SCE is pleased to partner with the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program and National Commission on Social, Emotional, & Academic Development to explore how youth sports can improve social and emotional skills.
This year-long collaboration aims to:

• Spark a dialogue about what makes a good coach and how sports can improve social and emotional skills;
• Build knowledge and identify strategies on how to train coaches in SEL practices and outcomes; and
• Increase the number of coaches who understand and receive training in SEL practices.

Stay tuned for the release of research briefs, case studies, and tools to help put these findings into action slated for early 2019.

SCE is pleased to welcome Nina Zenni as our new Program Officer. Nina will support the advancement of strategic grantmaking for digital learning and and social and emotional learning, and explore new issue areas that prepare youth to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing and highly-connected world.
Nina brings extensive experience from across the nonprofit sector, having worked in foundation grantmaking, corporate social responsibility, youth development, direct social service, and case management.
Click here to learn more about Nina and the knowledge, experience and leadership she brings to SCE.

Nerdy Media

Interview with Nerdy Media‘s Executive Director, La Toia Brown.

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Organization Mission: Nerdy Media’s missions is to empower individuals with the know-how to not only take advantage of opportunity, but to create it for themselves.

Population Served: Our focus is on improving opportunities for those who need it most right here at home on Chicago’s South Side.

Founding Year: 2015

Organization Website: http://nerdymedia.org/

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Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
Nerdy Media is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that designs job readiness through media programming for Chicago’s youth, strengthening 21st century skill development and developing real-world experience.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.

A 2014 University of Illinois at Chicago study reported that 88% of Chicago’s black teens (16-19) and 85% of its Hispanic teens are jobless. Linking this data with a 2011 survey of thousands of employers found that 96% of employers value a growth mindset over any particular skill in their employees, Nerdy Media shifts job readiness programming to include a growth mindset.
How and why did you first start working for this organization?
After spending time with Chicago’s teens in a traditional classroom, I founded Nerdy Media, a 501c3 nonprofit, to address Chicago’s youth unemployment in a new way. Nerdy Media is the culmination of my educational and professional experiences. But it’s not just a chance for me to develop professionally; it’s an investment in Chicago’s underserved communities. It’s equipping our teens and young adults with the know-how to not only take advantage of opportunity, but to create it for themselves.
What current trends are you seeing in your field of work?
For many, access to job readiness programs and youth services are out of reach at the age of 21. Many job readiness programming culminates in real-world experience: the entry-level job. Without context, it’s easy to understand why youth interpret this experience as the last hurdle to the program, the last box to check before turning 21. Nerdy Media realizes that mentoring and support is important even for Chicago’s young adults.
Organizations are starting to realize that once youth age out of programming there is an opportunity for continued support as they navigate the emotional, social, and economic landscape of life after high school.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
Within the next five years, we feel that an increase of dedicated social service resources will support youth leadership and mentoring. Nerdy Media is a small organization that realizes the importance of data and use this to inform our programming. Within the next five years we plan to share this data, hopefully contributing to research and communities exploring disconnected youth.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?
Nerdy Media’s programming aims to equip Chicago’s youth with a Growth mindset, 21st century skills, and real-world experience.
A 2011 survey of thousands of employers found that 96% of employers value a growth mindset over any particular skill in their employees. Coined by psychologist Carol Dweck and popularized in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, a growth mindset is the belief that our most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. In other words, our abilities aren’t fixed, and our futures aren’t determined by inherent traits. Brains and talent are just the starting point, the place from which we grow. Nerdy Media’s programming also incorporates 21st century skill development. This combination of relevant skills strengthens youth’s ability to devise effective solutions to real-world problems. Our programming draws heavily from the solution fluency model, define, discover, dream, design, deliver, debrief.
It’s important Nerdy Media’s youth are equipped with real-world experience. You can gain a great deal of knowledge from books and school, but certain lessons can only be learned one-on-one, through direct experience. Our programming is designed to strengthen resumes and connect learning to the real world.
What are the three most important skills you value in your staff members? Why?
