Category Archives: Intentional Communities

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If you need a ride to the airport, wish to order a pizza, plan a vacation, or search for a job, there is a good chance that you will use an app to get it. We live in a platform world, where technological apps connect consumers directly with goods and services. Electronic transaction platforms like Amazon, Uber, Grubhub, and Airbnb have perhaps permanently changed the way that we live and work. Platform apps seem to offer convenience at low cost and with little effort. But their impact on workers and economies is far from positive.

Seven of the 10 largest American companies are platform companies. In 2021, the five largest platform companies in the worldGoogle, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoftaccounted for 19 percent of all US market capitalization, valued at a whopping sum of $10.2 trillion. The booming platform economy includes well-known online marketing businesses such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy; transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft; food delivery services such as Instacart and Grubhub; and freelancing contractor apps such as Taskrabbit and Upwork. These platform companies have not only grown their economic power, they also enjoy near-monopoly control over their industries. For instance, Uber has transformed the taxi industry in the decade following its inception in 2009,and now dominates 69 percent of the ride-sharing market.

Even as these companies rake in massive profits and outperform their more traditional competitors, the life of the platform worker is not getting better. And the workforce is steadily growing: in the United States, the number of platform workers increased by 34 percent in 2021, one out of three workers has become defined as a temporary or freelance worker, and so-called independent contractors are expected to be the majority of the workforce in the near future. Yet, because of their designation as independent contractorsthat is, because they are not defined as full-time employees of a companyplatform workers have very few protections or benefits. This contractor status makes it easy for companies to exploit platform workers by forcing them to pay high premiums for affiliation with the platform or even refusing to pay them for jobs. Uber workers, for instance, are required to pay extortionary commission fees to the company that amount to 25 percent or more of all ride fees. As corporate algorithms minutely track each drivers labor, workers are vulnerable to dismissal without recourse in response to customer dissatisfaction.

Though some jurisdictions like California have recently proposed to classify drivers and delivery persons as company employees with worker benefits, platform companies have worked hard to overturn these efforts. In 2020, multiple platform companies, including Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and Postmates, spent over $205 million to pass Proposition 22 in California, a law that classifies platform workers as independent contractors, not employees. For these companies, defining workers as outside of the scope of traditional employment is an important strategy that allows them to slash labor costs by avoiding such rules as minimum wages, overtime pay, and workplace safety regulations.

To slash labor costs even further, some of these companies are heavily investing in automation technology that replaces human workers with robots. Uber even thought of removing all labor costs of drivers by investing heavily in self-driving automobiles. Although Uber terminated this plan in 2020, selling off its self-driving technology, many platform companies are on the way to developing technology that works to replace their human employees. In the face of this drive to make them obsolete, workers are organizing to resist platform hegemony and create new forms of cooperation.

Collective action has historically been the most successful way to address injustice in the workplace. The labor movement has usually consisted of workers negotiating with companies over wages and working conditions or pushing for social change. In the United States, labor unions developed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s and gave rise to legal protections enshrined in federal law in the early twentieth century, such as the 1935 National Labor Relations Act which provides workers the right to unionize, or the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which created the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, and the right to time-and-a-half pay for overtime work.

Similarly, there has been a global rise of worker-managed platform cooperatives in response to the rise of platform companies. These platform cooperatives use the same technology as platform companies but operate as cooperatives owned by the workers themselvesnot by a small number of investors and executives that steer companies like Uber or Airbnb. These platform cooperatives seek to deliver a higher portion of company revenues back to workers in the form of higher wages and more benefits. Platform cooperatives also have democratic decision-making processes, so that members of the cooperative have power over the way that the business is run.

These organizations have emerged out of the everyday experience of platform economy workers who want to put a stop to their exploitation. For instance, the Drivers Cooperative in New York started in an educational classroom among Uber and Lyft drivers, after workers became tired of paying high commission fees to these platform companies while also being required to pay for their own job expenses such as insurance and repairs. Drivers talked about their dream to somehow run their own app as an alternative to Uber. After one year of planning, New Yorks Drivers Cooperative was born in May of 2021, with a goal to launch an on-demand app owned by workers themselves which customers can use as an alternative to Uber and Lyft for hailing rides. The development of a fully functioning on-demand app is expected to bring more visibility to the cooperative rideshare community in the coming year. To support this vision, the Drivers Cooperative has been successful in raising more than $1.4 million through its ongoing crowdfunding campaign. Today, it has over 5,000 members.

Following these successful developments in New York, the Drivers Cooperative has an ambitious plan to expand to other cities in the future, so that drivers and customers will be able to use the same worker-managed rideshare in communities across the United States. The organizers at the Drivers Cooperative have been talking with possible international community partners as well. To achieve these goals, the Drivers Cooperative faces substantial challenges.How to raise capital to develop a sophisticated app that is able to compete with Uber? How to build significant partnerships in order to boost prominence and achieve a growing customer base?

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As some of the most powerful civic institutions that exist in this country, labor unions have long played a critical role in improving the wages and living conditions of workers. Since the mid-1990s, labor unions have revitalized themselves to focus on the direct organizing of workers, building broader partnerships with various community organizations and expanding their scope into sectors or industries where workers dont already have union protections. But unions have had difficulty organizing platform economy employees because of their classification as independent contractors, which excludes them from protections under the National Labor Relations Act. Organizing and achieving collective action among platform workers is often difficult because workers are decentralized, lacking a common workplace and a means to communicate with each other.

In response to these new and often challenging conditions, labor unions have tried to embrace new forms of organizing fit for a decentralized workforce. For instance, union leaders such as Larry Williams Jr. founded UnionBasean online organizing platformin 2015 to promote digital social networking among union members. SEIU supported Coworker.org, a digital political advocacy organization that lobbies for policy change and helped create the Workers Lab. These promising innovations show how labor unions have tried to stand in solidarity with platform workers by embracing new strategies that serve worker needs, pursue policy changes, and pioneer campaigns among platform workers.

The global financial crisis in 2008 also led labor unions to re-imagine new partnerships with various worker cooperatives, both in and out of the platform economy. The largest worker cooperative in the US, Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), is a union co-op, whose homecare worker-owners has been affiliated with SEIU 1199 since 2003. Recently, SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU- UHW West) in Oakland California also helped launch AlliedUP, a cooperative staffing firm owned by allied professional healthcare workers, by investing in startup costs. For the past five years, SEIU- UHW West has explored union-coops as a solution to the crisis of healthcare staffing shortages and other problems relating to poor pay and poor working environment. In January 2016, SEIU-UHW West organized licensed Vocational Nurses (IVNs) to create a union-co-op, Nursing and Caregivers Cooperative, Inc.although this cooperative fizzled due to the lack of a contract with hospitals for workers. As co-op owners, workers receive $35 an hour on average, which is $3 to $5 more than what other healthcare workers receive. AlliedUP workers even receive worker benefits and patronage dividends at the end of a fiscal year.

