Print pageA reminder to participants, be sure to take your
webinar quiz and access your passing certificate
before the site closes on Friday, June 25th at 5 p.m. EDT.
This event included a total of 18 webinars, plenaries and a “Solution Spotlight” showcase.
Plenaries will covered the topics, “Working toward Safer Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) Communities” and “Bridging the Wealth and Homeownership Divide."
Event Schedule June 17, 2021
8:30 - 10:00 a.m. Workshops
Breaking with Isolation: The Power of Neighbors (CB001WT)
Methods to Explore Diversity and Build Unity (CB011WT)
Counseling Solutions for Vulnerable Populations and Homelessness amid COVID-19 (HO030WT)
Methods to Explore Diversity and Build Unity (CB011WT)
Counseling Solutions for Vulnerable Populations and Homelessness amid COVID-19 (HO030WT)
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Workshops
Conversations of Power (CB005WT)
Rental Counseling & Eviction Preventions Amid the COVID-19 Crisis (HO031WT)
Using an Equity Lens in Financial Coaching Approaches (HO041WT)
Getting Things Done in Neighborhoods through Strategic Collaborations (NR002WT)Rental Counseling & Eviction Preventions Amid the COVID-19 Crisis (HO031WT)
Using an Equity Lens in Financial Coaching Approaches (HO041WT)
12:30 - 1:45 p.m. General Session
Working Toward Safer Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) Communities
Xenophobia and violence against the AAPI community is rising at an alarming rate in major cities across America. Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting database created at the beginning of the pandemic as a response to the increase in racial violence, received 2,808 reports of anti-Asian discrimination between March 19 and December 31, 2020. The NYPD reported that hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian sentiment jumped 1,900% in New York in 2020, according to the February 18th issue of Time magazine. The uptick in attacks in 2020 has been particularly focused in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and Oakland’s Chinatown, and most recently the mass shooting in Atlanta last month. Join us to hear from community development organizations and others who are working to support and combat these alarming events and create safer AAPI communities.FACILITATOR:
Lisa Hasegawa, Western Region Vice President, NeighborWorks America
Lisa Hasegawa has more than 20 years of community development, housing and public health experience. Most recently, she served as the executive director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), the first national advocacy organization dedicated to meeting the housing and community development needs of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. For more than 15 years, she led the coalition of nearly 100 community organizations and worked to improve the quality of life for low-income Asian American and Pacific Islanders by promoting economic vitality, civic and political participation and racial equity. Panelists:
May Louie, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
May Louie has more than 30 years of experience in progressive and community organizing and comprehensive community building. She spent 20 years (1994-2014) as a senior staffer of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), a community planning and organizing group that led the revitalization of their Boston neighborhood. At DSNI, she managed the Resident Development Institute, oversaw civic engagement, coordinated the Boston Promise Initiative, and was most recently Director of Leadership and Capacity Building. Louie has authored a number of articles on DSNI's change strategies. As a long-time social justice organizer, Ms. Louie has her roots in the Asian American movement and is a founder of the Chinese Progressive Association. She also has experience building multi-racial electoral coalitions, having served as chair of the Boston Rainbow Coalition and Chief of Staff of the National Rainbow Coalition. She has also taught at the Asian American Studies Program at UMass Boston.
Erich Nakano, Little Tokyo Service Center
Tavae Samuelu, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
Tavae Samuelu is the daughter of a pastor from Leulumoega and a nurse from Saleimoa. As the Executive Director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), she's a passionate advocate for Native Hawaiians & Pacific Islanders and is committed to liberation for all. Tavae was born and raised on Tongva land (Compton and Long Beach) and credits her time on unceded Ohlone territory (Bay Area) for her political identity and consciousness. Before joining EPIC, she served as the Development Director for the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond and has since become a member of RYSE's Board of Directors. Tavae is also the Vice President of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) Board. The pandemic has taught her that her most important title is Aunty Vae.
