Category Archives: Intentional Communities

For heartland communities hoping to thrive, encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs can energize the local economy. Places such as Ord, Nebraska, have emerged as regional poster children for economic development. Peers such as Council Grove in Kansas are seeing green shoots of their own. But such shifts can be difficult to make, and there isnt a tried and true formula that works everywhere. To figure out what works, communities have to develop their own combination of tactics and be willing to push until they find their version of success.

With 15 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, visitors to Council Grove, such as Barbara Worley of Olathe and daughters Mila and Eloisa, might be forgiven if they expect to see a town tightly tethered to its past. In fact, entrepreneurship isnt just encouraged in the Morris County seat, its being cultivated. (Photo by Jeff Tuttle)

All Bob and Christy Alexander had in mind was renting studio spacein downtown Council Grove to expand a side hustle that was burgeoning into a small art business.

Then, with Bob branching out from stained glass into metalworks, the couple started to think about buying one of the many vacant, dilapidated buildings along Main Street. So they borrowed some money and set sail with no business plan and absolutely no idea about how to run a business.

Fourteen years later, Alexander ArtWorks is still going strong. Some townspeople hail the Alexanders as pioneers who paved the way for a Main Street rebound, but Christy rejects the label.

Pioneer indicates something that is intentional, she says. We were never trying to start a renaissance or anything like that.

Whatever the origins, the Alexanders sparked a momentum that helped this Flint Hills community of approximately 2,100 residents write its own playbook for rural revitalization. At a time when the story being told about our nations smaller communities is typically one of decline, disinvestment and a lack of innovation, Council Grove shows how entrepreneurs can energize an economy for the better by making it easier for residents, particularly younger generations, to start up their own business, and supporting them once they do.

But if you want more entrepreneurs in your community, how exactly do you get them? Because there doesnt seem to be an exact formula that works for every community, and the answer can seem a bit mysterious at first.

Barriers vary widely from community to community, as the Kansas Leadership Center, publisher of The Journal, learned during a recent Heartland Together listening tour about rural entrepreneurship through Kansas, Missouri Nebraska and Iowa. (The tour was part of a $150,000 grant to KLC from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. This story was produced independently of the tour.)

In some places, tour facilitators learned, it can be hard for business owners to secure a downtown storefront because of decaying buildings and absentee landlords. In others, the challenge is getting workers who can secure a job with salary and benefits at the local manufacturing plant to see starting their own business as an attractive alternative. Natural disasters, changing demographics, conflict between established residents and community disruptors, and wariness about communities aiming too high can all complicate the equation.

However, by looking at communities such as Council Grove, and Ord, Nebraska a similarly sized community that is being touted by its advocates as a regional example of rural resurgence patterns emerge that show a communitys path to forging a more shared mindset about growth and entrepreneurship.

One is the importance of building upon a foundation of young talent and finding ways to support their ventures, through both financial programs and community loyalty. Caleb Pollard and his partners in Ords Scratchtown Brewing Co., one of a number of entrepreneurial ventures that have been popping up in the central Nebraska community of about 2,000 people, like to call it positive transformation through fermentation.

Other trends include a willingness to preserve whats most essential about a communitys past by trying new things to help secure its future, whether that be by embracing immigrants or by nurturing entrepreneurism in schools.

But such shifts arent necessarily easy to make quickly. Downtown Alma, which is about 40 miles northeast of Council Grove in neighboring Wabaunsee County, is also showing signs of life. But community attitudes have tended to be more cautious about change than in Morris County.

Part of the reason is that Wabaunsee County is a county of small towns with strong individual identities and different regional loyalties scattered across multiple political jurisdictions. Collaboration on economic development there requires working across different perspectives in a way it doesnt in a community where 40% of the countys population is anchored in one place.

Because each town and region is distinctive, its important to be cautious about drawing overarching lessons, economic development experts say. One that rings clear, from Ord in particular, is that it takes a combination of tactics to achieve success. A focus on small businesses, for instance, doesnt need to preclude targeted recruitment of large employers, and financing assistance for startups can be incredibly helpful.

Another takeaway is that the revitalization of a community feeds upon itself: A rebounding community is attractive to younger generations, who then become the risk-takers that fuel continued growth. Instilling school-age kids with entrepreneurial spirit is an important part of recruiting and retaining young leaders.

In the end, success breeds success. Nothing shuts up naysayers better than proving them wrong, entrepreneurs told The Journal. Which means that entrepreneurs and the communities theyre working in need to be able to hold steady through failures and learn from setbacks to ultimately secure wins and develop a winning formula that works for them.

No town is too small to make a comeback, says Christy Preston. She covers the western part of the state for NetWork Kansas, a nonprofit established by the state to provide fiscal and technical assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs.

When we work at it together, then everything is unstoppable, Preston says. You can do a lot of great things.

Rural decline is far from universal, with some researchers noting many thriving rural counties benefit from proximity to population centers, an influx of immigrants and popularity with retirees. But the overall trend favors cities and suburbs.

The latest census figures show that 86% of the U.S. population lives in a metro area. In examining 2020 census data, the Kansas Health Institute determined that approximately 60% of Kansans live in urban counties. Similar dynamics are at play in Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

The hollowing out of some rural towns means more than just the loss of a Rockwellian way of life, says Don Macke, a Nebraska-based community economic development expert. Downtrodden communities filled with poor and unhealthy people rely heavily on government assistance financed by all taxpayers, he notes.

Its not like they go away and die, Macke says. They just become really expensive.

Macke leads e2 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, which is part of NetWork Kansas.

It is his organization that identified Ord as a model for a rural rebound by nurturing entrepreneurism. It has a web page devoted to its extensive studies of Ord. But the communitys success is as rooted in theexercise of community leadership as it is in technical solutions that encourage entrepreneurs.

Over the past two-plus decades, leaders in Ord have persuaded voters to invest in themselves through a 1% sales tax for economic development, money that can provide gap financing for local small businesses in need of additional capital to get started. The first loan went to Valley Thunder Rods and Restoration, an auto body shop that specializes in antiques and classics, which remains in business under the ownership of Trent Proskocil and his brother. (NetWork Kansas provides similar financing through its E-Community program, which includes more than 60 communities around the state.)

To date, more than $6.2 million has been loaned to 68 local businesses throughout Valley County, leveraging over $19 million in development.

Community officials attracted some businesses, such as an ethanol plant that spawned a cluster of related industries, including Valley Transportation, a trucking company established to haul grain and byproducts. They also fought to keep important economic linchpins Ord already had. A successful push in the mid-1990s to save the community hospital, which operates now as the Valley County Health System, created an anchor for a health care cluster that is a leading creator of jobs in Ords region.

At the same time, there have also been investments in quality of life amenities. A nonprofit, the Valley Performing Arts Theater, was established and acquired the communitys iconic theater on the square to put on performing arts events. Such offerings, e2 indicates, are essential to the core formula for rural community development success in todays competitive location environment.

Whatever the formula, the community is producing results that could be hard to refute.

Although Valley County experienced a 4.7% drop in population from the 2010 to 2020 census, it saw a small uptick in population during the pandemic-era population shifts of 2021. Several other indicators are pointing in the right direction. They include personal income, job growth and retail sales.

Between 1970 and 2016, personal income in Valley County grew from $120.9 million to $183.8 million in real dollars, a 52% increase, according to e2 research. That outpaces the 40% rate of growth Americans as a whole gained in median personal income according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve over roughly the same period.

The county also saw a slight gain in employment between 2000 and 2018, outstripping peer counties in Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota.

But the No. 1 metric, in Mackes view, is population growth among people in their 30s and 40s young families and the next generation of leaders. Between 2000 and 2010, according to e2, Valley County experienced a nearly 54% increase in residents between the ages of 30 to 34. The increase was nearly 10% in the 40-44 age bracket.

In the 2020 Census, the countys working age populations percentage dropped slightly, from 54.2% to 51.3% of the total population, although detailed figures on the exact demographic breakdown were not yet available.

Mackes point speaks to another argument Mackes point speaks to another argumentfor rebuilding small towns.

It preserves a way of life that many Americans enjoy, offering a slower pace, less stress and closer community relationships than in a city.

That desire to live in such an environment was often cited by the dozen small-business owners The Journal spoke to for this story, including group conversations with entrepreneurs in Council Grove and Alma.

The businesspeople in the two Kansas communities do everything from running craft breweries and coffee shops, to restoring old buildings for event spaces and stores, to doing custom screen printing and embroidery, and operating a specialty beef company.

