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The personal is political. These past two years have made that abundantly clear. NCG’s Leadership, Culture, and Community team also knows that the professional is often deeply personal.
2024 promises to be a momentous year for democracy—locally, nationally, and globally. Over 4 billion people are living in countries with major elections this year. In the United States, we will also face familiar but obstinate challenges, including the dearth of local news and youth disaffection with voting and institutions. We will also face challenges that are new in this digital era, namely disinformation turbocharged by generative AI that has enormous power to deceive voters, undermine trust, and destabilize our information ecosystems.
My partner and I recently engaged in the annual ritual that is paying U.S. income tax. Gather your documents, fill in the forms, look for deductions that never seem to be there, watch what you really make become clear…as we approached the finish line, I wondered – how can I reframe the act of paying taxes? Then I harkened to a recent moment where paying a tax had a completely different feel, one that not only felt necessary but made a small yet substantive step toward advancing racial equity. I refer of course to NCG’s participation in paying our region’s Indigenous land and honor taxes. We began that commitment as an organization in 2022 and trust me, it’s been both vital and fulfilling.
California is on course to have one of the most inclusive state-wide data systems in the nation. The Cradle- to-Career Data System, signed into legislation in 2019, will bring together data from across the early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and workforce sectors to provide policymakers, advocates, and communities with actionable data to address disparities and improve outcomes for all students throughout the state. One of the most unique aspects of the system is that it is being built with the intentional focus of putting data in the hands of the people to get them the information they need to help students succeed.
The Bay Area Housing for All regional bond will unlock $20 billion dollars to build and preserve more than 72,000 deeply affordable homes across 9 Bay Area counties, meeting the urgency and scale of our housing crisis. This historic opportunity has been years in the making and along with the proposed state level constitutional amendment to lower the threshold for approval of housing bonds, has the potential to make a significant impact both regionally and statewide. How can philanthropy think big and take action to ensure everyone in the Bay Area has a home in a safe and vibrant community?
Our nonprofit leaders are tasked with solving our most critical issues – meeting the needs of communities, driving social justice solutions, and leading the advocacy and movement work to transform systems. We must prioritize the wellbeing of our nonprofit workforce if we want to succeed in advancing our social justice and racial equity agenda. Our dedicated, passionate nonprofit workforce needs adequate rest and repair to sustain themselves, and continue their work for the long term.
The COVID-19 vaccine will help keep communities healthy and safe and holds promise to bring an end to the pandemic that has had the most severe impacts on Black, Latinx, Indigenous, AAPI, immigrant, and low-income people. Systemic racism created the conditions that put people of color at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and experiencing more severe health outcomes, and despite this urgency, California’s vaccination effort so far has fallen short of equity goals. We must reach and authentically engage local communities to remove barriers to access and address concerns to increase vaccine acceptance.