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J&J Files sBLA for Tremfya With FDA for Psoriatic Arthritis – Yahoo Finance

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Johnson & Johnson JNJ submitted a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA)to the FDA, seeking approval to expand the label of itsIL-23 inhibitor Tremfya as a treatment for active psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

The sBLA filing was based on data from the phase III DISCOVER 1 and 2 studies, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of Tremfya compared to placebo for treating adult patients with PsA.

In June, J&Js subsidiary, Janssenhad announced top-line results from the studies, which evaluated Tremfya administered by subcutaneous injection. The studies met the primary endpoint of achieving American College of Rheumatology 20% improvement while the safety profile was consistent with the previous programs on Tremfya/guselkumab.

J&J expects to file a similar regulatory application with the European Medicines Agency by the end of this year.

J&Js stock has risen 0.4% this year so far against a decrease of 1.9% recorded by the industry.

Tremfya was first approved in the United States and the EU in 2017 for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and was off to a solid start after its launch.

The drug recorded sales of $452 million in the first half of 2019. If approved by the FDA for PsA, Tremfya will be the first IL-23 inhibitorto be approved to treat this complex inflammatory disease, which causes pain, stiffness and swelling in and around the joints. It will expand the drugs eligible patient population and should boost its sales.

Tremfya has proved its superiority over other drugs in the past. Last December, J&J announced results from a head-to-head phase III ECLIPSE study, which compared Tremfya with Novartis' NVS psoriasis drug, Cosentyx (secukinumab).

Data from the study showed that after a 48-week treatment, 84.5% of the patients treated with Tremfya achieved 90% improvement in disease symptoms as measured by the Psoriasis Area Severity Index in comparison to 70% achieved by Novartis' Cosentyx.

The drug is also being studied for various other indications including phase IIb/III studies in Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis and in a phase II study for hidradenitis suppurativa.

J&J currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked large-cap pharma stocks include Roche Holding AG RHHBY and Merck MRK, both with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Shares of Roche have gained 10.8% this year so far. Earnings estimates for 2019 have risen 0.8% while that for 2020 have increased 2% over the past 60 days.

Mercks stock is up 7.3% this year so far. Its earnings estimates have risen 3.6% for 2019 and 1.3% for 2020 over the past 60 days.

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J&J Files sBLA for Tremfya With FDA for Psoriatic Arthritis - Yahoo Finance

J&J’s Tremfya filed for approval in US for psoriatic arthritis – PMLiVE

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Johnson & Johnson has submitted an application to the FDA for the approval of Tremfya in psoriatic arthritis, which could further congest an intensely competitive therapy area.

Tremfya (guselkumab) is Janssens follow-up to IL-23/IL-12 inhibitor blockbuster Stelara (ustekinumab), which has faced competition from rival new treatments across immunology indications.

This includes Novartis Consentyx (secukinumab), AbbVies Skyrizi (risankizumab), Eli Lillys Taltz (ixekizumab) and Pfizers Xeljanz (tofacitinib citrate) , which are all already approved in psoriatic arthritis.

The application to the FDA is based on thetop line results from the pivotal phase 3 trials of Tremfya, DISCOVER-1 and DISCOVER-2.

The drug hit its primary endpoint of ACR20 response at week 24, and multiple secondary endpoints including ACR50/70, resolution of soft tissue inflammation (enthesitis and dactylitis), disease activity (DAS-28 CRP), improvement in physical function (HAQ-DI), skin clearance (IGA) and quality of life (SF-36 PCS and MCS).

DISCOVER-2 also assessed the effect on structural damage using the van der Heide-Sharp score as a key endpoint. DISCOVER-1 studied Tremfya in 381 participants, including some who were previously treated with anti-TNF biologics, and the duration of the study was 52 weeks. DISCOVER-2 included 739 biologic-naive participants, and continued up to 100 weeks.

J&J will face tough competition from other psoriasis therapies, including Novartis Cosentyx. The two drugs both treat psoriasis by targeting interleukins involved in the inflammatory process, with Consentyx targeting IL-17 and Tremfya inhibiting IL-23, and they are among a crowd of new biologic therapies vying for market share in the psoriasis category.

Despite the competition, Tremfya is still a source of growth for J&J sales of Tremfya, which came to market in 2017, totalled $452m over the first half of 2019. With a successfulhead-to-head trial against Novartis Cosentyx in plaque psoriasis under its belt, J&Js drug has been established as a significant contender in the crowded field of psoriasis drugs.

However, J&J has been subject to another head-to-head trial Eli Lillys Taltzoutperformed Tremfya in a post-marketing trial in patients plaque psoriasis.

Taltz already has a large portion of the market share, having generated sales of $606m over the first half of 2019, which suggests full-year revenues will beat the $938m it brought in last year.

Lillys Taltz has also been proved to be superior to market leader Humira (adalimumab), in reducing psoriatic arthritis activity by half, and also completely cleared patients skin after 24 weeks. These factors could damage Tremfyas uptake in this indication, if approved, but its already established presence in the field could counteract this.

AbbVies Humira and J&Js Stelara have remained blockbuster drugs, partly due to their ability to rapidly clear up 75% of lesions in most patients.

J&J is also set to submit a marketing application to the European Medicines Agency for Tremfya in the same indication before the end of the year.

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J&J's Tremfya filed for approval in US for psoriatic arthritis - PMLiVE

Cayenne Pepper Relieves Joint Pain, Treats Psoriasis And Other Health Benefits – Medical Daily

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Cayenne pepper is more than just another spice since it has been providingmany medicinal benefits for thousands of years. The healing properties come from an active component of the chili pepper called capsaicin, which provides the hot taste. The level of spice corresponds to the amount of capsaicin it contains, therefore beinghealthierif morecapsaicinis present.

However, cayenne pepper is moderately hot in general. Introduced to European continent by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century, it was grown originally in Central and South America. Nowadays, you can grow cayenne pepper seedlings in your balcony or garden.

Cayenne peppers can be eaten in natural, powdered, cream and capsule form. It has a rich nutritional profile with one tablespoon or 5 grams of pepper containing 17 calories, 44 percent of the required daily intake (RDI) of vitamin A, 8 percent of vitamin E, 7 percent of vitamin C and 6 percent of the vitamin B6. Here are some of the major health benefits of incorporating cayenne peppers into your meals.

Anti-Cancer Properties

Capsaicin is the ingredient that helps reduce the risk of cancers such as lung, pancreatic, prostate and skin cancer. It attacks the cancer cells' growth process from all of its pathways. A study conducted by the University of California proved this. So far, the findings are limited to animal and laboratory studies. More studies based on human beings are required for further verification.

Brings Down Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease that causesinflammation on the skin due to excessive skin production. It manifests in the form of scaly skin with white itchy patches. According to Dr.Axe.com, two trials involving the topical application of capsaicin cream of just 0.025 percent was successful in healing somepsoriasis wounds. During a six weeks period, 44 patients had shown a decrease of psoriasis symptoms such as scaling and redness.

The next study consisted of 197 patients who were similarly treated topically with capsaicin cream four times every day for six week showed a similar reduction in skin destruction.Capsaicin also helped in bringing down the amount of substance P, a small peptide, that is involved in the formation of psoriasis.

Relieves Joint and Nerve Pain

Substance P is released in abnormal amounts in people with fibromyalgia. It is a neurotransmitter that signals pain to the brain. When there are fewersignals, small amounts of substance P is produced, whichmeans there is lesspain experienced.Cayenne pepper has the power to alleviate pain when applied on the skin to treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, nerve damage and lower back injuries.

Supports Weight Loss and Aids Digestion

Cayenne pepper reduces appetite and helps promote weight loss if consumed for breakfast. It also burns fat by increasing the heat generated by the body internally, which eventually leads to an increase in the metabolic rate.

Cayenne pepper increases the production of saliva in the salivary glands, which is the first crucial step in the digestive process. It also helps generate gastric juices that aid the digestive process too. The peppers help flush out toxins out of the body and produce a detoxifying effect.

Helps Overcome Cold and Flu

Cayenne pepperis a source of vitamin C, which could help reduce the cold accompanying a flu. It is also a natural remedy for the flu because it helps in decongesting the mucus and helps it exit the body.Also, its antioxidants could boost your immune system.

Hot Cayenne chili peppers are displayed at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Harvest Festival Show on October 9, 2013 in London, England. The nation's enthusiasts are showcasing their finest home grown fruit and vegetables for two days at the RHS Horticultural Hall. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

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Cayenne Pepper Relieves Joint Pain, Treats Psoriasis And Other Health Benefits - Medical Daily

Kim Kardashian diagnosed of psoriatic arthritis. Here is what it is – Times of India

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Despite all the fame and money which comes your way, bad health has a way of striking on your doors when you are least expecting it. Kim Kardashian knows this very well.Hollywood celebrity, reality TV star, and entrepreneur, Kim Kardashian recently opened up about receiving a "scary" health diagnosis from her doctor which made her question her life choices and worry what the future held for her.In one of the episodes of her show, Kim can be seen paying a visit to the doctor's clinic, where she received a rather scary diagnosis about contracting lupus, which later turned out to be false. As the mother of four said, she had been feeling a certain numbness in her hands and felt really tired of late, making her worry:

Ive been feeling so tired, so nauseous and my hands are really getting swollen, she said. I feel like I literally am falling apart. My hands are numb. Lately, my wrists are starting to hurt again but its definitely a different feeling, she said. I feel this in my bones. Its starting to really worry me. I really have to look into this. Based on the symptoms, it looks like I have rheumatoid arthritis. Its so scary. So I have to go to the doctor and see whats going on because I cant live like this.