Jennifer Sun, Asian Americans for Equality
Jennifer Sun is Co-Executive Director of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), a New York City community development organization founded in 1974 to advance racial, social, and economic justice for Asian American and other systematically disadvantaged communities.
Malcolm Yeung, Chinatown Community Development Center
Malcolm Yeung is the Executive Director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, a San Francisco based affordable housing and community development organization. In 2011, Malcolm served as a Senior Advisor to Mayor Edwin M. Lee, during which time he focused primarily on City affordable housing policy and programs. Malcolm practiced tenants rights and consumer protection law at the Asian Law Caucus from 2003 to 2008 and was a litigation and corporate associate at O’Melveny & Meyers LLP and Perkins Coie LLP from 2001 to 2003. Malcolm served in the first National AmeriCorps class, teaching English as a Second Language at the Houston Chinese Community Center and is a Houston native.2:15 - 3:45 p.m. Showcases | Solution Spotlight
The Solution Spotlight is planned as an afternoon session of the Convening and will follow a “Lightning Talk” format (brief, focused topline presentation followed by facilitated, in-depth Q&A). The intent of the session is to highlight specific programs and examples of how organizations are providing solutions in community engagement and equity-based revitalization and allow participants to garner ideas and information to bolster their own programs.Direct Services for Homeless Populations
PRESENTER: LIGHTHOUSE, MI, PONTIAC, MI
Equity-Based Revitalization
PRESENTER: THE UNITY COUNCIL, OAKLAND, CA
Equity-Based Revitalization
PRESENTER: FIFTH WARD COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, HOUSTON, TX
Rental/Equity-based Revitalization
Presenter: Piedmont Housing Alliance, Charlottesville, VA
Speakers:
Ryan Hertz, President and CEO, Lighthouse MI
Ryan B. Hertz, MSW assumed the role of President & CEO at Lighthouse MI after leading the merger between Lighthouse of Oakland County and South Oakland Shelter (SOS) in 2019. Since joining SOS in 2010, Ryan and his team expanded SOS’s scope of services to encompass emergency shelter, rental assistance, affordable housing development, supportive service solutions, and crowdfunding technologies that have contributed to thousands of displaced people getting back on their feet and finding a renewed sense of purpose.
Chris Iglesias, CEO, The Unity Council
Chris Iglesias is a visionary leader who has dedicated his career to executing a social equity agenda through innovative and strategic public-private partnerships. As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Unity Council (TUC), he leads one of East Oakland’s most vital community assets—a 55-year-old social equity development organization devoted to improving the quality of life for the residents of the largest Latino neighborhood in the Bay Area—Oakland’s Fruitvale District—through a place-based economic and intergenerational equity agenda.
Kathy Flanagan Payton, President, and CEO, Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation
A Houston (5th Ward) native, Kathy Flanagan-Payton is currently President and CEO for the nationally acclaimed Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation (FWCRC) where she oversees the implementation of the Comprehensive Community Revitalization of Houston’s Historic 5th Ward. FWCRC catalyzes resource to build and preserve an inclusive 5th Ward Community by developing places and opportunities for people to live, work, and play!