Connections between labor unions and industries especially impacted by the platform economy have helped cooperatives come into being. These connections are often fostered between union workers who learn about platform worker exploitation. For example, local CWA 7777 president Duncan Harrington opened his office in 2004 to immigrant taxi drivers so that they could talk about creating a different kind of business that is less exploitative.The result of this solidarity was the formation of two union cooperatives: Union Taxi in 2009 and Green Taxi Cooperative in 2016. Although there are still only a few labor unions supporting platform cooperatives, there are emergent connections between Communication Workers of America (CWA) 7777 and the platform drivers cooperative.

Even though these first two union cooperatives left the CWA 7777 some years later, it was not the end of the unions efforts. Now, the union is showing support for rideshare drivers by organizing the Colorado Independent Drivers Union (CIDU) in Denver, supported by CWA District 7. It has also welcomed the concept of a platform drivers cooperative, entering into a partnership with the Drivers Cooperative in New York. A growing collaboration between these two organizations is genuine, as both organizations seek to address the mounting challenge of platform exploitation of workers in their communities.

How can unions overcome powerful platform corporations? For now, a large part of their efforts is in the political arena: In 2020, labor spent $5.28 million on political lobbying, and another $1.8 billion on the presidential election. While lobbying and elections are important ways for unions to deploy their political power in the service of worker empowerment, established unions could also pursue the promising strategy of supporting platform cooperatives, so that these grassroots organizations can have the organizing infrastructure and financial support they need to develop technology platforms that can compete with powerful multinational companies like Uber and Airbnb.

It may seem idealistic to imagine a world where different communities organize platform cooperatives in partnership with labor unions, so that local people begin using platforms that their own community groups are invested in, but as Rebecca Lurie has written for NPQ, these collaborative strategies are exactly what is needed to advance worker empowerment and transform the economy. Instead of people simply using Uber by default, driver cooperatives could be organized in cities in the US and around the world, all using direct-to-consumer apps designed with union support and owned by the workers themselves rather than by platform economy corporations. Instead of using the Grubhub app, local restaurants could organize their own collective platform and band together to localize delivery efforts, keeping money and power in local communities.

These efforts are quickly becoming a reality, as the movement to organize platform workers has already started to make change in a growing number of communities. In helping platform workers see these organizing efforts through to completion, labor unions are one of the best natural allies to stand side-by-side with platform cooperatives. In the digital and platform era, intentional alliances between labor unions and platform cooperatives are necessary to create a stronger labor movement. It all begins with working-class solidarity between labor unions and the growing worker cooperative movement.

Read more here:

Raising the Floor of the Platform Economy: Co-ops, Unions, and the Struggle to Transform Technology - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly

From innovative design spaces (think drive-thru only storefronts and special locations that serve universities and military bases) to a punch-powered social media presence to an ever-changing yet traditional menu that has maintained and recruited customers for over five decades, its clear that Wendys knows what its doing.

Per the company's last earnings report, Wendy'sreported a revenue of $470.3 million in Q3 of 2021, up 4% year over year.

And as the brand sets its sight on growth, its choosing to focus in on what really pumps and drives business and builds community its franchisees.

Weve had a lot of change and evolution in our franchise system over the last five, seven years, we've gone through a big effort around what we call system optimization, Abigail Pringle, Wendy's President, International and Chief Development Officer tells Entrepreneur exclusively. Were a 52-year-old brand, so we've had folks that have been in the system for a long time, and we've gone through a lot of succession planning. We have next generation franchisees coming into the system, but we've also been actively recruiting new franchisees. And we're now accelerating that.

A whopping 95% of Wendys restaurants are franchised, and now the company is making moves to increase both accessibility for and diversity among franchisees through its new initiative dubbed Own Your Opportunity, which aims to specifically increase Wendys ownership among women and people of color.

We really want to increase the diversity of our franchisees. And so importantly, we have a very intentional focus on bringing more women and bringing people of color and they are definitely not the majority of our profile, Pringle says. And we have been increasing it over the last few years. But we think we need to accelerate even further.

Pringle explains that standard Wendy's franchisees are people that arewell-capitalized with a strong growth mindset but more importantly, have the leadership profile that fits the Wendys MO: investing in the people that they serve (through creating long-lasting careers with training development, fostering a strong and exciting work culture) and representing the communities that their restaurants serve.

Related:Wendy's President Reveals the Special Sauce Behind Their Design Strategy

Though Wendys hasnt specifically benchmarked their franchisee profile to date (the company began doing so within the last year) Pringle explains that franchisees are encouraged to self-identify though its not a requirement, explaining that women are definitely more of the exception, not the rule when it comes to the standard franchisee and that they are on the minority side.

With the Own Your Opportunity initiative, the company is taking specific steps to change that.

One of the big things we saw that was a hindrance was how do we find great women entrepreneurs and how do we narrow the gap in terms of getting them access to capital, Pringle tells us, explaining that the chain partnered last year with First Womens Bank, the first women-founded and owned bank based in Chicago. Were a mission partner of that bank and they're helping us find great women entrepreneurs, they're helping finance some of these new franchisee deals.

Pringle says that the company has also doubled down on efforts to talk to existing women franchisees through focus groups and networking events in an effort to connect franchisees from different communities with each other and help find a way to attract new female entrepreneurs that would be interested in owning their own little slice of the fast-food titan.

Wendys has also changed its financial requirements for interested franchisees in an attempt to make opportunities more accessible to those in underrepresented communities.

We realized we weren't very competitive and it really was a high bar in order to be able to come into the system, Pringle admits. We can be financially smart and also be more competitive, so we changed our financial requirements forallnew or existing franchisees."

This includes changing benchmarks for net worth and liquidity for aspiring franchisees, while also making an effort to increase effort to capital for those interested by creating financing opportunities with major lending partners like City National Bank, Huntington National Bank and Wintrust Franchise Finance.

They're really partnering with us to make access to capital much more approachable for candidates who want to build one restaurant and then build two and then build three right over time. And so that's a really big unlock, I think that will change our ability to recruit more folks, Pringlesays.

Wendys has also launched a Build-to-Suit development fund which will take most of the heavy lift off of franchisees who hope to start with the company.

Related:'I Have Tears In My Eyes From Laughing So Much': Wendy's Rips Into McDonald's French Fries In Savage New Billboards

We're putting our own money into this equation, Pringle tells us. We actually have a turnkey program where we find the site, we build the location, and we hand over the keys to a new franchisee. And so they have part of the financial requirements, but we also are investing our capital to create an opportunity through building the restaurants. It really does change the game, I think, to be able to say, Gosh, I don't have a background in development or I'm not sure how to go and buy real estate. We've done all of that for them and engage and partner with them on that kind of a program.

The variation in different Wendys restaurant design types allows for massive (and seemingly endless) options and opportunity for those looking to open a their own franchise.

Though standard Wendys restaurants aremostcommon in the U.S. (which is the companys biggest market), theyre not the only store design option for franchisees.

