During this episode of Why Change? co-hosts Ashraf and Jeff discuss Ashraf’s journey learning from funders of color. Ashraf shares his most recent conversation with Angelique Power from the Skillman Foundation in Detroit and their discussion about shepherding youth power, the COVID-19 pandemic, and necessary changes in philanthropy. Jeff and Ashraf debrief and draw connections among many disruptive and powerful ideas.
In this episode you’ll learn:
About how funding can empower Gen Z;
The role of education and philanthropy in supporting neighborhood investments in a city; and
How we can navigate our roles to support the next generation of leaders and activists.
Check out some of the things mentioned during this podcast, including:
The Skillman Foundation’s President’s Youth Council
An Analytic Review of the 10-Year Good Neighborhoods Initiative
ABOUT ANGELIQUE POWER:
Angelique Power is the President & CEO of the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation, a private independent foundation that puts all its resources toward brilliant Detroit youth—their justice, their power, and their promise. With assets over $600 million, The Skillman Foundation provides approximately $24 million in grants annually. Beyond dollars, the secret sauce of The Skillman Foundation is its focus on youth power, understanding that in the primarily young, primarily Black and Brown city of Detroit—must be the designers of their own destiny whose vision leads us to the liberatory future we all deserve.
Prior to The Skillman Foundation, Power was President of the Chicago-based Field Foundation. During her tenure, she designed a journey with staff, board, and nonprofit partners to center racial justice, changing how it funds and who it funds, created accountability structures for community to review its work, rethought metrics, created heatmaps that illustrate the design of inequity within Chicago, and updated its investment policy.
Power co-founded Enrich Chicago, dedicated to anti-racism organizing, and helped to found Just Action, a collaborative of 200+ organizations and individuals focused on helping institutions activate their 2020 racial equity statements. Power chairs the board of 6018North, and is on Mayor Duggan’s Workforce Development Board. Angelique has a BA from University of Michigan and both an MFA and an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
This episode was produced by Ashraf Hashm; the executive producer is Jeff M. Poulin. The artwork is by Bridget Woodbury. The audio is edited by Katie Rainey. This podcasts’ theme music is by Distant Cousins. For more information on this episode and Creative Generation please visit the episode’s webpage and follow us on social media @Campaign4GenC.
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Jeff M. Poulin 00:00
This is Why Change? the podcast for Creative Generation. We are your hosts. I'm Jeff. Hola, soy Karla. It's Rachel here. What's good, y'all. I'm Ashraf. And I'm Madeline y Chang is a podcast that brings listeners around the globe to learn how arts, culture and creativity, especially as applied by young people, can change the world, one community at a time. You're invited each week to learn and laugh while exploring the question. Why change? Alright, let's get started. Welcome to this episode of The Why change podcast, Jeff here with my co host, Ashraf Hasham. Ashraf, how are you doing? Here? We are. It's November after Election Day. How are you holding up? Oh, I'm doing great. I think Election Day was successful. We got our ballots in a couple of days before putting them in a little box.
Ashraf Hasham 00:51
And now I am calling in from Chicago where I just happened to be for a few days. I'm going to hang out with other co hosts. Karla, later on this weekend, she was on the cover of the Chicago Reader yo, it was so crazy to see her face when I first got here.
Jeff M. Poulin 01:06
I love that. Well, I had the pleasure of hanging out here in my hometown in Washington DC, which is such a privilege to be able to do, especially because I feel like the last couple of recordings I have been on the road in other places. So it's nice to be home. And it's nice to share time with Karla and share time with you here live on the podcast. So tell me you had another I think your final conversation in your series talking to disruptive philanthropists. So who to talk to this time?
Ashraf Hasham 01:36
Yes. So today we're going to be talking about a conversation with Angelica power of the Skillman foundation in Detroit, Michigan, USA and formerly of the field Foundation in Chicago here where I am now. It was an awesome supernatural conversation. I think we got through a ton of follow up questions, a lot of just bits and dives and, and slides into different sub stories within stories. It was just a perfect conversation to capture, I think on on voting day of all days.
Jeff M. Poulin 02:11
Well, that is something that we'll certainly need to discuss because I'm very curious how everything you talked about in this interview connects to what actually happened in real life post voting day. So why don't we take a listen and we'll come back on the flip side.
Ashraf Hasham 02:28
Hello, hello, y change listeners welcome Angelique power to the podcast.
Angelique Power 02:34
Hi, I'm so excited to be here.
