Podcasts about california wellness foundation

To kick off Season 2, we are joined by Judy Belk, a Philanthropic Advisor at JVB Consulting and a leading voice on philanthropic change. Judy has held senior executive leadership positions in the government, corporate, and philanthropic sectors. Most recently, Judy served for nine years as the President and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic institutions in California with assets over $1 billion and an annual grantmaking budget of more than $65 million. Before Cal Wellness, she served as Senior Vice President for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Vice President of global public affairs for Levi Strauss & Co. Her insights have been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR. Judy is currently working on a book. “Ten Miles from the White House, a collection of personal essays focused on race, justice, and love.” In this episode we discuss: Why anyone—no matter the background—can be a ‘philanthropist,' and how Judy's personal experience with philanthropic support drives her work today The importance of wielding influence and resources to ensure a positive impact How listening to and learning from communities to understand their needs allows donors to partner with these communities in a thoughtful way

In this episode, we explore servant-leadership and it's connection to mission, values and democracy with Fatima Angeles. We also get real about philanthropic shenanigans and what we can do to transcend them. Fatima Angeles is the executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation, which advances pioneering social change in the areas of worker rights and well-being, democracy, reproductive justice and immigrant rights in communities touched by Levi Strauss & Co.'s business. Before joining LSF, Fatima was vice president of programs at The California Wellness Foundation where she provided executive leadership and strategic vision for the foundation's programs in grantmaking and program-related investments.

In this episode, we explore how to embrace the opportunities presented by crossroads in our lives and careers. By honoring the insights of our bodies, communities, and becoming more human, crossroads can set us on a path of growth in the direction of our dreams for society and the self. Crystal Hayling is the Executive Director of the Libra Foundation. Growing up a Black girl in the South, Crystal's survival depended upon her navigating social hierarchy, where she had to fight to be seen, heard, and taken seriously. Despite the fact that both of her parents were professionals, Crystal's family experienced racial terrorism that endangered their existence and stripped away generational wealth. Early on in her life, Crystal committed herself to naming and correcting that injustice for all communities experiencing anti-Blackness, exploitation, and oppression.  “The frontline communities Libra supports are my teachers. At the foundation, our goal is to listen. We honor interdependence, disrupt philanthropic patterns that prioritize productivity over humanity, and support a new culture that centers justice and liberation,” says Crystal. As executive director, Crystal is cementing Libra's dedication to being the type of funder that social movements need to bring forth progressive wins. She has brought together a team of empathic, knowledgeable, and curious individuals who are executing on that vision. With 30+ years of philanthropic and nonprofit experience, Crystal likes to say, “I've pretty much made all the mistakes already.”  With Libra, Crystal has brought a fresh vision of philanthropy that rejects business as usual and is responsive to the needs of frontline communities. Since 2017, Crystal has worked with the Libra board to advance these goals, including doubling Libra's grantmaking in 2020 in light of the global pandemic and uprisings, and launching the Democracy Frontlines Fund, a new aligned giving strategy that raised $36 million in unrestricted, multi-year support for a slate of Black-led organizations.  Crystal is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Prior to Libra, Crystal served as CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, where she spearheaded work to achieve universal health coverage. She was also part of the founding team at The California Wellness Foundation, where she led a groundbreaking initiative to shift youth violence prevention from a criminal justice issue to a public health effort. Crystal currently serves on the boards of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Essie Justice Group, and Community Change. She frequently writes and publishes on leading edge topics in philanthropy, and Inside Philanthropy named Crystal “2021 Foundation Leader of the Year" and "One of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy" in 2023. Outside of Libra, Crystal can be found in her garden, reading, listening to music, and going on long walks with her dogs. She's looking forward to live music and movies again. Crystal lives in San Mateo, CA with her husband and their two teenage sons. Learn more about Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy

Join Chanda Smith Baker in a conversation with Judy Belk, award-winning writer and former President and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation, as they discuss the power of place and its impact on health and wellness. Belk shares her journey of growing up in the segregated South, the injustices she faced, and how it shaped her commitment to justice and philanthropy. www.smithbaker.co www.conversationswithchanda.com www.voicevisionvalue.org IG @chandasbaker, @conversationswithchanda, @voice.vision.value Twitter: @chandasbaker

Judy Belk (senior advisor and former president and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation, also known as “Cal Wellness”) and Debra Nakatomi (CEO of NakatomiPR, trustee and former board chair of The California Wellness Foundation) exchange powerful stories of their experiences with race from childhood to the present, reflecting on what's possible when foundations lead with lived experience.  Together they underscore the importance of intentionality in board recruitment, accountability at the board level and the willingness to be pushed in this work. As they reflect on Cal Wellness' journey, they present a blueprint for how foundations can go beyond their grantmaking dollars – using their voice, endowments and power of their trustees – to maximize their service to communities. 

Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Ellen Bayer explore the new October issue focusing on Structural Racism In Health. Their conversation provides insight into unique online features exclusive to this issue as well as highlighting a number of the journal articles featured.Health Affairs would like to thank Gilbert Gee of the University of California Los Angeles and Ruqaiijah Yearby of Ohio State University, who served as theme issue advisers.Health Affairs would also like to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, and the Episcopal Health Foundation for their financial support of this issue.Order the October 2023 Health Affairs Tackling Structural Racism In Health theme issue!Related Links: Health Affairs Tackling Structural Racism In Health Theme Issue Health Affairs Racism & Health Resource Page Tackling Structural Racism In Health: A Conversation Ryan J. Petteway On Poetry, Place-Health Research, And Structural Racism (Health Affairs) Interactive Gallery: Baltimore Voices

Judy Belk and Richard Tate, the former and current CEOs of the California Wellness Foundation, are communicators whose careers have led them to the corner office. Each will make the case for communications as a leadership task and an indispensable tool for transformation. They will offer best practices for how to follow your values, integrate communications inside your organization, and describe why we must all dedicate ourselves to developing our communications chops to grow and tap into leadership skills.

Maribel Nuñez nos habla sobre el programa Coachella Valley Immigrant Dignity Rapid Response, una línea de red de respuesta (+1 800 515 1935) para las personas que necesitan ayudas de varios servicios, que incluyen recursos de salud mental. Hoy hablaremos de la importancia de hablar de la salud mental, y qué pueden encontrar las personas que llaman para pedir ayuda de salud mental.

This is Part 1 of our new Powerful Black Women Giving Back series. This week we feature clips from our previous interviews with Judy Belk, CEO of California Wellness Foundation, Dr. Cherise Hamblin, OBGYN and Founder of   Patients are Waiting, and Asahi Pompey, Goldman Sachs Partner and Head of Goldman Sachs Foundation. Have questions/comments/concerns? Email us at heartofgivingpod@gmail.com. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment on iTunes.    

On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on abortion rights (in Dobbs v. Mississippi) that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that has provided federal protections and defined a woman's right to abortion since 1973. After decades of whittling away at Roe's protections, a majority of the court's justices have upended it, letting individual states decide their own approaches to reproductive rights. With this decision, some 22 states are expected to quickly make abortion all but illegal, while California will likely remain one of the few where full abortion rights are guaranteed. Women in other states across the country might lose access to reproductive care overnight or find services even more severely restricted. In California, women's health-care providers and women's rights organizations are gearing up for a massive influx of people seeking care and assistance, while some are already exploring how the state can become a sanctuary for women in search of reproductive health care. California's approach to protecting abortion rights will be one of the most watched in the country. To mark this critical moment in the history of women's rights and to explore the role that California could play in a post-Roe environment, The Commonwealth Club of California is joining with Women's March San Francisco for a special gathering including conversation, networking and learning The gathering, produced in partnership with Women's March San Francisco and with support from The California Wellness Foundation, SPEAKERS Sylvia Ghazarian Executive Director, Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (participating via Zoom) Gilda Gonzales CEO, Planned Parenthood Northern California Buffy Wicks California State Assemblymember (District 15) Imani Rupert-Gordon Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights—Moderator In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on June 28th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing homelessness has fueled bitter conflicts in hundreds of neighborhoods across California. The drought is renewing generations-old local wars over water. Schools have become political and cultural battlegrounds, with parents and teachers at odds. And fights over pandemic response, from Shasta to Orange Counties, have escalated into violent threats between citizens and local officials. Why are so many Californians falling into fights with their neighbors? How much do social media and our polarized national politics contribute to local divides? And what are the best strategies to extract ourselves, and our neighbors, from intense conflicts so that we might work together to solve problems? “High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out” author Amanda Ripley, UCLA sociocultural anthropologist Kyeyoung Park, and mediator and former California Superior Court judge B. Scott Silverman visited Zócalo to discuss how we can stop contentious disputes from escalating and taking over our communities. This Zócalo/California Wellness Foundation event, co-presented with the Natural History Museum of LA County, was streamed live from the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum on April 13, 2022 and was moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist Erika D. Smith. Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

Join Health Affairs Insider.“Racism is an uncomfortable subject for a lot of people in academia and academic publishing itself is part of the problem, in that a lot of journals including Health Affairs have neglected to name racism and publish research about how racism harms health.” - Leslie Erdelack. In February, Health Affairs published a theme issue dedicated to racism and health. Understanding and addressing the impact of racism, particularly structural racism, on health is essential to building equity in health. As Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil wrote on Health Affairs Forefront in June 2020, the legacy of racism “is baked into our institutions, our thinking, and our policies.” Racism must be explored as a key driver of health outcomes and health disparities.  In today's episode, Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Leslie Erdelack discuss the publication process, main findings, and research insights from the Health Affairs February 2022 theme issue on racism and health.Health Affairs thanks Rachel Hardeman of the University of Minnesota and José Figueroa of Harvard University, who served as theme issue advisers. Health Affairs also thanks the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the Episcopal Health Foundation, the New York State Health Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their generous support of this issue.Order the February 2022 Health Affairs Racism and Health theme issue.Related Links: Health Affairs Racism and Health Theme Issue Health Affairs' Interview with Harriet Washington, author of Medical Apartheid  Systemic and Structural Racism: Definitions, Examples, Health Damages, And Approaches To Dismantling (Health Affairs) Sick And Tired Of Being Excluded: Structural Racism In Disenfranchisement As A Threat To Population Health Equity (Health Affairs) The Mutually Reinforcing Cycle Of Poor Data Quality And Racialized Stereotypes That Shapes Asian American Health (Health Affairs) Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castro | Stitcher | Deezer | Overcast

Since 1932, the Northwestern Alumni Medal has celebrated alumni who have had a transformative impact on their fields, who have performed exemplary volunteer service to society, or who have demonstrated an outstanding record of service and support to the University. In this special episode of Northwestern Intersections, we will hear insights from this year's recipients of the Northwestern Alumni Association's highest honor: Judy Belk '75, Andrew C. Chan '80, '80 MS, Christopher B. Combe '70 ('99, '09 P), and Gordon Segal '60 ('93 P). In episode 106a we will hear from Judy Belk, President and CEO of the California Wellness Foundation, one of California's largest public health philanthropic institutions.  If you missed the President's Alumni Panel, we've included a link to the recording here in the show notes. President Morton Schapiro leads a discussion with the Alumni Medalists about how the University shaped their lives and careers. To our alumni listeners, if you know an alum whose life, work, and service truly exemplify the ideals of Northwestern University and deserve recognition for their accomplishments please visit alumni.northwestern.edu/medal to learn more or go directly to the nomination form.