Nerdy Media is a start up operated primarily by Executive Director, La Toia Brown. Brand Manager, Dave LaTulippe greatly contributes graphic design and additional support. With a small staff and resources, Nerdy Media’s staff contributes the organization’s success to strategic planning, flexibility, and creativity.
Strategic planning is an often overlook yet essential for any business. Having a clear vision enables Nerdy Media to forecast for sustainability. Developing a solid long-term plan is helpful, however there always will be unexpected circumstances. Flexibility is going through trial and error and identifying opportunities to improve. As a startup organization, creativity is a helpful skill that enables Nerdy Media to stretch resources.
How has technology influenced your field and/or the way your organization works?
Media greatly influences our work. Technology is a huge part of Nerdy Media’s operations and programming. Our business model is heavily influenced by the “Lean Startup” methodology and implement technology to streamline operations. We develop project-based programming incorporating technology into the curriculum and outcome.
What are some key achievements your organization has accomplished over the last year and how were you able to attain this success?
Nerdy Media was established September 2015 and has really started to develop a foundation for social impact within the past two years. With funding from the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities, Nerdy Media invites local organizations, stakeholders, family, and friends, to an event that explores what happens when Chicagoans work together for safe and peaceful communities.
During the summer of 2017, the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities awarded grants to 121 community-based organizations to develop activities that would build community cohesion and promote safety and peace in 17 Chicago neighborhoods.
Nerdy Media was among five local youth media organizations selected to document the work of the grant recipients. The result is #SafeandPeacfulChi, a six-part youth-produced web series intended to share the stories that are often untold by traditional media. Nerdy Media adapted the project into job readiness programming designed to strengthen 21st Century skills and develop real-world experience. Youth were introduced to advanced video production equipment, storytelling structure, content marketing, and event planning.
The project concluded with Nerdy Media’s first event, showcasing the videos followed by a youth-led brief discussion.
Have there been any recent obstacles? If so, how were you and your staff able to overcome them?
In 2015 when I decided to transition from teacher to social entrepreneur, launching Nerdy Media I have relied on the growth mindset. We are constantly refining our business model and stretching limited resources. Youth engagement has been easy and due to limited resources, we are only able to accommodate a small number of youth participation. One of our biggest obstacles are acquiring funding to expand our impact. Rather than seek funding during our first years of operation, Nerdy Media focused efforts on developing scalable programming. We didn’t want funding to become a barrier for social impact. This approach has help us develop strategic planning for a financial sustainable organization, even if this means starting small.
What’s next for your organization? What are you looking forward to?
Nerdy Media is looking forward to the July 2018 launch of On Me, a podcast that offers an inside look at Chicago’s youth culture – told & produced by those living it. The first season is a collection of personal stories where six young adults navigate the emotional, social, and economic landscape of life after high school.
The Chicago Learning Exchange at The Chicago Community Trust (the Fund) awarded Nerdy Media funding to create dynamic new learning opportunities using LRNG: CHI, a digital learning and badging platform. Nerdy Media is currently developing two playlist designed to help learners produce a podcast. The digital curriculum was developed throughout a six-week media production program created by Nerdy Media’s Executive Director, La Toia Brown, and her team. Through narrative therapy, writing, storytelling, audio & video production, branding, and marketing, guiding six young creatives through the ins and outs of producing and launching a podcast.
What do you wish others knew about the organization or the populations you serve?
Nerdy Media is an innovative origination taking a 21st century approach to programming and job readiness. Our brand story illustrates an organic approach to connecting Chicago’s young adults to sustainable opportunities and promoting youth leadership.
Further developing community partnerships and programming support is essential for scaling our programming. We would like to extend an invitation to contact us and learn more about Nerdy Media and get involved. Youth will find our programming an opportunity too develop relevant skills.Organizations will find that our programming offers professional-quality media production and youth employment. Foundations will find supporting Nerdy Media is an investment for authentic, innovative, and data driven programming equipping Chicago’s youth with real-world experience.
Our local community will find meaningful community engagement through hands-on volunteer opportunities and unique media-driven events.
Nerdy Media is honored to be a 2018 SCE Catalyst Grantee. This generous donation has supported programming including: a cultural enrichment event at the Steppenwolf, the development and facilitation of a four-part career planning learning series, and updating equipment for youth-produced media productions.
We greatly appreciate this recognition and look forward to innovating digital, social, and emotional programming, empowering Chicago’s youth to thrive in the 21st century.