Ashraf Hasham 02:37
Yay. I'm thrilled to introduce you to our listeners. Angela, I'm gonna do a little bio and then we can get into it. Angelica is the president and CEO of the Skillman foundation in Detroit, Michigan, USA which invests in the brilliance and power of Detroit youth. The Skillman Foundation supports efforts to strengthen Detroit's educational system, advance racial justice and promote Youth Power. And we're going to talk about that quite a bit in the conversation to follow. I've known about Angelica since about 2017 or so when I spent some time in Chicago, where she was president of the field Foundation, and making waves in the sector with an initiative called enrich Chicago, which is dedicated to anti racist organizing in the nonprofit sector. I learned about it in the arts and culture field where I think there was a lot of momentum. During her tenure at the field Foundation. She designed the journey with staff board and nonprofit partners through central racial justice, changing how it funds and who it funds and created accountability structures for the community to review the work of the Foundation, rethought the metrics, created heat maps, and updated its investment policy. Under Angelica leadership, the field foundation doubled the size of its giving and its programming and added new streams of funding for individuals and for profit media organizations, which I know in Chicago, there's quite a bit of that work happening. So thank you for that work. But Angelique, tell us about you and yourself how you got to where you are today. And the role of arts education and your come up.
Angelique Power 04:02
Yeah, well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be in conversation with you. And part of the Why change podcast. Arts education has been a part of my upbringing. I grew up on the south side of Chicago. I grew up in Hyde Park well first in Brownsville, which is a cultural Mecca inside of Chicago and then in Hyde Park. From the time that I can remember, I was involved in music and dance and whether that was you know, jazz played in our living rooms, whether that was learning the flute and piano being in plays. You know, I have to stop telling this story. But I remember cutting school and the museums were free in Chicago at that time. And so I remember in high school like cutting a class and going to the Museum of Science and Industry or Institute and you know that so the arts have always been sort of a part of the background of how I made sense of the world, how I escaped from things. And also just how I expressed it and how my family expressed it ourselves.
Ashraf Hasham 05:21
Incredible. Tell us more about that. Yeah. Specifically, I'm like modeling that for the young people that you work with. Now. I'm sure they'd love hearing about that.
Angelique Power 05:32
Yeah, let's edit. Let's add a cue click.
Ashraf Hasham 05:35
Speaking of you, when you came to Skillman, when you got to Detroit in 2020, you created a youth council or maybe there was a youth council existing, but maybe in a different form. Tell us about Yeah,
05:47
yeah. So I am coming to you from the beautiful and sparkling black and brown city of Detroit, Michigan. And we'll talk a little bit about why I came here from another beautiful city of Chicago. But Detroit is a majority black and brown city. And it's also a young city. The median age here is 34. And so one of the things that attracted me was when I started, I knew Skillman has been working with young people for over 60 years, and that there was a president's Youth Council that had been established that was really you know, this was during the pandemic, it was 2021. They were zooming in, maybe quarterly, I think they had met twice. And we're being asked their opinions on things like, what do young people think? And what do young people need, they were the very first meeting that I had before I started at scum. And I was like, get me to this youth council. And probably 10 minutes into the conversation, I was like, oh, hold up. This is Gen Z, which I'm happy to talk more about. They don't want to just talk. You know, like, they have big ideas. They are entrepreneurial, they are intersectional and how they view problems and solutions. And they are champing at the bit actually to be able to not have a seat at the table, not have a piece of the pie, but you know, have market share in the bakery and start directing operations. And so that was something that I realized pretty quickly, we absolutely needed in order to know how to do my job, I actually needed them to guide me.
Ashraf Hasham 07:38
Wow, to be part of the solutions that your foundation works within sounds like the perfect role for young people in the foundation dedicated to young people. Tell us more about Skillman and how it got to be how young people were part of how young people thrive in Detroit.
07:55
Sure, and I know that you've been having conversations with different types of foundations. And so private independent foundations are often started by high net worth individuals. And, you know, you can argue about why foundations are started. But there was a woman named Rose Skillman, and her husband made a lot of his money through three M, based in the Twin Cities, they moved to Detroit, and they never had children. And they actually love children and young people. And so after her husband died, Rose spent a good portion of her time dedicating her resources and her time to young people and to animals. Actually, that was a big part of it, too. And so I think the biggest gift that an individual who decides to give their entire estate away, the biggest gift that they can give, in addition to the money is an open sort of interpretation of how that money is used. And so it is both very specific that they want. Rose wanted the money to go to young people. And it's also broad enough so that it can continually be made relevant by whomever is running the foundation. And so, throughout Skillman history, there has been a focus on Detroit, young people. And sometimes that's manifested in what was called the good neighborhood initiative. So there was 10 years Skillman committed $100 million over the course of 10 years, to six neighborhoods inside of Detroit. And what's important to realize for those who don't know Detroit or who haven't been here, Detroit is in some ways, I kind of clastic in how it operates. And in other ways, it is very much the story of many industrial cities that were raised and we're boom town's around a specific industry. And so at the time that the Skillman foundation really started to focus on neighborhoods was a time when other entities that could give out capital were not focused on neighborhoods. And so going deep and being a funder that was going to be embedded in different neighborhoods, and really work with community based organizations, to try to create thriving family centric neighborhoods was a pretty bold move of skillful men. One of the things that Skillman realized was that education is this passport. And that, you know, if people wherever they live, have access to incredible educators who have autonomy, to teach all the ideas, and are supported by great principles and have wonderful infrastructure. And then young people can come and really, through completing schooling can then choose a future that they want for themselves. And understanding that when industry fell in Detroit, that people moved that their property tax dollars moved with them, that schools were this incredible link of how to unlock equity for a lot of young families and young people. And so a big focus on education started to happen. And a move from just you know, the neighborhood focus to a specific focus on school started to happen, it's going to arrive in 2021. And, you know, the pandemic going on the racial justice summer of 2020 was for some an awakening, for others a combination. And I think that every institution worth its salt was looking at all of its practices and policies and saying, like, we have to do better. And I think so many of us became adjunct faculty in our children's education. And we started to realize like, Oh, this is hard, teachers are doing it so much. And they're recreating a classroom lifetime. How do we, you know, allow this pandemic to not only make us be real about racial equity, but also allow us to reinvent the systems that are failing black and brown people are failing black and brown young people. And so that is the moment that awaited me at Skillman.
