Non Profit NewsPod: Stepping Into Full Power Town Hall Meeting

00:08 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Vince Sales, ceo of Everyday Impact Consulting, and Kim Williams, executive Director of Building Healthy Communities. Welcome to this nonprofit podcast network news pod. 

00:19 - Vince Sales (Guest)
Well, thank you for having us, Jeff. I really appreciate your invitation to join you to talk about issues that are important to our region. 

00:28 - Jeff Holden (Host)
You're going to be hosting a town hall for nonprofit leadership to join together to discuss mobilizing a response to federal executive orders. If you could give us an overview of what one can expect from this meeting, I think it'd be helpful for people to understand what it's really going to be about. Vince. 

00:45 - Vince Sales (Guest)
I can start and maybe Kim can join in, so I'll just begin by saying that we have been hearing from many of our partners, starting when the new administration started in January, late January and February, that they were beginning to see communication from the federal government about cutting programs, specifically those that are what is perceived to be diversity, equity, inclusion related, some community engagement projects, and that trend in terms of federal policy and changes seem to escalate and impact more and more nonprofits in our region, such that not only were cuts being seen in terms of federal agencies that deal with transportation or energy, but, along the line, also seeing cuts from the CDC Office of Minority Health, samhsa, that does a lot of mental health, substance abuse prevention and other projects that deal with digital outreach. So this trend seems to increasingly impact our nonprofits and the communities that they serve. Right, and capping that off with more cuts that we have heard from AmeriCorps, which you know has deep and profound impacts on our young people that serve as volunteers and in the communities and schools where they participate. So we thought you know what is the response when these cuts are deep and profound and how can we support our community, our leaders who provide these services during this time, when it's a moment of crisis and urgency, right. And we thought let's start with a conversation and identify where these gaps are, where these cuts are, and think about also uplifting our nonprofits because they've risen to the challenge right. 

02:44
Obviously, we can't do this on our own. It has to be a multi-sectoral approach. So the conversation starts with how our nonprofit leaders, our community leaders, are rising to the challenge, what kind of pivots they've made, but also you know who else can be part of the solution right made, but also you know who else can be part of the solution right. So we've also invited our philanthropic partners and our elected leaders to be part of this conversation, and I'll invite Kim to also jump in. 

03:16 - Kim Williams (Guest)
Thank you. Thank you, vince, hi Jeff, just to add a little bit more context in. We're in unprecedented times. When we were hit with COVID five years ago, you really saw, especially in the nonprofit world, really step up and do what needed to be done in communities. And now this is happening and we were seeing, you know, funding coming into our communities from the federal government to support work that needed to happen during COVID. And now you're seeing funding get cut left and right and so the health of a community that is struggling now and not struggling because of anything other than decisions that are being made at the federal level. 

03:56
And I think that we as a community, we as the nonprofit community, have to come together to figure out how we weather this storm, how we regroup, how we network together to figure out what needs to be done, because our community members still need the help, still need support, still need the work, and the work that we do is so vital to our families and our children. 

04:22
And they've cut things like violence prevention, money getting cut, and if you cut those dollars, who's going to be out there boots on the ground doing the work with our young people in our communities? 

04:33
You know, cutting medical access and health care and all the things that are vital to, you know, success, housing, programs, equity and diversity and all the things that we've been really really working hard the last 20 years to like make some strides and we were finally starting to maybe even see the light at the end of the tunnel there, and then this happens, and so this town hall is really about bringing folks together to have the conversations, hearing what folks are doing as Vince said to continue doing the work, how people are pivoting, and then, hopefully, this is an opportunity too for folks to make connections with each other. 

05:11
We know philanthropy doesn't have the answer right now, today, but we want them to hear from the folks that are doing the work what's happening so that, as decisions and conversations are being made, that they can make decisions based on what the true need is, because they've actually heard from the people who are actually doing the work in community. So I think this is a good opportunity to open up this door to the conversation around how we are going to work together to continue providing much needed services to our communities and how do we build up organizations so we don't lose other nonprofits and services that are so key and vital. 

05:47 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Especially with the momentum that we've got leading into it. Now we have to make that proverbial pivot and change. And to be clear, this is an open forum. It's open attendance, there's no charge to participate, correct? 