The 38-year-old star also talked about how the diagnosis made her question her life choices. She also said that the lupus diagnosis made her undergo depression.

'When you do have a diagnosis, or you get tested for something and you get a result that you weren't expecting, you definitely get in your head and for a second you kinda get this little depression of, like, "OK, what are all of the possibilities that can happen?"' the star said.

'"What's my life gonna look like? I really wanna be active for my kids." And so it triggers something,'

However, she took it in her stride and decided to look at the positive side of life for the sake of her four kids and family. In an interview, she added:

No matter what's going on in your life, you can take that time to grieve for a second and then figure out how to be positive about it because it's not going to change. 'There's no point in being depressed and staying in that headspace, but I felt it for a minute", she added.

Kim, who has been a patient of psoriasis for a long time now had to go through screenings and tests, which revealed that she tested positive for certain antibodies responsible for the spread of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

However, the diagnosis proved to be false and Kim breathed a sigh of relief. While she did test positive for some antibodies, it was later revealed that she was suffering from psoriatic arthritis, a less severe form of arthritis.

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Kim Kardashian diagnosed of psoriatic arthritis. Here is what it is - Times of India

Psoriatic Arthritis: Facts About Kim Kardashian-Wests Disease Following Diagnosis – Medical Daily

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Last week's episode of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" (KUWTK) sparked concerns about Kim Kardashian-West. She got tested for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis then was diagnosed with a different condition.

Kim has psoriatic arthritis. It is a form of inflammatory arthritis affecting people with psoriasis and causes red patches of skin topped with silvery scales.

Prior to her diagnosis, the mother of four and wife of rapper Kanye West has been vocal about her psoriasis in previous episodes of KUWTK.

Psoriatic arthritis affects any part of the body, from fingertips to the spine. It may cause joint pain, stiffness and swelling.

Kim decided to meet a doctor to check her condition after experiencing numbness in her hands. She also reported feeling tired and nauseous and having swollen hands.

I feel like I literally am falling apart. My hands are numb. Lately, my wrists are starting to hurt again but its definitely a different feeling, she said as quoted by Womens Health. I feel this in my bones. Its starting to really worry me. I really have to look into this.

Kim initially suspected that she had rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. But the doctor who checked her did not find signs of the disease.

However, she appeared with symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. The doctor said the condition commonly comes and goes, which explains the pain and changes on Kims body.

Psoriatic arthritis commonly affects people at ages between 30 and 50, according to the American College of Rheumatology. But this condition can be tricky and sometimes hard to detect because of common symptoms that also appear in other conditions.

Psoriatic Arthritis Facts You Need to Know

No Cure

Psoriatic arthritis can be disabling if left untreated. However there is no cure available for this condition, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Doctors commonly recommend over-the-counter anti-inflammatories or prescription anti-rheumatic drugs to control its symptoms and protect the joints.

Psoriatic Arthritis Can Cause Sausage-Like Swelling

Some people who develop psoriatic arthritis may experience painful, sausage-like swelling of fingers and toes. It may also lead to deformities in both hands and feet. The pain can travel to tendons, ligaments and lower back.

Psoriatic Arthritis Cause Still a Mystery

Health experts said they have yet to fully understand how psoriatic arthritis occurs. Studies suggested it begins when the immune system attacks healthy cells and tissue, which triggers inflammation in the joints and overproduction of skin cells.

However, the question remains of why the immune system starts the abnormal response.

Family History Plays a Role

Scientists said there can be genetic factors contributing to psoriatic arthritis. A number of studies showed that many people with close relatives who developed the condition also appeared with psoriatic arthritis later in life.

Meanwhile, Kim did not look at her condition as very serious problem. She said she was relieved that this is just psoriatic arthritis.

The pain is going to come and go sometimes, she said. But I can manage it and this isnt going to stop me.

TV personality Kim Kardashian attends the 2018 MTV Movie And TV Awards at Barker Hangar on June 16, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. There are simple ways to spot the early signs of psoriasis when one has a chronic or seasonal dry skin, which may appear similar to the disease. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Kim Kardashian gets brutally honest about her psoriasis as she shares defiant photos of sores – Herald Publicist

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

After being recognized with psoriatic arthritis, fearing it was lupus, Kim Kardashian has opened up about her battle with psoriasis, sharing a defiant selfie throughout a flare up.

The 38-year-old star has battled the autoimmune situation for a while, nevertheless right this moment she shared an in depth and private essay about her journey with the sickness.

Writing on her sister Kourtneys way of life web site Poosh, Kim revealed she first began to get psoriasis signs on her twenties, when a standard chilly triggered the situation and he or she had it all over her stomach and legs, earlier than it got here again with a vengeance in her thirties.

Earlier this year is when it got extremely badit covered my whole face and a majority of my entire body, the 38-year-old informed readers.

Sharing a group of photographs of her flare ups, she needed to indicate everybody what she goes by way of, with painful trying marks and purple scabs dominating her legs.

It was shedding the motion in her arms as a result of situation that had Kim getting the assessments we noticed in a current episode of Preserving Up With The Kardashians.

One night, I woke up to use the restroom and I physically couldnt decide up my telephone. I assumed it was unusual however possibly I simply slept on my arms bizarre and I used to be so drained, I didnt must be checking my telephone at that hour anyway. I fell proper again asleep, she wrote.

I woke up that morning and I still couldnt decide up my telephone. I used to be freaking outI couldnt even decide up a toothbrush, my arms damage so badly.

She went on to disclose the ache as soon as turned so unhealthy she wasnt in a position to do up her bra earlier than an occasion.

Fearing the worst, she knew one thing was improper and it wasnt simply on the skin-level anymore.

I remember I had a press day for my Carolina Lemke sunglasses and I was wearing these purple boots and snake-print pants and I couldnt get my pants all the way down to go to the toilet, she wrote.

I couldnt even get my bra on that day, and I needed to have somebody gown me as a result of the ache was so insufferable. With the boots I used to be sporting, my ankles began to really feel it in these joints. Thats once I knew it wasnt simply a problem in my arms, it was a bone drawback.

Now, Kim admits shes come to phrases with the situation, wanting to indicate it off solely eager to cowl it up when she doesnt need it to be a distraction.

Her admission comes days after the most recent episode of her E! actuality present, the place we see Kim obtain her check outcomes.

The physician recognized her with a kind arthritis brought on by psoriasis, and never lupus. Consequently, her joints are affected, inflicting them to grow to be swollen, stiff and painful.

Should youve received a narrative, video or photos get in contact with the Metro.co.uk Leisure group by emailing us heraldpublicist@gmail.com, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff web page we might love to listen to from you.

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Kim Kardashian suffering from psoriatic arthritis? – Times Now

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Kim Kardashian suffering from psoriatic arthritis?

American beauty mogul Kim Kardashian recently opened up about her battle with Psoriasis, a chronic skin condition caused by an overactive immune system and its repercussions. The 38-year-old Keeping Up With the Kardashiansstar has talked about dealing with psoriasis disease for years which causes red, scaly and often itching or burning patches on the skin.

On the recent episode of the show, Kim learned that she is likely to be suffering from psoriatic arthritis, an inflammatory form of arthritis that causes joint pain and stiffness and affects about 30 per cent of people with psoriasis, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation, reported E-News.

In an essay written on sister Kourtney Kardashian's website 'Poosh' on Thursday, the model wrote that she had her first psoriasis suddenly showed up when she was 25 and said that she has had many more over the years.

"For the past eight years, although the spots are unpredictable, I can always count on my main spot on my right lower leg, which consistently stays flared up," she continued.

"I have learned to live with this spot without using any creams or medication--I just deal. Sometimes I cover it up and sometimes I don't. It doesn't really bother me."

The beauty star also confessed that the disease "got extremely bad" earlier this year, with lesions covering her face and the majority of her body, which led to different symptoms.

"One night, I woke up to use the restroom and I physically couldn't pick up my phone. I thought it was strange but maybe I just slept on my hands weird and I was so tired, I didn't need to be checking my phone at that hour anyway. I fell right back asleep. I woke up that morning and I still couldn't pick up my phone. I was freaking out--I couldn't even pick up a toothbrush, my hands hurt so badly," she wrote.

"As the day went on, I got a bit more movement in my hands, but they really hurt from the inside--I felt it in my bones."