Ardea Arts (BOUNCE: The Basketball Opera)

Interview with Ardea Arts’ Founding Artistic & Executive Director, Grethe Barrett Holby.

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Organization Mission: Ardea Arts creates and produces provocative new works of opera and music-theater to entertain, challenge and inspire today’s diverse global community, uplift the human spirit, and encourage new ways of seeing our world.

Population Served: Veteran art lovers to new audiences of all ages, especially engaging underserved and un-served multi-generational audiences.

Founding Year: 2006

Organization Website: www.ardeaarts.com

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Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
Incorporated in 2006, Ardea Arts is an incubator of new American opera and music-theater for new audiences and veteran arts-lovers alike. Ardea commissions, develops, and co-produces, fostering the creative progress and forming partnerships to bring the work to wider audiences, engaging with the community in both the process and performance of the work.
Since 2014, our work has focused on BOUNCE: The Basketball Opera. BOUNCE tackles key social issues by bringing together two presumably separate cultures: High Art and Sports. Music, poetry, and basketball combine to tell a story that we hope will contribute to social awareness, spark cross-cultural action, and become a partner to change. BOUNCE is the latest in a long series of socially responsive interventions by Ardea Arts and its precursor, Family Opera Initiative.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
The Problem: A vast majority of Americans perceive opera as an elite, antiquated, white, non-American art form. The fact is that Opera was first created as a revolutionary theatrical form for social commentary. It had a huge impact on undermining the status quo and precipitating change. Then, by the time of Mozart, opera arias had become the popular music of the time in Europe. But this music is not the music of mainstream America.
Our Approach: American opera should be equally as radical as it once was. It should dive into the issues facing our nation today, with the music and poetry of today. We make opera to explore and tell our stories – all our stories – with the full palette of American music, from Hip Hop to R&B, Gospel, Rap, Jazz, American song, and opera.
BOUNCE brings together two powerful American cultures that rarely “the twain shall meet. But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!”
We believe BOUNCE has the power to become an important driver of authentic conversation across cultures about social issues we are all facing as a nation today: gun violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, the inequality of our current social justice, and how one’s decisions impact the course of our lives.
It is my deepest belief that the Arts should be accessible to all people; that there is a power in Art that can break down barriers and bring us authentically together; that Art allows us to express ourselves in ways other than words, engaging our senses at their fullest. In so doing, Art binds us together in a way nothing else can, naturally generating openness and empathy. And without both of these, there is no justice, and there is no progress.
I realize a lot of people today are talking about social justice. It is through BOUNCE that I personally have been changed, as has the entire cast and team of BOUNCE, and many of the people we have interacted and worked closely with through our community engagement programs.
Something I have come to realize over the thirty-five years I have been involved with making and directing new work, is that the joy of this process is that it is ultimately “a mission of exploration. If we see something of interest along the way, we stop and investigate.”  This is actually a quote from NASA about the journey of the rover “Curiosity” on the Martian surface. If we stop and investigate, and we’re open to what we see, it is amazing what we will find. We will come face-to-face with the unknown, and it becomes something we know, or will come to know.
How and why did you first start working for this organization?
I am the founder of Ardea Arts and its precursors: Family Opera Initiative (1995), and American Opera Projects/AOP (1988).  I did not come from Opera. I came from dance, theater and architecture arriving in New York with degrees from M.I.T.  I landed in the 70’s avant-garde, soon an originating cast member of “Einstein on the Beach,” performing in the iconic opera houses of Europe with two performances at the Metropolitan Opera House in NY. Einstein
was a year of my life. I assisted set designers designing for opera; soon assistant designer on the premiere of Scott Joplin’s “Treemonisha.” I was the resident choreographer of the Houston Grand Opera/HGO ‘82-‘83, then choreographer for Leonard Bernstein’s “A Quiet Place,” at HGO, LaScala (Milan) and Kennedy Center ’83-84. So, I virtually fell into opera- especially new opera.
While directing Faust, Traviata, Hoffmann, etc., I founded AOP to bring my contemporaries into opera, with the slogan: New Composers/New Audiences/New Opera. Then I started having children and my circle of friends expanded past my artistic circle. I found that most well-heeled, educated people in NYC had no interest in opera. I understood. Neither had I. I was led in through the back door. Where is “The Nutcracker” for opera? – a work that brings in millions of people across America, who then bring their families and friends of all ages, from 3 to 103.  The Nutcracker not only entertains multiple generations together in the same audience, but also has tens of thousands of children around the world performing in productions side by side with the best dancers in the world. Those children are touched and changed forever, as are their parents, relatives and friends who attend and assist in the process of getting these children to rehearsals, helping out backstage, etc.  So, I set out to make a Nutcracker for Opera, on that model, under a program I started –  Family Opera Initiative/FOI.  Eventually, I took FOI out of AOP, and in 2006 brought it under a new not-for-profit – Ardea Arts.
BOUNCE is a number of artistic generations down the line. I have learned a lot about incorporating the community into the progress and performance of the work; about working with many different ages and different types of people. I have strived to always bring diversity into my casting and my staff. Perhaps this has just been my inclination, it was never premeditated. As the curator and/or producing director, I was drawn to stories with important issues told from very personal stories. Note – I am not a writer nor composer. I am the creative director and stage director. I collaborate closely with my creative team, am part of the team, but these works are made by the team.
A board member recently wrote that I “have been tackling difficult issues through the arts since 1988” developing and producing music-theater works for youth, family and “un-served” audiences with community involvement in the process and performance of the work. I was only doing what was important to me; sometimes ideas generated by my team mates, but also and perhaps more importantly, ideas spurred by experiences and issues of my three children as they were and are negotiating a very different world than I grew up in.
What current trends are you seeing in your field of work?
Now is an exciting time for Opera. Indie-opera and new opera of all kinds are flourishing across America. It is a hot-bed of experimentation. Another new aspect is that many of these works are receiving multiple performances across America. There is now a new, young and excited audience for opera. You can see them all whenever a new work is being performed. I am proud to have been at the forefront of this movement with the founding of American Opera Projects back in 1988.
However, this new audience is still primarily white, well educated, and presumably steeped in the arts, with the means to pay for the tickets.
Ardea Arts seeks to change the paradigm by bringing our work to where the audience already is, and engaging members of the local community into the process and performance of the work. For example, BOUNCE. Basketball courts have become today’s “Town Square.” The entire community gathers there. BOUNCE is created to be performed on public basketball courts, wherever they may be.
