Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

TORONTO, June 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, TransUnion released the findings of its Q1 2021 TransUnion Industry Insights Report , which showed a sharp decline in balances across most products as higher consumer liquidity, reduced spending and lender accommodations enabled Canadian credit consumers to navigate the ongoing public health and economic crises. While the Canadian economy is improving, the credit market has been slow to recover as consumers are seeking fewer credit products and maintaining conservative borrowing behaviours. Nevertheless, the Canadian credit market shows signs of good health and consumer confidence is at its highest level in more than a year, according to TransUnion’s most recent Consumer Pulse survey , which suggests an improved outlook for new credit activity in the latter half of 2021 and beyond.

As the economy slowly recovers, we are witnessing consumers deleveraging in the Canadian credit market, with the exception of mortgages,” said Matt Fabian, director of financial services research and consulting at TransUnion. Despite increased consumer confidence and liquidity, the decline in consumer balances and originations could pose problems for lenders that are not prepared for the changing consumer behaviours, which could result in a higher proportion of risky balances. Lenders should consider actively seeking to replenish their portfolios with new balances and originations to maintain a manageable delinquency rate.”

Consumers show signs of deleveraging unsecured credit

In Q1 2021, use of credit remained slow across all products except for mortgages. Existing borrowers focused on paying down balances, while balance growth on newly originated products remained stagnant compared to prior periods. While the overall number of credit-active consumers remained essentially flat down by 0.47% year-over-year (YoY) consumers seem to be taking advantage of higher income and savings from enhanced government benefits and reduced spending to deleverage 1 .

The average non-mortgage consumer balance declined by 2.9% YoY to $28,900 in the first quarter of 2021. Unlike unsecured lending products, the average consumer mortgage balance increased by 5.7% to $112,000. This strong mortgage activity appears to have been buoyed by attractive interest rates and high real estate demand. Continued strong mortgage originations generated over $170 billion in mortgage balances in Q4 2020 a 43% increase from prior year. While delinquencies remain low, this recent growth bears watching in future quarters.

Consumer liquidity has increased as Canadian consumers have elevated their savings rate to an all-time high 28% of disposable income 2 . The decrease in non-mortgage balances could be attributed to this higher consumer liquidity, as well as appeared reduced spending and accommodation programs that have enabled consumers to pay down revolving balances on credit cards and lines of credit. In Q1 2021, the average revolving balance per consumer decreased by 7.3% YoY, with credit cards down by 16.5% YoY. The total number of accounts with one or more credit cards also decreased in Q1 2021 by 5.2%.

Originations slowed down across all credit products and risk tiers, except for mortgages

In Q4 2020, the Canadian credit market saw significant declines in origination volume YoY, suggesting that consumers have adequate liquidity and do not feel the need to engage in the credit market. New originations dropped across all products, except for mortgages, on an annual basis.

Bankcards experienced the sharpest decline in originations with a 31.4% reduction YoY. Other products suffered double-digit drops in originations, including personal loans (-27.1%), lines of credit (-18.3%), and auto finance (-8.8%).

Meanwhile, mortgage originations continued to grow in Q4 2020 increasing 25.8% YoY, likely fueled by record-low interest rates and increased demand for refinancing. Because of intense real estate activity, home prices surged by 31.6% in March on an annual basis, with home sales up 76.2%. This growth is expected to continue through the second quarter of 2021, before tapering off due to lower demand.

Origination Volumes

The decrease in originations occurred across the risk spectrum, though it was most pronounced in below-prime consumers 3 . Origination volumes for below-prime consumers fell 27% from the prior year, while prime and better originations were down by 12%.

According to TransUnion’s most recent Consumer Pulse survey , more than 30% of consumers who classified their credit as good to poor out of a potential range of excellent to poor considered applying for credit but ultimately did not. When asked about the reason for not applying, 29% reported they did not think they would meet income or employment conditions and 23% thought their credit history would be inadequate.

Higher-risk consumer originations were down across all product categories, signalling that lenders may not be expanding their risk appetite to pre-COVID levels or engaging these consumers. Subprime consumers saw a decline in originations across credit cards (-26.7%), auto loans (-33.6%), LOCs (16.9%), installment loans (-42.3%) and mortgages (-24.1%).

Lower-risk consumers also showed a decline in originations, with the percentage drop for new credit cards greater for super prime consumers than for subprime, likely due to lower demand. However, other unsecured products saw much smaller YoY declines for low-risk versus high-risk borrowers, whereas auto originations for prime and better borrowers effectively recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

We’ve observed depressed spending and decreased overall balances as people stay home, cut entertainment and travel costs and increase their savings rate,” explained Fabian. Fewer consumers have been seeking credit, regardless of whether they are below or above prime. As pandemic-related lockdowns ease and businesses reopen, consumers are expected to increase their spending, which may drive a resumed need to borrow. Lenders could work with existing consumers to inform them of the many credit products and services available as consumers return to more robust spending and borrowing patterns.”

Improving delinquency rates indicate resilience of the Canadian credit market

Despite the end of a majority of deferral programs, delinquency rates decreased for all products. At the end of Q1 2021, consumer-level serious delinquency (90 DPD) dropped 63 bps YoY to 1.4%, and consumer non-mortgage delinquency decreased YoY 62 bps to 1.39%, potentially driven by the combination of increased consumer liquidity and deleveraging observed driving down non-mortgage credit balances and reducing payments.

Consumers are managing financial obligations effectively, likely thanks to improved savings and debt relief, and many appear to have leveraged that increased liquidity to pay down credit balances. The number of consumers making payments beyond the minimum payment due on revolving balances grew 4% from the prior year.

There are several healthy market trends that lenders should consider in extending new credit to consumers,” said Fabian. As pandemic-related concerns begin to ease, consumers are performing better than expected even after deferral programs ended, and delinquencies are lower than expected. Lenders can take note of these positive trends and be prepared to meet the needs of consumers as their credit demand rebounds in 2021.”

1 U nless otherwise stated, the source of the information in this release is from the TransUnion Canada consumer database.

2 Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0112-01 Current and capital accounts - Households, Canada, quarterly

3 TransUnion CreditVision ® score risk tier segment definitions: subprime = 300-639; near prime = 640-719; prime = 720-759; prime plus = 760-799; super prime = 800+

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)

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

For more information or to request an interview, contact:

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Consumers Show Signs of Resilience and Deleveraging in a Slow Credit Market - Stockhouse

When Australian author and illustrator Sophie Beer started writing her latest book about consent a board book pitched for the one-to-three-year-old reader the conversation was already changing.

This was at the beginning of the pandemic, and society was suddenly a lot more cognisant of greetings and interpersonal consent, she says. Suddenly, shaking hands and hugging hello was risky and we had to get creative with awkwardly waving and elbow-bumping instead. All these new greetings [became] a vehicle for us to discuss preference of personal boundaries with kids.

Illustrated in her bright, electric style, How to Say Hello offers children a variety of greetings to choose from, from fist bumps to smiles; from special dances to peeks out from between a parents legs. Ultimately, she writes, there are so many ways to say hello! with the book delivering an inclusive message of empowerment about making your own choices, and respecting those of others.

Board books on bodily autonomy and consent arent common but when it comes to picture books, Beer recommends Emily Neilsons Can I Give You a Squish (gorgeous and playful) and Sharee Millers Dont Touch My Hair! As children grow older and more curious, there are even more resources, including the wonderful Welcome to Consent! by Yumi Stynes and Dr Melissa Kang.

Kang explains that, as a society, were becoming more literate on the issue of consent. Young people themselves are demanding change to education, to the law, to societys attitudes to women and to power imbalances, she says. And in a post-MeToo world, books are one of many ways to bring the issue to younger children.

