Advocacy and Policy

As ecosystems of networked organizations, cities provide the necessary scale, reach, and resources to bridge the gap between small experiments and big problems.

Nearly 95% of deforestation in the Amazon occurs within 3.5 miles of a road or near a river. Brazil’s plans to ramp up exports may be on a collision course with the forest.

White House economists warned this week that rising temperatures threaten infrastructure, insurance programs, and human health.

Children born today will bear the brunt of the burden of climate change despite having the least responsibility for causing it. Growing calls to position climate change as a child’s rights…

Communities across the globe are rethinking how we approach plastic use in our daily lives. Let’s face it: The mountains of plastic now polluting nearly every depth and corner of…

PodcastJanuary 18, 2023 Podcast: Does Integration Close Racial Disparities? In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Darrell Owens, a policy analyst at California Yimby, and a writer on Substack who focuses on housing, planning, displacement, mobility and other issues. He just authored a new piece called Segregation or… PodcastApril 20, 2022 Podcast: Cultures of Care ep. 2 | Naima Green and Rich Medina Welcome back to Cultures of Care, a special new miniseries from Who Belongs? hosted by Evan Bissell and Giovanna Fischer. This series celebrates people that practice collective care in unconventional and insurgent ways. In this episode, we speak with photographer Naima Green and DJ Rich Medina. PodcastApril 4, 2022 Podcast: Cultures of Care ep. 1 | Nicki Jizz and Kristina Wong We’re debuting Cultures of Care, a special new miniseries hosted by Evan Bissell and Giovanna Fischer that celebrates people who practice collective care in unconventional and insurgent ways. This episode, we speak with drag queen Nicki Jizz and comedian Kristina Wong. PodcastDecember 22, 2021 Podcast: Returning Citizens In this episode we speak with two of the founding members of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the President Desmond Meade and the Political Director Neil Volz. Together, Desmond and Neil have been working on restoring the rights of people… PodcastDecember 15, 2021 Podcast: Co-creating a future where everyone belongs In this episode we speak with Reverend Ben McBride. Ben McBride is a spiritual leader and longtime activist for peace and justice in the Bay Area. McBride serves as a national leader around reconstructing public safety systems and gun violence… PodcastDecember 8, 2021 Podcast: Co-Creating Public Spaces of Belonging In this episode we interview with Debbie Lacy. Debbie is the founder of Eastside for All, which serves communities outside of Seattle, WA including Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and Sammamish. Eastside for All has a mission to transform East… PodcastDecember 1, 2021 Podcast: Belong Circles In this episode we speak with Angel Mortel and Aleena Gonzalez. Angel is a lead organizer with LA Voice, which is a multi-racial and multi-faith community organization that awakens people to their own power and trains them to organize together. LA… PodcastNovember 24, 2021 Podcast: The Belong Movement In this episode we speak with Ashlin Malouf-Gashaw. Ashlin is the Chief Formation Officer at PICO California, the largest multi-racial faith-based community-organizing network in the state. PICO is leading The Belong Movement, which aims to address… PodcastNovember 17, 2021 Podcast: Belonging in Oakland In this episode we speak with Roberto Bedoya. Roberto is the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland in California. He developed the City’s Cultural Plan, titled, Belonging in Oakland. Throughout his career Roberto has consistently advocated… PodcastNovember 10, 2021 Podcast: On being seen and heard In this episode we speak with Tamia Dantzler & Dashley Concepcion. Tamia is an alum and Dashley is a current student at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. In a previous episode we spoke with Frances Lucerna, founding principal of El Puente… PodcastNovember 3, 2021 Podcast: Belonging in Schools In this episode we speak with Frances Lucerna. Frances is the founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice is a public school located in the Southside community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn… PodcastOctober 27, 2021 Podcast: Black and Native Folks in the Climate Justice Movement In this episode we interview two of the founding members of The Wind & The Warrior, Ife Afriye Kilimanjaro and Nana Korantema. In 2020, The Wind & The Warrior led a Sacred Waters Pilgrimage to connect Black and Native culture-bearers and advocacy… PodcastOctober 20, 2021 Podcast: Looking to Belong In this episode we interview Byb Bibene. Byb is a professional performer, choreographer, dance artist, director and dance educator originally from the Republic of Congo. Currently he lives in the Bay Area in California. Byb has participated in the… PodcastOctober 13, 2021 Podcast: Different Histories, Parallel Stories In this episode we hear from Gerald Lenoir and Nunu Kidane about their work on bridging African American and African immigrant communities through dialogues. Gerald is OBI’s identity and politics strategy analyst and was the founding executive… PodcastOctober 6, 2021 Podcast: Developing a shared vocabulary In this episode we interview UC Berkeley Professor and OBI Director john a. powell. john a. powell is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, democracy, and othering… PodcastMarch 5, 2021 Podcast: The economic case for a $15 minimum wage In this episode of Who Belongs? we look at the impacts of minimum wage increases with Michael Reich, a Professor of Economics and Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley. PodcastJuly 22, 2021 Podcast: How ICE uses tech to target immigrants In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Jacinta González, an organizer with Mijente, a non-profit which leads campaigns to educate and organize around issues concerning