Kim also reports to a rheumatologist that she is suffering from swollen joints, headaches and general fatigue. She tests positive for antibodies linked to lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. After undergoing an ultrasound exam, it is revealed that she has neither disease, but her doctor does tell her that she "probably" has psoriatic arthritis. (ANI)

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Kim Kardashian suffering from psoriatic arthritis? - Times Now

ASCSU senate votes for action against hate speech – Rocky Mountain Collegian

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

The Associated Students of Colorado State University voted on two resolutions Wednesday evening meant to condemn and hold accountability for hate speech, as a result of the Universitys recent blackface incident.

Hundreds of students, community members and interested groups attended the meeting to push for senators and University administration to take action.

ASCSU President Ben Amundson spoke in favor of action against acts of racism and showed support to the affected communities.

We can do so much more, and we know that, Amundson said. There are students here who are hurt, and, to me, thats something I take to heart. As a Black student, its not your job to solve racism when white students are creating racist acts on campus.

Resolution 4902: Condemning the acts of hate speech of the Colorado State University campus

Im sorry that we cannot end racism. However, we can take steps to alleviate some of the pain of the effects of racism, sexism and the disrespect to all marginalized communities. -ASCSU Senator Jaquikeyah Fields

Resolution 4902, presented by Senator Tristan Reyez, was expedited and passed with a 37-1-0 vote.

The focus of the resolution was to reject the act of racism in its entirety and to recognize its impacts on students, according to the resolution.

Tonight, I cried, Reyez said. I cried at hearing students tell me about how awful they feel to be a Ram and how awful they feel to experience racism every single day.

Reyez said the act of blackface was not an isolated incident and that he wants students to know the resolution is about opening the dialogue about other effects of racism on campus.

We, as students from across the nation, must work together to form a collective stance on racism, Reyez said.

Senator Diego Tovar said this resolution is just the start.

Saying no to this resolution just halts everything, and we start over, Tovar said. Do we want another incident on our campus? Just think about who you represent.

Resolution 4903: Accountability for hate speech against students

In this conversation, there is no room for extension or objection because we are beyond the times of objection and extension from elected officials on these issues. -Tim Hernandez, teacher

The second resolution of the evening was also expedited and passed.

This resolution, presented by Senator Jaquikeyah Fields, asked for there to be accountability for those who partake in hate speech, particularly the blackface incident.

This resolution was created with all of you in mind, Fields said. We are senators, and we represent you all. Im sorry that we cannot end racism. However, we can take steps to alleviate some of the pain of the effects of racism, sexism and the disrespect to all marginalized communities.

Senator Ethan Burshek asked about the ethical implications of the resolution.

I have listened and heard your thoughts and your pain; I am willing to look for a solution, Burshek said. But I want the right solution, and I want a solution that does not cause even more pain.

Burshek said the incident is protected under the First Amendment and is free speech and that the University must follow the dictates of the Constitution above all else.

Senator Austin Fearn said the Supreme Court has held up that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, but they can still say the Supreme Court is wrong.

It is within our power to say that that is not correct, Fearn said.

Tim Hernandez, a teacher from Denver, said this is what the discussion and dialogue on race has needed to be for hundreds of years.

In this conversation, there is no room for extension or objection because we are beyond the times of objection and extension from elected officials on these issues, Hernandez said. Some of my students drove an hour and fourteen minutes from Denver, Colorado, and paid their personal gas money to came to this meeting to express their thoughts.

Hernandez said this resolution does not just impact the climate and campus of CSU.

You, right now, at 12:22 in the morning, have an intentional role in building a culture of higher education in the state of Colorado, Hernandez said. So, I ask you today, are your actions and what you are speaking about conducive to the future of higher education, or is it your personal opinion?

The resolution was passed in a 31-5-2 roll call vote.

Charlotte Lang can be reached atnews@collegian.comor on Twitter@chartrickwrites.

College Avenue can do better and for that, we’d like to share your stories – Rocky Mountain Collegian

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Dear readers,

Within the first weeks of the school year, weve already witnessed an incident involving four White students in blackface. A week later, a swastika was found next to a community coordinators door in Aggie Village. These recent incidents have certainly shocked the campus community, but it is ultimately just the latest iteration of discriminatory behavior persistent within the past three years at Colorado State University. The fact that such incidents have been a mainstay on campus for the past four years is irrevocably heartbreaking.

An incident of racism has been a highlight of every semester since 2016. Since then, Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation College Avenues parent company has reported over 20 incidents related to bigotry; from a noose found hanging outside a Black resident assistants dorm room in 2017 to clashes between White nationalists and anti-fascist protesters in 2018. Intentional or otherwise, these incidents perpetuate racist and racially-ignorant beliefs, none of which have any place on our campus.

As journalists, we acknowledge our roles as storytellers and conversation leaders and the responsibilities these roles carry within our community. We also recognize our deficiencies in reporting about campus diversity and fostering its discussion. As a first-generation immigrant and person of color, Ill be the first to say we havent done enough as a publication to address these issues and share the voices of those most affected on campus.

At our core, College Avenue is a lifestyle magazine for the campus and Fort Collins community. Sometimes perhaps more often than were aware of lifestyle includes experiencing discrimination and microaggressions: the everyday slights, behaviors and statements which marginalized groups experience. Thus, wed like to make the first steps in becoming a media outlet that engages with the full spectrum of the CSU community and the issues that define us.

We want College Avenue to be a publication underrepresented communities on this campus can trust to tell their stories accurately. Our reason-for-being as a lifestyle magazine is, after all, tied directly to the rich collection of lived experiences within our community.

So, this year, were making a stronger commitment to sharing the stories of underrepresented groups on campus. To do that, we intend to schedule and attend meetings with the Student Diversity Programs and Services to have honest, thorough discussions about making College Avenue an inclusive platform for underrepresented voices. Based on these discussions, we will craft a diversity statement, which we will then send to the students and staff of the SDPS offices to receive feedback.

College Avenue meets weekly on Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. Starting Oct. 2, meetings will take place in the Student Media newsroom, ground floor of the Lory Student Center.

We honor those who share their pain and glories and respect that there are people among us who experience battle fatigue as a result of microaggressions. We endeavor to make this publication not only a safe space but a brave space, too.

Its about time College Avenue started cultivating relationships with those in the community who feel their voices arent being heard or just wish to be heard. We invite everyone to join this conversation and help us be a better magazine for the community.

College Avenue meets weekly on Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. Starting Oct. 2, our weekly meetings will take place in the Student Media newsroom, ground floor of the Lory Student Center. If you cant make the meetings, prefer to meet in a personal safe space or just to inquire about our work, send us an email at collegavenue@collegian.com. Well gladly take the time to listen.

We hope you as readers will aid us in our goal to be a better form of media one that accurately tells the stories of everyone at CSU. This is only the first step, but we want to help make a difference on campus.

Sincerely, and on behalf of the College Avenue editorial team,

Gabriel Go, Editor-in-Chief

Endorsed by:

Taylor Sandal, Executive Editor

Haley Candelario, Features Editor

Mackenzie Pinn, Photography Director

Meg Metzger-Seymour, Creative Director

Caleb Carpenter, Creative Director

Gabriel Go and the College Avenue editorial team can be reached at collegeavenue@collegian.com or on Twitter @collegeavemag.

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College Avenue can do better and for that, we'd like to share your stories - Rocky Mountain Collegian

Safety through oasis on the Midtown Greenway – Southwest Journal

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Donovan Harmel is ready to pass on responsibility for managing Veras Garden, which he has cared for since 2001. Submitted photo

After 18 years of pouring love and spilling sweat along the Midtown Greenway, Donovan Harmel is ready to step away from his role as manager of the much-beloved Veras Garden. Named in honor of the former Veras Cafe on the corner of 29th & Lyndale (a building now occupied by Lago Tacos), Veras Garden was the brainchild of some local gardeners with a few extra plants and a desire to find them a community home.

The result is an impressive project of neighborhood beautification, one that attracts visitors to rest among the flowers and invites Greenway travelers to slow down during their morning commutes.

Veras Garden broke ground less than a year after the first section of the Greenway opened to foot traffic in 2001. Harmel and his fellow gardeners worked with the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA) to draw up plans for the space and put together a lease agreement (Veras Garden leases the plot for $1 per year).

Over time, Veras Garden became known in the gardening community in Minneapolis and beyond. In 2015 the Southwest Journal declared it an oasis on the Midtown Greenway. In 2016 it was a featured stop on an annual garden bloggers tour bringing together writers from across North America. As the Midtown Greenway Coalition noted in a recent newsletter, Veras Garden is considered by many to be the most beautiful garden in the entire Greenway.

While Harmel spoke modestly about his contributions, he suspects that Veras Garden has had reverberations down the rest of the Greenway. I think it has helped get other beautification projects going, he said.

Chris Durant, a longtime friend, is less modest when he reflects on the impact of Harmels commitment to Veras. It started from just an idea to an amazing oasis that has really pushed other people to get involved in doing stuff along the Greenway, Durant said. I see [Harmel] as inspirational.