However, we have learned that you don’t take over someone’s basketball court without local buy-in. As often as possible, local basketball players are the basketball players in the show; and community leaders, celebrities and artists can perform in a number of guest roles. Active participation in the arts is key. And telling stories in music that is American – from jazz to hip hop & rap, from R&B to musical theater to gospel, all the way to opera – is key to us.
Larger opera companies like Houston Grand Opera and Chicago Lyric are going out into their diverse communities, assisting in the creation of works that come more fully from their own stories, with their own music. This has been especially successful in recent immigrant communities. And some of these have generated powerful new works now being performed around the country.  For example, Jose Pepe Martinez and Leonard Foglia’s Curzar las Cara de la Luna, the world’s first mariachi opera, from HGO.
Another important trend is the conscious inclusion of women composers and librettists who are now receiving the support and opportunities they deserve. This is largely due to the work and financial incentives now in place through Opera America.
Note: Ben Krzywosz founded Nautilus Music-Theatre in 1986. We met later. I suppose we can be called the progenitors of this current movement. AOP began in 1987, receiving its 501c3 in 1988.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
If we can get BOUNCE on courts and in venues around the country, we will be on a journey of discovery past all expectations and predictions. I look forward to that.
And if that happens, I am confident that our next work, The Three Astronauts will also find producers and its audience and we will be thrust into the sciences and space travel. The Three Astronauts is an important new piece bringing the Arts and Science together. Arts + STEM = STEAM. The STEAM initiative has been around since 2011, but I have not seen the Arts truly integrated into the equation except in one place: MIT. As an alum, I can say that MIT is the most creative place I have ever experienced. Known the world over for its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, creativity is at the core of this vibrant community, and Art a fundamental tenet.
But, The Three Astronauts is more than just science. “3A” is about a journey past boundaries
and the exploration of reaching over our differences to create alliances and friendships with the unknown. Three creative teams, one from China, one from Russia, and one from the United States, have been working together to make this piece. Working across cultures takes on a bigger challenge and hopefully will make our own differences here in the United States feel manageable.  (www.thethreeastronauts.com)
I am proud we are described as “busting boundaries” and “a step beyond,” and “a visionary often ahead of her time.” But what I hope will change is that our work will be recognized as of THIS time, now; that our work will be experienced around the country and beyond, initiate meaningful dialogue, make a difference, and help to create real change.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?
1) Engagement in the arts, 2) acknowledging and valuing their own potential for creativity and creative thinking, and 3) opening the possibility that they can dream, and should be open to taking an opportunity if and when it is offered to them. Then amazing things can happen. We also focus on fostering pratical skills, including: Musical terminology, singing, rapping, making beats with basketball, working together to create or perform a duet with rap and basketball, supporting their fellow students, getting up in front of their peers to perform.
What are the three most important skills you value in your staff members? Why?
We are quite a small organization, so what we value most is, 1) proactivity, 2) a can-do attitude with a willingness to wear many hats, and 3) passion – for the work and the project at hand. On a more practical level, I seek staff who can write well, have major media skills, and are good collaborators.
How has technology influenced your field and/or the way your organization works?
Technology has made it easier to share the work among our staff, and also with our audience. In performances, we have initiated technological innovations into the performance itself. For instance, in BOUNCE we are experimenting with incorporating media streamed live to audience phones during the show. For “The Three Astronauts,” we worked with high-school students at LaGuardia Arts High School (NYC) who created an app that interfaces with STEM issues in the script through Art. Artists all, their videos are absolutely amazing.
Plans include encouraging the audience to tweet STEM and other questions they have about the journey to Mars and the Martian landing and visit during the performance, to be answered after the show by space scientists and astronauts, or directly answered back on twitter to be shared by anyone following the conversation. Some information will be accessible on interactive screens in the lobby, available before and after the performance, and during intermission. This information will build, as we respond to the questions that are asked by the audience members.
What are some key achievements your organization has accomplished over the last year and how were you able to attain this success?
Over the last year, we completed and co-produced the premiere of BOUNCE The Basketball Opera in Lexington KY in partnership with University of Kentucky Opera Theatre (UKOT). We are very proud of this partnership, how we handled it, and the success both of us achieved by working closely together.
We are particularly proud of our community engagement activities tied to our performances in Lexington KY. Our community ambassadors were our basketball players, who came from the same communities we went back into. Completing the “Bounce Team” were our basketball choreographer – a pro-player originally from Lexington, our rapper/story-teller, and our lead singer/actor – both professional from New York City. The basketball players were paid through a grant from Opera American for building new audiences. We built a team of people who had extraordinary chemistry – who loved BOUNCE, its story, its message, and what it stands for. We went into the schools – lower, middle and high schools – in challenged neighborhoods, and succeeded past all expectations. (see video links).
And somehow, over the past thirteen months, in addition to our work with BOUNCE, we rehearsed and performed the concert orchestra premiere of Animal Tales in partnership with the Garden State Philharmonic; and we licensed Fireworks to Hunter College Opera Theatre (HOT) for three performances. Major accomplishments.
Have there been any recent obstacles? If so, how were you and your staff able to overcome them?
Yes – a constant obstacle is raising funds to support our work. We find it a struggle to maintain donor engagement and excitement over the time it takes to develop a new work. Our staff is not large enough to do both effectively, at the same time.
We have not overcome this obstacle. And with the new tax code, it may only get more difficult. However, we believe that BOUNCE and all of our new works are important ambassadors and tools for change in many different arenas, and we keep forging forward.
What’s next for your organization? What are you looking forward to?
We are working to get BOUNCE on courts across the country, working with community partners including theaters, schools and community groups and organizers in each location.
To set this in motion, our plan is to perform on four of the most iconic courts in the country: Holcombe Rucker Park in Harlem, New York City; King-Drew in Compton, Los Angeles; Jackson Park Cages in Southside, Chicago; and MacGregor Park in Downtown, Houston. We are focusing on these key courts and communities where we feel BOUNCE will have the greatest impact, and greatest exposure in order to spread the word. We are working now to set this tour in motion, fundraising, and reaching out to partner organizations. We hope to include a few sit-down performances in these cities where we can also concentrate on community engagement while recouping our expenses.
What do you wish others knew about the organization or the populations you serve?
Ardea Arts has a library of important and wonderful new works available for performance, works that reach out to multigenerational audiences, works with community impact. Many of these works involve children’s choruses and/or audience or community participation. More importantly, we love to partner, we are good to work with, and we would love to meet you and discuss how we might work together for everyone’s benefit, towards our mutual goals.
 

