Category Archives: Intentional Communities

May 8, 2021

Todd Kleppins(93)journey toward youth mentoring initially had very little to do with youth. After helpinghis churchteam with the city tobuild astate-of-the-artskate park on their propertytoconnect with and serve the youth of theircommunity,Todd was surprised to see each day that,among the 100-plus kids who flocked to the park, there was never an adult in sight. This promptedhimtoactivelyencouragethe congregation to sit on a park bench and see if a kid would come upandtalk with them.

A fewweekslater,I had a lady in her mid-80s come up and talk to me, Todd remembers. She said that she took my advice and within the first half-hour of sitting there, she had three middleschool boys come up and talk to her. It was a stark symbol of the starvation for meaningful adult interaction that he had witnessed amongteensinyouth ministry. That was where God said to me, Time to wake up.Its a totally different world.

Todd began to reflect on his ministry goals, asking God how he might better meet the needs of the kids in his community. His prayer and research began to move himfrom his role as a youth pastortoward youth mentoringthe uncommon image of an 80-year-old woman engaging with middle school boys still fresh in his mind.

Over the next few years, Toddsteppedsteadily intohis new calling, eventually landing in the role of Director oftheChristian Association of Youth Mentoring(CAYM), an organization that provides mentorship training to churches interested instarting mentorship programs.It was soon after that he wasreunited with Brian Vaughan(91), a fellow Corban graduate and current CPA with a practice outside of Portland,Oregon.

I had always kind of followed what Todd had been doing through the years, Brian says. Todd and Brian were teammates on the Corban mens soccer team back when they attended the University. Even before they had considered mentoring as an official ministry course, it was on the soccer pitch that they had first encountered its impact.

Corbanprovidedmy firstrealexperience with discipleship and mentoring, Brian says, remembering thespiritualaccountability shared among teammates.When I look at my own personal growth as a believer, its tied to those individual relationships where someone was coming alongside of me, investing in me, and pushing me.

When Todds work with CAYMsent him toward thePortland areafor a series of meetings, he stayed with Brian, whovolunteered someconsulting and strategic planning advicefor CAYM.Brian posed theideaof amentorshipmodel thatwasnttiedspecificallyto asinglechurchorpastor. As opposed to going into a community and doing the training to launch a program with one church that wont have any carry over, why dont we form an executive leadership team, go into that communityandbring all the churches together so that they canalltake ownership of that program in their own community?Briansuggested.

Todd and Brian took the idea and ran with it.I always thought that I was the big visionary guy, Todd says,and then I get around Brian and this guy pushes me way out of my comfort zone, and I love it.Fast forwardtwo-and-a-half years and Forge Youth Mentoring is helping churches and individuals make an impact throughout Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii, with plans to expandfurther.

Forges unique approach, helpingtoidentify and support organizations and individualsandequipping communities with the capacity to serve beyond the borders of a single church, has been a major reason for its quick expansion.One of our main focuses is that church staff already have way toomuch on the plate, Brian says.So, lets not add anything to it, but lets help take the members of their congregationswhoare ready for mentorship and plug them into the secular community.

Forge accomplishes its mission by networking with multiple churches,connecting withpeopleinthese congregations,andmatching them withat-risk youth.We want to come inandhelp pastors provide a ministry, but we can do all the work, and let God claim all the glory,Toddsays.My hope is to stir up the average person in the pews.The cool thing about mentoring isthatit pulls a lot of peoplewhodont normally serve. You dont have to have special skills or a dynamic testimony. You just have to be willing to let God use you.

For Todd and Brian, the need for more dedicated involvement from the church community has never beenmore dire.We adults simply do not understand that the world is completely different for kids today in light of adult connection, Todd says.We thinkthatkids todayhave the same adults we did, and the truth is they just dont. With 42-55% of kids being born to unwedsinglemothers, coupled with the ever-present effects of divorce, Todd sees a growing void for todays youth. Not only are they missing a second parent, but they are missing all the extended family that comes along with them.

The problemhasonlybeenexacerbated by societal trends and patterns of abuse that often stem from the same sort of long-term relational brokenness Forge is trying to address. In a society where everyone is scared of lawsuits, teachers and coaches are pushed awayfromthe personal connection they used to have with kids because its dangerous, Todd says. I believe the average kid has less thanthreeadults that they feel they can trust enough to turn to.

Brian sees youth mentorship as the root treatment to this relational epidemic, transcending generational gaps.We adults have a really difficult time doing discipleshipwith each other, he says.Were afraid of it.Through youth mentoring, Brian and Todd hope that reinstating a pattern ofbiblical discipleship early on, with intentional interaction at its crux, will lead toward healthier adult-to-adult relationships in the future. Its a starting spot because,ifayouth has a mentor in their lives, when they get older, they mayfeel moreable to come alongside another adult later on in life.

Even though Forge has only been running for two and a half years, Todd and Brian have already begun to see the incredible impact that mentorship programs can have on a community, for mentees and mentors alike. And it begins with the church.I look at it as an amazing opportunity for the church to lead the way in shaping the future, says Todd.And these kids want it. Its not an issue of wrangling upenoughkids to be mentored. There are thousands of kids in every community who want meaningful connections with adults.Their efforts have already begun toverifythe formal findings that kids are twice as likely to stay in and succeed in school while staying off of drugs when given a dependable adult influence in their lives.

The process has been rewarding for adult mentors as well.Weve seen that adultswhobecome mentors actually begin doing more ministry in the church after they became a mentor than before,Brian says.We love to see adults also find their purpose and redeem their pasts and use them to help kids overcome theirchallenges.

With adults and youth benefitting from church-guided youth mentorship, the secular world hasbegun totaken notice.Forges workhas beenrecognized bymultiple secular outlets, includingHarvard Universitys Leadership Institute for Faith and Education,for the groundbreaking waysthey have been able to help equip andmobilize program leaders and mentors, particularlyfrom Hispanic communities.

Through theirministry, Forgehasoffered another avenueto heal divides between sacred and secular communities in the towns and cities where they serve.This is a way for us to go into communities and instead of doing something in a separate building or handing out food one day of the week,wegetto make avisible,material change in the lives of people in the community,Brian says.

As a result,Forge now hassecularschools and agenciesactivelyseeking help from theirpartner churches, requestingmentors for their kids in public schools.The church has the opportunity like never before to lead the way, Todd says.When we go into a community and offer a mentoring program and we say we are teaming with the churches, that means the churches are solving the greatest problem in that community. Theworldgetsto see theChurch as the ones solving problems, not causingthem.

Looking toward the future, Brian and Todds dream is to expand further into Oregon and Idaho, down the I-5 corridor into Salem and Portland, where Brian lives. If theres a community that says,Were interested, were there, Brian says. Wewere able tolaunch on the island of Maui during COVID. Why could we not make it happen in Salem?

Because Forge Youth Mentoringcan offer their services at a third of the cost of most other agencies, they see incredible flexibility for God to be able to direct them to new connections and new communities as needed. One ofthose new connections is an old connection for Brian and Todd, as they look to partner with the University that first impressed the prominence of mentorship on their hearts.

It would be great if we could team with Corban gradswhohave their own churches that want something like this in their community or for their congregations, Brian says. And we dont need their resources. We dont need their staff, or their monetary contributions. We just need them to partner with us and encourage their people from the pulpit,and we will take it from there.As Forge looks to expand toward Salem, Todd hopes that soon they will alsobe able tooffer internshipsand service opportunities to Corban students, fostering in them apassion forlifelong discipleship.

