This is Community

Having the courage and confidence to take on leadership isn't always easy, but in the case of Mashonda Taylor, Executive Director of Woodlawn Foundation and Valencia King, president of the Woodlawn Neighborhood Association in Birmingham, Alabama's Woodlawn neighborhood, it was inevitable. This conversation reveals the influence strong, Black, female leaders are having in the Woodlawn community in Birmingham, AL. Their collaboration and partnership is helping to bring about holistic community revitalization and creating healthier places for residents.

Now more than ever, we need to show communities that have been impacted by a long legacy of racism and race-based inequality that we can do better. One key to that is to increase collaboration. In this bonus episode of This is Community Logan Herring, Sr., executive director of Purpose Built Communities Network Member REACH Riverside--an organization working to improve opportunities and outcomes for residents in the Riverside neighborhood of Wilmington Delaware, talks to Delaware Senator Chris Coons about working across those silos that exist in federal programs designed to address poverty. This conversation took place at the first-ever virtual Purpose Built Communities Annual Conference in November of 2020.

The research is clear: for too many Americans, zip codes determine destinies. In other words, the places in which we are born and grow up have a greater impact on our life outcomes than any other single determinant, including genetics. But is there a new movement taking place in community development, philanthropy, and policy that is responding to the overwhelming evidence of the importance of place in fighting poverty? In this bonus episode of This is Community we hear from Geoffrey Canada, Founder and President of the Harlem Children’s Zone; Carol Naughton, President and Interim CEO of Purpose Built Communities; and Kwame Owusu-Kesse, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone who are coming together to answer this question. This conversation was moderated by Othello Meadows, Managing Director, Portfolio Strategy & Initiatives at Blue Meridian, and took place in late 2020 at the Purpose Built Communities Virtual Annual Conference.

As the COVID-19 vaccine has been made available, we consider the racial inequities and historical mistreatment of Black and Brown communities in research and within the health care system. Suffice it to say, that relationship has been somewhat tenuous over the years. In this special episode of This Is Community, Danny Shoy, President and CEO of the East Lake Foundation, facilitates a Facebook live conversation about the COVID-19 vaccine with Dr. Jayne Morgan, Clinical Director of the Covid Taskforce for Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. Thanks for tuning in as Dr. Morgan answers some of the most pressing questions and concerns about the vaccine. It is our hope this conversation about the COVID-19 vaccine helps create awareness intentionally through a racial equity and social justice lens.

“IT ALL GOES BACK TO RACIST POLICIES AND PRACTICES.” In this episode, hear more about how the Riverside neighborhood is similar to other Black and brown communities, as well as how they are different. Their response to the current reality has focused on a holistic approach for addressing community needs-—particularly creating a forum for teens. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

“WE ARE ACTUALLY SOLVING THE PROBLEMS THAT WE'VE BEEN WANTING TO SOLVE FOR A LONG TIME AND THINKING INNOVATIVELY AND NOT LOOKING AT BARRIERS SO MUCH ANYMORE.” Hear more about how Woodlawn United is serving as the stable force in a historic Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood amidst the pandemic, convening community partners to help them pivot and adjust. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

THIS [COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT] WORK DOES NOT HAPPEN UNLESS YOU'RE WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP. Being proximate and cultivating relationships is difficult to do when everyone is intentionally distancing from each other to support public health. Hear how Network Member AmplifyGR in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is cultivating relationships—even amidst crisis—with for nonprofit and for-profit organizations, aligning around a common purpose to create a healthier community. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

"ALREADY HAVING PARTNERSHIPS AND ALREADY UNDERSTANDING THE IMMEDIATE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY IS WHERE WE EXCELLED.” Hear how thoughtful, historic investments in children, affordable housing, and all aspects of the social determinants of health are setting up the Bayou District of New Orleans for meaningful recovery. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

“LIFE STRESSORS ARE SOMETHING THAT ALL OF US DEAL WITH EVERY SINGLE DAY. BUT IT IS WELL DOCUMENTED THAT PEOPLE AND FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY FACE DISPROPORTIONATE AND COMPOUNDING CIRCUMSTANCES.” In this episode, we hear about how in Omaha, Nebraska, the trifecta of crises—health, economic and racial justice—are affecting poor and Black and brown communities. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

“WHEN CRISIS HITS, IT IS CRITICAL TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO ASSESS THE LANDSCAPE AND IDENTIFY THE TRAUMA.” Residents in the Grove Park neighborhood on Atlanta’s westside have been hit particularly hard by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving an estimated 75 percent of residents unemployed. In this episode, we hear what is transpiring on the ground and how the Grove Park Foundation pivoted for a swift crisis response. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

It's been a convenient diversion from the truth that's been told since Reconstruction - that the segregation we've seen and continue to see in America is just the effects of private individual biases and incidents of discrimination, rather than codified in law. But, when we look at the facts, that myth breaks down pretty quickly with the abundant examples of policies in local, state, and federal government across the country that explicitly discriminated against African Americans. In this bonus episode, Richard Rothstein and Shirley Franklin discuss the history and myth of de facto segregation in America - and what it will take to reverse the toxic effects of that history.

Warren Buffett has been called a wizard, an oracle, a sage - a wise and prophetic investor who knows value when he sees it. In this last episode of Season Two, Warren Buffett sat down with CNBC's Becky Quick in Omaha in 2017 to talk about how America's systems fundamentally misdirect money into the hands of too few to the detriment of the many. He called on philanthropists looking to have the biggest impact for their investments to shed their pretensions and one-upsmanship and look where things are working to attack at the root of the problem.

