Podcasts about San Francisco Foundation

Listen and Learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 27.  1.  Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. This episode features an interview with nationally renowned artist, Debbie Arambula. Debbie is affectionately identified by her art collectors as “The Heart Artist”. Her energetic use of exuberant colors expresses emotional energy that speaks to people in all walks of life. Named a contemporary master by art mogul David Goldstein, she has been recognized countless times for her mastery of color and signature style. With over a quarter of a century of experience creating highly regarded public and private art she has been commissioned by thousands of people and her paintings can be found in homes all over the world.  Debbie has been selected to participate in over 2000 juried art shows nationwide.  Passionate about uplifting the world through art she been invited to participate in several public art projects and community fundraising partnerships with such prestigious non-profits as Hospice of the Valley, American Heart Association, Boulder City Hospital, Hearts in San Francisco Foundation, SF General Hospital, Komen LA, City of Campbell, City of Morgan Hill and more. Extensively interviewed in the media nationwide since 1996, Debbie has been seen on NBC and ABC affiliates in major West Coast cities, KRON TV, Entertainment Magazine, Good Day Sacramento, Good Morning Scottsdale, Fox 5 in Las Vegas, ABC, NBC and KFYI Phoenix, among others. Debbie has also been featured in major magazines & newspapers such as Romantic Homes Magazine-National, SF Chronicle, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News, Homes by the Sea, and Décor Magazine.    

Send a message to the Financial Perspectives podcast and receive a shout out!On this episode of Financial Perspectives: Chats, we'll discuss how donor-advised funds (DAFs) revolutionizing the philanthropic landscape in America. Join us as we sit down with Alyssa Heath - Chief Operating Officer & Director of Social Impact at Fire Capital Management – and Pamela Doherty - Senior Director of Gift Planning at The San Francisco Foundation to explore the mechanics and impact of DAFs. Holding nearly $230 billion in assets and boasting an annual payout rate of over 20%, DAFs are changing the way donors think about charitable giving. Discover why these funds are gaining attention and how they are becoming a cornerstone in modern philanthropy. We delve into potential regulatory changes and their broader implications, while also discussing strategic approaches for wealth advisors to integrate philanthropy into client conversations. Whether you're a seasoned donor, a wealth advisor, or simply curious about the future of philanthropy, this episode offers a comprehensive look at how DAFs are engaging multiple generations and reshaping charitable giving.If you'd like to learn more about the show, have a topic or speaker to suggest, or would like to leave us a comment, email podcast@cfa-sf.org. This podcast is produced by CFA Society San Francisco, a not-for-profit professional association, providing professional learning and career resources to over 13,000 investment industry professionals worldwide. To learn more about CFA Society San Francisco, visit our website or connect with us on LinkedIn.The information contained in this podcast does not constitute financial or investment advice. Please consult your own financial advisor for information concerning your specific situation.

There are increasingly pervasive mental health issues that adolescents are experiencing. If we can help kids understand what they're feeling and give them a language, that's the beginning of being able to give them help. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Mark Cloutier. Mark is the CEO of Caminar, a non-profit community-based agency that has been providing support services to individuals with mental health disorders for more than 50 years. Before joining Caminar, Mark held leadership roles in prominent health organizations and foundations, such as Horizons Services, the San Francisco Foundation, the Center for Youth Wellness, Kaiser Family Foundation, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. A longstanding resident of the Bay Area, Mark is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, and earned Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Health degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. He's also a published author, having co-authored Prevent, Screen, Heal: Collective Action to Fight the Toxic Effects of Early Life Adversity. We're excited to have Mark with us today to discuss community-based mental health and prevention efforts for teens and young adolescents.   For more information about Caminar, please visit: https://www.caminar.org If you would like to support Caminar, please learn more: https://www.caminar.org/together To connect with Caminar on Instagram, please visit: https://www.instagram.com/caminarformentalhealth/ To connect with Caminar on Facebook, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/caminarformentalhealth/ To connect with Caminar on Youtube, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpQ0IiUzDLUTNm52Za1ZLQ

With $1.6 billion in assets, the San Francisco Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the country. The organization is now in its 75th year of using philanthropy to try to improve the lives of residents across the Bay Area by funding nonprofit programs, pushing for policy change, and training leaders. Some of the foundation's efforts include helping hotel workers win fair wages and benefits, advocating for mixed-income public housing in San Francisco to prevent displacement, and implementing a volunteer-based policing program in Oakland's Chinatown to combat anti-Asian hate crimes. We talk with the foundation's CEO Fred Blackwell about their biggest successes, challenges, and goals as well as the changing role of philanthropy in a time of vast economic inequality. Guests: Fred Blackwell, CEO, San Francisco Foundation

First pages are impossible… so we're hearing from authors about how they got them right. In this episode, Vanessa Hua discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Forbidden City. We talk about how she stuck to her instincts about the power of her prologue, the reminiscent narrator, and how to handle direct address.Hua's first pages can be found here.Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop.Click here for the audio/video version of this interview.The above link will be available for 48 hours. Missed it? The podcast version is always available, both here and on your favorite podcast platform.Finally, here's a link to the photo that launched Vanessa's book.Vanessa Hua, is author of DECEIT AND OTHER POSSIBILITIES, a NYT Editors pick, and the national bestsellers A RIVER OF STARS and FORBIDDEN CITY. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, and the San Francisco Foundation's James D. Phelan Award for fiction. She has received fellowships and support from Bread Loaf, Aspen Summer Words, Voices of Our Nation, Community of Writers at Squaw, and Napa Valley writing conferences. Her work has appeared in New York Times, FRONTLINE/World, PRI's The World, The Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and twins. She teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, Sewanee Writer's Conference, and elsewhere.Thank you for reading The 7am Novelist. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com

Today we highlight various authors, poets and educators what have been spotlighted from Huizache Magazine! Maceo Montoya is an author, visual artist, and educator who has published books in a variety of genres, including four works of fiction: The Scoundrel and the Optimist, The Deportation of Wopper Barraza, You Must Fight Them: A Novella and Stories, and Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces. Montoya has also published two works of nonfiction: Letters to the Poet from His Brother, a hybrid book combining images, prose poems, and essays, and Chicano Movement for Beginners, which he both wrote and illustrated. Montoya is a professor of Chicana/o Studies and English at the University of California, Davis where he teaches courses on Chicanx culture, literature, and creative writing. He is editor of the literary magazine Huizache and lives in Woodland, CA. Dagoberto Gilb was born in the city of Los Angeles, his mother a Mexican who crossed the border illegally, and his father a Spanish-speaking Anglo raised in East Los Angeles. Gilb's first publication was a small press chapbook out of El Paso, Winners on the Pass Line (1985), which came after he won his first literary prize, the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. The book's first notice was heard on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" in a review by Alan Cheuse. Gilb went on to earn more recognition, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Texas Institute of Letters' Dobie Paisano Fellowship. He lives in Austin, Texas. He has been a visiting writer at the University of Texas at Austin, University of Wyoming, University of Arizona, Vassar, and Cal State Fresno. He is now a tenured professor in the Creative Writing Program at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas. He is also the founder of Huizache. Roberto Ontiveros is an artist, fiction writer, and literary critic. Some of his work has appeared in the Threepenny Review, the Santa Monica Review, Huizache, The Believer, and The Baffler. His collection of stories, The Fight for Space, is published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Vincent Cooper is the author of Where the Reckless Ones Come to Die, Aztlan Libre Press 2014, Zarzamora – Poetry of Survival, Jade Publishing 2019 and forthcoming, Infidelis, Mouthfeel Press, Fall of 2023. Cooper's poems can be found in Huizache 6, Huizache 8, Riversedge Journal, Somos En Escrito, Dryland Lit, co-editor of Good Cop/Bad Cop Anthology, Flowersong Press 2021. He is also a member of the Macondo Writer's Workshop selected in 2015. Cooper is former United States Marine currently living in the southside of San Antonio, TX. Yaccaira Salvatierra's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, The Nation, Huizache, and Rattle among others. Her collection, Sons of Salts, is forthcoming with BOA Editions in 2024. She is a committee organizer for the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival and a contributing editor for Huizache. She lives in Oakland, California where she is a dedicated educator to historically marginalized and resilient communities. Jo Reyes-Boitel is a poet, playwright, and scholar, queer mixed Latinx, and parent, now working on their MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, where they also serve as a teaching assistant. Their publications include Michael + Josephine (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and the chapbook mouth (Neon Hemlock, 2021). Playing with fire, their book of poetry centered on their upbringing, is forthcoming from Next Page Press in November 2023. “she wears bells”, their hybrid opera, was chosen as a finalist for Guerilla Opera's 2022 annual virtual festival.  Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

We must solve our housing crisis if we are going to build a Bay Area where people of all races and backgrounds can thrive in safe, affordable, and vibrant communities. From homelessness to innovative regional approaches and new zoning flexibilities, the Bay Area has a new set of housing tools that can help us accelerate our efforts. The current inequalities and issues are rooted in policies and practices that we collectively have the power to change. Join The Commonwealth Club of California and the San Francisco Foundation to learn from a powerful panel of leaders. What makes them optimistic about the future and what will it take to build a better Bay Area? Speakers include: Fred Blackwell, San Francisco Foundation CEO; Tomiquia Moss, All Home CEO and founder; Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County supervisor, and Dan Sawislak, executive director of Resources for Community Development. NOTES This program is supported by the San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Leads Fund donors. SPEAKERS Cindy Chavez Santa Clara County Supervisor Tomiquia Moss All Home, CEO & Founder Dan Sawislak Executive Director of Resources for Community Development Fred Blackwell CEO, San Francisco Foundation—Moderator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dynamic mother-son combination, highlighting a renowned civil rights lawyer, author and professor and her son, an activist in his own right, who leads the San Francisco Foundation.

As we celebrate Black History Month, we honor the leadership of Black women from the Bay Area, including congresswoman Barbara Lee and Vice President Kamala Harris. Today, a historic number of Black women are serving on school boards, transit agencies, and city councils—and blazing the trail for the next generation of diverse civic leaders in this region. What's more, an impressive cohort of Bay Area Black women are running for local and statewide office in the upcoming midterm elections. Join the San Francisco Foundation and The Commonwealth Club of California to learn about the leadership journeys of Black women from the Bay Area who are either serving in or running for public office. Speakers include BART Board Director Lateefah Simon, Emeryville City Councilmember Courtney Welch, California Assembly District 20 candidate Jennifer Esteen, and Oakland mayoral candidate Allyssa Victory. NOTES This program is made possible by San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Leads donors.  SPEAKERS Jennifer Esteen California Assembly District 20 Candidate; Trustee, Alameda Health System Lateefah Simon Board Director, BART Allyssa Victory Oakland Mayoral Candidate; Staff Attorney, Criminal Justice Program, ACLU of Northern California Courtney Cecelia Welch Emeryville City Councilwoman; Director of Policy and Communications, Bay Area Community Land Trust Brandi Howard Chief of Staff, San Francisco Foundation—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 February 17th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we celebrate Black History Month, we honor the leadership of Black women from the Bay Area, including congresswoman Barbara Lee and Vice President Kamala Harris. Today, a historic number of Black women are serving on school boards, transit agencies, and city councils—and blazing the trail for the next generation of diverse civic leaders in this region. What's more, an impressive cohort of Bay Area Black women are running for local and statewide office in the upcoming midterm elections. Join the San Francisco Foundation and The Commonwealth Club of California to learn about the leadership journeys of Black women from the Bay Area who are either serving in or running for public office. Speakers include BART Board Director Lateefah Simon, Emeryville City Councilmember Courtney Welch, California Assembly District 20 candidate Jennifer Esteen, and Oakland mayoral candidate Allyssa Victory. NOTES This program is made possible by San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Leads donors.  SPEAKERS Jennifer Esteen California Assembly District 20 Candidate; Trustee, Alameda Health System Lateefah Simon Board Director, BART Allyssa Victory Oakland Mayoral Candidate; Staff Attorney, Criminal Justice Program, ACLU of Northern California Courtney Cecelia Welch Emeryville City Councilwoman; Director of Policy and Communications, Bay Area Community Land Trust Brandi Howard Chief of Staff, San Francisco Foundation—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 February 17th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John R. Killacky currently serves in the Vermont House of Representatives. Previously he was executive director of Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, program officer for arts and culture at San Francisco Foundation, executive director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and curator of performing arts for Walker Art Center. Other past positions include program officer at Pew Charitable Trusts, general manager of PepsiCo SUMMERFARE, and managing director of the Trisha Brown and Laura Dean dance companies. He received the First Bank Award Sally Ordway Irvine Award in Artistic Vision, William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance USA's Ernie Award as an unsung hero, Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award for Exemplary Service to the Field of Professional Presenting, and Vermont Arts Council's Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy. He co-edited the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories.