Every day,Todd encounters fearfulness from adults who believe they have nothing to offer. Weve bought way too much into the media telling us that kids dont want us around, he says. But when a sweet old lady can sit at a skate park and have multiple middle schoolers come to her, you know thats not true. What do they have in common? She doesnt skateboard, and they dont crochet. But these kids are desperately looking for someone who has life experience who can show them how to get the most out of life.

For Brian, the calling is clear. Ifweclaim to be followers of Christ and do whatHes done, then who are our 12 today that we are training to go out and find their 12? he says.

For Todd, the formula is simple. Take one hourout of your weekand have funsharing whatwhatyoulove todo, he says,fishing, gardening, cooking, or just walking in the park. God wants to use your story to shape their story by telling His story.

If you are interested in discovering more about Forge Youth Mentoring or want to find a way to get involved, visit their website athttps://forgeyouthmentoring.org/

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Forging New Connections: Alumni Todd Kleppin and Brian Vaughan Start Forge Youth Mentoring Ministry - Corban University

Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org

Mansions are lined up along Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan. The area is zoned for a 4-acre, single-family home.

On a sunny spring afternoon in 2016, Richard Freedman went on a bike ride through New Canaan.

The housing developer was fresh off a disappointment. He had applied to build housing for low-income people in Westport, but his plan had just been rejected.

As he rode through the hillsides that afternoon where mansions with gated entrances were separated from each other by four acres and stone walls Freedman wondered whether civil rights groups or developers would ever find a way to change zoning laws so that more than one housing unit could be built on these huge lots. The properties take up most of the town and largely shut out those who need affordable housing.

New Canaan is one of the states most affluent and racially isolated communities, and Freedman had been turned away from building affordable housing there a few years earlier.

Its obviously a public street, but you feel like youre intruding on the private lands of an aristocracy, Freedman, a resident of Stamford and president of Garden Homes Management, said about his ride through town.

Then, as he rode along Oenoke Ridge, he thought to himself that he could easily fit 10 separated two-bedroom apartments into each mansion.

House after house after house, theyre the size of hotels. Thats how big they are. Theyre bigger than some of the apartment buildings I own, he said. Then, it finally hit me: If the zoning lets you build a house that big for one family, why cant you build a home the same size for more than one family?

When he returned home, he called Erin Boggs, a civil rights attorney who focuses on housing desegregation and the leader of Open Communities Alliance, and shared his epiphany. The duo then shared the idea with the fair housing development clinic at Yale Law School, and a coalition was formed to attempt to dismantle single-family zoning in a state with some of the most racially isolated communities in the country.

The idea was simple: Let developers build two, three or four housing units in the same size structure, as long as they meet all the other requirements for single-family homes that dont need special permission.

The remedy that they proposed is brilliant in its simplicity, said Timothy Hollister, a land-use attorney who has made a career out of shepherding through the courts affordable-housing projects in uncooperative towns.

Boggs, Freedman and the Yale professors and law students had a long list of towns in Connecticut that essentially prohibit anything but single-family homes from being built. When it came time for the team to decide which towns zoning laws to challenge, they focused on one that stood out in stark contrast to its neighboring city: Woodbridge.

In Woodbridge, one out of every 79 housing units is occupied by a low-income resident, compared to one in three in New Haven. The share of Black or Latino residents living in this suburb is one-third the share living throughout the state. In the last 30 years, just three two-unit homes have received a permit to be built, compared to 281 single-family homes.

This outcome is by design, the lawyers firstargued nearly eight months ago when they asked the towns planning and zoning commission to scrap its single-family zoning and allow them to build a four-unit house on a 1.5 acre lot that is zoned for a single-family home and, more importantly, to completely overhaul local zoning regulations to allow the towns fair share of affordable housing to be built.

Thats a feature, not a bug of the towns finely-tuned zoning codes that prohibit multi-family housing and require 1.5-acre lots for single family homes nearly everywhere in town, they wrote in their application.

On Monday, the zoning officials in this suburb, which has been controlled by liberals for years, began discussing whether it was time to rethink what type of housing the town allows to be built ahead of the June 9 deadline to vote on the application. While three of the seven-member panel said they were open to exploring and discussing how to amend the request to throw out single-family zoning in town, no decisions were made. At several points during the meeting, however, it became clear the sticking point for several commissioners including Robert Klee, the chairman of the panel who was was the states commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection from 2014 to 2019 is the impact such changes could have on the environment and the water supply.

The application has drawn the attention of local and state officials throughout Connecticut, since the attorneys are prepared to appeal the decision in court.

Were not going anywhere, said Boggs. We are committed to addressing the fact that Connecticut has exceptionally exclusionary zoning. Were committed to looking at all of the repercussions of decades of intentional government policies that have created segregation and limited choices for low-income Black and Latino families.

This case has implications for other Connecticut towns with similar zoning restrictions, if the courts ultimately determine Woodbridges regulations have led to discriminatory housing practices.

This approach was taken by fair housing advocates after the General Assembly has declined, year after year, to change state laws so that more affordable housing can be built in well-off suburbs and this year seems to be no exception. Legislation that would have allocated a so-called fair share of affordable housing for each town to develop failed to make it out of the Judiciary Committee. Another bill removed a provision that would have allowed two-, three- and four-unit homes to be constructed around some train stations and town centers without needing special permission before it was voted out of the Planning and Development Committee.

With momentum for changes dissipating at the Capitol once again, efforts to kill the Woodbridge proposal have mirrored campaigns that have popped up elsewhere where affordable housing is proposed.

An online campaign to raise money to fight the proposal quickly raised over $20,000 to hire attorney Tim Herbst, the former first selectman of Trumbull who ran for governor in 2018 and hasnt ruled out running again in 2022. Donations to hire him came in from several Republican state representatives, a former Republican leader of the state House of Representatives and officials from nearby towns. A flyer was also mailed and circulated that two of the zoning commissioners during their last meeting characterized as fear mongering.

Theres a lot of history there. And history makes people uncomfortable. Politics makes people uncomfortable, and change makes people uncomfortable. And we definitely heard that in the comments that we heard from people. I do think its regrettable that there was an entity, particularly [that decided] upon themselves to sow fear in our community, said Commissioner Yonatan Zamir.

The Woodbridge zoning officialshave until June 9 to decide whether to allow multi-family housing to be built in town.

A number of local residents have written the board or spoken at public hearings to ask that they deny the application. Several acknowledged the towns lackluster history of allowing diverse housing stock to be built, including Herbst, who is representing a dozen residents in town. But they urged the members to wait before deciding. A panel was recently set up to create a plan to allow for more affordable options in town, and that panel should be able to finish its work so the zoning commission has more options to consider, they said.

This commission is not required to feel intimidated to respond quickly in developing a regulation, Herbst told the panel on April 5.On behalf of the town of Woodbridge, the citizens of the town of Woodbridge, and quite frankly, on behalf of the citizens of the state of Connecticut, were watching this very closely and counting on all of you to do the right thing: Summarily deny these applications and get to the drawing board.

I dont think that the commission should feel like theyre backed into a corner and have to vote yes to this application. I would ask the commission to wait, said Nicole Dunzell, a Woodbridge resident, at that same meeting.