Ashraf Hasham 12:41
Wow. And you had done some work. I know, in the early COVID days to get folks kind of together to look at their assets to look at what was available to them to see who was being funded where, again, the word heat map comes back up to me. Tell me more about that, and how that led to your workout. That's Tillman. Yeah. So
12:59
When I started actually in the field, we went through a process of rethinking our work with a racial equity lens. And you have to remember, this was 2016. And so, you know, using terms like racial equity, felt like you were you just brought a grenade to a chess match, you know,
Ashraf Hasham 13:19
totally, totally Yes.
13:21
And so it was really important that we were able to translate the need for racial equity to a wide variety of people that may be new to those words and those concepts. The heat map was a way that we could do that visually. So the heat maps that are still on the field Foundation website. What they did was they looked at areas of the city, which are primarily black and brown areas of the city in Chicago, that's the south and west sides. And we drew a red line around that study area, and then clocked things like quality of life. So we looked at things like what are the educational outcomes? Inside of that study area, there was like a 32% proficiency rate for reading, I believe, was the marker compared to a 67% proficiency rate outside of the study area. And then we looked at, well, where did the schools close? And 82% of the schools that were closed were inside of the study area. We looked at things like access to health insurance, you know, food deserts, we started to put those things together and then we layered fields funding on top of it, how much of our dollars are we investing inside of the study area? And at that time, we found it was like 22% of our dollars. So the premise was: As anyone who thinks that by happenstance communities are struggling, are actually not aware of how exquisite the design of racism is, and they're not aware of our own complicity in upholding that exquisite design. And it was a visual to tell that story.
Ashraf Hasham 15:25
And so as it was coming out, then, yeah, what happened? I know that this was a quick move. I mean, early days of COVID felt like a long, long, long, long, long time. Yeah, as that was happening, you were making this adjustment to go to Skillman, tell me about how that felt.
15:43
I just want to thread the needle on the heat map, because after the early days of COVID, the heat maps came back. And what I was able to do was link arms with at that point, 20 other foundations who were aware of field heatmaps, and we wanted to update them. So we started working together to share our own private data. And we brought in academic institutions and researchers and nonprofits. And we could update the heat map to show not only the inequities that were happening, but we then layered on some things like how much investment was going into incarceration in those same areas. We shared private data from all foundations that shared how much of our own investments had gone into those areas in the five years previous to COVID. And then we had a slide that was like, since COVID, began, here's how much money has actually shifted to go in this area, to show that COVID actually allowed many foundations to operate differently, to remove these little laborious applications and restrictions, to think with a racialized lens of where our funds going. And so we were able to create this piece, which is like, hey, we know how to do it, hold us accountable for it. And we layered in the Cares Act, where it was going SBA loans, where it was going and things like that. So the concept was to take the heatmap exercise and make it an interactive piece that any municipality could use to work across sectors to make sure that investment is always seen with a racialized lens, and that is long term.
Ashraf Hasham 17:35
Wow. Oh, my mind is blown. Because I work at a municipality at the city of Seattle's office of arts and culture. And I know we were we were doing a ton of what seemed like innovative work. I mean, systems like municipalities, even foundations, like you were part of aren't meant to work that fast. And yet, to your point, we were able to shift crises allowing us to see what's truly possible when we take away the urgency of the design that is not there to benefit us. All right, like you said, wasn't designed to to allow us to continue to flounder perhaps in our own making.
18:11
That's right. And so we have to understand the assignment now. We're not supposed to solve for COVID Yes. COVID is just the match that lights a tinderbox. It's always there. And so actually, the assignment now as we head into, like inflation and not you know, systems still remain inequitable, we have to keep that same urgency and ability to be flexible that happened during COVID. Yeah, you're gonna say something?
