speaker-0: We are the roots, we are the right, hearts on fire, truth in eyes. From these blocks we build the towers, people, passions. This is Places People Change, a podcast that explores what happens when neighborhoods stop being the target of change and start being the source of it. From these lives we build it. Fico paixão. Welcome to Season One, where we explore belonging as the foundation for equitable neighborhood change. This season we will talk to researchers and thought leaders who are shaping the field of place-based development and to the practitioners on the ground making it possible. I am Sean Duncan, the founder of Congruence Consulting, and your host for Places People Change. We often hear it acknowledged how important it is to prioritize the neighborhood's voice, to understand what the people say they really want. And to do things with a neighborhood, not for them. Whether from major systems or local organizations, it's common to hear that we need to put residents at the center of the work. What is less common is to see the investment of the resources and strategy necessary to do it well. What is even more rare is seeing that investment follow a timeline that honors the pace that the neighborhood wants to follow. Today's story is an exception to that. We are going to hear from two leaders, one within a large healthcare system and one from a small nonprofit, about how they are partnering together to keep neighbors at the center of neighborhood-based change. Today's guests are friends of myself and one of our producers, David Park. We have had the joy of walking with and learning from these amazing leaders for over five years, and we are so thrilled to share their wisdom and work with you today. Dr. Samantha Schock is the executive director of the Leonard Parker Poole Institute for Health. A nonprofit subsidiary of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, which is a part of Jefferson Health. The Pool Institute's work is about improving the health outcomes of the Lehigh Valley through outside-the-hospital interventions. They have chosen place-based cross-sector partnerships as their way of making that possible. Darien Colbert is the executive director of Cohesion Network. Darien and his wife Yolanda founded Cohesion as a way to support students in under-resourced schools. Though their work with local schools continues to be a success, Darien and Yolanda have also become the driving force for neighborhood engagement and organizing efforts that are creating neighborhood level belonging and shared action. Darien and Sam are working together in the neighborhood of Franklin Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. As a note for the listeners, you're gonna hear a lot of names of both people and organizations that are mentioned in this conversation. Some of those names will be explained and some will not. The deep partnership orientation of these two leaders means they are surrounded by dozens and dozens of neighbors and colleagues at every step, and it's impossible for them to talk about their work without reference to all the people that make it possible. Listen in to this incredible story of change happening at the pace of trust. I wanna start with this question. So this podcast is a lot about the way people are changing their places. So I actually wanna start with how has a place changed you? Like it can be a current place that you live or a place that you lived when you're really little, but like tell me about a place that shaped you.

speaker-1: So I'll I'll go first because I I I I I know my friend Sam, so I can be critical. I want to just say the first and six war neighborhoods really transformed me in in so many different ways. But what I will say it was just deeply relational in our neighborhood. ⁓ growing up ⁓ in late 70s and early and all throughout the eighties, and I would just say we had Syrian culture, black culture, Hispanic culture, we had Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans represented in our neighborhood, we had Russians, we had Haitians. ⁓ and so it was a powerful neighborhood to grow up in. ⁓ and I experienced that culture through food, dancing, and everything else. And so it really transformed me and helped me just appreciate diversity, ⁓ appreciate people's culture. And I have grown not only to respect it but love other cultures and how they interact, especially in neighborhood, right? And so ⁓ this first and sixth ward, man, wow. I could talk about food. I I mean I can name food with different cultures 'cause I'm a foodie. So yeah. ⁓ and so yeah, I just think ⁓ and and it was safe. I mean, ⁓ even when I felt unsafe, I I remember I felt I was I was coming across the Union Boulevard Bridge and I was running because I felt unsafe. And as soon as I got to Front Street, I took a deep breath and said, ⁓ my home. And that's the sixth ward, and that's the first sixth ward. And you just I don't know. I also felt very safe in my neighborhood. So

speaker-0: ⁓ Having been to some of your community meetings, ⁓ I can feel your neighborhood ⁓ in the way that you lead those community meetings. Like everything you just described, I was like, that that just feels like the vibe of a Darien led community meeting, just just right there. Sam, how about you? What's a what's a place that shaped you?

speaker-2: I mean, I think every place you live shapes you in some way. So it's hard to pick just one. I grew up on Long Island outside of New York City, so much more, you know, urban area. ⁓ very, very busy and just density, right? ⁓ and then was in DC and then up in a rural area in Connecticut and now in the Lehigh Valley. So each one of them has shaped me in a different way. But I think the Lehigh Valley has taught me to really learn what's around you in a new community when you move to it and how do you really become part of a community. ⁓ and understand what people are doing in the different neighborhoods or, you know, what activities are going on. Leeh Valley just has so many good festivals, restaurants, things to go out and do. And so I think here I really learned how to become part of a new community in a way I probably didn't in any of the other places I've lived.

speaker-0: Yeah, something you guys say a lot in Allentown is about ⁓ trying to invite people to move from being residents to neighbors. And that sounds like the journey you're describing is like, ⁓ this is what it means to not just go to sleep at an address, but actually like I'm I'm in this and it's it's in me in some way. That's yeah, that's awesome. So I am curious, Sam, to start with kind of the journey of the Poole Institute of becoming more focused on neighborhoods and places where that historically wasn't the the focus. Like Tell us a little bit about that journey of making the decision to really focus on place based work or neighborhood based work.