But another speaker during the public hearing, Constance Royster, shot back.

Many of the folks who testified have said that these young lawyers didnt have a right to bring this matter before this body and before this town, she said. And Im reminded that 60 years ago plus, others did the same thing to my aunt, Constance Baker Motley, born and raised in New Haven, and other lawyers for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. [They said] that they had no business coming to Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, to integrate their community. I remind this body, and the town, that you heard from plenty of Woodbridge residents who support this application [and] putting this decision off is quite bothersome. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Residents and some of the zoning commissioners have expressed outrage that those asking for zoning overhaul are describing the town as racist.

You[r application] essentially called Woodbridge a bunch of racists, town commissioner Paul Schatz said in February.

The team from the Yale clinic and Open Communities Alliance, however, has said the town has had decades to do the right thing and that its inaction has had an impact on who can live in Woodbridge. While not explicitly racist, the zoning rules are having a disparate impact on Black and Latino people, they said.

Karen Anderson, a Yale Law School student, spent hours reviewing the towns zoning decisions dating back to the 1930s.

Woodbridges zoning restrictions over the decades have driven up housing costs, and these high costs exclude many Black and Hispanic families and keep Woodbridge whiter and wealthier than the surrounding region. And so, when Woodbridge stays the same, Woodbridge stays segregated, Anderson said. It doesnt have to be this way.

During the panels meeting on Monday to deliberate on the application, now that the public hearings are over, some of the commissioners seemed open to some changes, but they have serious reservations with how multi-family housing will affect the environment and the public water supply. Roughly half the towns land is located in a watershed.

Development in watersheds can cause risk to that communal water supply, said Klee, the chairman of the panel and the states former environment commissioner. If you are building in a watershed, you are putting that aquifer, the broader water body at risk.

Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org

A house on the corner of Orchard Road and Newtown Road in Woodbridge. A proposal has been brought to build a four-unit home on the single-family lot.

Probably the primary concern that Ive carried in the back of my mind throughout all of this is what is the effect going to be? asked Zamir.

State law requires any application to build in watersheds to notify state public health and environment officials for review, and the team from Yale and Open Communities Alliance is asking Woodbridge to trust those regulators to do their job and not add another layer of approval by the zoning board for a project to move forward.

Theyve made a compelling case, and Im not saying Im 100% convinced that they have or not, because Im not an expert on water, but I did not hear any state-supported or consultant-supported information presented to me that said, If you do this this way, its going to be a disaster. I heard insinuations that this could potentially be a disaster, but nobody convinced me that theres a disaster waiting to happen, said Zamir, expressing frustration that state guidance has been minimal on the impact individual multi-family development projects can have on water supply.

But Klee said he sees value in having local review, too.

When you focus in on what theyre asking for, and what they highlight, there seems to be more opportunity for us to have increased diversity of housing stock, increased types of housing in different parts of our community, said Klee. I think there is [value] in having the planning and zoning commission be more in the mode of planning for that development and sort of looking at that entirety of a zone particularly in our zones that are watershed areas that takes into account, Wait a minute, maybe we dont want to leave it all up to an outside entitys determination. We want to be involved.'

The panel plans to meet again next week to continue deliberations.

Editors Note: Richard Freedman is a donor to the CT Mirror.

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How one bike ride inspired a case that could upend CTs zoning laws - The CT Mirror

Part 1 of a series

A virtual Town Hall meeting 1pm Tuesday, April 6 explored issues and opportunities created by the search for improvements in the Highway 252/I94 Corridor segments in North Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park.

Stairstep Foundation CEO Alfred Babington-Johnson joined Conversations moderator, Al McFarlane as co-host, to introduce an initiative to support Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) efforts to broaden engagement around the project for African American and African immigrant residents who may be impacted by improvement considerations.

Forum participants included: Reverend Dr. Francis Tabla, senior pastor Ebenezer Community Church in Brooklyn Center, Bishop Richard Howell, the Diocesan Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and Pastor of Shiloh Temple Church in North Minneapolis, Reverend Cyreta Oduniyi, a pastoral leader at Liberty Church in North Minneapolis and Superintendent McKinley Moore, pastor of Jehovah Jireh Church of God in Christ in Brooklyn Park.

The Town Hall meeting was the first of three planned Town Halls in the effort engage leaders of African and African American church organization congregations and neighbors, and marketing outreach through McFarlane Media, producer of Conversations with Al McFarlane and owner of Insight News.

Often when we hear corporate CEOs and political office holders or leaders of civic or educational institutions speak, they cite strategic plans that guide their steps. When we lift the curtain and get a chance to see these plans, what we discovered is that they're not simply minutes of a discussion was held in the previous week. Now, we see plans that represent the thinking of the best minds that are available in the timeframe of the planning is 10, 15, 20 years, or more, said Babington.

The truth of our village is that we are not aware of, nor are we often included in the early discussions of important social or physical infrastructure changes that dramatically affect our lives. That is why this moment is so exciting to me. From the governor, to the commissioner of MnDOT, to our gathered friends here, this forum, there's a determination that we will begin anew with intentional inclusion of folks that have traditionally been left out. The process begins with the information. The Bible says, My people perish, for lack of knowledge. We've determined that none will perish for lack of information about 252/I-94, Babington said.

April Crockett, MnDOT risk area manager who leads the 252/I-94 project called the effort is a significant undertaking for the department. We have challenges and we have opportunities. We have the opportunity to address operational issues as well as have a conversation with and within the communities. We're exploring, making connections, building relationships and having conversations in a way that we haven't been able to do, she said.

John Thompkins is multimodal planning director for MnDOTs Metro District. He is responsible for implementing modal plans, like, for instance, a bike plan, pet plan, Americans with disability plan, or even a freight plan involving rail, water or trucking. In implementing those plans, Thompkins said, we have to be mindful of quality of life, environmental stewardship and economic vitality, which articulate MnDOT's vision for transportation. And with that we have to be able to hear all voices, all voices of the community, not just one in particular, but all voices that matter.

We have a challenge in reaching African and African-American communities. We had to better articulate what we want to do in the historically underserved or sometimes uninformed communities. We wanted to do outreach and engagement that was intentional and authentic with the target communities, Thompkins said.

Project Manager Jerome Adams said the 252/I94 Project starts at Fourth Street North in downtown Minneapolis and goes up to highway 610 in Brooklyn Park. We are starting the process of looking at alternatives. The goal is to pick an alternative to construct by 2024. It's going to be a three-year long process to look at alternatives. And then the goal is to begin construction in 2027, Adams said.

Providing background information on why modifications are being explored, Adams said, Currently, we're seeing a high number of crashes, traffic congestion, and significant barriers for pedestrians and bicyclists in this project area. Also both roads are deteriorating and need to be repaired.

Adams said Brooklyn Center, in 2016 and Hennepin County, in 2018 did studies to understand issues on the corridor. And we're doing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will outline potential projects benefits and impacts to the area surrounding highway 252/I94. Our team will continue engaging with the community and other stakeholders at each step in the EIS process, he said.

Superintendent McKinley Moore of Jehovah Jireh Church said the intersection of Hwy 252 and 85th Avenue in Brooklyn Park has concerned for the community for many years. The safety of vehicle, bicycle` and pedestrian traffic through the intersection is a real and present danger. We've lost several young people at that intersection. Our own congregation lost one young man who was struck and killed by a vehicle at that intersection. So it is indeed a present danger and we would like to see important changes made at that intersection, he said.