In this episode of Unseen Upside, we look at how technology is transforming healthcare for both the provider and the patient—and making it more equitable. Sami Inkinen, CEO and Co-Founder of Virta Health will discuss how his company is treating and reversing diabetes through an app on your phone. We also speak with Jasmine Richards, Cambridge Associates' Head of Diverse Manager Research; Tuoyo Louis, Co-Founder of Seae Ventures; and Rochelle Witharana, CFO of The California Wellness Foundation.

The United States has more firearms (390 million) than people (325 million), routinely experiences mass shootings, and suffers rates of gun violence far higher than other wealthy countries. California has touted itself as a safer model, with the most gun regulations in the country, the 44th lowest rate of gun violence among the 50 states, and a 9 percent decrease in gun deaths over the last decade, compared to an 18 percent increase nationwide. Has California—with its diverse mix of dense urban centers and rural communities—found strategies that could reduce gun violence around the country? How vulnerable are California's laws and strategies to federal judges bent on rolling back gun controls, including the state's longstanding ban on assault weapons? And what can California—which has seen gun ownership and deaths rise amidst the COVID-19 pandemic—do now and in the future to reduce gun injuries and deaths even further? California Assemblymember Phil Ting, UC Davis Medical Center emergency medicine physician and Violence Prevention Research Program director Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, and Hope and Heal Fund executive director Brian Malte visited Zócalo to examine the most effective ways to keep Californians and Americans safe from one of the leading causes of death in the nation. This Zócalo/California Wellness Foundation event was moderated by Guardian senior reporter Lois Beckett. Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: https://zps.la/3y2ZvJG Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

For there to be a well-balanced society, how important is access to affordable, nutritious, and convenient food? This week's guests, Sam Polk, Founder & CEO, and Chef Bryce Fluellen, Executive Director, Social Equity Franchise Program, of the ground-breaking company, Everytable, say it's a human right and they're on a mission to help transform the food system. Founded in 2016, Everytable is a multi-channel, fresh-prepared food business blending grab-and-go storefronts, a subscription delivery service, SmartFridges, and institutional food service, all supplied by a central kitchen with meals priced according to neighborhood income. A former hedge fund trader, Sam left a successful career on Wall Street to follow his heart to fight food injustice and inequality in America. He wrote a book titled For the Love of Money described as "part coming-of-age, part recovery memoir, and part expose of a rotten, money drenched Wall Street culture" (Salon). In 2013, he founded a non-profit called FEAST (formerly Groceryships) to address food-related problems in South LA by helping family food providers make choices through nutrition education, cooking classes, free produce, and support groups. A few years later, Sam founded Everytable, a social enterprise, with the help and the backing of food-forward investors like Kimbal Musk, Maria Shriver, Gwyneth Paltrow, TOMS Social Enterprise Fund, W.K Kellogg Foundation, Annenberg Foundation and The California Wellness Foundation. Chef Bryce has fought for food justice and social equity for more than 20 years developing and implementing strategic programs at Starbucks, Magic Johnson Enterprises, and the American Heart Association to drive systemic change to benefit underserved populations and communities. In his current role with Everytable, he is responsible for a franchise model that invests directly into marginalized entrepreneurs of color by providing the opportunity to open Everytable stores with zero upfront capital or net worth. In this episode, host Brad Johnson and the Everytable execs discuss their personal journey and passion for helping other people, the designation "food desert" and its impact on communities, and the origins of the current food system in the U.S. including its debilitating health consequences. Working towards solutions, Sam and Chef Bryce explain the opportunities they have created for people in the community to achieve the American Dream with Everytable's Social Equity Franchise Program, and the hope behind Everytable's mission for everyone, everywhere to have access to nutritious, fresh food at affordable prices. *** For more information on host Brad Johnson or to join our mailing list, please visit: https://postandbeamhospitality.com/ For questions or comments, please e.mail: info@postandbeamhospitality.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Members of the Asian American community have been sounding alarms over the dramatic increase in anti-Asian rhetoric and violence over the course of the pandemic. But it was another tragedy, the mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight dead, six of whom were women of Asian descent, that centered a national conversation about racism and discrimination against Asian Americans. To learn more about how this moment is being experienced in the San Joaquin Valley, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with Nikiko Masumoto, an organic farmer and artist, Gena Lew Gong, a lecturer of Asian American Studies at Fresno State, Geri Yang-Johnson, trustee and board member for the California Wellness Foundation and Ya-Shu Liang, a professor and licensed psychologist.

Between 1975 and 2007, incarceration rates in the United States increased nearly fivefold. But over the last decade, California has slowly turned away from mass incarceration, reducing its prison population and changing criminal sentencing and other law enforcement practices to give more people more second chances. What has California done right in this transformation, and where has it fallen short? How are criminal justice system reforms changing our economy, our schools, our housing markets, our health systems, and our politics? And what would a truly just criminal justice system look like? UC Berkeley public policy professor Steven Raphael visited Zócalo to examine criminal justice reform in California and how ending mass incarceration might change our communities. This Zócalo/California Wellness Foundation online event was moderated by Abbie VanSickle, California reporter at The Marshall Project. Co-Presented with UC Center Sacramento. Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: http://zps.la/3sta1Yd Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

“I have had an identity of being different from such an early age that it's never even occurred to me to try to fit in with those around me.” That’s how Adriane Armstrong, CEO of the nonprofit social enterprise Juma Ventures, explains why she chose a career in the nonprofit sector while her classmates were pursuing for-profit, high tech startups. For many, going against the grain isn’t easy. In this interview, Adriane tells her story including the early experiences that motivated her to want to help others and the strategic, deliberate steps she took to build a career where she could do exactly this. It’s an inspiring story filled with practical advice that anyone can use, especially those considering working in the nonprofit sector. Our long-time listeners know that every year around the holidays, we like to feature the career journey of someone making a difference in the lives of others. This year, we’re thrilled to have Adriane as our guest and to highlight the work of Juma Ventures. Juma operates businesses with the purpose of employing young people. Its mission is to break the cycle of poverty by paving the way to work, education, and financial capability for youth across America.Meet the GuestAdriane Gamble Armstrong has dedicated her career to the nonprofit sector, working on issues ranging from education and community development to public health and environmental justice. Common threads in her work have been the pursuit of social justice and serving underserved communities. Adriane found Juma as a volunteer in 2005, joined staff as Managing Director of Programs in 2011, and became CEO in 2017. Prior to her appointment to CEO, Adriane served for three years as COO, and oversaw the programs & partnerships, evaluation, finance, information technology, human resources and operations functions of the agency. Through Adriane’s efforts in team building, partnership development and strategic execution, Juma has grown from a $3M organization in three cities, to the current footprint of six markets serving more than 1,000 youth per year with a budget of $7M.Adriane serves on the board of the Hidden Genius Project, and sits on the Council of Nonprofit Leaders for Charity Navigator. She previously served on the board of Huckleberry Youth Programs, and is an alumna of the American Express Leadership Academy. Prior to joining Juma, Adriane managed a housing and social services program for youth aging out of foster care with Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Adriane holds an MBA with an emphasis in nonprofit management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as an M.A. in social psychology and a B.A. in comparative studies in race and ethnicity from Stanford University. She resides in Oakland with her husband and two sons.LinksIf you’re interested in getting involved or donating to Juma Ventures, visit Juma.org.

Judy Belk, President and CEO of the California Wellness Foundation, joins us for the first of a two-part discussion about how acts of giving and service have the power to positively impact the lives of people around the world. You won't want to miss her insights into philanthropy, as well as what it means to be a philanthropist. Listen in for more!

In this special episode, host Ashley McMullen and executive producer Kimberly Manning discuss the making of the series Black Voices in Healthcare. Illustrations by Ashley Floréal. Original music by Janaé E. This series is brought to you by the California Medical Association, the California Health Care Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, and donations from our listeners. Learn more and support us at thenocturnists.com. Thank you!

We've been talking a lot lately about a variety of different ways that you can raise funds and today, I wanted to bring a special guest on to talk specifically about working with philanthropists. Kris Putnam-Walkerly is a Global Philanthropy Advisor and she has more than 20 years of experience working with philanthropists.  Kris has an award-winning book called Delusional Altruism and she has helped hundreds of wealthy family foundations, fortune 500 companies, giving pledge signatories and wealth advisors strategically influence and allocate over a half a billion dollars in grants and gifts. Fill in the gaps in your story and tell us how you work with people in the charitable sector. I have been advising and consulting with philanthropists for the past 20 years. I began my career actually working at Stanford University where I was evaluating youth and gang violence prevention programs. And that was funded by a large foundation, the California Wellness Foundation. It piqued my interest because I realized funders, if they have anything, they have money and they have access to wealth. If you start with that, bring in the right experts, and you're really thoughtful and you do your research, you can tackle a problem at its root and try to create lasting change. Philanthropy can really make a difference and help change and solve a lot of the problems that we're dealing with. I went to work at the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, which at the time was the largest in the country. And I began consulting with other funders, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and many others and realized I not only loved philanthropy, but I loved consulting too and that really began my career. Now I work in a few ways. I help funders of all kinds and sizes. I work with ultra-high net worth donors, leaders of foundations, corporate giving programs, national, local, family foundation, corporate community, and private. I help them to clarify their strategy, and then implement their strategy. And I often am brought on as a trusted advisor. They'll retain me to help them and be kind of strategic sounding board to navigate all aspects of their philanthropic journey. How do you define philanthropy to the world? Well, we're all philanthropists because all of us have a lot of love for humanity. And we all have the ability to give of ourselves, our time, talent, treasure, and I like to add ties, which our ties to the community and the ways that we can open doors and help other people by introductions and who we know. And so, I think it's important to recognize that, you know, we can all find ways to give. What is Delusional Altruism? Delusional Altruism is based on my experience and I believe donors want to make a difference and change the world and be altruistic and deeply care about the issues and communities that they're supporting. And they're also getting in their own way. They often don't even realize this is happening. I wrote the book to help donors recognize the ways that they have their own blind spots, and they often are preventing themselves from achieving the impact that they seek and how to recognize that and then what they can do differently to have a more transformational impact on whatever cause they care about.  What do you see nonprofits doing really well to engage with philanthropists, and not necessarily just during this time, but throughout the year?  I really think you can't over-communicate, especially now. And I know that a lot of nonprofit organizations when this crisis first hit were very worried about how to fundraise. To me, I think you really need to switch your mindset as a nonprofit leader and embrace what I call an abundance mindset. And that could mean many things. But I think for a nonprofit leader, it needs to mean recognizing your value, the value that you provide to the people that you're serving, and the value that you're providing to the donor.  What are you seeing that people are doing well, and maybe not so well in as they engage philanthropists? It's about communication, but it's about your own positioning and how clear you are. How you communicate the value that you bring, why you're the right organization to be doing this work, your accomplishments, whatever it might be, just really having clear communication, if it's a PowerPoint deck, or it's a two-page overview, or it's your website. You don't want anybody guessing as to what you do or be too vague in the description. Or be too shy about sharing your accomplishments. I think all of those things are really important. And I think secondly, and this might surprise your listeners, is you're not asking for enough money. I remember years ago when I was consulting with Charles Schwab Family Foundation, and I would be reviewing proposals coming in. It would be for a really important domestic violence shelter in the community. And it asked for $5,000. To be honest, I would think to myself, this program costs $100,000 a year to run, ask for $50,000 because we'd probably give it to you. It costs money to hire talented people and run organizations and have bookkeeping services and do professional development, develop your board, invest in technology, all of these things. These are real costs. Pretending they don't exist doesn't really do anything for the service and it turns into this sort of cycle of the scarcity mindset. So I would be honest about what it really takes to run your organization and ask for what you deserve. I hear statements like, donors only want to give to our projects into our program. They don't want to give to operational expenses. Is that true? Or is that both? Both. There are a lot of funders who will support core operating support.  However, I think this pandemic has made it abundantly obvious that you can't tightly restrict nonprofit organizations to do only X, Y or Z, when the rug gets pulled out from underneath them, and only A, B and C make sense or they have to reinvent the alphabet in order to proceed. I think the case will be easier to make going forward, that we need our resources to be able to navigate the work. But that said, there's actually a lot of fear in philanthropy. That might be surprising to some people because people equate money with power. One aspect of fear from the perspective of the funder is the fear of losing control, losing control of their money once they give it away. That's why you see so many hoops and hurdles that nonprofits have to jump through to get the funding. What does fundraising freedom mean to you? To me, it means taking the opportunity to explore the variety of fundraising tools that you have at your disposal and giving yourself the freedom to learn. One thing I hope everyone is doing during this pandemic is recognizing and seizing this opportunity to improve and change themselves. I've engaged in professional development, I've read books I was planning on reading that I hadn't read before. I've participated in webinars, I've forced myself to try new technology and take risks, doing things I wasn't comfortable doing before, intentionally to make sure that I emerge from this crisis, a stronger, better philanthropy advisor. That's a very freeing feeling because it's under my control, I can do it, I can do all of this for almost free. I really encourage fundraisers and, quite frankly, funders to do the same thing so that you can learn and add another tool to your toolbox.   Resources mentioned: Delusionalaltruism.com Six Mistakes Philanthropists Make During A Crisis   Connect with Kris: Putnam-consulting.com   Connect with Mary: Mary Valloni Fundraising Freedom Academy Fully Funded Academy Facebook LinkedIn    