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Press

1. The New York Times: 6 Visionary Artists Reshaping Their Craft (April 2017).
2. National Endowmen for the Arts: Spotlight on BOUNCE: The Basketball Opera (June 2016).
3. TimeOut New York: Bounce: The Basketball Opera” Feature (May 2016).
4. The New Yorker: “Bounce: The Basketball Opera” Explore Feature & Review (May 2016).
5. i-D: “‘Bounce’, a basketball opera tackling America’s gun problem” (June 2016).
6. KY Forward: “Put some bounce in your opera (or opera in your bounce with ‘Bounce: The Basketball Opera'” (Nov. 2017).
7. Lexington Herald-Leader: “Went downton on basketball night and an opera broke out” (Nov. 2017).

Root & Rebound

Interview with Root & Rebound‘s Founder & Executive Director, Katherine Katcher.

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Organization Vision: Root & Rebound envisions a world where a criminal record is not a life sentence and where people with past involvement in the justice system (anyone with a prior arrest or conviction, whether as juvenile or an adult) have access to opportunities in education, employment, family reunification, and all areas of community life.
Organization Mission: Root & Rebound’s mission is to increase access to justice and opportunity for people in reentry from prison and jail, and to educate and empower those who support them, fundamentally advancing and strengthening the reentry infrastructure across the state of California and nationally.
Population Served: The one in three Americans with a criminal record — from juveniles who are in the midst of justice-involvement to adults who have served decades behind bars.
Founding Year: 2013
Location: Oakland, CA
Organization Website: http://www.rootandrebound.org/ 