That's one of the reasons why we're here, Superintendent Moore, Adam said. Over the next three years, we want to look at solutions that can reduce if not eliminate these fatalities. Also the intersection at 66th Avenue was ranked second worst for crashes in all intersections across the state. 85th is ranked ninth. So, yes, it is a big problem. on the project. Right now 252 has six signals and we'll be looking at several options including do we get rid of the signals and replace them with grade separations, meaning putting a bridge over the local road or vice versa.

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MnDot seeks authentic, intentional engagement with African and African American residents along the Hwy 252/I94 Corridor - Insight News

As the Biden administration considers federal resources for coal workers and their communities, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) urge a set of comprehensive supports estimated to cost between $33billion over 25 years to $83billion over 15 years. The analysis, Supporting the Nations Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape, underscores that a fair and equitable shift to a low-carbon economy requires intentional, robust, and sustained investments in coal workers, their families, and their communities.

Coal-fired electricity is down to 20 percent today from about half of the nations electricity generation a decade ago. With more closures on the horizon, a sustained and comprehensive set of supports is needed to ensure individuals who have powered America for generations can stay in their communities, prepare for new careers with family-sustaining wages, and can retire with dignity.

For decades, the coal industry has simply locked its doors and forgotten the individuals and communities who rely on the coal industry and who exist in almost every state across the country, said UWUA President James Slevin. Approaching these closures with the right set of economic supports offers a better alternative to the chaos and devastation were seeing today.

Recognizing coal and mining facilities often directly employ hundreds of individuals and many more indirectly across several counties, the economic and social infrastructure of a region undergoes lasting changes when facilities close.

The economic upheaval resulting from the dramatic job losses in the coal industry over the last decade has uprooted families, deepened economic anxiety, and left community leaders scrambling to keep schools open and social services in place, said report co-author Jeremy Richardson, a UCS senior energy analyst who comes from a family of coal miners. But solutions are readily available with forward-looking and visionary action by policymakers.

According to the UCS/UWUA analysis, approximately 90,086 coal miners and coal fired-power plant workers were employed in 462 counties across 47 states in 2019. Decreased demand has uprooted families, contributed to generational poverty, decimated tax revenue and gutted community services, including educational and emergency response funding. Many more coal workers and communities face the same fate without intentional policies to address these changes.

The analysis identifies specific policy supports lawmakers should enact to help dislocated coal workers find new career opportunities: five years of full wage replacement, health care coverage and employer retirement contributions, robust educational opportunities including paid tuition for academic, vocational, and other programs for up to five years for not only workers, but also for their children to prevent a fall into generational poverty, as well as access to a suite of social services.

Giving these workers a fighting chance to find new career opportunities is not only the right thing to do, but the cost is only a small fraction of what must be invested in the energy system to shift to a low-carbon economy, said Richardson.

UCS and UWUA urge the Biden administration and Congress to work together to develop and fund comprehensive programs and policies to support workers and communities that will be impacted by the shift away from coal. The proposed assistance package would cost less money if the services were made available over a longer time frame, in the range of 25 years, because more people would hit retirement age and not need support, according to the analysis.

Job losses in the coal mining sector were formerly centered in Central Appalachia, a region which saw tens of thousands of job losses in the early part of the decade. Today, western mines, including recent high-profile layoffs in Wyoming, are experiencing the impacts of this shift. States in the Midwest, including Michigan, in particular, will be impacted by coal plant closures over the next five years.

We hope this kind of analysis offers a path forward as lawmakers seek well-designed policy at every level of government for coal-impacted individuals and communities, said Lee Anderson, UWUA government affairs director and report co-author.

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UCS and UWUA say $33-83 billion needed for laid off coal workers - Union of Concerned Scientists

RALEIGH The Triangle is already primed and structured to capitalize on new opportunities in the post-pandemic economy, says author professor Richard Florida, best known internationally as a thought leader on development and author of The Creative Class.

Welcome to the rise of 15-minute neighborhoods.

The emerging trend is on the decentralization of business districts in favor of a re-envisioning of what he termed neighborhood center districts with vibrant work-and-play hubs.

The idea of a 15-minute neighborhood, or what I like to call a complete community, is a community where more-or-less you could do all of your daily activities, Florida told an econimic development conference put on Tuesday by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. This has been the real reset in the pandemic, is that more and more people realize they want that.

The Triangle already has clustered neighborhoods with vibrant live-work-play centers, he added.

Downtown Raleigh, Downtown Durham, Raleighs North Hills and the emerging Hub RTP in Research Triangle Park fit his concept in many ways, to name a few.

Housing pain: Apple, Google, other projects will stretch already tight Triangle markets, experts say

You have a particular competitive advantage for competing for families, Florida added.

While Florida did not mention recent economic developments in the area in the pre-recorded discusses with Chamber CEOAdrienne Cole, the region is winning many of them from a new $1 billion Apple campus to a new Google engineering hub and numerous life science expansions.

Looking ahead, the regions that will be most successful in the future and capitalizing on subtle, nuanced shifts in the post-pandemic economy are going to be ones where the companies present will also support the indirect service-sector jobs created by the economic growth of the region, Florida added.

Regions must also be able to support individuals working in the service sector who generate enough income to afford to live within the region, and within the areas 15-minute neighborhoods, argued Florida. Otherwise, these workers will be pushed further and farther from these vibrant communities, resulting in less diversity, more income and wealth disparity, and more inequity.

Diversity and equality are emerging as advantages for communities, Florida added, noting that based on anecdotal information young people like living in communities of different people.

Being intentional around talent, being intentional around place making, being intentional about fostering equitable communities, those are the opportunities, said Florida.

COVID-19 did force one significant change: How we work. And theres fallout from that.

Weve had a giant, forced experiment in remote work, and what did we find, asked Florida. We know that we kind of like to go to the office occasionally, but not every day, 9-5. Especially if were doing mental work, writing work, thinking work, we can be very effective at home.

Apple, Google deals are transformative but come with costs, says NCCU entrepreneurial leader McKoy

What that will mean is that businesses may continue to invest in office locations, but that workers wont be required to be present each day or all day.A big change is going to be in our central business districts, said Florida. I think of these as factories for information processing.

The office towers arent filling, said Florida, and thats particularly true right now for cities with central business districts that are typically and traditionally accessed by public transit. People arent scared of the elevator, theyre scared of the train or transit to get there.

Florida also addressed some issues such as reports of a mass exodus from urban centers due to COVID-19.

The shifts in the economy that have occurred since the beginning of 2020 are not as dramatic or drastic or dire as some predicted early in the global spread of the coronavirus, Florida said. Rather, the shifts that were seeing in the economy are more subtle and more nuanced.

Despite commentary describing the fleeing of people and families from larger urban areas, such as New York City, to smaller suburban or exurban communities as widespread and permanent, Florida argued differently. Two groups of people were largely responsible for geographic transitions, he noted.

According to Florida, one group that moved away from urban cities were students, whose parents invited them to return to their more suburban or rural homes.

The pandemic accelerated family formation moves, said Florida. These moves that would have taken over one, two, three, or five years, well, they really happened in one or two months.

