Rethink Community: The Podcast

What if the stories we believe about poverty are holding us back from real change? For generations, narratives of blame, pity, and resignation have shaped how we respond to poverty-often with harmful consequences. But what happens when we center the voices of those who live these realities every day? In this series, we unpack the unproductive narratives that keep communities stuck and discover how new stories -rooted in lived experience- can spark meaningful change for everyone. In our first episode, we hear from John White, a leader with decades of experience in public and community service, who shares how bringing lived experience into policy-making can truly drive change. From personal reflections to practical advice, John describes his journey of understanding community challenges not through the lens of common narratives but through direct engagement and lived experience. He offers a tangible example of how proximity to real stories can shape policies and practices that impact families and communities across an entire state.   Don't miss this powerful conversation about leadership, justice, and the future of community-driven change.  

The divisions in our country are not just caused by disagreements; they're fueled by misunderstanding and even contempt, and they can be healed with dignity.  Join us in a conversation with Paul Hemminger, a dignity builder and storyteller, and learn how each of us can be changemakers right where we are. https://www.dignityindex.us/resources

Have you ever encountered a moment when a member of your team shared a personal experience or an insight that facilitated connection or unlocked a solution to a challenge you were facing?  Inside our teams and communities lies a wealth of knowledge and experiences. Yet, fear of judgment and misunderstanding creates barriers, hindering open communication. This month, join us for a session with Shandell Jamal, a consultant, catalyst and bridge builder, who shares valuable insights on honoring and valuing everyone's experiences and wisdom within your organization.

How is hope linked to trust? And what is empowerment really?  Words often fall short when describing these two realities but most of us know when we experience them.  Hope and empowerment connect us to a better future and signify that we need each other to thrive.  Join us as we hear from Michael Cafasso, CEO of St Mary Corwin Hospital, as he shares leadership insights and tangible actions to build hope and cultures of empowerment.

Over the past two decades, all facets of the American health system have come to understand the deep connection between social and environmental factors and health outcomes, including lifespan.  Tracey Stute, a dedicated advocate and practitioner in behavioral health, joins me in this episode to delve into our evolving understanding and explore ways communities can assist those who've endured trauma and confronted health disparities. Home Equity Discussion Guide

In this episode, we are joined by our very own Andrea Carter, with Think Tank.  Andrea invites us beyond the scarcity and pain of poverty to the hidden abundance found in people, families, and neighborhoods.  Andrea connects listeners to our common humanity and the ways we both cope with hardships and pursue well-being.  Today's listeners will find themselves inspired to reconnect with the most profound gifts of life - relationships, simplicity, and spirituality. 

In this episode, our guest is Thomas White, a seasoned entrepreneur in the Gig Economy.  Thomas speaks from his own lived experience on the benefits of gig work, the pitfalls and how entrepreneurs and everyday people can leverage their skills for cash through current platforms.  Thomas also speaks to how each of our communities can better support entrepreneurs and those choosing to make a living through non-traditional approaches to work and business.

In today's episode, I am joined by Amy Riegel, a leader on housing in the state of Ohio.  Amy shares with us stories of what led her to dedicate her life to helping Ohioans find safe and affordable housing.  She sheds light on the current housing situation in our nation and offers insights into how each of us can become more supportive neighbors for those facing challenges with finding a place to call home. Cohhio.org nlihc.org

“If you take a chance on us, we'll take a chance on you.” Those were the words that first led Carlos Guajardo to join forces with Think Tank over a decade ago, and ultimately to contribute his story and insights to the creation of the Cost of Poverty Experience. Now a published author of a book about his life story, Carlos shares his deep and honest reflections in this episode about what it took for him to journey out of poverty, and the unanticipated redemption he has found along the way. Unanticipated Redemption by Carlos Guajardo

Decades ago when Pastor Ken Moss' prison term ended and he became a returning citizen, conversations were just getting started about the challenging realities of life with a prison record. Now an instrumental leader in developing and facilitating the Reentry Cost of Poverty Experience, Pastor Ken Moss shares more of his story: What it took to rebuild his life outside prison walls, and the radical relationships that helped him find a place to flourish. 

Today Melissa Massey is a powerful supporter and advocate for survivors of domestic violence. Like many working in her field, her story is rooted in the firsthand experience of rebuilding life on the other side of addiction, poverty, and domestic violence. In this episode, Melissa reflects on where life has taken her and how she's using that experience as a platform to help others.

Poverty is much more than an issue, and more than a statistic. It's a condition experienced by real human beings, each with their own unique story. Guest Kristin Hicks first shared her experience of poverty with Think Tank over a decade ago, to help shape the Cost of Poverty Experience. Today she reflects on that experience, the wisdom she has gained, and the relational and emotional support that helped her make the journey out of poverty.

