There is a part of Washington DC that the nation doesn't know exists
Release Date: 01/20/2025
We are not your enemy
Power Station
It was 1973 when the National LGBTQ Task Force, the nation’s first LGBTQ rights organization, was founded. Homophobia was being codified into legislation; the AIDs epidemic was a devastating and deadly epidemic, and gay people were subject to discrimination and violence. A brave group of activists, scientists and doctors stepped up to create a nonprofit from which they advocated for the right to exist, be heard and win legal protections. Co-founder Bruce Voeller, a biologist who coined the term AIDS, and died from complications of it in 1994 was instrumental in organizing the first ever...
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This need to say it doesn't have to be this way was very deep in me
Power Station
It is a singular privilege to interview an author when their work is as powerful, instructive and intimate as What Might Be, Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Susan Sturm, Professor of Law and Social Responsibility at Columbia School of Law about her book, which explores her experience in tackling racism in American institutions and invites those who feel stuck on the sidelines to join in. Susan reflects on the “loving struggle” she has engaged in as a white woman working in multiracial collaborations, a practice supported by...
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Capacity + Capital = Power
Power Station
How do you stay hopeful and motivated when entire communities, immigrants, LGBTQ and people with disabilities among many others, are being demonized and targeted for punitive action by our nation’s leaders? For Lucy Arellano Baglieri it is by keeping her eyes on the long game, building in the most difficult of times for a more just future. As Lucy shares on this episode of Power Station, this administration’s freezing of federal grants to nonprofits and efforts to revoke their tax exempt status is a defensive reaction to decades of progress in advancing civil rights and economic justice....
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One of the stories I heard was I just really want to take my child to a theme park
Power Station
We are living in a moment of turmoil. Many communities feel targeted, and nonprofits are under pressure to quiet their voices. LIFT, a Washington DC based national nonprofit with offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles is undaunted in its support for and belief in Black and Brown parents seeking to break cycles of poverty and achieve economic mobility. In this episode of Power Station, Neils Ribeiro-Yemofio, the incomparable executive director of LIFT DC shares how just listening to parents about their aspirations for their families can be transformative. At LIFT DC, financial...
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They are coming for people experiencing homelessness but we are not backing down
Power Station
Do we believe in forcing people experiencing homelessness into detention camps? The president of the United States does, and it is happening now, including in New Orleans where 100 people were removed from an encampment and placed in a detention camp in the lead up to the Super Bowl. As Jesse Rabinowitz, Director of Campaign and Communications at the National Homelessness Law Center shares on this episode of Power Station, America remains locked into a narrative shaped by President Ronald Reagan who asserted that poverty and homelessness is a choice. Jesse is working toward a new narrative...
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Young people are internalizing the messages they hear about themselves
Power Station
It is not news, but it remains unacceptable, that young people in America experience life distinctly differently based on their race, class and geography. In Washington DC, children from low-income families attend schools that are deeply under-resourced, a stark contrast to their peers in more affluent and white communities. Academics and think tanks have long documented these disparities and elected leaders sometimes advance policies to lessen inequities. But the voices we seldom seek out for their views are young people themselves. In this episode of Power Station, the ebullient Nicole...
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Something that disabled people in the South have is power, it just isn't recognized
Power Station
An organization’s origin story reveals so much about its founders’ principles and vision for generating transformational change. In the case of New Disabled South, co-founders Dom Kelly and Kehsi Iman Wilson knew that they were creating a space that didn’t exist, a movement for disability justice in the American South. They focused first on their internal infrastructure, developing human resources and operational policies that support the sustainability of staff, all of whom are disabled, as is the board of directors, as they conduct research, build coalitions and advocate for policy...
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We do not want nonprofits losing their 501c3 status because of any unfounded implications
Power Station
What is the charitable sector and why is vital to our nation? It refers to organizations that exist to create social value over financial profit. It is an IRS designation that affords a tax-exempt status to nonprofits and the philanthropies that support them in meeting human needs and advancing policy solutions to social and economic inequality. Do not underestimate nonprofits, this country's third largest employer, accounting for a workforce of 14 million Americans. In this episode of Power Station, I talk to the incomparable Dr. Akilah Watkins, President and CEO of Independent Sector, the...
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We are getting very close to a litmus test on what makes you an American
Power Station
Deportations of immigrants in the United States did not start with the Trump administration. And virtually no one would disagree that our U.S. immigration system is deeply dysfunctional and requires an overhaul. What is new is how this administration’s explicit racism and xenophobia is deploying the blunt instrument of deportation to upend the lives of Latinos and other immigrants whose hard work fuels our economy, including citizens with generational roots in America. On this episode of Power Station, Abel Nunez, Executive Director of CARECEN DC, founded in the 1980s to help El Salvadorians...
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The perception of risk in CDFIs and Community Development Banks has always been far greater than the reality
Power Station
In the first week of a presidential administration marked by executive actions banning the education of Air Force members about the Tuskegee airmen, freezing scientific research grants at the NIH, immigration raids intended to fast-track deportation and the purging of DEI programs across federal agencies, remember that it is the nonprofit sector that continues to move democracy forward. In this episode of Power Station, we speak to Amir Kirkwood, CEO of Justice Climate Fund and a leader in the movement for climate and community-centered financing. Justice Climate Fund was awarded $940m,...
info_outlineInnovation, disruption and problem-solving, these are words often used to describe how technology impacts society. But the sector does not center those powers on equity, ensuring that all people can access housing, livable wages, healthcare and education. That work is the business of the nonprofit sector, which is particularly potent in local nonprofits with deep community roots. Too often these groups are underfunded and uncredited for policy win and community building. In this episode of Power Station, the remarkable Marla Dean, Senior Director of the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s Health Equity Fund, introduces us to its $26m Demonstration Project. It is a powerhouse set of initiatives designed to redress historical wrongs against communities of color by overcoming economic and social disparities in what she calls, “the Washington DC the nation doesn’t know exists.” The Greater Washington Community Foundation is investing in the highly effective community-based nnprofits who conceived of these solutions and, with the Foundation’s support, are bringing them to life. It starts with recognizing that overcoming health disparities requires economic mobility and that removing barriers to career aspirations, family reconnection and participating in building a green economy is a public service.