Author Archives: Sarah Shugars

Social Entrepreneurship

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a discussion with three founders of social enterprises: Michael Brown of City Year, Abby Falik of Global Citizen Year, and Kirsten Lodal, LIFT.

Perhaps what was most striking was how these three entrepreneurs – at different stages of their life, managing organizations at different stages of growth – connected to each other and drew inspiration from each other.

Falik had talked to Brown when she was in business school and putting together the first pieces of the plan that became Global Citizen Year. Lodal’s path had been transformed by taking a bridge year – something Falik’s organization hopes will become the norm.

Brown had been working the longest of the bunch, having co-founded City Year with Alan Khazei in 1988.

All three spoke about their own path to service, as well as the transformation they hope to inspire within those who work with their organizations.

Brown had perhaps the most interesting metaphor – comparing what he called the “idealist’s journey” to Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey.” He spoke of idealism as a skill – as an ability to see the world differently and to think strategically about how to bring about that change.

He said we wants to institutionalize idealism.

Lodal spoke about the how critical broader public perception is – policy is important, she said, is actually downstream from culture.

Efforts to improve the world need to focus on perception, practice, and policy – changing the way the general public thinks about an issue as well as implementing policy to address that issue. The false concept of “welfare queens” has real damage to progress.

All three spoke about hitting a person’s “social justice nerve” through constant inspiration.

And perhaps most importantly, all three argued vehemently that an individual can be part of systems change – that each person must work in their own way to make the world better, and that slowly, bit by bit, those small changes lead to big changes. Important changes.

This work, they said, provides access to the miraculous.

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Life or Death

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Last week, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty on 30 counts related to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

The penalty phase of the trial begins today and may last for another four weeks. But the speculation has already begun: will Tsarnaev get the death penalty or life in jail?

To be honest, the death penalty seems unlikely.

I was surprised it was even an option since the State of Massachusetts found the practice unconstitutional in 1984.

Interesting, the reason given by the state supreme court at that time was that the death penalty “unfairly punishes defendants who choose to go to trial, since the death penalty could only be used after a guilty verdict at trial and not after a guilty plea.”

But, regardless of state policy, the Marathon bombing is a federal trial – making capital punishment an option.

In Boston, it’s not a popular option, though. A recent WBUR poll found that “only 31 percent of Boston area residents said they support the death penalty for Tsarnaev.”

Bill and Denise Richard, parents of the bombing’s youngest victim penned a compelling op-ed for the Boston Globe: “to end the anguish, drop the death penalty,” they wrote.

And they are not alone in speaking out in opposition to the death penalty. Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes, who both lost limbs in the blast, issued a joint statement on the topic, writing, “If there is anyone who deserves the ultimate punishment, it is the defendant. However, we must overcome the impulse for vengeance.”

So no, death is not popular.

And given that the jury needs to be unanimous in its call for the death penalty, that result seems unlikely.

But is that enough?

Should those of us who fancy ourselves New England liberals, who pride ourselves on our compassion and informed rationality – should we breath a sigh of relief if the Tsarnaev verdict comes back: LIFE IN PRISON.

Is that enough to calm our restless spirits? To convince ourselves that while Tsarnaev may be a monster, we are not monster enough to kill him.

Life in prison. A just sentence for a 21-year-old kid who killed four people and wounded dozens of others.

Or is it?

160,000 people are currently serving life sentences in the United States, including about 50,000 who have no possibility for parole.

The Other Death Penalty Project argues that “a sentence of life without the possibility of parole is a death sentence. Worse, it is a long, slow, dissipating death sentence without any of the legal or administrative safeguards rightly awarded to those condemned to the traditional forms of execution.”

The ACLU of Northern California states that “life in prison without the possibility of parole is swift, severe, and certain punishment.”

Mind you, that’s an argument for why life sentences should replace the death penalty. The death penalty is outdated – even barbaric by some standards. Life without the possibility of parole is cleaner, neater.

A death sentence comes with “years of mandatory appeals that often result in reversal” while life sentences “receive no special consideration on appeal, which limits the possibility they will be reduced or reversed.”

And best, yet, a life sentence allows us to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done: our judgement was harsh but humane.

Our prisoner will get no appeals while he lives in extreme isolation – cramped in a 7 x 9 cell and fed through a slot in the solid steel door.

But at least he will have his life. We are progressive after all.