Young people will return to cities following the pandemic if history holds, he added. Thats what was observed after other global pandemics, Florida noted, and given the importance of talent markets in these cities as well as the social opportunities that young people seek, cities will remain important in the future economy.

The bigger trend is not where we live, but where we work, said Florida. So while the regions that were growing prior to the pandemic, which includes New York, Boston, and the Research Triangle, will not die, rather, they will probably accelerate.

What is changing is how and where people work. Historically, most people were limited in choosing where to live based on where they could work, and that relied on some form of transit, whether by train, subway, or automobile, said Florida. The rise of remote work has stretched the boundaries of metropolitan areas, and one of the things that were seeing is emerging interest in beautiful rural areas outside of major metropolitan areas, he added.

Florida expects top cities will continue to attract people, but for that attraction to be spread out to their more exurban, fringe areas, not just in the suburbs. Meanwhile, said Florida, were going to see some of what Steve Case calls the Rise of the Rest, but I dont think its going to be infinite.

Duke professor: Apple project may widen disparities in North Carolina

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Creative Class author touts Triangle for more growth in rise of '15-minute neighborhoods' - WRAL Tech Wire

The ongoing racial injustice, pandemic and associated disruption of 2020 -- along with the attack by violent insurrectionists on the U.S. Capitol building -- have taught us many things about our societies, not only in the United States but also around the globe. Among those lessons is that higher education is deeply implicated in the impoverished and fragile state of democracies. Some academic and student leaders are calling for postsecondary institutions to make the creation of antiracist, inclusive, socially just democracies throughout the world priority No.1. Such an undertaking requires disruptive change in higher education values, use of resources and its privileged place in many of our societies. Is higher education ready for such change?

At the 2020 Association for the Study of Higher Education conference, we shared research and practice from universities in South Africa, the United States and the International Association of Universities. We concluded that postsecondary institutions -- notable contributions during the pandemic notwithstanding -- have too often been complicit in systems that create or reproduce savage health and economic inequities, public disregard of science, and individuals who feel alienated and forgotten. Examples include the scarcity of locally situated university clinics and the lack of educational opportunities that perpetuates the exclusion of marginalized groups and working-class students. Indeed, COVID-19 has revealed the extreme poverty, persistent deprivation and pernicious racism that fester in the shadows of some of the nation's foremost institutions of higher learning. This disconnectedness from local community needs has promoted a sense of disenfranchisement by communities of color and increased the distrust society has of academics.

The widespread assumption that universities are progressive, multicultural, antiracist places has insulated many of us who work and live in higher education from reckoning with the lived experiences of marginalized communities all over the world. Indeed colleges and universities are gendered and racialized, and many institutions perpetuate systemic racism, colonialism and sexism through gatekeeping, educational discrimination and not sharing vital resources with local communities.

It is crucial to embrace these multiple realities simultaneously: that higher education is deeply implicated in reproducing systemic discrimination and racism in the United States and around the world and, as we imagine what could be next, higher education is distinctly positioned to help build and develop the infrastructure, resources, values and education systems necessary for diverse, inclusive, antiracist democracies. And there are examples of students, faculty and staff engaged in that work.

In this moment of disruption, postsecondary leaders, students, faculty and staff might humbly consider four steps to advance antiracist, diverse and just democracies locally and globally.

No. 1: Redesign universities to focus on the development of students who help create antiracist democracies around the world. Although postsecondary institutions will always play a vital role in social mobility, the pandemic has made it clear that the most important thing K-12 and higher education can do is to educate ethical, engaged citizens for antiracist, diverse and socially just democracies. That means galvanizing students' growth as organic intellectuals, collaborative problem solvers and agents of social change.

For example, the University of Costa Rica requires 800 hours of community work for each student who matriculates. In 2017, a total of 4,631 students did 1,038,150 hours of community work, in 164 projects in all areas of knowledge. Of significance, the former rector describes the purpose of this effort as to raise awareness and promote social and critical awareness among students and the university community; and to collaborate with communities in identifying their problems in order to develop their own solutions, within horizontal relationships conducive to mutual learning.

To better translate its strategic plan into action, the university has repositioned some of its buildings in the most underserved parts of the country, opening the doors to all people not attending yet interested to engage. Education for democratic citizenship through active engagement and collaborative problem solving with the local community should become a core purpose and pedagogical principle of higher education.

No. 2: Reimagine the knowledge project. The future we are imagining requires researchers from various fields and disciplines to take on the problems of our democracies and focus on issues of human benefit and local/global significance. To make that happen, universities need to incentivize and reward student, faculty and staff efforts to take on those issues in interdisciplinary ways, listening to and in partnership with local communities. That will not only help democracies thrive but also make for better scholarship, as knowledge is powerfully advanced when research is conducted through partnerships between academics and nonacademics. Higher education institutions have been rightly critiqued by various members of society -- including families, students, policy makers and community leaders -- as gatekeepers, distancing the credentialed knowers from the uncredentialed receivers of knowledge.

The ongoing dialectic in South Africa between government, universities, social movements (like the Treatment Action Campaign) and industry produced a swift repurposing of university-based research and innovation platforms created to address the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic. This resulted in the participation of scientists in the global effort to identify new variants of the virus as well as to develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. In addition, engineering schools in the country have turned their attention to using 3-D printing to manufacture PPE and noninvasive ventilators.

More universities should play a key role in linking expertise from those within the academy and those on the ground, creating a community of experts and diverse voices to solve our worlds most serious problems, such as poverty, unequal schooling and health care, and environmental degradation. We need to foster inclusive, expansive notions of expertise.

For instance, social scientists and educators can conduct participatory action research and develop methodological approaches that center community members voice and place-based knowledge to more effectively solve locally manifested universal problems. Only then will the knowledge imperative be seen as relevant to the well-being of the many as opposed to the private gain of the few.

No. 3: Change ownership of the university. For too long, citizens have viewed their universities like privately held companies that have little relationship to their own lives. Yes, people have local pride when sports teams win, but that is not the same thing as postsecondary education being relevant and tied to the destiny of local citizens. That must change. A case in point: in Thailand, Siam University has decided to revitalize the unsafe university surroundings to provide for better living conditions and well-being for Thai people who have never before set foot in a university.

On the other side of that world, University College Dublin has developed a wide range of initiatives to facilitate and enhance community engagement opportunities and build strong bridges between its campus and the neighboring communities. Universities must commit to serving as vital bridges between societies -- and as multilateral organizations using their vast resources (especially their human and academic resources) and positions of privilege to advance social justice.

No. 4: Get the values right. The values that universities should hold dear are open inquiry, diversity and inclusion, democracy, equity, and justice. Equity and justice require inclusive representation among students and academics -- including more people who are first-generation, from marginalized and working-class communities, and women. That would entail intentional recruitment within high schools situated in historically minoritized and working-class neighborhoods, as well as actively recruiting recently minted Ph.D.s from BIPOC groups to fill the ranks of the professoriate.

It would also involve universities working in serious, sustained, comprehensive partnerships with public schools in their locality to diversify and enrich the educational pipeline. Universities should also reallocate funding to support the hiring and retention of women and people of color within the faculty and administrative ranks of the institution, as well as provide more scholarships to first-generation students.