06:00 - Kim Williams (Guest)
Nope, everyone's welcome. 

06:01
There's a registration, there's a link and you can register so we know who all is coming. 

06:05
But no, our plan is to hear from people and then we're actually going to take some time to have small group conversations, so really talk about solutions in small groups, called table talks. 

06:14
So we really want to give people the opportunity to share their thoughts, give ideas around solutions. We know that, you know, some folks may come in and, while we recognize the need to vent and, to you know, really share those things, we also want to make sure we walk away with, you know, ideas in place so that we have some next steps that we want to move on, and so that it's just not everybody kind of. We want it to be a space where people can be free and be open to share their thoughts and feelings. But we also want to make sure that we don't leave without making sure we've heard solutions, because that's what we need now, or we need solutions and we need programs to be put in place and response to be put in place to help our organizations continue to move forward. And so we want to make sure we walk away with a sense that we at least have a path forward and we're going to be moving in a positive direction. 

07:07 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And even identify some of the issues that we may not even know exist right now, with the organizations just reeling from what is happening to better understand what this means for them going forward. 

07:16 - Vince Sales (Guest)
That's right. That's right, jeff, and I think that some initial work has been done and conducted by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, and I think this community town hall will provide another opportunity to hear directly the voices of community leaders and community organizers in terms of what they're seeing on the ground right. So it just adds a richness in the conversation about what's happening in our communities. 

07:46 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And you're hosting this in conjunction with a couple of other organizations as well, if I'm not mistaken, vince. Who are they? What's their role in the discussion? 

07:54 - Vince Sales (Guest)
Yeah, so you know, obviously everyday impact consulting is helping to facilitate the conversation, but we also have building healthy communities, which is an organization that's led by Kim and that, collaborative or collective, has several organizations underneath it, and I'll ask him to also chime in for that. The other organization that we're working with is Mutual Assistance Network, and they're a longtime organization based in Del Paso Heights. The areas that they serve are in Arcade, so we've also been in communication and touch with Danielle Lawrence, who's the executive director of Mutual Assistance Network. I'll ask Kim to chime in a little bit more for Building Healthy Communities. 

08:37 - Kim Williams (Guest)
Yeah, so Building Healthy Communities. 

08:39
We're a collective of organizations that work together. 

08:42
We also work with Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, which is another collaborative group focusing on our work really started around dealing with displacement issues that happen when large development comes into communities, and so how do we put benefits agreements in place to make sure that communities, residents are protected and can also benefit from the large developments that are happening? 

09:04
So we've worked with power builders. We have different organizing groups that are part of that, housing groups, groups that are working on health access. We have Black Child Legacy partners that are working with us, and so one of the key pieces of our work is really trying to build collaborative networks with other organizations, because we understand that, which is the amount of work that needs to go into our communities is huge and vast, and so it takes multiple organizations to do the work, and we know that when we come together, we're much stronger than we are when we try to do things on our own. So we're excited about being able to participate and then getting our partners to participate as well. We're having these conversations already in other spaces, and so this is an opportunity to bring everybody together. 

09:49 - Jeff Holden (Host)
It's such a key word there. Collaborative, yes, and the more we can connect, the more we can collaborate, the more we're going to know about each other and what the situations are that we're all dealing with. Who should attend this? Who do you see as primary focus for attendance? 

10:04 - Vince Sales (Guest)
I'll start. Go ahead, Kim. 

10:06 - Kim Williams (Guest)
Definitely community-based organizations that are being impacted by the cuts that are happening. We definitely want them there, some that may not be cut but yet they see what's happening and they maybe want to support and have something to offer as far as solutions. We want, you know, elected officials that can come to hear about what's happening out in the communities, both city and county. We think it's important to those resources that may come down from the county level or the city level. They may be able to help fill in some of the gaps that are happening. So we want them to hear. 