We've been talking a lot lately about a variety of different ways that you can raise funds and today, I wanted to bring a special guest on to talk specifically about working with philanthropists. Kris Putnam-Walkerly is a Global Philanthropy Advisor and she has more than 20 years of experience working with philanthropists.  Kris has an award-winning book called Delusional Altruism and she has helped hundreds of wealthy family foundations, fortune 500 companies, giving pledge signatories and wealth advisors strategically influence and allocate over a half a billion dollars in grants and gifts. Fill in the gaps in your story and tell us how you work with people in the charitable sector. I have been advising and consulting with philanthropists for the past 20 years. I began my career actually working at Stanford University where I was evaluating youth and gang violence prevention programs. And that was funded by a large foundation, the California Wellness Foundation. It piqued my interest because I realized funders, if they have anything, they have money and they have access to wealth. If you start with that, bring in the right experts, and you're really thoughtful and you do your research, you can tackle a problem at its root and try to create lasting change. Philanthropy can really make a difference and help change and solve a lot of the problems that we're dealing with. I went to work at the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, which at the time was the largest in the country. And I began consulting with other funders, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and many others and realized I not only loved philanthropy, but I loved consulting too and that really began my career. Now I work in a few ways. I help funders of all kinds and sizes. I work with ultra-high net worth donors, leaders of foundations, corporate giving programs, national, local, family foundation, corporate community, and private. I help them to clarify their strategy, and then implement their strategy. And I often am brought on as a trusted advisor. They'll retain me to help them and be kind of strategic sounding board to navigate all aspects of their philanthropic journey. How do you define philanthropy to the world? Well, we're all philanthropists because all of us have a lot of love for humanity. And we all have the ability to give of ourselves, our time, talent, treasure, and I like to add ties, which our ties to the community and the ways that we can open doors and help other people by introductions and who we know. And so, I think it's important to recognize that, you know, we can all find ways to give. What is Delusional Altruism? Delusional Altruism is based on my experience and I believe donors want to make a difference and change the world and be altruistic and deeply care about the issues and communities that they're supporting. And they're also getting in their own way. They often don't even realize this is happening. I wrote the book to help donors recognize the ways that they have their own blind spots, and they often are preventing themselves from achieving the impact that they seek and how to recognize that and then what they can do differently to have a more transformational impact on whatever cause they care about.  What do you see nonprofits doing really well to engage with philanthropists, and not necessarily just during this time, but throughout the year?  I really think you can't over-communicate, especially now. And I know that a lot of nonprofit organizations when this crisis first hit were very worried about how to fundraise. To me, I think you really need to switch your mindset as a nonprofit leader and embrace what I call an abundance mindset. And that could mean many things. But I think for a nonprofit leader, it needs to mean recognizing your value, the value that you provide to the people that you're serving, and the value that you're providing to the donor.  What are you seeing that people are doing well, and maybe not so well in as they engage philanthropists? It's about communication, but it's about your own positioning and how clear you are. How you communicate the value that you bring, why you're the right organization to be doing this work, your accomplishments, whatever it might be, just really having clear communication, if it's a PowerPoint deck, or it's a two-page overview, or it's your website. You don't want anybody guessing as to what you do or be too vague in the description. Or be too shy about sharing your accomplishments. I think all of those things are really important. And I think secondly, and this might surprise your listeners, is you're not asking for enough money. I remember years ago when I was consulting with Charles Schwab Family Foundation, and I would be reviewing proposals coming in. It would be for a really important domestic violence shelter in the community. And it asked for $5,000. To be honest, I would think to myself, this program costs $100,000 a year to run, ask for $50,000 because we'd probably give it to you. It costs money to hire talented people and run organizations and have bookkeeping services and do professional development, develop your board, invest in technology, all of these things. These are real costs. Pretending they don't exist doesn't really do anything for the service and it turns into this sort of cycle of the scarcity mindset. So I would be honest about what it really takes to run your organization and ask for what you deserve. I hear statements like, donors only want to give to our projects into our program. They don't want to give to operational expenses. Is that true? Or is that both? Both. There are a lot of funders who will support core operating support.  However, I think this pandemic has made it abundantly obvious that you can't tightly restrict nonprofit organizations to do only X, Y or Z, when the rug gets pulled out from underneath them, and only A, B and C make sense or they have to reinvent the alphabet in order to proceed. I think the case will be easier to make going forward, that we need our resources to be able to navigate the work. But that said, there's actually a lot of fear in philanthropy. That might be surprising to some people because people equate money with power. One aspect of fear from the perspective of the funder is the fear of losing control, losing control of their money once they give it away. That's why you see so many hoops and hurdles that nonprofits have to jump through to get the funding. What does fundraising freedom mean to you? To me, it means taking the opportunity to explore the variety of fundraising tools that you have at your disposal and giving yourself the freedom to learn. One thing I hope everyone is doing during this pandemic is recognizing and seizing this opportunity to improve and change themselves. I've engaged in professional development, I've read books I was planning on reading that I hadn't read before. I've participated in webinars, I've forced myself to try new technology and take risks, doing things I wasn't comfortable doing before, intentionally to make sure that I emerge from this crisis, a stronger, better philanthropy advisor. That's a very freeing feeling because it's under my control, I can do it, I can do all of this for almost free. I really encourage fundraisers and, quite frankly, funders to do the same thing so that you can learn and add another tool to your toolbox.   Resources mentioned: Delusionalaltruism.com Six Mistakes Philanthropists Make During A Crisis   Connect with Kris: Putnam-consulting.com   Connect with Mary: Mary Valloni Fundraising Freedom Academy Fully Funded Academy Facebook LinkedIn    

Bernadette Onyenaka is the co-founder of the O&G Racial Equity Collaborative, where she leads the racial equity curriculum development and operations. Most recently, she served as a National Urban Fellow with the California Wellness Foundation, where she explored pathways to deepening the foundation’s work in racial equity and innovation. She also served as the Racial Equity Manager for the National League of Cities’ Race, Equity, and Leadership (REAL) initiative, redeveloped REAL’s racial equity training series to increasing the capacity, competence, and readiness of municipal leaders and staff to identify and dismantle structural racism through policy, practice, procedural and change.Through engaging with municipalities directly, she guided and supported the efforts of cities like Rochester, NY, and Wichita, KS, to operationalize plans that address racial inequity through changes to internal practices, community engagement, and initiatives designed to address disparate impact or create pathways to equitable outcomes.Bernadette, Alyia, and Katie discuss women’s issues in re-entry, poverty, disparities in education, job and skill training and the importance of focusing on data in racial equity work.For more Checkbox Outreach, follow us on Twitter @disruptoutreach and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.checkboxoutreach.com.Guest: Bernadette OnyenakaHosted By: Alyia Gaskins and Katie Leonard

Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term by Michael Santos   Chapter 15.3 *******      It’s Wednesday, April 18, 2012 and I received the most amazing book during mail call.  It’s so impressive, The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections, edited by Professor Joan Petersilia, who is the Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and Kevin R. Reitz, who is the James Annenberg La Vea Professor of Criminal Procedure at the University of Minnesota Law School.  The 764-page book includes contributions from many authors who wrote individual chapters on various subjects pertaining to sentencing and corrections in America’s massive prison system.  My face beams with pride when I turn to chapter 25 and I see the words I wrote more than three years ago, describing the life I’ve lived since 1987. I don’t know how to describe the honor I feel that Professor Petersilia invited me to write about my experiences.  I’m a prisoner, after all, and yet by including my work I’m in the company of some of the world’s leading scholars who hold distinguished positions in some of the world’s leading universities.  To show my appreciation, I will read each chapter and publish a review to describe what I learned from those who contributed. There isn’t anyone here with whom I can share my joy, but inside, I feel a liberating gratification, giving me a sense that some meaning has come from this long journey.  It’s a journey that is coming to an end, as I have news that I’m scheduled to transition from the Atwater federal prison camp to the San Francisco halfway house on August 13, 2012. ******* It’s July 1, 2012, the last full month that I’m going to serve in federal prison.  I have 9,091 days of prison behind me, only 44 days of prison ahead.  From the beginning I’ve been exercising very hard, but I’ve been waiting for this month for decades, always intending to exercise harder during my final month than ever before.  After all, it’s the last full month in my life that I’ll have to focus exclusively on exercise.  I’m determined to run 500 miles during the month.  In addition, I’ll do 10,000 pushups and 4,000 dips. The intense workout will quell this steady surge of anticipation that has been building for months. Carole has already made the move to Lee’s guesthouse and she secured a job at a Bay area hospital.  As crazy as it may sound, I know that my life is one of many blessings, but more than anything else, I cherish the relationship I’ve built with my wife.  We’re both indescribably excited about the prospects of building our lives together.  Despite the love, enthusiasm, and anticipation inside of me, however, I have a measure of anxiety as well. For 25 years I’ve been a prisoner, living in the midst of men, strangers.  Privacy has not been a part of my life.  I don’t know how to eat with metal silverware or off of ceramic plates.  I’ve not had a drink from a glass since 1987, nor have I taken a shower without wearing flip-flops.  We’re in our 10th year of marriage, but my wife and I have only known each other under the bright lights of prison visiting rooms, always under the watchful eyes of vigilant prison guards. I don’t have any idea about the magnitude of change that is about to come my way, but I know that it’s coming.  Running these long distances helps to dissipate the anxiety, but I can’t help thinking about how I’ll react to the changes that are about to come.  I don’t worry about earning a living or financial matters, as I’ve prepared well for those challenges. My anxieties are of a more primal nature.  For instance, I dwell for hours at a time about how I’m going to muster the courage to poop in front of my wife.  Will she kick me out of bed if she hears me pass gas?  I don’t have any idea on how I’m going to handle these complexities of domesticity, but I know that I can count on Carole to help me.  She just doesn’t yet know the worries that I have. I wonder what’s going through her mind.  For years she’s lived as a prisoner’s wife, with visiting rooms being our living room, bedroom, and kitchen.  She has been very protective of her time with me, and yet it has been only an abbreviated time.  Now, in a matter of days, all of that will change.  Carole has begun making purchases to ease my initial transition.  She bought us matching iPhones, clothing and hygiene supplies that I’m going to need.  We’re coordinating events with family, as my sisters, mother, and grandmother want to visit.  They’ve been waiting for 25 years to welcome me home, but my release is complicated by three factors:   I’m being released to San Francisco and my family lives in other cities;   I’m not really going home, but to a halfway house; and     I don’t know what restrictions the halfway house is going to place on me.   With all of those complications, I’m asking my mom and sisters to let me spend the initial weeks with Carole.  Before receiving visits, I need to settle with her and understand more about this transition into society and what it truly means to live as a husband.  I want to receive my driver’s license, to begin reporting to work, and to complete whatever demands the halfway house makes upon residents as a condition of increased liberties.  I expect that I’ll need 90 days to settle.   *******   It’s 2:00 am on Monday, August 13, 2012.  Today is the day, the 9,135th day that I’m waking on a prison rack.  It’s also the last.  I climb down and dress in my exercise gear.  I take my cup of instant coffee and walk into the center of the housing unit, where I sit alone in the dark.  It’s been 25 years and two days since my arrest, and in a few short hours I’m scheduled to walk outside of these fences.  Why, I wonder, does society equate this particular amount of time with the concept of justice?  In what ways did the quarter century I served contribute to community safety? As I look around and see all the other prisoners sleeping, the only answer I can come up with is that society wanted to punish me for the laws I broke when I was in my early 20s. I’m now 48 and I don’t even remember much about those crimes, as the length of time that I served gradually squeezed those details out of my memory and consciousness.  The punishment felt severe with my arrest and trial and sentencing.  But as the weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years, I turned all of my attention toward those three principled steps that were going to guide me through my journey:   I made a commitment to educate myself; I made a commitment to contribute to society in measurable ways; and I made a commitment to build a strong support network.   That strategy, I hoped, would help redeem the bad decisions of my reckless youth and help me reconcile with society.  As the years passed, however, I lost sight of the fact that society was punishing me. Prison became the only life that I knew. Is a man still being punished if he doesn’t even know it?      By the time I earned my master’s degree in 1995, I felt as ready to live as a contributing member of society as I ever would.  That was 17 years ago, but our system of justice didn’t have a mechanism in place to encourage individuals to work toward earning freedom. As Shakespeare suggested in his play A Merchant from Venice, the system wanted its pound of flesh.  Regardless of what efforts an individual made to atone, in our system of justice, all that mattered was the turning of a sufficient number of calendar pages. As of today, 300 calendar pages have turned since my initial arrest.  And in a few more hours, I’m going to walk outside of these gates, where I’ll see Carole waiting. It’s 4:00 am and I begin my exercise, first with strength training, knocking out 50 sets of pushups.  Then I begin my run.  In July I set a goal of running 500 miles.  With focus and persistence I blasted through that goal, hitting 700 miles that included eight back-to-back marathons during the month.  I’ve now exercised for 1,340 days without a single day of rest, but what new routines will begin tomorrow?  Many years ago I read What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, a book by Marshall Goldsmith, a business strategist. The book made an impression on me then, and it seems particularly relevant to me now, as I finish running my 12th and final mile around a prison track.  I’m opening my mind to the reality that I’m going to have to change the rigid and precise tactics that have carried me through prison.  But I’ll never relinquish my commitment to living a principled, deliberate, strategic life.  I don’t know how I’m going to have to change, but I’m open to the changes that will come when I walk outside of these prison gates.   *******   It’s 7:00 am and I’m walking alone, steadying my thoughts.  I tried to use the telephone but my account has been disabled, confirming that my time in prison is ending.  I see a long line of men waiting to enter the chow hall for breakfast and I feel the many eyes upon me; I feel their energy, good wishes from them, but I need this time alone.  I walk into the chapel for solitude and I pray in gratitude, thanking God for protecting me through the journey, asking for guidance as I take the next steps home. “Michael Santos,” I hear the announcement.  “Number 16377-004.  Report with all your property to the rear gate.” I’m carrying my copy of The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections, but I’ve given everything else away.  I leave the camp and walk toward the gate at the rear of the penitentiary.  A guard comes toward me from inside the gate and he crosses through.  He calls me forward and asks a few questions to confirm my identity, and it’s as simple as that.  We walk through a processing area and I see that it’s 8:48, which is coincidentally the same number as the criminal code for the crime I committed.  Another guard fingerprints and photographs me.  Two other guards ask me more questions to confirm my identity.  And that’s it.  We walk through penitentiary corridors, and across an area that leads me into a lobby. I turn right around a corner, where I meet other guards.  They hand over funds from my commissary account and authorize me to cross over to the other side, where Carole, my lovely wife waits, her elbows to her side, tears flowing down her cheeks, prayer hands pressed close to her mouth as she stares in disbelief as I walk out of the penitentiary and into the embrace of her arms. At last, at last.         Epilogue:     When we walk out, Carole hands me an iPhone. I’d never seen a smart phone before. When I put the device next to my ear, I didn’t hear a dial tone.   “It’s not working,” I told her.   Carole laughed.   The world had changed during the 9,135 days that I’d been a prisoner. Although I’d read about technology, I hadn’t ever sent an email. Although I had a website since the dawn of the Internet, I’d never accessed the Internet. I’d never made a YouTube video, or used any of the technology that the world took for granted.   I intended to learn.   I sat in the passenger seat as Carole drove me from the prison in Atwater to a halfway house in San Francisco. We had more privacy on that drive than we’d ever had during our first 10 years of marriage. It was the first time we sat together outside of a guard’s presence. And yet rules limited our time together. If I didn’t make it to the halfway house within the three-hour timeframe I’d been given, I’d begin my time in there on the wrong foot.   Carole drove steadily while I feasted on a pizza she brought me.   When we came out of the Central Valley and crossed the Bay Bridge, I saw the San Francisco Skyline.   “Within five years,” I told Carole, “I’ll build my first $1 million in assets.”   Carole shook her head. By then she understood my ambition, my quest to overcome obstacles. “You need to relax, take a breath. Get to know the world.”   “It’s go time,” I told her. “For 25 years I’ve been held down. I’m ready. We’re ready. I’ll work harder out here than I’ve ever worked before. We’ll figure it out together. I can’t wait for life to unfold. We’ve got to make life happen.”   I settled into the halfway house and immediately began working. As I had learned in prison, I would need a deliberate, disciplined strategy to grow.   Step 1: Define success Step 2: Create a plan Step 3: Set priorities Step 4: Execute the plan   As in prison, I adhered to the same principle of moving forward toward my goal with a 100% commitment. First step would be to get a driver’s license. I needed to be mobile. Then, I had to consider strengths and weaknesses.   With regard to strengths, I had a positive mindset. I understood that I had faced the challenge of a quarter century in prison. Yet as planned, I returned strong, with my dignity intact. I could leverage that strength to carve out new opportunities.   But I also understood my weaknesses. As a result of prolonged imprisonment, I’d never held a job, never built a workforce or managed employees. My strength was in a strong work ethic, being self-directed, and being relentless in pursuit of my goals. I had to leverage those strengths, turn them into assets that would become more valuable over time. I used my time in the halfway house to the best of my ability, investing hours to learn how to use technology, to understand the Internet.   The economy was still weak in August of 2012. Our country had been in a deep recession for several years. With my liberty, it all felt right. Unbridled optimism blinded me to risks. I believed the economy would improve, and I wanted to participate. In my mind, the best way to participate would be to acquire appreciating assets.   During those first days in the halfway house, I began engineering a plan to make my first real estate acquisition. Despite having a zero-zero-zero credit score, I persuaded a successful real estate developer to provide 100% financing on the purchase of a new house in the San Francisco Bay area. I hadn’t been in the halfway house for a full month when I had a deal under contract. That deal would become the start of many others.   Preparations from prison resulted in scores of opportunities opening. By the time I finished with the halfway house, and with the Bureau of Prisons, after 9,500 days, San Francisco State University offered me a position to become an adjunct professor. With permission from my probation officer, I traveled across the United States to lecture in universities.   Sponsorship from the California Wellness Foundation allowed me to develop a curriculum to teach the values-based, goal-oriented strategies that I learned from other leaders. Together with my partner, Justin Paperny, we distributed those concepts to jails, prisons, and schools across America.   Such lessons prepared me for success through struggle. To the extent that others adhered to those same principles, I felt confident they too would thrive. For centuries, leaders had been living in accordance with self-directed plans:   Define success Set clear goals Move forward with a 100% commitment to success Visualize the outcome Take the incremental action steps Create accountability metrics Be aware of opportunities Live authentically and honestly Celebrate incremental achievements Show appreciations for the blessings in life   By documenting those strategies that I learned from leaders, opportunities opened. As a direct result of the seeds that I sowed during imprisonment, I could persuade other people to believe in me. I would challenge business leaders to use their discretion and invest with me. They could look upon the record I built. By staying focused and disciplined while growing through a quarter century in prison, I argued that I was well prepared to prosper in society. Rather than judging me as a man with a zero-zero-zero credit score, I invited them to support efforts I would make to build, grow, and contribute to the making of a better society. That strategy paid off. Within five years of the conclusion of my sentence, by August of 2018, I controlled more than $5 million in assets, and built equity of more than $3 million.   Then, a lawsuit from an agency of the federal government resulted in the loss of all those assets.   For that story, how I litigated through it, and how I worked to recover and build millions more, you’ll need to get the next book—which I’m writing now. Visit MichaelSantos.com for an update.   The one promise I make is that I’ll never ask anyone to do anything that I haven’t done, or that I’m not doing. Regardless of what businesses or opportunities I create, I intend to continue creating resources to teach and inspire people in jails and prisons. We all must live in the world as it exists. That means we must accept that problems will surface as a result of our criminal backgrounds. We must succeed anyway.   By living the values-based, goal-oriented strategy that I learned from leaders, I’m paying it forward, trying to prove worthy of the guidance and inspiration I got from Socrates. His wisdom inspired me while I was still locked in the Pierce County Jail, before a judge sentenced me to 45 years. Since then, I’ve been striving to “be the change that I want to see in the world,” just as Gandhi advised us all to live.   Stay focused, stay deliberate.   Earn freedom! May 1, 2020    

Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, by Michael Santos Chapter 15.1 Podcast 148 / 25 minutes   Forming nonprofit, Carole becoming a registered nurse, meeting Greg Reyes, starting to write Undefeated. Epilogue: 2009-2012 Months 260-300          It’s May 20, 2009 and my friend Justin Paperny is being released from prison today.  We work well together and I’ll miss his companionship. For the past several months Justin has been joining me in a quiet room where I write each morning.  One early morning session began with an idea for launching a nonprofit organization.  Undertaking such a task would assist us in raising financial resources that we could rely upon to create products for the purpose of reducing recidivism. Our reasoning is simple, just an assessment of the facts. High-recidivism rates challenge our society in numerous ways, influencing the lives of citizens who don’t grasp how America’s commitment to mass incarceration influences their everyday lives.  Whereas taxpayers want safer communities, better schools, and better health care, those who represent the prison machine want bigger budgets.  That mindset of locking people up and throwing away the key leads to more overtime, more jobs for prison guards, and more expenditures on barbed wire fences, but it doesn’t lead to safer communities.  Rather, it diverts resources that society could use to build better schools, better hospitals, and offer more social services. People who serve time struggle to emerge with the types of values, skills, and resources that translate into success upon release.  Statistics illustrate the problem.  More than one out of every two people who serve time face continuing challenges from the criminal justice system after their release.  That rate of failure leads to enormous costs for taxpayers, depleting public resources that would be better spent on education, health care, or other social services.  I’m convinced that by working together, Justin and I can help reduce costs of recidivism and contribute to safer communities. Doing so will require financial teamwork and money for obvious reasons: neither Justin nor I can work for free.  We have to earn a living, and the nonprofit could raise resources for the purposes of paying us for services we can offer. While Justin served time with me here in Taft it wasn’t possible to advance the idea of launching a nonprofit.  After all, forming a nonprofit organization isn’t easy, especially when the principals are incarcerated.   One lesson I learned over the decades is that all worthwhile goals begin with vision, but achieving them requires persistence and commitment.  With Justin’s release, we can work together to advance this idea of launching a nonprofit.  He will do his part from outside fences, and I’ll do my part from in here.  Although I understand that we may face many challenges along the way, I’m confident that we have a unified vision with regard to what we’re trying to create, and we both will drive forward with persistence and commitment.  This work will further my goal of living a life of relevance while I serve what I expect to be my final three years. Research we’ve done to inquire on what it takes to form a nonprofit organization has given us an understanding of how to proceed.  First of all, we must persuade the Internal Revenue Service that we can provide a benefit to people in society.  If we succeed in that endeavor, the IRS will authorize the organization to raise money from philanthropic organizations, corporations, and individuals who support charitable giving.  Raising financial resources in this dismal economic climate will prove challenging, especially when the people striving to raise the money have felony convictions.  But without valid credentials from the IRS, we may not be able to raise money at all. I understand that some may question why we need to raise financial resources.  We need money because we’re working to build a sustainable operation, one that can help transform troubled lives.  Our target market will include at-risk youth and incarcerated individuals, people who cannot pay for the products we’ll create and distribute. I will undertake the responsibility of showing taxpayers the reasons why it’s in their best interest to support our cause. If we receive authorization from the IRS, we’ll work together to transform at-risk lives, empowering them to live as contributing citizens.  I’m glad Justin joined me in formulating this plan of action.  Now we must execute the plan.   *******   The fall of 2009 passes easily for me here in the Taft federal prison camp.  I’ve now served more than 22 years of my sentence.  Although I don’t know precisely when I’ll walk out, I’m feeling strong, expecting that release will come within the next three years.  I’m truly in the end game, and I’m fully aware of my responsibilities to have a plan in place for my return to society. Carole is working as a licensed vocational nurse in Los Angeles and studying microbiology in preparation to resume nursing school in January.  Nichole, her daughter, is beginning studies at Washington State University, on her way to beginning a career in nursing as well.  As far as I’m concerned, our family has triumphed over prison.  Whereas the design of this system seems uniquely structured to lead individuals and families into perpetuating cycles of failure, the strategic, disciplined plan by which we’ve lived has brought us many blessings and strengthened us.  Continuous progress keeps my spirit strong. Justin’s attorney has assured him that the nonprofit paperwork is in order, and we expect to receive authorization from the IRS to operate The Michael G. Santos Foundation by the end of this year.  Three people have accepted Justin’s invitation to serve as board members of the nonprofit, and although I don’t know those board members, their oversight provides me with a real job: working to write proposals in search of funding. Although Justin has identified many potential philanthropic organizations, and I’m writing grant requests to each of them, The California Wellness Foundation impresses me as being the most promising.  It has a multi-billion dollar endowment that is reserved for programs that enhance public safety. Julio Marcial serves as Justin’s contact at The California Wellness Foundation.  We’ve learned that Julio has a real passion for helping at-risk youth.  He knows that many of them grow up without resources or support systems in place, and few understand what steps they must take to leave the gangs and negative influences behind. As executive director of the Michael G. Santos Foundation, Justin told Julio about my journey.  He made a strong case that we could create a program to show others how to embrace the same types of strategic, deliberate paths that empowered me to tune out the noise of external influences and prepare for success. Julio wants to see more. Despite the boldness of the request, I’m writing a proposal that shows why The California Wellness Foundation should fund The Michael G. Santos Foundation with a $150,000 grant. In this economic environment, resources are scarce and we face a huge challenge because many established nonprofit organizations will compete for the same limited funds.  Still, despite my imprisonment and Justin’s recent release from imprisonment, I’m confident we can craft a winning plan. As someone who has spent more than half of his life in prison, I have strong opinions on why so many people struggle to adjust upon release.  From my perspective, although the system is very good at warehousing human beings, the system fails in preparing offenders for law-abiding, contributing lives.  Instead of encouraging offenders to work toward developing values, skills, and resources that will assist them upon release, it extinguishes hope and strives to suppress the human spirit.  I’m asking the California Wellness Foundation to provide funding so that Justin’s foundation can craft a self-directed program that shows others how to transform their lives regardless of external influences or the noise of imprisonment.  We can make a difference, but doing so will require us to confront headwinds from a system with a strong self-interest in perpetuating failure. ******* I pass through Christmas of 2009, my 23rd holiday season in prison, and into January of 2010, another new year.  I’m still counting, not quite sure how many days of prison I have ahead of me, but I know that I have 8,180 days of imprisonment behind me.  At this stage, prison doesn’t bother me in the least.  I feel focused and driven, eager to seize every opportunity that comes my way. Carole has begun studies that will last throughout the year and conclude with her board-certified credentials as a registered nurse.  It’s a big step for our family, but one that will provide Carole with a more fulfilling career, one that brings her more respect from her peers, colleagues, and community.  I’m so happy for her, so proud of her, and so grateful that I’ve had income opportunities to support her through the journey.  She is my center and I look forward to encouraging her through this year. It isn’t easy to live as the wife of a prisoner.  For Carole, the challenge was particularly difficult because she came into my life when I had more than 15 years of prison behind me and more than a decade to go.  Despite others always questioning her judgment, over the past seven years we’ve worked alongside each other, confronting repeated transfers and interferences from prison administrators to build a life of our own.  Things are much better now, and they promise to improve as we cross through year 2010. Julio Marcial has told Justin that he intends to recommend a $150,000 grant for The Michael G. Santos Foundation.  The premise is quite simple.  Through the proposal I wrote, we argued that the system does not invest resources in preparing individuals for success upon release.  It’s stated focus is to preserve security of the institution, and it doesn’t offer reentry programs until it’s too late, frequently only weeks or months before the scheduled release date.  By that time, the prisoner is lost, without resources or a support network to assist his reentry. With funding, I suggested that I could write a program that would encourage prisoners and at-risk youth to pursue a self-directed path.  I would do so by writing a series of books and workbooks that would show the precise steps I took to educate myself, contribute to society, and build a support network that would assist my transition upon release.  It was what I said I would do very early on in my term, during that uncomfortable transition between my conviction and sentencing, during that time that I fell under the tutelage of Socrates. Recipients of the literature and coursework that I intend to write will see that they have the power within to change their lives.  My job is to inspire hope, and together with Justin’s work, we’ve persuaded Julio to recommend that The California Wellness Foundation fund the vision.  That funding provides resources to pay for my work, enough to ensure that I’ll have an easier transition upon my release.  If all goes well, I’ll have $40,000 in savings to meet all of my financial expenses associated with my reentry, and another $40,000 in savings that I can draw upon to carry me through my first year of liberty.  Through my work, I’ll show other prisoners how to empower themselves in the same measurable ways. ******* It’s Saturday morning, September 11, 2010, and as I’m returning from an early morning run, I approach a new face as I return to the housing unit from the track.  More than 500 people serve time inside these boundaries, and although I don’t communicate or interact with many on a personal level, I recognize the men around me.  This new guy and I don’t exchange words, but the way he nods at me in acknowledgement communicates volumes.  That simple gesture is enough to let me know that he leads, that he’s capable of whatever he sets his mind to do, and that he is someone from whom I can learn. We’re assigned to the same housing unit.  I look forward to introducing myself and I seize the opportunity a few hours later when I see him outside on the track.  He’s taller than I am, with silver hair and olive skin.  I guess that we’re about the same age, but I suspect we’ve had very different experiences.  I know this world and I can help him understand it, but I sense that he’s from a different world that I’d like to learn more about. “Good morning,” I walk towards him.  “Care to join me for a few laps around the track?” He agrees and we begin circling the dirt oval that surrounds ball fields and tennis courts. “Believe me,” I tell him, “it gets easier than it feels right now.” He looks at me, as if trying to figure out what I’m after. “My name is Michael Santos.  I’ve been here for a while and can help you understand what you’re up against if you’re interested in a guide.” “Thanks,” he says.  “I know a little about you because my family has been reading your website.” “That’s good to hear.  I’ve been writing for the web for more than a decade but I’ve never actually seen a real webpage.  I look forward to using the Internet for the first time, but that will have to wait for a couple more years at least.” “How do you publish your stuff online from in here?” “I write everything by hand and send it to my wife.  She coordinates everything for me, typing it and then posting the content on my website.  The work gets me through the time and helps build awareness about this wretched system we’re in.  How long are you going to be with us?” “I’ve got 18 months.” “Well take a breath.  You won’t serve that long.  You’ll receive some good-time credits that will reduce the term by about three months, taking it down to about 15 months.  Depending on your personal circumstances, you may serve the final months of your term in a halfway house or home confinement.” “How do I arrange that?” “You’ll go through some administrative processing over the next couple of weeks.  Don’t push these people, the staff I mean.  Just let it evolve.  There isn’t much of anything you can do to influence events in here.  But if you let things take their course, and you don’t bother the staff with too many requests, you’ll probably be living in a halfway house a year from now.  The secret to serving that time is to make progress every day that you’re here, to work toward something that will improve your life some.” He snarls.  “Like what?  What can a guy do from inside this hellhole?” I laugh.  “It’s not that bad.  Where’re you from?” “Silicon Valley.” “What’re you, a banker or a broker?” From his diction and mannerisms, I know that he’s in here for a white-collar crime, but I don’t know what type of work he did.  He doesn’t strike me as engineer. “I was the CEO of a technology company.” “Which one?” “Brocade Communications.” I stop on the track and look at him.  “You’re Greg Reyes.” He stares back at me and I see his brow wrinkle, a cross between curiosity and ferocity, guarded, as if he doesn’t know what to make of my intentions. “I don’t mean to be intrusive, dude,” I say, “but I’ve admired your courage and strength for many years.  I read the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of your case.  When it reported on your conviction, I told my wife about you and that I hoped to meet you, to learn from you.  In fact, in some twisted way, I feel as if I willed you here.  As the years passed and you didn’t show up, I assumed that you must’ve won on appeal.” Greg relaxes with my explanation of why I’m familiar with his background.  Not only did I read the Forbes profile of him being one of America’s youngest billionaires, but I also watched his stewardship of Brocade, taking it public and steering it to a peak market valuation that once exceeded $20 billion. “I did win on appeal,” he tells me. “The appeals court reversed my conviction because the prosecution lied repeatedly through my first trial.  But the government tried me a second time.  Prosecutors told new lies that brought a second conviction.  I’m on appeal for that case as well.  Rather than wait it out, I turned myself in because I didn’t want to live with the horror of this prison sentence hanging over my head.” The national business news reports on Greg’s case frequently.  Although more than 200 CEOs in Silicon Valley authorized the practice of backdating stock options for rank-and-file employees, no one authorized those practices with any criminal intent or with a goal of self-enrichment.  There isn’t another CEO in America who serves time for the offense, and Greg expresses considerable anger at having his name dragged through the mud because of these accusations. “Why don’t you use this time to write your story,” I suggest.  “Set the record straight, explaining in your own words exactly what happened.  If you don’t do it, the only record out there is going to be the government allegations.” “Writing isn’t my strong suit.” “I’ll help you,” I urge him on.  “This is an important project.  You have to tell your story.  If you can talk about it, I can help you write it in your own words.  It would be a great project, carrying both of us through the next year.” I see him churning over the idea.  “How would you see the project unfolding?” “It’s simple.  I’ll ask you questions.  Some of the questions may seem foolish and irrelevant, but I’ll ask because I want to understand as much as you’ll share.  We’ll talk each day for several hours.  Early each morning, I’ll write out notes of what I learned.  After you’ve told me everything, I’ll outline the story, try to put some structure around it.  If I can tell it back to you, then we’ll move forward with a more formal, chapter-by-chapter interview.  I’ll write a chapter, then read it to you.  If you approve it, we’ll move on to the next one and repeat the sequence until we’ve told the entire story.” He reaches over and shakes my hand.  “Let’s do it.” *******