To realize the values cited above requires a reorganization of resources to infuse democracy across all aspects of higher education. If such values were in place, we would use technologies in ways that do not exacerbate inequalities but strengthen their impact on human well-being and development. For example, the pandemic made clear that institutions have the capacity to provide more online education. For students who may not have the financial resources to attend universities face-to-face, online education can remove financial barriers that may otherwise hinder access.

Strengthening internationalization of higher education and global engagement and collaboration is crucial for these efforts. We need a global movement -- one that leads to a global commons of engaged scholars and their community partners, scholarship and knowledge. To accomplish this, we need to incentivize scholars so they are rewarded for engaging in community-based projects. Many faculty members, particularly early-career ones, are dissuaded to devote any time that takes them away from the dominant discipline-based publication process. Thus, tenure and promotion should place more value on publications and other scholarly products that focus on work with and contributions to communities.

Scholars also need to earn trust from communities. Community members have long complained that faculty come and mine places for data and leave without ever helping support the communities from which they collected those data. Universities and faculty need to help amplify the voice of the community and illuminate their needs to policy makers. These kinds of institutional changes will require lots of sharing and learning from colleagues across the globe, as occurs through both the International Association of Universities and the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy.

In the United States, people have criticized elected officials like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz for inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol because, having attended selective universities like Stanford, Princeton and Yale, they should have known better. Putting aside the elitist and rankist assumption that such institutions would have the monopoly on knowing better, we must recognize that, in fact, higher education has too often failed to effectively educate active citizens dedicated to creating and maintaining antiracist, inclusive and socially just democratic societies.

Just as many colleges and universities are reckoning with their own institutional histories of exclusion, higher education as a field must recognize where it has failed and come up short. Only then can it come honestly to tables with communities, governments and citizens to build inclusive, antiracist democracies together.

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Higher ed must play a role in creating antiracist and just democracies (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

PR.com2021-05-04

Bainbridge Island, WA, May 04, 2021 --(PR.com)-- If 100 girls from fifth grade through college joined forces to make a difference in their communities by giving voice to other girls, what could they accomplish? The Power of 100 Girls, fiscally-sponsored by Hack+, is recruiting inspiring and dedicated girls and young women to join its Founders Circle to support girls overlooked in a traditional grant or scholarship system.

To become a Founders Circle member, girls must commit to raising and/or donating 100 dollars annually, then meet quarterly to review applications and select girls, women, and related organizations to support. They will also provide leadership for The Power of 100 Girls organization as ambassadors for the initiative through recruitment, sponsorship and growth opportunities for the new nonprofit.

Founders Circle members are independent thinkers who are passionate about helping girls and young women who are, for various reasons, overlooked or unable to pursue the help they need to succeed, says Merrill Keating, 16-year old founder of The Power of 100 Girls and a freshman at the University of Washington. As an introvert myself, I have noticed so many girls miss out on scholarships and awards because society favors extroversion. Without access to a good support system and connections, many of these girls can fall through the cracks. When I observed so many engaged and passionate girls struggle to launch their causes or projects, I decided to attract 100 of them so we could make a difference in the future of other girls and young women like them. By harnessing the power of girls at an early age, Founders Circle girls become investors and entrepreneurial catalysts who uplift, empower, and help shape the destinies of others.

The Founders Circle membership will be made up of girls who are dedicated to being allies and keeping a fair and open mind. More than a community service opportunity, participation in The Power of 100 Girls is a chance to learn and grow together in an authentic and collaborative environment while pledging to do good and pay it forward. 100 percent of the minimum 100-dollar annual investment will become part of the scholarship fund, and the organization hopes to recruit sponsors and partners to help offset the administrative costs and expenses associated with starting and running the organization. My hope is that an intentional Founders Circle of inspired young change makers will make the open-hearted decisions to make a difference, she said. Rather than waiting for funding from an external source, we can boldly and purposefully create a world of our choosing.

Visit powerof100girls.org for more information.

Contact Information:The Power of 100 Girls via Hack+Merrill Keating415-938-8088 ext. 700Contact via Emailhttps://www.powerof100girls.org

Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/835850

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The Power of 100 Girls Seeks Inspiring Youth to Make a Difference in Their Communities - IT News Online

Lisa Barker is the new executive director of the School of Educations Office of Professional Learning and Community Engagement (PLACE), Dean Diana Hess announced.

I am thrilled that Lisa will lead PLACE, says Hess. She is an innovative leader with deep expertise and the ability to ensure that the work of faculty and staff in the School has a real impact on many communities near and far.

PLACE represents the Wisconsin Idea in action as it helps ensure that the knowledge fostered within the School of Education reaches beyond the boundaries of campus to have a local, state, national, and global impact. Using the expertise of faculty, staff, and community stakeholders, PLACE supports and develops transformational professional and community learning programs for a diverse audience of participants across the arts, health, and education fields. Both credit and non-credit offerings allow individuals to develop skills while building community among like-minded colleagues.

In her role leading the office, Barker is responsible for providing direction for the administrative operations and advancing the program goals and objectives of PLACE. Barker also becomes part of the School of Educations leadership team as a member of Senior Staff.

I am thrilled by this opportunity to envision the future of PLACE, says Barker. I am inspired by the talent of the PLACE team, and by the School of Educations interdisciplinarity and intentional centering of equity, diversity, and inclusion. We are excited to continue building bold, beautiful programs that bridge faculty and staff ideas with community needs in education, health, and the arts.

Barker is no stranger to PLACE, having served as the offices education director since April of 2020. In this role, she has worked on translating educational research into professional and community learning opportunities.

Barker earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in curriculum and teacher education, and is interested in how the principles and practices of improvisational theatre can inform the work of educators.

Prior to arriving at UWMadison, she taught English education at Stanford, the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Towson University. She also served as director of education for Adventure Stage Chicago and was manager of the City University of New Yorks Creative Arts Teams Paul A. Kaplan Center for Educational Drama, where she helped launch the first masters degree in applied theatre in the United States.

Barker started her career in education as an English, reading, and drama teacher at James Lick High School in San Jose, California.

Excerpt from:

Barker named executive director of PLACE - School of Education - University of Wisconsin-Madison

May 03, 2021 -While health equity has been a top priority among leaders in the industry for several years, the equitable distribution of resources became even more critical during COVID-19.

From testing to care access, organizations had to develop strategies to ensure they were reaching populations most at risk during the pandemic. With the availability of vaccines, entities had to refine and enhance their health equity efforts to adequately protect all patient groups against the virus.

For leaders at Hennepin Healthcare, a health system in Minneapolis, this meant employing knowledge gained earlier in the pandemic.

We realized pretty quickly that its one thing to know your patient populations and have a certain amount of vaccine, but equitable distribution of the vaccine is a different ball game, Deepti Pandita, MD, chief health innovation officer at Hennepin Healthcare, told HealthITAnalytics.

Our experience with COVID testing taught us that outreach strategies need to be tailored to the individual one outreach method is not going to work for all patients. For example, if we have outbreaks of COVID in certain populations, we need to get trusted community leaders to do the testing rather than wait for them to come to the healthcare system. So, we aimed to apply the same lessons to our distribution strategy.

READ MORE: Data Visualization Tool Allows Users to Track COVID-19 Spread

A big part of tailoring those outreach strategies involved gathering patient data.