Veras Garden is more than just a project of beauty. Its a piece of infrastructure that impacts how people access and interact with communal space.

Public safety has always been part of the discussion when it comes to the Greenway, prompting concerns over who is using the trail and how. Even when Veras Garden was first putting together a proposal for the lot, Harmel remembers opposition to evergreen trees out of fear that people could hide behind them.

But Harmel did his research. He actually called a lead gardener with the Central Park Conservancy to ask about safety disparities between evergreen and deciduous trees and found no evidence that a safety disparity exists.

Harmel also built relationships with academic greenspace researchers, including Dr. Frances Kuo, founder of the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kuo has been a longtime leader in studying the connection between increased greenspace access and safer communities. Her research has demonstrated, for example, the relationship between urban greening and reduced aggression.

The City of Minneapolis and HCRRA, two entities that share operation and maintenance responsibilities over different portions of the Greenway, agree that gardens, landscaping and other beautifying infrastructure can have big impacts on user experience of the Greenway and can help connect the trail to the surrounding neighborhoods.

In 2015, Hennepin County Community Works and the Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) jointly published a report on East Lake Street/Midtown Greenway placemaking and urban design. This report features proposals for public art installations and landscape designs along the Greenway, all with access, connectivity and user experience in mind.

Over the last several months, Greenway-affiliated organizations including HCRRA, the Midtown Greenway Coalition and the office of Minneapolis City Council Member Alondra Cano (Ward 9) have all noticed an uptick in the perception of safety risk, particularly with respect to homeless encampments and drug activity. New fencing has gone up in response, both under the Bloomington Avenue Bridge on the Greenway and under the I-94 overpass along the Blue Line Trail in Cedar-Riverside. All the while, the trail has been quiet with respect to city and county involvement in placemaking and intentional design, as recommended in the above report.

But when it comes to creative placemaking, official bodies arent necessary to lead the effort. Veras Garden is a perfect example of this creative spontaneity.

And sometimes, this spontaneity is more defiant. If people want to go someplace, theyll go there, whether theres fencing or not, Harmel said.

The same is true for an informal cattle trail down to the Greenway trench from 29th Street. The trail was constructed for hillside maintenance purposes, explained Curt Gunsbury, owner of Solhem Companies, which operates the nearby Lyndy Apartments. Its not designed to become public access to the Greenway, although we assumed it would become one, he said.

According to Harmel, not only is fencing a waste of money, but it could pose a danger in and of itself. Recently the HCRRA opened up a gate in the fence that separates the Greenway from a HCRAA-owned access road to the south. The fence gap, located across from Veras Garden between Garfield and Harriet avenues, provides a new entry point for visitors coming down to the trail from the street above. People were climbing over [the fence] before, Harmel said. It was more of a danger for someone to get hurt.

Gunsbury understands that the Greenway fencing is important for HCRRA to maintain access to the property they operate. But as you can imagine, its hard to limit access to a trench that runs through a densely populated area, he said.

Luckily for Greenway users, Harmel has put in 18 years of dedicated work to create an accessible space of respite and safety, a small example of community placemaking come to life.

Veras Garden is on the lookout for a new garden manager. If you are interested in learning more or volunteering with the garden, please email Donovan Harmel at donhmpls@gmail.com.

Check out the next Green Digest for a deeper dive into community safety and infrastructure along the Midtown Greenway.

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Safety through oasis on the Midtown Greenway - Southwest Journal

Sitka: An unlikely player in the national food scene – KCAW

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

A leading food systems researcher and author has identified seven unlikely cities that are changing the way Americans eat.

Even more unlikely: One of them is in Alaska.

Surprise. The unlikely city in Alaska helping shape the national food scene is Sitka. But Sitkans arent riding this wave out of choice, necessarily. Author Mark Winne was in the community last year, and reports that Sitkas food strategies are the result of several factors most importantly, the price.

Ive seen numbers about the cost of food in Sitka not just compared to Seattle and Portland but also compared to places like Anchorage, said Winne. Its very, very expensive here, and people know that.

Sitkas groceries are 35-percent higher than the US mainland, and 10-to-21 percent higher than other urban communities in Alaska, according to data in Winnes latest book, Food Town USA: Seven Unlikely Cities that are Changing the Way We Eat. Winne is a senior advisor to the John Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future. Hes spent his career studying food systems and Sitkas is unique in his experience.

At least 95-percent of the food that people eat here is coming from the Lower 48, coming in via barge, said Winne. Thats an idea thats brand new to me. Id never heard of people getting most of their food via a barge.

But its not as if Sitkans are totally at a loss if a barge fails to arrive. Often on a Sunday night prior to a Monday barge landing, youd find the dairy shelves in the towns three grocery stores nearly stripped bare. Sitka is the largest community in Alaska that also has a rural designation under Federal subsistence rules. Winne says that nearly 60 percent of Sitkans eat some fish or game every week. Even before there was such a thing as a foodie scene, wild foods were at the heart of Sitkas.

This is how the community earned a chapter in Food Town USA, alongside places like Boise, Idaho; Portland, Maine; and Jacksonville, Florida.

I was looking for a place that was different from all the others all the cities that I was going to in the Lower 48, Winne said. A place that was more isolated, more rural, and also had a strong fisheries connection. And also had a vital food scene, a food culture. People really interested in different ways with food, from beer to salmon to berries to whatever! And Sitka really fit the bill in that regard.

During his visit to Sitka in 2018, Winne spent time at one of Sitkas farmers market, took a skiff ride out to a Andrea Fragas massive Middle Island Gardens, toured the community with the organizers of the communitys thriving food co-op, and studied the Fish-to-Schools program. He also gathered people at the library to talk about his work, and to hear local concerns over food security of which there are plenty. Many Sitkans wonder if the town shouldnt create and maintain a food reserve, in the event catastrophe prevented the arrival of a barge for several weeks. Or if there should be a local food center, to consolidate efforts to promote healthy, affordable eating in the community.

Winne says that Sitkas intentional, collaborative approach toward its food system is noteworthy, and a lesson for the rest of the country.

If people who really care about good food for everybody, and food security, and health, and maybe most importantly the sustainability of the planet, said Winne, if they dont work together and start to set aside differences, and start to create more planning, more coordinated activity, then we wont have the capacity we need to face the challenges that we have there.

Food Town USA: Seven Unlikely Cities that are Changing the Way We Eat is Winnes fourth book on food systems. Published by the Island Press, its available in bookstores everywhere.

Erin Slomski-Pritz contributed to this story.

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Sitka: An unlikely player in the national food scene - KCAW

Religious Coworking Spaces Encourage Faith, Careers – Word and Way

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

People work in Epiphany Spaces open workspace in Hollywood. RNS photo by Heather Adams

LOS ANGELES (RNS) For Melissa Smith, who is from the South and has worked in the hospitality industry,community is a big part of who she is.

I didnt know anything about coworking, I just knew there was this need to gather, Smith said. Its very easy to feel isolated in Los Angeles.

But another big part of Smiths life is her faith, so six years ago when she started Epiphany Space, a coworking office for creative professionals in Hollywood, she did so through a Christian lens.

You can go to a coffee shop, you can go to a library, but those places youre not necessarily building intentional relationships, Smith said.

The number of coworking offices in the U.S. has grown exponentially over the past few years. According to the 2019 Colliers International flexible workspace report,there were fewer than 300 coworking spaces in the U.S. in 2010. At the end of 2017, there were more than 4,000.

In Dallas, Raleigh-Durham, Boston and Seattle, the number of coworking spaces has doubled in less than two years.

People are flocking to coworking spaces because they are often less expensive than renting out a dedicated office for your business. Plus, many coworking offices come with administrative staff, access to printers, Wi-Fi and meetings rooms. But they are also popular for the social benefits: free coffee and snacks, regular happy hour events, Zen rooms and showers.

Building community among the many freelancers, remote workers and small businesses that work in these shared offices is part of the goal for most coworking spaces. It was the goal for Smith too when she started Epiphany Space.

Melissa Smith, the owner of Epiphany Space. RNS photo by Heather Adams

In LAs Epiphany Space those relationships are built with both Christians and non-Christians, through workshops, open-mic nights and simply working alongside each other. Only about half the community at Epiphany Space is Christian and theres no mention of it on the website.

I never designed Epiphany to be a Christian Club, Smith said. We have conversations about God, we pray for one another, but we dont force our beliefs or perspectives on anybody.

Instead, Smiths faith and Epiphany Spaces Christian connection come out through how she runs it.There are Bibles scattered around and there is a prayer room (though it can also be used for meetings or phone calls). She encourages Christian members to pray for one another. Even so, a visitor might not identify it as having Christian roots until starting to work there and talking to the people. Thats how Smith wants it.

I think its easy for a Christian to create a bubble and stay in it and not have a sense of whats happening in the world, Smith said. Our purpose is to create space for people to be able to thrive and for art to be able to be cultivated.

Smith also tries to approach her members with Christian values in mind. One monthly member was out of a job. She knew that at the end of the month shed also be out of money and her time at Epiphany Space would come to an end.