There is something wrong with this dynamic.

I’m not sure what to recommend in the Tsarnaev trial – whether life or death is ultimately a worse fate.

But more broadly we need to rethink our options. We need to recognize the deep, systemic failures of our prison system and identify new strategies and options for reparation and justice. If we want to be harsh, we can be harsh, but let’s be honest about what we are and what we want from our punishments.

After all, if we’re quibbling over whether someone should die slowly or die quickly – we’re hardly arguing about anything at all.

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Tisch College Names Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg New Director of CIRCLE

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I am thrilled to share that my colleague Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg was recently named director of CIRCLE – Tisch College’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Kei is honestly one of the smartest people I know. With a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with Specialization in Children and Families, she brings a critical development perspective to the work.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with her for nearly seven years and in that time I have learned so much from her insights. She is a true leader and I’m so excited to see the next phase of CIRCLE’s life.

You can read the formal announcement of her appointment here.

 

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Celebrating Lisa Brukilacchio tonight at YUM

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Tonight, the fabulous Lisa Brukilacchio will be honored at The Welcome Project’s YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City celebration. Lisa is one of those people who “knows everybody,” as her range of work and passion for the community brings her into many people’s orbits. Tonight she will be recognized with the Suzanne Sankar Founder’s Award, which is given to an outstanding individual or group who has served as a leader in building the collective power of Somerville area immigrants.

From The Welcome Project‘s website:

For over 30 years, Somerville resident Lisa Brukilacchio has worked to support immigrant communities in Somerville. Currently the Director of the Somerville Health Agenda of the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), Lisa says her passion for working with immigrants grew out of another love: gardening.

“I had a community garden plot on Tufts property the first summer I lived in Somerville, the summer of 1979, where I first met a lot of “real” people who lived in Somerville,” Lisa said, “Early on, it was mostly Greek and Italian neighbors who would engage with me around growing. Later, when I became more involved in doing outreach for community gardens, I met a couple from El Salvador, who got involved in the team building the garden along the bike path. ”

Through gardening and youth development work, Lisa met Rose Boardman, then director of The Welcome Project.

“I started working with kids from the Mystic Learning Center, including immigrant families who had plots at Mystic and Rose Boardman had me come and do some planting projects.” This work eventually grew into working with Somerville Housing Authority on a landscape training/jobs program for residents.  Meanwhile, over near Union Square, the Community Growing Center started up in 1993, where Lisa helped connect  others across the city interested in supporting youth development and cultural activities to highlight the many populations making Somerville their home.

“As a volunteer working in the city, I got to meet lots of people. I landed here for school, but when I got engaged with the community, I had an opportunity to interact directly with various communities,” Lisa explained. “There were a lot of young people who thought their only way out was the military. As part of coordinating out of school programs, we would spend time with youth, opening their minds to potential options. Working to provide experiential learning opportunities for youth, I met  other community leaders like Franklin Dalembert of the Somerville Haitian Coalition and other members of the Somerville Community Partnerships.  We sought to enrich the role of those kids through literally building a stronger, healthier community together through the process of building the Growing Center!”

This work also connected her with many different Somerville populations, including Haitian, Salvadoran, Tibetan, and Indian.

“It was really the commonality of gardens, growing food, and cultural connections to the earth which brought us together,” Lisa added. “A big part of this work, the mission of the Growing Center, is to bring people together in a safe space to share our different cultural traditions. Community gardens have a unique capacity to do that through providing chances for meaningful activity, community engagement and cultural exchange around growing food.”

Lisa brings this focus on immigrant communities to her work in healthcare as well.

“When I first started working In the healthcare field, a large number of the families I worked with were immigrants. Many had come over from Italy, like my own grandmother, some were political refugees and some had grandparents who were slaves in the rural south. I learned a lot from them all,” Lisa said. Later after working for the City of Somerville and for Tufts University, Lisa returned to healthcare at Cambridge Health Alliance.

“CHA comes to health care from a population health and community perspective. I’ve found so many colleagues who are committed to addressing health disparities and an institution that has served vulnerable populations for a long time.”

Lisa added that understanding people’s cultural background is a critical piece of health work.

“We all have different perspectives on what we want our lives to be – how you enjoy life, where you find pride, purpose and meaning. It’s so basic, so integral to a person’s well-being,” Lisa said. “Health care is really about trying to bridge our cultural understandings of wellness.”