Lyndsey Ellis's debut novel, Bone Broth (Hidden Timber Books 2021) tells the story of Justine Holmes, who is mourning her husband's death and grappling with both societal and family tensions. It's 2015, and the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri are still simmering after the fatal police shooting sparked a national debate about use-of-force law, militarization of police, and the relationship between the police and African Americans. Justine's adult children, an unemployed former activist who is angry at her mother, a realtor still mourning the loss of her only child, and a defeated politician who struggles with his sexual identity, are all mourning their own losses. Tension builds as Justine faces her activist past, her marriage to an abusive husband, and her unquenched longing for family peace, but the only thing that makes her feel alive is stealing small items from other people's funerals. Lyndsey Ellis is a fiction writer, essayist, and novelist. Her work has appeared in Kweli Journal, Catapult, Fiction Writers Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, Entropy, Shondaland, and several anthologies. Ellis was a recipient of the San Francisco Foundation's Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for her fiction. She's currently a prose editor for great weather for MEDIA and The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose & Thought. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she enjoys thrift stores, bike riding and horror films when she's not reading or writing. G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Lyndsey Ellis's debut novel, Bone Broth (Hidden Timber Books 2021) tells the story of Justine Holmes, who is mourning her husband's death and grappling with both societal and family tensions. It's 2015, and the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri are still simmering after the fatal police shooting sparked a national debate about use-of-force law, militarization of police, and the relationship between the police and African Americans. Justine's adult children, an unemployed former activist who is angry at her mother, a realtor still mourning the loss of her only child, and a defeated politician who struggles with his sexual identity, are all mourning their own losses. Tension builds as Justine faces her activist past, her marriage to an abusive husband, and her unquenched longing for family peace, but the only thing that makes her feel alive is stealing small items from other people's funerals. Lyndsey Ellis is a fiction writer, essayist, and novelist. Her work has appeared in Kweli Journal, Catapult, Fiction Writers Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, Entropy, Shondaland, and several anthologies. Ellis was a recipient of the San Francisco Foundation's Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for her fiction. She's currently a prose editor for great weather for MEDIA and The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose & Thought. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she enjoys thrift stores, bike riding and horror films when she's not reading or writing. G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Lyndsey Ellis's debut novel, Bone Broth (Hidden Timber Books 2021) tells the story of Justine Holmes, who is mourning her husband's death and grappling with both societal and family tensions. It's 2015, and the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri are still simmering after the fatal police shooting sparked a national debate about use-of-force law, militarization of police, and the relationship between the police and African Americans. Justine's adult children, an unemployed former activist who is angry at her mother, a realtor still mourning the loss of her only child, and a defeated politician who struggles with his sexual identity, are all mourning their own losses. Tension builds as Justine faces her activist past, her marriage to an abusive husband, and her unquenched longing for family peace, but the only thing that makes her feel alive is stealing small items from other people's funerals. Lyndsey Ellis is a fiction writer, essayist, and novelist. Her work has appeared in Kweli Journal, Catapult, Fiction Writers Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, Entropy, Shondaland, and several anthologies. Ellis was a recipient of the San Francisco Foundation's Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for her fiction. She's currently a prose editor for great weather for MEDIA and The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose & Thought. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she enjoys thrift stores, bike riding and horror films when she's not reading or writing. G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Essayist, poet, playwright and filmmaker Jose Vadi joins Eric Newman to discuss his debut essay collection, Interstate. Jose's first play, A Eulogy for Three, was the winner of the San Francisco Foundation's Shenson Performing Arts Award. He is also the author of a SoMa Lurk, a collection of photos and poems that spring from the San Francisco neighborhood of the same name, and his writing has been featured in a number of publications, including Catapult, McSweeney's, New Life Quarterly and our own LA Review of Books. The essays in Interstate move across a California that is at once family home and site of alienation, humming with possibility and on the brink of disaster, energetic and decayed. Also, Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness, returns to recommend Jose Luis Borges' The Aleph and Other Stories.

Essayist, poet, playwright, and filmmaker José Vadi joins Eric Newman to discuss his debut essay collection, Inter State. José's first play, a eulogy for three, was the winner of the San Francisco Foundation's Shenson Performing Arts Award. He is also the author of SoMa Lurk, a collection of photos and poems that spring from the San Francisco neighborhood of the same name, and his writing has been featured in a number of publications, including Catapult, McSweeney's, New Life Quarterly, and our own Los Angeles Review of Books. The essays in Inter State move across a California that is at once family home and site of alienation, humming with possibility and on the brink of disaster, energetic and decayed. Also, Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness, returns to recommend Jorge Luis Borges's The Aleph and Other Stories.

Black communities have a long and complicated relationship with American soil. The ongoing call to address systemic racism, patterns of abuse, violence and dispossession have brought back to the mainstream the conversation of BIPOC communities' historical connections to land. What are the connections between this history and current "food apartheid" (food deserts)? How is the Black farming movement connected to changes in larger food systems and the growth of worker cooperatives? How are people incorporating environmental sustainability into their work? And what can we learn from both the rich history of resistance and current strategies to inform how we resource a world where all people have access to healthy, fresh and locally sourced food? Join the San Francisco Foundation and The Commonwealth Club of California as Doria Robinson, executive director of Urban Tilth, and Andrea Talley, worker-owner of the Mandela Grocery Cooperative, explore multiple issues and interconnections that surround farming and food access for BIPOC communities. In conversation with Natalie Baszile, noted author of Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest. SPEAKERS Doria Robinson Executive Director, Urban Tilth Andrea Talley Worker-Owner, Mandela Grocery Cooperative Natalie Baszile Author, Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy 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 November 8th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black communities have a long and complicated relationship with American soil. The ongoing call to address systemic racism, patterns of abuse, violence and dispossession have brought back to the mainstream the conversation of BIPOC communities' historical connections to land. What are the connections between this history and current "food apartheid" (food deserts)? How is the Black farming movement connected to changes in larger food systems and the growth of worker cooperatives? How are people incorporating environmental sustainability into their work? And what can we learn from both the rich history of resistance and current strategies to inform how we resource a world where all people have access to healthy, fresh and locally sourced food? Join the San Francisco Foundation and The Commonwealth Club of California as Doria Robinson, executive director of Urban Tilth, and Andrea Talley, worker-owner of the Mandela Grocery Cooperative, explore multiple issues and interconnections that surround farming and food access for BIPOC communities. In conversation with Natalie Baszile, noted author of Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest. SPEAKERS Doria Robinson Executive Director, Urban Tilth Andrea Talley Worker-Owner, Mandela Grocery Cooperative Natalie Baszile Author, Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy 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 November 8th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health and host of this podcast series, is also author of the new best-selling book, WorkforceRx: Agile and Inclusive Strategies for Employers, Educators and Workers in Unsettled Times. This episode takes you to one of several live panel sessions held to celebrate the launch of the book.  Van welcomes some of the nation's leading workforce development experts to discuss what strategies and insights from Chapters One and Two resonated most with them, and what they would do differently after reading the book.  Check out this insightful discussion about matching people with the right skills at the right time, regionalization of higher education, aggregating the demand for labor, and much more from this powerful new playbook for the future of work.  Joining Van are:  Ophelia Basgal, Chair of the Board of Trustees, San Francisco Foundation; Ann Randazzo, retired Executive Director, Center For Energy Workforce Development; Brenda Curiel, Managing Director, Center For Corporate Innovation; Beth Cobert, Chief Operating Officer, Markle Foundation; Tom Cohenno, Principal, Applied Learning Science; David Gatewood, Dean, Shasta College and Debra Nankivell, Chief Executive Officer, Fresno Business Council.

Van Ton Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health and host of this podcast series, is also author of the new best-selling book, WorkforceRx: Agile and Inclusive Strategies for Employers, Educators and Workers in Unsettled Times. This episode takes you to one of several live panel sessions held to celebrate the launch of the book. Van welcomes some of the nation's leading workforce development experts to discuss what strategies and insights from Chapters One and Two resonated most with them, and what they would do differently after reading the book. Check out this insightful discussion about matching people with the right skills at the right time, regionalization of higher education, aggregating the demand for labor, and much more from this powerful new playbook for the future of work. Joining Van are: Ophelia Basgal, Chair of the Board of Trustees, San Francisco Foundation; Ann Randazzo, retired Executive Director, Center For Energy Workforce Development; Brenda Curiel, Managing Director, Center For Corporate Innovation; Beth Cobert, Chief Operating Officer, Markle Foundation; Tom Cohenno, Principal, Applied Learning Science; David Gatewood, Dean, Shasta College and Debra Nankivell, Chief Executive Officer, Fresno Business Council.

Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The San Francisco Foundation works hand-in-hand with donors, community leaders, and both public and private partners to create thriving communities throughout the Bay Area. Since joining the foundation in 2014, Blackwell has led it in a renewed commitment to social justice through an equity agenda focused on racial and economic inclusion. Blackwell, an Oakland native, is a nationally recognized community leader with a longstanding career in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the foundation, he served as interim city administrator for the city of Oakland, where he previously served as the assistant city administrator. He was the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of the Mayor's Office of Community Development in San Francisco; he served as the director of the Making Connections Initiative for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland; he was a Multicultural Fellow in Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation; and he subsequently managed a multiyear comprehensive community initiative for the San Francisco Foundation in West Oakland. Blackwell serves on the board of the Independent Sector, Northern California Grantmakers, the Bridgespan Group, the dean's advisory council for UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, and the community advisory council of the San Francisco Federal Reserve. He previously served on the boards of the California Redevelopment Association, Urban Habitat Program, LeaderSpring and Leadership Excellence. He is a visiting professor in the department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and the Co-Chair of CASA — The Committee to House the Bay Area. He holds a master's degree in city planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in urban studies from Morehouse College. Get in touch with Fred Blackwell: Website: https://sff.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-blackwell-ab608a2/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSanFranciscoFoundation/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tsff Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanfranciscofoundation/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tsffvideo/ Book your free Strategy Flow call today! https://www.outfieldleadership.com/#call Purchase Dave's book The Self-Evolved Leader here- https://www.amazon.com/Self-evolved-Leader-Elevate-Develop-Refuses/dp/1626346801 Get in touch with Dave: Website: https://www.davemckeown.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/davemckeown Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davemckeown1/?hl=en

José Vadi is the author of the debut essay collection Inter State: Essays from California (Soft Skull).   He received the San Francisco Foundation's Shenson Performing Arts Award for his debut play “a eulogy for three” produced by Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Living Word Project. He is the author of SoMa Lurk, a collection of photos and poems published by Project Kalahati / Pro Arts Oakland. His work has been featured by the Paris Review, the PBS NewsHour, the San Francisco Chronicle, Catapult, McSweeney's, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Quartersnacks, Free Skate Magazine and Pop-Up Magazine. He lives in Sacramento. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Life. Death. Etc. Support the show on Patreon Merch www.otherppl.com @otherppl Instagram  YouTube Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Black Fundraisers' Podcast was founded in 2021 by Kia Croom, a 20-year nonprofit fund development professional and DEI champion. Learn more about Kia Croom at www.kiacroom.com. Email the Black Fundraisers' Podcast at Blackfundraiserspodcast@gmail.com for show ideas, inquiries, advertising and more. Subscribe to the Black Fundraisers' Podcast wherever podcasts are available Connect with us on IG & Youtube @Blackfundraiserspodcast Fred Blackwell Bio Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The San Francisco Foundation works hand-in-hand with donors, community leaders, and both public and private partners to create thriving communities throughout the Bay Area. Since joining the foundation in 2014, Blackwell has led it in a renewed commitment to social justice through an equity agenda focused on racial and economic inclusion. Blackwell, an Oakland native, is a nationally recognized community leader with a longstanding career in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the foundation, he served as interim city administrator for the city of Oakland, where he previously served as the assistant city administrator. He was the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of the Mayor's Office of Community Development in San Francisco; he served as the director of the Making Connections Initiative for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland; he was a Multicultural Fellow in Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation; and he subsequently managed a multiyear comprehensive community initiative for the San Francisco Foundation in West Oakland. This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