10:38
Philanthropy, definitely. We know that there's, you know there's issues that philanthropy is going through. So us understanding that, but also philanthropy understanding what these organizations are dealing with. So as they think about solutions, they can think about them from the perspective of these are the things that we need to solve now, where the gaps are, where the need is most prevalent right now, like what's being hit the hardest. Need is most prevalent right now, like what's being hit the hardest. I think it's just going to be important. It is open for everyone who is being impacted and who wants to come in and look at ways to create solutions and opportunities to keep the work moving forward. 

11:13 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Vince, did you have something to add to that? 

11:15 - Vince Sales (Guest)
The only thing that I would add there is that we have panelists that we've invited. For example, michael Casper is going to be there for Improve your Tomorrow, and they're a youth-serving organization that really tries to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly for African-American youth, latinx and also Southeast Asian youth, right. So they're one organization that's been heavily impacted. We also have invited David Heitzman from the Sacramento LGBT Community Center. As we know, there's been a lot of legislation aimed at LGBT communities, particularly our trans community, so they're also going to be part of our panel. Danielle Lawrence, who I mentioned earlier. Rachel Rios from La Familia, because, as we know, our Latinx community is heavily impacted by what's happening in terms of federal cuts, but also immigration, deportations and ICE roundups. You know they're escalating and you know they're impacted as well and hit on multiple fronts, right. Not just federal cuts, but also providing service to our immigrant communities. So those are some of the communities that are hoping to hear from and they've been asked to participate as panelists and they will be attending. 

12:32 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Well, it's definitely a powerful panel cross-spectrum of the community. What are the expected takeaways? What do you anticipate people will walk away with having attended? 

12:41 - Vince Sales (Guest)
Well, as Kim mentioned, you know people will walk away with having attended. 

12:48
Well, as Kim mentioned, you know, we are also creating a space, hopefully, that people can feel like they can, you know, not only explore some of the solutions right. 

12:54
So, creating a space where people can freely discuss some of the impacts that are happening into them personally, the organizations and the communities that they serve and also, you know, come up with solutions, whether it's collective action around advocacy or even other resources that may be available for philanthropy, some legal resources, in case you know, some of these organizations might be contemplating any type of legal or advocacy to push back on some of these cuts, you know. 

13:26
So those are, you know, some kind of solutions that could be short-term, mid-term or long-term right, Because we can't just address, kind of like, the what's in front of us but also anticipating, as Kim was mentioning, anticipating some of the cuts that might be happening or some of the actions, the federal policies that are coming down and impact our communities right with the passage of the bill, the new bill, what are the implications, for example, around Medi-Cal, medicaid right, that we need to be anticipating so that our communities are ready, whether it's advocacy that we need to do legal services that we need to provide. What are those kind of solutions that we can create and co-create together? 

14:11 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And I'm imagining by now people are wondering OK, I'm interested, this sounds like something I'd like to participate in and attend. Where and when? Specifics on it and how do they register? 

14:24 - Vince Sales (Guest)
It's happening July 15. On Tuesday, A few days from now it's from 10 am to 12 pm at the Fruit Ridge Collaborative and we have the registration link. Maybe we can send it to you, Jeff. 

14:38 - Jeff Holden (Host)
I actually do have it, Vince. I'll stick it in the episode notes. 

14:41 - Vince Sales (Guest)
Perfect, that's the information that I can share with you at this point. Kim, do you have any other information besides what I've shared? 

14:50 - Kim Williams (Guest)
That will be at the Fruits Community Collaborative in the large auditorium. So yeah, all are welcome. 

14:58 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And again, I'll have all that stuff in the episode notes, so the links will all be there for anybody to just go ahead and grab it. Vince Kim, thank you for the efforts to get this most important discussion convened and started, as it gives us insight into what our nonprofit organizations are thinking and possible steps they can take collectively for the greater good in the community, stepping into full power, how Sacramento leaders are mobilizing in response to federal executive orders. And it's Tuesday, july 15th at the Fruit Ridge Community Collaborative. Thank you both for taking the time to share what's happening and for putting this together, this most necessary conversation. 

15:41 - Vince Sales (Guest)
Well, I appreciate your time, Jeff, for providing the platform for us to further amplify some of the organizing that's happening in our region, which is really important at this very urgent time that we're in. Yes, we appreciate it, thank you. 

15:56 - Kim Williams (Guest)
Thank you.