPGRADE EQUIPMENT FOR TRAINING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MORAY SCOTT SAYS THE MONEY WILL ALSO BE USED FOR PROGRAM. THAT BENEFIT VICTIMS .WEVE GOT TO JUST ADMIT ONE THING. WEING. ARE STILL A VERY VIOLTEN CITY CONGRESSMAN QUITE EASY AND FUMI AND OTHER MEMBERS OF MARYLANDS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION CAME TO TOWN ANNOUNCING FEDERAL HPEL IS ON THE WAY. THEY EARMARKEA NRLY 8 MILLION DOLLSAR FOR BALTIMORES CRIME FIGHT. STATE CRISIS HOTLINE HE ERSOME TWO MILLION DOLLARS UP. GOES TOWARD BALTIMORES 911 DIVERSION PROGRAM A PNEHO BANK OF COUNSELING PROFESSIONALS WHO HANDLE MENTAL HEAHLT ISSUES FREEING POLICE TO DEAL WITH VIOLENT CRIME. THATLL TAKE A LOT OFF OF OUR POLICE AND LET THEM DO T JHEOB, YOU KNOW THAT THEY NEED TO DO ANOTHER TWO MILLION WILL GO TOWARD UP. POLICE EQUIPMENT HELPING THE DEPARTMENT WITH CONSENT DECREE COMPLIANCE RECORDS MANAGEMENT IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF US USING A RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. THAT WAS 2 300 YEARS OLD NOW, WE HAVE A BRAND NEW ONE THAT BRINGS US OUT OF THE PAPER AGE INTO THE DIGITAL AGE. 650,000 FEDERAL DOLLARS WILL BE SPENT ON POLICE TRAININGO T ENHANCE COMMUNITY RELATIONS. IT WILL ALSO FUND A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR TO HELP IN THAT EFFORTOR F THOSE WHO DONT KNOW NEIGHBORHOOD POLICING PLANS ENGAGE COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO DEVELOP INTENTIONAL LARETIONSHIPS WITH OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS SO THAT TOGEERTH TAKEN ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED WHERE THEY LIVE NONPROFSIT THAT HAVE ANTI-VIOLENCE INITIATIVES WILL GET FEDERAL FUNDING THIS INCLUDES LIVING CLASSOMROS LIKE BRIDGE HEALTH UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SHOCK TRAUMA ROCA, THATS SELF-BALTIMORES PEACEMAKING PILOT PROGRAM AND MARYLANDERS TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE. WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT ADVANCE OUR VISION FOR EQUITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE APPROACHO T PUBLIC SAFETY WITHOUT CENTENGRI OUR COMMUNITIES AND TACKLING VIOLENCE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH. ISSUE, EACH OF THESE INITIATIVES ARE THERE TO HELP US DEAL WITH PUBLIC SAFETY WHEN FAMILIE ARE IN PAIN WHEN COMMUNITIESRE A IN PAIN THAT MIGRATES TO VIOLENCE AND YOU HAVE TO CEOM UP WITH INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES TO RESPOND TO THAT TREO SPOND TO THAT PAIN. MAYOR SCOTT SAYS THE MONEY IS GOING TO PLACES AND PROGRAMS THAT RESIDENTS HAVE CALLED FOR REPORTING LIVE ON THE BISHOP ROBINSON POLICE HEADQUARTER

Baltimore's fight against crime gets $7.9M federal shot in the arm

$2M to go toward updating police equipment, which also helps city meet consent decree compliance requirements