The DNA, the core design and the experience is the same, but the way we bring [Wendys] to life can be different in each community. And I think that's part of better serving the community that we're in, Pringle says. I think that design evolution has changed things. And I think it will open up the door.

Design evolution certainly helped the company succeed through the pandemic where so many faltered amid restaurant closings due to pandemic protocols and early-day lockdowns.

Its this success and momentum within the company that has the company in the ideal position to double down on franchisee expansion and to look at the future with an accelerated pace.

I think that the brand is never been stronger. Our brand is in a really healthy position. In the U.S. we're now the number two hamburger chain, we are growing market share traffic and dollar share we are doing that in all other parts of the world, Pringle says. We believe that we can grow the brand. There's a huge opportunity to be able to better serve customers in the communities. We want to be able to grow.

Wendys was up nearly 6% year over year as of Monday afternoon.

More here:

Exclusive: Wendy's President Talks New Franchisee Initiative Zeroed In On 'Diversity of Franchisees' - Entrepreneur

Why do some cities make intentional efforts to become more inclusive of their diverse populations while others do not? Using the food metaphor of a roux, Jonathan M. Fisk, Geoffrey A. Silvera, John C. Morris, Xi Chen, Xiaofeng Chen, Mac-Jane Crayton and Jan Hume write that without careful consideration by local governments, diverse constituencies may not be able to participate in the communities in which they live. They find that local governments especially those with a professional city or county manager are more willing to offer inclusion initiatives such as cultural competency training for their employees when more of their residents are foreign born.

As administration scholars, we are rarely able to weave food metaphors into our work. But they can be useful in helping us explain our new research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in US local governments, as they encapsulate many of the associated principles and actions. Much of the literature around DEI uses food metaphors, and so, in trying to appreciate the contributions of our findings, there was a need to understand what sets the table for DEI initiatives in local governments. Local governments have been thrust into the limelight on issues of diversity management, so it is timely to look at how local governments address inclusion.

In our work, we use the metaphor of a roux, a mixture of flour and fat which requires close monitoring and managing, and serves as the foundation for gumbo, one of Louisianas celebrated dishes that combines culinary aspects of African, French, Spanish, German, and the Choctaw (First Nation Tribe) cultures. We believe that the roux metaphor is helpful for understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in local governments. Local governments often already represent diverse constituencies whether it is via their citizens race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, experiences, learning styles, age, or other characteristics that make an appreciable difference. In other words, there are already many ingredients. Yet, without careful and deliberate inclusion, the flavors of those ingredients may not be able to contribute. For cities, the challenge is similar and requires careful and deliberate actions that push the community towards greater degrees of inclusion and equity. With these careful and deliberate steps, local governments are better positioned to maximize the collective skills, passions, and abilities of all their citizens.

We set out in this project to understand what factors are associated with local governments that go beyond counting and beyond legal compliance; why do some cities make intentional efforts to become more inclusive while others do not? Understanding these factors within US local governments is particularly important as local governments are involved in an array of services that affect citizens lives such as law enforcement and public safety, parks, recreation, planning and zoning, and community and economic development. Yet, the distribution of services, the points of contact with citizens, and the impacts on diverse groups are not necessarily spread in an equitable manner. By being inclusive and seeking to (re)build partnerships, to collect data, to learn, to reflect, and to change practices, more and diverse citizens are likely seated at the table and may meaningfully contribute to the gumbo making. The stakes could not be higher. For many, they involve life and death decisions. For many others, they strike at the core of local democracy and who governs.

We examined three inclusive initiatives that have the potential to assist a community as it seeks to become more inclusive i.e., in becoming the roux: offering cultural competency training, providing access to multi-lingual community information, and including a preference for multi-lingual job applicant. To do so, we analyzed data from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)s 2018 Local Government & Immigrant Communities Survey and community demographic variables from the American Community Survey (ACS) from 1,201 local governments.

In general, the results suggest that local governments are more willing to engage in inclusion initiatives as a response to the needs of their citizens and residents. Data shows that as the number of residents who were born elsewhere (i.e., foreign-born) increase the odds of the local government offering cultural competency training to its employees increases. We surmised that as the number of foreign-born individuals within the jurisdiction increases, their presence and associated needs may reveal deficiencies in the current skillsets of local government employees or gaps in services. As a response, local officials may turn to cultural competency training with a particular emphasis on incorporating new knowledge into more inclusive service delivery and engagement. Local needs were also associated with the adoption of both language service variables.

We suggest that within these communities, language-specific needs are likely to be greater. As a result, multi-lingual skills are a key tool in ensuring that various groups have a seat in city hall or in the county commission chamber and that they can be an important part of the conversation. Our data also suggest that the form of government and whether there is a professional city or county manager in the local government matter. We infer that the professional training of city and county managers makes a difference, as compared to those with less expertise in local government. While we could not pinpoint a reason, managers may place a greater value or significance on multi-lingual skills and abilities in meeting the aims of the local government administration.

In every local government administration, diversity (the ingredients) is present, but inclusion does not just happen, and cities cannot continue to believe that they will be able to react their way into being inclusive. To continue the cooking metaphor, our finding that of the importance of the relationship between city and county managers and inclusion initiatives shows that preparation is key. Both the ingredients and the cook are important drivers of inclusion. Like a roux, inclusion requires intentional oversight by one who is willing to read the recipe card and act.

Our finding that the presence of foreign-born populations increases the likelihood of engaging in inclusion initiatives seems to affirm that some ingredients matter differently than others in their likelihood to stimulate local inclusionary efforts just like some ingredients are more motivating than others when preparing a meal. Yet still, we affirm that inclusion efforts are warranted even when local government administrators do not see the need for it, as diversity, in some form, is always present. Populations, by their nature, are diverse, and while many of the conversations in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space are wrapped around racial diversity, populations are also often diverse in ways that cannot be perceived, including ethnic diversity, LGBTQ, mental health needs, literacy, etc. Thus, the time for local governments to begin engaging in inclusion efforts is always right now.

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Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of USAPP American Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.

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Jonathan M. Fisk Auburn UniversityJonathan M. Fisk is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. His work focuses on state and local energy/environmental policy and local government management.

Geoffrey A. Silvera University of Alabama-BirminghamGeoffrey A. Silvera is a management scholar that serves as an Assistant Professor of Health Services Administration at The University of Alabama-Birmingham. His work centers on the ability of executive decision-makers to positively influence end-user outcomes such as patient care quality, patient experience, and inclusion.

John C. Morris Auburn UniversityJohn Morris is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. His research focuses on collaboration, public-private partnerships, water policy, federalism, and organization theory. He has published twelve books and more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and reports.

Xi Chen Auburn UniversityXi Chen is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. His research interests include research methods for public administrators, representative bureaucracy, state and environmental politics, and diversity and inclusion.