The younger the child, the more a parent or carer needs to physically touch a child in order to care for them but there are many opportunities to frame these actions into consent-nurturing interactions, she says. It is possible to educate children about their bodies, feelings, thoughts, actions and values which are the basics of consent.

Beer believes that learning social boundaries and how to enforce them can never be taught too young. She also thinks its important to teach kids that people can communicate differently and might accept greetings differently: differences in sensory processing and socialisation can make hugs uncomfortable for some, for example.

Childrens individual consent is just as important as teenagers or adults, she says. Too often, a child may feel uncomfortable hugging an unfamiliar relative hello, yet they are ordered to for the sake of politeness.

Being respectful of differences in personal boundaries is a kindness we can afford to anyone, young or old, she continues. [Even now], I very often put up with behaviour from people I was uncomfortable with just for the sake of social politeness as a young woman.

Sex educator and researcher Deanne Carson of Body Safety Australia, says that while discussing consent with preverbal or nonverbal children (like the audience of How to Say Hello) might be challenging, there are ways to teach bodily autonomy, such as by naming body parts, asking questions (would you like me to help you get dressed?), and explaining to a child why an adult might need to help a child be safe like getting them into a car seat or giving first aid.

All of this connects with the child, and develops their understanding of their body, helping children to be as empowered as they can be, says Carson. Im happy were starting to have this conversation.

How To Say Hello is the latest in Beers series of board books which feature a range of family structures, races and disabilities including Love Makes a Family, Change Starts with Us and Kindness Makes Us Strong. With this series, Ive aspired to create a colourful, cosy world of kindness and inclusivity, Beer says.

This last year of the pandemic has also been a strange time of global isolation, so saying hello and togetherness seems a lovely ambition.

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Teaching consent to toddlers: Im happy were starting to have this conversation - The Guardian

Over the past decade or so, NBA players have been speaking up about all sorts of issues. Whether thats taking control of their personal brand, using their free agent leverage to build superteams, or revealing their stances on social issues via peaceful protesting, LeBron James nailed it when he coined the term of being more than an athlete.

While every person regardless of celebrity status, fame or otherwise has the right to take control of their own lives and speak their own minds, weve unfortunately seen some folks slam pro athletes for showing this. Some think people like James should just stick to sports (Note: He shouldnt), while others think guys like Aaron Rodgers are coming across as entitled for trying to force a trade while still under contract, seemingly doing anything he can to get out of Green Bay.

We could go back and forth about whether empowering athletes has been good or bad, but one current general manager who remained anonymous didnt hold back on giving his opinion on the matter. In fact, this person claims that giving NBA players so much power has been the worst thing that has ever happened in sports. Thats, uh, quite the take.

In a recent article by Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker, heres what the NBA front office executive had to say.

Player empowerment is a catchall for the fact that the league has done a terrible job of empowering teams, a current N.B.A. general manager told me. The players have all of the leverage in every situation. I think its the worst thing that ever happened to professional sports on all levels.

Its an interesting dilemma that millionaire NBA players have put billionaire owners in. Ever since LeBron James held the national TV special called The Decision back in 2010 to announce his free agent choice, the entire sports industry has been turned upside down. Its given other athletes, in all sports, the blueprint to follow his lead.

But that does impact leagues and teams, which, in effect, impacts the overall product.

Rosters are turned over every few months. Fans dont get to build a real relationship with players often. Superteams get formed which limits parity and creates competitive imbalance. And, as weve seen from some fans, giving athletes power to voice their opinions on social issues on such a public platform has turned some away from watching games.

That said, athletes have every right to make decisions that are best for their careers and families. Sure, it can be annoying when a top rookie is rumored to threaten a team before a draft so not to be chosen by said franchise See: Eli Manning in 2004 with the Chargers. But, hey, NBA players and other athletes have gotten smarter and adapted with the times, meaning that the business of sports is more than only making billions for greedy owners like it was in the past.

(H/T Pro Basketball Talk)

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Current GM Claims NBA Players Getting So Much Power Is Literally The Worst Thing Sports Has Ever Seen - BroBible

Peer support specialists are individuals who have had experience with emotional distress, trauma, or other emotional challenges and have been trained to assist others experiencing emotional distress. Peers interventions improve self-esteem and confidence, the ability to bring about changes, and the feeling that treatment is addressing the real needs of individuals.

In the past few years, peer support specialists have been officially recognized as essential figures by Medicaid, managed care organizations, and other public health institutions for the delivery of integrated and coordinated behavioral health services.

However, this substantial progress is just one face of the coin. With institutional recognition comes also the risk of loss of identity. Recognition of peers official role under Medicaid could undermine the very nature of their interventions by morphing them into a hybrid of traditional medical and clinical recovery principles, structured and supervised by mainstream trained clinicians. The result could be the loss of peers identity and functions.

This article intends to spearhead a dialogue on the critical issue of maintaining the integrity of the original peer support model.

Although the recovery movement is not a single entity and includes a variety of approaches, the role of the peer specialist has gained prominence, showing promising and concrete outcomes.

The role of peer specialists is based on the principles of recovery, which are essentially different from the medical model. The medical-biological model views mental illness and diagnosis as a lifelong combination of symptoms and behaviors, which impact ones ability to manage basic milestones, adaptation to change, and any other essential tasks.

However, the recovery movement provides solid evidence that individuals with a history of emotional distress, commonly labeled as mental illness, can overcome the challenges they face and recover from their negative effects.

Recovery, essentially, is about cultivating a sense of hope, developing a realistic understanding of ones abilities and challenges, engaging actively in life, fostering and maintaining a deep sense of autonomy, personal and social identity and purpose in life. To attain these goals, individuals in recovery acknowledge the importance of freeing oneself of the conceptual constraints of the medical-biological model, which views emotional distress as a chronic condition from which it is impossible to heal.

Peers focus on assisting others in crafting their own recovery goals; they provide constructive feedback for developing, learning, and practicing new skills and strategies; they communicate a sense of realistic hope; they share coping strategies and provide help in monitoring individual progress; they encourage others to advocate for themselves.

Moreover, they encourage input from consumers for the development of recovery plans focused primarily on coping successfully with challenges to achieve the best quality of life possible. These fundamental core competencies are pivotal to the attainment of positive outcomes.

Within this framework, emotional distress is not viewed as a chronic biological disorder, but as a fluid state that can be modified and overcome in different ways, according to individual needs.

Using these skills, peer specialists have been extremely successful in improving the delivery of mental health services. Their interventions are particularly effective in preventing episodes of hospitalization, re-hospitalization, and emotional crisis and in fostering a sense of hope, self-empowerment, and self-efficacy. Also, their ability to promote a sense of connection, especially by sharing individual stories and strategies to cope with life, is one of the main reasons for their success. Their interventions promote a sense of hope, a better quality of life, and a more positive attitude.

There are fundamental differences between peer support and psychiatric and psychological interventions, which cannot be ignored if we want to support the peer specialists original role in assisting individuals with emotional distress.

We cannot ignore, for instance, that the relationship between a peer and the individual with a history of emotional distress is essentially egalitarian. Their interaction is between individuals, sharing similar experiences, techniques and strategies on how to cope with the challenges of life.

Therefore, it is radically different from the traditional health provider-patients relationship, based on the medical model, in which the individual is in the sick role and is viewed as a passive entity and just the recipient of treatment and care. Although health care providers have somewhat modified their inflexible roles, the difference between the two approaches remains substantial.

It has been reported that consumers often complain about the condescending and non-inclusive attitudes of health care providers. In this context, it should be clear that peers do not strive to become clinical in a traditional sense, but they are willing to support and balance the work of health care professionals.