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Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
Root & Rebound utilizes a three-pronged model that combines legal education and dissemination of information (Our Roadmap to Reentry legal guide, supplemental toolkits, and accompanying training curriculums) with direct services (Our Legal Reentry Hotline and prison letter-writing program), both of which, in combination, facilitate and inform the third prong, systems reform (partnerships and information-sharing with stakeholders, policymakers and reformers/activists).
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
Right now, one in three Americans has a criminal record and they face over 48,000 legal barriers to everyday life. On top of that, there is only one lawyer for every 10,000 Americans who can’t afford representation. Yet every year, 750,000 individuals are released from prison and millions of people cycle in and out of county jails. With vast numbers of people living with a criminal record and impacted by the criminal justice system, the traditional legal aid model of one lawyer to one client means too many people in need go unserved.
Root & Rebound’s model brings legal advocacy to scale for people who face the greatest civil legal barriers and stigma. We do this through a three-part model of education, advocacy, and reform.
How and why did you end up working for this organization?
My passion and work to create opportunity for all people is deeply rooted in my family’s history; people who came to this country seeking a better life and, through opportunity and hard work, were able to improve their circumstances over generations—fulfilling the true “American Dream.” Our story has shaped my strong belief that all people should have equal access to opportunity, social mobility, and the chance to achieve a better life for themselves and their families. From a young age in my hometown of Miami, Florida, I witnessed firsthand the way in which racism, discrimination, and bias have harmed so many. This upbringing shaped my calling to create solutions that could break systemic barriers that prevent access to equal justice and opportunity for countless Americans. I chose to work in the post-justice system and reentry space because I believe these are the most marginalized men and women in our society; they, their families, and their communities have been devastated by mass incarceration.
What kind of trends do you see in your area of work?
On a policy level, we see a general move towards criminal justice reform, but we still don’t see funding available to support people with records. We have high numbers of people being released, but when people are arrested, convicted, or serve time in prison and jail, they need support and resources. We can’t just only focus on policy reform — a comprehensive solution requires both policy reform and direct services and there shouldn’t be a choice between the two. I have seen that legal advocates on the ground are often times the only reason that any policy changes actually have teeth–we need implementation and enforcement to make sure real change happens. Specifically, in California, legislative changes such as Prop 47, Prop 57, Prop 64, AB 109 and others have the potential to transform the criminal justice landscape across the state, and, if implemented with care, will contribute to a historic reduction in statewide incarceration rates. The problem, and the gap Root & Rebound seeks to fill across all program areas, is that very few groups are taking on the implementation of these policies once they are passed by the legislature.
In urban communities, we are expanding work to strengthen the capacity of parents and caregivers to navigate family court systems (probate court, dependency court, family court, foster/adoption processes, CPS, ICE detention) by hosting quarterly Family Law Clinics and providing family law services for parents with records where previously none existed. We are also expanding trainings for a wide range of stakeholders including employers, landlords, nonprofits, and government agencies to promote knowledge of reentry legal barriers and how to overcome them.
We see a large need in rural communities, where there is often the greatest need, where there is a dearth of social services or access to attorneys and this is where Root & Rebound is pushing the envelope in providing reentry legal support for these communities. Within these communities, we see an increasing number of vulnerable people and their children caught in the tangling web of the immigration and criminal justice systems, terrified by ICE raids and the aggressively xenophobic rhetoric of this administration, with no one to turn to for legal advice and support. To counter this alarming trend, Root & Rebound is increasing its work for those at the nexus of immigration and criminal justice reform.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
As we expand within the state of California, growing 2 offices this year, and also nationally, we will start navigating larger regulatory frameworks and the broader structural problems affecting the populations we serve. With increased funding in California, we will be able to have more targeted efforts, growing our programs in tribal communities in Northern California and with women of color impacted by incarceration in the Central Valley. Nationally, we hope to engage in partnerships with high-impact social service organizations and law schools and to place a high-impact attorneys to serve the organization, its members, and the wider community. Lastly, we hope that as more state institutions begin to see the light about the ineffectiveness of mass incarceration and the need for more infrastructure on the reentry side, we hope to bring more unlikely partners to the table to expand access to employment, education, and housing for formerly incarcerated people across the country, through Fair Chance Housing, Fair Chance Hiring, and Higher Education and Reentry Initiatives with employers, landlords, and higher education institutions as well as corrections staff, social service providers, and community advocates.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?
I would say that the three most important skills we hope to inspire in those that seek our support are self-advocacy, self-confidence, and hope. As a small group of lawyers serving anyone reentering or with a criminal record who seeks our support, we have the potential to have the greatest impact if we can transfer legal knowledge to our clients in a way that makes them feel empowered to advocate for themselves. We want to support self-confidence in our clients by laying out the next steps they should take and providing them with the full range of tools at our disposal to ensure their success. Lastly, communities of color and low-income communities have faced generations of discrimination, over-policing, and disenfranchisement and so we hope that access to attorneys to speak to about their challenges will allow them to feel seen and heard and valued, and most importantly will help grow a sense of optimism about the opportunities that could open to them and their families with legal support.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in your staff? Why?
Building an organization has allowed me to create a dynamic work culture in which we all bring our passion and energy to dismantling systems of incarceration and inequity and I’m honored to be on that journey with our diverse and creative team. At Root & Rebound, each member of staff is considered and treated as a key builder of the organization. My focus has been on building conscious leadership approaches to strengthen team dynamics, increasing resilience in challenging times, and fostering creativity and tenacity in getting the work done and creating wide-scale impact.
How has technology influenced the way your organization works?
As an organization, we leverage technology wherever possible to push out our resources to as many people as possible across the state and country. We create reentry resources that fill information-gaps, educate individuals on their rights, and provide navigation techniques for the legal and practical barriers. We bring this critical information to life via our website, interactive online training platform with digestible videos and factsheets on reentry legal barriers, and recently-launched HTML wiki-style searchable legal reentry guide. The Roadmap Wiki-site is a major step for us to expand digital access to legal education on barriers in reentry and reach an even larger audience and is paving the way for our movement towards online access.
Do you have any key mentors or people who deeply influenced who you are or what you do? Tell me about them.
All of the working mothers on my team! Working with a team of women professionals with young children, like me, helps me on days where I feel that the whole “balance” thing is out of whack. These are women I can laugh and cry with about trying to do it all! My parents, my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and my great grandparents—some of whom I never met but whose commitment I carry on: a commitment to working hard but ALWAYS being grateful for what we have and looking out for others—that has been the single thread that runs through a hundred years of my family’s life. These values were passed down through family stories and by my parents’ examples, and allowed me at a young age to turn my attention and focus to why people have less than me—why well-being on this planet is determined in large part by where and to whom you are born. That should not be. From a young age, I knew that was wrong and wanted to use my life to undo as much of that as possible.
If we talk one year from now, reflecting on what a great year it’s been, what did you/the organization achieve?
We will be reflecting on possibly our organization’s biggest year, in which we expanded our reach and impact to two new cities in California and hopefully built strong national partnerships that are laying the groundwork for scaling across the country. This is the year that Root & Rebound really came into its own as a national organization—out of “childhood” and into “young adulthood,” with all the growing pains, challenges, and enormous opportunities that come with that.
What’s next for you in your work? What are you looking forward to?
Here in California, we are growing our presence and deepening the direct services we deliver to communities that lack access to justice. We are building out offices in the Central Valley and LA area, growing our work with tribal communities, and increasing our reach inside prisons and jails.
We are also expanding our model out to states with less of a reentry infrastructure and high need. Along those lines, I’m looking forward to the kind of partnerships that Remy De La Peza, our new Director of National Initiatives, can help us to create with organizations and advocates already on the ground in communities across the country where Root & Rebound could have significant impact.
What do you wish others knew about the organization?
Our organization goes far beyond legal or reentry services—we work to address mass incarceration on a broad scale and dismantle intergenerational cycles of poverty and criminalization. We are working on the greatest human rights issues of our time. If you care about violence prevention, employment access, reducing poverty, women’s rights—then the intersection here is crucial. I promise you, this is your issue.
 