Ashraf Hasham 18:42
Well, I was gonna bring it back to Skillman now that you're over there, and I'm sure that like I said that that transition must have been a big one. This amazing type of work. You were also hoping to figure out how to get it to remain the way that it was over at the field as you were moving to Skillman Tell me about that.
19:05
So um, you know, I'm in Detroit, and I always say like, I'm a Chicago and in Detroit. I don't try to front like I'm a Detroit or Detroiters will not let me front like I'm a Detroit or anyway, no, they won't. But through and through, I'm like, Southside Chicago when I loved the work that I was doing at the field Foundation, loved the people that I was working with, and the Chicago community, it runs in my blood. So no one was more surprised than I was to fall in love with this opportunity. And a lot of it had to do with the pandemic that changed all of us realistically. But, you know, I remember working on the COVID mapping project and being in my home and zooming all day and and something you know, I think it's because we all paused enough to just see this time when a black man was, you know, lynched by a police officer and that somebody filmed on an iPhone, this latest lynching. I watched people pre vaccine like race from their homes around the world and create these uprisings. I wasn't out there. I wasn't in the streets. I was watching. I had, you know, my kid, that I was trying to help, you know, get through school, I was zooming, I was figuring out how to move bail money to folks. But I had been studying Gen Z and millennials for a while because there is a different approach to civil rights under Gen Z and under millennials, you know, the things that you're well aware of the focus on collectivism, on coops on sharing power in terms of like, you won't often see a hierarchical structure. It isn't a cult of personality, it is like a movement. There is an economic awareness where people are thinking about how we look at who makes money off of inequity, and try to tackle the economic systems in place. So I was already noticing this. And then I saw that these are the greatest, largest uprisings in the history of our country. We're being led by black and brown young people. And what they were calling for wasn't just police reform, or defund police or abolition, it was indigenous rights. It was climate justice. It was education, justice, it was this intersectional understanding of issues. And in many ways, I was feeling helpless and hopeless at that time. And suddenly, I was like, Oh, I have to spend the rest of my days, moving everything out of their way. Like, this is how we're going to get somewhere new. I have a place where my revolution is not in the streets anymore. It is in the suites these days. And I know who I need to follow. And I know what expertise looks like and what vision looks like. And so when I was having conversations and conversations started in 2020, everyone was looking for a black woman who understood racial equity. And so I was having a lot of conversations with different places, and also had a different idea of what my time on the planet is about. What success means. For me, success means feeling like I can cook dinner and be around my family, and that I can be in nature and in beautiful places, and also make meaning of the time that I have on this planet and let young people lead me somewhere new. So that is what brought me to Skillman. Wow, what
Ashraf Hasham 23:05
a beautiful story. And the way that you describe Gen Z so resonates with me and I'm sure resonates with this community who listens to this podcast because, boy, the intersectional way that they look at the world and and the fact that they know that their future is unwritten, so much so that because they know that the world is changing so hard the jobs that they'll have in the future, the way they'll stitch together an income, it does not exist yet. And to have that freedom. I think it is freedom and it's less of a freedom than a burden, in my opinion. But the young people you talk to probably know more than I do, right? Are they excited by this moment? Or do they see the burden more than they see the freedom?
23:47
We did a study in Detroit, where we talked to young people, we talked to them in the heart of the pandemic. And it was really to try to gauge hope, your sense of hope and their sense of agency. And overwhelmingly, young people black and brown Gen Z, young people felt a tremendous amount of power and hope and agency in their future and it wasn't tied to grades. It wasn't tied to how it wasn't tied to the pandemic. You know, when I talk about Gen Z, I talk about them being born between 97 and 2012 being between 10 and 25 years old. And how one in one in five identifies as LGBTQ i A plus one in three knows someone who's non binary 48% Are folks of color. And more than that what you were saying they are like the integrity generation they're not going to even spend their Money in a place that doesn't, like uphold the values that they know are correct. And they are the largest growing economic power in our country. So I do think that their sense of agency is unlocked from how systems have failed them. You know, this is also a generation that has seen school shootings, have seen school shootings around schools that never get reported on, that have lived through COVID that have seen this like, bifurcated, you know, country and have seen political uprisings, racial uprisings. And I think that their hope, and their determination isn't in spite of those things. I think it's because of them.
Ashraf Hasham 25:50
Wow. Oh, boy, that gets me super excited about getting back in front of some young people and talking to them about these things. I know that I was talking to some educators recently at Arts Schools Network Conference in, in Las Vegas, and they're dealing with a ton of things right now that are very specific to their home areas, South Carolina, you had to get permission to change pronouns get permission from parents, to even call your students what they want to be called. Right. And these are the restrictions that many many folks have in front of them. Of course, Florida, they can't say gay legislation can't even talk about young people's identities in this way. Detroit, I know, is different from all of those places. How is the city showing up for its young people?