Time. Honor. Authenticity. Relationship. These are key ingredients for organizations that want to Build Together with those with lived experience - but sometimes they feel difficult to manage within the pressures of outcomes, deadlines, and budgets. Dr. Jimeka Holloway has spent years as a guide to organizations and communities seeking change. In this episode she shares her personal experience and insight about how organizations can persevere through these tensions, and the practices and beliefs that need to guide those who truly want to Build Together to see their communities thrive.  Learn more about Dr. Jimeka Holloway

Karin VanZant is a leader who's not afraid to challenge the status quo, especially when it comes to the systems intended to help those at the margins of poverty. Karin's own proximity to the realities of poverty and to people who have navigated it have shaped her views on what it means to lead and what it looks like to build together to create systems that work for everyone.

Sharon Gilmore has spent the past several decades transforming pain into purpose. Using her story and her voice to inspire others today, she is just as committed to helping organizations understand the human resources and assets they may be missing: those with lived experience. Sharon is a passionate advocate for communities to believe in the powerful potential of those who have walked the hardest paths. Learn More about Sharon

What if we looked at a person who needs help not just as a “need” - but as someone who has the greatest potential to help others in that same situation? The field of addiction and recovery has been using this approach for years to bring healing and change. On this episode, we hear the stories of two men who first were helped by and then became part of an organization that values their lived experience and builds together with them for greater impact. Shepherd's House

This season we're exploring the vital but difficult practice of how we Build Together to bring change. Sean Walton, Sr. has lived on both sides of Build Together: As someone who knows what it's like to live at the margins economically, and who's also advised and been part of organizations working to revitalize marginalized communities. Sean shares from his life experience what kind of investment it takes to build trust, communicate respect, and ultimately lead real change by building together. 

Perhaps the greatest act of resisting the divides that exist in our communities and in our nation is the simple but radical act of building a genuine friendship with another person across that divide. Today two women join us to share the story of how they met nine years ago - one of them a single mom working to get out of poverty, the other finding herself isolated in a middle-class bubble. You'll hear about what it took to push through their initial fears and discomfort, how they've grown in those nine years, and how their friendship has helped them gain a new perspective.

Essential Partners

What does it really take to expand your circle - the people you know and interact with on a regular basis? How can an individual begin to build bridges across the socioecononomic, ethnic, or racial lines in their community, and form real connections and relationships with those who come from a different place? Steve Eisentrager is a business leader who has quite simply made it a personal practice to find and talk to people outside his circle - and has found real joy and growth in those relationships. Colleen Headlee: 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation

Sometimes it is difficult for us to see how our nation's past has shaped its current pain. In Canada today, 7% of all children are Indigenous - yet shockingly make up 52% of all children in foster care. Two leaders with CareImpact, a faith-based nonprofit organization in Winnipeg, Manitoba, offer us a lens for our own communities, by exploring how Canada's history with Indigenous peoples have led to the wounds still carried today - and how personal relationships and the church can bridge the distance to truth telling, hope, and healing. Links in this episode: CareImpact

NBC Dateline Interview The Frederick Douglass Project

What does it look like for a white, middle-class pastor with degrees and titles to become embedded in a neighborhood that's in the epicenter of the heroin epidemic? Pastor Steve Gill shares how this experience and decades of service in unlikely places, and the people he's met along the way, have changed his perspective on poverty, on himself, and on faith; and brought a richer understanding of community and purpose.

Bishop Mark McGuire is known in his community as a bridge-builder. In much the same vein as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work, Bishop McGuire has spent decades using his voice and his energy to not only lead the church but to lead his community toward greater justice and equity, with a special focus on incarceration and reentry. In this episode, Bishop McGuire joins John to share some of his personal story, the narratives he sees as most harmful and pervasive, and where he glimpses hope in his pursuit of justice.

Examining the story we tell about poverty also involves reexamining the story we tell about the opposite of poverty - what we might call success, or the American Dream. Today on the podcast, Brett and Christine Duncan of the Change Leader Alliance, share the story of when their own version of success crumbled into sudden situational poverty, and how that experience helped to reshape their own narrative about poverty, success, and wholeness.   Check Out Saving Cinderella:  http://savingcinderella.com/index-php/the-musical/

In his book The Alternative, Mauricio Lim Miller challenges the helping industry as we know it to rethink much of how we've built our response to poverty. We were honored to have Mauricio join our Executive Director Marlo Fox to share the stories from his life and his work that have shaped his convictions. In this episode, Mauricio shares how he came to believe that well-intentioned helping could be part of the problem and that we needed a different narrative around poverty; how he's dedicated himself to shaping a new approach as a follower-learner; and the hopeful change he sees taking place. Chech out some of Mauricio's work below: Community Independence Initiative "The Alternative"

Hear the story of how a church moved from "drive-through ministry" in their neighborhood, to truly partnering with their neighbors for positive change. Lynette Fields, now the Director of Poverty Solutions Group in Winter Garden, Florida, and Sebrenia Brown, a resident and community partner in the neighborhood, talk about what it looks like to build trust, to have the hard conversations, and to give up the expert seat in order to see real change take hold.