Moreover, the role of peer specialists is critical for an efficient delivery of behavioral health services. As is well-documented, access to mental health and psychotherapy services can be rather cumbersome due to several factors, including insufficient resources and stigma.

This problem has been magnified by the Covid-19 epidemic, which has caused so much emotional distress and has shown the shortcoming of the current behavioral health system. Peer support during the current epidemic is certainly a viable venue for persons who cannot access behavioral health services.

In the past few years, due to its efficiency and success, peer support interventions have become an integral part of the healthcare system.

The recognition of its value has come from numerous entities, including SAMHSA and the American Psychiatric Association. Peer support services are currently available in every state and are reimbursable under Medicaid.

What has been said, so far, would convey the impression that peer specialists have found a respected and independent role within the American behavioral health system.

However, several peer specialists working in New Mexico have expressed substantial doubts about their roles and future in behavioral health, which may reflect similar concerns nationwide.

Donald Hume, an experienced peer specialist and one of the authorities in the field of recovery in the state of New Mexico, provided a clear account of the current issues peers are facing in New Mexico. Donald stated that, with the formalization of the peers role under Medicaid and managed care, their functions are becoming progressively more constrained within the boundaries of a medical/business model.

He stressed that peers will be required to perform interventions following specific diagnostic categories and relative billing codes. They may also be compelled to accept mainstream clinical measures instead of focusing on the experience and the narrative provided by individuals in recovery.

Without a doubt, this shift will interfere with the original goal of providing recovery-based interventions based on the development of realistic hope, along with skills leading to a better quality of life. Recovery language will be reabsorbed by, or blended with, clinical and medical language, which will shift the focus from achieving existential balance to targeting signs and symptoms of mental illness.

The peer model has been already lumped in with other credentials, such as those of community health workers and community support workers. This has created a general air of confusion surrounding the actual role of peer support workers. The courses, offered in New Mexico, on cross-training community support workers and peer support workers, sharing the same code of ethics and the same essential functions, are a clear example of this trend.

Moreover, although peer workers have been included in many different treatment modalities in New Mexico (i.e., outpatient medication-assisted treatment facilities, abstinence-based treatment facilities, outreaches, drop-in centers), they are still frequently seen as merely low-ranking, eager workers who can help with patient retention.

Over the previous years, several new initiatives have been created to further regulate the peer support profession, mostly with the goal of providing more extensive oversight or to offer a way to bill for services that peer support workers are capable of offering. These changes have been endorsed by the managed care companies under Medicaid.

By establishing new modalities to offer peer support-based services, managed care organizations are slowly changing the essence of this type of recovery work. A provider working under a community support worker structure may be earning more money, but he/she is also losing out on raw feel and techniques that built and maintained peer support as a necessary staple in the world of recovery.

Many peer specialists who have tenure in their field have begun to recognize that the changes proposed by managed care organizations and state-funded facilities could mean that peer specialists may slowly evolve to offer services according to models based on regulatory and administrative paradigms rather than lived experience.

As stated by one of the peers, There is an inherent danger in losing the foundations that built the peer support field. As we begin to take comfort in complex documentation, long taxonomies of billing codes, and the writing of treatment plans for every service, we are also letting go of the hands-on model that started with one person in recovery giving back to another.

Therefore, the very nature of the recovery process could be altered and reduced to a hybrid of clinical and recovery principles, controlled by traditionally trained clinicians operating under the managed care model. One of the most dire consequences is that individuals who want to follow a recovery-based plan and not necessarily get involved with a traditional clinical paradigm will potentially be deprived of a substantial source of support.

This shift in peers roles and functions could be particularly harmful for frontier states like New Mexico, which experience consistent problems of access to mental health services.

Also, given that there may be no alternative resources to Medicaid for the provision of peer support, recovery-oriented agencies utilizing peer specialists will have two options: accepting the new trends and rules, or trying to survive without Medicaid funds, which will put their survival at stake.

In conclusion, according to Donald Hume and other peers in New Mexico, this shift to incorporating peer specialists under the umbrella of the medical model has the potential to undermine the core tenets of recovery. Without the freedom to engage with individuals as equals, peers will lose the essential elements that make them successful.

Their testimonial should be followed up by a nationwide survey exploring the views of peer support specialists on their changing roles and functions under Medicaid.

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussionbroadly speakingof psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers own.

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Does Official Recognition of Peers Undermine Their Work? - Mad In America - James Moore

Efforts to maintain protected areas and safeguard wildlife can at times feel futile given the persistent onslaught of encroachment, poaching and extractive activities. At the extremes, top-down conservation approaches may tend toward militarization, while bottom-up conservation can seem to lack the scale needed to have meaningful impact. But at the root of many conservation challenges, big and small, is the need to change behavior, whether its throwing plastic in the ocean, consuming products that drive deforestation, or fishing unsustainably.

Rare, a conservation group that got its start as an outreach campaign to persuade people on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia to save an endangered parrot in the 1970s, puts behavior change at the center of its work. Rare combines design thinking and social marketing to drive conservation outcomes.

Rare is decidedly different from other conservation organizations: We are highly focused on one thing inspiring behavior change so people and nature thrive, Rare president and CEO Brett Jenks told Mongabay. So, while we might be working on fisheries or agriculture or climate change, our approach is behavior-based appealing to peoples emotions, shifting social norms, or redesigning the environment in which people make decisions to make the green choice the easy or default choice.

Jenks got his start working as a journalist and then in film production, before becoming an ecotourism entrepreneur in Costa Rica. It was in Costa Rica in his mid-20s when he was first introduced to conservation.

I never studied conservation, he said. I didnt even know what a conservationist was until I met some people from Rare and the Rainforest Alliance in Costa Rica when I was about 24 years old. So, Im not a technical expert. What I am is a self-taught generalist who leans on lots of other people with far greater experience and expertise.

Jenks took the helm of Rare in 2000 and helped grow it into an organization with operations in the Americas, Asia and Africa.

Rare says it has now run campaigns in more than 60 countries, spanning issues from overfishing to combating climate change. It has also launched the Center for Behavior & the Environment to apply behavioral insights and design thinking approaches to environmental challenges.

We work directly with local leaders and communities, advocating for giving them rights to their resources, equipping them with data for decision-making, connecting them to the formal economy, and empowering them with knowledge and skills to sustain change, Jenks said. If human behavior is behind the major environmental challenges we face today, thats a problem. So, we pair expertise within our programs in physical sciences like marine biology or agronomy with the social sciences: What makes people tick? How might we motivate more sustainable ways of doing things? We are steadfast believers in the cumulative power of individual and collective action as a vital pathway to safeguarding and restoring our shared waters, lands and climate.

Jenks spoke about Rares approach, the need for driving change at scale, and a number of issues during a recent conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Mongabay: What inspired your interest in the environment?

Brett Jenks: Like many people my age, I spent much of my childhood outdoors, collecting frogs and snakes and tadpoles, fishing with my father and my grandfather. I never thought of this as a future career interest. As a kid, I just assumed Id be a fireman or a schoolteacher or a pro soccer player. I didnt know what a conservationist was until I met one in Costa Rica at age 24.

Mongabay: Before you joined Rare, you were a journalist, filmmaker and ecotourism entrepreneur who also had experience in marketing. How did that lead you to working on conservation? And howdoes that background influence how you approach your work today?

Brett Jenks: As a journalist, I learned to ask questions and to cold call anyone I thought could help flesh out the story. Thats certainly helpful to me now. As a filmmaker, I learned to appreciate the value of storytelling. In ecotourism, I learned that nature without a business plan was unlikely to survive. So, Im sure those formative years influenced how I work today. I am not a trained scientist. I never studied conservation. I didnt go to grad school for it. I didnt even know what a conservationist was until I met some people from Rare and the Rainforest Alliance in Costa Rica when I was about 24 years old. So, Im not a technical expert. What I am is a self-taught generalist who leans on lots of other people with far greater experience and expertise.