26:44
Yeah, I mean, I was just thinking about that. Because, you know, there's a lot of there's today's election day. Yes. So, um, you know, we'll tax tomorrow to, to say, How is Detroit showing up for, for young people, for black and brown people? In the country in general, I think we'll know better. But what I'll say is that there's a school board election that's happening right now, there are four seats that are open. And there's a fantastic organization here that are organizers and education, justice organizers, and many of them are young people, it's called for it to forward. And they held with young people leading they held a candidate forum so that people could understand. And there are folks who have been on the school board who were not amenable to passing things like for the LGBTQ student population, and, you know, they have to explain themselves. There's our dollars that have come in, that have been, you know, determined to be spent in one way or another. I think it's a Solomonic decision. I don't think there's like one clear way to go forward, btw. But young people are asking people, you know, asking school board members to explain their decisions. And so, in many ways, I think the city of Detroit is unique. And I said, I was kind of clastic earlier in that, you know, the city in like 2013, was actually almost lost, and was facing bankruptcy. And the schools were under emergency management. And it was, you know, anyone who has visited Detroit, every time you visit Detroit, you see a city that is in the midst of rapid change, and in some ways in a fight to retain its soul in the midst of rapid change. But there is a visceral memory here of almost losing a city, there's a visceral memory of what happens when garbage trucks don't come or you call the fire department, and you have to wait. And so it's kind of all hands on deck. There's a saying here, Detroit vs. Everybody. And what that means is like Detroit versus the nonbelievers, because the people who are here, they're not down with political theater, they're done to create a city that is equitable, that works for everyone. So it's really actually an electric place to be right now. And so many young people are leading the change here.
Ashraf Hasham 29:29
Wow, action oriented, like you said, that sounds like the city itself. And the young people in the city have the same goal. It almost seems like the city is a young city in that way. Since it's been growing since you've been around it and certainly have been around it longer than you've been in it. Right. You have a little bit of history in Michigan as well.
29:51
I do. I do. I mean, you know, my mother. My parents were both passed, but my mother was a Chicago public school teacher and my father was a Chicago police officer and I'm the youngest of six. And so actually, yes, I do have a long history with Michigan. My mother was a school teacher and my father was a police officer. She had her summers off, and he was furloughed every August. So when I was pretty young, they bought a small cottage in Western Michigan. And we would go there all the time, we'd spend summers there. And every weekend there, that was what vacation meant to us. And so, you know, we grew a lot of our own vegetables, we had blueberry bushes and, and so and actually, my sister Elise and I both went to University of Michigan, when it was time to go to college. And, then through my work I like different foundations. And I actually worked in Detroit a lot since the 90s. So I visited Detroit in the late 90s, in the late 80s, in the mid 2000s, and have spent a good amount of time visiting these different Detroit's throughout time. And I'm so grateful. So in some ways, there's a nostalgia here, in terms of even just the leaves changing and what it feels like to be in Michigan.
Ashraf Hasham 31:31
Well, that's so great, I'm sure. And it sounds like you're sought after during the post post George Floyd and post racial justice reckoning. I'm so glad that you ended up back in Detroit. We just had a guest on this podcast and Jonathan Cunningham, who had his who grew up in Detroit and cited Grace Lee Boggs as one of his one of the people who he learned from a real true teacher and he talked about gardening, and how that became a real act of activism, but also an act of creative expression to and an active of joyful, joyful rebellion against the systems that were out there trying to crush them. So thank you for telling us that story that had to do with gardening. And being in Detroit, when all of that, all of the sort of foundations in which you're walking now, were laid?
32:18
That's beautiful. Yeah. Tell Jonathan to come home to Detroit.
Ashraf Hasham 32:22
Yes, I gotta get y'all connected. You know, Jonathan works for the Community Foundation of Seattle Foundation. And you work for Skillman, you mentioned that it's a private foundation. Anything else you want to say about the differences between those foundation types?
32:35
Yeah, I mean, I would love to know more about your conversation, because Community Foundation's, you know, they are, in many ways, many entities in one, having the donor advised funds, having their own grant making that they do, and they also are able to work with lobbyists and to work actively on policy changes in a way that private foundations cannot. So I'm just always really curious about, you know, there's a tension there in terms of like, who's money and who's directing it. But there's a freedom there, because so much there is no neutrality really in foundations. And so, a lot of what you know, we have been talking about at Skillman, we've gone through like a really big year of listening and doing a community embedded strategic plan. And so a lot of what we're asking ourselves about is like, what do we talk about when systems change? Just like racial equity systems change? These are words that are overused and misunderstood. And so what does an equitable education system change mean? What does it look like? What is the role of the public sector in systems change in policy? What's the role of organizers and advocacy and systems change? Those are a lot of the questions that we're having internally.