About the Black Fundraisers' Podcast The Black Fundraisers's Podcast was founded in 2021 by Kia Croom, a 20-year nonprofit fund development professional and DEI champion. Learn more about Kia Croom at www.kiacroom.com. Email the Black Fundraisers' Podcast by at Blackfundraiserspodcast@gmail.com for show ideas, inquiries, advertising and more. Subscribe to the Black Fundraisers' Podcast wherever podcasts are available Connect with us on IG & Youtube @Blackfundraiserspodcast About This Episode's guest Fred Blackwell discusses the San Francisco Foundation's commitment to racial equity, the need for diversity in the philanthropy c-suite and on boards of trustees, and how the SFF is strengthening BIPOC-led agencies addressing social issues impacting the SF region. Fred Blackwell Bio Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The San Francisco Foundation works hand-in-hand with donors, community leaders, and both public and private partners to create thriving communities throughout the Bay Area. Since joining the foundation in 2014, Blackwell has led it in a renewed commitment to social justice through an equity agenda focused on racial and economic inclusion. Blackwell, an Oakland native, is a nationally recognized community leader with a longstanding career in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the foundation, he served as interim city administrator for the city of Oakland, where he previously served as the assistant city administrator. He was the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of the Mayor's Office of Community Development in San Francisco; he served as the director of the Making Connections Initiative for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland; he was a Multicultural Fellow in Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation; and he subsequently managed a multiyear comprehensive community initiative for the San Francisco Foundation in West Oakland. Learn more about the San Francisco Foundation by visiting www.sff.org. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kia-croom/support

Raissa Simpson is an African American/Pilipino choreographer and artistic director of the San Francisco-based PUSH Dance Company. Her multidisciplinary dances are at the intersection of complex racial and cultural identities and centers around discourse on the complex experiences of racialized bodies. A graduate of SUNY Purchase, Simpson had an extensive performance career with Robert Moses Kin and Joanna Haigood's Zaccho Dance Theatre. Her choreography honors include Magrit Mondavi Award, San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and Grants for the Arts. Her choreography has been presented by Joyce SoHo, Aspen Fringe Festival, Dance St. Louis, Ferst Center, Los Angeles Women's Theater Festival and Black Choreographers Festival. She has held creative residencies at Dance Initiative Carbondale, Santa Clara University, Bayview Opera House, Sacramento State University, Margaret Jenkins' CHIME, African American Theater Alliance (AATAIN!) and CounterPulse. She received a Phyllis C Wattis Foundation with Bayview Opera House for her most recent work, The Motley Experiment. Check out Raissa's essay, “Writings on Dance: Artistic Reframing for Celestial Black Bodies,” out now in Critical Black Futures: Speculative Theories and Explorations (2021). A transcript of this episode are available at odc.dance/stories.

Our exploration of the San Francisco Waterfront begins with Kimberly Brandon, the current President of the San Francisco Port Commission. She is the first African-American woman to serve on the Commission and is the initiator of the Southern Waterfront Advisory Committee through which she engages the SF waterfront communities with development planning in their neighborhoods. Brandon likewise engages with the community by working on the boards of PACT, Inc., San Francisco State University's Board of Trustees (her alma mater), The San Francisco Foundation's Koshland Committee and Professional Advisor's Committee, and more. She is also the immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of African Diaspora, and serves on the Finance and Investment Committee for the non-profit Links Foundation, Inc. Beyond her finance work with nonprofits, Brandon has also had an extensive finance career with Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. We are so excited to sit with this wonderful San Francisco native as she tells the history of the Port and the development of the Waterfront. Meet Kimberly Brandon!

What is causing the surge of crime in San Francisco? Should we be taking Caitlyn Jenner's gubernatorial run seriously? And what can be made of Brandi Love's controversial appearance at a Turning Point USA conference?On a new Right Now, Stephen and co-host Brad Polumbo sit down with Nuance Bro, a YouTuber dedicated to getting to the truth no matter where it leads, for a conversation about what fuels the popularity of certain political parties and movements, how we can address the rise in crime in major American cities, and how we can approach political conversations calmly and empathetically with people whose views are different from our own.Subscribe to Rightly and catch more details about the episode below. Make sure to sign up for Unfettered, our new newsletter, available on Friday, July 23.Newsletter signup: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/rightlyaj---- Content of This Episode ----00:00 Episode start00:05 Stephen and Brad on space travel01:20 Now even more reasons to subscribe02:45 Welcome Nuance Bro (or is it Mr. Bro?)04:09 Questioning Caitlyn Jenner’s political sincerity06:24 Tracking shifts in the conservative movement13:08 Nuance Bro is looking for answers not spin18:11 Fringe figures pushing to center stage21:12 A difference of opinion over TPUSA’s porn star situation31:30 Fleeing the San Francisco disaster and its controversial DA42:15 Good news on Blue Origin, Greyson Chance and leaving Las Vegas---- Reading List ----"Conservative pornstar" derails Turning Point USA's right-wing youth gathering (Salon)https://www.salon.com/2021/07/18/conservative-pornstar-derails-turning-point-usas-right-wing-youth-gathering/The truth about Chesa Boudin and San Francisco crime (SFGate)https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Chesa-Boudin-San-Francisco-crime-statistics-recall-16268178.phpConservative porn star Brandi Love, 48, is kicked out of Florida Republican conference for high school kids because outraged parents complained (Daily Mail)https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9801431/Conservative-porn-star-gets-kicked-TPUSA-Conference-starts-selling-t-shirts.htmlTarget and Walgreens Are Making Drastic Changes Amid Skyrocketing Shoplifting in San Francisco (Foundation for Economic Education)https://fee.org/articles/target-and-walgreens-are-making-drastic-changes-amid-skyrocketing-shoplifting-in-san-francisco/---- Plugs for our guests ----Check out Nuance Bro's YouTube channel and Twitter:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NuanceBroTwitter: https://twitter.com/NuanceBroCheck out Brad Polumbo's YouTube channel and Twitter:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClFUXoMmjzaeD5RjGPNGHSQ/Twitter: https://twitter.com/brad_polumbo

In the Bay Area, as elsewhere, the coronavirus and its economic fallout have hit hardest the very same people who were on the economic margins before the pandemic, including Black, Latinx, low-wage workers, and immigrant communities (especially undocumented workers). For our region to recover, and thrive, racial equity must be at the forefront of our recovery efforts. In this program, San Francisco Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell will lead a conversation on the central role that racial equity must play in the Bay Area's recovery from COVID-19 for our region to recover and thrive. We'll review key data findings from the Bay Area Equity Atlas on how COVID-19 has impacted different racial and ethnic communities in our region, presented by Senior Associate Jamila Henderson of PolicyLink. Experts and advocates Chris Iglesias of Unity Council and Tomiquia Moss of All Home will help us make meaning of the data and share their perspectives on what is needed to ensure an equitable recovery for all people in the Bay Area, regardless of their race or where they live. NOTES This program is made possible by San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Leads donors. SPEAKERS Jamila Henderson Senior Associate, PolicyLink Chris Iglesias CEO, The Unity Council Tomiquia Moss Founder and CEO, All Home Fred Blackwell CEO, The San Francisco Foundation—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 May 18th th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Bay Area, as elsewhere, the coronavirus and its economic fallout have hit hardest the very same people who were on the economic margins before the pandemic, including Black, Latinx, low-wage workers, and immigrant communities (especially undocumented workers). For our region to recover, and thrive, racial equity must be at the forefront of our recovery efforts. In this program, San Francisco Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell will lead a conversation on the central role that racial equity must play in the Bay Area's recovery from COVID-19 for our region to recover and thrive. We'll review key data findings from the Bay Area Equity Atlas on how COVID-19 has impacted different racial and ethnic communities in our region, presented by Senior Associate Jamila Henderson of PolicyLink. Experts and advocates Chris Iglesias of Unity Council and Tomiquia Moss of All Home will help us make meaning of the data and share their perspectives on what is needed to ensure an equitable recovery for all people in the Bay Area, regardless of their race or where they live. NOTES This program is made possible by San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Leads donors. SPEAKERS Jamila Henderson Senior Associate, PolicyLink Chris Iglesias CEO, The Unity Council Tomiquia Moss Founder and CEO, All Home Fred Blackwell CEO, The San Francisco Foundation—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 May 18th th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Farah Yasmeen Shaikh is an internationally acclaimed Kathak performer, choreographer and instructor, and Founder & Artistic Director of Noorani Dance. As a performer, Farah is known for her evocative storytelling, technical precision, delicacy and grace, with two decades of training from the late Pandit Chitresh Das. She has gone on to develop a unique artistic voice, often addressing topics of historical and social relevance, while also maintaining the classical elements of Kathak. Farah performs her own traditional and innovative works, most notably, The Forgotten Empress - based on the life of 17th Century Mughal Empress Noor Jahan, and The Partition Project — based on the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition and Nazaakat aur Taaqat - Delicate Power. A TEDx speaker, and host of her own podcast, Heartistry Talk Show, Farah has received support and recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, California Arts Council, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, SVCreates and Dancers' Group. In addition to training students of Noorani Dance, Farah's teaching experience includes ODC School and Along King LINES Ballet in San Francisco, India Community Center in the Silicon Valley, and various academic and arts institutions throughout the U.S. in addition to being a guest choreographer for the World Dance Program at Alvin Ailey Extension in New York City. Farah was also a consulting choreographer for the theatrical adaptation of Monsoon Wedding, directed by Mira Nair, and the lead choreographer for I'll Meet You There, a feature length film directed by Pakistani American filmmaker, Iram Parveen Bilal. Since 2015, Farah has been consistently performing and teaching throughout Pakistan - engaging in meaningful exchanges with artists, organizations, students, and art-loving and desiring Pakistanis. Engagements in Pakistan include the International Faiz Festival, Islamabad Arts Fest, Indus Valley School of the Arts, and T2F (the Second Floor).

Valerie Goode has been the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the San Francisco Foundation for a year now, but she has yet to set foot in her office. She has also led communications at a community foundation dedicated to advancing racial equity and economic inclusion at a moment when the challenges and opportunities have never felt more powerful. Valerie has done it all with extraordinary aplomb and good humor. Eric spoke with her about her fascinating career (she was once in charge of background checks for the Governor of Massachusetts!), growing up as a Black woman in Maine, and how she has woven together her many experiences to advance the work of the San Francisco Foundation. If you are a communications professional or hope to become one someday, this will be an especially valuable conversation.  

Valerie Goode has been the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the San Francisco Foundation for a year now, but she has yet to set foot in her office. She has also led communications at a community foundation dedicated to advancing racial equity and economic inclusion at a moment when the challenges and opportunities have never felt more powerful. Valerie has done it all with extraordinary aplomb and good humor. Eric spoke with her about her fascinating career (she was once in charge of background checks for the Governor of Massachusetts!), growing up as a Black woman in Maine, and how she has woven together her many experiences to advance the work of the San Francisco Foundation. If you are a communications professional or hope to become one someday, this will be an especially valuable conversation.  

In this episode, Brown Advisory’s Meredith Shuey Etherington, a San Francisco-based portfolio manager, speaks with Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, and Craig Young, Managing Principal of Tidewater Capital, to examine whether the Bay Area and San Francisco can retain and even enhance their identity as the home of the innovation economy. San Francisco has been a paradox for decades—at once a stunningly beautiful city at the epicenter of high-tech innovation, and a fragile community grappling with various social crises, the highest cost of living in the U.S. and a vast wealth gap. The pandemic intensified many of the city’s problems, and recent headlines have revealed a string of companies moving their headquarters from the Bay Area to Austin, Miami and elsewhere. Our conversation looks at the challenges and opportunities that will shape San Francisco’s future. Later in the podcast, Brown Advisory’s JJ Baylin and Amy Hauter join Meredith to discuss how we are investing in the future of cities for our clients.