We knew that we needed to be deliberate and intentional in choosing where to target the vaccines. But we also knew that we had to comply with the requirement of getting enough vaccines allocated in time, said Nneka Sederstrom, PhD, MPH, chief equity officer at Hennepin.

We used our technology to strategically target the zip codes that we knew we needed to reach before expanding to other areas, like having our interpreters and clinicians reaching out to patients to try and get them in.

The health system used the EHR to capture social determinants information and identify patients with transportation barriers, unstable housing, limited English proficiency, and other elements that could impact their ability to get the vaccine or their susceptibility to the virus.

Leaders then combined that information with data visualization tools based on zip code to identify neighborhoods that needed more attention.

READ MORE: Ensuring Health Data Collection Protects Patient Privacy, Equity

Without data, we wouldn't know where to start, Pandita said.

When we heard the vaccines were coming, we identified which of our patient populations needed vaccinations, created registries, and then developed outreach strategies that could be tailored to those patients. We considered which ones had online portal access, which ones had telephone numbers listed, which ones had emails listed, and their preferred language. Our operational people could then get to work on designing outreach strategies and setting up vaccination sites.

Incorporating all of this information into a visualization tool is key for demonstrating why targeting strategies are necessary, Sederstrom explained.

Without the data, it can be really hard to make the case for why equity needs to win out, she said.

People often push back on equity efforts because theyre worried or concerned that these strategies mean preferring one group over another. The reality is that if the goal is to decrease spread, decrease impact, and decrease mortality, then we've got to use the data to prove where those pockets are.

READ MORE: Using Social Determinants to Promote Health Equity During a Crisis

Additionally, data visualization tools can help healthcare executives understand whats working, and what needs to improve.

We also have to see the data to know how were doing. We can see if were closing in on a gap, and how that will impact next steps. Its not just a one-and-done process, Pandita added.

With social determinants information, leaders can ensure theyre meeting patients where they are.

We've used zip codes to do targeted community outreach to connect with religious organizations, community groups, and others within those zip codes to try and set up community-based vaccine clinic opportunities. That way, we can target the populations were missing, Sederstrom said.

Although its important to get vaccines to enough people as quickly as possible, Pandita stressed that equity efforts cant get lost in the shuffle.

Because we are in a pandemic, speed is important. But speed and equity often clash with each other. So, while one stream is the speed part of the vaccination process, the other stream is equity. And you need to keep an eye on both streams as you go forward, she said.

Leaders also shouldnt look at equity efforts as harmful to other patient populations.

We're not sacrificing others when we focus on equity, said Sederstrom.

The people who have access and resources will be able to get vaccinated at a steady stream anyway. Being deliberate and intentional in finding the people who need the most help is part of what we need to do.

For other organizations designing vaccine distribution strategies or any health equity strategy personalization and trust go a long way.

One outreach strategy is never enough. You need to tailor the strategy and understand the population youre serving, Pandita said.

The other part of that is building trust. Just because someone is seeking care in your healthcare system doesnt mean they have enough trust in the system to come to you for the vaccine. That has been a learning experience. You have to engage trusted community partners to educate patients, and actually go into the community to understand the needs and barriers.

It will also help to understand the reasons behind patients uncertainty in the first place.

Hesitancy does not mean refusal. It just means that we need to figure out why there's hesitation and take steps to address it, said Sederstrom.

People may interpret hesitation as outright distrust of the system, and they may think that's too big a barrier for them to try and address. But we need to learn more about why theres hesitation, what we are missing in our communication, and what struggles these communities are facing.

Even after COVID-19 is behind the healthcare system, the combination of social determinants data and visualization technologies could help inform health equity efforts.

Our methodology could serve as a template not only for other safety net systems, but all healthcare systems, said Pandita.

These strategies should drive public policy and advocacy around vaccination for any future pandemics, because diseases dont differentiate between who has resources and who doesnt. These situations automatically disadvantage those who don't have the means and resources, and we have to be very cognizant and very methodical about keeping that front and center in our strategies.

The lessons learned about health equity during the pandemic should influence care delivery going forward.

We cant be scared to have the hard conversations that need to be had, and look at the truths that the data shows us. The knowledge that there are inequities within our systems, within our communities, and within our patient outcomes is real. And we have to be honest and open about it, and be intentional in addressing it, Sederstrom concluded.

In the times when the pandemic is on hold, or in between pandemics, that's the time to do the work to rectify inequities. That way, when the next one comes around, we don't have to have the same conversations.

Continue reading here:

Leveraging Data Visualization Tools to Promote Health Equity - HealthITAnalytics.com

President Price, Provost Kornbluth, deans, and faculty: Thank you for inviting meand including me in this venerable class.

To all the Duke community alumni, friends, faculty, family, whether youre tuning in from Durham or across the world: Welcome!

And most importantly thankfully, blissfully let me extend a big, in-the-flesh congratulations to our guests of honor: The Class of 2021!

What a day! What a year! What an accomplishment! Congratulations!

D-D-M-F!

You know, this is the first time Ive been in front of a live audience, hearing live applause, since last February. 14 months ago. For a needy performer, this is a very big deal. It feels nice.

But this is not my first time on your beautiful campus. Way back in 2004, I performed at LDOC with someone named Kanye West. (Anyone heard of him?)

In those days, I would play piano and sing the hooks for Kanye, and hope people would notice me.

Then later that year, we released my first album, Get Liftedand Im realizing today that maybe its thanks to Duke that my career took off.

And Im thrilled its brought me full circle, back to speak with you on this most momentous day.

Seriously, this is a special milestone. And if you dont feel it yet well, thats okay, too. When I was prepping for my own graduation way back in 1999, I remember feeling pretty indifferent.

Back then, I was too cool to care about a silly ceremony. Id already done the work. Id made the friends. Id turned in my papers and passed the tests.

What was the point of all the pomp and circumstance?

But, during the actual ceremony, I realized: Being together is the point. Being joyous is the point. Celebrating is the point.

We have so few moments to enjoy these rites of passage to just revel in our accomplishments with the people we love.

Today is one of those moments. And, of course, after a year when we couldnt gather at all, it takes on a special meaning.

Lets just acknowledge the elephant in the stadium: On your way to Wallace Wade, your class lost a lot.

Some lost job offers. Some lost loved ones. And all of you lost a whole year of those little moments that make college so special the in-between moments.

Those late nights in Perkins, sitting across the table from your delirious friends.

Those talks in the common room or spontaneous lunch dates. Those weeks camping out in the freezing cold for tickets to a sports game, because apparently thats a thing we do here.

Those nights dancing around burning benches after you win a sports game because, apparently, thats a thing we also do here?

All this loss is no joke.

I keep thinking about your senior performances. Losing those would have been tragic for me. All you band members and a capella singers and dancers and improv aficionados, I feel your pain.

Youve lost something you cant get back. I wont sugarcoat that. It sucks.

But from what youve lost from all of this vast, incalculable loss youve gained something, too.

The fact that youre here today, graduates of one of the worlds best universities, means that youve had to approach life with a certain competitiveness.

I know because I did it, too.

I skipped grades to get ahead. Worked hard to graduate second in my high school class. Went to Penn. Got a job at Boston Consulting Group.

That path required this constant drive to push harder, reach higher, do better to try to be perfect, or close to it. Im sure it sounds familiar.

But over the past year, you were forced to pause... to see yourselves not in competition with one another, but in community with each other. Anyone getting sick was a risk to everyone.