Economic development officials supporting these business owners include Tracy Henry, executive director of the Greater Morris County Development Corp., and Jim MacGregor, director of economic development for Wabaunsee County. MacGregor succeeded Henry after she left Wabaunsee County for the Morris County position in late 2019.

In Council Grove, Jesse and Deidre Knight are among the owners of Riverbank Brewing, along with Lindsay Gant and others. Beth Watts owns Watts Coffee Co., which she operates out of space she rents in the Alexander ArtWorks building.

Riverbank Brewing opened in November 2021, and Watts opened her coffee shop in January 2019.

Jesse grew up in the nearby town of Alta Vista, and Deidre grew up in Salina. They both have farming backgrounds.

They lived in Kansas City for a while after graduating from Kansas State University, but they found themselves in Council Grove often. The thought of moving to Council Grove had an irresistible appeal.

It was a way of life that we appreciate, Jesse Knight says. Its not that Kansas City wasnt fun. I think we knew that wasnt where we wanted to be long term.

Gant is originally from Dodge City and moved to Council Grove when she and her husband got married. Watts moved to the area in 2004 when her husbands job brought them there.

We are really creating a life we all want to have here. We want cool stores, cool coffee shops, (a) cool brewery, cool buildings, cool event spaces, Gant says. We are all choosing to be here, so we are creating a life

To be proud of, Deidre Knight interjected.

Yeah, Gant agreed.

Almas downtown entrepreneurs include 32-year-old Morgan Holloman, who owns the Antique Emporium of Alma and Mill Creek Mercantile, and Wrenn Pacheco, 40, who runs Pacheco Beef, which sells high-quality beef from the cattle she and her husband raise on their ranch. Dylan Barber, 51, is the owner of the Pep Club Locker, which provides school spirit wear and other products.

For Pacheco, the quality of Flint Hills grass is a key reason she and her husband are in Wabaunsee County. But there is more to it than that.

I believe in what this community has, she says. I believe that there is stuff and things for people to come and see and get to experience what we have here, and what we get to experience every day.

But even in places where entrepreneurs appear to be flourishing, its not always clear how much the path is being cleared for people of different backgrounds to pursue their dreams. Most of the business owners interviewed by The Journal reflect the demographic makeup of their communities, which are overwhelmingly white. And while its perhaps unwise to underestimate the risk of starting a business just about anywhere, its not uncommon for business owners in these communities to have a clearer path to accessing resources or other income streams to help them out.

Could that change over time?

When Henry talks to high school freshmen about BYOB, she is not encouraging underage drinking. Instead, she tells them that the acronym means be your own boss.

She delights in planting these seeds of entrepreneurism. To her, that is the ultimate form of economic development.

Henry grew up in Cambridge, Kansas, a town of fewer than 100 people about 60 miles southeast of Wichita. When she finished high school, her parents got her some luggage and sent her on her way. Dont live the rest of your life in Cambridge, they told her. Go out and find something better.

Thats the mindset Henry is trying to change when working with students in Morris County. The message is: A four-year college degree and relocation to a city is not the only road to success.

Perhaps, she says, that message will resonate with the student who spends evenings tinkering with a motorcycle, dirt bike or mower. Maybe that student opens a small-engine repair shop.

They are not going to employ 30 people, Henry says. Thats OK. They are providing a good job and a decent living for their family. They are going to stay there. They are going to raise their kids; they are going to go through the school system.

And who knows? Henry says, they may need to bring on a second person, and maybe a third.

Its not an overnight success, she says. To me, that is economic development. To me, economic development is growing your own.

Beth Watts opened Watts Coffee Co. in Council Grove in 2019 in space she rents in the Alexander ArtWorks building. And if online reviews are an accurate indicator, her shop is one of the perks of local living. (Photo by Jeff Tuttle)

Yet change doesnt always come easily, even in communities that appear to be headed in the right direction. In choosing whether to embrace entrepreneurship, communities have to wrestle with competing values, squaring a desire for growth and progress with a willingness to deal with conflict and loyalty to friends and family, history and past successes.

Silver Tongued Devil is a Belgian tripel, and its a big seller for Scratchtown Brewing when it comes out each fall. The success of the beer is one way Pollard and his partners get the last laugh on opponents who made life difficult as the business moved toward its opening in 2013.

The name of the beer comes from the nickname brewery opponents gave Pollard when they complained in an online forum.

Pollard, 42, is still unsure what generated the vitriol and false accusations including that his wife was running a brothel at the brewery. Crazy as it might sound, he thinks some of it came from cat lovers who were outraged by a feral cat ordinance under consideration when one of the Scratchtown Brewing partners was on the city council.

Some people thought it was funny in town. Some people thought it was horrific. Some people didnt care, Pollard says of the backlash. But for us it was a nightmare. It was a three- year nightmare.

Pollards experience is an extreme case, but it illustrates that naysayers and skeptics can be a huge hurdle in rebuilding a community through entrepreneurism, especially in a tight-knit small town where conflict can feel up close and personal.

In Council Grove, entrepreneurs have crossed swords with residents who prefer selling the towns history.

I think there is a kind of a group of people here who want us to walk around in period costumes from the 1800s and be gunslingers, because that is what they think draws people to town, Watts says.

MacGregor has encountered similar resistance in Wabaunsee County.

The geography and history of Wabaunsee County might explain the lack of vision, says MacGregor, a Virginia native who fell in love with the Flint Hills when he did tours at Forts Leavenworth and Riley during his career as an Army officer. He and his family settled outside Alma a few years ago after MacGregor retired from the service.

The majority of the countys population is rural, MacGregor notes, and the remaining 40% live in seven very small towns. Alma is the biggest with about 800 residents.

The county, MacGregor notes, is part of three state Senate districts and is split among seven school districts.

Alta Vista on the west identifies heavily with Morris County because its kids are part of the Council Grove school district, and MacGregor says Harveyville to the east sometimes feels more like it is part of Shawnee or Osage counties than part of Wabaunsee County.

And then, he says, there is a historical religious divide between the northern half of the county, settled by German Catholics, and the southern half, settled by German Lutherans.

Listening to MacGregors descriptions of Wabaunsee County, its easy to see how they could apply in other parts of the state.

Wabaunsee County, he says, has never been a county that has spent a lot of energy or money investing in the future potential of growth. There is very much a sense in some places that what we have works, that this is a great place and we dont want it to change.

Evidence of that attitude, MacGregor says, was apparent three decades ago when the county rejected a power plant that ultimately located in Pottawatomie County.

You can also see it today, he says, in some natives who have never traveled outside the county and in the Alma residents who disagreed with incentivizing the development of 16 residential lots in town. The incentives were ultimately approved by the city council with support from the local school board and the county commissioners.

The population trends in Wabaunsee County are actually more positive in recent years than the ones in Morris County. Almas home county lost fewer people than Council Groves home county from 2010 to 2020, and recent estimates suggest that Wabaunsee County climbed up toward its 2010 population mark in 2021 while Morris County saw a slight dip.

These are good people, MacGregor says, they just come at these issues from a different perspective on what works and what the future might look like based upon their past experiences.

Pacheco and other business owners in downtown Alma have more prosaic concerns, such as how to draw more foot traffic into their stores. Theyd also like to see owners of the empty downtown buildings take responsibility for making them look presentable.

If there are whispers in town that they are crazy to make a go of it in Alma, they pay them no mind.

We are grinding, Holloman says. We are making it work.

Morgan Holloman, owner of the Antique Emporium of Alma and Mill Creek Mercantile, knows that rural locales are often seen as too rocky for entrepreneurial endeavors to put down roots. But she finds motivation in negativity. We are grinding, she says. We are making it work. (Photo by Jeff Tuttle)

Even when progress is achieved, its not without challenges. Sustaining success is a problem that can creep up, especially if communities arent prepared for it.

Pollards experience in Ord tells him that community leaders in Council Grove, Alma and elsewhere need to be aware of burnout. Pollard moved to Ord with his wife and children 14 years ago to become head of the Valley County Economic Development Board. Eventually he tired of public service. But after a little time away, he is re-energized about becoming more civically involved.

Such ebbs and flows are natural, Pollard says, and need to be managed rather than avoided.

Waxing and waning is really natural, he says. Volunteers will come and go, leaders will come and go, and thats OK. Re-engaging is OK. That is the one thing. It is a lifelong commitment, and your role can evolve in the community over time.

Proskocil, the co-owner of the body shop in Ord, is a native. It was a nice place to grow up, he says, with enough stuff for kids to do.