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Press

1. USA Today: “Prisoners who risk their lives during Calif. wildfireis shouldn’t be shut our of profession” (Nov. 2017)
2. Axios: “How inmates who fight wildfires are later denied firefighting jobs” (Nov. 2017)
3. ABC Broadcast: “Non-profit travels the state, offering legal advice to help parolees get jobs and rejoin society” (Aug. 2017)
4. Axios: “The puzzle of getting convicts into jobs” (Jan. 2017)
5. Clio: “Root and Rebound’s InnovativeModel for Reentry” (Jan 2017)

Thistle Farms

Interview with Thistle Farms‘ Development Director, Heather Davis.

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Organization Mission: Thistle Farms’ vision is to heal, empower, and employ women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. We do this by providing safe and supportive housing, the opportunity for economic independence, and a strong community of advocates and partners.  We believe that in the end, love is the most powerful force for change in the world.
Population Served: Adult women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, addiction, and the violence of life on the streets.
Founding Year: 1997
Location: Nashville, TN
Organization Website: https://thistlefarms.org/ 

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Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
Thistle Farms is a sanctuary of healing for women survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking and prostitution. Founded by the Rev. Becca Stevens, Thistle Farms began in 1997 as a residential program called Magdalene. In an effort to offer residents and graduates both economic support and job training, Thistle Farms’ social enterprises began in 2001, and have since grown into becoming the largest social enterprise employing women survivors in the country. Residents experience transformative, sustainable change through two years of rent-free housing, physical and mental health treatment, case-management, education, training, and employment opportunities. Thistle Farms currently employs 37 residents and graduates who work across all areas of the social enterprises. Our handmade, natural home and body products are sold online, at sales events, and in 450+ retail outlets nationwide. Over the past 12 months, the residents and graduates working at Thistle Farms have earned more than $1,150,000 collectively. Thistle Farms’ social enterprises include Home & Body, The Cafe at Thistle Farms, and Thistle Farms Global. Thistle Farms also supports a National Education & Outreach Initiative consisting of 50 sister and affiliate organizations across the country that are implementing Thistle Farms’ model.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
Thistle Farms residents have been allowed to fall through the cracks of broken systems and communities, so we believe it will take a loving community to offer healing. Residents range in age from 19-60 and most experienced sexual abuse beginning between ages 7-11 and alcohol/drug abuse by 15. Survivors have experienced an average of 10 months in incarceration and spent, on average, one decade in trafficking and prostitution. Thistle Farms’ ‘housing first’ model interrupts these cycles of poverty, abuse, addiction, and homelessness to provide a holistic path toward healing that includes committed advocacy for individuals, case management, health care, employment, support for education, and steps toward financial independence- all free of charge.
How and why did you end up working for this organization?
In 1997, Rev. Becca Stevens opened Thistle Farms’ first recovery home under the name Magdalene. She invited five women survivors to live there, rent-free, for two years. Her goal was to create a community where women could heal from years of trafficking, addiction, prostitution, and the violence of life on the streets. Soon after the first group entered the program it was clear that, though they were making great strides in their recovery, the women had no way to become economically independent. So, Becca and the residents began making candles in a church basement and, in 2001, Thistle Farms was born.
What kind of trends do you see in your area of work?
There are a number of trends affecting our area of work. On the therapeutic/residential side of the organization, we are seeing more and more women impacted by co-occurring disorders (addiction challenges + mental health issues) requiring a more intensive level of treatment and staff expertise. The shrinking availability of affordable housing is impacting every single woman completing our program and looking to get started on her own. On the business side of the organization, we recognize the need to reach new audiences and drive a richer ecommerce experience.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
With 50 sister organizations modeling our residential program and products available on store shelves in every state, we are quickly growing from a local/regional organization to a national brand. This will only continue.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?
Healthy engagement and communication skills; making positive choices; controlling negative thoughts.
How has technology influenced the way your organization works?
It has primarily influenced the way we market our organization and sell our products, especially the growing impact of influencers and user generated content.
If we talk one year from now, reflecting on what a great year it’s been, what did you/the organization achieve?
We were able to celebrate 7 women successfully graduating from our program employed and able to move into their first apartment. In addition, we will have grown online sales by 25%.
What’s next for you in your work? What are you looking forward to?
We are exploring a new line of aromatherapy products as well as becoming more active in the development of affordable housing for women.
What do you wish others knew about the organization?
That we have created a national network offering more than 168 beds for women survivors of trafficking and addiction.
 