We all had to slow down. Social distance. Cover our faces. Stop filling our days with maximum productivity, and simply keep each other safe. Keep each other alive. Care for one another.

And this perspective you gained will serve us all. Because while that competitive drive that got you here can be an incredible gift, it can get in the way too.

We all know that for Duke to win, UNC must... I think we say G-T-H?

But that competitiveness can be a slippery slope to thinking: For me to get ahead in life, for me to succeed, someone else is going to have to lose out. Someone else is going to have to suffer.

You let that competitiveness take over your thinking, and you might start seeing life as a zero-sum game.

This kind of thinking has poisoned our democracy from the beginning.

One of the most important books I read this year was The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee. In it, McGhee lays out exactly how much that zero-sum game has cost us.

Americas story has always been marred by efforts to exclude, to dominate, to subjugate to keep certain groups of people with no voice, no power, and no opportunity. Workers. Women. Indigenous people. Black people. Immigrants. The LGBTQ community

All because of a fear that if those people did better, people at the top would lose out.

The miracle of our story is that, as we expanded opportunity, in our best moments, we proved that those fears were unfounded.

When more people made more money, rich business owners didnt suffer. They got more customers! Prosperity increased for everyone.

When people whod been excluded finally got their voices heard, it didnt mean everyone else had to sit down and shut up. Our national conversations got better, truer, smarter and so did our public policies.

Our nation is at its best when we realize that we all do better when we all do better.

Yet, today, were still fighting against the old zero-sum thinking thats been holding us back since the beginning.

We see it in efforts to deny people their right to vote. We see it in the shameful attacks on trans rights.

Our nation is at its best when we realize that we all do better when we all do better. Yet, today, were still fighting against the old zero-sum thinking thats been holding us back since the beginning.

We see it around the world. In places like China, Hungary, Russia, India, Myanmar across the globe, nativism, sectarianism, exploitation, and authoritarianism are gaining ground.

We see it in efforts to hoard economic opportunity, too. Today, the 26 wealthiest people on the planet own as much as the 3.5 billion poorest.

And powerful people are spending lots of money lobbying to keep it that way.

And, of course, we see it in our policing and carceral systems: In the simple fact that so many people heard Black Lives Matter and assumed it meant that other lives couldnt matter, too. Thats zero-sum thinking if Ive ever seen it.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking: Why is he bringing us down on our graduation day?

And you wouldnt be the first to say something like that.

As North Carolina native Nina Simone once said, It is an artists duty to reflect the times in which we live. And you know what I think? It is also a bankers duty. Its a lawyers duty, a doctors duty, a teachers duty, an engineers duty, an entrepreneurs duty, a plumbers duty, a nurses duty. A moms and dads duty.

Ive been hearing calls to shut up and sing for my entire career. (Shut up and sing)

Well, as North Carolina native Nina Simone once said, It is an artists duty to reflect the times in which we live.

And you know what I think?

It is also a bankers duty. Its a lawyers duty, a doctors duty, a teachers duty, an engineers duty, an entrepreneurs duty, a plumbers duty, a nurses duty. A moms and dads duty.

Class of 2021, Duke has poured all kinds of tools and resources and experiences into you.

I am asking you today to use them on behalf of our democracy. To remember just how interdependent each of us is on each other. To build communities that are healthier and safer for everyone--where everyone can live up to their full potential.

But how do we do that in practice?

Its a tough question.

When I was in high school, I entered a Black History Month essay contest, sponsored by McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds. The prompt was: How will you make Black history?

With a 15-year-olds confidence, I declared I would become a famous musician:

This, in turn, I wrote (and Im quoting myself here), will put me in a position of great influence, which I will utilize in order to be an advocate for the advancement of Blacks in America.

But how does one do that? The problems are entrenched and interconnected. There is no clear path to follow. I kept thinking: where do I even start?

During the decade since Ive become heavily involved in this fight, Ive stumbled on three answers that Ill share with you today.

First, while your schooling may be over at least for some of you the learning doesnt stop today.

It cant.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the library reading about Dr. King and other civil rights heroesFrederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells. I wasnt into comic books so much. These were my superheroes.

But even as someone steeped in the civil rights movement all my life, if you would have asked me about criminal justice when I was sitting where you all are today, I probably would have framed it as a personal responsibility issue. I think thats pretty common for those of us whove spent our lives striving for perfection. I thought that the problem was with individuals, not the system.I had family members and friends who were locked up. They messed up, and I found a way not to.

But then I learned about our countrys mass-incarceration complex: How the United States has just 5 percent of the worlds population, but 25 percent of its prisoners. How one in three Black men will serve prison time during their lifetimes. How more Black men are under corrective control today than were enslaved on the eve of the Civil War.

How much of this over-incarceration is a direct result of intentional policies that targeted people of color?

Take the war on drugs.

Our leaders said theyd wage war on drugs, but crises of substance abuse and drug addiction didnt go anywhere. Instead, this war destroyed communities. It tore apart families.

All of us have borne the brunt of that, but especially black and brown communities.

We already suffered from housing and school segregation, massive wealth disparities, chronic underinvestment. Then, these communities were specifically targeted for enforcement. Even though black, white and brown people use drugs at roughly similar rates.

And now, what should have been a public and mental health issue has turned into an excuse to disappear millions of people from their families and communities.

The more I read about all of this trauma and tragedy, the more I understood the systemic issues, the more passionate I got about doing something to change it.

So I started Free America, a campaign to reform our deeply unjust, criminal-justice system.

And the first thing we did was listen.

I met with people currently incarcerated. I met with their families. I met with survivors of crime. I met with district attorneys, corrections officers, state legislators, and civil rights activists. These folks knew a lot more than I did. I had to listen to them with an open mind and a humble spiritand then focus on amplifying their voices.

Only then could we effectively support crucial reformslike initiatives to decriminalize drugs, find alternatives to incarceration and restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people.

Its been some of the most gratifying work of my life.But it never would have happened if I simply considered myself already educated on these issues, and stopped my learning there.

So thats lesson number one. Heres number two:

I think its natural to think you should start by tackling the biggest problem you see in the biggest possible way.

They say, go big or go home, right?

But in my experience, some of the most important work you can do starts at home, whatever that means for you.

So often, we focus on major national issues. And dont get me wrong, national issues matter.

But municipal, county, and school-board elections determine the everyday realities of our lives: Who lives where? Who goes to school where? Do we all feel safe walking down the street?

George Floyds murder mobilized a national and even global movement for change. But the truth is, most of the tangible reforms we need to reimagine public safety will come from local elected officialsthe mayors and city councils setting budgets, the prosecutors deciding how justice will be served.

And thats not just true for criminal justice reform.

Local non-profits and organizers know their communitiesand know what they need in order to fight hunger and homelessness and violence in their local area.

I know some of you are about to move to a new community, each with its own unique historical context and social fabric. And just as many of you moved to Durham four years ago and adopted this city as your own, I hope youll learn about your new homes past, present, and future. Find its changemakers and boundary-breakers. And bring your own unique gifts to the table, to engage in the real, tangible bettering of your community.

There is wisdom, strength, and power in community. Youve learned that here at Duke. But dont forget it as you find and build community elsewhere.

Continued here:

John Legend: Leading With Love to Build Healthier and Safer Communities - Duke Today