speaker-2: Sure. The ⁓ Lana Parker Pool Institute for Health was formed in twenty twenty, ⁓ and really got started in twenty twenty one. And it was born out of a previous philanthropic fund that was due to be shut down. And in that time they brought the remaining funds into the health system, not the usual thing you typically hear of a health system. ⁓ but w set us up as a subsidiary of that health system and our Goal is the same as it was under that philanthropic trust, which is to improve the health of the region outside of the hospital walls. ⁓ that has always been the goal, that will always be our goal. But now we had a chance to do that a little differently because we were no longer a grant maker. We were going to be doing the work alongside other partners. ⁓ and so we had to think about how do we want to go about doing that? Because so easily we can stretch across a far footprint or a far far geographic area and try to do a lot. ⁓ but not that deeply, right? Because you have to stretch your resources further. And we knew that that wasn't really gonna change health outcomes in the long term in the way that we wanted to. And so we spent a lot of time even leading up to the institute being created, looking at other places across the country. Who was really able to gr get that transformational change and how are they doing that? And that led us down a path of looking at place-based approaches, ⁓ whether that be strived together, purpose-built. Many of other models across the country people are implementing, but the theme is the same. Neighborhood matters, and that all the things that happen within a neighborhood really influence your health over time. So if we want to change healthcare and we want to change the health outcomes, we spend a lot of money on healthcare in this country for not great health outcomes ultimately. But it's because the healthcare system is not the only one responsible for health. We are all responsible for health. And most of where health happens is actually outside of the healthcare system. So taking that place-based approach and sort of matching that up with our health improvement ⁓ focus, we started to really think about if we instead of going across a big geographic footprint, drill down to a neighborhood and think about all the things that impact health over time there. So housing, education, food access, ⁓ sense of connection and belonging to that place, can we do all of those things on a smaller geographic footprint and really see long-term change over time? Knowing full well we were not getting into this and we were gonna do it in three years and be able to say we did it. ⁓ this is a long term journey. But that's kind of how we started to approach the work as the institute was formed and said, all right, how would we do that? What would that look like if we were really embraced that that type of approach?

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. And Darren, I'm curious for you, like, you know, Sam's obviously coming at it from the health system and thinking about, you know, whether it's social dermin is health, all these other ways of of kind of talking about that. Like clearly your own experience and growing up in the First and Six Ward in Allentown, like shaped your sense of like neighborhood life and what that means. But as you're getting your own nonprofit going with Cohesion Network, like were there other influences that like caused you to say, you know, as I'm doing this, I don't want to just like run a bunch of programs or ⁓ services, but I really want to think about the communities in which people are living. So yeah, were there other influences that kind of made you want to take this place based approach to what you're doing?

speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, absolutely. Weed and Seed ⁓ was a national program ⁓ that ⁓ started in the early 2000s, ⁓ 2000, 2001. ⁓ and ⁓ we got involved, ⁓ well Yolanda got involved first, and then you know, because she got involved organically, ⁓ she got me involved, but there was someone put a ⁓ flyer on our door and said, if you want to improve your neighborhood, ⁓ come out to a meeting. ⁓ and Yolanda is the most introverted person on the planet. I was at I was working in Bridgewater, New Jersey. She went to the meeting. ⁓ And she loved what she heard. ⁓ And that model we didn't see trained us on community organizing. ⁓ And it's so interesting from that work that we did back then. ⁓ Yolana, so we were trained on how to community organize. Well, throughout that work, and I want to say about 2004 or five, Yolana started meeting with teenagers. From Alan and Darrell to two high schools and from some middle school, then the two high schools. And she said, What do you want for your community? And she asked these teenagers what they wanted for their community, and they said, a hip hop dance program, spoken word, and graffiti art. So we started the escape dance, and that was X Escape. And that thing blew up. It became a program that went international. They went

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-1: other places and and it lasted and it would still be here if it wasn't for the leadership of the organization that undertook this program. It lasted. And the reason why I'm sharing that with you is because if you ask the people in the community what they want and you provide them ⁓ for what they want, guess what? It will last. Why? Because they asked for it. You know, and so ⁓ we got I got addicted to community organizing then because I saw that had an impact. And I was working for another nonprofit and to be for

speaker-0: Huh.

speaker-1: I was working at a church and we did outreach really well in ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety nine, but then they moved away from outreach. ⁓ and once they moved away from outreach, man, I just felt like, hey, that's a man part of me. We stopped really kind of outreaching the way I really I love boots on the ground, heart to the ground, walking out, talking to folks. We were in every community doing these block parties every year. We stopped. And that's what we didn't see came a year and half later. And obviously I was like, Hey, no, this is it. And I I so I could build a bridge.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

speaker-1: with this work. If I so I got trained and that's why we didn't see had a tremendous impact on how we engage in neighborhood and some of the ⁓ values that I have in reference to neighborhood engagement come from that work in the early two thousands.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah, Sam, I'm I'm I'm curious. Like, you know, ⁓ the Pool Institute, you know, forms gets established. You're really trying to think about more holistic, comprehensive, place-based, deep dive work. ⁓ you identify the Franklin Park neighborhood in Allentown, and you knew from the beginning if we're gonna do this well, you like the the ground game has got to be first the community engagement, the human side, the relational side. Where did that come from from you? Because to be honest, like when I even when I engage folks from systems like health systems or education systems or government systems, even if they're using the language of place based, it doesn't normally come out of this place of like, we gotta do this in of with alongside people. Yeah. How was that built into you as you began to lead this this work?

speaker-2: ⁓ frustration of doing it wrong for so many years. I think you're right, right? I think most ⁓ larger systems don't really know how to be in relationship with the people that they're trying to serve. It's what they aim for, it's what they're striving for, but it ends up feeling more transactional more often than not because it's not their sole mission, right? Their sole mission, so if you take healthcare for example, their sole mission is to provide quality healthcare.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-2: The engagement piece is the extra that they do, but they can't do it all the time and they can't do it well ⁓ continuously. And so, you know, prior to being with the institute, I was in community health for many years, and prior to that had worked with all different kinds of programs. And the constant story you hear is it was really great, and then it went away. Funding went away, someone changed, something changed, and so it was good for a couple of years. And even though we showed we had impact, and even though we knew we were making a difference, we couldn't sustain it. ⁓ and so then you started to hear a lot about, well, what's your sustainability plan? But people are the sustainability plan. It's really the only sustainability plan. And so if we were gonna go about really long-term work, we knew that it couldn't just be the healthcare system going out and telling people what they needed to do, or you know, building a bunch of programs that could stop at any point. It was about building an infrastructure. And then a healthcare system, an education system, a city government can come into that. people centered ecosystem and be able to engage at whatever level they need to and go back and still do their core mission. So after having done many iterations of we want to do a you know a program or initiative that is community based or community centered or uses community based participatory research or many of these other terms that you hear, it always felt like we got really good relationships going. We did some good work and then we couldn't figure out how to keep it going. And then we would stop with that and then we come and start all over again. And then we're starting from the beginning. And we're gonna promise that we're doing it differently and we want to do it differently. But then it's the same result. And so as we thought about what the institute should be doing, A, we recognize we're in a large system. We're not the boots on the ground people necessarily, but that that was going to be essential to being able to develop that relational approach that we knew needed to sort of underpin everything we going to try to attempt.