Mongabay: Youve been working in conservation and rural development for nearly 30 years. What are the biggest changes youve seen in the space since you got your start?

Brett Jenks: Global recognition of the problem is probably the biggest change. When I graduated high school, no one I know set off for college thinking about becoming an environmentalist. That wasnt really a thing. Its so inspiring today to see how many young people grow up wanting to be environmentalists.

Mongabay: How would you describe Rares approach? What makes it distinct from other conservation groups?

Brett Jenks: Most conservation groups now talk about prioritizing people. This is a relatively new development for most. Rare has been focused on people from the very beginning. Its all weve ever done. By that, I mean we work directly with local leaders and communities, advocating for giving them rights to their resources, equipping them with data for decision-making, connecting them to the formal economy, and empowering them with knowledge and skills to sustain change.

Another difference is that many conservation groups have deep expertise in the physical sciences. But you dont see that depth with the social sciences. And if human behavior is behind the major environmental challenges we face today, thats a problem. So, we pair expertise within our programs in physical sciences like marine biology or agronomy with the social sciences: What makes people tick? How might we motivate more sustainable ways of doing things? We are steadfast believers in the cumulative power of individual and collective action as a vital pathway to safeguarding and restoring our shared waters, lands and climate.

Rare is decidedly different from other conservation organizations: We are highly focused on one thing: inspiring behavior change so people and nature thrive. So, while we might be working on fisheries or agriculture or climate change, our approach is behavior-based appealing to peoples emotions, shifting social norms, or redesigning the environment in which people make decisions to make the green choice the easy or default choice. This focus means were getting better and better at fomenting change.

Mongabay: Rare has grown tremendously since you took on a leadership role at the organization in 2000. What has driven that growth?

Brett Jenks: Weve been really fortunate to attract great people. Great staff, a terrific board of directors, and a network of supportive and risk-taking donors. Weve worked hard to identify gaps in the sector and then establish proof points that make it more comfortable for others to chip in or join. Rare is constantly changing, and yet in some ways its just like it was back in 2000: Rare is a close-knit group of highly collaborative and entrepreneurial people inspired to make big change, but willing to do the real work necessary to bring it about.

Mongabay: Could you point to a project that best characterizes or represents Rares impact and how it evaluates success?

Brett Jenks: In 2012, we launched a program from scratch. Its called Fish Forever and the goal was simple: Reduce overfishing by coastal fishers in the worlds most biologically diverse coral reef systems. This is critical for several reasons. First, these coastal waters are where more than 80% of marine biodiversity is found. Second, they are critical for global food security: they feed about 1 billion people their main supply of animal protein. Finally, nobody was funding this work despite its ties to top priorities like biodiversity, food security, or jobs about 200 million peoples livelihoods globally are tied to small-scale fisheries. At the time, not many were taking this on. So we designed a series of pilots to prototype the solution. That helped bring aboard Bloomberg Philanthropies, which helped us scale it to 41 coastal communities in three countries. Over five years, we collected literally millions of data points underwater before and after the pilots and what we saw was a 110% increase in fish populations where the fishers decided to fish more sustainably and 390% increases where they decided not to fish in order to boost recovery. And this evidence helped encourage a group of now 20-plus foundations to support this work. Today, Fish Forever is operating in eight countries, has engaged fishers in more than 1,000 communities, and has helped put nearly 4 million hectares (10 million acres) of ocean under sustainable management.

Mongabay: One of Rares recent initiatives is the establishment of the Center for Behavior & the Environment. What is the aim of the center?

Brett Jenks: We built the Center for Behavior & the Environment to build the field of what we call behavior-centered design. The goal is to fill a number of missing links in our fields theory of change. For decades, conservationists have used three principal tools: information, legislation and economic incentives. Theres nothing wrong with these per se, but its an incomplete toolkit. It doesnt necessarily reflect how people behave and actually make decisions. So, we added some new tools based on behavioral insights: emotional appeals, social influence and choice architecture. Were working to build an evidence base, to train a slew of new change agents, and to build demand for these approaches. Twenty years from now, we imagine that every conservationist will be well-versed in behavioral economics and social psychology and human-centered design and our capacity for change will be far greater than it is today.

Mongabay: Conservation organizations are sometimes faulted for its slowness to embrace change. What do you see as the key elements to drive change within organizations?

Brett Jenks: Leading with why is key. Driving change in an organization begins with making sure everyone knows why change is needed, and why now. The best changes build their own internal momentum by inspiring belief that working together we can build something better for the world and the people and nature we serve.

People seek purpose when they join conservation groups and so any real change has to tap into purpose. A great example was Marshall Ganzs training course for all the Obama campaign volunteers a few election cycles ago. Every volunteer went through an orientation during which they personalized why they supported Obama. There was an overarching campaign platform and strategy, but every single staffer had a personal vision for why they were going to work their tails off to get Obama elected. I think this is a great test for organizations in conservation. What percentage of staff can describe the strategy at a high level and then name two to three personal reasons why they are jazzed and what they are contributing?

Mongabay: Conservation is often criticized for its lack of inclusivity and the lack of representation of historically marginalized communities in positions of power and decision-making. Do you see the sector taking serious steps to address this concern?

Brett Jenks: Yes, but slowly. Were not moving quickly enough. Im not sure anyone is. Because Rare has always been about community empowerment in poor, remote rural areas of the developing tropics, I think we gave ourselves a pass on some of these really pressing questions.And I regret that.There is so much more we can do, and I am not ashamed to say that we are now beginning to work in earnest on these questions.

Part of the challenge is structural. In the nonprofit space, doing new things requires new money. Some donors are still more focused on the overhead charged on restricted grants they offer.Part of the challenge is inexperience: conservation leaders are used to trying to fix whats broken outside their organizations, not inside them.And this requires not only a new skill set creating inclusive processes for increasing inclusiveness but it also requires some soul searching. The most provocative question a DEI consultant asked me last year was, What power are you willing to give up? I think thats a pretty good starting point for leaders.

Mongabay: Beyond what weve covered so far in the interview, what do you see as the biggest gap (or gaps) in conservation? Or in other words, where does conservation need to do better?

Brett Jenks: Conservation has ample room for growth. We work hard and were a creative bunch, but lets face it: were losing. We have to do better. There are two things we can do right away: first, boost accountability. Second, improve philanthropy.

How is it possible that theres so little data from conservation projects to let you assess the efficacy and efficiency of conservation solutions? We can do better. Modern medicine is built on experimental design. How can we heal nature without a similar ethos?

Mongabay: What has been the impact of COVID-19 on your work and the communities you serve? Do you think society will retain any lessons from the pandemic?

Brett Jenks: COVID-19 has brought massive changes for us. All of sudden, we couldnt deliver programs in the intensively hands-on way we always have. So, we had to design a massive pivot. This meant doing lots of new things virtually: everything from training local leaders to engaging networks of municipal leaders. We also took advantage of the all the time alone in our home offices to accelerate a host of exciting new developments. We worked virtually to establish a 20-year vision and a five-year strategy. We started piloting our first-ever U.S.-focused program. We initiated a multi-year participatory DEI effort. Some of the changes weve made during COVID have the potential for massive impact in the years ahead. But we have a long way to go.

Mongabay: The scale of environmental challenges we face are daunting. What do you see as the key levers for driving the kind of systemic change required to transform humanitys relationship with the natural world?

Brett Jenks: This is literally a question of humanitys survival in the millennia ahead. And there are two key levers in my mind.