Xiaofeng Chen Auburn UniversityXiaofeng Chen received her Ph.D. in 2021 from the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. Her research interests include local government management, immigration, and diversity and inclusion.

Mac-Jane Crayton Auburn UniversityMac-Jane Crayton is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. Her research interests include energy policy, non-profit management, and diversity and inclusion.

Jan Hume Auburn UniversityJan Hume received her Ph.D. in 2021 from the Department of Political Science at Auburn University. Her research interests include education policy, comparative state politics, and diversity and inclusion.

Continued here:

For local governments, adopting more inclusionary practices is about preparation and action. - USAPP American Politics and Policy (blog)

A curator, writer and funder, as well as an academic, Linda Earle champions inclusion and the exploration of new platforms and ideas in the arts. She is a professor of practice and the associate graduate director in the Art History Department for the arts management MA at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

There are different systems of even thinking about art experiences that I think are just coming more strongly into view now. People are understanding that you just dont go into communities and extract cultural value and put it on a wall, Earle said. And I think thats a change that has been formative.

We spoke with her about how organizations and artists can push for greater equity, how the arts scene is developing and what needs to be done to bring about institutional change.

TN: What impact has philanthropy had historically on the visual arts and how has that affected diversity?Linda Earle: Philanthropy has had a huge impact on the shape of our institutions. It has benefited artists, too, and given them platforms and affected practices, because they need facilities in which to make their work. There has not been a long history of government patronage in this country. It has evolved over time, from a model that focused on supporting the arts through institutions to including, more recently, a system of grants for individual artists. Now, arts funders are incorporating strategies in their own grant making to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and access. And access in all of its dimensions, including in terms of disability, as well as demographics, class and economics.

Previously, funders in the arts focused on tentpole organizationsthe most visible kinds of organizations, like the PMA [Philadelphia Museum of Art] or the Metropolitan Museum of Artand responded mostly to their diversity plans and how they were planning to bring diverse audiences in, rather than considering equity for the whole field and and the role that institutions of color were playing in their communities, and directing resources their way. There was a center to the margins and top-down approach to supporting diversity and culture in general. Now, funders are looking for ways to support cultural production with a multidirectional strategy. Theyre looking to support community-based organizationsorganizations that represent traditions, organizations that represent innovation within a certain cultural frameworkas well as the larger organizations. And theyre looking at how they allocate their funds to really consider whether they are creating an equitable cultural landscape.

Broadening access and inclusion in this city and elsewhere is a matter of being very intentional: How do you make people feel that this institution belongs to them and they belong in the institution?

-- Linda Earle, professor of practice in fine arts management and associate graduate director in the Arts History Department for the arts management MA

TN: How can institutions strive for cultural equity and how can artists do the same?LE: Artists have been involved as activists since the 1930s and theyve been politically involved in bringing issues of cultural equity to the forefront. The 1930s were a time of inequity in general, and artists were politicized and the political atmosphere was very charged because of the Depression. There were huge work programs, part of the WPA [Works Progress Administration], for artists. Thats part of the DNA of community-based arts organizations now. The WPA seeded a different kind of cultural landscape by creating community workshops, arts education and arts appreciation programs, so that the frame of art appreciation and participation really expanded, then, and again in the 1960s. And at every juncture artists have been at the forefront in encouraging that kind of diverse cultural participation. I think now artists are dealing with more than just philanthropy. Theres also the marketplace, which is booming. The collectors are part of the boards of institutions and artists have been looking very closely at that crossoverwhere the donor and collector classes and the 1% intersectespecially in a time of extreme wealth inequality. Artists have offered a deep critique of how power asserts itself through boards of institutions and through the financial infrastructure of those institutions. Actually, institutional critique is its own art form now, as well as an activity, and I think those are both outlets for some really meaningful artist participation in moving the needle in terms of cultural equity.

TN: What more needs to be done to bring about institutional change?LE: Much more needs to be done. Thereve been calls for change since I can remember and Ive been in this field almost 50 years. Ive seen waves of nudging change and then it starts going into retrograde. I think what happened with the pandemic and with George Floyds murder was a real reckoning, and the question now is how to deliver systemic change. My approach to teaching arts management is to look at all of the practices that comprise management of an organization and what the lineages of those practices are, so that students can begin to not just critique practices, but also understand how they affect an organizations expression of values. Then, students can use what is useful and transform what is not.

For example, we look at how institutions project themselves to the public through admissions policieshow lobbies look, how welcomed people feel, or not, in the spaceand try to understand that thats the result of a number of practices. Sometimes the practices are intentional, sometimes theyre unconscious and the result of following tradition. Places look the way they do for specific reasons and institutions may not have been intentionally excluding people, but have ended up doing so anyway. Think about the dont touch atmosphere in many institutions. We dont want people to destroy art, but how then do we collapse the space in other ways between the art and the audience? We have to be conscious of physical accessibility, but also psychological accessibility. Those stairs in front of the PMA, which you no longer have to use. When they were the only access point, they said to people who werent fully mobile, This is not for you. That wasnt the intention, but thats what happens when you have steep stairs and no handrails. I think broadening access and inclusion in this city and elsewhere is a matter of being very intentional: How do you make people feel that this institution belongs to them and they belong in the institution?

Change also includes giving culturally specific and community-based organizations the tools and resources to serve their communities and not only sustain themselves, but also thrive. Throughout all of the vicissitudes of the pandemic and racial reckoning, institutions of color were considered vulnerable because they didnt have huge endowments or large groups of staff. Actually, many more of them survived than people thought, partly because theyre resilient and partly because theyve dealt with a lack of resources. They tend not to get into huge debt because they dont have good enough credit to do so. But we know that to sustain yourself long term, you have to be able to take risks, you have to retain staff and you have to pay your staff well. These are the infrastructural things that have to be developed in smaller organizations. I think its the job of funders and public funding to figure out how to build capacity in those organizations, so they can serve their constituents without losing their integrity. Its been done before and there are marvelous models out there.

TN: How has the art world changed? Whats on the horizon?LE: Social media has played an enormous role in the transformation of relationships between artists and the public, because artists have direct access to the public. Thats been a really interesting development. Well see how that changes the landscape. I also think most people I know in the arts are both frustrated by the glacial pace of change, but also very excited about what has changed, and the possibilities of what can be changed. Well see how generational change affects things too. I would hope to see more and more diverse groups of peoplein terms of age, race, ability and ethnicityjoining boards and getting involved in governance and policymaking on a public level with the arts. Because the arts have an important role to play in democracy, especially in terms of social imagination and thinking about new possibilities. During my research [at the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage] I met an archivist, Steven Fullwood, who is working with another archivist, Miranda Mims, on something they created called the Nomadic Archivists Project. They educate African Americans about archives in general and Black archives in particular. I attended a virtual talk Fullwood gave where he said, Ive been to the future and someone is looking for you. And that was a very moving statement about imagining the future and moving towards it, knowing that whats accomplished now will be accessible in the future.