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Press

1. Tennesean Article on the Thistle Farms Cafe (April 2018)
2. Today Show Segment (March 2018)
3. CNN Hero Feature (Feburary 2017)
4. CNN Article on “The Welcome Project” (May 2017)

Earlier last month, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and the Center for Global Education at Asia Society released a report for educators, youth development leaders, and parents to explore digital resources and how these innovative tools can be used as a means for teaching young leaders to be more macro-minded citizens and connected thinkers.
The Digital Play for Global Citizens report highlights some ways digital tools can allow children to develop skills necessary to thrive in our increasingly global and ever-changing world.
This report outlines a framework with four key dimensions of global competence:

1. Exploring various issues from a local, global and intercultural lens. “The ability to combine knowledge about the world with critical reasoning whenever people form their own opinions about a global issue.”
2. Understanding, appreciating and recognizing perspectives and world views that are different than their own. “A willingness and capacity to consider global problems from multiple viewpoints.”
3. Learning to participate in cross-sectional and cross-cultural engagement that is effective and respectful. “Engage in respectful dialogue, want to understand the other, and try to include marginalized groups.”
4. Actively engaging in fostering sustainable development and collective well-being. “Individuals’ readiness to respond to a given local, global, or intercultural issue or situation.”

This report intends to provide ready-to-use resources and techniques for using digital play to promote global citizenship.
To learn more, download the report here!

Temple Contemporary: Symphony for a Broken Orchestra

Organization Mission: To creatively re-imagine the social function of art
Population Served: students, greater Philadelphia community, Temple University community
Founding Year: 2011 (Temple Contemporary)
Organization Website: www.templecontemporary.org; www.symphonyforabrokenorchestra.org
 

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Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. Temple Contemporary’s mission is to creatively re-imagine the social function of art. We believe in democratic leadership as the most appropriate way to produce an artistic program that inclusively responds to pressing issues of local and national significance. Embodying this democratic ethos, our program development is guided by a forty-member advisory council representing a broad spectrum of Philadelphia stakeholders, including neighboring high-school students of color, Temple University students and faculty, as well as civic/cultural leaders representing a range of skills (nurses, farmers, philosophers, artists, community activists, historians, etc.). To each annual meeting every adviser brings one question of local relevance and international significance to which they do not know the answer. After all of the questions are discussed, the council votes for the questions/issues deemed to reflect Philadelphia’s greatest cultural needs.
This process puts Temple Contemporary into a position of public service to address contemporary questions of urgency and simultaneously necessitates a fundamental philosophical shift for the organization: from a single curatorial/authorial voice to one that recognizes social engagement and debate as the determining factor of our programming. This re-ordering of conventional gallery values foregrounds curatorial accountability, reciprocity, and exchange, as the basis of TC’s social life, and by extension, our social values.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem. Symphony for a Broken Orchestra came about as we realized how marginalized arts education, specifically music education, has become within the School District of Philadelphia.  To give you an idea of how dire things have become, in 2007 the budget for arts programs was $1.3 million; in 2015 it was $50,000. Symphony for a Broken Orchestra was not an attempt to fix this problem, but rather an attempt to highlight this issue by raising awareness.  We worked with the Philadelphia School District who agreed to allow us to borrow many of their broken instruments (over 900), which were up until this point, being stored in closets and storerooms hoping the budget would someday allow these instruments to be fixed.  Composer David Lang created a composition based on the sounds that these instruments made in their broken state.  Over 350 musicians from all over Philadelphia played this piece using the same instruments for two live performances.  The next day, three instrument repair companies came and took the instruments away, where they are now being fixed and will be retuned to the School District in the fall of 2018.
Another part of this project is the website, where each of the instruments had their own portrait, coupled with the sound it made in its broken state.  Individuals could “adopt” these instruments for a fee, insuring repairs could be made in perpetuity. We recognize the instruments will need repairs again, so the additional funds raised will go towards those future repairs.  To date, we have raised over $200,000 in addition to the original money raised for the project.
How and why did you end up starting/working for this organization? As the Assistant Director, I was excited to come to Temple Contemporary to be a part of the newly formed model that Rob Blackson was initiating for our programming
What kind of trends do you see in your area of work? I see many more projects that are looking for ways to work collaboratively with other creative disciplines as well as under-served communities
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years? I think we will continue to think creatively about questions that are relevant within our society.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why? Making connections, giving a view into a wider context, highlighting issues
How has technology influenced the way your organization works? Not a whole lot has changed.  We use social media about the same, but we are still most interested in human connections.
If we talk one year from now, reflecting on what a great year it’s been, what did you/the organization achieve? We successfully completed the first phase of the Symphony for a Broken Orchestra and are in the process of the second phase to fix/replace these instruments and return them back to the School District
Please click this link to access a list of recent media/press: http://symphonyforabrokenorchestra.org/press/