One: Make nature more salient. Most people dont think it matters to them; were an urban species spending much of our day staring at screens. We need to evolve. We need to make nature feel way more important to the average citizen and we need to do that very soon. Only 3% of philanthropy last year went to conservation. Fifty percent went to religious institutions.

Two: Create a myth of inevitability. The most powerful lever for change is social norms when people sense norms are changing, two critical things happen: we question whether we too should be changing, and we assume that change is easier than we thought. So, what we need is a sense of momentum, a sense that people are actually starting to do something. Five fishers embracing change inspires the local mayor to get on board, and five mayors attracts the attention of a minister, and once you have a few ministers, you can set a national agenda. Individual actions matter way more than we think.

Ultimately, we need to learn how to move people. And then we need to learn how to SCALE what works. And this is the second Achilles heel for conservation.

What would you say to young people who are distressed about the current trajectory of the planet?

Brett Jenks: Whenever I was unhappy as a kid my mother asked me, hey, youll feel a lot better if you go do something nice for someone else. Following that advice always got me out of the funk. So, to people stressing out about climate change or the extinction crisis, Id say, do something. Take action.

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'Inspiring behavior change so people and nature thrive': Q&A with Rare's Brett Jenks - Mongabay.com

This book will give readers a unique individual account of how it is possible to heal oneself on all levels as well as being privy to some of my personal life story

BENSON, Ariz. (PRWEB) June 01, 2021

I wrote this book because so many people are still suffering terribly and not receiving the help they need from allopathic medicine, and sometimes even alternative, holistic medicine cannot do what you can do for yourself. Many have asked me to write this book, knowing that the process was far more involved than what may be imparted in a few simple conversations, Talcyona Nova states.

In Abyss to Bliss: My Healing Journey into Wholeness (published by Balboa Press), she shares the story of her journey back to herself her physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness. The journey began with years of illness and disconnection from spirit but emerges, through many healing modalities and expansion of the mind and spirit, into wholeness and reconnection of her mind, body, and spirit, along with a rediscovered sense of life force energy and well-being.

This book will give readers a unique individual account of how it is possible to heal oneself on all levels as well as being privy to some of my personal life story, Nova says. Its extremely relevant to todays society as autoimmune and diseases caused by the toxicity of our world and living out of alignment with nature are all on the rise, with the main help from allopathic medicine which primarily provides treatments out of alignment with the natural order.

When asked what she wants readers to take away from the book, Nova answers, My hope for anyone reading it is that you will gain the tools to deepen your intuitive powers and deal with the intense emotions and opportunities for spiritual growth and empowerment when facing a crisis. My hope is for you to know that you are never a victim of anything happening to you, even though it may seem to be that way at first. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.balboapress.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/778960-abyss-to-bliss

Abyss to Bliss: My Healing Journey into WholenessBy Talcyona NovaHardcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 328 pages | ISBN 9781982268411Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 328 pages | ISBN 9781982268398E-Book | 328 pages | ISBN 9781982268404Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the AuthorTalcyona Nova healed herself after a 20-year-long struggle with MCS and Lyme disease. She is a registered nurse, homeopath, colon hydrotherapist, shamanic practitioner, marconic recalibration practitioner, and Arolo Tifar, Usui, and Kundalini reiki master.

Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 844-682-1282 today.

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New book shares the story of one woman's journey back to her physical emotional and spiritual wholeness - PR Web

As part of its commitment to strengthening communities and bridging gaps, First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) is working alongside Reconciliation Education and BMO Financial Group to launch Nisitohtamowin ,a new introductory eLearning course to promote healing, equity and respect of Indigenous cultures and values in Canadian Society.

Available to Canadians throughout the month of June, Nisitohtamowin, which means "understanding" in Cree, is intended to help foster greater understanding of Indigenous perspectives through education, which can lead to stronger relationships and enhanced opportunities for the economy, communities, the environment and beyond. The course was developed in support of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action and recommendations on education, with a section that provides an introduction to the legacy and impact of Indian Residential Schools, including a personal account shared by Residential School Survivor and Dene Elder Margaret Reynolds.

"The tragic news regarding the remains of 215 children found at Kamloops Indian Residential School uncovers the pain and hurt felt across Indigenous communities," said Elder and Residential School Survivor, Margaret Reynolds, who sits on the Elders (kehte-ayak) Council and Board of Governors for First Nations University of Canada. "We ask everyone to take a moment of silence to honour these children, their families and communities. We ask the Creator to give strength and blessings to all those hurting and impacted by this news."

"The painful news that has emerged regarding the Kamloops Indian Residential School underscores the critical importance of truth and reconciliation in Canada. The legacy and impact of Indian Residential Schools has not been taught widely and so education is key to understanding, "said Dr. Bob Kayseas, Interim President, Vice President Academic, First Nations University of Canada. "The path to greater well-being and prosperity for Indigenous peoples is through education, and the path to respectful relationships where we can all coexist and lift each other up is through reconciliation education. Nisitohtamowin is just the first step on the journey -- we encourage all participants to seek further learning opportunities either with Indigenous Peoples in your own region or at First Nations University of Canada."

Financial Assistance and Supports to Indigenous Students

In addition to the eLearning initiative, BMO is providing a $250,000 gift that will enable FNUniv to provide financial assistance and supports to Indigenous students through their academic year, including entrance level scholarships, Indigenous business student scholarships, and emergency bursaries.

Over the last three decades, BMO has had a leading presence in supporting long-term sustainable economic growth for Indigenous communities and is committed to progress for Indigenous peoples across three pillars that reflect the Truth & Reconciliation Commission call to action for corporate Canada: education, employment, and economic empowerment. Along with the BMO Sharing Circle (BMO's Enterprise Resource Group for Indigenous colleagues) and BMO's Indigenous Advisory Council comprised of First Nations, Mtis and Inuit leaders from across the country the eLearning initiative promotes inclusion, education and progress against the calls to action.

"The recent tragic news from Kamloops, B.C. has only strengthened BMO's commitment to playing a role in reconciliation through education. We're grateful to have partnered with First Nations University of Canada and Reconciliation Education to develop Nisitohtamowin, which, among other things, honours the stories of Residential School survivors," said Michael Bonner, Head, Canadian Business Banking, BMO Financial Group. "Nearly 80 per cent of our employees have completed this learning to date and we are honoured to be able to share it now with the rest of Canada during National Indigenous History Month. As part of our commitment to supporting Indigenous communities through education, employment and economic empowerment, we're also pleased to be able to help First Nations University provide scholarships to its students."

Click here to register for the free Nisitohtamowin eLearning course or visit: http://www.fnuniv.ca/reconciliation . For more information about BMO's commitment to supporting Indigenous communities, click here or visit: http://www.bmo.com/indigenous-commitments

About First Nations University of CanadaThe First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) was founded in 1976 and is a First Nations owned post-secondary institution that aspires to have transformative impact by bridging our ceremonies, knowledge keepers, languages, and traditions with the delivery of high-quality post-secondary education that will lead to the pride and success of all students, First Nations communities and Canada. As of Fall 2020, FNUniv has over 6,000 active students and more than 5,600 alumni. For more information about FNUniv, please visit http://fnuniv.ca.

About Reconciliation EducationReconciliation Educationis an e-learning producer of online resources since 2014. These courses promote a renewed relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians through transformative multi-media learning.

Developed in partnership with First Nations University of Canada, our award-winning resources assist the workplace and education sectors meet the Truth and Reconciliation Commission' Calls to Actions. These courses have reached over 76,000 Canadians from across the country. For more information please visit:www.reconciliationeducation.ca

About BMO Financial GroupServing customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, inNorth America. With total assets of$950 billionas ofApril 30, 2021, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

SOURCE BMO Financial Group

For further information: For media inquiries only, please contact: Bonnie Rockthunder, Senior Communications Officer, First Nations University of Canada, Cell: 204.292.3253, Email: [emailprotected]; Kelly Hechler, Senior Manager, Media Relations, BMO Financial Group, 416-867-3996, [emailprotected]

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Bringing Indigenous Perspectives to Canadians: First Nations University of Canada, Reconciliation Education and BMO launch new eLearning to mark...