The Welcome Project is thrilled to recognize Lisa Brukilacchio with the Suzanne Sankar Founders Award at the 2015 YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City celebration.

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Recognizing Franklin Dalembert with the Intercultural City Award

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Tomorrow night at their YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City celebration, The Welcome Project will recognize local leader Franklin Dalembert with the Intercultural City Award. For over a decade Franklin was founding director of the Haitian Coalition of Somerville. As The Welcome Project celebrates its 25th anniversary, Franklin’s story highlights how the City has changed.

From The Welcome Project‘s website:

In 1991 there was one Haitian program in the city: Haiti Vision, a SCAT television show for which Franklin Dalembert served as a producer. Under his remarkable leadership, that show would eventually grow into the Haitian Coalition of Somerville, which incorporated as a non-profit in 1998 and remains a cornerstone of Somerville cultural organizations 17 years later.

“People would come on Haiti Vision and talk about the issues they were facing,” recalled Franklin, who served as founding director of the Haitian Coalition from 1998 until early in 2015. “Young people would come. Parents would come. As we heard all those issues, we started to invite the heads of organizations and city officials to respond and talk to those people.”

These on-air conversation between Haitian residents and city officials eventually led to the creation of the city’s first Haitian Taskforce, created under then Mayor Michael Capuano.

“The taskforce was formed to serve as a bridge between the city and the community,” Franklin explained. “We would meet regularly with Mayor Capuano and others to discuss the issues faced by the Haitian community. One day, Mayor Capuano suggested we should organize as a group – that we should create an advocacy organization and advocate on behalf of the Haitian community.”

That’s how the Haitian Coalition was born.

“Not only did we create that organization, we helped to create a lot of changes,” Franklin said. One of its first steps was calling for help from the Department of Justice.

“The Department of Justice investigated treatment of Haitians at the schools and how Haitians were treated by police. A set of agreements were signed between the Haitian Coalition, the City of Somerville and the Department of Justice.”

One of the recommendations from the DOJ, Franklin said, was to create a Human Rights Commission in Somerville. After the city passed an ordinance creating the commission, Yves-Rose SaintDic, a Haitian leader in the city, served as its first director.

The issues tackled by the Haitian Coalition have shifted over the years. In the early days, the organization primarily focused on building cultural sensitivity towards the Haitian community and making sure these residents access to resources.

“At that time people felt they were not welcome, that nobody understood them,” Franklin said. “There were no people who could speak their language or understood their culture. This created a tension and a lack of understanding. People felt that their voices hadn’t been heard.”
On top of that, immigrants face unique challenges as they acclimate to life in a new part of the world, and at the time there was no one to help them through the transition.

“When I moved to Somerville in 1990,” Franklin said, “I spent a weekend in November in an apartment without heat or electricity because I didn’t know I had to call the gas company. Sometimes people take it for granted that everyone knows that basic info, but we didn’t need heat in Haiti.”

Today, the Haitian Coalition organizes around issues of affordability and gentrification.
“Twenty-five years ago, the work was welcoming immigrants in Somerville. Now we have another challenge – to keep immigrants here,” Franklin said. “People are leaving, they can no longer afford housing costs in Somerville. We have to do something about that. If we lose the immigrant community, we are losing something very important. Immigrants play a vital role in Somerville.”

Throughout it’s history, the Haitian Coalition has partnered closely with The Welcome Project.

“The Welcome Project paved the way for the Haitian Coalition,” Franklin said. “We consider them a sister organization, because we share the same mission. The Welcome Project affects all the immigrant communities, provides a voice for the immigrant community.”

The Welcome Project is thrilled to recognize Franklin Dalembert with the Intercultural City Award at the 2015 YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City celebration.

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Waiting for White America

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There’s this great word that has surfaced in recent years: Columbusing.

As defined by Urban Dictionary, Columbusing is “when white people claim they have invented/discovered something that has been around for years, decades, even centuries.”

I’ve mostly heard the phrase applied to elements of cultural identity. White people have Columbused jazz, blues, Motown and rap.

White people have Columbused cornrows. twerking, The Harlem Shake, and even empanadas – I mean, hand pies. It seems there is no end to the list of items that have been Columbused.

And if cultural appropriation wasn’t enough, I’ve been reflecting on another element of Columbusing – outrage over injustice.