Edirin Oputu

Read more from the original source:

Striving for diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts - Temple University News

Disadvantaged communities are facing a disproportionate brunt of the impact of COVID-19, especially economically and many of the nonprofits that work with these communities are struggling. Indian philanthropy can help improve the resilience of these organisations but the task will not be easy and multiple steps will be required. Aside from increasing investment, it is important to prioritise the capacity of non-profit organisations as well as foster peer learning efforts in the social sector space. If there is one lesson from the last few years, it is that collaborative and community-led efforts will be crucial in the coming years.

A survey of 55 nonprofit organisations found some worrying findings. 71% of nonprofits had enough cash to cover barely 9 months of operations while only 40% of nonprofits could cover more than 80% of their personnel costs. More than half of the organisations had a highly restricted funding base with little flexibility to repurpose funds. According to the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy in May 2020, 54% of non-profit organisations surveyed could cover fixed costs for a year, while an astounding 30% could cover only six months or less. Several of these organisations reported considering drastic measures including suspension of core programmes and downsizing if funding for indirect costs was not forthcoming.

There are a few recommendations for key stakeholder groups that would strengthen the philanthropy ecosystem and build a more inclusive, equitable India.

Leading the way

With philanthropists largely redirecting funding to COVID relief programmes, the accessible pool of CSR funds is expected to diminish drastically. This will seriously threaten the institutional and financial health of nonprofits and hamper their ability to impact vulnerable communities. This highlights the need for funders to urgently support non-profit organisations with flexible capital to strengthen their institutional resilience. Offering non-financial assets in the form of capacity building opportunities, resilience-building tools and advisory support are also important ways that funders can help aid non-profits in the long run.

COVID has unveiled deep fault lines around the inequities that seep through the Indian development sector. Whether it was the millions of migrant workers who fled back to their hometowns, the thousands of families going hungry or children dropping out of schools, there has never been a more important time for the philanthropic community to help provide care for Indias most vulnerable communities. Philanthropists need to make an intentional shift to foster more equality and inclusivity which includes funding more organisations that work with the most marginalized communities, especially at the intersection of caste, class, gender, and poverty, as well as incorporating a G.E.D.I. (Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) lens within the culture and principles of their philanthropic initiatives. The pandemic has also re-emphasised the value of rural, localised, community-led efforts. Grassroots organisations with the greatest proximity to vulnerable communities have a critical role to play in engaging and supporting these communities through the pandemic.

There is also a growing need for philanthropists to expand their focus beyond large, well-established city-based nonprofits to also support more grassroots organisations in rural areas. Such organisations can enable last-mile efforts in remote areas where government services are unable to reach those in need.

Improving resilience

COVID-19 has endangered the long-term sustainability of nonprofits. There is an urgent need to significantly invest in strengthening their institutional resilience so they can weather external shocks like pandemics or recessions, where their interventions will be needed the most. This involves undertaking focused efforts to fundraise for flexible capital and participating in capacity building opportunities such as webinars, workshops, mentorship and 1:1 advisory support. Establishing a community that facilitates peer learning would enable organisations to collectively grow.

In a similar vein, engaging in increasing their collaborative efforts by joining forces with multiple stakeholders will enable nonprofits to drive collective impact. The situation is dire for many communities and there is a need for non-profits to move away from siloed efforts and participate in multi-stakeholder collaborative efforts. Collaborative platforms offer non-profits the opportunity to drive deeper and faster impact by leveraging greater resources, a wider network and more diverse skillsets.

Nonprofits must look to extend this sense of collaboration to the communities they work with as well. Models, where nonprofits or external stakeholders assess community needs, design and implement solutions, are common. While these may be effective in delivering immediate aid, they have been shown to be disempowering to communities and less sustainable over time. Approaching communities as partners or owners (rather than mere recipients), and actively involving them in the creation and implementation of programmes is a more effective model to build lasting community resilience.

An ecosystem of philanthropy

While philanthropy in India has grown and matured significantly over the last decade, there remains much to be done when compared to the countrys needs. Intermediaries need to play a crucial role in filling critical gaps in Indias philanthropic infrastructure by enabling the creation of common goods and platforms that the sector at large can leverage. This includes building and facilitating multi-stakeholder collaboratives to drive collective impact at scale, thought leadership and peer learning by increasing data collection and research initiatives.

Data and research around strategic giving are fragmented and efforts are taking place in silos. In the short term, this limits the innovation of concrete investment-ready vehicles and in the long term, enhances the existing lack of a cohesive mainstream narrative around philanthropy in India.

Intermediaries must look to strengthen the overall resilience of nonprofits by investing in capacity building, especially at the grassroots level. Building leadership capabilities among grassroots organisations will be particularly important given the rising significance of local, community-based organisations during the pandemic. While there are several initiatives focused on the economic empowerment of grassroots leaders, there are limited initiatives focused on providing them leadership training and development. Many of them miss out on opportunities due to language and technology barriers and lack of contextualized offerings that cater specifically to their needs.

Building a future together

As Omicron continues to run rampant across the country, it is vital that Indian philanthropy continues to adapt and evolve as per the needs of the situation. Given the difficulties faced by disadvantaged communities as a result of the pandemic, it is incumbent on all stakeholders philanthropists, non-profit organisations and intermediaries to make collaborative efforts to improve grassroots realities. Increasing the resilience of non-profit organisations and improving their capacities will ensure that Indias COVID recovery is equitable and leaves no one behind.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Strategic philanthropy and the need to improve institutional resilience - The Times of India Blog

Published 02-11-22

Submitted by Principal Financial Group, Inc.

DES MOINES, Iowa, February 11, 2022 /CSRwire/ The Iowa Wolves, the NBA G League franchise of the Minnesota Timberwolves, along with Principal and ArtForce Iowa are excited to announce a collaboration to create and present unique player jerseys in celebration of the many diverse communities in Iowa, with an ensuing jersey auction to benefit local non-profits.

The creation and design of the jerseys has been led by ArtForce Iowa, a local non-profit with the mission to create opportunities for youth living on the margins through art. The community celebration jerseys designed by ArtForce Iowa youth will debut Monday, February 14, for an evening promoting Black History Month, with proceeds from the jersey auction going to Ill Make Me A World in Iowa: Iowas African American Festival.

We cant wait to share these jersey designs with everyone. From day one on this project, the team at ArtForce Iowa has absolutely crushed it with their intentional and meaningful approach to these designs and the importance of celebrating community, said Chip Albright, Vice President of Marketing of the Iowa Wolves. None of this would have been possible without the vision and commitment from leaders at Principal seeking innovative ways to support their local community here in Des Moines.

Principal is proud to be a part of such an exciting collaboration, said Jo Christine Miles, Director of Principal Foundation and Community Relations. Art and sports are universal languages that possess an unparalleled ability to unite, inspire, engage, and inform. Principal is excited to see how our efforts to blend them together leads to new understandings and opportunities for our local community. We commend ArtForces thoughtful and beautiful designs, and the Wolves openness to provide the stage to share this art with the community and for the benefit of local organizations.