Sydney Kurle | Jun 1, 2021

The past year and a half have shined a light on the systemic inequities that exist in the U.S. health care system. But for Rhonda Smith, executive director of the California Black Health Network, this is the beginning of what she hopes will be a shift in how the health care system treats traditionally marginalized communities.

In this Q&A, Smith tells State of Reform about how she got involved in the health equity space and what changes she hopes to see in California and the U.S. in the future.

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Sydney Kurle: You started your career in marketing and operations management for companies like DuPont and Eli Lilly. What pushed you to make such a dramatic shift to focusing on health disparities?

Rhonda Smith: I was an independent consultant for about 20 plus years. And I, for the first half of that time, I did a lot of work in learning and development and working with pharmaceutical companies. And then I had a breast cancer diagnosis in 2008. It really was that pivotal point in my life that put me on this course, because I went through treatment the last half of the year. And coming out of that the economy had tanked and I couldnt find work as a consultant. So I just started thinking about what I wanted to do next. And I knew that whatever that was had to be something that I was passionate about, and an extension of how I was living my life every day and not seem like work.

So I reframed my consulting practice to focus on health and wellness education for women diagnosed with breast cancer, and focusing more so on survivorship and what happens after someones done with treatment. I really focused on the education components and all the events that I did on helping women understand how to recover from treatment, restore their lives back to normal, and then live their lives beyond breast cancer and a more holistic way.

Then I ended up working as a consultant on a NCI funded research study that focused on evaluating the impact of stress management and wellness education, specifically on the diverse population of black women in South Florida, who were within 12 months of completing breast cancer treatment. So what started out to be a survivorship research study was for me my first introduction to health disparities. And so Im really intrigued with the difference between what happens with Black women and women of color versus white women in terms of health outcomes, because I was not consciously aware, nor had I seen any data [on these disparities]. And I just became really interested and curious and learning more and really wanting to do something to have an impact that was passion and purpose led, and of course my personal connection to breast cancer was kind of the impetus for me to do that.

I was living in Miami at the time, so I wanted to do more and just couldnt find the right opportunity or any really to do the work that I was passionate about and make a living doing it. So I uprooted my life and moved to California. I often jokingly say [the move was] in quest of my dreams or to pursue dreams, but not entertainment, hoping for better work in business opportunities. I ended up landing a consulting role as the project director for a breast cancer disparities initiative here working with Susan G. Komen [Circle of Promise California Initiative]. Really trying to close the gap in disparities for African American women, but really, it was aimed at helping women to get screened, and breaking down some of the barriers to facilitate access to screening. So again I had an opportunity to really learn more about breast cancer disparities and learn more about what was happening here in California while doing that project and really having a greater impact for women like me across the state.

And then after that project ended, I became the project director for an integrative health initiative based in Orange County that really changed the way that health care centers community health care centers delivered care to their underserved patients. So I really got to have more of an insight and a perspective from a healthcare delivery standpoint, as to what could be done to have an impact on disparities through the health care system, and community health care centers in particular, to improve health outcomes.

After that, I became the interim executive director for an organization called Integrative Medicine for the Underserved, and then had a short-term stint with another nonprofit until COVID happened. And then I had this opportunity to be the interim executive director [of the California Black Health Network] for just a short period of time last year. And then I realized that this is where I really wanted to be, and the kind of work that I wanted to do for the community that I wanted to do it for. I decided to throw my hat in the ring for the permanent executive director role and started in January of this year in that position.

SK: What are some of the main disparities you see in health outcomes for the Black community?

RS: For so long, and many, many decades, and many, many dollars have been spent on health disparities projects, on research programs addressing health disparities, and were still talking about it. And so I often asked the question why are [outcomes] still getting worse when we look at the African American community, because here, like the rest of the country, we have the lowest life expectancy of all racial and ethnic groups. So why is that? So when I started to really try to respond to that question I realized that a lot of the work on disparities that Im aware of has been mostly focused at the individual and community level, which is great. But when we look at the whole infrastructure, theres the individual, community and system level.

And so I havent seen the issue being addressed at the system level until of late. And I think thats primarily because of COVID. And so when you think about it, there hasnt been as much emphasis or investment or policies around changing the system of care to really break down those barriers and eliminate the racial and implicit bias that people experience when they go to seek care. And I think its important to really focus on that piece of the equation if were really going to see an improvement or change in outcomes.

SK: California has a huge wealth gap. How does that gap negatively affect Black communities?

RS: Its all about access, right? When we have money, we have more freedom to choose where we live, right? Its about where you can afford to live here in California. And, you know, unfortunately, if theres income inequality and the huge gap that you referred to, then you can only live where you can afford to live and usually its an underserved, under-resourced community. And then you can talk about, so you have sometimes inadequate housing thats a result of that, and that home might be in a place where theres a food desert, so then you have lack of access to healthy fresh foods, and then it often can be a medical desert.

So then you have a lack of access to health care. And then if you are not able to afford a car, then theres transportation issues. So even if you do need to go see a health care provider, you have to travel. And now with COVID, thats an even greater issue. And then when you talk about place based issues, certain communities are cancer clusters, or theres a high degree of respiratory issues just because of the industrial facilities or highways that run through those communities. That is what happens as a result of the wealth gap.

And then there are certain policies that create inequities that then, in turn, create social determinants of health, and then, in turn, impact the health and well being. We know that theres evidence to prove that certain zip codes dictate life expectancy and longevity for individuals within those communities. And underserved communities have the greatest issues pertaining to social determinants of health.

SK: When thinking about the compounding issues that create these health disparities, what are California Black Health Networks goals regarding decreasing these disparate health outcomes?

RS: Weve launched the campaign for Black health equity, which is a multi-year campaign that aims to do a number of things, but overall, to garner support, so that we can do the work that we need to do every day to have an impact on the community. And that impact ultimately will lead to increasing life expectancy for Black Californians.

Like I said in the beginning, we know that like the rest of the U.S. Black Californians have the lowest life expectancy, and then COVID has only exacerbated that. Its one to three additional years of loss of life that has resulted because of COVID. But we will be focusing on maternal health and infant mortality disparities. Well be looking at disparities when it comes to chronic conditions, and also cancer disparities, and also possibly rare diseases. Then end of life issues related to access to palliative care and hospice care, and those conversations that typically do not happen just because of who someone is. And so looking at the entire health equity lifecycle, so to speak.

For us, addressing things at the individual, community and system level in particular, especially as it relates to advocating for policy changes that can drive change at the system level. So we see a really good example of the beginning of that, last year, with SB 464, which is the perinatal equity bill that requires perinatal providers to go through implicit bias training. But theres still a lot of work to do, but at least theres something in place there. We hope that that can be something that is extended across all health care, not just in the perinatal space.

Other things that were doing under the campaign umbrella is were creating the new black health agenda, which will be a statewide plan to address health disparities and achieve health equity, really utilizing our health equity framework, which is that we view health equity as sitting at the intersection of racial justice, social justice and environmental justice. And they all are interconnected. So well be launching a program, a health education series to address and improve health literacy.

Weve started the health equity forum, which features subject matter experts that are in the health equity and public health space. Weve had a few. Weve had three so far. We had Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, whos the African American woman who oversaw the development of the majority of the vaccine. We had Jeri Lacks-Whye, whos the granddaughter of Henrietta Lacks, speak at one of our health equity forums to really help mitigate the medical mistrust that exists within the Black community and tell a more positive side of Henrietta Lackss story, how one Black woman has really helped advance medical research all around the world and save millions of lives all around the world, just because of what happened to her.