speaker-0: And so in that, you decided ⁓ Cohesion Network, Darren Yolanda, I'm gonna go to them and say like need you guys to be tip of the spear, ground level presence, do the community engaged work. What was it about those two cohesion that that made you feel like that's the right partner to tap to to drive the the ground level work?

speaker-2: I will say I cannot take credit for that, although I'm incredibly grateful to the people who came before me who did make that connection happen. ⁓ but we had so some of our initial team were members from the former Pool Trust team. And so they had you know lots of relationships throughout the valley. ⁓ one with ⁓ a partner who joined us at the beginning to start some of the community engagement work, and she recommended Cohesion Network, and that's how that connection was first made. ⁓ and Cohesion had been doing this work in the first and sixth ward. And so it really became a question of can you do what you're doing there and bring it to a new neighborhood? Can we create that same value proposition of what you're doing there? ⁓ but start in a new place, which wasn't necessarily their neighborhood that they grew up in, although Darren Mulanda grew up in Allentown, but you know, had a lot of the same connections and and similarities to it. And so I think it was our chance to say, can we can we use someone who's already been working at this for a really long time? ⁓ and has those skills and has the ability to stand something like this up in a new neighborhood and see if we can then make that happen over in Franklin Park.

speaker-0: So Darien, why'd you say yes? Is it just because previously you've already confessed to being an addict to community engagement, community organizing and it was just a chance for another fix? Or like what what what about that offer to come lead this in Franklin Park made you say yes, let's let's be all in, let's do this?

speaker-1: Well, I'll say this on the front end and then I'll make I'll answer your question on the front end. The foundation for the great work of effective neighborhood engagement is rooted in trusted relationships. And so when Jenna engaged us, Jenna Azar is the one who engaged us, she was from the Weed and Seed model. We were trained together. And so she understand and knows that that's how we roll with community engagement. This is not something you can rush. And we are always because people always want data well before we get any work done. Give us some data, but that's just not how this works. And so ⁓ and also they courted us for months. They didn't just say, Hey, we want to they actually sat with us, Ron Dennis sat and he asked really, really good questions to my wife, Yolanda and I, and they courted us over a few months before they even said, Hey, we'd like to engage you and some talks about ⁓ neighborhood engagement. ⁓ and so ⁓ we were values aligned. I mean, 'cause obviously The found Ron also, like you would have thought Ron went through Weed and C or participating in it because he had it in him. Like he knew when we shared things, he was able to also finish sentences because he knew about what effective neighborhood engagement looks like. And really, effective neighborhood engagement isn't vanglorious. And people do not want to support neighborhood engagement. And I can tell you story after story after story. People really don't want to do it because people want something that's hi, ⁓ I gave to this and I gave to that. I'm not gonna name any of these other things because it's not in competition.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: To those things, because all of those things hold their place.

speaker-2: And that was absolutely that was Ron and Ed's whole approach to that was what started the institute in the first place was this idea that, you know, it's not without the neighborhood and without community engagement and some authentic community engagement, that we wouldn't really be able to get there. And so although we didn't know how, from the very beginning of thinking about what the institute would be and the type of work it would do, that was top of mind for both Ron Dundas and Edmian as they they built this out and they wanted to make sure that that was ⁓ Something that we brought to the table as we were building the institute.

speaker-0: Yeah, and it's I I think I joined this journey like right as the institute was getting that transition from the trust to the institute was happening. ⁓ and so it's been such a joy to just watch the evolution of it all. And I think as I've tried to because there's so much magic that's happening, and I'm like, this is beautiful. I want to see this in more places that I have a chance to work with. ⁓ and I think one of the aspects ⁓ that you're naming there, Darien, that that has so impressed me, and I'm like, I don't know how to replicate that exactly. Is the values alignment that there's so many partners involved in these conversations that like came from different worlds, different educational backgrounds, different institutions, different sectors of the community? But there is this sense of like, ⁓ yeah, we're we're aligned and that we want to put people first in this approach to like neighborhood well being. ⁓ and I yeah, so I'm yeah, so was it just that those values that you sensed that made you want to say yes? Or was there something that you just said, you know what? I'm just not busy enough. I'm gonna take on in a whole nother neighborhood in Franken Park.

speaker-1: Well, we were plenty busy and got busier, but I will say I felt like we had the opportunity to do it the right way, not the fast way. With the support as the Leonard Parker Pool Institute for Health stepping in and being that quarterback agency, they say, you I'm willing to do it the right way. And I felt like as they were sharing what they believed, we had an opportunity, a significant opportunity to do it the right way and show role model what we believe effective engagement can look like. I mean, so that's why I was like, yes, let's and because the reality is, it was hard. I I mean, we Yolana and I had conversations, and and I was like, I I think it's an opportunity, but man, we're gonna be really busy, this and this and that. And at the end of the day, we rested on, is it worth it? And people are always worth it. You know, ⁓ and we said, Yep, let's do this. ⁓ and so we said yes after Yolana and I had, and we really she was really asked, she's more in the details. Her and Sam was just she's in the details. Okay, Darren, so we're gonna do another. Like and so if you do it the way you do it, you walked every inch of first and six one. You knew people, like you you don't know people here. You're gonna watch every inch, yes, I'm gonna walk every and you're gonna say, Yes, I'm gonna talk to people like and she is just ⁓ Darren, that's a lot of work. Like, and so she was really saying, Okay, I'm down on roll with you, walk out with you, as long as you understand and know that it is going to be a lot of work. And we did. ⁓ and I definitely, and the first two or three years ⁓ I would say we're walk moving on four years. I would say ⁓ at times you felt like you bit off more than you can chew. And then you see the beauty of why we do what we do in relationships and progress and tears and laughter, ⁓ at dinner, at lunches. ⁓ and so then it's like, Yeah, ⁓ no. Then that it goes back to initially, I saw the potential, the opportunity to opportunity to do it the right way, not the fast way.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. And so even with like the due diligence that was taken to make sure to vet Cohesion Network to be the right partner, to really think carefully about because I even remember in the conversations you guys early on about where would the place even be for the place based work, like not just Allentown as a whole, or certainly not the valley as a whole, but like so all of those conversations, like Landwill Franklin Park, Tap Cohesion Network, they're getting started. But during the the ⁓ the red carpet wasn't exactly like rolled out for you in Flankham Park, just everyone cheering, ⁓ yay, Darien's here now. So like what what were those early days like as you're ⁓ starting the communication?