Updated: 6:13 PM EDT Apr 29, 2022

The fight against crime in Baltimore City is getting a $7.9 million federal shot in the arm.The Maryland congressional delegation on Friday joined Mayor Brandon Scott and police Commissioner Michael Harrison to detail where the money will go -- and the police department will receive the bulk of the money."We got to just admit one thing: We are still a very violent city," said U.S. Kwiesi Mfume, D-District 7."I think we all know there's no one solution here, but we are working to try to make sure we piece together a series of funds to address the issue of violent crime in Baltimore City, and we all know you need a comprehensive approach here," said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland.City police will use the money to upgrade equipment and for police training and community policing. The balance of the funds will be shared by nonprofit groups for victim-assistance programs.Some $2 million of federal money will go toward Baltimore's 911 diversion program, a phone bank of counseling professionals who handle mental health crises, freeing police to deal with violent crime.| RELATED: Program to allow diversion of mental health calls from 911 to crisis hotline"Police get a lot of calls that are drug-related, mental-health related, those type of things. And, we want those calls to go to people who can handle them the best and shouldn't be in the criminal justice system. That will take a lot off of our police and let them do the job they need to do," said U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2.Another $2 million will go toward updating police equipment, which also helps the city meet consent decree compliance requirements."Records management is a classic example of us using a records management system that was 20, 30 years old. Now we have a brand-new one that brings us out of the paper age into the digital age," Harrison said.Another $650,000 in federal funding will be spent on police training to enhance community relations. It will also fund a community engagement coordinator to help in the effort."Neighborhood policing plans engage community members to develop intentional relationships with our law enforcement officers so that, together, they can address the challenges identified where they live," said Shantay Jackson, director of the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement."These are all community centered initiatives things that residents are calling for," Scott said.Nonprofit groups that have antiviolence initiatives will also get federal funding, which includes Living Classrooms, LifeBridge Health, Shock Trauma, Roca, the South Baltimore Peacemaking Project Pilot and Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence."Each of these initiatives are there to help us deal with public safety," said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland."When families are in pain, when communities are in pain, that migrates to violence. And, you have to come up with innovative strategies to respond to that pain," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-District 3.Brooklyn residents wonder what can be done to stop the violenceAs Baltimore City leaders hope the funding will help in crime and violence reduction, police are investigating another homicide.Brooklyn is a neighborhood where police and community groups are working together. But some who live on a block where there were two killings in a matter of months wonder what else can be done to stop the violence.A boarded-up house with crumbling steps is near the corner where multiple shots were fired just after midnight Thursday, killing a man in his 20s. Candles serve as a memorial on Fifth Street in Brooklyn.Dezirey Croley said because of the loudness and rapid succession, she first thought someone set off fireworks."I was petrified," Croley said. "Pop, pop, pop pop. I was shaking."Then, she realized it was gunfire."I grabbed my son and started running," she said.Fellow resident Stacy Cudnik also heard the shots and wondered what it was."It was 18 pops. It was so fast. I can't tell the difference between guns and fireworks. It seemed too fast and too loud that it could have been a gun, but it was," Cudnik said.Croley said police found bullet casings near the side and in front of a parked van.Residents in Brooklyn said another shooting left a person dead about two months ago on the same street less than a half a block away. A memorial also stands at that scene. The residents told 11 News both shooting victims were friends.Baltimore police said, with the latest killing in Brooklyn, the city has had 110 homicides so far this year, compared to 100 at the same time last year.

The fight against crime in Baltimore City is getting a $7.9 million federal shot in the arm.

The Maryland congressional delegation on Friday joined Mayor Brandon Scott and police Commissioner Michael Harrison to detail where the money will go -- and the police department will receive the bulk of the money.

"We got to just admit one thing: We are still a very violent city," said U.S. Kwiesi Mfume, D-District 7.

"I think we all know there's no one solution here, but we are working to try to make sure we piece together a series of funds to address the issue of violent crime in Baltimore City, and we all know you need a comprehensive approach here," said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland.

City police will use the money to upgrade equipment and for police training and community policing. The balance of the funds will be shared by nonprofit groups for victim-assistance programs.

Some $2 million of federal money will go toward Baltimore's 911 diversion program, a phone bank of counseling professionals who handle mental health crises, freeing police to deal with violent crime.

| RELATED: Program to allow diversion of mental health calls from 911 to crisis hotline

"Police get a lot of calls that are drug-related, mental-health related, those type of things. And, we want those calls to go to people who can handle them the best and shouldn't be in the criminal justice system. That will take a lot off of our police and let them do the job they need to do," said U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2.

Another $2 million will go toward updating police equipment, which also helps the city meet consent decree compliance requirements.

"Records management is a classic example of us using a records management system that was 20, 30 years old. Now we have a brand-new one that brings us out of the paper age into the digital age," Harrison said.

Another $650,000 in federal funding will be spent on police training to enhance community relations. It will also fund a community engagement coordinator to help in the effort.

"Neighborhood policing plans engage community members to develop intentional relationships with our law enforcement officers so that, together, they can address the challenges identified where they live," said Shantay Jackson, director of the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

"These are all community centered initiatives things that residents are calling for," Scott said.