In reading Doug McAdam’s Freedom Summer, I’ve been struck by the extent to which the whole summer was orchestrated by SNCC not only as a wake up call to white America, but as a mechanism for giving white America a stake in the fight.

In more generous terms, one could argue that in any social movement a small group of people tries to bring their message to a large group of people. But let’s be real: in this case the “small group of people” was a large number of southern blacks who had been organizing for over a decade and the “large group of people” was an elite group of white northerners who considered themselves liberal.

When these elite, white students descended on Mississippi for the summer, they were shocked by the reality they found there. They were shocked by the physical abuse, the emotional harassment, and the downright disregard for the law. Their parents were shocked by the letters home. The media was shocked at the experience of these white kids.

After over a decade of black organizing, white Americans came to Mississippi and discovered our country had a race problem. They Columbused the hell out of that shit.

That was in 1964. The dawn of the civil rights movement.

Of course it dawned long before that, but for white America, 1964 was watershed.I find this particularly interesting now, given the social context we find ourselves in.

With black deaths nightly on the television, white America is again starting to realize there might be something to this discrimination issue.

I’ve seen so many articles about what white America should do, how to talk to white Americans about race, why white Americans shut down when issues are raised.

White Americans should be a part of the conversation, of course, just as all people should be part of the conversation. As someone who is white myself, it probably makes a lot of sense for me personally to talk to other white Americans, to help them join this conversation.

But – I just can’t shake the feeling that we’re a nation just waiting for the majority of white America to Columbus social justice. Because once white Americans Columbus social justice, then we can have a real conversation, then we can have real change.

And that’s kind of messed up.

White people need to lead the change because white people are the ones with the most power. But what we really need to do is to shift power structures – to change who has the right to voice a concern and who is listened to when they speak.

I don’t know how we do that. I don’t know how I do that – as a white girl who is almost certainly Columbusing this idea from somewhere. But let’s work on that.

Let’s bring everyone into the conversation, yes, let’s make everyone part of the change.

But let’s not wait for the majority of white Americans to discover we have a racial problem before we do anything about it.

The change should have come decades ago.

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YUM and 25 Years of The Welcome Project

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In just six days, The Welcome Project will host its annual YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City celebration. Tickets for this meaningful and delicious event are $35 in advance, $40 at the door, and easily available online.

This is a special year for The Welcome Project, as it is also celebrating 25 years of work in Somerville. I’ve only lived in Somerville for about half that time, but already the city has changed tremendously. The people have changed, the businesses have changed, the culture has shifted subtly but noticeably.

But a lot has stayed the same in Somerville as well. There are still people who’ve lived here for generations, and still people who have only recently immigrated to the United States. It’s a mishmash of people and cultures, but ultimately, entirely, a holistic community – though we all are different, we have a share sense of place and purpose.

For 25 years, The Welcome Project has enhanced this community. And it has done so in a very special way: its mission is to build the collective power of Somerville immigrants to participate in and shape community decisions.

That is to say, The Welcome Project isn’t just about welcoming immigrants to Somerville.  More deeply, it is about building a Somerville which intrinsically sees immigrants as whole and equal members of the community. A Somerville where systems of power and privilege provide equal voice and equal weight to all members of the community.

So I hope you’ll come out and support The Welcome Project, support the rich community we are fortunate to have here in Somerville. And I hope you’ll come out and eat some delicious food and meet some fantastic people.

Here is the full event description:

Sample the delicious tastes from participating immigrant-run Somerville restaurants at YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City. Meet friends new and old at a fun and satisfying benefit for The Welcome Project at Arts at the Armory on Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 7:00 pm. This year we’re also celebrating 25 years of The Welcome Project as a Somerville non-profit!

Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the door. Get your tickets now at: https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/xLr7yy6oFn7WX1QkOWlzrQ

Enjoy tastes from Ethiopia, Mexico, the Mediterranean, Italy, Nepal, Portugal and more.