Continued here:

Could more entrepreneurs help revive the heartland? - The Journal at the Kansas Leadership Center

When Ugg was planning its Pride Month initiative this year, the brand knew now was the time to tackle a critical issue mental health.

According to a 2021 CDC survey, over 37% of high school students reported struggles with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and the issue wasmore common among individuals identifying as LGBTQIA+.

Ugg and other brands took notice, and they arenow raising awareness and devoting financial resources to the cause.

In addition to rolling out a new campaign called Feel Heard, the Deckers Brands-owned label is partnering with The Trevor Project for the first time and donating $125,000 to the organization after previously working in 2020 and 2021 with GLAAD, a leading media advocacy organization accelerating LGBTQ acceptance and equality.

At Ugg, we strive to contribute to a world where everyone feels safe to openly discuss the importance of mental health, said Nicks Ericsson, Uggs senior director of brand purpose. We wanted [the Feel Heard] campaign] to bridge May being Mental Health Awareness Month and June being Pride Month as they were two crucial moments for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Ugg Pride Fluff Yeah slides.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Ugg

A recent Trevor Project survey found that 45% of LGBTQIA+-identifying youth seriously considered suicide within the past year. Additionally, nearly one in five identifying as transgender or nonbinary attempted suicide and all surveyed youths of color had a higher suicide rate than their white peers.

Ericsson noted that diversity and inclusion were essential elements in its Pride outreach. Every one of every race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age should feel heard, he said. Having a diverse campaign ensures that we are amplifying The Trevor Projects mission to a broad consumer group, specifically those who need it the most.

The Trevor Project agreed: This Pride, were doing all we can to support young people who do not have access to accepting communities, a spokesperson told FN. Part of that is engaging in intentional collaborations with major companies to get our message out to parents, families and young people across the country to make sure that LGBTQ young people everywhere know that we are always here for them.

In all, the Ugg campaign features six diverse influencers and advocates, including performer/activist ALOK, models Chlo Vro and Sarina Moralez, artist Isaah and collectors Robert and Orren, who all wear Uggs colorful collection.

This year, several other brands are also partnering with nonprofits focusing on emotional wellbeing and also displaying greater diversity in their campaigns.

Toms is donating a third of its annual profits to several organizations, including Colors,which focuses on expanding communities and mental health counseling for LGBTQIA+ people under 25 years old. Its unisex Unity collection will also beavailable year-round.

The collections goal is to ultimately support nonprofits at the grassrootslevel. Mental health intersects with access to opportunity, and that impacts marginalized communities, including LGBTQ youth and young adults, said Ian Stewart, Toms chief marketing officer.

Toms Fenix Unity slip-on for Pride.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Toms

Authenticity is critical when creating Pride collections to avoid LGBTQIA+ community appropriation, according to Stewart. Its important with any of these cultural moments that brands are supporting those communities all year and not just for a day, a week or a month. Thats where things arent as authentic as they need to be, he said.

Converse also is highlighting mental health in its eighth annual Pride collection, conceived by its LGBTQIA+ employee resource groups own discussions on the importance of community and family. The 2022 initiative focuses on Found Family those who create safe, unified spaces for other LGBTQIA+ individuals.

Coming out of the pandemic, when mental health issues have been reported to disproportionately impact LGBTQIA+ youth, our teams had been discussing the importance of family and community in helping to lift each other up, saidIlana Finley, the brands VP of global communications and social and community impact. The idea of chosen family has been around for quite some time, but its meaning and significance to the LGBTQIA+ community is critical both in the journey to finding Pride, but also as a result of the struggles and isolation during the last couple of years.

LGBTQIA+ youth star in Converses Found Family campaign for Pride 2022.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Converse

The theme of community also permeates Dr. Martens 2022 Generations of Pride film series, in which director Jess Kohlshows how different groups can educate each other in and outside of LGBTQIA+ circles.

For the occasion, the brand has launched the For Pride 1461 oxford, accented with 11 stripes symbolizing the Progress Pride flag (representing the standard rainbow flags six aspects of life and those who are transgender, Black and indigenous). Dr. Martens is also donating $200,000 to The Trevor Project, continuing its partnership for the sixth year in a row.

The incredible crisis support, education and resources The Trevor Project provides LGBTQ youth is more important than ever, said Julia Seltzer, Dr. Martens VP of marketing for the Americas. In addition, we will launch a matching donation promotion during the holidays to raise awareness at a time when LGBTQIA+ youth is especially struggling with depression.

Dr. Martens 1461 for Pride oxford shoe.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Dr. Martens

Indeed, partnering with nonprofits and charities is vital for brands to create authentic collections that prioritize storytelling over sales.

One such organization is GLAAD, which is working with Puma, Crocs, Savage x Fenty and other brands this year. John McCourt, GLAADs deputy VP of strategic partnerships said that forging genuine relationships with the LGBTQIA+ community extends beyond just whos in Pride-focused campaigns it also must encompass the community behind the scenes, from designers to staff.

For instance, Pumas 2022 Pride collection, Together Forever celebrates love, friendship and community through a collection designed by queer artist Carra Sykes. Additionally, the campaign features LGBTQIA+ individuals behind and in front of the camera, including Cara Delevingne, Brinda Iyer, Jalen Dominique, Matt Bernstein, Torraine Futurum and Yassa Almokhamad.

Pride is not as simple as just being proud, its a step you take every day to love yourself, to love your community, to accept others, to lead with love, Delevingne said in a statement. Puma will donate 20% of the collections profits with a $250,000 minimum to GLAAD.

Cara Delevingne stars in Pumas Pride 2022 campaign.

CREDIT: Courtesy of PUMA/MEGA

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Why Mental Health Is at the Center of Pride Month Initiatives by Ugg, Converse and Other Brands - Footwear News

Build back better and build back equal have become familiar slogans used to capture a global commitment to redressing educational inequities and system failures brought to center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic. These slogans are also a way for decisionmakers, educators, and communities to verbalize how and why our education systems are not adequately and inclusively serving all students and families. The Akanksha Foundation, a civil society organization based in Mumbai that works with government schools, is using build back better to create momentum for promoting the social and emotional learning (SEL) and well-being of students.

Akanksha is building this momentum through fostering intentional conversations between families and teachers on how to ensure that schools are not just preparing children academically, but also promoting SEL alongside civics education and work readiness skills development. In research conducted in collaboration with the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings, Akanksha discovered that parents and teachers have different beliefs and perceptions about the purpose of school. Rather than viewing these differences as a hurdle to building back better, Akanksha is using this as an opportunity to start critical dialogues on SEL and build synergy between schools and families.

According to a study on multidimensional povertywhich measures health, education, and standard of livingroughly a quarter of Indians are living in multidimensional poverty. As in other parts of the world, the pandemic has increased food insecurity, lack of sufficient medical services, poverty, unemployment, and interruptions in school in Indiaall of which negatively impact students well-being. Akanksha is using a building back better approach to acknowledge students experiences with multidimensional poverty, and to bring communities together to address learning gaps and the social and emotional needs of children and their families.

Established in 1991 as a group of student volunteers, Akanksha is now a professional institution and network of over 700 educators, staff, and volunteers. They are on a mission to provide equitable and quality educational opportunities to over 10,000 marginalized children in 27 government K-10 schools in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. Akankshas teaching and learning approach focuses on the holistic physical and mental development of students and draws on Emory Universitys Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning curriculum. Akanksha is using this curriculum alongside teacher professional development activities, family engagement strategies, and systems change efforts to build a culture of well-being in schools.

Holding intentional conversations with parents and teachers is a step toward building greater alignment and collaboration between families and schools on the importance of SEL. According to one teacher leader from a Mumbai school, Children studying in our schools often come from households and communities where they experience trauma, be it physical or mental, regularly. SEL plays a key role here in giving them a platform to talk about and learn healthy mechanisms to cope with this trauma. Additionally, a healthy and balanced mind also strengthens their academic abilities. Integrating SEL with academic development is shown to foster educational success.

As a member of the Family Engagement in Education Network (FEEN), Akanksha knows that family engagement is critical to transforming education systems to better serve children, families, and educators. Started by CUE, the FEEN is a peer-learning network made up of over 50 member teams representing government jurisdictions, educator and parent associations, and civil society organizations from 12 countries around the world. In addition to being active in the FEEN, Akanksha has been using the Conversation Starter Tools to capture the perspectives of teachers, parents, and students on the purpose of education and their level of trust and alignment, along with other measures. They are using the findings to inform conversations between families and schools that lead to evidence-based strategies to increase family engagement. The tools include checklists for contextualizing the survey language and design, as well as guidance on how to analyze and use data to inform conversations. The tools are part of Collaborating to transform and improve education systems: A playbook for family-school engagement and are currently being revised and internationally validated in collaboration with the FEEN.