Nonprofit groups that have antiviolence initiatives will also get federal funding, which includes Living Classrooms, LifeBridge Health, Shock Trauma, Roca, the South Baltimore Peacemaking Project Pilot and Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

"Each of these initiatives are there to help us deal with public safety," said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland.

"When families are in pain, when communities are in pain, that migrates to violence. And, you have to come up with innovative strategies to respond to that pain," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-District 3.

As Baltimore City leaders hope the funding will help in crime and violence reduction, police are investigating another homicide.

Brooklyn is a neighborhood where police and community groups are working together. But some who live on a block where there were two killings in a matter of months wonder what else can be done to stop the violence.

A boarded-up house with crumbling steps is near the corner where multiple shots were fired just after midnight Thursday, killing a man in his 20s. Candles serve as a memorial on Fifth Street in Brooklyn.

Dezirey Croley said because of the loudness and rapid succession, she first thought someone set off fireworks.

"I was petrified," Croley said. "Pop, pop, pop pop. I was shaking."

Then, she realized it was gunfire.

"I grabbed my son and started running," she said.

Fellow resident Stacy Cudnik also heard the shots and wondered what it was.

"It was 18 pops. It was so fast. I can't tell the difference between guns and fireworks. It seemed too fast and too loud that it could have been a gun, but it was," Cudnik said.

Croley said police found bullet casings near the side and in front of a parked van.

Residents in Brooklyn said another shooting left a person dead about two months ago on the same street less than a half a block away. A memorial also stands at that scene. The residents told 11 News both shooting victims were friends.

Baltimore police said, with the latest killing in Brooklyn, the city has had 110 homicides so far this year, compared to 100 at the same time last year.

More here:

Baltimore's fight against crime gets $7.9M federal shot in the arm - WBAL TV Baltimore

In an era of surging demand,how will UCLA continue to deliver the high-quality educational experience for which it is known while finding a way to serve more students?

If you want to have the kind of education we provide [with] the traditional residential experience where students spend time on campus doing directed research while they are here and getting to know faculty, there is a limit in physical size, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn, hosts of the higher educationfocused podcastFuture U.

Selingo and Horn were on campus recently to record an episode of their podcast. While at UCLA, they interviewed Block and led a panel discussion with other school leaders. The episode will be released on May 17.

While increasing access to the school is of great importance, Block said, it cannot be done at the cost of the special combination of academics, campus life, research and community impact that make up the UCLA experience.

At only 419 acres, UCLA is the smallest physical campus within the University of California system;consequently, theres a limit to the number of students it can serve. But, Block said, there are opportunities to expand the campuss reach by reimagining how it uses technology and its academic calendar.

We have to do our part so we are thinking creatively on how to better use summer and spring quarter [and] how to use some remote educational opportunities, Block said about how the UC system can grow to serve more students. The system aims to increase enrollment by 20,000 students across its 10campuses by 2030.

During the last two years, faculty and staff have demonstrated ingenuity and innovation as they transformed traditional in-person lectures to remote and hybrid classes that combined in-person instruction with online components, Block said.

But while UCLA saw successes in remote instruction, Block warned against an uncritical embrace of technology as the only solution. He emphasized the inequalities remote instruction exacerbated among students, especially from underserved communities.

There is a digital divide. [There are] lots of reasons why remote education does not give you the expected outcomes wed like to see, Block said when describing the challenges of fully remote instruction. That doesnt mean throwing it away, but it means being respectful of the fact that it has limitations, figuring out ways to overcome that.

To help close the divide in 2020 and 2021, UCLA provided students with laptops and personal internet hotspots to help increase internet connectivity.

Block also cautioned that even if universities can surmount the digital divide, they must avoid creating a situation whereby students from lower-income brackets choose to save money by learning remotely from home thus missing the rich experience of campus life while other students opt for the traditional, residential environment and the opportunities that come with it.

Following Blocks interview, Selingo and Horn held a discussion with Monroe Gorden, vice chancellor of student affairs, Tracy Johnson, dean of the division of life sciences in the UCLA College, student Sarah Wang, external vice president of the Undergraduate Students Association, and Jason Belland, vice president, Education Cloud GTM at Salesforce.org.