The opportunity to create social justice minded jerseys for the Iowa Wolves was an experience I know that so many of us in the ArtForce Iowa community will continue to treasure, said Emma Parker, ArtForce Iowa Program Director. Knowing that the voices and ideas from our community will be worn by the players and seen by the greater community is truly an honor. I hope that we can continue to provide unique opportunities like this to the young people who call Des Moines home in the hopes of strengthening our communities and understanding of one another.

The list of themed community celebration games is below. All games will be played at Wells Fargo Arena starting at 7 p.m. and will include opportunities to win the jerseys in an auction benefitting local non-profits.

For details on the auction, visitiawolves.com.

Iowa Wolves Contact: John Meyer, Media Relations Specialist(515) 564-8555, john.meyer@iawolves.com

Principal Contact: Melissa Higgins, Public Relations(515) 878-0133, higgins.melissa@principal.com

ArtForce Iowa Contact: Christine Her, Executive Director(515) 777-3182, christine@iowaartsineducation.org

####

Principal community relations supports the communities where affiliates of the Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA 50392 operates. Insurance products and plan administrative services provided through Principal Life Insurance Co., a member of the Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA 50392.

Principal, Principal and symbol design and Principal Financial Group are trademarks and service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.

Principal (Nasdaq: PFG) helps people and companies around the world build, protect and advance their financial well-being through retirement, insurance and asset management solutions that fit their lives. Our employees are passionate about helping clients of all income and portfolio sizes achieve their goals offering innovative ideas, investment expertise and real-life solutions to make financial progress possible. To find out more, visit us atprincipal.com.

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Iowa Wolves Partner With Principal and ArtForce Iowa to Cel - CSRwire.com

I head to the gym on a chilly weekday evening. Inside, everything is where it should be. Most of the machines are full. People dont make eye contact, look away if you catch their glance and reach for their phones between sets. We all have AirPods in and we know what were there for. We slide weights off racks, place them back onto other racks and rearrange them into better orders to get the optimal workout.

I stare at the beige ceiling and do 12 reps, repeating this three times before sliding the weights back off. When I rest, I try to look down at the ground, but notice that peoples clothes have names in the corner. So do mine. More sliding of weights, but this time onto a different machine. Outside, a light snow falls, covering the sleek SUVs that fill the parking lot. They have leather seats, remote start features and a pair of skis in the trunk.

A friend of mine almost took this semester off, but she decided to stay and make the best of it. She doesnt share this with the droves of people that took leaves this semester, last semester or really for any combination of Bates time units since the pandemic began. Although I cant speak for all of them, I know several of their stories: students exhausted with the demands of our academic machinery, the ostentatious feeling of our wealthy bubble and the search for meaning in a four-year degree, all made far more challenging by the strain of the pandemic.

When this friend was in the midst of planning her then-certain semester off, she chose seven pairs of pants and a little over seven tops that she considered her best and piled the rest in cardboard moving boxes for Goodwill. Its this kind of anti-materialist, pro-follow-what-matters feeling that I have often heard about: A wanting to not be a part of these rooms full of people with branded clothes, BMW keys in their pockets, prepared food to eat and words to sift through their expensive reasoning machines, but nothing to really get done other than lacrosse, theater or some other form of underwater basket weaving.

Instead, they look for something that feels more in touch with reality. My friend, who had found more meaning on her gap-year than from Bates academic experience, wanted to find a place like the farm where she stayed rent-free in exchange for her work, something that would provide concrete sustenance to some people.

A different friend told me that their non-Batesie sibling withdrew their admission from an ivy-league school in exchange for a membership in an intentional living community, citing that they found much more meaning in meeting the tangible needs of a tight-knit group. I heard of someone who took a year off to go work at a Colorado brewery, another who went to live in a backcountry ski hut. Others took mental health breaks, citing the various stressors of Bates for taking their leave but often wanting the comfort of home and family instead.

Much more than other colleges, Bates as a whole feels proud that it is grounded, more in touch with reality and less a part of the capitalist machine than more elite colleges with grindier students and bigger endowments. But I think what irritates so many people is that this feels like a thin veneer under which lies the same problems that people had with these other colleges.

People dont flex Gucci or whatever, but they don their Patagonia puffers and crunchy apparel for a reason. People seem bohemian enough until you realize that you needed straight As to make the deans list, which made up 25% of the student body last semester. People volunteer instead of intern, but they still do their fair share of interning, working at environmental groups and a milieu of nonprofits with names you know. They probably arent paid, but not to worry, its for the resume, not the paycheck. Not only that, but they can choose to take time off from school to follow what they think will make them happy.

To be fair, I think the moral bar is set pretty low for college students at large, and Bates clears that bar with flying colors. But I think we might have confused our glaze of intentionality with the careful examination that the fullest extent of that intention requires.

In other words: why do we choose Patagonia instead of some used, non-name-brand clothes? Why go for the deans list and transform ourselves into the information processing machines and commodities that Bates makes us? Are we doing it to serve our wider communities, to do the most good we can, to be good effective altruists? Or are we doing it because of inertia, because our parents have written the check, both for our college and our Subaru, and they expect us to go? And if we choose to opt out to pursue happiness in whatever form what are we giving up, and for who? And should we be doing what makes us happy?

I ask as someone guilty of most of these questions, but I dont think I have a clear answer for any of them. I think that digging for a solution, though, will help Bates get closer to what it wants to be.

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Patagucci: Materialism and Higher Education The Bates Student - The Bates Student

I recently came back to Catholic higher education, after working for a Catholic nonprofit, to serve as the vice president for mission, values and inclusion at a Dominican Catholic college. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet several education leaders at the annual Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities conference entitled "Called Together."

Many of the conversations and some of the panel discussions reinforced an opinion I've had for some time, mainly that Catholic higher education continues to be ill-prepared at best, oblivious at worst, to the overwhelming demographic shift of the 21st century: the ongoing growth of the Hispanic/Latinx population in the United States.

By the midpoint of this century, two-thirds of the U.S. Catholic population will self-identify as Hispanic. Currently, the majority of Catholics ages 16 to 29 are Hispanic. And outside of the Catholic population, one in every four high school graduates is Hispanic, reaching closer to 30% of high school graduates by 2036. A new report from Pew Research on race and ethnicity saw a 50% increase of Hispanic population in 517 counties (out of 1,685), from 2010 to 2020, with the majority of counties located in states that have not been traditionally Hispanic population centers.

In addition, Hispanic/Latinx are intersectional identities, with Afro-Latinos, Asian-Latinos, Indigenous-Latinos, etc., in our communities. As of 2019, 80% of Latinos are U.S. citizens, including third, fourth and fifth generations present in all 50 states. Catholic higher education cannot afford not to respond to this growing reality across the country.