Between December 2021 and January 2022, Akanksha surveyed 323 parents and 109 educators (teachers, school leadership, counselors, and administrators) in government schools in Mumbai and Pune. The findings from these surveys showed that parents and teachers are on different pages when it comes to the purpose of school, and that greater trust and alignment are needed. Parents emphasized academic learning as the main purpose of school, whereas teachers prioritized SEL. Over half of teachers (54 percent) believed SEL was the main purpose of school compared to those who saw civics education (19 percent) and an economic purpose (20 percent)or gaining work readiness skillsas the priority. Only a small percentage of teachers (7 percent) saw academics as the main purpose of education.

On the other hand, most parents (42 percent) believed that academic preparation was the main purpose of school, followed by civics education (21 percent) and SEL (21 percent). Less than a quarter (16 percent) saw the main purpose of school as economic. This trend held true for parents across gender and age of their child (kindergarten through secondary school). However, parents with lower education levels prioritized academics to a greater extent than parents with higher education levels. This is likely because academic and work skills are seen as increasing social mobility, especially among groups who are historically marginalized by class, caste, or urban or rural residence.

Teachers rightly perceived that parents prioritized academic preparation as one of the main purposes of education. However, parents believed that teachers also prioritized academics over other purposes, which was not the case. As one school leader in Mumbai stated, Parents may not be aware of the schools role in childrens SEL development in the same way they see schools as leading students academic preparation. This perception gap is shown in Figure 1 below, where there is a notably larger difference in perceptions on academics and SEL as the main purpose of school.

Surveying parents and teachers is just the first step in understanding their values and beliefs on education and utilizing evidence to spark conversations. Akanksha will use their survey findings toward three key actions to increase family engagement and promote systems transformation in their partner schools.

In order to build back better, parents and families must have spaces where they can discuss their different perspectives on education with teachers and school leaders. Data is critical to informing these conversations. Intentional and data-informed discussions can lead to greater trust, as well as meaningful collaboration. Akanksha is still trying to develop its approach for increasing family engagement, but these conversations are an important step to working more inclusively and intentionally with parents.

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Starting conversations on social and emotional learning with parents and teachers is critical for building family engagement - Brookings Institution

As a huge infusion of government infrastructure dollars rolls out across the nation, philanthropy has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do things differently. Unlike in the past, grant makers can make sure those funds are shared equitably and create economic benefits for all Americans.

A chance like this hasnt presented itself in decades. The influx of funds includes $1.2 trillion from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and $1.9 trillion in the American Rescue Plan to both aid pandemic recovery and help states rebuild outdated infrastructure.

Some states are adding their own investments to the mix. California has projected $45 billion for infrastructure investments in this fiscal years budget and just proposed tens of billions more for infrastructure and climate-resiliency programs in the next budget. New York has budgeted an unprecedented $32.8 billion to improve the states transportation infrastructure.

Repairing roads and bridges, upgrading water infrastructure, expanding broadband access, and building a national network of electric-vehicle charging stations are all important. But this opportunity is not just about what we build but also about who decides, who builds, and who benefits.

Rural areas and communities of color have historically had a harder time accessing funds for major federal and state projects or contributing to decisions about how the money is spent. If old patterns prevail, employment opportunities associated with these projects will go to asmall slice of workers at the typically large white-owned firms contracted to do the work.

In other words, millions of people will beleft behind again unless philanthropy works with government leaders to help ensure that all communities have a fair shot at benefitting from these massive investments.

Philanthropy can play a leading role in three critical areas. It can insist on bringing community perspectives to project planning and development. It can ensure dollars and jobs are distributed equitably. And it can coordinate all these efforts on a national scale.

Provide opportunities for community perspectives and decision-making. Economic development efforts are often top-down, excluding the diverse voices of those who live and work in the places affected. An inclusive approach to distributing federal and state infrastructure funds needs to take varying community interests, opportunities, demographics, and workforce realities into account.

Local advocates have already demonstrated the effectiveness of such an approach. In the rural California city of Calexico, the youth-led Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition convinced local officials to use American Rescue Plan funding to invest in parks and resources for low-income workers hit hard by the pandemic, rather than spending the money on a local airport as was initially proposed. The groups organizing efforts, supported by the Latino Community Foundation, included representing worker views at city-council meetings and securing media coverage.

To support this type of community input, California launched a new $600 million Community Economic Resilience Fund that will enable all 13 regions of the state to create their own blueprint for using state pandemic-recovery funds in equitable and carbon-neutral ways. California grant makers, including the James Irvine Foundation, which I lead, are providing grants to community nonprofits to share knowledge and build their capacity to participate effectively in these regional collaboratives.

Grassroots organizations often lack the resources to influence government funding, especially at this scale. Several foundations have stepped up in response. The Center at Sierra Health Foundation recently started the Community Economic Mobilization Initiative to help local nonprofits, through grants and other assistance, improve their ability to attain and use federal funding. The project also includes the creation of a statewide advocacy network of grassroots organizations to ensure accountability for government investments.

Similarly, theMelville Charitable Trust, along with other philanthropic organizations, is launching a nationwidePartnership for Equitable and Resilient Communities, which aims to halt inequitable federal investment practices that hurt people of color. The effort will provide up to $5 million to nonprofits working with Black, Indigenous, and Latino people to help bring federal resources to their neighborhoods. The funds can be used in areas such as hiring more staff and creating small demonstration programs that promote equitable community and economic-development plans.

Ensure equitable employment opportunities. Even before the infusion of funds for new federal and state infrastructure projects, research showed that more than one in four infrastructure jobs would need to be refilled during the next decade because of retirements and other factors. Making sure those jobs create a path to the middle class for low-wage workers, especially workers of color, will require intentional planning and accountability.

Americas current infrastructure workforce is overwhelmingly white and male a reflection of inequities in current hiring, training, and job-retention practices. Philanthropy can shape local and regional efforts to make equity a priority in filling these jobs. The Kresge Foundations Detroit Program, for example, is working with the city to publicly track how infrastructure dollars are spent and is providing grant support to Detroits workforce-development agency, which aims to use American Rescue Plan resources to improve the economic mobility of low-income city residents.

Another philanthropic effort the Equity in Infrastructure Project, supported by my organization and spearheaded by Phillip Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport, and John Porcari, former U.S. deputy secretary of transportation aims to increase the number, size, and proportion of government contracts going to historically underutilized businesses. The project will help these firms compete more effectively by working with government agencies to revamp the contracting process. That includes improving payment times, standardizing reporting requirements, and increasing the amount and type of nancing available.

Support national coordination. The enormous scale of the work ahead will require continuous coordination a role well suited to philanthropy.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Emerson Collective, the Ford Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation have partnered with nonprofits such as the National League of Cities to launch the Local Infrastructure Hub, which will help leaders in Americas small towns and cities get their fair share of infrastructure funding. The project will connect these local leaders with experts to guide them through the funding application process and will provide a centralized place for sharing innovation so that small towns can better compete with big cities.

Additionally, six foundations, including the Irvine Foundation, are supporting a national public-private partnership called What Works Plus, which will act as a central hub for grant makers to coordinate work on projects funded by the federal infrastructure bill. A core goal is to learn and share what works, and what doesnt, so that federal agencies and philanthropy can adapt in real time as these massive investments begin to flow into communities.

Foundations nationwide should replicate or join these and many other efforts underway. The stakes are high. Government infrastructure dollars provide an opportunity to change the trajectory for the nearly one-third of the workforce earning less than $15 an hour a disproportionate number of whom are workers of color.

Philanthropic leaders have rightfully spoken up about the need for racial equity. Heres our chance. Lets ensure the workers and communities most often ignored are the most prepared to speak up about where and how government funds are invested. The torrent of government dollars is coming, and philanthropy can either watch it flow by or use our resources, convening power, and knowledge of local nonprofit organizations to steer spending in a direction that allows all communities to thrive.

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Philanthropy Needs to Ensure That Massive Infrastructure Spending Goes to Communities That Too Often Miss Out - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

An initiative aimed at celebrating Pride Monthwith a series of events throughout Downtown Boston that are free and open to the public.