The 2015 YUM event features:
Aguacate Verde – Mexican, Porter Square
Fasika Ethiopian Restaurant – Ethiopian, East Somerville
Gauchao – Brazilian, East Somerville
La Brasa – Fusion, East Somerville
Masala – Indian and Nepali, Teele Square
Maya Sol – Mexican, East Somerville
Neighborhood Restaurant & Bakery – Portuguese, Union Square
Rincon Mexicano – Mexican, East Somerville
Royal Bengal Restaurant – North Indian/Bengali, Gilman Square
Sabur Restaurant – Mediterranean, Teele Square
Sally O’Brien’s – Irish, Union Square
Tu y Yo Restaurant – Mexican, Powderhouse Square
Vinny’s @ Night – Italian, East Somerville

Intercultural City Award: Franklin Dalembert
Founder’s Award: Lisa Brukilacchio
Live music by Son Del Sol
Opportunity to win Red Sox tickets and other great prizes!

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The Dangers of Niche Media

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Yesterday, I attended Tufts’ annual Edward R. Murrow Form on Issues in Journalism. This year’s forum featured George Stephanopoulos, ABC News’ chief anchor and previous communications director for Bill Clinton’s 1991 presidential campaign.

Stephanopoulos touched on a range of issues, but primarily spoke about polarization – “not just in politics, but in life.”

He spoke about how news used to be “by appointment.” In Murrow’s day, everyone tuned into the evening news at night.

But now, like so many thing, our media habits have become polarized as well.

“Everything is mass and everything is niche,” he said. “When you have niche media, no one needs to go anywhere else for news.”

He pointed to the debate over President Obama’s birth certificate as proof of the challenges inherent in a high choice media system. After Obama’s birth certificate had been produced, some 50% of people who had voted in the republican primary still thought the President had not been born in America.

“It’s harder to get people to agree on basic facts when no one has their beliefs challenged,” Stephanopoulos observed.

Of course, these observations on the effects of media choice are nothing new.

Markus Prior, among others, has looked in great detail at the increasing proliferation of news sources. In Post-Broadcast Democracy, Prior discusses the idea of “byproduct learning” – learning that occurs by being exposed to messages through the daily process of living.

For example, in Murrow’s day, not only did everyone watch the same newscast, when they went to the movies they were exposed to “newsreels,” short news films shown before the main feature.

As media becomes more efficient, offering greater choice and more niche markets, we decrease the existence of byproduct learning. This runs the risk of people only seeking out the news sources which reinforce their view.

There’s a great deal of debate on this topic, of course – since having more media choice has also led to more information and perspectives available than ever before.

But in the meantime, as Stephanopoulos says, “the Republican Primary will take place on FOX News.”

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Walter Scott

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I watched a man die this morning.

Over and over again, on repeat.

Over and over again, Walter Scott fled down the lush, green path. It looked like a fine place to go for a jog on a nice summer day. Over and over again, Scott was shot in the back by Charleston police officer Michael Slager. Eight times.

Over and over again, Scott fell to the ground.

They showed the video 8 times in 5 minutes on the morning news. Over and over.

I was surprised. I don’t like to watch men die.

Well, not real people, anyway. I’m not too squeamish about fictional death. I’m glad Game of Thrones finally stepped it’s game in Season 4. After reading the books, I was frankly a little disappointed by the initial lack of bloodshed.

But I don’t need to watch a real person die.

They showed the video twice as part of the opening credits. No warning that it might be disturbing or graphic.

Almost nonchalantly, they showed a man die.

I want to believe they repetitively aired the video hoping the shock of it would lead to positive change.

Maybe there are some people still clinging to the idea that we’re in a post-racial society. Who haven’t been convinced by the tragedies of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and too many brown bodies left bleeding in our streets.

Maybe the shock of this video – Walter Scott dying over and over and over again – maybe that will wake them up.

But I kept thinking – would the news act the same way if it was someone else being shot?

Would they show a white woman being shot in the back and over and over again? With no warning that it might be disturbing?

I’m not sure they would.

No, this video they were treating a little too much like entertainment. As if another black body isn’t much to get disturbed about.

As if we were watching a fictional man die.

Of course, the fact there there is video footage has been of remarkable importance to this case.

Slager initially reported that he had shot Scott in self-defense, fearing for his life because the man had taken his stun gun.

The video, taken by a bystander, seems to be the only reason the officer was eventually charged with murder.

People keep asking, what would the story have been if there hadn’t been video? What would the outcome have been if there hadn’t been video?

They ask, but of course, we all know.

In a battle between the word of a cop and the word of a dead man, the cop always wins.

Because dead men tell no tales and a dead witness is a silent witness and black men keep dying over and over and over.

On repeat.

As if we were watching fictional men die.

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