I looked at her and said, Just come, Smith said. At some point you can pay it forward.

That member soon started getting freelance work and is now back on her feet.

If we had just said, Were a business, too bad, see ya, she wouldve spiraled into depression and isolation and it wouldve made that journey a whole lot more difficult, she said.

All the Epiphany Space users are artists, so Smith understands the importance of affordability something shes able to provide by keeping things modest. While some coworking offices offer high end coffee, nice desks and a rooftop deck, Epiphany Space has mostly mismatched, donated furniture and most of the office is dedicated to open common areas. It might not be for everyone, but for the artists at Epiphany Space it has charm.

In Los Angeles, WeWork, an established coworking franchise, can cost more than $400 a month to access the offices open floor plan in the common areas and more than $5,000 a month for team offices. But Epiphany Space charges $20 per day, $75 per week or $200 a month for its packages.

Religious posters and books adorn Epiphany Space in Hollywood. RNS photo by Heather Adams

Its also important to Smith that Epiphany Space stay in Hollywood. She hopes to continue to grow but has no intention of becoming the next WeWork type franchise.

Hollywood is an idea. It is an industry. It means something in culture, she said. Hollywood means so many things.

Christians arent the only religious faithful who are pioneering these types of coworking communities.

Shahed Amanullah co-founded Affinis Labs, recently acquired by Frost Capital, to help cater to businesses with Islamic values by connecting them to like-minded entrepreneurs and offering classes and networking opportunities.

Some of these companies, for example, are in modest fashion or charitable giving, such as LaunchGood.

Modest fashion, he said, is an Islamic value but the company doesnt market it that way its for anyone who wants to dress modestly.

Shahed Amanullah. Courtesy photo

Even though it comes from this space that was informed by Islamic values and heritage and tradition, maybe theres something in it for everybody, Amanullah said. Were trying to connect like-minded people so we can have a conversation.

For Amanullah, though, he isnt interested in supporting businesses that only cater to the Muslim community, adding that Affinis Labs turned down people who have come to him with ideas or business ventures like a Muslim Facebook or a Muslim YouTube.

Are you just seeking to wall yourself off from the rest of the world? he asked. Or are you seeking to blossom as a religious community so that the rest of the world can benefit from it?

He said all religious businesses will come to this fork in the road when they have to decide if they are cutting themselves off from those outside their tradition or trying to benefit a wider community.

But for those who want to be included in Affinis Labs, The whole point is by us, for everybody, he said.

For Amanullah its more than the physical building, which is why Affinis Labscreated a virtual building, connecting people through a platform all over the world.

If we have a coworking space in DC, thats a tiny piece of the global market that can actually come to our physical space, he said. We realized early on we have to think way beyond a coworking space.

But for SketchPad, a coworking space in Chicago dedicated to Jewish nonprofit companies with a social mission, the physical location is important.

For many of the people now at SketchPad, their organizations were already working together constantly but their offices werent near each other and many of them were in buildings that didnt fit their needs. Irene Lehrer Sandalow, SketchPads director, had a vision to bring the companies together to fit all their needs and be able to easily collaborate on projects that overlap.

We spend so much time scheduling, Sandalow said. Instead, people here can just walk over and say, Im thinking about this. What do you think? Can we talk about it?

Its also useful to know what companies are out there, so they arent duplicating efforts, Sandalow said.

Beyond encouraging collaboration, SketchPad puts a significance on Jewish values in how the coworking space is operated.

One such Jewish value is hospitality hachnasat orchim. SketchPad works hard to make sure everyone feels welcome. For example, the bathrooms are ADA accessible and gender neutral. SketchPad also values environmental justice, so the coworking space recycles and composts.

SketchPad plans to keep expanding who and what it embraces.

We keep bringing it up, Sandalow said. Everybody here is involved in the different elements that makes Sketchpad Sketchpad.

Cortney Matz, an artist working at Epiphany Space in Hollywood. RNS photo by Heather Adams

For those invested in these faith-based coworking communities, they can be life-changing.

When Cortney Matz first moved to Los Angeles in 2014, her work wasnt taking off like shed hoped, and she quickly felt lonely and depressed.

Epiphany Space, she said, gave her the freedom to just create without a destination in mind.

She knew she was artistic and good at singing always singing in the church choir but, she said, she thought that being good at art meant painting the church walls or being good at writing meant helping with the church newsletter.

I love all of my church experiences growing up but somehow I got this idea creativity was for Sundays, she said.

The people at Epiphany Space helped her see past that. Now a singer and songwriter, shes learned that doing what she does best as a career is just as valuable as helping at the church on Sundays.

Being an artist is what I do, Matz said. To try to ignore that and try to pick something more useful, like a pastor or a missionary, is just not the plan. Its not Gods plan for me and Ive tested that.

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Religious Coworking Spaces Encourage Faith, Careers - Word and Way

Face to face, in the street and elsewhere – Frederick News Post

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

I got to thinking about reviving neighborhood block parties about the time of last weeks In the Streets celebration, when thousands filled Market Street in Frederick and spilled onto Carroll Creek Linear Park. The really neat part was that people were out of their vehicles, walking around, and in some cases I actually witnessed this talking to each other. They were interacting.

Some of us live in splendid isolation in splendid developments where neighbors are a distant blur. We drive by ourselves down the road to work in a splendid little cubicle or even better, a corner office, with windows. We even take advantage of all those nifty time-saving self-checkout stations at the supermarket, the gas station and the bank where we dont have to deal with actual people.

Or we buy online to really save time, more driving or having to deal with even more people.

Maybe thats an ideal version of the American dream. Being independent, strong, standing tall. And alone. Not only the American dream, but increasingly, the American way of life.

Is it not possible. then, that by seeing less of each other, but interacting as little as possible with each other, that we eventually will understand each other even less, appreciate our differences even less? That could apply to close-by neighbors and to even a greater extent, distant neighborhoods and those neighbors we never see. We can just be comfortable in our own cocoons, our own worlds, neatly wrapped up and secured with automatic garage door closers.

Blame our modern society. Both parents work long hours because they have to, never have as much time with the kids as they would like, and socializing is a rare commodity. Blame our planners and builders that have traditionally created spaces more like a haphazard conglomeration of boxes centered on our vehicles with little regard for walking or that most

basic of human needs interaction with others. If they do consider opportunities for human interaction, its rare.

One successful effort that I know of is Liberty Village, a small co-housing community project in Libertytown.

According to its website, its where running into neighbors is intentional. There are others. I had the privilege of experiencing a genuinely neighborly neighborhood when I volunteered with the Meals on Wheels program a number of years ago.

One of my stops, on Thursdays, was at the home of Mrs. Edith Jackson, who lived on Madison Street in an older section of Frederick. Mrs. Jackson was nearing 100 years old at the time, loved to keep up with the news in the local newspaper, loved to sit at the kitchen table and chat, and loved Shirleys banana bread.

She might have been old, frail and lived alone, except when her grandson was home, but she was hardly alone. The first time I made a delivery, the lady in the house across the street rushed over to check on who I was and what I was doing there. She, and the rest of her neighbors, kept a close eye on things. The next-door neighbor, Perry, also did his part in making sure Mrs. Jackson was OK.

I went back for Mrs. Jacksons 100th birthday, in 2009, a year before she died, when the mayoral candidates were trying their best to take advantage of her popularity. Part of Madison Street was blocked off, and the neighbors turned out for an old-fashioned block party and birthday celebration. It was great to see. I was envious that our neighborhood never had a block party, but blocking off busy Bowers Road would be like trying to block off Interstate 270.

We re forever whining about our hectic, frenetic pace, being a reluctant part of what we call the rat race, or never having enough time for the things we really want to do. Never enough time for people. Maybe thats on us. Maybe a lot of that day-to-day pressure is self-inflicted. Do we really need to rush through life that way and die too soon?

Probably too much to ask to schedule more frequent In the Streets events. Maybe we could rotate them among outlying communities. Not very likely, but we could have more neighborhood block parties. If that wont work, how about something simpler, like visiting a friend, or even a neighbor? Itll be a start.

Slower by nature Bill Pritchard, who worked too fast in community journalism for 30 years, writes from Frederick. Reach him at billpritchard.1@gmail.com.

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Face to face, in the street and elsewhere - Frederick News Post

Kroger makes large donation to urban farm in South Dallas – KCENTV.com

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

DALLAS An urban farm thats dedicated to addressing food access challenges and food insecurities is getting help with its mission from a new community partner.

Bonton Farms is receiving a donation from Kroger. The grocery company and its associates presented the team from Bonton Farms with a check for $70,000 during a special volunteer event at the farms South Dallas operation.

This has been a day in the making, said April Martin, Public Affairs Director of Kroger Dallas Division.

Partnerships and people are powerful. A large group of Kroger associates spent time volunteering at the farm as part of the grocers Zero Hunger Zero Waste initiative.

Bonton Farms Founder and CEO Daron Babcock explained, "Food is a really important part of being a human being. Without it, we suffer. Our lives becomes something smaller."