Mayor Michelle Wu, in partnership with the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, Office of Equity and Inclusion, and Men of Melanin Magic, today announce A Very Proud City, an LGBTQ+ Pride series with events to take place throughout Downtown Boston.

Im so excited to be in community and celebrate Pride this month, said Mayor Michelle Wu. A Very Proud City series will center our LGBTQ+ residents, support local organizations and amplify events that highlight and serve our LGBTQ+ community. Im grateful to all of our partners for working to ensure that we are celebrating our queer communities and I encourage everyone to stop by these events.

We are excited to welcome everyone back to Downtown Boston to celebrate Pride with our LGBTQ+ communities, said Segun Idowu, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion. As we emerge out of the pandemic, this is a tremendous opportunity to join our queer residents in spreading joy, love, and acceptance to all within our city.

I have attended a few of Men of Melanin Magic events in the past and I am incredibly excited to partner with them this PRIDE to amplify queer joy and resilience in Downtown, said Mariangely Solis Cervera, Chief of Equity & Inclusion. Just yesterday, we kicked off PRIDE at City Hall with spoken word and drag performances. I can't wait to celebrate A Very Proud City this summer with such a talented group.

Im excited to jumpstart this welcoming and inclusive initiative the day after we kicked off Pride Month at City Hall, said Quincey J. Roberts, Sr., Executive Director for the Mayors Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement. A Very Proud City will serve as a place for community connection and joy for our residents while also supporting local LGBTQ+ organizations.

A Very Proud City is a key part of the Citys effort to celebrate Pride with gatherings throughout the entire month of June, highlighting connection, resilience, art, and joy for all Bostonians. With events located in Downtown Boston, A Very Proud City is also part of a concerted and intentional effort to re-open the city as part of Mayor Wus Boston Blooms series, welcoming back LGBTQ+ communities to Downtown.

Beginning on June 8, A Very Proud City will take place every Wednesday in June. All of the events are open to the public and free of charge, with a wide range of activities for families and adults.

A Very Proud City Schedule:

BOP-ley Square Wednesday, June 8

Location: Copley Square Park @ In Front of the Trinity Church Boston

560 Boylston St Boston, MA 02116 United States

Description: The Ultimate Tea Dance Block Party

Time: 5pm-8pm

District Q Wednesday, June 15

Location: Sam Adams Park at Faneuil Hall @ North st and Congress st.

1 Faneuil Hall Sq Boston MA 02109

Description: An eclectic Queer Marketplace

Time: 4pm-7pm

NetWerq Wednesday, June 15

Location: Rooftop of Sam Adams Taproom

Description: A casual gathering for folks to meet and collaborate with other queer entrepreneurs, organizers, creators, and community members

Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm

DanceTown Crossing Wednesday, June 22

Location: Downtown Crossing @ Summer Street and Washington Street

8 Summer St Boston, MA 02110 United States

Description: Dance Variety Show featuring local queer dance groups and drag performers

Time: 5pm-8pm

Pride Calling Wednesday, June 29

Location: Boston Common @ the Parade Grounds

Description: Benefit Concert to establish a Mutual Aid Fund specific to helping queer people in need.

Time: 5pm-8pm

For more information please click here

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Mayor Wu Announces A Very Proud City - Boston.gov

In the years right out of college, my friends and I spent nearly every Sunday in Manhattans Chinatown. Wed meet for dim sum, circulating between Pings and Golden Unicorn and Congee Village. Over food that reminded us of what we had grown up with, wed gripe about the work week and joke in the way longtime friends do. Bellies sated, wed spend the rest of our lazy afternoon sipping on taro boba and enjoying thick-cut toast slathered with condensed milk. Before heading home, we might hit up one of the groceries or sidewalk stands to buy Asian vegetables and fruits we couldnt find anywhere else, and, for good measure, swing by the bakery to load up on pineapple buns, egg tarts, and charsiu buns for the week.

Chinatown was my home away from home, Justin McKibben tells me. Hes the founder of Send Chinatown Love, an organization that provides support to small businesses in Manhattans Chinatown. It was the only place I could get a meal that felt like a home-cooked meal in a city that can be very isolating.

McKibben started Send Chinatown Love in February 2020, just before cities began shutting down. By then, Chinatowns across the nation were already feeling the effects of anti-Asian xenophobia. Mom-and-pop businesses in these immigrant communities, many of which already operate on slim margins, saw a downturn in patrons. McKibben, who lived in Chinatown at the time, noticed that some of his favorite restaurants had shuttered, unable to pay rent or worker wages.

We went in with an idea of how we would help, but we were very, very intentional to make sure that we werent prescribing help.

With his background in software engineering, McKibben says his first instinct was to help them by registering them for food delivery apps or building them websites and social media followings. But very quickly he realized that what the businesses needed was money, and fast. Unable to apply or ineligible for government relief due to their cash-only nature, many of them direly needed a way to pay their rent and workers. So McKibben and a small team of volunteers began to fundraise for businesses, directly cutting them checks.

We went in with an idea of how we would help, but we were very, very intentional to make sure that we werent prescribing help, McKibben says. While many business owners were initially wary of these young people who offered them no-strings-attached aid, McKibben says that taking the time to listen to their needs, as well as showing complete transparency in SCLs operations and fundraising, helped garner trust with an immigrant community that had felt taken advantage of in the past and learned to expect little from government programs and outsiders claiming to offer aid.

Since then, the organization has expanded its aid offerings. It hosts food crawls to encourage foot traffic back into Chinatown establishments. It organizes a gift-a-meal project in which community members fundraise for meals from restaurants (some with owners who might otherwise be reluctant to receive perceived handouts, as McKibben put it) to then serve to food shelters. And yes, it now offers business development services that include website creation, marketing strategies, and online delivery help.

When I ask Tsai what shes taken away from the experience of running Heart of Dinner, she echoes McKibben. Something Yin and I have both learned is to really listen, especially to our elders, Tsai says. An integral part of their work involves hearing the needs of the individuals they serve. Every week, volunteers call elders to remind them their care package will be delivered the next dayin case theyve forgotten or if they have another appointment they might need to reschedule. When these elders face crises, they similarly feel comfortable to make requests of the team. One man, recovering from a mugging, declined the teams offers to fundraise for his care, and asked only for an extra egg that week in his meal, Tsai says. While anyone might feel an urge to push for that fundraiser, Heart of Dinner's team wanted to dignify the mans wishes.

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The Rise and Future of Heart of Dinner and Mutual Aid in Chinatown - Bon Appetit

June 1, 2022

The report was not immediately released out of respect for the confidential nature of the work they undertook, and that of the individuals they interviewed. After further consultation with the Listening Team, I have decided thatreleasing the report is a necessary step so that we can move forward and focus now on additional ways to facilitate healing.

This additional transparency is critical for our life together, and it is a beginning of naming and acknowledging the pain that our siblings of color have suffered.

Let me state clearly the ELCA is a church that will not tolerate racism in any way. We will hold ourselves as fully accountable as any other person or group, and we will condemn racism wherever it exists. We look to our allies in communities of color for help and accompaniment in this long journey, and we will need the prayers and partnership from all corners of the Church. I look forward to beginning that work in earnest with you.

There are systemic issues of broken trust at all levels within the ELCA that will require intentional work to repair and address. Not initially releasing the Listening Team's report has contributed to that.I apologize for the delay, and I feel broken-hearted for the pain that has been caused.

I encourage all members of the church to carefully review the report [ENGLISH SPANISH] so that we may all continue the necessary dialogue to achieve a path forward together.

In Christ,

The Rev. Elizabeth A. EatonPresiding BishopEvangelical Lutheran Church in America

Read this statement in Spanish.

- - -

About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with nearly 3.3 million members in more than 8,900 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.

For information contact:Candice Hill Buchbinder773-380-2877Candice.Buchbinder@ELCA.org

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Release of the Listening Team Report - ELCA

Maria Bocanegra Tejeda awakens as the rising sun lights her room. Her room. In the house her family owns. That fact is still capable of surprising her, so far removed it is from her cousins crowded trailer in the crowded mobile home park where she spent nearly half of her 22 years.

The night before, she draped her navy graduation robe over the chair near the bed. Her cap lay nearby, its mortarboard top emblazoned with the words: Cultura es orgullo. Orgullo es exito. Culture is pride. Pride is success. The rallying call of her University of Northern Colorado sorority.

She can hear her parents in the kitchen. Her dad would be running on a few hours of sleep after his shift at the beef processing plant and the hour-long midnight bus ride home from Fort Morgan to Greeley.