speaker-1: Yeah, I would say we needed every bit of the support of Ron and Jen Jenna as we navigated the first couple of months. ⁓ and because I I did true to my word, I walked every inch of that neighborhood, every block, every I'm talking ⁓ passed out over 500 plus flyers. ⁓ really over 1500 in the first two, three months walking through that neighborhood. ⁓ there's that guy again, people would see me all here. And so ⁓ I would say that I wouldn't say I would probably use the word skepticism and side eye. I like we got people are very skeptical of us, rightfully so, and we definitely got some side eyes. And the only way I can describe it to you is they had us right here, like right there.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-2: The name of the car.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: Yeah, like they just really they kept us there and I'm telling you we were there for a minute. and and I would say this, it's we had to prove that we were committed to Franklin Park, right? First, and we had to be consistent. And I don't I I don't knock them for doing that. I'm grateful that they did that with us. See our so because I want to show show show sh we were committed and we were consistent. I'm telling you right now, and I remember winning Blakeover. I remember winning Sherry over. I remember, well, I'm I'm I I we've won Angela over, but I think we're still having conversations. I I remember what I will say to you, Sean, is ⁓ we won we won Sherry over in Atlanta. Because you can't fake when we answer questions in those groups and we're on the bus and we're talking you can't fake how we share how you love it's in us, so you can't fake it. This is not something that's scripted. And you can actually, when you get around people and you start talking about you can actually feel the energy.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm.

speaker-1: And I know you know I'm talking about, Sean, because we've had that experience with you and Pam and David, where we get to feel that magic that happens when this exchange, this divine called divine exchange takes place when you're around folks that really, really get it. And so ⁓ I no knock on them. They just had to have us there. But in Atlanta, ⁓ having an honest conversation with Sherry and then sliding down that big old sliding board ⁓ at that old cigar factory and us laughing. ⁓ I'm telling you, man, it was it. We came back. I would say we went, we went, we left. Kind of heading in the same direction, ⁓ just like this, and we came back like this. And I am telling you, it's been different ever since. It is really, really powerful to have. And here's what I'll say about that. We move from colleagues to friends. So we talk about moving the ⁓ neighbors, so neighbors or from residents to neighbors, but for us, the goal was to move it from colleagues to friends, because here's the deal: we had a lot of organizations committed to Franklin Park.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: And we wanted to role model the behavior we desired to see. And Brother said, moving that down from presence and neighbor. So we had to role model it first. So we couldn't take things personal. We couldn't make assumptions. We had to show up and be our most genuine selves. And we had to communicate. I can tell you right now, Sam can count on multiple hands how many ⁓ really good, hard conversations we've had to have. Some people having it with us about what we believe about engagement and us having other folks about, ⁓ hold on, time out, you know. Let's ⁓ and we had to ask questions, we had to be curious, and then at the end of the day, we can say, hey, we had to disagree to disagree, we had to agree to disagree sometimes because we totally have, and you know, and so anyway, ⁓ it was just a it's and it's still the beautiful thing of relationships. Communication is the antidote to conflict, and we talk to each other. We don't talk about one another, we talk to each other, which is really what makes this work really special and powerful, because you're not just doing it with these people that you know or work with, you're doing it in front of people that you care about.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-2: Mm-hmm. Part of that is just giving the space for people to get to know one each one another. I think one of the things that we talk about a lot when we talk about collaboration, everyone wants to say that they're collaborating. And I think we're we try our best to collaborate within work, right? And oftentimes it's multiple organizations working together on the same issue, whether that be housing, whether that be education, resource connection, healthcare, you name it. ⁓ but in doing so, we tend to jump into the work part of it. What are we doing together and what are the you know the X's and O's of it all. ⁓ Everything Darien just talked about though has nothing to do with any of that, right? It's about getting to know people and it's about how do you get to figure out if your values aligned only by understanding the approach that someone's taking towards something, what how they view the world, how they view you know, the work that they have ahead of them. And from that, then slowly people get to know each other and that opens the door for more things to be able to happen. And faster, right? It's the the slow down to go fast concept of like, if we can just create space in the front end to build some initial trust, to get to know and not just let people walk away because it's too hard, but to really get to know one another, then your ability to collaborate together and to work through hard things becomes infinitely more ⁓ It becomes deeper, right? And so it wasn't just then anymore that we were friends, but now we could think about solutions together, come up with ways to be able to do things, figure out who we need to pull in and and keep going without having to sort of ⁓ test whether or not we're on the same page before we do that, right? Like it's the constant test of are we actually on the same page as we're approaching this? Are we actually working from the same ⁓ you know, vantage point or, you know, overall arching goal. And but once you can do that stuff on the front end, which takes time and we don't always have that time, but when you can, then it really enables a lot of meaningful ways of working together to happen that couldn't have happened otherwise.

speaker-0: We are so grateful to have you listening in to these rich conversations about place-based people-centered social change. Places People Change is not only the title of the podcast, but it's also the title of community engagement resources you can download and put into practice today. If you are looking for sound principles and practical tools to drive neighborhood level belonging and shared action, you can check them out at DiscoverCongruence.com slash resources. ⁓ like is that a hard thing to sell like whoever you have to justify that to? Is that Sam, is it hard for you to be like, here's why I'm spending the money multiple times to get multiple groups down to on these field trips to other not just Atlanta but other cities as well? Like you've done multiple these kind of field trips. Like is that an easy sell for you? Like how do how do the people around you get that this is important?