This new landscape of student populations is fostering a new higher education identity. The number of Hispanic Serving Institutions, or HSI, continues to rise across the United States, including within Catholic colleges and universities. To be classified as HSI, a college or university must enroll at least 25% Hispanic students, and half must be eligible for a federal Pell grant, which is for students with exceptional financial need.

An institution is identified as anemergingHSI if they enroll 15% to 24% Hispanic students. As of Fall 2020, out of226 Catholic colleges and universities, 32 are HSI, and 36 are emerging HSI. These demographic shifts will continue to shape the student population enrolled in Catholic colleges and universities for decades to come, but the question remains will we respond and be intentional about welcoming, integrating and celebrating our growing Hispanic student population?

Responding to the ongoing transformation of current and emerging Hispanic/Latino populations by Catholic colleges and universities must be rooted in our Catholic identity and mission. One of the issues that arises, however, is the lack of theological and pastoral reflection on Catholic higher education identity outside of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and the Land O'Lakes statement. Much of the public discourse on Catholic identity fails to include a multicultural, multiracial, panethnic people of God.

One recent publication by Gina Garcia, John DeCostanza and Jaqueline Romo may have provided the next seminal work on Catholic higher education identity. "Theorizing a Catholic Hispanic-Serving Institution (C-HSI) Identity through Latinx Theological Lenses of Lo Cotidiano and Traditioning" provides a new framework through which to discuss Catholic identity, centering the lives of our Hispanic students and ongoing theological tradition, rooted in the everyday lives of our students.

This is the level of theological, educational and pastoral reflection needed to respond to this moment, especially given an anti-Hispanic sentiment in this country, which reached a traumatic moment withla matanza, the August 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas. Many community members and victims' families are still processing and carrying the pain of that day.

We see this anti-Hispanic sentiment not only in politics, but media, and the lack of representation in education among faculty and staff. Outside of a handful of priests and religious sisters, as far as I could tell, I was the only lay Latino mission officer holding a vice president position in mission and ministry in many of the conversations I had this past weekend. Responding to a diverse, multicultural, Hispanic student population will require a culturally responsive ministry and representation within the classroom and within the mission office at Catholic colleges and universities.

Most Catholic colleges and universities in this country were originally founded to serve the poor, the immigrant, the marginalized communities. This is part of the identity and the historical institutional charism of our schools. The question now remains, will we continue to passively allow the demographic shifts to shape higher education, or, will we meet this moment intentionally?

I hope to do my part to help my institution recall their founding and realign our mission and identity to serve a diverse student population, paying close attention to our growing Hispanic community in southern Wisconsin.

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El futuro is now: Is Catholic higher ed ready for the growing Hispanic community? - National Catholic Reporter

IDAHO FALLS STATE OF THE FOREST by Suze Woolf, is part of the traveling museum exhibition, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II. Special arrangements were made to bring STATE OF THE FOREST to The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho (TAM) by David J. Wagner, Ph.D., exhibition Curator/Tour Director. The exhibit will be in Idaho Falls through April 2, 2022.

The artwork was made especially for the exhibition which premiered at The James Art Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2019. The artwork is an installation consisting of 30 three-panel sets depicting and documenting individual trees charred in different forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. The art medium is watercolor on paper transferred onto polyester and silk organza panels. Each art panel is overlaid by another panel containing text by Lorena Williams documenting the respective fire. Each panel set is 52" high; widths vary from 8" to 36"" high with a contiguous floor footprint of 30'x 30.

Suze Woolf's work is about human relationships to nature. A painter, she explores a range of media from watercolor to paper-casting, from artist books to pyrography and installationsometimes all together. Her background ranges from fine art to computer graphics and interface design. Her installation State of the Forest, based on 14 years of painting individual burned trees, is currently part of the Environmental Impact II tour from 20192023.

She has exhibited throughout Washington State but also in Utah, British Columbia, Maryland, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Washington DC. Her work is in regional public collections as well as many private ones. She has received awards from arts organizations, universities and colleges, residencies in Zion, Glacier, Capitol Reef and North Cascades National Parks, the Grand Canyon Trust; and art colonies such as the Banff Centre, the Vermont Studio Center, Willowtail Springs, Jentel, Playa and Centrum.

18 years have passed since Lorena Williams forced her feet into the stiff leather of new fire boots for the first time. That pair of boots is hardly recognizable now, cracked and worn beyond salvaging. This transformation is not unlike her changed perceptions of life as a firefighter and also of wildfire itself. Her early beliefs that all fire was bad and all fire crews good were too rigidstiff like new leather. The political, cultural, social, and environmental complexities once invisible to her as a rookie were revealed as she studied fire ecology, was exposed to land management politics and policies, and witnessed communities and fellow firefighters burn.

Beyond the complexities of firefighting, Lorenas writing considers those of wildfire itself. This beautiful, mysterious, and deadly element is vilified by some and celebrated by others. If we look past what is often oversimplified as destruction, we might see themes of rebirth, vitality, beauty, lovesomething more complex than just flames and char. We might find truths about ourselves and our relationships with this earth. For those who overstate the positives of wildfire with the all fire is good! mentality, perhaps a reminder is in order about mega fires, soil sterilization, debris flows, and death. It is within this range of human emotion that Lorenas story trees exist. One story explores the life-giving properties of fire and another delves into tragedy.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II is a traveling museum exhibition produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C., the purpose of which is 1.) to recognize, document, and share the work of leading contemporary artists who chose to focus their work on global as well as local environmental issues; 2.) to heighten public awareness and concern about the intentional or unintentional consequences of human action or inaction, through the power of this art.

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State of the Forest Visits TAM | idahofallsmagazine.com - Idaho Falls Magazine

One year after a newly inaugurated President Biden committed to activating every bough of the government to address the climate crisis and a legacy of racial and environmental injustice in Executive Order 14008 elements of that elegant order are materializing.

Where there wasnt one before, a brand new White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council is up and running, with 26 members advising the administration on centering equity as it tackles disaster response, climate change and the energy transition. A handful of federal programs are at work channeling 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments to disadvantaged communities, though officials have yet to define just what that means. Environmental justice groups are demanding more action still, such as rapid progress on the now-overdue revamp of a climate and environmental justice mapping application, which will help ensure that this investment maximizes equity and social progress by identifying frontline and fenceline communities that have borne the brunt of pollution and climate risks.

But one existing environmental justice tool, which officials have let lie largely dormant across administrations, has particular potential to bring some form of justice to communities that have experienced environmental racism for generations.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents any program that receives federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin, whether by denying benefits to or excluding certain groups from participation in public process. As the Department of Justice has emblazoned on its website, ahead of the passage of the landmark statute, President John F. Kennedy noted: Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial discrimination.

The law empowers communities alleging theyve been discriminated against by a group receiving federal funding with environmental cases, typically state or local regulators that issue permits to industrial developers to file complaints with whichever agency has provided the funds, or to bring a lawsuit in federal court against that entity. It also instructs federal agencies delivering funds, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to stop funding programs found to have acted discriminatorily, or to refer the matter to the Department of Justice.