What he feels about his daughters graduation, he later will say, is beyond his capacity to put into words. He walks around the house two hours before the ceremony wearing a black cowboy hat and white jeans that puddle over his boots. He tries to keep his tears at bay. Marias mother does not even try.

Years ago, when her dad was driving past UNC, Maria pointed to the campus and told him, One day, Im gonna come here. He, with three years of formal education, a laborer his whole life, told her the university was for rich people. She reminded him of this recently. Not to shame him, she says, but to acknowledge how far they had come since settling in Greeley in 2010.

In the decade that followed in this, one of the fastest-growing communities in one of the nations fastest-growing states, the Bocanegra Tejedas worked their way from renters to homeowners, from a one-earner household on the poverty line to two earners with a monthly cushion big enough to ensure their mortgage did not devour them. Maria, the eldest of four, became the familys first high school graduate, its first to enroll in college.

Its going to take a while to settle in, Maria says as she curls her hair on graduation morning. So much changed. In 2010, I didnt know if college was a possibility and the optimism wasnt there. But now, its not just dreams. Now, we have a foundation we can build on.

The Bocanegra Tejeda family symbolizes the most hopeful version of the story of Colorados Black and Latino residents from 2010 to 2020. In several key measures of socioeconomic progress, each group moved a little closer to white Coloradans, who also saw many gains.

A Colorado News Collaborative analysis of U.S. Census and other data found that over the course of the last decade, poverty rates among the states Black and Latino residents fell to historic or near-historic lows, high school graduation rates, particularly for Latinos, shot up, Black and Latino median household income climbed at rates that outpaced inflation, and Latino homeownership cracked the 50% mark for the first time since the Great Recession.

Nowhere else in the nation saw a greater narrowing of the gaps in poverty levels between Latinos and whites than Colorado. Our state was also among the top 10 that experienced narrowing gaps in median household income between Latino and white, and Black and white households.

Progress toward parity is progress toward equity, which, as Colorado Health Foundation President and CEO Karen McNeil-Miller puts it, is essentially the American promise that people will have what they need in order to thrive economically, socially, spiritually, physically, emotionally.

That thriving is the engine of Colorados future. Population projections show growth will be led by younger Latinos and African Americans, and more Coloradans of color will enter the workforce as aging white workers retire.

But if the upward trends tell one story, the underlying gaps tell another.

Progress was tempered by the reality that in the last decade a Black or Latino Coloradan was still twice as likely to live in poverty as their white neighbors, and Black median household income was two-thirds that of white. Even with the slight upward tick, the rate of homeownership the main path to generational wealth among Latinos here remained lower than it was in 1970, while the rate among Blacks hasnt cracked the 50% mark since at least 1960.

Four-year college graduation rates among Latino residents 25 years and older inched upward during the decade, but still remained in the teens, 10 percentage points lower than Black Coloradans, and 31 points lower than white. The states long and acknowledged history of importing college-educated whites while failing to homegrow the potential of its youth of color created the nations largest Latino-white higher education gap and the second-largest Black-white gap. Expand the definition of higher education to include two-year degrees and career-technical certifications, and Black and Latino Coloradans attainment rates still remained a fraction of their white peers.

When three of every four students who made up the growth in the states high school population over the last decade were Latino, the consequences of the failure to ensure more can achieve a higher education are obvious.

If we dont (close the gaps), we will continue, decades on, the way we have decades past where we have this blaring equity gap, and we have unfulfilled, unactivated potential, says Colorado Department of Higher Education Executive Director Angie Paccione, who in 2020 launched the agencys Office of Educational Equity. And how sad is that? How bad not just sad how bad for this state?

Education affects employment. It affects wages. It affects who gets hired first and fired last, and in Colorado, as elsewhere, Black and Hispanic unemployment rates pegged higher than whites in the hard days of 2010 and the humming days of 2019.

Progress was also tempered by the nature of the decade itself. The economy rose from the trough of the Great Recession and its lopsided decimation of Black and Latino income and wealth to settle into a historically long, slow expansion that brought low unemployment, gradual wage increases and huge gains in home equity. Then the pandemic struck.

COVID-19s disproportionately deadly path through Black and Latino communities and its hammerblow upon the lower-paying industries in which they are overrepresented reframe the view of narrowing equity gaps as something temporary, a side-effect of economic recovery. In a matter of months, the pandemic revealed truths about the hard-wired nature of inequity that the years before may have blurred, says state Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, who calls the Census data a representation of a dream unrealized.

We have not been intentional in undoing the intentional harm of the past, she says. For centuries, we denied people access not just to homes and jobs, but to knowledge because of their skin color and place of birth. And unless we are intentional, a sustained intentionality, we are going to see these gaps persist.

The most skeptical view, shared by Pastor Del Phillips, chairman of the Colorado Black Leadership Coalition, sees any uncritical celebration of the data as the most dangerous kind of placation, a trademark of the oppressor to always make you think you are better off than you are. Accepting a narrowing gap at face value, he says, creates an escape hatch that allows the wielders of power to dodge responsibility for past harm and future repair.

If the gap represents me on one side of the Grand Canyon and whites on the other side of the Grand Canyon, and theyre saying, Just jump. The gap is not as large as it was before, well, Im still going to fall to the bottom, Phillips says. And thats the way I look at this. It doesnt matter that (the gap) is less. The challenge is that its there.

COLab and its partners, including The Colorado Sun, Chalkbeat, Kaiser Health News, The Denver Post, KGNU, the Boulder Reporting Lab, and the Denver Voice, are working together to examine the last decades trends. Long-term changes are often imperceptible in real time. By analyzing a decade of data in hindsight and pairing that data with Coloradans experiences we can begin to take stock of what has changed, how, why, and whats next.

In coming weeks, news outlets around the state will be reporting on homeownership, high school graduation rates and Black infant mortality. Future stories will cover higher education and poverty, among other issues.

Because Colorados Indigenous and Asian American and Pacific Islander populations are so small, the Census data is unreliable for similar analysis of those communities. But state data, particularly about educational attainment and health inequities, show our states Native population faces among the greatest barriers to well-being.

Numbers never tell the whole story. The Census Bureaus data are no different. COLab started with the Census five-year American Community Survey (ACS), a daily rolling poll conducted over 60 months. The every-five-year statistical snapshots can be good for measuring changes over time, but are terrible for pinpointing the events of a single year. For that reason and the Census Bureaus challenges surveying communities of color, particularly during the pandemic, this data cannot size up the socioeconomic impacts of 2020s hardships.

But we can see from state data that the single last year of the decade upended previous years positive trends in, among other things, high school graduation, college enrollment and unemployment rates. Life expectancy reversed across all groups, with Black life expectancy plummeting from 78 years old to 74, what it was in 2000. White life expectancy, in comparison, fell by a little more than a year to just over 80 years old.

What numbers dont reveal about the decade, day-to-day experiences do. Data shows a greater percentage of people have moved above what the federal government defines as poverty. This is not the same thing as being self-sufficient, stable, flourishing.

Sure, families might be financially doing better on paper, says Nita Gonzales, a longtime community leader in Denver. But that may mean that youve got both parents working or one parent working two jobs, and theyre transporting all over the place because they have to look for housing out of the city farther away from the metro area, and that reduces time with their kids.

Im seeing that we made gains, I am not discounting that. But its not enough. And I dont know how permanent it is. Thats my concern. Its no time to sit back.

Maria, along with her mother, Raquel, and her three siblings, moved to Greeley from Mexico in 2010, during the aftershocks of the Great Recession. Her father, Guadalupe, was already working a union job at the Cargill meatpacking plant, where he was bloodletting cow after cow suspended before him. He remembers the recession meant reduced working hours. Maria remembers him coming home smelling of blood.

The family of six and two nephews lived in the aging three-bedroom mobile home. The plumbing backed up. The kids took turns doing homework at the small kitchen table.

The familys best hope for homeownership lay in the Greeley-Weld Habitat for Humanity with its $500 down payments, lower-than-conventional interest rates, and mission to serve families like theirs. The organization wants its homeowners to stay homeowners and build generational wealth, so it requires that no more than 30% of before-taxes monthly income go to the mortgage. For the Bocanegra Tejedas, the line between enough and not enough was too thin for comfort.

In late 2018, Raquel took a cleaning job at McDonalds. The timing was good. Weld County was booming. The state was in the second year of an escalating minimum wage hike that would take it from $8.31 an hour in 2016 to $12 an hour in 2020.