In 2013, the One Nation Bay Area Project—a collaborative funded by Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, Marin Community Foundation and Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy—released a benchmark report called The Bay Area Muslim Study. In partnership with the One Nation Foundation and research support from The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, the study came after a two-year effort created to support American Muslims and non-Muslim allies working to enhance civic engagement in the Bay Area Muslim Community and to strengthen the relationships between American-Muslims and non-Muslim community partners. In this episode, SVCF Director of Community-Building Mauricio speaks with Zahra Billoo, SVCF Community Advisory Council member and Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, to reflect on the changes in the Bay Area American-Muslim community since the study was published, and the most pressing issues we face today. In SVCF’s Philanthropy Now podcast series, we explore trends in the world of philanthropy, social impact initiatives in Silicon Valley and beyond, and we look at how SVCF promotes innovative philanthropic solutions to challenging problems. What you will learn: Zahra’s personal journey to becoming a civil rights leader The inception of the Bay Area Muslim Study is and what has changed in the last decade The most pressing issues in the American-Muslim community today and how CAIR addresses these challenges Recommendations for foundations, philanthropists, and American-Muslim nonprofit leaders Resources from this episode: Zahra Billoo, Executive Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations of the SF Bay Area Mauricio Palma, Director of Community-Building, SVCF The Bay Area Muslim Study: Establishing Identity and Community, the OneNation Bay Area Project 2013 benchmark report Ground Breaking Study on Bay Area Muslim Community, highlights from Northern California Grantmakers Learn more about SVCF’s Community Advisory Council Did you enjoy the SVCF Philanthropy Now podcast? Never miss an episode by subscribing in iTunes, Stitcher or RSS.

Originally from Western Massachusetts, Robin Crofut-Brittingham work is inspired by mythology, science fiction, and current events, and examines human relationships with the natural world. She works primarily with watercolor and gouache on paper from her studio in Montreal. She was the recipient of the Murphy Cadogan Award from the San Francisco Foundation and a Martha Boschen Porter Award through the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. Her work has been featured in Juxtapoz, Novella, Frankie, My Modern Met, Hi Fructose, and on Booooooom, among others, and has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US and Canada. Learn more about the artist: https://robincb.com/. Learn more about the podcast and podcast host: http://curatoronthego.com/podcast/.  

2020 has been a challenging year, to put it lightly Everyone has been going through it, and through it, and through it againWe all have our own takes on what’s going on, and are responding the best we canWe here at San Francisco inFLUX wanted to reach out to influential leaders locally and regionally to hear about what their response has been from their unique positions and perspectivesOn this episode of San Francisco inFLUX, we interview Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, about how he has seen his role change during COVID, and how foundations are answering calls for justice in both the public health, and racial realms of America.--ABOUT FRED BLACKWELLFred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The San Francisco Foundation works hand-in-hand with donors, community leaders, and both public and private partners to create thriving communities throughout the Bay Area. Since joining the foundation in 2014, Blackwell has led it in a renewed commitment to social justice through an equity agenda focused on racial and economic inclusion.Blackwell, an Oakland native, is a nationally recognized community leader with a longstanding career in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the foundation, he served as interim city administrator for the city of Oakland, where he previously served as the assistant city administrator. He was the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Development in San Francisco; he served as the director of the Making Connections Initiative for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland; he was a Multicultural Fellow in Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation; and he subsequently managed a multiyear comprehensive community initiative for the San Francisco Foundation in West Oakland.Blackwell serves on the board of the Independent Sector, Northern California Grantmakers, the Bridgespan Group, the dean’s advisory council for UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, and the community advisory council of the San Francisco Federal Reserve. He previously served on the boards of the California Redevelopment Association, Urban Habitat Program, LeaderSpring and Leadership Excellence. He was Co-Chair of CASA — The Committee to House the Bay Area. Blackwell holds a master’s degree in city planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Morehouse College.