Reed Hutchinson/UCLA

From left: Gene Block, UCLA chancellor; Michael Horn, co-host of the Future U Podcast,; Sarah Wang, external vice president of the Undergraduate Students Association at UCLA, Monroe Gorden, vice chancellor of student affairs at UCLA; Tracy Johnson, dean of the division of life sciences at the UCLA College;Jason Belland, vice president, Education Cloud GTM at Salesforce.org; and Jeff Selingo, Future U co-host.

When asked about education trends they hope will continue well beyond the pandemic, Johnson mentioned broader and more robust instructor use of teaching and learning centers.

The pandemic really engendered a different level of empathy among faculty that has changed how we think about the job, Johnson said. Granted, there are challenges. Weve built in centers for learning and teaching excellence to go from where we were years ago to how we create inclusive classrooms and enhance pedagogy so that students from all backgrounds see themselves in the class and feel like they are welcomed.

In sharing her experiences during the pandemic, Wang said she hopes to continue seeing the prioritization of peoples well-being.

Mental health is the ultimate key to making sure we have a well-rounded and healthy experience, she said. It's important recognizing the humanity we have and build a community with compassion.

After the discussion, audience members had a brief opportunity to ask the panelists questions. When asked about what universities can do to equip students for the workforce, Gorden reinforced the importance of building students learning and life skills and noted how learning can take place outside the classroom.

Many opportunities present themselves in just day-to-day life, he said.

Gorden also emphasized that UCLA needs to be very intentional in its outreach and partnerships with different industries and industry partners.

In noting that students, staff, faculty members and administrators all continue to navigate the unknown future of higher education, Johnson ended the conversation with a simple yet powerful thought. [Lets] encourage the sense that having lived through this challenging time is our superpower and [use]that[as inspiration] to do amazing things.

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UCLA Chancellor Gene Block joins Future U podcast to discuss the future of higher education | UCLA - UCLA Newsroom

A new contribution in a continuing series examining backdraftthe unintended consequences of climate change responsesand how its effects might be anticipated and minimized to avoid conflict and promote peace.

When considering the potential effects of backdraft on climate change responses, the question of the worlds water future may be the most salient of allespecially as we examine water supplies and freshwater ecosystem health.

Large changes are coming to how we store, use, and price water, as well as in how we mitigate environmental harm and adapt to water-related stresses such as drought and flooding. What will those changes look like over the next thirty or forty years?

First, there will be efforts to manage supply more effectively. The ability to harvest and store large quantities of water will be increasingly valuable, as a way to smooth out climate-driven uncertainties. And more water will be recycled, closing the loop on wasteful once through systems of water use.

Those efforts will be important because access to predictable water supplies will become an important part of global economic competitiveness. Efforts to tap new sources will intensify. And managing extremes, particularly around flooding, will become a central principle of planning, in urban settings and for coastal land management.

There is much that is positive in these trends. Water use is growing more efficient and more intentional. It is hard to justify systems that expend vast quantities of energy to purify water and pump it to end users, only to expend several liters to carry away a small quantity of human waste and then either discharge the treated wastewater or fail to treat it entirely.

Yet things dont happen simply because we need them to; witness our sluggish response to the imperative of climate mitigation and adaptation. Still, the incentive to make these adjustments is too strong to ignore. Indeed, each of these shifts is already well underway.

If done properly, sensible adjustments around storing water, pricing water, recycling water, and designing landscapes for flood risk could make communities more climate- and water-resilient. They could also help to forestall the numerous conflict risks around waterthe dangers of which, though sometimes simplified and overstated, are real enough.

The realization that the way nations must manage changes in water supply and usageas well as protect environments from water-driven climate effectsis already upon us.

In the Netherlands, floating office space is being deployed, ready to be moved in the face of flood risk. In Israel, economically competitive desalination plants line the Mediterranean coast. In China, vast engineering works are underway to move water from the more abundant south to the parched north. The Colorado River basin has finally admitted that it allocates more water rights than there is water available, triggering cutbacks for downstream farmers and, looming ahead, for cities.

Yet, given the sheer size of the adjustments ahead and their high stakes for human health, livelihoods, and environmental integrity, there is also great potential for conflict in how these adaptations are carried out.

First, the vast sums of money involved in these transformations, as well as their dramatic implications for land use, livelihoods, and human settlements, create enormous distributive consequences.

Consider the need to enhance water storage. Doing so is an essential tool to smooth out the inconsistencies of climate-driven water extremes of flooding and drought. Yet, as the history of large dams has taught us all too well, storing water upstream can trigger a devastating human and environmental toll downstreamdisplacing people, changing the physical and chemical properties of the water, devastating ecosystem-based livelihoods such as fishing, and increasing disease risks.