Who helped you fill out your first FAFSA? How did you get to your first campus tour? In this episode, a first-generation student from Clark State College and a dean who was once a first-generation student himself, talk about what it means for colleges not to just deliver education, but to walk alongside students who are the first in their families to navigate that significant journey.

Can a high-poverty school district become high-performing? Hear the story of how one California school district in a community of migrant farmworkers has reinvented education with the voices of learners and their families at the center - and gotten remarkable results.

Each year in the United States, nearly 700,000 kids are part of a system that is largely invisible to many of us: the foster care system. When we think about child welfare, we might first think of agencies and caseworkers and formal policies. But what about the families - both relatives and strangers - who welcome these children into their homes? This episode shares the lens of two families who have learned firsthand what it means to invest in children through foster and kinship care.

50 years after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., most churches in America still remain largely separated by race. Those that attempt to overcome racial divisions in the pews are often met with challenges they didn’t anticipate. In this episode, you’ll hear from two grassroots pastors who chose to merge their racially diverse congregations five years ago, and the lessons they’ve learned that apply to anyone seeking to build bridges in their community.

When a suburban school district arranged for a town hall listening session with a local public housing project, the results were powerful - and even uncomfortable. In this episode, Megan LeMaster and Rameka Nelson share that story, and continue their own conversation about race, poverty, leadership, what it means to be heard, and what can happen when organizations take the time to listen.

John White was an elected official in Ohio’s Statehouse when he was appointed to a committee overseeing correctional institutions. John soon began to learn what he didn’t know about Ohio’s prison system - and the stories of the individuals inside it. In this episode John tells this story and more of the events and the people who put him on a path from politics to proximity. Links in this episode: Elijah Hamilton Music  

Today ShayLynn Hespeth is a passionate young educator and leader, but in this episode you’ll rewind ten years ago to when she was a middle schooler meeting her new mentor. ShayLynn and Lori Parks - the suburban mom who was that new mentor - share their stories in this episode about what their mentoring relationship meant to them then and now, and what it means to develop social capital at the deepest level. Links in this episode: Elijah Hamilton Music

A message to our listeners: This podcast was pre-recorded and scheduled for release prior to the horrific death of George Floyd and the subsequent pain of repeated wounds and cries for justice for black and brown lives across our nation.    Think Tank's core work is the pursuit of greater understanding and action to combat the marginalization and discrimination enacted upon racial and ethnic minorities and families in poverty across the United States. We believe this work involves becoming proximate to the lived experience of those who have felt such marginalization in order to forge relationships that transform.  However, we do not take lightly the fact that unlikely relationships and reconciliation cannot be achieved without the work of justice, lives of humility, and supernatural healing and restoration.     Thank you for the ways that you are pursuing justice and restoration in your community.   ---------------------------- This episode features the story of Chad Wilson, an evangelical worship pastor, and Denise Williams, an NAACP president, and how they’ve formed the kind of unlikely relationship that is a model for us all. Links in this episode: Elijah Hamilton Music

What if we looked at addiction and recovery not just as issues, but through the experience of real people? In this episode you’ll hear the story of Eric Mata, who has made the journey from addiction, to recovery, to entrepreneurship and a mission to help others. Links in this episode: Elijah Hamilton Music

On this episode, you’ll meet the federal judge who invited the drug dealer he sentenced to shake his hand when he got out of prison. And you’ll meet the ex-offender who took him up on that handshake and is now working to help young men in his community choose a different path.

With raw honesty and extraordinary courage, Andrea shares the story of her journey from being an award-winning educator, to addiction, incarceration, re-entry, finding love, and now using her story to help others find hope. Links in this episode: Elijah Hamilton Music

Hear the story of how a former social worker realized that our “culture of helping” needed a new operating system, and founded a nonprofit organization with that mission. Marlo Fox is now the Executive Director of Think Tank, Inc. In this episode, she shares the story of how she and Think Tank are seeking to turn the tide. Links in this episode: Elijah Hamilton Music Cost of Poverty Experience