Small businesses were hit hard this year, and those owned by people of color particularly so. Sometimes, though, just a little bit of financial help can keep a business going.
When the world faced a pandemic, community-based leaders were able to step in quickly and efficiently. The Aspen Global Leadership Network has been nurturing classes of fellows for years, and in this trying year, they were supported by a pledge of $1 million from the John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation—resulting in direct and monumental impact.
The point of international exchange, one would think, is to have participants visit new cultures, and broaden their horizons by crossing horizons. But in a time of global quarantine, it has become clear that the most important exchange is one of ideas. The Stevens Initiative provides training, mentorship, and resources to young leaders around the world, and they didn’t let a little thing like a pandemic slow them down.
Child support payments, like many things we do as a society, are often ineffective and aligned with the wrong goals. When the pandemic hit and brought with it job loss and family isolation, the various programs were revealed as irretrievably broken. The Institute’s Ascend program is pushing for policies that place the consistent support of children first—and finds that many states are already enacting policies that promote financial and family health.
On a final note, here’s an essay in USA Today from Fred Riley, executive director of Weave: The Social Fabric Project, who believes that there’s still hope that America will become a better place. He looks back to earlier times of tumult and asks where people found strength—the answer is in each other. “This is a holy time, a sacred time, for our country,” he writes. “With so many societal issues laid bare, each of us is called to reexamine our roles, our beliefs, our values and, most important, our actions.” And then, we will rise together.