No sector in the state of California relies more on immigrants than health care. One-quarter of the health workforce—from nurses to pharmacists to home health aides—and nearly one-third of all doctors and surgeons‚ are foreign-born. And, according to some studies, patients of foreign-trained health providers actually do better than patients who rely on native-born Americans. How have immigrants working in health care changed the standards and culture of our hospitals and clinics? Do cardiologists from India handle patients with high blood pressure in different ways? Might a geriatric specialist trained in Latin America approach end-of-life issues with a distinct perspective? And how have immigrant providers shaped the poor and rural California communities where they are more likely to practice? Former director of the Central California Center for Excellence in Nursing Pilar De La Cruz Samoulian, and Michelle Bholat, co-founder and executive director of the UCLA International Medical Graduate Program, visited Zócalo to examine how immigrants are changing the way medicine is practiced. Moderated by Kaiser Health News California news editor and columnist Emily Bazar, this Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event took place at The Red Zone at Gensler, in downtown Los Angeles.

The world is changing for students and free speech — how does the Tinker decision hold up? In this On The Road episode at the ABA Midyear Meeting, hosts Sharon Nelson and John Simek discuss the presentation titled “Tinker at 50: Student Rights at the Schoolhouse Gates and Beyond” with a group of panelists including Salvatore Russo, Alex Johnson, Steve Wermiel, and Jim Hanks. They talk about how Tinker has evolved and what free speech challenges schools and students face today. Salvatore Russo is an assistant professor at California State University at Dominguez Hills where he teaches political science and constitutional law. Alex M. Johnson is a program director at The California Wellness Foundation and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Education. Stephen Wermiel is a professor of practice in constitutional law and part of the program on law and government at American University Washington College of Law. James Hanks is of counsel with Ahlers and Cooney PC in Des Moines, Iowa, a firm that represents over 150 school districts.

California has exited a long period of high immigration, during which it struggled with whether and how to welcome newcomers. But other parts of the United States are still in the midst of reckoning with immigration and the questions it poses. What did California get right—and what did California do wrong—during its immigration wave? How many of the Golden State’s successes in integrating immigrants were a result of government and policy, and what is the product of our open culture and laissez-faire attitude about so many things? UC Immigrant Legal Services Center executive director Maria Blanco, Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly, California state director of Immigrant Integration Daniel Torres, and moderator Foon Rhee, a columnist and associate editor for The Sacramento Bee, discussed these issues in a Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event titled “What Can California Teach America About Immigrant Integration?” at Sacramento’s Capital Center.

Donald Trump has said that many immigrants are criminals and security risks, and that in response he is pursuing an “America First” agenda of deporting and banning those migrants whom he claims could pose threats to public safety. What does that mean for Los Angeles County, where more than one-third of residents were born in another country? How has life changed for L.A. immigrants—from the undocumented, to green card holders, to longtime naturalized citizens—as a result of Trump’s rhetoric and policies? These questions took center stage at a Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event titled “What Does Trump Mean for Immigrant L.A.?” at The National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. Moderator Jennifer Medina, a reporter for The New York Times, was joined by Roberto Suro, director of USC’s Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, James McDonnell, the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Stephen Cheung, the president of World Trade Center Los Angeles, and Cinday Carcamo, who covers immigration for the Los Angeles Times, to discuss how the Trump administration’s aims have affected daily life for immigrants in Los Angeles.

Straight-A Guide Program: During my imprisonment, we developed the literature for this program. It all began under the theory that people in prison would be more receptive to learning from individuals who had transformed their lives while they experienced the prison system. Prisoners sometimes rejected a message when that message came from people who didn’t know the pain of being separated from the people they loved, or from the people who loved them. We wanted to reach prisoners. We wanted to convince those people that it was never too early, and it was never too late to begin preparing for a better life. I wrote three books to share lessons that empowered me through the multiple decades that I served. They weren’t my lessons, but lessons I learned from people I called masterminds. In truth, we all faced struggle during the course of our life. Many people overcame struggles that were far more significant than a lengthy prison sentence. I learned from those people and I convinced that other people can learn from those lessons as well. With continued funding from The California Wellness Foundation, The Sierra Health Foundation, The Cornerstone Project, and other philanthropic groups, we were able to create a comprehensive series of lesson plans and accompanying videos. Our 10 separate learning modules included five lessons in each module, for a total of 50 lessons. Funding allowed us to retain the team at Landini Media, SRV Studios, and Open Advance. Together we created more than 12 hours of high-quality video footage to complete our Straight-A Guide training program. Tulio Cardozo assisted me in designing the lesson-plan layouts. Through the Straight-A Guide, we aspired to teach actionable strategies for self-empowerment. People in prison or in at-risk populations could use those strategies to transform their lives in the same way that others have done. The program worked as follows:   Values: Transformation begins when we identify and articulate values by which we profess to live. In the Straight-A Guide, I taught that message through the context of my own journey. First, I needed to accept responsibility and let the world know that I wanted to become something more than what I was at present. Rather than allowing my past bad decisions to define me, I thought about my avatars. By asking Socratic questions about what they would expect of me, I could define the values by which I professed to live. My avatars would expect me to educate myself, to contribute to society, and to build a support network. Those three principles became the values by which I professed to live. Through the lessons plans I created in Module 1, I encouraged participants to identify values by which they professed to live.   Goals: Once I identified my values, I needed to create a definition of success for each value category. My own definition of success didn’t matter. Instead, I needed to resume my question-approach to learning. How would my avatars define whether I succeeded in my pursuit of education? I anticipated that they would measure an education by a college degree. How would my avatars define whether I succeeded with regard to my contributions to society? I anticipated that if I were to publish, they would consider that I had worked to make a quantifiable contribution. How would my avatars define whether I had built a support network? I anticipated that if I persuaded 10 people to believe in me, and vouch for me, my avatars would find it easier to accept me. Accordingly, I set goals of earning a university degree, of publishing, and of finding 10 people to believe in me within my first decade of confinement. In Module 2, the lessons encouraged participants to articulate their goals, and to make them consistent with their values.   Attitude: Identifying values and goals was the prerequisite to embarking upon the Straight-A Guide. The next Module encouraged participants to move forward with the “right” attitude. What was the right attitude? In the Straight-A Guide we identified the right attitude as a 100% commitment to success—as the individual’s values and goals defined success.   Aspiration: Individuals who moved forward with the right attitude could articulate their aspiration. In Module 4, we taught participants how to see themselves as something more than their past bad decisions or their current circumstances. Instead, we wanted them to project into the future, to see themselves as the success they wanted to build. In essence, we taught them to become the CEOs of their own lives. If they knew what they wanted to become, then they could craft more effective plans that would help them reach the end result.   Action: To become something more, or to reach their highest potential, participants learned that they needed to take incremental action steps. In Module 5, we showed that every person who achieved a high level of success followed this path. People had to execute their plans in order to reach a higher potential. Regardless of where an individual was at a given time, that person could begin taking action steps that would lead to a new and better reality.   Accountability: In Module 6, we showed participants the importance of creating their own accountability metrics. They would need to figure out ways to measure their incremental progress. Even if they anticipated having to pass through decades before their release, or if they didn’t have a release date, this module taught participants ways to hold themselves accountable, making adjustments as necessary.   Awareness: With Module 7, participants learned the cumulative influences of living a deliberated, values-based, goal-oriented adjustment. By living in accordance with the Straight-A Guide, participants would become aware of opportunities. Those opportunities were available to everyone else, but only those who committed to the deliberate path would find them and seize such opportunities. Simultaneously, others would become aware of their commitment to success. Accordingly, they would find people who would have a vested interest in their success—people who would invest in them to advance their success with new opportunities.   Achievement: Module 8 taught about the importance of celebrating incremental achievements. By celebrating each achievement, no matter how small, participants could sustain their growth patterns as months turned into years. They would know and understand how success in one area of life would lead to further successes.   Appreciation: The penultimate module taught participants that they could increase their successes by expressing appreciation for the blessings that came their way. It’s a version of a theory known as “The Law of Attraction,” showing that we could will more success and abundance into our life so long as we reciprocated, bringing more success and abundance to others.   Actualization: Finally, the Straight-A Guide taught participants that by living in accordance with this values-based, goal-oriented strategy, they could empower themselves. They would rely on authorities or others to tell them they were free. Instead, they could create higher levels of liberty in their life by embarking upon their own path, living their own visions. Once we filmed all of the lessons and finalized all of the lesson plans, Justin and I reached into the marketplace so we could start spreading our work.