Their $257,000 house was the last of 14 built on a block just off U.S. 34 in south Greeley. As Habitat families do, the Bocanegra Tejedas helped build their neighbors homes. They helped build their own. The living room with a picture window looking out upon the front porch and the front lawn. The two bathrooms. A bedroom for mom and dad. A bedroom for Maria. A bedroom for Herminia. A bedroom for Rosalinda. A bedroom for Jose. And a kitchen big enough for a table where all the kids could sit together and do their homework.

They moved in in February 2020, a month before the pandemic hit.

Among the challenges of interpreting the decades narrowing gaps in Colorado is teasing out the complex interplay of larger economic or demographic forces with state or local policies and programs. How much was the tide? How much was the boat?

When it comes to poverty, income and homeownership, the overwhelming response to those questions was that the tide was everything.

Almost.

The Bocanegra Tejedas would not have become homeowners last decade without a targeted local affordable-housing program like Habitat. They, like hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, also benefited from the states push to expand access to health care before and after its 2013 Medicaid expansion.

For the Bocanegra Tejedas, Medicaid offered secondary insurance to help cover the costs of treating Guadalupes diabetes and other chronic medical conditions. Health insurance doesnt show up in Census household income or poverty data, which mostly counts wages, but being able to afford seeing a doctor has ripple effects in well-being that stretch into classrooms, workplaces and pocketbooks as well as into the economy. And the states 2016 voter-approved gradual increase of the minimum wage helped Black and Latino workers like Raquel who are disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage jobs.

The decade was also bookended by two emergency booster shots: The Federal Reserves Great-Recession policies to goose the economy and the housing market with low long-term interest rates and Congress pandemic aid. The straight-to-bank-account stimulus payments in addition to expanded unemployment assistance and child tax credits kept some of the gaps from worsening, says Christian Weller, a Center for American Progress senior fellow and public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Thanks to the housing boom, wealth gaps actually shrunk marginally in the first two years of the pandemic because Black and Latino households hold more of their wealth in homes, says Weller, who studies the Black-white wealth gap nationally.

But the headwinds of this current decade are strong. Both inflation and the raising of interest rates to combat it exact a greater toll on Blacks and Latinos, he says, and those are the groups less able to sustain an economic shock because they have less wealth, less money in the bank.

The Colorado Health Foundations recently released annual Pulse poll of nearly 3,000 state residents found the rising cost of living and housing a top concern across race and ethnicity. (The Foundation is a COLab funder.)

Among those surveyed, a greater percentage of people of color reported they had to work multiple jobs to afford housing in the last year and are worried they may lose their homes in the next.

Equity as a byproduct of the economy and equity as a goal are two very different things. The former can co-exist with a myth. The latter exposes it.

The myth is that people are a product of their individual choices, The Colorado Health Foundations McNeil-Miller says. So, people are poor because they make poor decisions. People are behind in education because they didnt study hard enough. People dont own houses because they didnt work hard enough.

Yes, McNeill-Miller says, individual choices are important, but the fact is people can do all the right things and make all the right decisions and still, they cant move forward because there are policies and practices and programs that disadvantage them.

Ask Rosemarie Allen, founder, president and CEO of the Aurora-based Center for Equity & Excellence, about her familys home-buying experiences, about having 800-plus credit scores and good incomes and money in the bank for down payments, only to be turned down by lenders or offered subprime or higher-interest loans. Ask Allen, who is Black, about the familys decision to circumvent possible racial bias in appraisals during her sons 2018 refinance. The pipes in his home burst. The house was freezing. The toilets werent working.

We thought, Oh, my goodness, the appraiser is coming, and its going to be too low. So we had our white friend go. I didnt ask him to lie. I just said Can you be there? Theyre going to assume youre the owner. If they ask, you can say no. Allen says. They gave us the most amazing appraisal ever. In that condition. I never would have believed it ever because weve had appraisals come in very low.

Here, as elsewhere, the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the demands for justice that followed accelerated state governments ongoing shift away from individual departments working in isolation to close gaps toward a collaborative approach. The state unleashed a blizzard of new or updated executive orders, strategic plans and equity toolkits.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which created an office targeting disparities in the late 2000s, declared racism a public health crisis in July 2020. The department explicitly named systemic racism in explaining why people of color in Colorado get sick and/or die at disproportionate rates. Black, Latino and Indigenous Coloradans have higher rates of asthma, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, among other conditions.

According to a Kaiser Health News data analysis, if Black and Hispanic infants had the same infant mortality rate as non-Hispanic white infants in the state, about 200 babies would have been spared from 2018 to 2020 alone.

One of CDPHEs presentations on COVID-19s higher toll in communities of color traces biased policies affecting where people could live, where they could send their children to school, where they work, how much they earn, whose neighborhoods got trees and whose got highways and industry and pollution.

Ryan Ross, CEO of the Urban Leadership Foundation has been part of the states efforts to close gaps as co-chair of the Colorado Equity Champions Coalition. In December 2020, the coalition released what it touted as the states first equity report for higher education.

Still, Ross says he has trouble believing the efforts will endure.

Youre seeing work being done, or at least conversations happening to move things forward. But you are also seeing more actions that speak against that work in a louder way, he says, pointing to the firing earlier this year of Auroras Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, who had strong support from Black and Latino community members.

Still, Ross says, he is noticing a greater sense of accountability and empathy and humanity around the treatment of Black and Brown folks, which I hope becomes the catalyst or catapult to real meaningful change.

Maria understands her bachelors degree makes her an exception among Latinos.

She gives credit to high school programs that support first-generation and lower-income students like the Greeley Dream Team and Gear Up, to counselors and advisers who helped broaden her vision, to the Pell grants and scholarships that ensured she would graduate debt-free. She says she found connection and guidance at UNCs Center for Human Enrichment, which supports first-generation students. In her last year, she received additional support from the statewide College Opportunity Scholarship Initiative, whose students, most of them lower-income and students of color, outperform students with similar backgrounds with scholarships and mentoring.

Even with support, Maria says she was plagued by imposter syndrome. Did she belong? Maybe a business administration degree was a mistake.

But the big picture never left her. The Bocanegra Tejedas are immigrants and citizens. Even in their struggle, she says she never forgot she had choices her family in Guanajuato did not. You have to imagine your future, she remembers telling her siblings during shared homework sessions.

Im doing it for my siblings, and then eventually for generations to come, she says. This is a huge change, not only for my family, but I think for our community.

To Maria, equity is the American Dream. It does not only open wider the doors of opportunity, It demands new doorways. New builders. Like her. Like her brother and sisters.

Two weeks after Maria graduated from college, Herminia graduated from Northridge High School. She was second in her class, and one of 50 students statewide to win the prestigious full-ride Boettcher Scholarship, which aims to keep the brightest Colorado minds in Colorado. Herminia starts her engineering classes this fall at the Colorado School of Mines.

Kaiser Health News reporter Rae Ellen Bichell contributed to this story.

Chasing Progress is a Colorado News Collaborative-led multi-newsroom reporting project examining the social, economic and health equity of Black and Latino Coloradans over the last decade.

The project builds off 2013s Losing Ground, an I-News/RMPBS series that tracked similar measures from 1960-2010.

We welcome stories of your experiences last decade as well as suggestions for future Chasing Progress stories at chasingprogress@colabnews.co

We believe vital information needs to be seen by the people impacted, whether its a public health crisis, investigative reporting or keeping lawmakers accountable. This reporting depends on support from readers like you.

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Key gaps between Black, Latino and white Coloradans have narrowed, but equity is a dream unrealized - The Colorado Sun

The Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras should be the major beneficiary of nearshoring but to reduce poverty (and the temptation to migrate) and take full advantage of the regions great potential, the Northern Triangle needs major investments both public and private in infrastructure. The International Monetary Fund has found that a sustained 1 percent GDP increase in investment in road infrastructure has the potential to reduce extreme poverty by 5 percent.

Competitive advantages of the Northern Triangle region are plenty and self evident but are overshadowed by the significant gaps in infrastructure development. For example, since 1995 the Guatemalan government has built only 135 miles of new roads per year. The average speed on these roads 27 mph. At this pace of construction, Northern Triangle countries would need over 100 years to have the roads needed to reach international standards.

Guatemala lags behind El Salvador and Honduras in road infrastructure, but as a region roads are a major problem with significant impacts:

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Northern Triangle countries not only have few and poorly maintained roads, but also very limited road connectivity. This places Guatemala in the 132nd, Honduras in the 66th and El Salvador in the 61st positions within the ranking of 139 countries evaluated in the latest report of the Global Competitiveness Index. This alone undoubtedly highlights the urgency of increasing investment in more and better infrastructure.