I think those are the core things. Hopefully, we can do our role to help facilitate and support the creation of a multicultural, multidisciplinary pipeline of healthcare professionals who look like the people that theyre serving in the community.

SK: In your last answer you spoke a bit about the distrust that exists in the Black community towards the health care system. How is your organization bridging the gap between the health care system and the Black community?

RS: We really want to provide more health and wellness education, so that ultimately, what we accomplish is help people to do some of the basic, simple things that they can do to either prevent diseases from happening more effectively, or more effectively manage their current health conditions, should they have one, and definitely prevent disease progression from happening. And so at the end of all of this, what we hope will happen and aspire to do is really garner patient empowerment so that when people are seeking health care, they can advocate for themselves. So theres self advocacy they will be able to understand how to better engage in a conversation with their health care providers, they will understand what their rights are as a patient and how to navigate within the system of care, and to ask the right questions, and what questions do you need to ask when youre seeking health care, especially if youre presented with a devastating diagnosis of some health condition. We really, at the end of the day, want to empower people to engage in self-care and self-advocacy because that is, for me, an important part of driving change.

Improving the health literacy of providers [is important] too. So how do we do our part to help improve more cultural humility and cultural competency at the provider level? Health literacy works on both sides of that relationship. I think that its a process, because were really talking about driving culture change and how health care is delivered. I think it sounds simple, but its not simple to make happen because youre talking about redesigning the whole health care system, which is already inefficient to begin with. So I think that if we are to bring in a personalized medicine approach to primary care, that we will begin to see some changes in the health and well being of all people.

And then also coupled with that, how do we help providers become more culturally astute, aware and competent? How do we hold people accountable for making improper decisions, or judgmental decisions that have an impact? Im not talking about malpractice. We know a lot of times decisions get made about certain people just because of who they are, what they look like, where they live, what country theyre from. So we need to really work to eliminate those biases, and educate people, so that they are aware that everybodys a human being. They just have different life experiences and come from different places. But at the end of the day, were all human beings that have the right to be treated as humans in a humane way. And not discounted because of who we are, where we look, what we look like or what country we may come from.

SK: The past year has been especially traumatic for the Black community. How is the California Black Health Network working to destigmatize behavioral and mental health?

RS: We are working in three counties in Northern California to address mental health disparities. So were working in Alameda County, and Sacramento County, and also San Joaquin, to address a variety of things related to mental health disparities. So for example, in San Joaquin, were going to be focusing on youth and how violence has impacted the community there. In Sacramento, were going to be looking at policing and how policing has impacted the black community and providing, you know, some tools and resources and interventions for people there. In Alameda County, it was really more about reinventing mental health for the black community, and what that really looks like, and making mental health not so much of a taboo in the black community. But being more open minded about mental health and how important that is to our overall health and well being.

SK: What gives you hope going into the next few years?

RS: Thats a great question. I think like, theres always the calm after the storm, right? And weve been in this storm for the last year, and COVID is not going away anytime soon. But I call it the perfect storm of opportunity, because I think out of that perfect storm right now we see a lot of the inequities. So because of COVID and everything that was happening last summer everything was in our face. What people had been talking about, but certain pockets of individuals, did not necessarily believe it or didnt take it seriously. But now it was in everybodys face, it was undeniably so.

I think Im hopeful. And it gives me hope that were having these conversations that people werent comfortable about having, or didnt want to talk about before COVID. And now we are talking about racism as a public health crisis. Talking about the racial, or implicit bias that happens within the healthcare system when certain people are seeking care. Talking about racism as a part of our institutional fabric, and within this country in our history. So, that gives me hope that we have to go through this, this shift and this change, and on the other side of it, you know, we will be in a different place, for sure. And, hopefully, theres more compassion for that.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

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CBHN's Rhonda Smith talks about what they are doing to address health disparities in Black communities - State of Reform - State of Reform

Its no secret that the residents of our communities feel a sense of responsibility to care for those around them. For our 10th anniversary, please join us in celebrating 10 givers in the Hinsdale, Burr Ridge, Oak Brook, and Clarendon Hills communities who are constantly striving to make our communities exceptional.

TRACEY TARANTINO DIBUONO is synonymous with fashion shows and Chicago area charities. For more than 30 years, DiBuono and her full-service production company, Zzazz Productions, has produced virtual and live runway shows, styling, talent, and more for The Service Club of Chicago; Ingalls Foundation; the Apparel Industry Board; JourneyCare; the Oak Brook Chapter of Infant Welfare Society; St. Jude Chicago; and many more. Her work reaches beyond the local area, but if youve been to a Chicago fashion event for charity, you have most certainly seen DiBuono and the Zzazzs teams tireless work. DiBuono was featured in our August 2020 issue and in our Living & Giving sections.

ROB & STACY JOHNSON jumped in as active philanthropists in the local community as soon as they moved to Hinsdaleoften making black-tie affairs for nonprofits into their date nights. The couple supports organizations such as Wellness House, the Hinsdale Humane Society, Childrens Home + Aid, Misericordia Heart of Mercy, and the Brain Research Foundation. In 2012, former Governor Pat Quinn, even proclaimed September 22 Rob Johnson Day in honor of Robs work with Neumann Family Services. Rob and Stacy were featured on the cover of our December/January 2012 issue and in our Living & Giving sections.

CASSANDRA MA is a clinical psychologist who founded nonprofit Reclaim13 (formerly Compassionate Communities for Children) and Cherish Housethe only specialized safe house in Illinois for minor victims of sex traffickingin 2012. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Downers Grove-based agency whose mission is to end sexual exploitation. Ma was featured in our August 2019 issue and in our Living & Giving sections.

LISA KOLAVENNU started with Wellness Housea nonprofit that offers programs which support those living through cancer and their friends or family members13 years ago. She currently serves as the nonprofits Executive Director, where she brings her talented skillsetcombining her background in psychology with a personal understanding of the support needed by Wellness Houses clients, due to her own fathers cancer diagnosis years earlier. Kolavennu was featured in our February 2021 issue and in our Living & Giving sections.

STEVE & MEGAN DRAGICH met in 1978, just before Megan was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) a life-changing moment. Since then, the Dragichsalong with their two childrenhave made finding a cure to T1D a priority. Serving as the JDRFs 2015 Fund A Cure family, the couple has raised nearly $1 million on behalf of the organization. The Dragichs were featured in our November 2020 issue.

DR. CHRIS COLBERT is not only an attending ER physician, but the Assistant Program Director of the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)a role which became even more vital in the wake of COVID-19. Colbert continues to educate young doctors in residency and the community on emergency medicine, more recently focusing on social emergency medicine. He serves as a chair for continuing medical education for the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians and in 2021 chaired the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians spring symposiums. Colbert was featured in our February 2021 issue.

JANUARY PAWLUK has made it her mission to empower young girls through Mission Propelle and charity work. She introduced Mission Propelle (formerly Smarty Pants Yoga), an empowerment program for elementary school girls that incorporates yoga, reading, and mentoring, to the students of Brook Forest Elementary School in Oak Brook in 2015. She is also an active member of the Hinsdale Junior Womans Club and Infant Welfare Society AuxiliaryOak Brook Chapter. Pawluk was featured on the cover of our May 2016 issue and in our Living & Giving sections.

JACKELYN KASTANIS founded Simply From The Heart, a nonprofit that provides cancer patients with complimentary bedside beauty services to help raise self-esteem and encourage well-being. Kastanis started the organization in 2015 after her childhood best friend, Brooke Bolley, tragically passed away from esophageal cancer. While Bolley underwent treatment, Kastanis would spend time pampering her friend; helping to lift her spirits during a distressing time. Her organization has helped more than 5,000 critically ill patients nationwide. Kastanis was featured on the cover of our February 2020 issue and in our Living & Giving sections.