Ashraf Hasham 34:05
I'm glad you mentioned that, because one thing that's also said a lot is operationalizing racial equity. And this is work that you have done, I think, the more most authentically than that, that I've ever heard about it, ever, in terms of what you've done in Chicago, that you've talked about earlier in this podcast, and then now that you're doing in Detroit, and it's certainly listening, it's one big, big, big part of operationalizing racial equity. Tell me about this community embedded strategic plan and how you are operationalizing racial equity within the foundation you work with. And particularly, I'd love to learn about what you have learned and what you want to share with folks who are working on this actively right now.
34:46
Yeah, thank you for asking that. You know, I always think of the work of racial equity and operationalizing it as this sort of daily act of how I have an awareness that the systems that if left unattended, have the same results which contribute to inequity and are racialized. So it kind of starts with understanding that and that the work is never done. You know, I always say like, I don't know if racial equity in philanthropy is an oxymoron or not. On it, actually, you know, can you share power? And can you shift resources, if you're always sort of an elite group of people who are not most proximate to the work and the issues that are making decisions on behalf of others? Like, I don't know. But, you know, shorthand, racial equity is showing receipts, that's kind of it, you gotta, you know, your racial justice is, is making sure that you recognize power in communities that are leading their own revolutions and movements toward change. And so for philanthropy, it's funding movements, in, you know, marginalized communities where they are the leaders of everything, and they are working on a longer schedule, because that is how change works. And that's working. Yes, racial equity is really about examining current systems, and looking closely at your own. So the philanthropic system, looking how money moves, who makes decisions, and what sort of transparency and accountability is around those pieces. So conducting a racial equity audit is a really simple, easy way to look at how you spend every penny. And so one of the things that we did when I started was, first of all, like, study our terms. So as a larger community, with our trustees, and with our staff, we brought in Laurie Villarosa, who many of you may know, who runs pre philanthropy and racial equity. And she talked with our trustees, and we really looked at like, what is the difference between racial equity and racial justice? And how do you make that real, we conducted a racial equity audit, we looked at the last three years where every penny has gone from our grant making to our operations to our endowment. And that's like where the action is. And we are actually releasing our racial equity audit, we're releasing it, probably by the time this podcast comes out, it won't be released. So skillman.org, you can see this tool and read about it. And we're releasing it not because it's like a good news story. And it's a press conference racial equity in a press conference. We are not , it's not a statement you make, it's not a press conference, it is we're releasing it because we have work to do. And there is little accountability in philanthropy, but there are tools that we can offer that the community can use to hold us accountable. And racial racial equity audit is one of those tools. And so we will come back and report annually on where we are with these things and decisions that are being made and what it looks like. So that's a piece of it. That's one piece. It's also a culture. It's how decisions are made internally, who's who serves on your board. By early December, we'll have some exciting new announcements we'll be making about our board and our committees. It's what are the roles and who makes decisions internally, we have some exciting new staff structure that we're rolling out in the New Year as well, so you find it's how you find it's how you recognize their power and expertise in designing what the grants look like. So, you know, I can get going on all of this. But that, I think, is our jobs, that if we are committed to this mission, if we are not underpinning everything with racial equity, then we're working against ourselves.
Ashraf Hasham 39:19
Oh, that's beautiful. And that what I love about this, too, is that one sophisticated piece of racial equity work is not, like you said, showing the receipts, but really, it's it's coming back to your community and letting them know what you've done with the information that you've gathered with them from the listening sessions that you've done from the community embeddedness that you were, you have been part of, to go back and continue going back and letting them know that this is what we've done with the amazing words that you've given us the feedback that you've given us, how can we model it better? That takes such a courageous and brave leader to do so. And so I just want to Thank you for being in that space of vulnerability. I mean, that's something that, that I'm certainly taking away from today, is that, that role of the leader in making this happen?
Angelique Power 40:12
Thank you for that. That means a lot to me.
Ashraf Hasham 40:15
I know we're close to the end of our time today. And we got through a number of things we talked about you and how you got to where you are, the role of arts education in your work, the youth council at Skillman Gen Z at large. I'm excited to hear the comments from our listeners about that. And then of course, operationalizing racial equity. We're going to do a little lightning round. How does that sound?
Angelique Power 40:37
That sounds awesome.
Ashraf Hasham 40:39
All right, let's go. So question number one who inspires you?
40:43
I'm gonna say young people Generation Z, they really that's just the honest truth.
Ashraf Hasham 40:49
Oh, yeah. And what keeps you motivated?
40:53
The flip side, and if you could see, like, where I'm gesturing, it's a wall of ancestors. My ancestors, they keep me motivated, and they keep me focused and clear.
Ashraf Hasham 41:07
Where are you most at home?
41:10
Um, you know, I, I don't know . I talked about my parents as a teacher and a police officer. I don't think I mentioned that my mother was white and Jewish, and my father was black. And being black and Jewish was one of those things that I think defines me in terms of being a part of communities and apart from communities at the same time, I'm most at home everywhere. Like, I'm comfortable being uncomfortable, uncomfortable, like being the one that's different, you know, in any space. And so it doesn't matter. Like with whom or where I am, I'm comfortable in my skin.