During my imprisonment, we developed the literature for this program. It all began under the theory that people in prison would be more receptive to learning from individuals who had transformed their lives while they experienced the prison system. Prisoners sometimes rejected a message when that message came from people who didn’t know the pain of being separated from the people they loved, or from the people who loved them. We wanted to reach prisoners. We wanted to convince those people that it was never too early, and it was never too late to begin preparing for a better life.   I wrote three books to share lessons that empowered me through the multiple decades that I served. They weren’t my lessons, but lessons I learned from people I called masterminds. In truth, we all faced struggle during the course of our life. Many people overcame struggles that were far more significant than a lengthy prison sentence. I learned from those people and I convinced that other people can learn from those lessons as well.   With continued funding from The California Wellness Foundation, The Sierra Health Foundation, The Cornerstone Project, and other philanthropic groups, we were able to create a comprehensive series of lesson plans and accompanying videos. Our 10 separate learning modules included five lessons in each module, for a total of 50 lessons. Funding allowed us to retain the team at Landini Media, SRV Studios, and Open Advance. Together we created more than 12 hours of high-quality video footage to complete our Straight-A Guide training program. Tulio Cardozo assisted me in designing the lesson-plan layouts.   Through the Straight-A Guide, we aspired to teach actionable strategies for self-empowerment. People in prison or in at-risk populations could use those strategies to transform their lives in the same way that others have done. The program worked as follows:   Vaues: Transformation begins when we identify and articulate values by which we profess to live. In the Straight-A Guide, I taught that message through the context of my own journey. First, I needed to accept responsibility and let the world know that I wanted to become something more than what I was at present. Rather than allowing my past bad decisions to define me, I thought about my avatars. By asking Socratic questions about what they would expect of me, I could define the values by which I professed to live. My avatars would expect me to educate myself, to contribute to society, and to build a support network. Those three principles became the values by which I professed to live. Through the lessons plans I created in Module 1, I encouraged participants to identify values by which they professed to live.   Goals: Once I identified my values, I needed to create a definition of success for each value category. My own definition of success didn’t matter. Instead, I needed to resume my question-approach to learning. How would my avatars define whether I succeeded in my pursuit of education? I anticipated that they would measure an education by a college degree. How would my avatars define whether I succeeded with regard to my contributions to society? I anticipated that if I were to publish, they would consider that I had worked to make a quantifiable contribution. How would my avatars define whether I had built a support network? I anticipated that if I persuaded 10 people to believe in me, and vouch for me, my avatars would find it easier to accept me. Accordingly, I set goals of earning a university degree, of publishing, and of finding 10 people to believe in me within my first decade of confinement. In Module 2, the lessons encouraged participants to articulate their goals, and to make them consistent with their values.   Attitude: Identifying values and goals was the prerequisite to embarking upon the Straight-A Guide. The next Module encouraged participants to move forward with the “right” attitude. What was the right attitude? In the Straight-A Guide we identified the right attitude as a 100% commitment to success—as the individual’s values and goals defined success.   Aspiration: Individuals who moved forward with the right attitude could articulate their aspiration. In Module 4, we taught participants how to see themselves as something more than their past bad decisions or their current circumstances. Instead, we wanted them to project into the future, to see themselves as the success they wanted to build. In essence, we taught them to become the CEOs of their own lives. If they knew what they wanted to become, then they could craft more effective plans that would help them reach the end result.   Action: To become something more, or to reach their highest potential, participants learned that they needed to take incremental action steps. In Module 5, we showed that every person who achieved a high level of success followed this path. People had to execute their plans in order to reach a higher potential. Regardless of where an individual was at a given time, that person could begin taking action steps that would lead to a new and better reality.   Accountability: In Module 6, we showed participants the importance of creating their own accountability metrics. They would need to figure out ways to measure their incremental progress. Even if they anticipated having to pass through decades before their release, or if they didn’t have a release date, this module taught participants ways to hold themselves accountable, making adjustments as necessary.   Awareness: With Module 7, participants learned the cumulative influences of living a deliberated, values-based, goal-oriented adjustment. By living in accordance with the Straight-A Guide, participants would become aware of opportunities. Those opportunities were available to everyone else, but only those who committed to the deliberate path would find them and seize such opportunities. Simultaneously, others would become aware of their commitment to success. Accordingly, they would find people who would have a vested interest in their success—people who would invest in them to advance their success with new opportunities.   Achievement: Module 8 taught about the importance of celebrating incremental achievements. By celebrating each achievement, no matter how small, participants could sustain their growth patterns as months turned into years. They would know and understand how success in one area of life would lead to further successes.   Appreciation: The penultimate module taught participants that they could increase their successes by expressing appreciation for the blessings that came their way. It’s a version of a theory known as “The Law of Attraction,” showing that we could will more success and abundance into our life so long as we reciprocated, bringing more success and abundance to others.   Actualization: Finally, the Straight-A Guide taught participants that by living in accordance with this values-based, goal-oriented strategy, they could empower themselves. They would rely on authorities or others to tell them they were free. Instead, they could create higher levels of liberty in their life by embarking upon their own path, living their own visions.   Once we filmed all of the lessons and finalized all of the lesson plans, Justin and I reached into the marketplace so we could start spreading our work.

Teaching at SFSU: I designed the third class to teach students about evolutions that occurred in criminal justice during the 18th century. Scholars referred to that era as The Enlightenment, a time when people had more hope. Two philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, presented different theories on human behavior. According to Thomas Hobbes’ view, people were basically beasts by nature. Hobbes’ theory held that people would only refrain from breaking laws if the state maintained a severe penal system that would punish wrongdoing. John Locke, on the other hand, believed that all people came into the world with a blank slate—meaning they were neither good nor bad. Instead, they learned behavior through their observations and experiences. People may have learned behaviors that led to criminal actions, but they could also “unlearn” those behaviors and become good.   Philosophy: Those types of philosophical questions, I explained to the students, led other philosophers to question the way we responded to criminal behavior. Instead of responding to every offense with corporal punishment, many began to propose different ideas. During the Enlightenment Era, the prison movement began. Instead of relying on jails or prisons to hold people until after the conviction, when authorities could carry out the corporal punishment, we began to use sentence people to confinement. Rather than punishing the body, we would extract time from offenders by forcing them into confinement. In the following class, I invited the students to assess the level of progress we had made as a society. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being hardly any change and 10 being massive change, I asked them to rate the difference. How much of an improvement was it, I asked, for laws to allow governments to punish offenders by confinement rather than by cutting their heads off, putting them on a stake, and then lighting the heads on fire. Each student agreed that confinement was a significant improvement—a 10 on the scale. Then I opened discussions about how our system of confinement has evolved since the birth of the prison. We spent the remainder of our course discussing the ways that prison systems changed since the 1800s to the modern day.   Guest Speakers: To help students understand more, I brought many guest speakers into the classroom. A deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department visited, The San Francisco Sheriff visited, and a federal magistrate judge visited. I had formerly incarcerated individuals visit, probation officers visit, and representatives from community activist groups visit. Since I couldn’t bring my students into prisons or into the criminal justice system, I did my best to bring the system to them. I didn’t limit my teaching to San Francisco State University. During my first year of liberty I spoke at universities from New York to Washington state, and I spoke regularly at universities in the Bay area, including at UC Berkeley and at Stanford Law School. I felt passionately about working to help more people understand our nation’s criminal justice system and about working to bring improvements. California Wellness Foundation:As much as I enjoyed teaching, I knew that I wouldn’t be spending my career in the classroom. I couldn’t afford it. As an adjunct professor who taught only a single class on campus, my pay capped out at less than $12,000 per year. I could’ve taught a few more courses to increase my pay, but without a Ph.D., I wouldn’t be able to become a full professor or earn a livable wage. Returning to school to complete my Ph.D. wasn’t really an option. After all, I’d been out of the workforce for longer than 25 years and I couldn’t afford to take another hiatus to study for three to five years. Besides the time commitment that would be necessary, I didn’t want to undertake further tuition expense. Since I’d made a commitment to Carole, I needed to devote time that would allow me to achieve dual objectives. On one hand, I wanted to pursue projects that would improve outcomes of our nation’s prison system and resolve one of the greatest social injustices of our time. On the other hand, I wanted to create income opportunities that would allow Carole and me to enjoy financial stability. I taught for a full academic year at San Francisco State, but while at the university I pursued other ventures. Fortunately, The California Wellness Foundation continued to sponsor the work that Justin and I were doing. As a consequence of grants we received, we were able to fully develop our Straight-A Guide program.

I designed the third class to teach students about evolutions that occurred in criminal justice during the 18th century. Scholars referred to that era as The Enlightenment, a time when people had more hope. Two philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, presented different theories on human behavior. According to Thomas Hobbes’ view, people were basically beasts by nature. Hobbes’ theory held that people would only refrain from breaking laws if the state maintained a severe penal system that would punish wrongdoing. John Locke, on the other hand, believed that all people came into the world with a blank slate—meaning they were neither good nor bad. Instead, they learned behavior through their observations and experiences. People may have learned behaviors that led to criminal actions, but they could also “unlearn” those behaviors and become good.   Those types of philosophical questions, I explained to the students, led other philosophers to question the way we responded to criminal behavior. Instead of responding to every offense with corporal punishment, many began to propose different ideas. During the Enlightenment Era, the prison movement began. Instead of relying on jails or prisons to hold people until after the conviction, when authorities could carry out the corporal punishment, we began to use sentence people to confinement. Rather than punishing the body, we would extract time from offenders by forcing them into confinement.   In the following class, I invited the students to assess the level of progress we had made as a society. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being hardly any change and 10 being massive change, I asked them to rate the difference. How much of an improvement was it, I asked, for laws to allow governments to punish offenders by confinement rather than by cutting their heads off, putting them on a stake, and then lighting the heads on fire. Each student agreed that confinement was a significant improvement—a 10 on the scale. Then I opened discussions about how our system of confinement has evolved since the birth of the prison. We spent the remainder of our course discussing the ways that prison systems changed since the 1800s to the modern day.   To help students understand more, I brought many guest speakers into the classroom. A deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department visited, The San Francisco Sheriff visited, and a federal magistrate judge visited. I had formerly incarcerated individuals visit, probation officers visit, and representatives from community activist groups visit. Since I couldn’t bring my students into prisons or into the criminal justice system, I did my best to bring the system to them.   I didn’t limit my teaching to San Francisco State University. During my first year of liberty I spoke at universities from New York to Washington state, and I spoke regularly at universities in the Bay area, including at UC Berkeley and at Stanford Law School. I felt passionately about working to help more people understand our nation’s criminal justice system and about working to bring improvements.     California Wellness Foundation: As much as I enjoyed teaching, I knew that I wouldn’t be spending my career in the classroom. I couldn’t afford it. As an adjunct professor who taught only a single class on campus, my pay capped out at less than $12,000 per year. I could’ve taught a few more courses to increase my pay, but without a Ph.D., I wouldn’t be able to become a full professor or earn a livable wage. Returning to school to complete my Ph.D. wasn’t really an option. After all, I’d been out of the workforce for longer than 25 years and I couldn’t afford to take another hiatus to study for three to five years.   Besides the time commitment that would be necessary, I didn’t want to undertake further tuition expense. Since I’d made a commitment to Carole, I needed to devote time that would allow me to achieve dual objectives. On one hand, I wanted to pursue projects that would improve outcomes of our nation’s prison system and resolve one of the greatest social injustices of our time. On the other hand, I wanted to create income opportunities that would allow Carole and me to enjoy financial stability.   I taught for a full academic year at San Francisco State, but while at the university I pursued other ventures. Fortunately, The California Wellness Foundation continued to sponsor the work that Justin and I were doing. As a consequence of grants we received, we were able to fully develop our Straight-A Guide program.