speaker-2: It's been core to how Pool Trust operated and for years before the institute started and how the institute has been from the beginning. We learn from others. We don't have all the answers. And there are people around us who have figured out pieces of this way quicker than we've been able to. And so there has always been ⁓ a value of go and see, go and see, go and learn from and bring that back to the Lehigh Valley, bringing that back to our community. Because we if at other people can figure it out and other places can figure out solutions and ways of working together, then we can do the same. ⁓ but we don't need to do it from scratch and we don't need to pretend like there aren't other people that we can, you know, learn and adapt from and bring that, you know, our customized version of that here. So it's core to the mission as we invest in cross-sector leadership. So that's the first important thing, right? That it's not just leaders from one sector, one organization. It is about bringing different groups of people together that may or may not work together, ⁓ creating time to connect, which is certainly, you know, a a product of that. But it's getting out of your own world and your own hamster wheel, right? We're all running in a million different directions every day in our own worlds and taking that time to go see something else, to stop and to reflect on what, you know, other places have been able to accomplish, about what they're experiencing and learning along the way, and then thinking about how that applies back to our. local community, that's really what it's about. And we are, you know, we feel very fortunate to be able to take people to go do that. But that will always remain core to how we operate. ⁓ there's just too much good work out there not to go and see it and learn from it and then figure out what that means for our own local community. Our community deserves that. We all the thing that we always say as we're doing this work is everyone brings something to the table. What is the piece that you can bring to the table as we think about this equation? It takes the pressure off of any one group or organization feeling like they need to solve all the problems.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-2: ⁓ and so we really try to make that part of all of our work. ⁓ that investment in cross sector leadership is is core to the way that we think we can begin to plant the seeds for some of this.

speaker-1: And I like to just remind me, I say this all the time, she probably knows I was gonna say. I I would say ⁓ all of us, neighbors, residents, systems, organizations, we all have a piece of the answer, which means our creative solutions will only come from our togetherness. ⁓ and I truly, truly believe that. Sam believes that. ⁓ the colleagues that we work with believe that. ⁓ and so collaboration is the only way forward.

speaker-0: Like I don't have the same history. Yeah I'm thinking like back to those early days in Franklin Park. So like I mean, I think, you know, the the kind of like hold hold you guys at a arm's length distance kind of approach when you're first doing this work. Like, I think some people might feel that like, ⁓ there's something wrong with that neighborhood or they're upset or that it's like, no, that is the most appropriate and healthy response. Like I wouldn't let just a stranger come walking into my own house, right? Like Like it's actually a sign of a of a healthy neighborhood that if there's someone is trying to lead or do something, it's well, who are you? Why are you here? And I want to protect the interest of my neighbors of a neighborhood. So like so but like but what I love is that you none of that was taken personally. Like you walk through that in stride, you listened, you listened, you learned. And I'm thinking about like Pastor Maritza, kind of one of the matriarchs of of Franklin Park and her own community leadership. And like there was a time where she sat you down and kind of had this like really meaningful kind of moment of somewhat of like a leadership transition of of sorts. Like Tell us a little bit about that moment and kind of how how that came about and why it was so important.

speaker-1: And so Jenna grew up in Franklin Park. ⁓ she grew up ⁓ right on 15th Street, and I saw the house. I I can visualize the house. I don't know the address that she grew up in. ⁓ and so she was very aware of Pastor Maritza and everything else. and so she ⁓ sat us down and we all had and she had this tablecloth of lemons, she had lemonade and she had lemon cookies. ⁓ we sat there and we had a conversation and I recently got new language to express who and what she is. And all that's happening right now. Right. And so you hear ⁓ folks a lot of times talk about, especially in health systems, in any system, root causes. Well, I was really just meditating on this great work of effective vape engagement, and I came up with a new phrase and it really summarizes who Pastor Marissa is to what is all that's happening now, who she is to that community. And the great work that's happening now is she is a root catalyst.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm.

speaker-1: She is a root catalyst. And I'm telling you, ⁓ when I sat there and I understood and hurt her heart for that neighborhood, she wants an after school program for the kids because pre-cobra they had it happening. She said, I want this to happen and I can't do it anymore. I'm older. And she rattled up all these things that she desired to see. and most of them were taken care of. If not all of them, I believe we hit everything that she asked for, and I think we're even doing. And so she said, I just want to make sure this happens. And almost four years later, those things are happening. She's still connected through ⁓ relationships and everything else. but it was really she's a root catalyst, man. She sowed that great seed of neighborhood engagement, effective neighborhood engagement. ⁓ and she did it for 20 plus years. And then she said, Hey, it's time after ⁓ post-COVID, she said, Hey, it's time to pass the torch. And ⁓ and she gave us a wonderful opportunity to work together. But she did manage it for us, she did watch it to see if we were gonna do it the right way. And I would say, Sean, to your credit, when you and ⁓ David came up in December one time and we had the mayor there, she was there, we all were there, and we were having a really good conversation about this work. ⁓ and Sean, you went off one of your Sean Duncan rants that really landed the planes for what we really believe in value. Lovely for all of us, and you went on this wonderful siloquy of and I'm telling you, brother, I I I was moved, ⁓ and so was ⁓ Pastor Moritza. And I remember when you got done. He said, this is a sacred space. And if you can think about, I want you to think about personally, even people that might be listening to this podcast, think about where you feel the most safest at, right? Where you just feel safe. That's a sacred space. And in that room full of different folks, she called it sacred. And I just want you to know that's. That's what this work does. And that's what I mean, that meeting in December, it was like, yeah, it was fuel for the fire. I remember having conversations with LPPIH after that. We're like, we were all pumped up because that's what it is. That's what it's about. And the activity that we did to bring home that point, ⁓ you had me paired up with Angela. And Angela's like, come on, Darren, I'm gonna lead you. And it was wonderful. And I felt like in that moment, ⁓ I got closer to her, she got closer to me because she saw different personalities. And I'm telling you, you gotta get to know folks before you you can really and I always say every community needs a Pastor Angela. I'm telling you right now. Because she loves deeply, she's deeply relational, but she don't play no games. You know what I mean? If she if she if she misunderstood something, she goes, I'm gonna ask you a question and she will come to you. And that's what I love about it. She don't waste no time. I I said something immediately after me, she goes, Can I talk to you? Ask me a question. ⁓ I had to apologize because I'd said something. ⁓ I said, Hey, I'm sorry. Nope, I I I meant it like this.

speaker-0: ⁓

speaker-1: ⁓ you know, and she'll go, I got it, I got it. But she will quickly come up to you and ask you a question. She won't let 24 hours go by. She'll be like, uh-uh, nope. That's why this work continues to move forward powerfully. ⁓ because you you can't have you you you gotta be talking to folks because we're gonna we're gonna kind of get on each other's nerves sometimes because it's the nature of the work. We're not always gonna agree, but what we can agree on that we're gonna move forward together. ⁓ we're gonna we're we're gonna talk about stuff and we don't always have to agree and that's the I call that respect. And so that mutual respect, ⁓ in all of the different organizations and people happens and flows both ways all the time. So anyway, yeah.