Ashraf Hasham 41:51
Beautiful. How do you stay focused?
Angelique Power 41:55
I don't know if I'm always focused, you know?
Ashraf Hasham 41:58
Yes. Like it is.
42:02
I'm present, I try to stay present in the moment.
Ashraf Hasham 42:07
And finally, why change.
42:10
Because the status quo is a slide into inequity. It hasn't been working for many of us, and we have a limited time that we're alive on this planet. And bringing our full selves in this exact moment is what's going to change the next 100 years. So, you know, that's why we have to do what we're meant to do while we're alive.
Ashraf Hasham 42:31
Excellent. Well, thank you so so, so much, Angelique. It's been so great to have you. I'm excited to have you back in a little while telling us how these things have been going. That you've been putting up in Detroit and how the community is accepting them or pushing back or doing what Detroit does. So, thank you so, so, so much.
42:50
Oh, you're awesome and incredible. And this has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you.
Ashraf Hasham 42:55
Looking forward to it. And we'll get everything that we talked about in our show notes, including links and all those things. Alright. Thanks again.
Jeff M. Poulin 43:05
And we're back. Okay, Ashraf, I, I have no words. First, I have so much respect for Angelique. And the work that she does the human that she is. I'm just so glad that she is on the Why change podcast and that you got the chance to talk to her and that I got the chance to listen to the brilliance in that conversation. I took so many notes. I don't even know where to start. Um, maybe let's start with Election Day, and Gen Z, and all of that. What are your thoughts about what you all talked about? And what actually happened?
Ashraf Hasham 43:44
Yeah, so, boy, there was a ton of research that Angelique has made possible and she, of course, keeps herself near young people all the time. But this President's Youth Council for 50 years has been around. That's wild to learn about. Boy, I love how much he was like, if you wanna talk about Gen Z, let's talk about Gen Z. Because it's like the only non Gen Z person to actually know anything about Gen Z, it feels like yeah, gosh, I mean, so much. I mean, I think you should just probably go because you took more notes than I did.
Jeff M. Poulin 44:20
Sure. I absolutely do. I'm happy to do that. You know, I think it's amazing because this is a foundation that unabashedly supports the voice of young people. Their mission statement says the words Youth Power, which I just love that so much, and it's such a simple act, but such a bold move like institutions like big foundations don't do that. Right. And I think that goes back to their very roots in saying that young people really are the solution, right? You have the founder, you know, is one of the founders of three M that, you know, their family ended up donating their whole estate to the young people of Detroit and Michigan, you know, and the impact that they're having is so tremendous. And what's so cool, especially here we are a few days after the US election day, where Gen Z, you know, turned out. I mean, we saw our first Gen Z. person elected to Congress, who's a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, we saw remarkable numbers of Gen Z at the polls, voting on ballot initiatives winning down ballot voting for governors and the House and Senate, you know, and this foundation is putting their money, they're betting all of their money on Youth Power and supporting those voices. And I think the moment for that investment to have maximum impact is right now, and I just, I get so excited, because I cannot wait to see what is going to happen with these investments from this foundation through the work of the young people of Detroit. I just want to see what goes on. It's amazing.
Ashraf Hasham 46:04
Yeah, and the only bummer is that we have to wait 10, maybe 15 years until it really becomes obvious, you know, what the investments would be? Right?
Jeff M. Poulin 46:14
That is true. And I suppose I will wait. But you know, in the interim, I think it's really interesting, because there's a couple of tactics that you all talked about that I'm curious about, especially for you as a grantmaker. yourself. What you think I mean, one of the things that stuck stuck out to me was this idea that this generosity, that the work that that Angelique has done both at the field foundation and other Skillman Foundation, how they how they just embed that in their practice, right, like they're not hiding data, they're not keeping things to themselves. They're really just like open sourcing everything to help elevate the whole field and its impact. What is your response to that? I guess, in that, that sector,
Ashraf Hasham 47:03
I love it. I love it, especially how Angelique shows up. This is how she is an activist. She wasn't as she said, in the streets, she was in the suites. And she was out there making sure that the young people calling for systems change, indigenous rights, climate change, and justice, justice for climate change, I should say intersectional understandings of the world in general that Gen Z and alphas and all the others have that are going to be our leaders in the future. She was fighting for them up in those spaces where she had power. And that's a theme across all of these conversations of the philanthropy disruptors that I was privileged to be able to talk to. And then like you said, tactical stuff to write heat maps, and how Angelique was able to start that process in Chicago in a very localized field, foundation space, and then scale it up. And like you said, just generously share open source, this type of work and how to do it, this is how you can do it. And that's really what I want to make sure we people walk away with with these conversations is that this new generation of philanthropists, just like the new generation of Congress folks, shout out to Maxwell, Alejandro Frost is going to be one that demonstrates collective power is the only way to go. We all want the same results. Clearly there's no use in keeping it to ourselves, we have to share and sharing is, is one language of love, I think, for our whole our whole beings our whole humanity.