immigration, detentions and deportations. Podcast Podcast: Storming the Capitol and the dilemma of Trumpism In this episode of Who Belongs?, we hear from three thinkers and members of the OBI faculty — john a. powell, Ian Haney López, and Emnet Almedom — on the situation unfolding in the wake of the Washington D.C. riots. PodcastDecember 18, 2020 Podcast: The struggle against Islamophobia in France In this episode of Who Belongs?, we speak with two activists based in France — Yasser Louati and Houria Bouteldja — about the intensification of Islamophobia and state repression unfolding in the country following Samuel Paty’s gruesome murder. PodcastOctober 15, 2020 Podcast: ‘A kick in the stomach’. Ethnic studies advocates react to Newsom veto In this episode of Who Belongs?, we speak with Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center based in San Francisco, and Theresa Montaño, professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University… PodcastAugust 14, 2020 Podcast: Can social housing provide a solution to a looming mass eviction crisis? In this episode of Who Belongs?, we speak with Carroll Fife, an organizer, mother, and director of the Oakland office of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, also known as ACCE. Earlier this year, she was involved in coordinating… PodcastAugust 5, 2020 Podcast: Trump attacks fair housing: What does the end of AFFH spell for integration? Last week Trump announced he had eliminated an Obama-era fair housing rule put in place in 2015 to reverse patterns of residential segregation that have been in place for many decades. The move was widely seen as both an attack on integration and… PodcastJuly 28, 2020 Podcast: Settler colonialism, the insurrections of the 1960s, and today In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and author of more than 30 books. Professor Horne has written on a spectrum of issues and events including the… PodcastJuly 2, 2020 Podcast: Can we have a future without police? In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Erin Kerrison, an Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, to discuss her thoughts on transforming social structures and imagining futures beyond police following the murder of George Floyd. PodcastJune 22, 2020 Podcast: Why are people around the world knocking down old statues? In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Adam Hochschild, a prominent historian, journalist, and a best selling author who wrote King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, among many other books. He’s also a… PodcastMay 29, 2020 Podcast: “It’s not just murder. It’s terror.” john a. powell on George Floyd In this episode of Who Belongs? we’re bringing back john a. powell, our director at the O&B Institute, and professor of Law and African American studies at UC Berkeley, to talk about the ongoing events in Minneapolis following the police killing of… PodcastMay 8, 2020 Podcast: ‘Freedom v. Equality’: john a. powell on the clash over shelter-in-place and its roots in slavery In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from john a. powell, a professor of Law and African American studies at UC Berkeley. He’s also the director of the Othering & Belonging Institute. In the interview professor powell offers historical context for… PodcastApril 29, 2020 Podcast: Racism and COVID-19: The historical, political, and social foundations In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from a three-guest panel of Berkeley faculty who provide various perspectives on the different forms of racism we’ve been witnessing since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hear about the experiences of… PodcastApril 22, 2020 Podcast: How this Bay Area food bank is responding to a surge in demand In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Alex Boskovich, who is the Government Relations Officer at the Alameda County Community Food Bank based in Oakland, which collects and distributes food and other resources to about 300 partner… PodcastApril 14, 2020 Podcast: ICE raids, farmworkers, & the COVID-19 crisis In this episode of Who Belongs? we look at the reality facing undocumented immigrants and migrant farmworkers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hear from three researchers who discuss some of their recent and upcoming articles that look at… PodcastMarch 9, 2020 Podcast: Ian Haney López on Bernie Sanders & the Race-Class Message Click to download an MP3 of this interview.In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Ian Haney Lopez, a professor of law here at UC Berkeley, about his new book: Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America. The book… PodcastJanuary 24, 2020 Podcast: Surveying Black Women Voters in Nevada Download an MP3 of this interview.In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from two guests, Erika Washington and Quentin Savwoir from a civic engagement group in Nevada called Make it Work – Nevada. In the interview they discuss a recent survey they… PodcastDecember 18, 2019 Podcast: 400 Years of Resistance to Slavery Initiative at UC Berkeley Download an MP3 of this episode. In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from two guests about a year-long initiative at UC Berkeley marking the 400th anniversary of the start to slavery in North America. The initiative includes weekly events with… PodcastDecember 2, 2019 Podcast: Alicia Garza on Identity Politics and 2020 US Presidential Election Download an MP3 of this interview.In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from Alicia Garza, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement and the principal of the Black Futures Lab, which is an organization that engages Black voters year… PodcastNovember 13, 2019 Podcast: Mobilizing Hard-to-Count Populations for Census 2020 Download an MP3 of this interview. In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Michael Gomez Daly, the director of the Inland Empowerment coalition, and Sky Allen, who is the coalition’s census coordinator, about their efforts to mobilize people in… PodcastNovember 