speaker-0: That's another one of those special things that like even after many years of walking alongside you guys and all of the multiple other partners that are involved in this work, like I'm still not always sure which entity which person represents. Like I know the faces, I know the names. I'm hugging everyone. I'm so excited every time I'm there. But I'm but like I'm st I'm like but it's and maybe it's because I've got a terrible memory. ⁓ we're gonna go go ahead and blame Parvit on that. But some of it is like Because I th there's not such a strong like organizational identity that that everyone is leading forward with. Like it always just feels like we're all here for this the infinite game of the neighborhood's well being. Like the neighborhood is the thing, not our organization, not our leadership, not our political campaigns. It's it's the neighborhood. And like ⁓ and that's again, that's another like really unique thing. ⁓ and it's a unique thing that took a long time. So I'm I'm kinda curious, Sam, like the the time that it I mean, one, I think it's hard To convince a large system to focus on us one neighborhood, that's a difficult thing. It's a difficult thing to say, like, we're gonna do this like with community engagement first, no big projects, no big bang, no big ribbon cuttings, not nothing exciting. And even as Darien's describing, like there's this long arc of like we passed out hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of flyers and like one person shows up. Like there's a lot of mistrust and suspicion and like and like we're just doing like how do you from your seat, Sam, as kind of the the the kind of a systems leader justify how slow this is ⁓ and the amount of time it takes to get to a play. I mean it's it's really beautiful now and a lot a lot of momentum is happening now, but like, man, there was just a lot of like slow, careful work. Yeah. How do you in your seat kind of justify to your your system like this is why we're going at the pace that we're going at?

speaker-2: There's still a lot of slow work happening. I mean, I think the thing is that we had multiple irons in the fire at any given time, right? It wasn't like we were sitting around waiting for the neighborhood engagement stuff to be done before we started anything else. ⁓ we knew that that was gonna be ongoing, iterative, underlying everything. And we had housing work, ⁓ a housing group forming and an education group forming all at the same time. And so we didn't just wait for one thing, you know, we were doing multiple components at the same time to allow the space for each of them to take hold to develop the way they needed to, but to also not feel like we were just like putting all our pressure, all the pressure or all our eggs in one thing that we were waiting for that to happen before everything else could happen. So when you really look at a a neighborhood and the complexity of a neighborhood and the whole ecosystem that's there, there is a ton of moving parts, right? And it's a lot of communication and a lot of we're only scratching the surface of the things we even want to be able to do. ⁓ and that's four years in. And so you know, it wasn't that it was just one thing that we had to wait for. And so that helps make that story. That there's, you know, lots of stuff happening in lots of little ways. ⁓ and you're right, you know, it's organizations are involved in multiple different ways. It's not just one thing that they're a part of. They're a part of a bunch of different as long as it fits for them and within their bandwidth and their capacity and their interest. ⁓ and then we continue to bring new people to the table. So it is constantly growing. It is constantly changing. ⁓ the focusing on one neighborhood thing is, you know, a A challenge, ⁓ certainly when you first describe it to people and they say, Why are you only working in one neighborhood? It's for today, right? And that if we can figure this out and we can really demonstrate the impact of working in this way and show that we can work in a different way, then we can bring that same approach to other neighborhoods. ⁓ but we had to start somewhere and we started where we had a lot of partnerships and there was some community assets assets already there, and then we could figure out how to work together in the same direction essentially.

speaker-0: Yeah, I've I'm just like i it to me it's like this ⁓ unofficial indicator of something really healthy, ⁓ is that like in those community meetings where you got so many different sectors, you know, organizations represented, like I somewhat know kind of where everybody kind of fits within the kind of ecosystem of the of the various community sectors. but you don't but if you were just a complete outsider you wouldn't know. And what I mean is like you You tend to know who the like big important systems people are when they walk in the room. And you tend to know who the community advocates are when they walk in the room. Like they talk different, they walk different, they dress different, they act different, they respond to the to neighbors very differently. ⁓ but man, when you guys are rolling out the food for the community meeting and all these various folks are there, like you wouldn't know. You wouldn't know who the big important players are, who just the local guy is. Like there there's just kind of hugs and laughter and like It just feels it just feels very proximate, right? It feels very neighborly in that. And I think like you don't have to be the on the ground community organizer to embody just the the humanness of being a neighbor in those spaces. ⁓ and it just feels very ⁓ just feels very real and very human in in that space, I think.

speaker-1: I think people always will trump the agenda. ⁓ we do that in relationships with each other, ⁓ and we do that in meetings. ⁓ I mean sometimes there could be an agenda that takes front and center stage and we have, you know what, the agenda that we have for this month is going out because we have something or so I think it's always rooted in ⁓ people. And so ⁓ it's always people first to me. Like even before we even start our community meetings like, hey, let's ground ourselves in our humanity, right? And it gives folks a moment to take a deep breath in their day, six o'clock at night. Many of them have kids, they have homes, they have jobs, they just came from work. It gives them an opportunity to take a deep breath and say, ⁓ and they get grounded in their humanity. And sometimes it leads us in different ways in our meeting. Now we do have an agenda and all that other stuff, but I'm all for it. Hold on, hold time, we're gonna do a timeout. And I remember a vivid conversation where there was a serious situation at the school that happened. And ⁓ the mayor was there, neighbors and residents were there, and I remember they had a robust dialogue about the solution, and it was powerful. Here's why I was so powerful. Because they knew they could have a robust dialogue. And the mayor showed up and was there and listening and absorbing it. And he didn't agree. So they were having this amazing conversation in a safe space. And they walked away hiding each other. It wasn't like a big deal. And I I will say that's always just making sure people are first, man. I mean, Sam does it with me all the time. Sometimes when I'm not showing up my best, I'm like, are you okay? And we do that with one another. I think that's the power in what we do. ⁓ and it goes back also to something you were just talking about is our our our flex. Our superpower is that when you show up to any event that we do, you know you don't know who's leading the event because we do it together. I remember the president of city council came to our last last year's earth day celebration, and I'm telling there was people everywhere, and she rolled up on Yolan and was like, Who's in charge? She was, but no, she said, You can't tell who's in charge of this. And Yolan goes, That's the power of what we do. Because no one's saying, Look at me, it's me, it's ⁓ no, no, we do that thing together. You could not even tell. And almost every same could bowish. Any event that you show up to, you're not gonna be able to tell who's running that thing because we run it together. Everyone just owns something. Hey, what do you got there? And I got game, what do you got? I got this. And we own what we do and we do it together. We do it amazingly, always with people in mind. And so I think just keeping people centered, man. Just recognize even the people that you work with. Recognize. And sometimes I had to start a meeting one time and it was a serious situation. I say someone else has to start the meeting. This is serious. And I had to hold space with someone. And I had to hear all that was going on and I couldn't do the welcome and the ground people know humanity. Someone else had to do that because that I was giving this person that time from Franklin Park. No, you got my undivided attention. Someone else can open up.