Jeff M. Poulin 48:36
Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think one of the things that's embedded in that sharing is an and and that generosity, I guess, that you're describing, like, is this notion of really understanding what our contributions can be from where we are in our journeys, right? You know, in previous episodes, we've talked about this concept of eldership. And that, you know, the definition that that I subscribe to, of eldership is one that came from, you know, this study we did in 2020, that will attribute to this was an anonymous person, so I'm figuring out how to say this, but I will attribute it to an indigenous leader, an Aboriginal leader from Australia that leads a dance company. And in this conversation, she said that eldership was being open to the multiple possibilities of truth. You know, that is to say that, that elders in our community have a responsibility to pass down the wisdom that they've gained over their lives, but to recognize that that is highly contextual to the circumstances and the time period that they were in and so there are truths that can be learned from that. But one of the roles of eldership is supporting the next generation and incense making of that and navigating their own path. And I think that's really Angelica just embodying everything about that. And I love it because it walks the walk and talks the talk. You know, beyond just I don't know the giving of money but true, like authentic collaboration intergenerationally and cross sectionally in the community, and that's what's obviously leading to the outcomes that they seek to achieve in their work. And, you know, it's working.
Ashraf Hasham 50:16
Yeah, I can tell that they share an understanding of all the folks we're talking about sharing understanding that, like Angelique said, power, and the systems if left unattended, will have the same inequitable results, once you call it an elegant design or something. Like,
Jeff M. Poulin 50:35
I want to say like an elegant disaster, no, I think it was, it was along those lines, for sure. Because it is really the pervasiveness of, you know, racism, and ageism, and the patriarchy and things like that in our system. You have to, like get it out by the root.
Ashraf Hasham 50:52
Totally. And that's so So, so tough to do, it takes a huge amount of self awareness, and then an important quality of looking, like being able to look in the mirror publicly, right? Like, that's a lot to take on, that takes a lot of courage without a leader like Angelique, modeling that for the field, I just get so glad to say that I'm glad that she's here doing it, you know, to model it.
Jeff M. Poulin 51:23
100%. And I think it's an example that we can all learn from and live by. And I think, knowing her too, she's so humble, that she's probably cringed that we're spending so much time talking about her. And, you know, and how much we adore the work. But I think it's really important. And it's such a great conversation, I think, for you to end this journey by talking to us. Well, I guess I'll take that back. You're not ending the journey of talking to disruptive philanthropists. But I think as a little series on the podcast, you know, it's a wonderful sort of APEX in this conversation, because there's just so much great work that's happening. But I think, unfortunately, these dominant narratives about how philanthropy occurs and the strategies of how we actually do philanthropy aren't up to date with the practices that have been shared here. And there's so much more work to do to, you know, flip the table, if you will, on the system. So in a way, I sort of view this as a challenge and to think about what we do next, in order to end the perpetuating problems that continue to take hold within our philanthropic sector?
Ashraf Hasham 52:40
Yeah, well, with Darren Eastham and Celeste Smith, Jonathan Cunningham and Angelica power, I definitely know that the future is in good hands. And I know that they are making sure that young people have everything they need to be the change makers that we know they are and clearly are showing up as right as mentioned with the conversation around the voting and the midterm elections here in the USA. To be on time to be alive.
Jeff M. Poulin 53:09
It is well, Ashraf, thanks so much for sharing that conversation with us. And we'll see you next time, everybody. Peace. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of why change the podcast for a Creative Generation. All sources discussed in today's episode are located in the show notes. Be sure to tune in next week to see what else is happening around the world. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Also, be sure to write to us at Creative dash generation.org. We would love to hear your ideas, the topics you want to learn about and why change matters to you. Our show is produced and edited by Daniel Stanley. Our music is by distant cousins. A special thanks to our contributors, co hosts and the team at Creative Generation for their support. Hey y'all, Jeff here. I want to tell you about a conference happening this coming February. It's the one I'm most excited to attend in 2023. The annual beyond school hours conference. The beyond school hours National Education Conference will be held February 9 through 1220 23 in Orlando, Florida. Foundations Inc. The conference host is celebrating 26 years of supporting education professionals from across the nation, ensuring we help all children thrive in school and in life. This conference brings together thought leaders from across the country to collaborate for a greater impact. I can't wait to meet the amazing speakers like Sonia Manzano aka Maria from Sesame Street, and the foundation's 2023 champion of children, the award winning journalist Soledad O'Brien The three and a half days of professional learning provides attendees like you and me with the much needed tools and resources they need and order to provide support for young people in their communities Learn more at beyond school hours.org Again that's beyond school hours.org See you there