EquityBlog

This commentary by Angela Glover Blackwell originally appeared in the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. Sign up for other commentaries from the Spotlight here.
At no time in recent American history did the intersection of race, place, poverty, and policy become more shamefully evident than during the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. The storm and the catastrophic [...]

Can suped-up bikes be part of the solution to the crisis facing boys of color? This video from the folks at “California is a Place” makes the case pretty persuasively:

 
According to the Scraper Bike King, in order to become a member of the Original Scraper Bike Team, you must:

Be a resident of Oakland, CA.
[...]

When I touched down in New Orleans in the early weeks after the levees failed, devastation and loss hung thick in the air. As PolicyLink has worked with our community partners over the past five years trying to forge an equitable recovery, we can still feel that sting against our faces many days.

“Stop calling it [...]

By Joe Brooks, Vice-President for Civic Engagement
The New York Times’ Bob Herbert wrote last week about “a tragic crisis of enormous magnitude facing black boys and men in America.”
The underpinnings of the crisis are clear and myriad —parental neglect, racial discrimination, rising drop –out rate, joblessness, unwed mothers, disproportionate incarceration,  black-on-black crime, and homicide as [...]

In today’s Sacramento Bee (the most influential paper in the California state capital), PolicyLink President Judith Bell laid out the case for passing AB 2720, the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Read a selection below and click here to read the full piece:
California is reeling from two seemingly unrelated crises – the economic downturn and [...]

A truly amazing and visionary op-ed in the New York Times today by Paul Tough, a former NYT Magazine reporter and author of “Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.”
From the piece:
Children who live in the 300-plus low-income neighborhoods that are pursuing Promise Neighborhoods support are, on the whole, stuck. Every [...]

Now THIS is a very cool new infrastructure idea…taking the bus off the ground!

Many thanks, Infrastructrist!

Statement on the Senate passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 by Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink CEO and advisory board chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity:
“Thanks to determined support in the Senate, millions of children are closer to getting healthier, more nutritious school meals – and getting [...]

Sometimes the idea of “policy” can sound dry and disconnected from the real lives of real people. This video of the Presidential signing ceremony of the Tribal Law and Order Act last week puts that idea to rest.
Lisa Maria Iyotte shares a difficult personal story at the beginning of this video that you should watch.

From [...]

Photo via Healthy Alberta

The key Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee today approved the Livable Communities Act – which would help millions of American families live in more affordable communities, with good public transportation and walkable, bikeable streets and sidewalks.
The bill includes resources to:

foster neighborhood revitalization and community economic development
provide access to quality jobs
improve [...]