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The Givers - Daily North Shore

Stonehill is lone institution with finalists for both honors, set to be announced on Monday

Finalists Named for NE10 Woman & Man of the Year Awards

NE10 Woman & Man of the Year All-Time Winners

EASTON, Mass. (June 1, 2021) Stonehill College graduates Sophia Poveda and Michel-Ange Siaba have been listed among the 28 nominees for the Northeast-10 Conference Woman and Man of the Year awards, both of which are selected by the league's Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) Council.

Each nominee is a senior student-athlete that has excelled in all areas of their collegiate careers, on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. The two respective winners are set to be announced and honored as part of a virtual event streamed via NE10 NOW on Monday, June 7, at 7 p.m. The 2020-21academic year marks the ninth year in which a Man of the Year will be named, while the NE10 Woman of the Year has been awarded since 2006 and will be put forth as the Conference's official NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.

Stonehill is the lone NE10 institution with a finalist for both the Women and Man of the Year awards. Poveda is the College's first finalist since former field hockey All-American Devin Ingersoll, '14 following the 2013-14 academic year, while Siaba is the third Man of the Year finalist, joining eventual winners Alexander Demeule, '19, from the cross country and track & field programs, and Dana Borges, '13, the inaugural award recipient from the ice hockey program.

Poveda, who received Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Female Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, recently graduated with a 3.71 cumulative grade point average in the Moreau Honors Program with a Bachelor's Degree as a double-major in political science and international studies. She is a four-year letterwinner and two-year captain of the volleyball program who earned All-NE10 first team honors as a junior in 2019. She is a three-time Arthur Ashe, Jr., Sports Scholar, and two-time Division II Athletic Director's Association (ADA) Academic Achievement Award recipient, while receiving the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal for having the highest cumulative grade point average on the volleyball team.

Poveda, who delivered the student address at Stonehill's Class of 2021 Commencement, has been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll all seven semesters to date, with Academic Distinction status for having a GPA between 3.50 and 3.99 the last five semesters. She received the Presidential Scholarship all four years, has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll and Dean's List all seven semesters to date, while being inducted to Lambda Epsilon Sigma and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies. Poveda has is a Footlocker Scholar-Athlete Scholarship recipient and was honored as a U.S. Army/Pro Football Hall of Fame Award for Excellence National Finalist.

Poveda participated in the Goldman Sachs Undergraduate Camp in Dallas, Texas, in February 2019, from which she was selected for the company's Virtual Series Insight Scholar, and completed an internship with the United States Embassy, in Buenos Aires, Argentina the summer of 2019. She was a peer mentor at Stonehill with the Moreau Honors Program meeting and communicating with assigned incoming freshmen to assist with the college transition and a subject tutor with Stonehill's Center for Writing and Academic Achievement in Spanish, economics, political science, and business courses.

Poveda has volunteered her time as a counselor with the Ace's Girls Program, which is a female empowerment program for local youth and has helped the team with Team IMPACT, coordinating the team's involvement with the organization prior to signing their new teammate in February 2020. She coached for the Mass Premier Volleyball Club's U-14 team during her time at Stonehill, and for two years helped host a talent show and decorate the Heights Crossing Rehabilitation Center for the holidays. She helped with the reading program and assisted with homework at Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton, Massachusetts. She volunteered at Carlton M. Viveiros Elementary school in Rhode Island and volunteered during the holiday seasons at My Brother's Keeper in Easton, Massachusetts. In 2019, Poveda volunteered at the Hogar Santa Ana in Buenos Aires, where she played games and led arts and crafts with children from abusive families.

During her sophomore year, Poveda was nominated by her coach to be involved in the Stonehill Leadership Development Series for student-athletes. Poveda is a Student Spokesperson for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) where she was a speaker at FCA Night of Champions, donor events, and school chapels.

Poveda played in 68 matches (227 sets) over her four-year Stonehill career, averaging 2.49 kills, 0.35 service aces and 2.31 digs per set as an outside hitter. She finished her career with 566 kills, 79 aces, 524 digs and 53 blocks, totaling 20 double-doubles. Poveda ranked sixth in the NE10 for aces per set (0.38) in 2019, while also ranking seventh in kills per set (2.88) and points per set (3.38) after ranking third among NE10 leaders with 0.47 aces per set in 2018.

Siaba, who received Stonehill's Fr. William Gartland, CSC, Male Senior Student-Athlete Award, recently graduated with a 3.88 cumulative grade point average as a criminology major at the College. He was a 2021 Fulbright Scholarship semifinalist, Presidential Merit Scholarship recipient and has been inducted to the Edwin H. Sutherland Criminology Honor Society. Siaba has been named to the Dean's List every semester enrolled at the College and has also earned NE10 Academic Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll status each semester since transferring to Stonehill.

Siaba, who will attend Suffolk Law School in the fall, has devoted his time to the fight for racial justice throughout the community, especially policing reform centered around his criminology major. An active member of Stonehill's Students in Action (SIA) organization on campus, he helped organize the multimedia needs for the group's campus sit-in during the fall semester. This spring, he interviewed members of the Stonehill faculty on how they engage in racial discourse in the classroom and how to improve the racial climate on campus, presenting his findings to the College's President, Fr. John Denning, CSC. He conducted a personal letter writing campaign in the wake of last summer's protests following the George Floyd murder, submitting essays to California State Representative Anna Eshoo and then-Senator Kamala Harris, receiving responses from both, encouraging them to fight to pass meaningful police reform laws.

Siaba has volunteered his time with The Humboldt Area Center for Harm and Karat School Project in Palo Alto, California, a non-profit organization that strives to provide quality education to underprivileged children while helping communities in need in the Ivory Coast, where Siaba was born. More locally, he volunteered with the Plymouth County Police Department's Drug Buy Back program. He was co-editor of Martin Institute's Prints, Stonehill's sociological, anthropological and criminological academic journal, having submitted a writing of his own in the spring 2020 issue that discusses the prison system, why it has persisted and how we can begin to move away from it.

Siaba also made an immediate impact with the track & field program at Stonehill in the brief time he was a Skyhawk after transferring from Humboldt State University prior to the 2019-20 academic year. He was named Most Outstanding Field Athlete at the 2020 Northeast-10 Indoor Track & Field Championships after picking up three All-Conference performances at the event. He earned All-NE10 second team honors for the long jump and triple jump, finishing third in both events with distances of a school-record 23-feet, 1.75-inches and 46-feet 6.75-inches, respectively. Siaba was a third team All-NE10 performer in the heptathlon, posting a school-record 4,666 points for his third-place finish for that event.

Siaba has earned four U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East Region awards, adding the honor in the long jump this spring to honors for the long jump, triple jump and heptathlon during the 2019-20 indoor season. This spring, he posted season-bests of 22-feet, 9-inches in the long jump and 46-feet, 3.5-inches in the triple jump, earning All-New England honors for the first time with his eighth place finish in the long jump at the 2021 New England Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

With 23 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. Stonehill has won the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup six times, all coming within the last 15 years, after receiving the Cup for the winter sports season in 2019-20 while holding an overall lead in the standings prior to the remainder of the athletic calendar being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March. Stonehill won seven NE10 Championships during the 2019-20 academic year, with six programs earning NCAA Division II Championship bids. The Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first ten years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. Stonehill has earned a 92% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for third in the NE10 and 18th among all NCAA Division II institutions, with seven Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%.

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Poveda & Siaba Finalists for NE10 Woman/Man of the Year Awards - Stonehill College Athletics