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE Eve Picker: [00:00:10] Hi there. Thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing. My guest today is Heather Hood, VP at Enterprise Community Partners and Market Leader for Northern California. Heather works to ensure low- and moderate- income residents have access to affordable, quality housing in Northern California. She's written influential pieces on housing issues, helped to create technical assistance programs and co-chaired Oakland's Housing Cabinet. Heather believes there are a few reasons why we are in the affordable housing pickle we are in. NIMBYism has failed us. Construction costs and the cost of land have soared. We need to permit higher density. And it takes far too long to get permission to build a building – the production line needs to be sped up, dramatically. You'll want to hear more.   Eve: [00:01:13] Be sure to go to EvePicker.com to find out more about Heather on the show notes page for this episode, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small Change.   Eve: [00:01:40] Hello, Heather. I'm just delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you today.   Heather Hood: [00:01:44] Well, thank you, Eve. It's nice to be here. Good morning.   Eve: [00:01:47] Good morning, well, midday for me, but good morning to you. So, you're working on perhaps one of the most difficult challenges of our time, affordable housing in California. And I was hoping we could start talking about how our real estate industry has failed everyday people. And why is there such a huge gap between housing available and the need?   Heather: [00:02:14] Ah, well, I'm not really sure ..   Eve: [00:02:18] It's a difficult first question.   Heather: [00:02:18] Yeah ... it's a complicated one to unpack. I want to back up there a little bit and question that it's the real estate industry that has failed the population. I think we've all failed. And we do not have enough homes for the population. And that's just a simple question of math. There are millions of people who need homes, but we've grown, in our state and with our economy, with jobs, too much and too fast without having a housing production keep up with it. So, that's got our whole system out of whack. We don't have enough housing at any level of affordability, and especially for low- and moderate- income people.   Eve: [00:03:02] Yeh.   Heather: [00:03:03] The way that that has happened, really ... the reason I was questioning your frame that it's the real estate industry is because there's been many proposals all around the state for housing to be built, in the last 30 years. And our population, especially homeowners, have resisted letting it be built. And so that NIMBYism, "Not In My Backyard," has crimped our production line, construction line, to the point where we're choking now without enough housing.   Eve: [00:03:34] So, really, we've failed ourselves, right?   Heather: [00:03:38] We failed ourselves. We failed to see beyond that thing we, some of us may not have wanted on the end of the street. And we thought, oh, it's going to cause traffic or change the character of the neighborhood or invite too many kids into our schools or whatever it was. We, the big We, were nervous about it, and wouldn't let it happen.   Eve: [00:04:00] So, one of the key things going wrong is, is NIMBYism. And, you know, I thought for a long time developers were really focused on building housing for particular markets. Like, you see a lot of these platform projects with small one-bedroom studio apartments aimed at millennials, that isn't ... you don't think that's part of the problem?   Heather: [00:04:25] Sure, I think that there are multiple problems within the big problem. The big problem is we don't have enough housing. And the construction costs have gotten so darn high with fees and materials and labor and so on. Cost of land, because land is at such a premium, that our private developers feel forced into figuring out how to squeeze the most profit out of each piece of property. And one of the ways to do that is to have the smaller and smaller and smaller units.   Eve: [00:04:57] Yes.   Heather: [00:04:58] And that only meets one segment of the market. And in addition, there's been a push to have lots of amenities, and those tend to get expensive. Dogwashing stations and roof decks with heat lamps and, and jacuzzis, and those sorts of things to create the edge for a particular property, to entice those segments of the market ... They, are targeted. So, it's, in short, called luxury housing. In some parts of the world, it would simply be called regular middle-income housing, but because it's in such stark contrast to low-income housing that is not subsidized and tends to often be poorly maintained, it appears to be very luxurious. In fact, it is barbells, different types of housing types, it's a big problem. We're not building anything, enough in between.   Eve: [00:05:49] The missing middle, right?   Heather: [00:05:50] Well, I'll call it the missing middle. But to be clear what I mean of the middle is a pretty darn big middle. I mean, most people between 80% to 150 ... I mean, the middle of between 30 percent of the area median income, up to 200 percent of median income, a big middle.   Eve: [00:06:06] That's a very big ...   Heather: [00:06:07] A big doughnut hole there.   Eve: [00:06:08] Yeah.   Heather: [00:06:09] Yeah.  Tough to build all of that.   Eve: [00:06:12] What's it going to take to correct course, I was going to say, take to correct these things, but I'm just going to say, you know, to correct course.   Heather: [00:06:23] There are a myriad of things. I think the first of, to, for the zoning, to allow for higher density. And some time limit on how long projects can be held up. And conversely, some better process for stakeholders to be able to influence the outcome. Right now, there's just kind of this, you know, this rote and very legal ... process that doesn't invite much conversation or compromise. So, I, something in the zoning. We need to do something about the construction costs, and maybe the answer there is manufactured housing. I hope so, because a lot has been invested in that direction. It also would mean conceiving of projects as being a mix of unit types and income types, where we might start to see some cross-subsidy from the pretty big profit that does, actually, end up being made off of these risky projects, and cross-subsidizing some of the lower income living. Either through getting that to a housing trust fund in the city or county, or by including affordable units.   Heather: [00:07:35] So, that would help ... I'd also emphasize something that our industry probably will start maturing and leaning into, which is the preservation of existing buildings that are affordable. So, where there are, especially near transit or other sorts of neighborhood amenities, there are small, medium and large properties that will likely, in the next economic downturn, be for sale. And that's a really wonderful opportunity for publicly-motivated entities, whether they're cities or nonprofit developers, to purchase them and renovate them, make them that much healthier and permanently affordable for the folks who live there now. That would help a great deal with the displacement challenges. And that sort of technique is cheaper than building new construction. We can leave the new expensive construction to the, some affordable housing developers and the so-called luxury housing developers.   Eve: [00:08:36] Makes a lot of sense. Do you know of people or organizations that are taking these course corrections? I mean, we've all heard about ADUs, which is one way of mixing the market. Right? But that's only one little way.   Heather: [00:08:53] Yeah. I'll mention a couple that I've worked with. One is East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation. It's a community development nonprofit developer in Oakland, California, who has been purchasing properties where people live now. These are once-dilapidated apartment buildings with 30 or 60 units. Or sometimes, in the case of one portfolio, scattered around the city, a very different, small and medium properties that they bought from existing owners, maybe they were kids who wanted to get out of the inheritance of owning ... different stories. And they've been renovating them, bringing them up to code and working carefully with the residents to help them figure out where to live for a little bit of time while the renovations are getting done. And then they end up being much more handsome properties, and less blight in the neighborhood, and appreciated much better by the tenants who know that they can stay.   Eve: [00:09:53] Well, I'm sure, yeh.   Heather: [00:09:54] That's one organization. There's another one called the Oakland Community Land Trust. And land trusts actually are doing this more and more. These are, tend to be smaller organizations, like, one to five staff, who tend to be buying just one little building that's maybe got a cafe on the ground floor and two units above, or a few single family houses in the neighborhood as they come available. This is something where the land remains in the holding of the nonprofit organization and the building itself gets owned by resident or commercial owner. And they've been looking for those kind of opportunities for a good while.   Eve: [00:10:34] Yeah, OK, this is, it's an organic process that looks like it's going to take a while to correct course. I mean, that's in California. I don't know if it's happening anywhere else.   Heather: [00:10:47] Of course ... New York is much more mature as an industry in what we would call preservation. You know, in the three P's: producing housing, preserving affordability or protecting tenants. The second 'P' is, of preservation, is a more mature technique in other parts of the country. But I think we have the potential in California to shift our industry to add this technique at a much bigger scale to our toolkit. And now is the time to do that.   Eve: [00:11:18] Interesting.   Heather: [00:11:19] Yeah.   Eve: [00:11:20] So, what about financial institutions? You know, what sort of role are they taking? I mean, this is an especially difficult time to find financing of any kind. What are you seeing in that, aside from your own organization?   Heather: [00:11:37] So, that's along the lines of things that could shift to change the outcome?   Eve: [00:11:42] Yeah, I mean, along the lines of, you know, are there financial institutions that are taking a stake in this affordable housing problem and shifting more funds towards it, making it easier to borrow money for that type of project, any of the above.   Heather: [00:12:00] Yeah. So, many of us are. I work at Enterprise Community Partners, and that's what we wake up and do every day, is finance policy and technical assistance. On the financial team, whether it's a nonprofit community development financial institution like ours, or others, or a bank, I think what this moment in our history has done is sort of rattle the, you said, you know, what we've got to do is take more quote unquote, risk, in projects. So, there's an, what they call underwriting, which is to figure out if the proposal of a project makes financial sense, if the borrower has the chops to carry it out. There's a safety net that's been built in so that if things that could go awry, there's a cushion. And all that is in the interest of making sure, and the various investors will eventually get their money back, and the project gets done and people get to live there. There, in the underwriting process, there are scores for risk, and in order to get a development done in a, in certain geographies, that would be quote unquote risky, or cities that are quote unquote risky. For some developers who are newer to the stage, especially new affordable housing developers, just ... naturally some scrutiny, but we could probably all relax just a bit to make sure that more projects can flow, and the dollars flow. And I'll have to say that this moment is forcing the financial industry to really look at itself and see that back to the 60s and 70s, the financial institution, through redlining and blockbusting, really made it their version of risky. It's what was quite racist and is what led to creating some of the marginalization that you see in neighborhoods today that are hot neighborhoods. So, it takes some responsibility, sort of an interesting form of reparation, to see to it that the neighborhoods get a much better chance and the people in them get a much better chance to determine their fate and develop ...   Eve: [00:14:17] Right.   Heather: [00:14:18] ... as they would like them to.   Eve: [00:14:20] So, it's going to take some fairly major shifts in a variety of industries to really solve this problem. And then, you know, I wonder what the role of government is in all of this. I mean, zoning definitely has cramped everyone's style, but ...   Heather: [00:14:37] Yeh. Government can do a lot. My perspective on government, and it's not all government, so I am going to make a .... but I'll just make a generalization. That through various tax codes, especially in California, Prop 13, we've, through those sort of ... larger policies, we've forced government, local government, to be looking for those things that would create tax bases. So ... wanting commercial private development, because that's where you get taxes in order to do the things that cities want to do, take care of parks, take care of public works, ensure safety and services, and summer camps and all that kind of good stuff. So, the cities are forced to have to find that through commercial development, and to dissuade residential development, to some degree. So, different cities have responded in their own way to that reality. But if we had a different tax code and cities were not forced into that kind of cattywampus position, they could get back to balancing the various interests, whether they be mission-oriented or private interests.   Eve: [00:15:53] Interesting.   Heather: [00:15:54] Yeah, so they wouldn't have to be sort of pretending to have this, putting lip service to the public good, but having, in to order to execute on that, do a lot of gymnastics, which capitalism ...   Eve: [00:16:08] So, This problem really runs really deep, doesn't it?   Heather: [00:16:11] Yeah, it does. We can talk at the surface level, but that's what really, let government be government, for the people and all the people, of all the, with all the interest.   Eve: [00:16:22] Right. I want to shift gears a little bit and just ask you about yourself, because I noticed that you trained as an architect, like I did. And then as an urban planner. And I'm just wondering what prompted that shift?   Heather: [00:16:35] Oh, well, I'd love to know your story, too. But I'll tell you mine. It's a little bit of a long story. I'll try to make it short. I wanted to be an architect since I was a little girl. I loved designing and spatial relations and 3-D things. And so we drew little floor plans for fun, starting on summer vacation, because my parents wouldn't let us watch TV. And then it just kind of grew into admiring buildings where I grew up in Philadelphia or on trips that we were lucky enough to take. I got to go to architecture school twice, because I was sure that's what I wanted to do, except that when I practiced it, interning or working in ... positions at architecture firms, it really seemed as if the architects were the last ones called ...   Eve: [00:17:26] Oh yeh! Absolutely.   Heather: [00:17:28] ... the early 90s and mid 90s, and I just thought, now wait a minute, I don't want to be the last one called in, you know, when you're under 30 as an architect, you tend to just be sitting at a CAD machine. So, I thought, well, this isn't the life I want. As much as I love my colleagues and the buildings, and the construction process and all that good stuff, I just love it. I mean, I'm looking from my window right now and I see five cranes in the air and I just love watching buildings get built ...   Eve: [00:17:55] Yeah.   Heather: [00:17:55] ... just love it. Endlessly entertaining. So, I happened to be at UC Berkeley and I walked down the hall at the College of Environmental Design from the architecture to the city planning department to sign up for a course. And it was, I think it was Women and Planning, and Betty, Professor Betty Deakin, was teaching it and she just had other women from the field – landscape architecture, architecture, industrial design, city planning – come in and ... I got really jazzed about city planning. I thought, oh, this is what I want to do, I just didn't know what to call it.   Eve: [00:18:32] Yeah.   Heather: [00:18:33] I wanted to make neighborhoods in cities with wonderful buildings for people, and then, ok, that's called city planning. So, it was as simple as that.   Eve: [00:18:42] Yes.   Heather: [00:18:42] Got to go to Berkeley for a couple more years and chase that dream.   Eve: [00:18:48] And then you shifted into finance. Sort of.   Heather: [00:18:51] Sort of, yes. I was lucky enough to work for UC Berkeley doing campus planning. Mostly on the urban, off-campus urban side, and then to be on some boards that were involved in things that affected social justice in cities. And was lucky enough to get to work on an initiative called the Great Community Collaborative, at, based at the San Francisco Foundation, which was a really wonderful way to work with 25 organizations and 14 funders to figure out how can we in the Bay Area make sure that there's higher density and more community benefits surrounding our transit nodes in the region. And that takes a lot of organizing and envisioning and technical stuff. And so we banded together to make that happen, and I got so excited about that. It was hard, but wonderful sorts of people, and important wins along the way. Except I got into it long enough to know that if there wasn't money for what was being planned ...   Eve: [00:19:51] Yeah.   Heather: [00:19:51] ... that things were not going to happen.   Eve: [00:19:55] Yes.   Heather: [00:19:55] It was great to make sure that the density was approved by city council, or that more affordable housing would be built in a place, or that in the building there would be a minimum number of jobs. And that's all great, except if there wasn't the financing in place to, underpinning that, there, things would be stuck. And so, I just thought I've got to learn how this works and pursued a job at Enterprise, which was the only organization that was a financial institution that I wanted to work for, because ... I shared the values and I loved all the things they did around the country, and I was incredibly fortunate to have been hired to take that job. That was the moment. And I'm still learning a lot about financing, right? Endless amounts to learn. I'm not all the way there.   Eve: [00:20:47] Yes.   Heather: [00:20:48] It's going to take the rest of my life to really get it.   Eve: [00:20:51] Well, I always think that architects are uniquely trained to think through challenges. In architecture school we're trained to take an idea and to turn it into something, and I, in a very creative way, and I can't think of another profession where you can really quite do that. So, I love to see architects kind of littered across the landscape in different roles because I, I also think architecture schools fail our students. The students who need to understand that they have so many more options because they have such, I think, special training.   Heather: [00:21:25] Yeah.   Eve: [00:21:25] I actually started as an architect and then went and did a masters in urban design at Columbia, for similar reasons. I was really fascinated by cities more than iconic buildings, and I wanted to know how cities sort of worked together. And when I moved to Pittsburgh, I worked for a planning department as an urban designer, and loved that job. But I worked for an architect for a while and always felt like, you know, we were at the end of everything. There I was sitting doing stair details, whereas, you know, I really wanted to understand how you did development projects and put it together. So, I went to slightly different route and started doing my own projects, and figuring out financing and, and yeah, it is all about money. Unfortunately.   Heather: [00:22:15] So, you became a developer?   Eve: [00:22:16] Yeah, I became a developer. And then when, and then when the funds dried up, they sort of shifted after the Bush administration and the bank meltdown, I sat back and sort of tried to figure out what to do next and then launched Small Change, really, this real estate crowdfunding platform to fill in those pieces of financing that I think are so important to creating new ideas in the physical landscape. They're the ideas that generally are not financed. So, anyway, this is way too much about me.   Heather: [00:22:56] Oh, no, it's fascinating. I love hearing how people make decisions to curl into the next ... especially when I think of younger generations as I mentor people and people call and ask, what should I do next? Which, I'm not sure how to think about this, and there's a great deal of worry people have about ...   Eve: [00:23:14] Oh, there are so many things.   Heather: [00:23:14] ... Yeah. Or they start off their career, and how do I get from here to there? And the truth is, everybody's career is fairly curly.   Eve: [00:23:21] It is curly, yeh.   Heather: [00:23:22] And you don't really know the best path from here to there. You might change your mind.   Eve: [00:23:28] Yeh, and you should enjoy the journey, you know.   Heather: [00:23:29] Right, us planners have to be more relaxed with improvising. I certainly am learning that.   Eve: [00:23:35] Yup. Certainly, there was a period when I really worried about people looking at my resume and thinking, she can't stick to anything. You know?   Heather: [00:23:44] Uh huh.   Eve: [00:23:44] I think that time has passed. And I think now, you know, people are in jobs for much shorter times because there's really a much wider array array of opportunities, which I think is really fascinating.   Heather: [00:23:57] Yep.   Eve: [00:23:58] Thanks for sharing that. I wanted to ask you, what do we need to think about to make our cities and neighborhoods better places for everyone?   Heather: [00:24:07] Oh, goodness, that's a (laughter) really big question.   Eve: [00:24:11] Well, in terms of, even financing, you know, how can we make places more equitable and better places for everyone? Because we know that's, we're far, far from that, right?   Heather: [00:24:21] Yeah. Well, I had the good fortune of studying in Denmark and living in Copenhagen for only six months in 1988, but I have never forgotten it.   Eve: [00:24:30] Oh, lucky you.   Heather: [00:24:32] Yeah. Yeah. I was supposed to go back this May, just for ... and I can't because of COVID, but absolutely in love with the Scandinavian way thinking about this. Where you've got big taxes and they carefully pour them back into the public realm, in both services and in the physical landscape. And so what we have here, it seems like we just think in terms of, maybe, you think of all the properties as being separate, and maybe there's some design codes and zoning codes that keep things what we think is harmonious, but we still think of them as separate. And the only thing that ties things together is the streets. And did you do know that about 25 percent of most urban landscapes is streets. And in suburbs, even more.   Eve: [00:25:15] Oh, yeah. And they're very highly occupied by cars, instead of pedestrians.   Heather: [00:25:20] Yeah. So those are the things that hold us symbolically, if you think about that, that cars and concrete and, or not concrete, asphalt is what ties all these things together. And that doesn't set the mood the right way. So, if we thought of these places as for everyone and we put much more emphasis in the public realm, that would be a really good start. But what do we want to put there? Asking the people who are there and really listening to them and learning from other places. And getting ideas and making trade-offs and so people don't think that they're going to get everything, but make conscious decisions about what they prefer. I think that would be a great way to start. In order to execute we need those public dollars. Goodness gracious, I don't even know, 10 times the scale that we have now, to, to have that. Yeah.   Eve: [00:26:10] People have spoken about that. If you think about the Open Streets program ... I launched an Open Streets in Pittsburgh, and it's been wildly successful. People just love it. That is a lineal park for one day a month. It really should be a lineal park the whole time. But they flock to events like that all over the country, all over the world, and that's kind of speaking to what people want, right?   Heather: [00:26:37] Yeah, well, when I took my son to Disneyland, I was fascinated at how much Disneyland had so much public space and walkability and water features and cafe-like settings. And I find it fascinating that we are, as a culture, willing to pay enormous amounts of money to have that experience as if it's an entertainment, rather than to pay enormous amounts of money into our own environment, to have that same sort of actual feeling on a daily basis ... with the Open Streets and the way that cafe culture has come back and outdoor beer gardens have come back, where you can see that there's a hunger there. I think we just haven't quite figured out how to go beyond the property line.   Eve: [00:27:28] Yeah, but Copenhagen sure has.   Heather: [00:27:31] Oh yeh.   Eve: [00:27:31] Get easily run over by a bike there. A beautiful city.   Heather: [00:27:36] I love it.   Eve: [00:27:37] One other questions, what community engagement tools have you seen that have really worked?   Heather: [00:27:41] Oh ...   Eve: [00:27:42] You talk about really listening.   Heather: [00:27:44] Yeah. So, Eve, I'm calling that into question myself and I have seen people demonstrate what's possible using apps, for stakeholders to put in their preferences, or to note where there is a click it – fix it, kind of, I see a pothole or speed bump problem or whatever, or a tree is dying ...   Eve: [00:28:04] Yes.   Heather: [00:28:05] ... those things seem pretty good.   Heather: [00:28:08] Admittedly, my planning thesis in grad school,1997, was about how planners could engender democracy through better participation. And I had a particular angle on how that could happen, which was making sure people had the information that they need, and a forum for conversation and decision-making. I stand by that, except I don't know what the best technique is. I've been searching for that for over two decades. It is not an evening meetings ...   Eve: [00:28:38] No, for sure.   Heather: [00:28:38] ...in a dank community room with somebody with a mic and people sitting in cold chairs with cold food and no child care and no language translation, listening to somebody say here's, responding to a plan that's already been pretty well baked. It's not that. It's not endless council meetings that go until 1:00 in the morning. You know, there's a private organization that I've been inspired by, called SUDA it's the developer Alan Jones and Regina Davis, who are doing a really interesting project in West Oakland. And to hear how they got community feedback was really interesting because it wasn't necessarily these meetings. It was spending a good deal of time, and I mean years, in a community like West Oakland and listening to what people were saying on the streets and going to barbecues and churches and hearing what it was that was on people's minds, and forming relationships with people more in the immediate surrounds of the West Oakland BART where they're going to be doing four blocks of development. So, that they were building up a sensibility for what the community said it wanted and building the trustful relationships to then eventually present an idea, and respond to that in an iterative basis. So, something along the lines of actually really listening, and taking your time with it, and not just doing an app, but some face-to-face activity seems to be on to something.   Eve: [00:30:22] Yeah, yeah. That's a lot of work for tiny developers. I think, you know, we've got to figure out something better.   Heather: [00:30:29] Well, the city planners who are doing the neighborhood planning or the district planning could be doing a lot of that over time and then let the smaller developers who are filling in hear all about it, take the time to do that.   Eve: [00:30:44] Yeah, I'm hoping that equity crowdfunding can play a little role too, because you know my platform, anyone over the age of 18 can invest, and I think if people can have a stake in development in their own neighborhoods, that's certainly what I learnt in Pittsburgh, that people wanted to have a stake. So, it doesn't have to be very big. It's just, meaningful.   Heather: [00:31:05] Yeah.   Eve: [00:31:06] And then someone else talked to me about 'power mapping,' which I thought was really interesting as well. An interesting idea to kind of understand where the power in a neighborhood lies and talking to those people, and really, I suppose, I'd want to say enlisting their help, but that, it's like almost like a pyramid, reaching everyone in the neighborhood. I thought it was really fascinating.   Heather: [00:31:31] There's 'power mapping,' and there's 'em-power mapping.' Because in the power mapping we tend to want to go to the people who hold the power to make the shifts and create the influence we need. But we also have the opportunity to figure out, well, who doesn't have power who should.   Eve: [00:31:47] Oh, I think all of that.   Heather: [00:31:49] Yeah, yeah, it's hard to do. All of this takes a great deal of time, and in our lives when everybody's rushing to get things done. Like we all do ...   Eve: [00:31:59] Yes.   Heather: [00:31:59] Or rushing to sort of make sure that things are going to pencil out. It's very hard to slow down a little bit and do that, although it can really go a long way. I'm excited about the crowdfunding you're talking about. I mean, at one level, real estate always been crowdfunded, it's just bigger chunks and formal legal entities, and to have it available to the individuals. It sounds so neat and interesting, I can't wait to see it where it goes. It also seems like we don't learn about design, often, or construction, or how cities are made or all the systems that go into that, in our American school system. And so, kinda no wonder we haven't really built up a sensibility for it. And I'm thinking that maybe through crowdfunding, people will feel more connected to whatever it is that they have invested in.   Eve: [00:32:46] Perhaps. It requires a lot of education, but I suppose everything does. So, what's next for you? I mean, the big project, that you can talk about or anything that's got your interest at the moment.   Heather: [00:33:00] Well, I have a team of about 15 people in the Northern California office at Enterprise. We have, typically we have a San Francisco office and a Stockton office, but right now everybody's home. I am excited to have, to work with such a great team and we've organized ourselves around a couple different big principles. And so just getting to organize ourselves and be clear about that is important. And we have two things. One is strengthening community resilience, and the other is building sustainable neighborhoods. So, one is about making sure that we're sort of holding ground in neighborhoods and help people figure out how to stay where they are, if they want to stay. That's through renter protection work or preservation work, like we talked about earlier. And work in public housing, and then also in resilience, and by that I mean both community resilience in a cultural way but responding to all these disasters, the fires and earthquakes and all the stuff that is happening in California. So, it's sort of having gotten clear with the team about that's what we're about. In that body of work it's about strengthening community resilience in a myriad of different ways. And then the other part is creating these big new systems. Like, I'm really excited that my team and I had this idea that there really ought to be a regional housing entity, that the little city, the many cities just don't have the bandwidth or chops and finances to execute that they mean well to do for affordable and market rate housing. But at the regional scale it makes more sense. And so feeling very, very happy that this has been accepted by the state legislature and the governor and we're actually doing it here in this region with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and ABAG.   Eve: [00:34:46] That's fabulous.   Heather: [00:34:48] Yeah, it is. And it's just a fantastic group of people who really want to see it happen. So those things are exciting for me. I also think that there's something exciting happening, in general, which is that maybe one of the silver linings of this awful pandemic that is so awful for so many people. And it's ... going to bring down potentially our whole economy. In all of that ...   Eve: [00:35:16] Yes.   Heather: [00:35:17] ... we might get a chance to rethink zoning and think about how, you know, you can't shelter in place if you don't have shelter. Therefore, it's in all of our self-interest to really make sure that everybody has a home. So, I'm excited that maybe this has been a real wake up call that will help my industry hurry up and figure out how to get out of our own way and make sure that people are not homeless and people have safe places for their souls to rest that they can call home.   Eve: [00:35:52] Yes, I think that's a really exciting end, and I really enjoyed our conversation, and hope your work meets great success and I'll, I'll be following it.   Heather: [00:36:03] Thank you, Eve. It's really nice to hear your story too.   Eve: [00:36:16] That was Heather Hood. She's fully immersed in the affordable housing crisis, working to help solve it in Northern California. Heather believes that NIMBYism has failed us along with zoning, too. We need to permit higher density to fill the need, and it takes far too long to get permission to build a building. The production line needs to be sped up dramatically. Heather's also astonished that we'll spend a fortune visiting places like Disneyland, where we can enjoy walkability, but we won't spend that on the places we live in. I'm right there with her. You can find out more about Impact Real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my website EvePicker.com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities.   Eve: [00:37:18] Thank you so much for spending your time with me today, and thank you for sharing your thoughts. We'll talk again soon. But for now, this is Eve Picker signing off to go make some change.