Also, if storing water in large quantities locks in the ability of, say, increasingly thirsty cities or globally mobile industries to outbid rural areas for the water, it could do more to reinforce existing water inequalities than to create the resilience for which the storage was allegedly designed.

The same is true of water recycling. As noted above, our once-through, open-ended systems of water use make little sense; provided it is done properly, the economic logic of water recycling is unimpeachable. Yet, it is often the case that someone downstream was replying on that water for their own uses (even when doing so means relying on water of degraded quality). Without attention to the wider patterns of access, the decision to recycle large amounts of water is also a choice to redistribute it, often to the detriment of the poorest and most marginalized users.

As with the uses and reuses of water, so with the threats of harm it brings. Planning for flood resilience is urgently needed in the context of climate change. But distributional controversies abound in how we do so. Coastal flood barriers may protect one community while simultaneously exiling another from the coast.

Flood-sensitive planning attentive to protecting and expanding green spaces is a powerful tool for resilience. But making room for the river can mean less room, or even forced displacement, for existing communities, again with the already vulnerable most likely to feel the pressures.

One key to addressing these challenges is to build out more effective mechanisms for dispute resolution. The high stakes make water ripe for social conflict, but conflict management remains the weak link in water governance. Even where arrangements have been formalized, they may be designed to resolve the problems of an earlier era.

Most existing international river-basin commissions, for example, were created in a historical period when allocation of water supplies and (perhaps) pollution control were the primary considerations. These bodies function on principles closer to contractual arrangements, with largely fixed terms and conditions, than joint schemes for active management. They may create predictability, but they often lack the flexibility to adjust to changing circumstances.

Another challenge is the ability to engage with the full array of stakeholders. Many of the worlds largest cities lie in international river basins, and many are beginning to experience the urban-versus-rural water tensions alluded to above. Treaty-based arrangements typically lack the capacity to engage those subnational and transnational actors in their deliberations.

For instance, when the US agreed with Canada to create the International Joint Commission and with Mexico on the International Boundary and Water Commission, these were seen as innovative, forward-looking mechanisms. Today, both agreements struggle to address tasks for which they were not designed, and to manage tensions their makers did not envision. And perhaps just as important, they struggle to engage stakeholders their formal processes do not acknowledge.

Finally, and most centrally, there is the need for greater attention to questions of justice in water planning. Navigating water conflicts effectively means more than just containing or suppressing them, and thus maintaining in place a status quo that is both inequitable and unsustainable. The principal analytic methods, such as environmental impact assessment, risk assessment, and cost-benefit analysis, typically fail to engage questions of distributive justice. Even when they do nod to these questions, they at best, tag on procedurally thin stakeholder dialogues that fail to grapple with unequal power dynamics or the historical roots of inequality that leave some much more vulnerable than others to change.

Attention to such concerns is sometimes framed as a complication that the climate emergency cannot afford. This is short-sighted, both in terms of managing grievances that fuel conflict and in terms of effectively engaging communities and actors who must buy in if solutions are to be meaningful.

It is easy to be pessimistic about our capacity to navigate this terrain. Each year, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland conducts a survey on global risk. For several years now, the political and economic elites in attendance have placed water at or near the top of the set of global risks looming aheadeven as they reproduce climate inaction, casino economics, and growing inequality.

Yet, the pressures to create water systems that are more flexible, efficient, and adaptive in the face of uncertainty could open the door to taking a more decentralized, democratic, and environmentally sensitive approach. Innovations in monitoring and communications are making water conditions more transparent and predictable. Traditions of harvesting rainwater and community-scale storage are being rediscovered.

And perhaps most important of all, more people than ever before are participating in water decision makingor fighting for the right to do so, supported by the growing recognition of water as a human right. Disputes about how to manage water may be ubiquitous, but conflict is not inevitable.

Ken Conca is a professor of International relations in the School of International Service at American University. He is the author of Advanced Introduction to Water Politics (2021, Edward Elgar Publishing), which is the foundation for many of the ideas put forth in this essay.

ImageCredit: People in New Delhi, India, using hoses to fill jerry cans with drinking water. Courtesy ofPradeepGaurs, Shutterstock.com.

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Preventing Water Conflict Through Dialogue - New Security Beat