The donation from Kroger will allow Bonton Farms in its efforts to expand food production and services. Martin says the company has been intentional in expanding its reach in Southern Dallas.

Were trying our best to expand partnerships for greater customer value, Martin explained.

A few weeks ago, Dallas City Council members approved incentives to allow Kroger and its partner Ocado to open a large robotics based online grocery distribution center at the corner of Telephone and Bonnie View roads in Southern Dallas. That site is bringing about 400 jobs to the area.

RELATED: Council approves $5.7 million in incentives to bring Kroger online grocery warehouse to Dallas

"Its this innovative technology fulfillment center which is going to expand our footprint and give accessibility to food to more and more people in the state of Texas," Martin said.

The team at Bonton Farms says the donation will also help as it continues providing fresh food options and jobs at the on-site market and caf. A coffee house is opening next week. There are also plans in the works for a daily farmers market.

Babcock said, "My dream has always been to do something here that works, so that we can empower and give hope to communities that dont have it."

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Kroger makes large donation to urban farm in South Dallas - KCENTV.com

Biz leaders say focus on neighborhoods results in more significant impact – Indianapolis Business Journal

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

IBJ illustration/Brad Turner

Cummins Inc. employees have raised money to repair the bridge over Pogues Run, organized a food pantry for Westminster Neighborhood Services Inc., and taught professional development classes for the John Boner Neighborhood Centers.

Later this month, they will pull invasive plants out of Brookside Park.

The volunteer initiatives might be wide-ranging, but the efforts all have something in commonthe work is benefiting Indianapolis near-east side, and thats intentional.

Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins started targeting the neighborhood several years ago as it prepared for its distribution headquarters, which opened in 2017 on the east side of downtown.

I think it was just natural to continue looking east, said Travis Meek, a lawyer for Cummins who leads the companys Indianapolis community involvement team.

Cummins isnt alone in its neighborhood approach. Multiple Indianapolis companies are choosing to focus their philanthropy on a particular neighborhood as a way to make a greater impact.

We think our business is stronger when our communities are stronger, Cummins spokeswoman Katie Zarich said.

Just a few examples: Bank of America Indianapolis has zeroed in on the near-west side, investing more than $500,000 in not-for-profits working to improve that area; Kinney Group is focused on the River West neighborhood within the near-west side, and helped revive the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament in 2017; and Fifth Third Bank has aligned with South Indy Quality of Life, investing about $150,000 to help establish a neighborhood advisory council.

We could sprinkle this all over town, but if we focus this here were going to make an impact, said Karen Pipes, senior vice president and market manager for Bank of America Indianapolis. It allows us to really help them move that needle forward.

Neighborhood leaders are enjoying the partnerships, but say its important for companies to be willing to make the investment long term and to get to know the areas needs before jumping in.

Eric Cervantes with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana tells Cummins employees about their need for more mentorsor bigson the near-east side. (IBJ photo/Lindsey Erdody)

Meeting with the neighborhood leaders is just so valuable, said Michelle Strahl Salinas, South Indy Quality of Life plan director. Because they know what the obstacles or concerns might be.

Fifth Third, for example, has a representative that regularly meets with Salinas throughout the year.

Its really exciting to see how theyre growing, said Jadira Hoptry, Fifth Third vice president and community and economic development manager.

John Franklin Hay, executive director of Near East Area Renewal, said Cummins also took the time to learn about the areas biggest needs and opportunities and has developed strong relationships with neighborhood leaders.

Hay said Cummins is a company that gets it.

Ive really appreciated how Cummins has tried to listen and understand rather than drive a project from the outside, he said. Its inspiring to have partners from a major corporation that are helping us address our challenges and our opportunities.

Today, Cummins has 15 near-east-side partner organizations focused on three areaseducation, environment and equality of opportunity.

The real driver is the actual partnerships that we develop with these community organizations that are doing excellent work, Meek said.

Many neighborhood and company relationships have come together through the Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Indianapolis, which has targeted five neighborhoods through its Great Places 2020 program.

We often play the role of connecting the dots, said LISC Executive Director Tedd Grain.

Pipes said thats how Bank of America Indianapolis decided to focus on the near-west side, which is one of the neighborhoods LISC serves. There was really an alignment to our foundation and the ability to quickly invest and engage, she said.

Grain also said he cautions companies against parachuting in and launching a philanthropic effort in a neighborhood without any conversations or research.

Its helpful to have relationships that are meaningful and interactive and back and forth between neighborhoods and the entities that want to engage with them, he said.

Pipes said she met with many leaders from community groups and other not-for-profits working in the neighborhood before making any investment.

The biggest investment so far from Bank of America Indianapolis has been $200,000 to Hearts & Hands of Indiana last year to support the organizations mission of helping individuals and families obtain affordable housing.

Bank of America of Indianapolis has also provided grants to partners like the Westside Community Development Corp. and River West Theatre and to Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana for a school-based food pantry in the neighborhood.

Grain said business leaders should pinpoint their core values, identify how they want to have an impact, and look at where they already have relationships and connections when selecting a geographic area.

For example, Kinney Group targeted River West because its the IT service providers home.

Jim Kinney, CEO of the company, said he believes the area has the potential to grow and succeed. This area that we are at is the biggest diamond in the rough in the entire city, Kinney said.

The company has managed a community garden on its property and helped with a beautification project that added artistic lighting to the New York Street bridge.

Kinney and his wife also started a not-for-profit called Near West 21 that supports revitalization projects in the area.

Id rather focus specifically on an area and deliver tangible results, Kinney said. Do I think weve helped move the needle? You bet.

Neighborhood leaders also say its important to invest both time and moneynot just one or the other. For example, Salinas said Fifth Third has helped her develop relationships with other business leaders in the community and helped send her to a week-long professional development training recently.

The way I look at it is, the checks are never enough, she said. Its about the programs they have, the resources they can bring to the table.

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Biz leaders say focus on neighborhoods results in more significant impact - Indianapolis Business Journal

Tim Ryan is at home in the presidential race – Washington Examiner

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

NILES, OHIO Its just past 9 a.m. at the Ryan home in this Trumbull County suburb in Ohio, and the three kids are off to school for the day: the older two in high school and the five-year-old off settling in for his first week in kindergarten. He goes to the same place where his mother works as a second grade teacher.

Tim Ryan is nibbling on the fresh cinnamon muffins his wife left on the kitchen counter. Outside the window, a trampoline, a swing set, a basketball hoop, and a scattering of toys serve as a reminder that this guy is pretty much like any other suburban dad in Northeast Ohio, except that he serves in one of the most unliked professions in this country: Congress. Also, he's running for president.

And despite not having a presence on the national debate stage for the past two spectacles, he says with good reason, he has no plans to drop out now or any time before the first contests early next year.

Do you think I would be away from my family if I didnt think I had a chance? he says after explaining the Sunday family tradition of cooking sauce all day (he is half-Italian), hanging with the family, and watching the Cleveland Browns lose, as they did this past Sunday in their home opener.

He's showing the same healthy stubbornness he showed when ran against Nancy Pelosi for minority leader in 2016 after the Democrats lost the presidency, the Senate, and the House.

His critics were right, and he did lose. Still, Ryans repeated warning and consistent message of being more inclusive to moderate voters and running more pragmatic candidates in swing districts is exactly what the Democrats copied to win back the House two years later.

I am the only Democrat who could win this race who people dont know enough about yet, he says of not just his low name ID, but also his more moderate approach to things like fracking. Exactly how do you go tell someone who's making $100,000 a year in the states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that on day one, you're going to put them out of work? Because in their minds, that's what they see and that's what they hear, he says of the parade of Democrats following Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's pledge to ban fracking.

My thing is: Let's have car plants where we're building electric vehicles, we're building solar, we're building wind, we unionized those jobs so they pay as much as the jobs they have what with they're doing now. Then you say we're going to wean ourselves off of this or get technology to make sure that we [are] capturing all the carbon. We also have an agriculture agenda that's going to be sequestering carbon. Talk to people like adults. Like, we're going to phase out of this and phase into this, but you're going to have your job until we make sure there's one there for you that pays as much as you're making now, he says of alternatives.

But we don't have the other jobs lined up yet, he stresses.

(Justin Merriman for the Washington Examiner)

In the latest RealClearPolitics averaging of polls, Ryan is polling at 0.5%, the same as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio before he dropped out and just a smidge below Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former housing secretary Julin Castro, who both made the debate stage in Texas last week.

Ryan was one of the 10 who did not make the stage in a race dominated by former Vice President Joe Biden and liberal darlings Sanders and Warren. His appeal, he says, is similar to Biden's in his understanding of the forgotten men and women. And he's not just talking about the Rust Belt.

What I've learned for the last couple years is it's not just this area. I mean you go to New York City, and there's people that are forgotten there. You can go to L.A., and there's tent cities of people who are homeless. So the system is not working now across the board. My whole idea is that if someone from an area that is always seen as being left behind can unite the people of the country who have been left behind, that you have a coalition to actually do something about it, he said.