speaker-0: I mean I'm Sam I'm Sam, I'm curious as you have observed so much great community engagement work that's been happening over the last few years, like how would you point to like these are the elements or the practices that keeps this human? That it's not just solving problems or running agendas or getting things fixed, but like this is about belonging and connection and trust and really being humans in community, being neighbors with one another. Like what what have you witnessed that has helped to build that that kind of ⁓ culture?

speaker-2: ⁓ that's a really good question. And I don't know if I will adequately answer it. ⁓ but I mean, first if we could bottle up Darien Yolanda's, you know, approach to things and have that be everywhere, I think that would be half the battle, right? So I think that true like community engagement approach, when you're in a room and Darien's welcoming and opening a meeting, it automatically changes the the tone of the room, the tone of the meeting. ⁓ and so there is that, you know, just authenticness of wanting to connect with people and create that space no matter what they're doing. ⁓ and so that is infectious. And I think many others in our group have now, you know, come along the way on that as well and try to embody that as much as possible. And if you go back to Darren's earlier story about Pastor Moritza being the one who kind of shepherded this for as many years as she did, pretty much on her own, right? Like so the weight of that neighborhood was on her shoulders. If there's nothing else that we've done, I hope that we've wrapped around that, that we have not made it that it's one person's job, but that we can all be more effective if we're all doing our part to work in the same neighborhood. And so that's been the other big thing that I think has shifted. ⁓ and I would in large part think that you know, give thanks to you and and to David for that as well, because that reframe of how does how does what I am doing fit into this neighborhood and into this ecosystem. Well, that's just a r release of pressure, right? Like it's not your job to solve anyone else's problems or to save anyone or to do any of those things. And it's also not about any one of us individually and what we want. It is what the collective wants. And so exercising that muscle over and over again every single day. Which some days are easier than others and it never, you know, is just like done. You have to keep revisiting it and every new topic that comes up, we have to practice it again. But around thinking about it's not just what we want all of our organizations to succeed. And so making sure that everyone's obviously got their space and their time to be highlighted is important. ⁓ but that also we recognize that it's not any of us having to go this alone and that we can contribute something to whatever we're doing, ⁓ and allow others to step in as well, I think is a big big learning we've had. You don't often get that. But the neighborhood focus seems to help that a little. It's now we're not like in the same pot of money for housing dollars or in the same pot of money for education. It's about what's best for this neighborhood and from that place, what do the residents want to see? What can be helpful to them and then how do we make it happen? And we still, like I said, we still so long to go. Like we're still getting to know people. We're still that day-to-day work of just relationship building with as many people as possible will never stop. ⁓ and can't stop if we're really gonna create solutions that work and are sustainable.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. I mean some I don't know at some point. No, this is perfect. This is perfect. Like I do know, like as this was getting moving at at at some point in the journey, you you were saying to me and my team, we need like to get really tactical. We need like a blueprint here. Like we've got the right values, we've got the right people. Like what I'm curious about like for you, what was the leadership insight or instinct that made you say to me, to David, our team, hey, this like we're on the right values, we have the right vision. ⁓ but there's kind of there's some maybe some gaps here. So say a little bit about what what you were noticing and maybe what you felt like was needed and kinda how that's evolved.

speaker-2: If you think about any like community eng engagement initiative within a project you've been a part of, it always starts with like you go out and you gather a group of people, right? And you're gonna work with them on this or you're gonna have more people come out and you're working on a particular issue. But once you've kind of gotten past that initial piece, you feel this plateau happen of like, okay, where do we go from here? And I felt that plateau starting to happen. Darian Landa had done such a good job with all of our other partners of creating a neighborhood meeting, having people come out. We had gotten some traction, we were getting some momentum, but the question became like where are we going next? How are we going to continue to grow and evolve this? It's not a one and done, and I knew that, but I didn't know how to grow and evolve it either, right? I did not know how to overcome that plateau that we often see happen and keep deepening our ability to get to more people, to new people, to figure out what the next iteration of it would be. And so that's when we had that conversation with you all and realizing that the one-to-ones was really. The key to unlock like the big groups great, but if underlying that is not a bunch of individual relationships, it doesn't continue to grow and nurture and expand. ⁓ so for us, that was really the pivotal moment of like we've got some early wins. We did the really good initial work of standing this up and having a space now for residents to come to and to be heard. And ⁓ but where are we gonna go with it now? What does it look like to continue to evolve it and to create an infrastructure that really can continue on in the long term? So that was really I think a a key point for us and a place where we were like, okay, we need we need outside help here. We we haven't quite done this yet.

speaker-0: Yeah. And just the process of co-creating that blueprint with you guys. Like it like one of the things that became really clear that I don't I don't think I would have said on my own isolated. Like it's in the mix of all these relationships that like what you all are doing is not episodic community engagement where we've got to learn about this one issue, we've got to do this one thing or find out this one piece of data or information or Get this one project accomplished. Like though you're doing that. Like you did the flourishing neighbor decks ⁓ survey, you've done a neighborhood cleanup day, you've you've advocated for some change, you know, changes at the city. So you've done these the one-off solves or whatever. ⁓ but like you're so the the thing that became clear is like what you're doing is building a culture of community engagement. That it is that is our way of being that we prioritize relationships with individual people, small conversations about our values and our future. You know, the power and agency of of the neighborhood coming together that like it's now just rhythm, ritual, practice, culture. It's just your way of being versus just, ⁓ we've got to run this big community engagement effort to your point, like ⁓ get the thing accomplished and like half the time it's not even a plateau, it's just a complete drop off of like all right, well that was a really fun, wonderful project. But ⁓ so yeah, well, I think what I've loved about what you've built and what we've worked on together is like let's let's do this so that it is just our way of being. It is our our habit ⁓ to To live this way. So like with some of that in mind, I'm curious from from both of you, like, so what is success look like? Is that even the right word in this? But as you're thinking about the long arc of all of this and there's still so much work to be done, like whether it's like short term successful things that you're pointing to to say that you know that it's working, or if it's the long term thing, like what is success in all of this community engagement stuff that we're doing?