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Powerleegirl hosts Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee bring you “We Are the Leaders”, highlighting our Asian American Pacific Islander history of resistance and change from our ancestors to the leaders on the ground today. “We are the leaders” is inspired by one of our ancestor activists Grace Lee Boggs quote, “We are the leaders we've been looking for.” Tonight we are talking about labor- in the fields, in restaurants and in prisons. We talk with author Gayle Romasanta to learn more about ancestor farmworker Larry Itliong. We talk about prison labor with Asian Prisoner Support Committee's Ke Lam and restaurant workers with Saru Jayaraman founder of One Fair Wage. Thanks to the San Francisco Foundation for making this series and our home studio possible. More Information Journey for Justice, The Life of Larry Itliong by Gayle Romasanta and Dr. Dawn Mabalon One Fair Wage – Sign the petition and volunteer to help restaurant workers Asian Prisoner Support Committee current campaigns   The post APEX Express – July 2, 2020 We r the Leaders 2 Labor appeared first on KPFA.

  A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. PowerLeeGirls hosts, Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee begin their series “We Are the Leaders”, highlighting the AAPI history of resistance and change from ancestors to the leaders on the ground today. Utilizing the dual pandemics of COIVD and systemic racism this series will serve as a tool to politically activate the AAPI community and amplify ways to support each other. “We are the leaders” is inspired by ancestor activist Grace Lee Boggs quote, “We are the leaders we've been looking for.” Tonight's show features APIENC leader Sammie Ablaza Wills and disability rights advocate Mia Ives-Rublee.   Resources mentioned in the show include: Sins invalid Mia Mingus Alice Wong – Disability Visibility Project Yuh-Line Niou Senator Tammy Duckworth Thank you to the San Francisco Foundation for making this series possible. The post APEX Express – June 18, 2020 We Are The Leaders 1 appeared first on KPFA.

Debbie Arambula "Expressing the Heart of an Artist" on The Erica Glessing Show Podcast #5018 This episode focuses on the heart of an artist, and how artist Debbie Arambula's art has awakened the heart all around the globe. Debbie shares how she got inspired as a young child, and how she grew her artist business into a wildly successful business that operates all around the world. It's an exciting interview and Erica Glessing is very blessed to have met Debbie in person, recently. Le couer a sais raisons que le raison ne connait point - Pascal.  More About Debbie Arambula  “Since I was a little girl, I have been intrigued by the unlimited capacity of the human spirit, the power of love, inspiration in music, the simplistic beauty in nature and the spiritual connection of the heart, mind and soul. Since 1996, Debbie Arambula paintings express a whimsical wanderlust of emotions that elevate the soul and speak to people of all ages and cultures. Famous for her masterful use of color and rhythmic brush strokes, given the title of “Contemporary Master of our Time”, she puts her heart into everything she creates. Affectionately known as “The Heart Artist”, whether you own one of her heart art pieces, delicate flower paintings or her romantic Italian landscapes, all have one thing in common, color & energy that makes you feel happy. Humanitarian Artist to the core she lives by her mission “Inspiring the world through happy art” Featured artist in National Community Art Projects such as murals & sculptures her generous donations of art to causes dear to her heart: Hearts in San Francisco Foundation, Hospice of the Valley, Komen LA, City Hall of San Jose and Public Works City of Campbell, City of Morgan Hill, Family's for a Better Community, American Heart Association, Artists' for Human Rights, Boulder City Hospital, SF General Hospital, The Way to Happiness Foundation, CCHR's -Fight for Kids & more.  Through 1000's juried exhibitions in galleries, museums and fine art shows nationwide and public art projects Debbie Arambula has been extensively interviewed by NBC and ABC affiliates in major East & West Coast cities, for her public art projects and humanitarian art donations: KRON TV in San Francisco, Entertainment Magazine, Good Day Sacramento, Good Morning Scottsdale, FOX 5 in Las Vegas, Newstalk 550, and Arizona Radio. Debbie has also been featured in Romantic Homes Magazine- National, San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News, Campbell Times, Las Vegas Review, Boulder City Registrar, Arizona Foothills. Find out more at https://DebbieArambula.com More About Erica Glessing SEO geek Erica Glessing believes when you tell your story, you change the world. Discover your zone of genius. Glessing is a #1 bestselling author 33X over, and built her company, SEO for Lead Gen, out of the desire to help entrepreneurs and small businesses be seen for their work in the world. With a strategic mindset, an easy laugh, and a creativity that meets geek sensibility, Glessing grew her podcasts to more than 100,000 downloads in 2020 alone and continues to build search engine optimization strategies for companies and influencers globally. “Global and local omnipresence requires discipline, commitment, and creativity,” says Glessing. She was originally an award-winning journalist, writing over 5000 articles for California newspapers before she built SEO for Lead Gen. Glessing is an Italian mom of three loud teens, a Corgi Aussi, and two very fat happy kitties. She lives in Northern California. You can find her: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Sponsor Today's episode was sponsored by SEOforLeadGen.com, an SEO company dedicated to providing SEO and keyword strategy so your business can be seen and heard and generate ample leads to thrive. Resources For your own complimentary 90-keyword strategic SEO guide, go here now! KeywordResearchTools.SEOforLeadgen.com

SPEAKERS Zach Norris Executive Director, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Author, We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities; Twitter @ZachWNorris In Conversation with Fred Blackwell CEO, the San Francisco Foundation; Twitter @fredgblackwell This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on February 12th, 2020.