Building racial, social, and health equity in communities of concentrated poverty is not an unrealistic dream - it's happening in real-time across the Purpose Built Communities network. A group of thoughtful leaders from diverse backgrounds in different cities have moved from talking to leading with equity. Michelle Matthews, Senior Vice President at Purpose Built Communities, moderated a discussion in Orlando in 2018 with the first cohort of Equity Ambassadors - Kia Baker of the Southeast Raleigh Promise, Kirk Wester of Growing Together in Tulsa, Danny Shoy of the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta, and Sally Mackin of Woodlawn United in Birmingham.

There's an opportunity cost to separating and segregating people: we're not getting the best ideas, the creativity, the innovation out of discriminated communities that can lift up those neighborhoods and our country. Diversity brings out the best in people. Dr. Katherine Phillips, professor of organizational behavior at Columbia Business School, told Purpose Built Communities' annual conference in Omaha in 2017 that, to understand the value of diversity and use it to learn and innovate more effectively, we need to start by making small changes in ourselves.

More Americans are sent to jail than ever before in human history. Most of them are young, African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Mass incarceration devastates the communities where it has removed a generation of residents, with long-term impacts for generations. Dr. Todd Clear, professor at Rutgers University's School of Criminal Justice, presented to the Purpose Built Communities annual conference in Orlando in 2018 about how over-incarceration impoverishes communities, hurts our country, and ultimately fails to achieve its original goal - to deter criminal behavior and lower the overall crime rate.

Institutional racism does not just impact people who are old enough to vote and have a job. It's a lifelong reality from birth to death, and it's taught, reinforced, and perpetuated when our students are in America's classrooms. Dr. Beverly Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College and bestselling author, talked with Purpose Built Communities' Michelle Matthews in Omaha in 2017 about how people of different ages discuss race - starting as students in the classroom - and how a deeper understanding and servant approach to the discussion can help break down the barriers of segregation.

Two weeks before the 2016 election, there was an immediacy and urgency when Dr. David Williams, professor of public health, African and African American studies, and sociology at Harvard University, shared his research on the clear connection between race, socioeconomic status, and health at the Purpose Built Communities annual conference in Birmingham, Alabama. His work is even more relevant now in the face of public attacks from our leaders and those emboldened by racist rhetoric on communities of color and immigrants in our country.

We are constantly and fundamentally surrounded by racism in how our systems and public institutions have been structured and operate that it can be easy to not see it. To effectively revitalize a neighborhood, we need to look through a structural lens at our political, economic, social, and cultural history in order to fully understand the meaning of racism in America and how to address it in our institutions.  Glenn Harris, president of Race Forward, led a session about racial equity in 2015 at the Purpose Built Communities annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Too many communities are failing in America. Millions of people are trapped in poverty, fighting for their American Dream. And racism is at the core of why poverty is concentrated in some neighborhoods and not others, why the American Dream can be out of reach for so many of us. We must attack the underlying discrimination baked into our system throughout America's history to help communities become places where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

The final episode of Season One tells the story of Jamese Pinkston, who returned to the neighborhood in Charlotte where she grew up to help her neighbors have access to the opportunities to succeed and thrive that she was lucky to have. Hear her describe why she has the "best job in the world."   Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

America's demographics will become majority-minority in the coming decades. One neighborhood in Houston shows how to successfully build vibrant communities of diversity - and how to bring all of those different groups together in the wake of a natural disaster.   Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

Gentrification is nothing new in America. Many who stand in its path feel helpless to fight back against it. But some communities are striking the balance of revitalizing the neighborhood without pushing out its residents, bringing in new investment while preserving the history and culture of the place.    Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

Equity has become a buzzword in America. Yet we're collectively falling short of the American ideal of how we should be revitalizing communities - where everyone has the opportunity to achieve their own American Dream. So, what does it look like to really lead with equity in a community?   Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

Transformational revitalization can come in many different shapes and sizes. Howard Kennedy Elementary in Omaha went from a dead-end to a school that prepares its students to succeed and helped bring vibrancy and life back to the neighborhood. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

Every child deserves to get a quality education that prepares them for the future. But every child comes from different circumstances. A public charter school in Atlanta has matched the neighborhood's unique needs and built a pipeline from the cradle through college that sets students up to thrive. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

Bootstraps or downward escalators. No matter which analogy you prefer, the data are clear: the neighborhood where you grow up determines how high you can reach in life. This first episode shows how history and policies segregated poverty in neighborhoods in Orlando, Florida and Raleigh, North Carolina.    Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast. 

To address the root of intergenerational poverty, you need more than some money and good intentions. A holistic model that looks at the whole neighborhood - its housing, education, and community wellness - and a community quarterback can shift the tide.   Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

How do you know if you're transforming a neighborhood out of intergenerational poverty - bringing vibrancy, energy, and life back to a community? You'll feel it.    Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.

Poverty is the neighbor of wealth in America’s cities - but it doesn’t have to be. This series will tell stories about interstates dividing communities, walking out your door and “feeling it,” both public charter schools and traditional public schools helping students and neighborhoods, the struggles of fighting against the forces of gentrification, waking up and walking with a purpose every day, and coming back full circle. Find out more at purposebuiltcommunities.org/podcast.