Sunshine Mathon, CEO, Piedmont Housing Alliance Charlottesville
Sunshine Mathon is the Executive Director of Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, VA. Committed to supporting deeply equitable and sustainable affordable communities, he has led the development of over 1,200 healthy, efficient homes in Texas and Virginia. As a nationally-recognized leader at the intersection of climate resilience and equitable affordable housing development, Sunshine has consulted with a wide variety of local and national housing intermediaries. 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Workshops
Strong Coalitions: Building on Common Interests (CB002WT)Introduction to Community Organizing for Disaster Preparedness (ML011WT)
Equal Access: LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Housing & Community Development Programs (ML016WT)
Event Schedule June 18, 2021
8:30 - 10:00 a.m. Workshops
Conversations on Privilege (CB004WT)Police-Community Partnerships: Building Relationships of Mutual Accountability (CB007WT)
Protecting Credit and Avoiding Scams During the COVID-19 Financial Crisis (HO033WT)
Counseling Rural Clients on Eviction and Foreclosure Amidst COVID-19 (HO036WT)
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Workshops
The Role of Women in Community Development (CB003WT)Conversations on Prejudice (CB006WT)
Student Loan CARES Act Relief in Response to COVID-19 (HO034WT)
Trauma-Informed and Equity-Focused Approaches to Service Delivery (HO043WT)
1:00 - 2:15 p.m. General Session
Bridging the Wealth and Homeownership Divide
Homeownership is an important tool for building wealth; for many it is the largest single source of personal wealth. Yet for communities of color, homeownership rates continue to lag white homeownership rates—resulting in a diminished opportunity for financial security. Recovery from the housing crisis has been slow for communities of color, student loan debt is an increasing challenge in saving for a down payment, the supply of affordable housing for first-time homebuyers is tight, and the pandemic has added hardship through the loss of income and jobs. What else might be contributing to the persistent low ownership rates in communities of color?Join us for a conversation with two notable academics whose work explores topics impacting black communities in building wealth and increasing homeownership. Dr. Janeria Easley’s research utilizes a historical and contemporary lens to examine neighborhood contexts. Her work explores the measurement of structural racism and its multi-level mechanisms. She provides insight on how the multi-layered description of communities of color illuminates how racism operates in the United States. Key sub-areas of her work include residential segregation, gentrification, and barriers to homeownership. In her book Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage, Dr. Dianne Stewart examines how welfare policies, incarceration, and spiritual and economic constraints have impacted Black families in gaining and building wealth. We will delve into the panelists’ personal stories and research, and hear about their perspectives on solutions and how community development organizations are uniquely poised to help in creating financial and economic opportunities for all in their communities.
FACILITATOR:
Tulaine Montgomery, Managing Partner, New Profit
Tulaine Montgomery, Co-CEO, New ProfitPanelists:
Dr. Janeria Easley, Emory University
Janeria Easley is an Assistant Professor in the department of African American Studies at Emory University. She received her B.A in Sociology and English from Duke University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology, with a concentration in Demography, from Princeton University. Before coming to Emory, she completed a Vice Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Dianne M. Stewart, Emory University
Dianne M. Stewart is an associate professor of Religion and African American Studies at Emory University specializing in African heritage religious cultures in the Caribbean and the Americas and womanist religious thought and praxis. She obtained her B.A. degree from Colgate University in English and African American Studies, her M. Div. degree from Harvard Divinity School and her Ph.D. degree in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Stewart’s research has been supported by the Fulbright Scholar Program, the Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation, the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry and the American Academy of Religion. She is the author of Three Eyes for the Journey: African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religious Experience (Oxford University Press, 2005), Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage (Seal Press, 2020) and Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination – Orisa, Volume II (Duke University Press, forthcoming 2022). Her work has also been published in The Washington Post and other outlets.2:15 - 3:45 p.m. Workshops
Session Faculty
Christi Baker, Chrysalis Consulting Group
After founding Chrysalis Consulting Group in 1999, Christi Baker has served as the principal for the company, which facilitates transformation by providing coaching, training, curriculum development, technical assistance, writing, strategic planning, and facilitation to individuals and organizations working toward greater well-being. Clients have included local community-based organizations, national nonprofit intermediaries and individuals. With expertise in applied research, qualitative methods, facilitation, program design, coaching, and financial health, Baker has authored various publications and training manuals, and has facilitated numerous trainings, meetings and planning processes.
John Bonin, Bonin Consulting
John Bonin has been a lifelong licensed agent and loan originator and has developed on-site curriculum and online training programs for both HUD housing counseling intermediaries and Northern California-based private mortgage banking firms. His trainings cover a broad range of topics including credit counseling, credit scoring, mortgage lending practices, foreclosure intervention, mortgage compliance as well as other legal and financial literacy-related subjects including both student loan and rental housing counseling.