Kimberley Acebo Arteche (she/they) is an educator, cultural worker, and interdisciplinary artist. Her work explores the hybrid cultures formed by technology, movements of immigrants in America, and the way movements through space and spaces has been affected by these two. Arteche received her BFA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and MFA from San Francisco State University where she received the School of Art’s Distinguished Graduate award. She has been awarded the Murphy Cadogan Contemporary Art Award by the San Francisco Foundation, was Kearny Street Workshop’s Featured Visual Artist in the 2015 APAture Festival, and residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Growlery. She has shown at East Tennessee State University, SOMArts Cultural Center and at the Wailoa Arts & Cultural Center in Hilo, Hawaii. Arteche is committed to collaboratively creating decolonial practices within arts institutions, while creating visibility and providing resources for emerging Asian Pacific American and BIPOC Artists. All images courtesy of the artist   00:00 - Introduction 00:36 - Kimberley Archete 02:02 - Falling Knife - Caroline Says 05:46 - Technology and Heritage 10:23 - The Curved Body of a Pixel 29:03 - The Lola Project 34:31 - Curatorial Work 43:49 - Not My Spiritual Guide - Luke Lalonde 47:19 - Outro 47:38 - Finish

This is a special episode of Voices of the Community featuring the voices of Meghan Freebeck, and Carla Praglin of Project Homeless Connect. Since my mom died back in the fall of 2016 I have used some of the monies I inherited from her to support the work of Project Homeless Connect through an annual holiday crowdfunding campaign. Over the past two years together with friends, family, and listeners like you, we have raised over Ten Thousand Dollars to provide dental, vision, hearing and housing support services to hundreds of our fellow community members who are experiencing homelessness. Every two years the City of San Francisco conducts a Point in Time Count of every homeless person both sheltered and unsheltered. The 2017 count was 7,499 persons experiencing homelessness. The 2019 count was 9,784 persons experiencing homelessness, a 30 percent increase with 1,145 of them being unaccompanied children and transitional age youth.  According to Bay Area Community Services, for every one person housed, three people fall into homelessness. Additionally, the San Francisco Foundation has found that 20% of unhoused bay area residents were housed just two years ago. I hope that you will join us in supporting the Project Homeless Connect holiday crowdfunding campaign by visiting https://handup.org/campaigns/cdos to make your donation. You can also find out more about Meghan, Carla, Project Homeless Connect services, their team, and of course how to volunteer for the next Community Day of Service Please listen to my three-part Homeless in San Francisco episodes https://georgekoster.com/vocstories-homelessness These episodes provide more information on other wonderful nonprofit organizations providing support services to our fellow unhoused community members.

On October 8, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the nation's most far-reaching bills, which are designed to prevent homelessness, protect tenants from being evicted and make it possible to create new homes for many thousands of Californians. The work was made possible by a collaboration of diverse allies who are attempting to preserve existing affordable homes, protect the families in them and produce more housing at all income levels. They were joined by a broad coalition of elected officials, including Assemblymember David Chiu, who authored several of the recently passed bills and who has made preventing homelessness and providing affordable homes to all Californians one of his signature issues. While these represent important strides, some say a great deal of work still needs to be done. On November 4, The Commonwealth Club will host a panel discussion about the implications of this new legislation as well as what the future holds for addressing the challenge of homelessness and housing in the Bay Area. The panel will include Chiu; Guillermo Mayer, president and CEO of Public Advocates—a key organization that helped advance the public call for a comprehensive housing package; Denise Pinkston, a partner at TMG Partners—a local developer that has been involved in the housing debate at the local, regional and statewide levels and that has been a strong advocate for more housing; and Gina Dalma, special adviser to the CEO and vice president of government relations at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, where she has brought her leadership into the housing arena. The event will be moderated by Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, which helped lead the coalition to advance the housing legislation. Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation, which is providing unrestricted grant support to the San Francisco Foundation, will provide introductory remarks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In five years as CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, Fred Blackwell has emerged as one of philanthropy’s foremost leaders dedicated to advancing racial and economic equity. As a community foundation, the San Francisco Foundation is able to raise money, make grants, and do the kind of political advocacy that private foundations cannot. Fred and his colleagues have used these tools to focus on housing, jobs, protecting communities, and a host of related issues. If all that responsibility seems intimidating, you’d never know it from talking with Fred, who never seems to break a sweat. With one of the easiest laughs in the business, Fred sits down with Eric to discuss his work, his hopes for the future, and how he has drawn upon generations of family wisdom to guide his decisions. It’s a terrific conversation in which Fred shares his optimism about how he thinks the country can emerge from these proverbial “challenging times” stronger and more connected.

In five years as CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, Fred Blackwell has emerged as one of philanthropy’s foremost leaders dedicated to advancing racial and economic equity. As a community foundation, the San Francisco Foundation is able to raise money, make grants, and do the kind of political advocacy that private foundations cannot. Fred and his colleagues have used these tools to focus on housing, jobs, protecting communities, and a host of related issues. If all that responsibility seems intimidating, you’d never know it from talking with Fred, who never seems to break a sweat. With one of the easiest laughs in the business, Fred sits down with Eric to discuss his work, his hopes for the future, and how he has drawn upon generations of family wisdom to guide his decisions. It’s a terrific conversation in which Fred shares his optimism about how he thinks the country can emerge from these proverbial “challenging times” stronger and more connected.

Anyka Barber is founder, director and curator of Betti Ono gallery in Oakland, California. We reached out to Anyka in response to Betti Ono's fundraiser to power arts, culture, and community resilience. Contribute at https://bettiono.com/donate/. Betti Ono is an experimentally minded space for art + culture + community. They are 100% Black women led and operated, dedicated to amplifying the work and voices of under-represented artists. Their vision and creative practice embody the bold, curious and unapologetic spirit of the gallery's name-sakes Betti Mabry Davis and Yoko Ono. At Betti Ono, making art is a function of activism, community transformation, and cultural resilience. Bio: Born and raised in Oakland, California Anyka Barber is a mother, an artist/activist, curator and entrepreneur. In 2010 Anyka founded Betti Ono, a creative social enterprise and center for arts, culture, and community committed to the cultural, social, political and economic emancipation and development of low-income, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities of color. In her role as director and curator of Betti Ono, she has curated and produced more than 60 exhibitions and public programs, as well as designed and integrated art, enterprise and social impact strategy to leverage creative capital, cultural products, and networks for good. She was most recently Director of Engagement and the Center for Audience and Civic Engagement at the Oakland Museum leading the museum’s signature education and public programs teams. She was Program Officer and Fellow at The San Francisco Foundation working with the Anchoring Communities/Place team to activate more than $10M in investments to preserve the racial and cultural identity of the Bay Area, prevent the displacement of low-income and communities of color and bring greater racial and economic equity to the region.

This event is the latest in the San Francisco Foundation's series on People, Place and Power. Being a teenager is difficult in the best of times, but the universal work of figuring out your identity, your passions, and your path and place in the world can be even more daunting for some. Youth of color, immigrants, LGBTQ community members, and those with disabilities or in low-income households are just some of the populations who face unique challenges. Place those against the backdrop of a Bay Area where inequality is rising, long-time residents are being displaced and the tech sector (literally) towers above, and you've got a whole generation grappling with unprecedented questions. So how are young people surviving and thriving in a changing region? What happens when their identities are intersectional and don't fit into a simple narrative? How are they raising awareness on critical issues to change perceptions, influence policy and spur civic engagement—and how can we better listen? Bay Area youth will take the stage to tell us just how they're addressing questions of representation, activism and equity as they grow up in this beautiful region of contradictions. Join us to hear the next generation speak for themselves. NOTES Presented in association with KQED Program made possible by the foundation's Bay Area Leads Fund Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This event is the latest in the San Francisco Foundation's series on People, Place and Power. Every night, more than 130,000 people go to sleep homeless in California. An estimated 25,000 of them are in the San Francisco Bay Area: sleeping on couches, in cars or sometimes in tents on the sidewalk. At this point, people from coast to coast know that the Bay Area is in the midst of a housing crisis. But what is the city doing to address the affordable housing and homelessness crisis? Come hear from some of the Bay Area's leading experts on issues surrounding homelessness. From working on the service and legal sides to fighting for policy changes to having experienced homelessness themselves, our speakers will discuss the state of the crisis, how we got here and where we're headed next. This program is generously supported by the San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Leads Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the midst of an affordable housing crisis and growing income inequality, The San Francisco Foundation asked local communities how to promote equity in the region. In Episode 2, we sit down with Gail Fuller to learn what they heard. The answers might surprise you. Read more about our conversation and access other great insights by visiting our Aspirational blog: https://medium.com/aspirational/the-san-francisco-foundations-north-star-is-equity-what-s-yours-e201b521912b

Topic:Strategies and tools for addressing racism personally and professionally Guest & Organization:Dwayne S. Marsh serves as Vice President of Institutional and Sectoral Change at the new Race Forward. The new Race Forward is the union of two leading racial justice non-profit organizations: Race Forward and Center for Social Inclusion (CSI). He also serves Deputy Director of Government Alliance on Race & Equity (GARE), a core program of the new Race Forward. Prior to GARE/Race Forward, Marsh was, for six years, a senior advisor in the Office of Economic Resilience (OER) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There, he helped advance sustainable planning and development through interagency partnerships, departmental transformation, and funding initiatives managed through OER. He was OER’s principal coordinator for a $250 million grant program and led the development of capacity building resources that reinforced the work of pioneering grantees in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Under his leadership, OER prioritized equity as a foundational principal for its planning and investment initiatives. Marsh brings to GARE/Race Forward his expertise and considerable experience in coalition building for regional equity and leadership development for policy change. He provides technical assistance and capacity building knowledge to equitable development initiatives that address continuing disparities in affordable housing, transportation investment, and environmental justice. Before HUD, Marsh spent a decade at PolicyLink, the national organization committed to economic and social equity. Before PolicyLink, he directed the FAITHS Initiative for eight years at The San Francisco Foundation, building a nationally renowned community development and capacity building program that continues to this day. Resources:http://www.raceforward.org/ (Race Forward) http://www.racialequityalliance.org/ (Government Alliance on Race and Equity) http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org/ (Center for Social Inclusion (CSI)) https://www.lgc.org/ (Local Government Commission ) https://www.newpartners.org/ (2018 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference– February 1-3, 2018)

Deceit and Other Possibilities (Willow Books) In this powerful debut collection, Vanessa Hua gives voice to immigrant families navigating a new America. Tied to their ancestral and adopted homelands in ways unimaginable in generations past, these memorable characters straddle both worlds but belong to none. From a Hong Kong movie idol fleeing a sex scandal, to an obedient daughter turned Stanford imposter, to a Chinatown elder summoned to his village, to a Korean-American pastor with a secret agenda, the characters in these ten stories vividly illustrate the conflict between self and society, tradition and change. In “What We Have is What We Need,” winner of The Atlantic student fiction prize, a boy from Mexico reunites with his parents in San Francisco. When he suspects his mother has found love elsewhere, he fights to keep his family together. With insight and wit, she writes about what wounds us and what we must survive. Her searing stories explore the clash of cultures and the complex, always shifting allegiances that we carry in ourselves, our family, and our community. Deceit and Other Possibilities marks the emergence of a remarkable new writer. Praise for Deceit and Other Possibilities "Vanessa Hua inhabits in graceful and heartbreaking detail the people of her stories: strivers and betrayers, lovers and the landless, all of them on their way to transcendence in her hands. – Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here and Highwire Moon    "Fast-paced, dazzling, smart, and fun, Vanessa Hua's debut collection illustrates the insanities and heartbreaks on both sides of the Pacific." – Gary Shteyngart, author of  Little Failure and  Super Sad True Love Story "Deceit and Other Possibilities gives us characters whose lives are constrained and yet also enriched by different borders, cultures, and traditions. A bracing and beautiful debut, full of fire and light."–Laila Lalami, author of The Moor's Account "Complicated, cosmopolitan and utterly contemporary, Deceit and Other Possibilities is a richly enjoyable collection.  Hua is expert at creating both empathy and suspense whether it's in the emptiness of a national park or the crowded space of an international flight.  These stories will jump right off the page into the reader's imagination."–Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy For nearly two decades, Vanessa Hua has covered Asia and the diaspora in journalism and in fiction, writing about the ways immigrants bring their traditions, their histories, and their ambitions to America. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award for Fiction, and is a past Steinbeck Fellow in Creative Writing at San Jose State University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, FRONTLINE/World, Washington Post, Guernica, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. A former staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times, she has filed stories from China, South Korea, Panama, Burma and Ecuador. She is a graduate of Stanford University and UC Riverside's MFA program. She lives in the Bay Area with her family. Naomi Hirahara is an award-winning novelist and nonfiction writer. Her Mas Arai mystery series, which features a Southern California-based gardener and Hiroshima survivor, has been published in Japanese, Korean and French. The sixth in the series, Sayonara Slam, was released in May of this year. Her short stories have been included in Los Angeles Noir, Asian Pulp and Hanzai Japan. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo, she also is involved in the preservation of Japanese American and regional history in the form of books and exhibitions.  