Prison Release to California: As we approached the end of my term, we had to figure out where we wanted to live. When a man served longer than a quarter century, he didn’t really have roots anywhere. We chose California because I’d built a strong support network that would be easier to leverage from a large state. Further, California was a big market and the state had some significant problems with its prison system. Since we wanted to live in a place that offered the best opportunity, California seemed perfect. Besides the opportunity, I liked the weather. I had another reason to choose California as the place where Carole and I would begin our life together. Toward the end of my sentence I met Justin Paperny, a former stockbroker who served a relatively brief sentence for violating securities laws. We became friends. Justin’s conviction meant that he would need to create a new career for himself upon release. At the time, in 2008, the nation’s economy was sinking. I used Socratic questioning to help Justin see the challenges that awaited him. “How do you plan on earning a living when you get out?”“How will the market respond to your conviction?”“Why would a manager hire you when so many people without felony convictions are looking for employment?”“In what ways could you turn your experience of going through the criminal justice system as a strength?” Those questions helped Justin and I figure out a problem. Once we identified the problem, we could figure out solutions. Millions of formerly incarcerated individuals would face the same challenges that were about to complicate Justin’s life. Prison isn’t the only problem. We saw a massive problem with all that transpired after prison. People would need to transition into the job market. I suggested that Justin join efforts I’d been making to create programs and services that improve outcomes for the formerly incarcerated. When Justin completed his prison term, he established a nonprofit that he named The Michael G. Santos Foundation. We wrote a plan, then began writing proposals for grants to fund our work. Those efforts led to us receiving a two-year grant from The California Wellness Foundation for $140,000. The foundation agreed to provide resources that would pay Justin a salary to manage the foundation, and pay me to write literature and programs we could use to teach strategies for overcoming struggle. Through our work, we anticipated that we could improve outcomes of our nation’s criminal justice system. Had I not learned to ask the write types of questions early on during my prison journey, I would not have been able to figure out a plan to guide me through the decades. Without a plan, I wouldn’t have been able to educate myself or build credentials. And if I hadn’t earned credentials, I wouldn’t have been able to persuade The California Wellness Foundation to believe in the vision expressed through our grant requests. I’d need to continue that same strategy upon release. Setting clear goals characterized my entire journey through prison. When I came to the end of my sentence, I knew I had to set goals that would ease my transition into society. At a minimum, I wanted: Sufficient savings to sustain me for the first year of my transition into society. A job waiting. A clear plan to guide me through the first year. I’m hopeful that readers in custody will see the relationship between decisions and success. Those who make principled, values-based, goal-oriented decisions have a far greater chance of success than those who simply allow the calendar pages to turn. As a consequence of skills I developed during the first decade of imprisonment, I found ways to add value in society. Although prison rules prevented me from “running a business,” there were other rules that allowed me to write for publication. By understanding how the system operated, I could create strategies that I knew would ease my transition upon release. Executing that strategy every day allowed me to return to society strong. Carole and I had more than $85,000 in the bank on the day of my release. More importantly, we had a plan to guide our future.   Final Takeaways: I’d like to say the I originated the patterns of success I wrote about in my books. In truth, I learned from masterminds. Lessons from masterminds empowered me through the journey and they can empower you. In writing my books, all I did was rewrite the importance of applying lessons from the world’s leaders. Even in the context of a prison experience, those lessons advanced prospects for success. Through those books, I showed the result of living in accordance with values-based, goal-oriented decisions. The remainder of this book will show how you can do the same. Regardless of where you are today, regardless of what decisions you’ve made in the past, regardless of what conditions you’re living at present, you have the power within to begin sowing seeds for a brighter future. Remember that every decision comes with opportunity costs. To the extent that you adhere to a disciplined, deliberate, strategic path, you can build a life of significance, relevance, and meaning. In moving forward, begin asking the types of Socratic questions that will lead to the future you want to create: Who are your avatars? What would they expect of you? In what ways are the decisions you’re making today leading you closer to earning support tomorrow?

  California: As we approached the end of my term, we had to figure out where we wanted to live. When a man served longer than a quarter century, he didn’t really have roots anywhere. We chose California because I’d built a strong support network that would be easier to leverage from a large state. Further, California was a big market and the state had some significant problems with its prison system. Since we wanted to live in a place that offered the best opportunity, California seemed perfect. Besides the opportunity, I liked the weather.   I had another reason to choose California as the place where Carole and I would begin our life together. Toward the end of my sentence I met Justin Paperny, a former stockbroker who served a relatively brief sentence for violating securities laws. We became friends. Justin’s conviction meant that he would need to create a new career for himself upon release. At the time, in 2008, the nation’s economy was sinking. I used Socratic questioning to help Justin see the challenges that awaited him.   “How do you plan on earning a living when you get out?” “How will the market respond to your conviction?” “Why would a manager hire you when so many people without felony convictions are looking for employment?” “In what ways could you turn your experience of going through the criminal justice system as a strength?”   Those questions helped Justin and I figure out a problem. Once we identified the problem, we could figure out solutions. Millions of formerly incarcerated individuals would face the same challenges that were about to complicate Justin’s life. Prison isn’t the only problem. We saw a massive problem with all that transpired after prison. People would need to transition into the job market. I suggested that Justin join efforts I’d been making to create programs and services that improve outcomes for the formerly incarcerated.   When Justin completed his prison term, he established a nonprofit that he named The Michael G. Santos Foundation. We wrote a plan, then began writing proposals for grants to fund our work. Those efforts led to us receiving a two-year grant from The California Wellness Foundation for $140,000. The foundation agreed to provide resources that would pay Justin a salary to manage the foundation, and pay me to write literature and programs we could use to teach strategies for overcoming struggle. Through our work, we anticipated that we could improve outcomes of our nation’s criminal justice system.   Had I not learned to ask the write types of questions early on during my prison journey, I would not have been able to figure out a plan to guide me through the decades. Without a plan, I wouldn’t have been able to educate myself or build credentials. And if I hadn’t earned credentials, I wouldn’t have been able to persuade The California Wellness Foundation to believe in the vision expressed through our grant requests. I’d need to continue that same strategy upon release.   Setting clear goals characterized my entire journey through prison. When I came to the end of my sentence, I knew I had to set goals that would ease my transition into society. At a minimum, I wanted:   Sufficient savings to sustain me for the first year of my transition into society. A job waiting. A clear plan to guide me through the first year.   I’m hopeful that readers in custody will see the relationship between decisions and success. Those who make principled, values-based, goal-oriented decisions have a far greater chance of success than those who simply allow the calendar pages to turn.   As a consequence of skills I developed during the first decade of imprisonment, I found ways to add value in society. Although prison rules prevented me from “running a business,” there were other rules that allowed me to write for publication. By understanding how the system operated, I could create strategies that I knew would ease my transition upon release. Executing that strategy every day allowed me to return to society strong. Carole and I had more than $85,000 in the bank on the day of my release. More importantly, we had a plan to guide our future.     Final Takeaways: I’d like to say the I originated the patterns of success I wrote about in my books. In truth, I learned from masterminds. Lessons from masterminds empowered me through the journey and they can empower you. In writing my books, all I did was rewrite the importance of applying lessons from the world’s leaders. Even in the context of a prison experience, those lessons advanced prospects for success. Through those books, I showed the result of living in accordance with values-based, goal-oriented decisions.   The remainder of this book will show how you can do the same. Regardless of where you are today, regardless of what decisions you’ve made in the past, regardless of what conditions you’re living at present, you have the power within to begin sowing seeds for a brighter future. Remember that every decision comes with opportunity costs. To the extent that you adhere to a disciplined, deliberate, strategic path, you can build a life of significance, relevance, and meaning.   In moving forward, begin asking the types of Socratic questions that will lead to the future you want to create:   Who are your avatars? What would they expect of you? In what ways are the decisions you’re making today leading you closer to earning support tomorrow?  

The debate over gun rights is so contentious in America that it often seems the two sides are speaking different languages. The fight continues, bitterly—and yet nothing seems to change. At an event co-presented by the California Wellness Foundation, Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, USC legal scholar Jody David Armour, and Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence Executive Director Robyn Thomas offered their thoughts to a standing-room-only crowd at the RAND Corporation on what, if anything, might end this deadlock.

At the Café Revue in Fresno, a panel of healthcare providers and journalists discussed the future of rural medicine. Moderator Michelle Levander, the director of the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, Fresno-area clinician and family doctor Marcia Sablan, community health reporter Rebecca Plevin, and Herrmann Spetzler, CEO of Open Door Community Health Centers in northern California, discussed doctor shortages, improving access, the problem of transportation, and the possibilities of telemedicine and technology at an event co-presented by the California Wellness Foundation.

The garment industry provides more than 50,000 jobs in Los Angeles County, including many that are tied to a commercial underground where safety rules don't apply, there's no minimum wage, and a labor pool of illegal immigrants keeps quiet about violations out of fear of deportation. Legitimate garment makers, meanwhile, face a disadvantage in battling underground competitors who skip workers compensation payments and other safety standards, and often shift locations suddenly in order to stay a step ahead of the state’s handful of inspectors. How big and dangerous is this floating world of the garment underground? Miguel Morales of the Garment Worker Center, a Downtown-base advocacy group, Garment Contractors Association Executive Director Joe Rodriguez and T.A. Frank, New America Foundation fellow and editor at The Washington Monthly, visit Zócalo to sort it out. (This event was sponsored, in part, by The California Wellness Foundation.)

Worldwide, there are more slaves today than ever before, and as the first person in recorded history to witness negotiations for the sales of human beings on four continents, journalist E. Benjamin Skinner has gone inside the modern slave trade like no one else. In his book, A Crime So Monstrous, Skinner weaves a vivid narrative of slaves, traffickers, survivors and liberators. With years of reporting in such places as Haiti, Sudan, India, Eastern Europe, and The Netherlands, he has produced a vivid testament and moving reportage on one of the great evils of our time. His journey led right back to the United States, where some 50,000 are slaves—including countless numbers held in hidden bondage right here in Los Angeles. At the heart of the story are the slaves themselves. In his Zócalo lecture, Skinner bears witness for them, and for the millions who are held in the shadows. (This event was sponsored, in part, by The California Wellness Foundation.)