5, 2019 Podcast: Journalist Lawrence Lanahan on Crossing Baltimore’s Racial Divide Download an MP3 of this interview. In this episode of Who Belongs?, we hear from journalist and author Lawrence Lanahan, from Baltimore, about his new book called The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide. The… PodcastSeptember 19, 2019 Podcast: Voter Suppression in Georgia, with Robert Greenwald and Carol Anderson Download an MP3 of this interview. This episode of Who Belongs? is another installment of our Civic Engagement Narrative Change project series, with project researcher Josh Clark interviewing two guests: The first is Robert Greenwald, an award… PodcastJuly 29, 2019 Podcast: Artist Christine Wong Yap on her Places of Belonging Project In this episode of Who Belongs? host Sara Grossman interviews Christine Wong Yap, who became the Haas Institute’s first Artist in Residence in the fall of 2018, about her “Places of Belonging” project, which was recently featured in a KQED report. PodcastJune 17, 2019 Podcast: Prof. Agata Lisiak on Migration and Gentrification in Europe Download an MP3 of this interview here. In this episode of Who Belongs? Sara Grossman speaks with Agata Lisiak, a professor of migration studies at Bard College Berlin, about her work on Eastern European migration to the Western Europe, the… PodcastMay 10, 2019 Podcast: Engaging Asian Pacific Islanders, with Luisa Blue of the SEIU Download an MP3 of this interview here. In this episode of Who Belongs, we talk to Luisa Blue, who is the Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and an expert on Asian Pacific Islander civic engagement issues… PodcastMay 8, 2019 Podcast: Targeted Universalism, with john a. powell Download an MP3 of this episode here. In this episode we hear from john a. powell, who is our director, and a professor of law and African American Studies here at UC Berkeley. In the interview we discuss a brand new primer we’ve just published on… PodcastApril 29, 2019 Podcast: The Role of Family in Prisoner Reentry, with Prof. David Harding Download an MP3 of this episode here. In this episode of Who Belongs? we talk with Professor David Harding, UC Berkeley sociologist and member of the Haas Institute’s Economic Disparities faculty research cluster, about a new book he co-authored… PodcastApril 3, 2019 Podcast: The Stakes for the 2020 Census with Michael Omi and Stephen Menendian In this episode of Who Belongs? we discuss the topic of the US Census with Professor Michael Omi, who is an affiliated faculty member of our Institute, author of Racial Formation in the United States, and one of only a handful of experts on the US Census. PodcastMarch 5, 2019 Podcast: Abandonment in Detroit with Peter Hammer and Amina Kirk Download an MP3 of this episode here.In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Peter Hammer and Amina Kirk, who have been working in a variety of capacities for equitable development and racial justice in Detroit for many years.Peter is a… PodcastJanuary 30, 2019 Podcast: Desmond Meade on the Victory to Regain Voting Rights in Florida In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Desmond Meade, a prominent organizer and president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which led a successful campaign to repeal a Jim Crow-era law that had banned people with felony convictions from voting. PodcastDecember 18, 2018 Podcast: Hilary Hoynes on the Benefits and Limitations of Food Stamps (SNAP) Download an MP3 of this interview.In this episode of Who Belongs? Marc Abizeid talks to economist Hilary Hoynes about government assistance programs, including nutrition programs like SNAP, which is also known as food stamps, in addressing poverty… PodcastDecember 12, 2018 Podcast: Racial Justice Activism in Europe with Emilia Roig Download an MP3 of this interview.In this episode of Who Belongs?, Sara Grossman interviews Emilia Roig of the Center for Intersectional Justice (CIJ) in Berlin, Germany. Originally from France, Emilia is the founder and director of CIJ, a nonprofit… PodcastOctober 29, 2018 Podcast: Monitoring Corporate Agribusiness with Elsadig Elsheikh and Nadia Barhoum In this episode of Who Belongs? Elsadig Elsheikh and Nadia Barhoum discuss their new project that serves as a monitor to examine the power, influence and reach of agri-business corporations and their role in the global food crisis. PodcastOctober 9, 2018 Podcast: Nicole Montojo and Steve Barton on Rent Control Download an MP3 of this interview.In this episode of Who Belongs? we interview Nicole Montojo and Steve Barton, who recently co-authored a new research brief on the housing affordability crisis in California, called “Opening the Door for Rent Control… PodcastSeptember 26, 2018 Podcast: Gordon Whitman Breaks Down Community Organizing Download an MP3 of this interview.In this first episode of Who Belongs?, we talked to Gordon Whitman, who is the deputy director of Faith In Action, formerly known as PICO, which is a national network of faith-based organizations working to build…

Rather than offering wages attractive to adults, employers want lawmakers to push teens into some of the most dangerous jobs in the country.

More people in the US get cancer screening when employers are mandated to provide paid sick leave, research finds.

Landslides are one of Kentucky’s costliest natural disasters. Climate change is increasing their danger.

Though speaking out requires them to relive losing their wanted pregnancies, four plaintiffs told The 19th they’re doing it because they know they’re “not the only ones like this.”…

READ THE TRANSCRIPT This episode offers an incredible story – and perhaps a bold new model for increasing investments in America’s nonprofit workforce.You’ll learn how a group of nonprofits showed elected leaders the essential value of the nonprofit human services workforce, and broke through malaise…

Read the full article at: fundthepeople.org

For most things in life, from keeping a bug collection as a hobby to putting a satellite into orbit, taking off is the hardest part. The same happens even for…