Lisa Marie Rollins is poet, playwright, theater director and dramaturg. She was a CALLALOO Journal London Writing Workshop Fellow, is an alumni in Poetry of VONA Writing Workshop and was a Poet in Residence at June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at U.C. Berkeley. Her writing is published in Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, River, Blood, Corn Literary Journal, Line/Break, As/Us Literary Journal,The Pacific Review and others. Currently, she is finishing her new manuscript of poems, Compass for which she received the 2016 Mary Tanenbaum Literary Award from San Francisco Foundation. She is in development with her new play, Token and was a 2015-16 playwright member of Just Theater Play Lab in Berkeley. She holds graduate degrees from The Claremont Graduate University and UC Berkeley. She is currently a Guest Artist Director at St Mary’s College in Performance Studies, a Resident Artist with Crowded Fire Theater and a Artist-in-Residence at BRAVA Theater for Women in San Francisco. How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you'll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  Liz Latty is a writer, educator, consultant, and domestic adoptee 15 years post-reunion. She is the founder of the adoption news blog, An Open Record (www.anopenrecord.com), and Open Record Consulting (www.openrecordconsulting.com), where she offers adoptee-centric, trauma-informed support and education services with a social justice framework to prospective and existing adoptive families, as well as professionals who work with adopted and fostered youth.Liz is the author of the chapbook Split (Unthinkable Creatures Press, 2012) and her writing can be found or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, make/shift magazine, The Feminist Wire, HOLD: a journal, and the anthology We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists, among others. She is a Lambda Literary Fellow and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, and the Jackson, Phelan, and Tanenbaum Literary Awards from the San Francisco Foundation. Liz earned an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and has presented work at readings and conferences across the country, including The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center, the Conference of the Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture, and the upcoming American Adoption Confernce in April.  She currently lives in Brooklyn and is working on a memoir. You can find more of her writing at www.liz-latty.com and follow her on Twitter at @lizlatty. 

The Commencement Exercises for the Goldman School of Public Policy ‘s Class of 2015 at UC Berkeley. Commencement address delivered by Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. Series: "Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley" [Education] [Show ID: 29712]

The Commencement Exercises for the Goldman School of Public Policy ‘s Class of 2015 at UC Berkeley. Commencement address delivered by Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. Series: "Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley" [Education] [Show ID: 29712]

The Miracle Girl(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) The crowds keep coming. More and more every day it seems . . . drawn by rumor and whisper and desperate wish. Somehow they heard about the little girl on Shaker Street. They come to see eight-year-old Anabelle Vincent, who lies in a comalike state--unable to move or speak. They come because a visitor experienced what seemed like a miracle and believed it was because of Anabelle. Word spread. There were more visitors. More miracles. But is there a connection? And does it matter? Set against the backdrop of the approaching millennium--with all its buzz about reckoning and doom--this impressive debut novel is narrated by Anabelle herself; by her devoted mother, who cares for her child while struggling to make sense of the media frenzy surrounding her; by Anabelle's estranged father, who is dealing with the guilt of his actions; and by the people who come seeking the child's help, her guidance, and her healing. Yet it tells a larger cultural story about the human yearning for the miraculous to be true, about how becoming a believer--in something, anything, even if you don't understand it--can sustain you. Praise forThe Miracle Girl: "To believe or not to believe--that is the question facing all who are touched by the comatose 'miracle girl' at the swirling center ofAndrew Roe'sdazzling debut. But more than an exploration of the mysteries of faith, it's also the unforgettable story of one family's struggle against tragedy. The result is an uplifting miracle of a book." --Will Allison, author ofLong Drive Home "InThe Miracle Girl, we're reminded that the desire for miracles always connotes dissatisfaction, even as it articulates a hope. Roe deftly explores this paradox . . . [and] examines the strange responsibility of being believed in. A stunning, confident debut." --Peter Rock, author ofThe Shelter Cycle "An incisive and insightful critique of America, investigating where we put our faith and why . . . It's a novel about what it means to be human, to be lost or broken, a little or a lot, and to seek connection and hope and maybe even transcendence in the world around us." --Doug Dorst, author ofS. andAlive in Necropolis Born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier, California,Andrew Roehas had his fiction published inTin House, One Story,theSun, Glimmer Train, The Cincinnati Review, Slice, Pank, Avery Anthology, Gigantic, Freight Stories, Failbetter,theGood Men Project,and other literary magazines, as well as the anthologiesWhere Love Is Foundand24 Bar Blues.His nonfiction has appeared in theNew York Times, San Francisco Chronicle,Salon.com,SF Weekly, San Francisco Bay Guardian,and elsewhere. An alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers andTin HouseWriters Workshop, he has received scholarships from the Getty Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation. Three of his short stories were performed by actors as part of the New Short Fiction Series, LAs longest running spoken word series. Dan Chaon selected his story Job History for the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions of 2012, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times, including aOne Storynomination for his story Americas Finest City. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English/creative writing from San Diego State University, and a master of arts degree in literature from San Francisco State University. For over twenty years, he has worked as a writer and editor in the publishing and software industries. A member of PEN Center USA, he currently lives in Oceanside, California, with his wife and three children.

This week: We kick off with the most depressing intro ever (yet still hilarious) and then get to the good stuff. We talk to Shannon Jackson at the Open Engagement conference, preceded by a (unfortunately) truncated conversation with Jen Delos Reyes. Shannon Jackson is Professor of Rhetoric and of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. She is also currently the Director of the Arts Research Center. Her most recent book is Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics, and she is also working on a book about The Builders Association. Other awards and grants include: Lilla Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Performance Studies (NCA); Junior Faculty Fellowship, Radcliffe College; the Kahan Scholar’s Prize in Theatre History (ASTR); the Spencer Foundation Dissertation fellowship; the Black Theater Network; the National Endowment for the Humanities, and several project grants from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, UCIRA, the San Francisco Foundation, and the LEF Foundation. Selected adaptation, performance, and directing credits: White Noises, The Smell of Death and Flowers, Hull-House Women, Catastrophe, The Successful Life of 3. Jackson serves on the boards of Cal Performances, the Berkeley Art Museum, and the Berkeley Center for New Media.  She serves on the editorial boards of several journals, has been a keynote speaker at a variety of international symposia, and has co-organized conferences and residencies with the Arts Research Center, The Builders Association, Touchable Stories, American Society of Theatre Research, the American Studies Association, the Women and Theatre Project, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Multi-campus Research Group on International Performance, and UCB’s Center for Community Innovation.  Jackson was an Erasmus Mundus visiting professor in Paris at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Nord and at the Université Libre de Bruxelles for the 2008-09 academic year. Before moving to Berkeley, Jackson was an assistant professor of English and Literature at Harvard University from 1995 to 1998. Jen Delos Reyes is an artist originally from Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Her research interests include the history of socially engaged art, group work, and artists' social roles. She has exhibited works across North America and Europe, and has contributed writing to various catalogues and institutional publications. In 2008 she contributed writing to Decentre: Concerning Artist-Run Culture published by YYZBOOKS. In 2006 she completed an intensive workshop, Come Together: Art and Social Engagement, at The Kitchen in New York. She has received numerous grants and awards including a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant. She is the founder and organizer of Open Engagement, a conference on socially engaged art practices. She is currently an Assistant Professor and teaches in the Art and Social Practice MFA concentration at Portland State University.

Leslie Medine, John Esterle, and Ellen Schneider Creating Bi-Cultural Youth-Led Change in Napa, CA Join Michael Lerner in this conversation with three thought partners in social change talking about what it takes to make a difference. Leslie Medine Leslie is one of Northern California’s most respected public sector leaders. She has created youth-led innovative schools and community programs for young people. Now she is organizing the first Democracy Zone in the country located in Napa where Latino and Anglo young people are making decisions and taking action on behalf of 2000 children and youth in their neighborhood. Find out more about her work on her website. John Esterle John is the executive director of The Whitman Institute, a San Francisco Foundation that supports Leslie’s work and is the only foundation in America with a pure focus on dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. In 2004 he led TWI’s transition from an operating to a grantmaking foundation. John is a board member of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, which he chaired from 2008-2010, as well as The Germanacos Foundation. Ellen Schneider Ellen created Active Voice, an organization that tackles social issues through the creative use of film. She founded the organization in 2001 and was its first executive director. As of July 2012 she is heading up the Active Voice Lab for Story & Strategy (AVLab), the organization’s incubator for new models for “engaged storytelling.” Ellen was the executive producer of P.O.V., PBS’s longest running independent documentary series. She lectures widely about the role of story in public life, and has served on juries ranging from the Sundance Film Festival to the RioCine Festival in Brazil. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

John Esterle Two Conversations The Whitman Institute is a unique foundation in San Francisco that focuses its grants on organizations and projects engaged with dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. The Institute is a supporter of The New School at Commonweal—and has also supported a remarkable number of the thought leaders we have interviewed at The New School. John Esterle is the executive director who has shaped the Institute since taking over from its founder. In these two conversations, Michael Lerner explores the thinking that has led John to make The Whitman Institute the only foundation in the country focused solely on these process questions of dialogue, critical thinking and citizen engagement. John Esterle John is the executive director of The Whitman Institute, a San Francisco Foundation that is the only foundation in America with a pure focus on dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. In 2004 he led TWI’s transition from an operating to a grantmaking foundation. John is a board member of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, which he chaired from 2008-2010, as well as The Germanacos Foundation. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

John Esterle Two Conversations The Whitman Institute is a unique foundation in San Francisco that focuses its grants on organizations and projects engaged with dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. The Institute is a supporter of The New School at Commonweal—and has also supported a remarkable number of the thought leaders we have interviewed at The New School. John Esterle is the executive director who has shaped the Institute since taking over from its founder. In these two conversations, Michael Lerner explores the thinking that has led John to make The Whitman Institute the only foundation in the country focused solely on these process questions of dialogue, critical thinking and citizen engagement. John Esterle John is the executive director of The Whitman Institute, a San Francisco Foundation that is the only foundation in America with a pure focus on dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. In 2004 he led TWI’s transition from an operating to a grantmaking foundation. John is a board member of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, which he chaired from 2008-2010, as well as The Germanacos Foundation. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

http://www.andystreasuretrove.com/andystreasuretrove.com/Media/ATTSF%20Episode%20%238%20Levelated.mp3.mp3 ()Episode #8 begins with the announcement of our very first contest! Then we talk to John Killacky of the San Francisco Foundation about his new documentary concert film Janis Ian, Live From Grand Center, and a lot about Janis Ian herself. We'll also learn about two other projects of John's: a film about 541 Broadway in New York, a nexus of postmodern dance history, and John's new passion for Shetland pony showing and pony cart driving. Then we'll hear Janis Ian herself singing We're Married in London, her wry take on marriage inequality, accompanied by her own great guitar playing and much laughter from the live audience. Please scroll down to view the photos of Janis Ian and John Killacky, and to find links to videos of John's life as a pony handler. Keywords and links for this episode: John Killacky, San Francisco Foundation, http://www.janisian.com/ (Janis Ian), “Janis Ian, Live From Grand Center” , “At Seventeen” , “At 17” , “http://store.janisianstore.com/sochmyau.html (Society's Child)” , “Jesse” , Roberta Flack, Shadow Morton, Leonard Bernstein, “Inside Pop, the Rock Revolution” , “Stars” , Barbara Cook, Cher, “Between the Lines” , Billy Joel, Giorgio Moroder, “Fly Too High” , Stern Grove, Victor Fink, John Mellencamp, “Tattoo” , foundation funding, David Geffen, Laura Nero, St. Louis, http://www.grandcenter.org/ (Grand Center), http://www.sheldonconcerthall.org/ (The Sheldon Theater), Missouri Film Commission, Anheuser Busch, Nashville, National Educational Telecommunications Association, NETA, PBS, Kent Samuel, Sesame Street, “Ginny the Flying Girl” , “Married in London” , Adrian Ellis, “Jazz at Lincoln Center” , Wynton Marsalis, Tricia Brown Dance Company, 541 Broadway, David Gordon, Valda Setterfield, Lucinda Childs, Douglas Dunn, Joan Jonas, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Rainer (Yvonne Rainer), SoHo, Shetland ponies, YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/user/PonyManSF (ponymansf), Fog Ranch, Watsonville, same-sex marriage, Proposition 8.