Pam Brenner-Davis, Catholic Health Services
Pam Brenner-Davis has spent her career working with non-profit organizations across Long Island NY, helping to engage volunteers and respond to the needs of vulnerable populations during times of crisis and calm. Pam knows that when ordinary citizens are engaged and passionate about their community, they act in extraordinary ways.
Barbara Cheives, Converge & Associates
Barbara Cheives is the President and CEO of Converge & Associates Consulting. Converge specializes in race and ethnic relations consulting, employee relations and community engagement. Converge has developed a training niche in Racial Equity, Cultural Competency, Implicit Bias, Respectful Communication in the Workplace and Workplace Bullying and Harassment. Client base includes government entities; law enforcement and public safety; not for profit organizations; media; education; and corporations.
William Daniels, The Hardwick Group, Inc
Ann DiPetta, ADR Consulting
Ann DiPetta has extensive experience in curriculum development and training / administration, as well as grant writing for nonprofit housing, grant systems development and grant review processes. She has researched and developed content for non-profit housing websites, reviewed and revamped numerous housing-related curricula, and written hundreds of case studies and "best practices" on housing-related issues.
Brenda Grauer, BLG Consulting
Brenda Grauer, principal of BLG Consulting, has 30 years experience as an advocate in the field of affordable housing, community investment, and foreclosure prevention. She has taught courses for Neighborworks America for the past 15 years. She currently provides direct counseling to over 300 older homeowners per year on reverse mortgages and default counseling to help them retain homeownership and age in place.
David Haiman, Movement Matters
David S. Haiman is a principal and co-founder of Movement Matters. David’s two decades of experience in community organizing, strategic planning, facilitation, and non-profit management has helped Movement Matters to develop into an effective and dynamic capacity building organization. Since Movement Matters’ inception in 2007, David has brought his expertise to a variety of projects, including program and organizational development and evaluation for a range of organizational partners, both local and national. These organizations include grassroots organizing groups (e.g. Empower DC), local and statewide coalitions (e.g. Virginia’s Climate and Equity Working Group), unions (e.g. UFCW Local 400), foundations (e.g. The Meyer Foundation), and national networks (e.g. Communities for Public Education Reform).
John Lehner, NRF Corporation
John Lehner, president and lead consultant at NRF Corporation, is a facility instructor at NeighborWorks America Training Institute. Lehner’s approach is to encourage nonprofits to take a holistic inventory of their organization and the local environment before they begin capacity-building activities.
Vanessa Lindley, Lindley Consulting Group LLC
Vanessa A. Lindley, the CEO of Lindley Consulting Group LLC is a transformative thought leader, trainer, coach and author. She has 25-plus years’ in the finance industry and is an alumnus of the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business program.
Tia McCoy, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity
Tia McCoy has over 20 years’ experience in housing, and has served as a Homeownership Center director, homeownership specialist, program auditor, and workshop facilitator. She served as a subject matter expert and exam writer for the National HUD Housing Counseling Examination and other housing curriculum. She has also provided technical assistance for several community development organizations throughout the Southeast.
Tronn Moller, tronnmoller.com
Tronn Moller is a leadership coach, facilitator, speaker, and trainer. He currently teaches history at Delgado Community College in New Orleans. He is passionate about working with leaders to solve challenges, and developing their capacity to lead change. He loves using simple and innovative visual thinking tools that help individuals discover, plan, and move forward.
Karimah Nonyameko, Encore.org
Mark Robinson, Community Connections, Inc.
Mark Robinson has been working in the fields of community development, non profit management, organizational development, community organizing, conflict resolution, coaching and homeless services for three decades. Included in his diverse work history have been stints as Director of the DC Mediation Service, Senior Manager for Curriculum and Training for NeighborWorks America, Head Track and Field Coach for Catholic University, Lead Community Organizer for PACT US, Lead Outreach Worker for DC Multicultural Services, Chief of Family and Community Engagement for The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) and Transition Facilitator for Community Connections DC. 