Nearshoring is the biggest opportunity for the Northern Triangle, especially as interest grows around reducing the United States commercial dependency on Asia and especially mainland China. Taking advantage of this opportunity requires supply chains to locate facilities in the Northern Triangle, where costs of transport and labor are more competitive, where friendly governments create an attractive business ecosystem, and where supply chains can be secure.

With that in mind, we belive that a modern infrastructure network that meets the economic and social development needs of the entire region requires investing in the improvement of logistics corridors and the expansion of local connectivity. We have the responsibility to connect more communities and to promote and invest in strategic infrastructure that helps reduce the time it takes to travel throughout these countries, to move cargo and increase the speed at which people and goods are moving.

The H.U.G.E. (Honduras, USA, Guatemala, El Salvador) Business and Investment Council convenes the largest, most socially responsible local business leaders who have the ability to invest billions of dollars in the Northern Triangle, pay taxes locally and employ hundreds of thousands of local people. HUGE is putting forward ideas and proposals to the American government, the local governments and critical institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

We know that private sector job creation is the best tool to eliminate poverty and to incentivize people to succeed at home. To that end, the HUGE Infrastructure Working Group has identified a portfolio of strategic infrastructure projects that can accelerate nearshoring, create jobs in the Northern Triangle and reduce the pressures of migration.

For example, the XOCHI Bypass Project in Guatemalas southwest region shows what can be accomplished when we come together. The project seeks to improve mobility and save travel time for vehicles between the urban centers of San Bernardino, Mazatenango and Cuyotenango. It is estimated that 60 percent of Guatemalas GDP transits through CA-2 Highway and up to 75 percent of Mexican exports/imports use this corridor to transit daily on their way to El Salvador, Honduras and the rest of Central America. With an investment of $175 million and more than 2,000 direct jobs created, the Xochi Bypass Project is a model of private sector infrastructure investment for the region.

The Northern Triangle has enormous potential. It is blessed by geography, the creativity of its people, and its diverse natural resources. The Northern Triangle as part of the CAFTA-DR free trade agreement should be at the top of the list for nearshoring partners. The local private sector is ready to invest billions, but one of the main bottlenecks is a lack of road infrastructure which isolates communities and holds the region back.

Fixing infrastructure requires an intentional partnership with the local governments, international financing institutions, the private sector and the United States.

Juan Jose Daboub is the president of H.U.G.E. Business and Investment Council and serves as Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.He is a former minister of finance of El Salvador (1999-2004) and former managing director of the World Bank Group (2006-2010).

Daniel F. Rundeis a senior vice president and William A. Schreyer chair in Global Analysis at CSIS. He previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank Group, and in investment banking, with experience in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

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To prosper and reduce migration, Northern Triangle needs roads - The Hill

Washington, DC:Today, leaders from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) called for bipartisan solutions to reduce the rising numbers of deaths and serious injuries that are arriving in trauma centers on a daily basis due to firearm violence.

During an ACS news conference at its Washington, DC office, surgeons outlined important attainable steps that can be taken to accelerate an effective response to reduce firearm violence.

Firearm violence is a growing public health crisis that must be immediately addressed. This is a public health crisis, not a political debate. The American College of Surgeons is committed to crafting solutions that save lives and minimize preventable death, said ACS Executive Director, Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS. We are unwilling to wait for another tragedy to befall another community when we believe we have a series of actions that will have an impact.

She explained that trauma surgeons are practical problem solvers who see and live through this crisis every day treating patients who are victims of attempted suicides, homicides, and who suffer other grievous injuries from firearms. We must be an integral part of the solution to reduce the rising number of deaths we see every year. Dr. Turner said the ACS wants to work with and educate legislators about firearm injury prevention so that we can incorporate what we know, in a data-driven way.

The ACS Committee on Trauma convened the Firearms Strategy Team (FAST) in 2017 consisting of highly regarded trauma surgeons, many of whom are avid firearm owners. Their singular mission was to develop an effective strategy to reduce firearm injury, death, and disability. The recommendations first introduced in 2018, and renewed today, are the product of broad consensus.

The FAST recommendations cover 13 areas and include background checks; registration; licensure; firearm education and training; safe storage practices; red flag laws; addressing mental health issues; and more research to better inform an approach going forward and to help address the root causes of violence. The full-text article appears in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

These comprehensive recommendations provide a road map to a solution and can have an immediate impact on saving lives, said Eileen M, Bulger, MD, FACS, Medical Director of ACS Trauma Programs and one of the leaders who helped develop the FAST recommendations and spelled them out at the news conference.

Trauma surgeon, Ronald M, Stewart, MD, FACS, provided a compelling front line perspective of the crisis. Dr. Stewart, chair of the department of surgery at University Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, explained he has been in the unfortunate position of caring for victims from two of the largest mass shootings in modern U.S. HistorySutherland Springs First Baptist Church and the Uvalde School shooting, and described the injuries inflicted by high-velocity weapons as horrific. The fact that their current patients are improving brings us joy, he reported. But they all have a long road ahead to deal with both the physical and emotional impact of this shooting. This moment of crisis will have a lifetime of impact on these innocent souls. Our teams are working to facilitate healing in a way that minimizes long-term effects.

Dr. Stewart, a former Chair of the ACS COT, credited decades of work from the COT in setting organized, regional trauma systems of care that make real life-saving difference in communities. In many ways, South Texas has a model trauma and emergency health care system built on the ACS model. He also pointed out that newer recommendations to administer whole blood quickly to seriously injured shooting patients is now a factor in saving lives. He commended ACS trauma leaders for advocacy work in educating and training people who are bystanders to control serious bleeding through its STOP THE BLEED program as another life-saving measure thats made an impact in improving survival too. But he pointed out that these are treatments, and treatment is not enough, these tragedies are preventable. We can prevent these atrocities.

As for the severity of the problem, he noted that in 2020 firearm injuries became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. Not the leading cause of traumatic death, but the leading cause of death.

Dr. Stewart believes that the ACS COT has proven that people who significantly differ in their views on firearms can and will enthusiastically work together to reduce unnecessary death and suffering from firearm-related injury and intentional violence.

Patrick V. Bailey, MD, MLS, FACS, a pediatric surgeon by training, who currently serves as a Medical Director in the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy, observed that the FAST recommendations were developed through a very deliberative process that included the participation and perspective of other surgeons who like me were also gun owners, but who seek to reduce the impact of gun violence on our country. Dr. Bailey does not believe these recommendations pose an undue burden on the rights of individual gun owners and said that he hopes these recommendations will be viewed by a Congress that comes together in a bipartisan way to enact substantive legislation directed at mitigating gun violence.

Other advocacy work initiated by the ACS COT that was highlighted today included a brief overview by Dr. Bulger of its Improving Social Determinants to Attenuate Violence (ISAVE) workgroup. ISAVE presents strategies for trauma centers to address the root causes of violence. The work that came out of the COTs 2019 Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention was also highlighted. The Summit included active participation by 44 professional organizations that gathered to identify collaborative ways to address the firearm violence problem. The organizations developed recommendations based on a consensus of all participating groups.

At the close of the summit, a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address the issue emerged that included focusing on recognizing firearm injury as a U.S. public health crisis and taking a comprehensive public health and medical approach to address it; researching it using a disease model; engagingfirearm owners and at-risk communities to develop firearm injury prevention programs and empowering the medical community to function in the best interest of its patients in variety of palpable ways. Full proceedings from the Summit were published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The important work started at the inaugural Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention will continue, announced Jeffrey Kerby, MD, PhD, FACS, current Chair of the ACS COT. This fall, we will reconvene and cohost the Summit to bring together subject matter experts from across the house of medicine. We must continue to build our collective will and work creatively to address the root causes that have led to this epidemic. He believes the ACS COT recommendations provide an immediate path for moving forward.

Dr. Kerby, who is Brigham Family Endowed Professor and director of the division of trauma and acute care surgery for the department of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), explained that he regularly speaks with trauma surgeons across the nation. We are all deeply disturbed by the inordinate amount of firearm injuries and death we must constantly address. My own trauma center has seen a 40% increase in the number of firearm-related injuries just in the last two years, and these numbers continue to increase. We are in the midst of an epidemic of firearm violence, and we need to act. I have to believe that as a country, we can do better.

Link:

The ACS calls for urgent, bipartisan action to address firearm violence public health crisis | ACS - American College of Surgeons