Power Station

What sometimes gets lost in our national conversation about homelessness and how to eradicate it is what the people experiencing it feel, want and can teach us. They are men and women who have lost a home and are on the streets, their physical and mental health are compromised and because of this political environment, they are subject to abrupt and violent shutdowns of encampments that provide a measure of community. In this episode of Power Station, Kierstin Quinsland, Chief Program Officer at Miriam's Kitchen, a celebrated social services provider committed to ending chronic homelessness in our nation's capital, shares how its organizational values, partnerships with a broad range of fellow nonprofits and policy advocacy are powering the transition from homelessness to permanent supportive housing. It really does start, as Kierstin has witnessed over many years, by treating people with dignity and respect, which is foundational to building trust. And Miriam's Kitchen is elevating the sector's standards for designing and opertating shelters and permanent supportive housing that make personal transformation possible. Kierstin explains that this is hard work that requires a deep commitment and brings great joy. Hear her and you will feel it too.    

The time to determine the future of American democracy is literally now. We are casting our votes on who will represent us in Congress and on ballot measures that are referendums of the rights and values of our citizenry. While the stakes of participation are high and the divisiveness of this political era is extreme, it is not unprecedented. Some 120 years ago, America's fractures led to a citizen powered Progressive Era, in which ballot initiatives countering rising authoritarianism and corporate greed flourished. Americans voted to counter corruption, reform the exploitation of child labor and advance campaign finance reform. In this election cycle, some 164 measures are on ballots in 40 states, ranging from those that would weaken women's bodily autonomy and the rights of trans children to those that expand voter protections. This week's guest, Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, leads the Ballot Initiatives Strategy Center, a singular resource for citizen-led progressive change making. She is also a consummate advocate across geographic and even partisan lines, for an America that includes all of us. She believes in, and supports, the constellation of leaders across the United States who are powering democracy at the ballot box and beyond. Vote!

America's housing crisis is not new. The movement for tenant's rights, the production of affordable housing, breaking barriers to home ownership and prevention of homelessness has been in full force for decades. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has been on the literal frontlines of organizing, legislative and legal campaigns to undo public policies that have generated generational harms for people of color. Over time, the Coalition and a legion of organizational partners have produced significant wins, from passage of the Community Reinvestment Act to Housing Choice Vouchers and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Now they are calling for large scale public investment in a new set of housing solutions that would fundamentally transform access to safe and affordable housing for all. But to get there, housing needs to be elevated in the national conversation, and the Coalition has a plan for that. On this episode of Power Station I speak to Chantelle Wilkenson, VP of Strategic Partnerships and Campaigns about the change making initiatives she is leading, from storytelling podcasts to cultivating renters as voters and expanding the cohort for housing justice. I could not be more excited to see the fruits of this dynamic labor.

Where does dehumanization start and how is it cultivated over time to rationalize how we, individually and collectively as a nation, feel about and by extension treat others at home and across the globe? How do we recognize and interrogate the preconceptions we hold about entire populations, biases that justify their dislocation, the bombing and eradication of their schools, universities and hospitals and the deaths of tens of thousands of men, women and children? These are some of the questions that arose from my conversation with Mara Kronenfeld, CEO of UNRWA USA, the NGO that supports the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees founded in 1949 upon the creation of the state of Israel. The agency was meant to be temporary, a source of education, food and healthcare until a just and durable political solution was created. Now, 75 years later, the initial dislocation of 800,000 Palestinians has grown to 5.6 million people who have not returned home, and thousands of staff provide humanitarian support in Gaza, the West Bank, Easy Jerusalem and Jordan every day. One very bright spot is that donations to UNWWA are increasing exponentially. Priests, Rabbis and Muslim clerics are calling out for change.

We use the word community a lot these days, it denotes the people and places we are connected to and those which we support and admire. To see a welcoming community in action, pay a visit to Martha's Table. As its President and CEO Tiffany Williams explains on this episode of Power Station, it is built on shared values and powered by love for community in its programming, from early childhood education to emotional wellness and access to produce markets. The community that Martha's Table serves is viewed as neighbors, not clients, and the health outcomes its interventions have generated are measurable and transformational. Tiffany's capacity and passion to both meet the needs of the many neighbors she interacts with and advocate for policy changes based in data and equity are critical in these most demanding and chaotic of times. We talk about what neighbors are enduring, from the loss of SNAP benefits to proposed changes to Medicaid. We also talk about the community building that Martha's Table leads, starting with listening to and amplifying their voices every day. This nonprofit's evolutionary journey will see its neighbors through all these setbacks and into a future that all communities deserve.