Even the vaunted Acela Corridor, that Amtrak line that connects Washington to New York, isnt exactly the playground for the elite, he says, if you just bother to look out the window as you pass through Baltimore; Wilmington, Delaware; Philadelphia; or Newark, New Jersey.

It doesn't look much different than when Bobby Kennedy's body got brought from New York to D.C. It's very similar. There's structural problems that need structural solutions, but it's got to be framed in a way that it's for those people, he said.

Ryan says the people he listens to dont see their problems as ideological. They see it as a community problem, and they're open for total, absolute, complete common sense," he said. "People think you have to have a snappy saying. Of course, you're trying to penetrate the masses. You have to have some brand, but I do think this campaign in particular is going to be a lot like 1992, when the Berlin Wall fell and globalization was just happening and the world was changing and a governor from Arkansas announced he was going to run late in the game because he understood people were hungry for change."

Ryan has no slick operation. A staffer is waiting in his dining room for him to make calls; no one is waiting in his driveway in a large Suburban to escort him anywhere. Ha. No. For God's sake, I had to bring the garbage cans down and empty them. My wife's, like, Tonight's garbage night, he says.

Ryan said he had a choice to make to push for a place on the stage, but that involved playing games. Are we going to keep going after the 130,000 low-dollar donations where you're paying $50 to $70 for a $1 contribution? Which, by the way, most people sitting at home will sit there and say, That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Who does that? he said.

I don't think it is how you ultimately get elected either, he said, adding you also dont have a quick rally, shake a couple hands, snap some selfies, and go home.

We stay for a few days. We have lunch with the key leaders. We go to church. We've probably gone to six, seven African American churches, he said of his visits to South Carolina, the first early primary voting state where blacks have a decisive influence in the election results.

I'm listening to them. It's not about talking. It's not about big speeches. It's about listening. So you sit, and you go to lunch for an hour and a half with key leaders, and you listen to what their needs are. Then I'm talking about jobs and wages and healthcare and investments in these communities. What I have, I think, that some of the others don't have is I can go in the community and say, 'I come from a community just like this,' he said of places he represents like Youngstown, where the black population slightly edges out the white population in that working-class city.

On the working class, Ryan is the rare candidate who, when he had an opportunity to be on the national debate stage, talked about the union working families. The inattention from others bewilders him.

I don't know if it's intentional, but they [the candidates] don't spend enough time understanding these people. After the Trump election, somebody from California, elected official, who will remain nameless, said to me, I'd really like to come in Ohio and meet some of these people. I thought, We're not a petting zoo. We didn't take everyone's teeth out so you can feed them and have an experience with your kid. These are the people that have built this country, and you need to understand what they're going through, he said.

My strategy is I'm going to go where the people are, I'm going to listen, and I'm going to campaign like I did 20 years ago when I ran for the state Senate and ran for Congress. I'm going to go the bingo halls. I'm going to go the bowling alleys. I'm going to go to the bars and have a beer, have lunch, have breakfast. Literally, I'm in New Hampshire walking through the breakfast joint shaking hands, meeting people, he said of his constant trips to Iowa, the Granite State, and South Carolina.

He knows the race will not be won on Twitter discussions between journalists.

There's no reason for me to drop out, we're raising enough money to keep going. We're hearing from people that they're interested in supporting us. So for me, it's September. Im the long-shot candidate and I am OK with that, he said.

If I go to places and nobody shows up, and if no one's endorsing me and I don't have any money, then thats when I call it quits and I'm going to come to my kid's football game," he said.

Continued here:

Tim Ryan is at home in the presidential race - Washington Examiner

Wyoming has 2nd highest rate of suicide in U.S. Local expert offers ways to help – Jackson Hole News&Guide

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Wyoming has the second-highest rate of suicides and gun suicides in the nation, according to results of a Violence Policy Center study released last week. Montana has the highest rates and Alaska ranks third.

Guns were involved in 68% of suicides in Montana, 63% of suicides in Wyoming and 60% of suicides in Alaska.

The analysis, which was released about halfway through Suicide Prevention Month, used the most recent available data from 2017 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The study focused on suicides where firearms are involved and included the overall suicide rate per 100,000 people, gun suicide rate, overall number of suicides, percentage of suicides involving guns and household gun ownership in each state, according to a Wyoming News Exchange article in today's Jackson Hole Daily.

Suicide is always a difficult topic to discuss, but numbers have been on the rise nationally and globally. Talking about it and sharing information can help to remove the stigma, said Deidre Ashley, executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center.

Suicides, usually fueled by underlying mental illness, are especially worrisome for groups that are seeing the largest increases: adolescents and college students, veterans and older adults, Ashley wrote in her Sound Mind column in the Sept. 18 edition of the News&Guide, excerpted here:

What can you do?

There are several options for free training that can help members of the community recognize and respond to someone who is struggling. The Jackson Hole Community Counseling Centers Mental Health First Aid program, an eight-hour course, is one. Another is Safe Talk, a three-hour program focused on suicide prevention. Those programs give community members the skills to recognize the signs of suicide, ask questions and provide resources for intervention.

Rural areas present more difficulties in talking about suicide. Small towns mean that most people are connected and know someone affected by the issue. Many of us may be reluctant to say anything for fear of making matters worse or making someone uncomfortable. So how can we go about discussing the issue respectfully and responsibly?

Media coverage and social media, if not used responsibly, can cause harm. But they can also be effective tools to correct myths or misperceptions and encourage people at risk to seek help as well as communicate facts and resources. Speaking out is critical to prevention but should always be done carefully and in a way that is respectful to people who have experienced a loss to suicide.

Education is one of the most important resources for communities in preventing suicide and eliminating the stigma surrounding mental illnesses. Articles about suicide can educate readers about risk factors, warning signs and local resources for intervention. In addition, there is much more to understand about why people choose suicide as an option.

Many families and friends who have lost a loved one to suicide may blame themselves or feel judged by others. Education can provide interventions and understanding while minimizing risk, but also be respectful to the people who are affected by suicide. Those talking about suicide should be sensitive to tone, content and language. Responsible discussion should avoid judgment intentional or implied when reporting the full story and should always include education about suicide prevention.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has a few recommendations for sharing a personal story in public or in the media. The guide encourages including referral numbers and information about warning signs. Providing information on local prevention efforts and activities can have positive effects.

Without a doubt, discussions about suicide should be happening throughout our community. At the same time there should be a focused approach to overall community-based mental health care to address the underlying mental illness issues.

Several organizations and individuals are working as part of the Community Prevention Coalition of Teton County on initiatives to provide information, support, counseling, training and suicide prevention programs.

Contact the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center at 733-2046 or the Community Prevention Coalition of Teton Countyat 732-8495 for details or to get involved.

Allayana Darrow of The Sheridan Press contributed to this report.

Deidre Ashley is executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center. She is a licensed clinical social worker and has a masters degree in social work. Contact her via columnists@jhnewsandguide.com.

Wyoming has 2nd highest rate of suicide in U.S. Local expert offers ways to help - Jackson Hole News&Guide

Fisher: Who you know 3 ways schools can foster competency-based education by focusing on student relationships – LA School Report

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Getty Images

Competency-based education has seen its fair share of champions over the past decade, offering the promise of a new architecture of learning. As the competency bandwagon continues to get more crowded, however, there is a critical and too often ignored through line between competencies and connections.

My recent book, Who You Know, focused on the transformative role that networks play in expanding opportunity. I argued that schools need to become far more intentional brokers of deep and diverse relationships for students. One of the best ways I identified to build a more networked school? Pursue a competency-based model. Put simply, competency-based approaches dont just open up time, space and flexibility for learning; designed with the right intentions, they can also do the same for connecting. As a result, competency-based systems can yield not merely richer academic outcomes but more robust networks as well.

For the many systems nationwide making the pivot to competency-based pathways and assessments, here are three key opportunities to optimize for deeper and more diverse relationships in students lives:

Many competency-based efforts begin with core academics. Educators making the move to competency-based approaches come together to define what constitutes academic competency in their discipline and how to measure it. New Hampshire, for example, requires that all school districts identify academic competencies. But school systems are also taking this a step further, starting to articulate the non-academic competencies that young people need to thrive in their careers and communities.

Measurement is a deeply technical exercise. But particularly when it comes to these non-academic dimensions, it can also be a social one. Assessing students non-academic abilities, such as how they collaborate or forge caring connections with peers and teachers, offers a window into a childs social experiences and assets that merely assessing academic competencies may not. In other words, expanded definitions of success within competency-based approaches can begin to create the circumstances in which teachers consistently learn more and more about their students lives.

These deeper relationships can fuel a high-quality competency-based system in ways that simply setting goals and defining measures cannot. The better teachers know their students, the better they can differentiate their own teaching as students progress toward mastery. And the better a school as a whole understands students strengths and interests, the better it can act as an effective broker for the flexible pathways that a competency-based architecture opens up.