speaker-2: I can start with one in the shorter term, which I think is if you for anyone who's worked in human services or nonprofit world, we spend a lot of time, energy, and money basically restarting over and over again, right? To build up new every time we've got a new initiative or a new program. and so success, first of all, is Being able to support the glue and the structure needed to keep that going in between the big grant cycle or in between the big projects, so that we don't have to restart all the time. We shouldn't have to restart every single time because it's all project-based, right? And so creating that infrastructure, ⁓ that ongoing infrastructure, and you know, being able to use some of the resources that we have within the institute to support that is really, really important to me. And I think the thing that's missing when I look at And it's the thing that places that I think are successful have and the thing that I I think is missing in so many other places. ⁓ if you can figure out how to keep yourselves together and keep that relationship going, then being able to jump into the next project, the next thing that comes up, the next evolution of a need is a lot easier. ⁓ so for me with the community engagement piece, I think that's that's one early I think we're there and hopefully we'll continue to be there, but that's one sign of success that I think is important.

speaker-0: Mm. Darren, how about for you? Like what is what is success? I mean, something that's so deeply relational, it's long term, it's not, you know, w one episode or objective away from being successful. Like how do how do you and Yolanda, your team, how do you guys think about evidence that this is the successful thing that you're doing?

speaker-1: Yeah, I think ⁓ you know, first of all, I think, you know, the two most basic needs for every human being one of the two most basic needs or two most basic needs for every human being on planet earth is to belong and have significance. This is Alfred Adler, Adler in theory. He says that to belong and to have Maslow's hierarchy says similar things, right? And so to belong and have significance, I think ⁓ it's being heard, it's being connected. And evidence and people sharing with us. but also people feel supported. I mean, like someone's hot water heater went, they were without hot water for a week. Uh-uh, I called a contractor that I knew that just worked on my house. I said, listen, don't give them my deal, give them better deal, because then you can get business in this community. And I said, and he did. He gave her a much better deal, right? And so it's feeling supported at times. But here's what I I can I can name a bunch of different stories. You I can tell you that the ARPA Funding One Million got donated, they got given to Sherry when they weren't gonna give it to her. And we have the the two different community groups came and we advocated for that. I could tell you ⁓ about ⁓ the park redesign is happening and we were seeing the end result of that. But I'll simply start it by saying this is success. ⁓ Calvin Zilas was an elder in our community, in the Franken Park community. She was there for over 20 years, and she was an elder in that community, Mr. Sean Duncan. ⁓ and when she slipped away into eternity. Her sister said she loved our community group so much that she wanted someone rep she wants someone from the Franklin Park community to come speak at her funeral. Now, Sean, that's success. That's what success looks like to me today. She didn't ask for a specific person. Here's the power in that, Sean. She said, Can we have a representative from the Franklin Park community group come share at my and she had a strong New York at my sister's funeral, right? ⁓ and guess what?

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: And that that's part of the success. But here's another part. The mayor showed up. Our Frank Park community and our crew showed up in full force. And the community showed up for an elder and a woman who gave her who gave her time and attention. Her most of her whole life working and her civic muscle, civic engagement. And so success looks like showing up for folks, being there for folks. And that that here's this wonderful, amazing human who slipped into eternity and they wanted the Franklin Park community group to have representation at her funeral. That's success.

speaker-0: ⁓ well. I love that. I love that. And I think about that.

speaker-2: I think just to tie to the longer term piece, community engagement isn't just for community engagement's sake, right? So all of it in the name of giving people greater opportunity for health and well-being over time. And from that relational engaged space, we can create better solutions, better, you know, programs, interventions, brings and services, all the things that we know we need to do, but all that's only possible and can only be successful if it has this relational piece underneath.

speaker-0: Yeah. I don't know if I have your permission to say this, but I'm gonna say it anyway because, you know, well, maybe forgiveness will be easier. ⁓ but like you guys you know, you guys have taken a lot of field trips to like go and learn from other people. More people need to be taking some field trips ⁓ to Allentown, Pennsylvania and hanging out with you guys and seeing what's happening in Franklin Park and the first and sixth ward to get an image of like this is what it means to put people at the center of place based change. Right. And like we've talked about the transition from residents to neighbors or from colleagues to friends or from suspicion to sacred space. Like all this becomes possible. And I and I even find it with myself when people are asking what I do for work and I'm going to Allentown next or what's in Allentown? You know, ⁓ it feels weird if I call you guys clients. Like the word just does not make any s I'm like, I'm gonna go see my best friends who live in Allentown. Is it work? It I think so. It's it doesn't feel like it. but yeah I mean I just what what you guys have ⁓ built and created and cultivated is ⁓ is profoundly unique and just one of the great gifts of my life that I've been able to witness it and be a part of it. So of course thank you for this conversation, this this conversation day on the podcast. But just thank you for being such great friends and great humans to learn from. I am deeply grateful for you both. The work in the neighborhood of Franklin Park is exceptional because it is prioritizing belonging as both the means and the end of neighborhood change. They are showing how large systems and local organizations can build a cross-sector ecosystem that makes people-centered place-based change possible and durable. To learn more about what the Pool Institute, Cohesion Network, and all their partners are up to, please check out our Franklinpark.org. And join us for our next episode where we speak with a leader from the Healthy Neighborhood Study, a large resident driven participatory action research project taking place in Boston. Thank you for listening to Places People Change. Visit us at placespeoplechange.com for extended interviews, more information on our guests and their work, show notes, transcripts, and resources to go deeper. Please subscribe and follow us wherever you get your podcast. Special thanks to Acia Butler and the Residents Association of Greater Englewood for the use of their song People, Passion Power, as the music for this series. Find out more about them at raginglewood.com. Places People Change is brought to you by Tim Rhodes, producer and AV engineer, David Park, producer and booking manager, Lucas Duncan, production and design assistant, and me, Sean Duncan, your host. We are the roots, we are the rise, hearts on fire, truth in our eyes. From these blocks we build the towers. People passion power.