Nearly six decades later, whole bodies of research reveal that government agencies, often through inaction, have contributed to the formation of sacrifice zones communities where residents die of illnesses more often and earlier than others due to the superfluous siting of polluting operations nearby. In 2021, for instance, ProPublica published the most detailed map to date revealing that census tracts where the majority of residents are people of color are exposed to 40 percent more cancer-causing air pollutants when compared with census tracts that are mostly white.

Industries rely on having these sinks these sacrifice zones for polluting. That political calculus has kept in place a regulatory system that allows for the continued concentration of industry, Ana Baptista, an environmental policy professor at The New School, told ProPublica, in reference to the organizations investigation. We sacrifice these low-income, African American, Indigenous communities for the economic benefit of the region or state or country.

As numerous legal scholars told Truthout, Title VI provides remedy that could begin to address this flagrant legacy by steering agencies toward serving the communities theyre charged with protecting with equal rigor.

Its a very powerful tool at least on paper for addressing environmental justice issues, Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights told Truthout.

Its also a tool thats profoundly needed, but has yet to be fully embraced, advocates say. In addition to data made available by scholarly and journalistic efforts, the federal governments own maps reveal enormous health and pollution disparities. But in spite of this documentation, and having received hundreds of complaints alleging discrimination, the EPAs External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO) has only four times ever in its history issued a formal finding of discrimination.

The first case sat for nearly 25 years until in 2017, ECRCO determined a finding of discriminatory treatment of African Americans by Michigans leading environmental agency in considering and approving a 1994 permit for a wood-burning incinerator and power plant located in Flint, known as the Genesee Power Station. The findings included that the agency gave special accommodations to a white doctor wanting to testify early, but denied accommodations to two Black residents seeking the same option; and that the agency used armed guards which it hadnt done at hearings held further away in predominantly white areas to intimidate Black residents. The siting of the facility was also noted.

This area is predominantly black, low-income, with a disproportionate number of female-headed households, C.S. Mott Community College professor Janice ONeal said in 1995, according to reporting by the Detroit Free Press. These people are at greater risk for all kinds of environmental exposures already. This ought to be taken into consideration in the siting process. If its not, the process is racist.

As the complaint originally filed in 1992 collected dust, babies grew into adults and had their own children, all while the incinerator was allowed to pump pollutants like lead into the atmosphere and the lungs of its primarily Black neighbors. The Flint water crisis was allowed to occur. In 2015, an official from the same Michigan agency later found to have violated the Civil Rights Act said that anyone worried about Flints drinking water should relax.

Although it did find noncompliance with Title VI in 2017, EPA officials did not call on what Sellstrom refers to as its ultimate lever: the authority to pull funding from a group found to be discriminating. Nor have they ever.

One barrier is that U.S. Supreme Court decisions have found that Title VI requires evidence of intentional discrimination, which is logistically difficult, according to Albert Huang of the American Bar Association.

Yet the more troubling truth is that officials have chosen to prioritize certain laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, over Title VI. The [EPA] has over decades internalized the idea that the Civil Rights Act is not worth enforcing, Patrice Simms, vice president of litigation for healthy communities with Earthjustice and visiting professor of law at Harvard University, told Truthout. Simms points out that if other agencies were found not to be enforcing the laws they are specifically charged with overseeing, it would be absolutely unacceptable. Simms has himself worked for the EPA and the Department of Justice in a variety of posts.

Of 209 complaints alleging discrimination filed since 2014, 133 were rejected. Dozens of other complaints remained on a backlog for years, according to a September 2020 report by the Office of the Inspector General.

ECRCOs ability to do its job is severely limited by a lack of resources, says Andrew Bashi, an attorney with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. ECRCO has a mere 12 staff members tackling complaints. By comparison, the equivalent office at the Department of Education has 500 people dedicated to enforcing the Civil Rights Act.

The simultaneous unwillingness to fund the efforts of an office like ECRCO, work that could be so central to addressing some of the structural inequities impacting the very communities our system continues to imprison disproportionately, exposes the great paradox of Americas racial progress, Bashi said.

The Title VI complaints alleging discrimination 90 percent of which, up until 2013, were rejected or dismissed are expansive: predominantly Latinx residents who say the state failed to protect their groundwater source when issuing a discharge permit to a facility in Eunice, New Mexico; a Black neighborhood in Beaumont, Texas, that was exposed to chemicals spewing from an ExxonMobil sour crude refinery for 17 years until the EPA settled its Title VI complaint, during which time the company dumped over 400 million pounds of pollution into the air; a rural community in Orange County, North Carolina, that waited over a decade after filing a Title VI complaint for the county to extend sewer and water services.

I dont feel anybody should fight as long as weve been fighting to get something thats God-given, Orange County resident David Caldwell Jr. told The New Yorker of his neighborhoods sustained effort to get water and sewer services akin to others in the county.

Taylor Gillespie, strategic communications coordinator for the EPA, said over email that ECRCOs consistent underfunding has limited the office to operating on a reactive rather than a proactive basis in response to allegations of discrimination. But the tides are turning within the agency, she noted, describing EPA Administrator Michael Regan as committed to using EPAs full authority under the federal civil rights laws. In January, the EPA introduced an annual compliance review process to ensure recipients of its funding are not in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The administration has also outlined its commitment to strengthening civil rights enforcement as part of the EPAs strategic plan for 2022-2026, which is set to be finalized later this month.

Advocates including Bashi and Simms remain hopeful. In the first few months of fiscal year 2022, U.S. residents filed nearly as many Title VI complaints as in all of 2020. The rise in volume of complaints is actually good news, says Bashi. For the first time in a while, communities are optimistic that the environmental injustices facing them might be honestly examined and lead to the substantive changes they have been denied for generations, he said. As of this writing, ECRCO has caught up with its backlog of complaints, according to Gillespie. Two of the four total Title VI violations have been issued by the Biden administrations EPA.

But that number is still miniscule and an insult, advocates say. For communities in which the EPAs historically weak approach to enforcing civil rights law has meant ongoing exposure to pollution while they wait for answers and losing loved ones along the way immediate action is the only adequate intervention, according to Tamara Toles OLaughlin, a longtime climate strategist, and CEO and president of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.

This would look like speedy settlements and reparations for failure to respond previously; fines, sanctions and an aggressive clawing back [of] funds from predatory polluters who have built their whole businesses targeting Black, Indigenous and [other] people of color, OLaughlin said.

Sellstrom, of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the withholding of financial assistance from groups found to have violated Title VI which would be a first if and when it occurs would also send a strong message that a culture shift is afoot within the EPA, and that addressing systemic racism in the agency may be, at long last, a serious priority. That would change the mindset and the way people act across the board, Sellstrom said.

Link:

Heres How the Biden Administration Can Prevent Needless Deaths From Pollution - Truthout