Flexible pathways are a marker of competency-based systems anytime, anywhere nature. Students can acquire competencies in a wide range of experiences, in or out of school. At its best, this can open up a system wherein a broader base of people and institutions can have a role in students learning. If learning can happen anywhere, the school is not solely the provider of learning; its also a broker for extended learning opportunities. For example, students at New Hampshires Virtual Learning Academic Charter School can elect to master competencies by co-designing, with their online teacher, learning experiences in their communities and with local businesses.

To reap the greatest return on investment from these extended learning opportunities, competency-based schools should work to foster opportunities that produce extended networks. If a student engages in a job, shadow internship or community-based project, schools should ensure that he or she forges deeper and more diverse relationships in the course of those experiences. They can do so by encouraging students to create relationship maps of the connections they accrue in the course of their learning, and by creating out-of-school learning experiences that deliberately include frequent social in addition to experiential components. Simply scheduling regular check-ins with project mentors or internship supervisors can create a rhythm of relationship-building that can easily slip through the cracks if a student is engaged in a work-based project in isolation.

Gauging whether students are successfully forging new connections can also offer something of a sniff test as to whether flexible pathways are helping or hurting equity. Flexible pathway options can easily formalize the two-track system already informally at play in our schools, with children from affluent families who already enjoy unprecedented investment in enrichment activities, exotic travel and internships offered through inherited networks becoming the greatest beneficiaries of a competency-based system that awards credit for those experiences. In an equitable competency-based system, schools can use extended learning opportunities as a deliberate channel to reach beyond inherited networks, which is particularly important for students with fewer entres into the knowledge economy. Schools can start to measure the efficacy of these pathways in part based on whether they successfully generated new and diverse connections in students lives.

In most emerging competency-based models, to ensure consistency and quality, the teacher remains the arbiter of academic credit. Even if a student is acquiring and practicing an academic or work-study competency beyond the classroom, that learning is still formally credentialed by the school. But the more that competency-based systems successfully integrate a broader array of experts and mentors, that validation can move beyond academic credentials to include social ones.

Big Picture Learning co-founder Elliot Washor has observed this phenomenon among students learning through on-the-job internships in which they forge close connections with mentors: Whom you know matters and what you know matters, but especially powerful is who knows you know what you know. Washor is effectively describing the value of social credentials; mentors and experts who are invested in, and bear witness to, students strengths and abilities, and who can vouch for them down the line. Put differently, real-world experiences and feedback can unlock real-world social credentials that complement academic credentials. This can be especially powerful in cases in which students have never met anyone who works in a particular industry but end up not just connected to, but known by, professionals in that industry.

Enthusiasm for competency-based approaches continues to grow. According to iNACOL, all states but one have taken steps toward including competencies in the core of education practice. As policymakers and educators advocate for the shift from time-based to competency-based systems, they often characterize this fundamental change as reimagining the pace at which learning occurs and recalibrating assessments along the way. Id argue that work can go a step further, to leverage opportunities for even more radical change in students lives. Reimagining time and tests can and should also mean reimagining the relationships brokered in the course of learning. That way, states are building toward a system in which students graduate not only competent but connected.

Julia Freeland Fisher is director of education research at the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of the book Who You Know: Unlocking Innovations That Expand Students Networks.

Originally posted here:

Fisher: Who you know 3 ways schools can foster competency-based education by focusing on student relationships - LA School Report

A hidden surprise, to some: Butler County among state leaders in suicides – WCPO

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

HAMILTON, Ohio When Dr. Lisa Mannix, the Butler County coroner, speaks to groups, people are surprised to learn how many suicides happen each year in Butler County.

The community just doesnt realize the number of people who take their own lives, Mannix said. As hard as it is to talk about, we have to talk about it. Its a reality. It happens.

Last year, 41 suicides occurred in Butler County. In recent years, it has ranked fourth highest in Ohio in number of suicides, according to the countys suicide prevention coalition.

Of the countys suicide deaths from 2015 through 2018, 53.5 percent came by gunshots, 25.1 percent by hanging, 3.8 percent from intentional drug overdoses, 3.1 percent from carbon monoxide poisoning, and 14.5 percent by other means.

Tyler Bradshaw of Fairfield Twp. was hit so hard by his fathers 2013 suicide at age 50 that he has been writing a blog about it for the past three years and visits the Fairfield Freshman School, speaking with about 700 students in health classes each year about suicide.

His father, Scott Bradshaw, was a jovial man with a successful career at Matandy Steel in Hamilton. He was a good athlete who still played softball and had a loving, long-time marriage, but with ongoing bouts with depression and mental illness.

Looking back, Bradshaw says his father reminded him a bit of comedian Robin Williams, who killed himself in 2014, at age 63. Scott Bradshaw sometimes took medicine for his illness, but like many who have brain sicknesses, he often would stop taking the medications when he started feeling better.

The one thing that, God, if I could go back and change right now, I would have done everything in my power to get my dad to talk to someone, Bradshaw said. Because that was the one thing he could never bring himself to do, and it breaks my heart to this day that he felt that level of shame, because he shouldnt have.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month. Bradshaw spoke at Tuesdays Walk to Remember at Voice of America Park in West Chester.

Bradshaw has been horrified by what some of the students have told him about their thoughts about taking their lives.

Theres nothing more troubling than than a young kid who has got a really bright future in front of them coming up and saying theyve contemplated suicide or attempted, Bradshaw said. The first day I spoke, I had a young girl who came up to me and said she was 10 years old the first time she thought about taking her own life.

He and others have hope that with more people discussing suicide these days, more people will find help they need.

Kristina Latta-Landefeld of Envision Partnerships, a local non-profit that strives to help people and communities live healthy, safe and drug-free lives, thinks many factors, including economic woes, increased stress and anxiety caused by social media and drug abuse are recent suicide factors.

She and others hope a new technique called QPR, which stands for Question, Persuade, Refer, can reduce suicides. People learn to Question others about whether they have suicidal thoughts, Persuade them to get professional help, and Refer them to such help. Much like CPR, there are life-saving techniques to that can be learned in 90 minutes.

Nearly 1,000 showed up at Scott Bradshaws 2013 visitation, and the thing we heard from people more than anything else was, We had no idea, Tyler Bradshaw said. Coworkers, friends and church members had no clue, because he was so good at hiring his depression.

Bradshaw, who is associate director of Miami Universitys admissions office and was 26 when his father died, likes the fact rgar some in the medical community are starting to call mental illness brain illness, because it helps convey the idea that just like a broken arm, brain maladies can be repaired.

In looking at 2018 suicide data, Latta-Landefeld was struck by one troubling local statistic. Although countywide suicides dropped by 6.8 percent, Middletown suicide numbers doubled in one year from six to 12, she said.

For every suicide, there are about 25 unsuccessful attempts. Two factors in the ones that are deadly are guns and hangings.

I think youve got to drill down to how folks tend to commit suicide, said Scott Rasmus, executive director of the Butler County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Services Board. A lot of them are men, a lot of them use lethal means, like guns, which may be more readily available to adults.

When you look at women, in a lot of ways, its more pills and less lethal means, so youre going to see a trend towards men who succeed in killing themselves, Rasmus said.

Bradshaws blog is at seeyabub.com, which is named after the expression his father used to say goodbye to him. He is getting married in two weeks to his fiancee, Paige, and is saddened that his father never met her, because they would have been two peas in a pod, with similar senses of humor.

The one thing that weighs on me more than anything else, Bradshaw said, is at a certain point I know Im going to look down from the front of that church and Im going to see an empty seat in that front pew, and it eats me alive, because my Dad should be here for that.

People can bring QPR training to their workplace, school, church or civic group by calling Kristen Smith at 513-407-2028 or ksmith@envisionpartnerships.com.

Here are some Butler County suicide statistics, advice to those wanting to help depressed friends or family, and a number to call for life-saving help:

Stats

Advice

Help

People considering suicide, or wanting help fighting any type of drug or alcohol addiction, can call the Butler County Crisis and Heroin Hope Line at 844-427-4747.

Source: Butler County Suicide Prevention and Journal-News research

The Journal-News is a media partner of WCPO 9 On Your Side.

See the rest here:

A hidden surprise, to some: Butler County among state leaders in suicides - WCPO

VSCO CEO Joel Flory on Social-Media Metrics and the Summers Biggest Meme, the VSCO Girl – New York Magazine

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Danzig

Photo: Billy H.C. Kwok/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Over the summer, the photo-editing app VSCO probably got more organic, word-of-mouth exposure than its received in its entire eight-year existence, all thanks to a meme: the VSCO girl. The definition is a little fuzzy, but broadly speaking, the VSCO girl is usually a teenage girl who wears oversized T-shirts, keeps her hair in a messy bun, is always applying lip gloss, carries a Hydro Flask everywhere, always has plenty of scrunchies on hand, reflexively drops phrases like and I oop to fill blank space in conversations, and laughs like this: sksksksksksksksk. If you are of an older cohort and still confused, think of the slightly alt girl in your class who still won class president in a landslide. Importantly, she uses VSCO a lot, applying the apps signature heavily faded, retro filters to the many photos she takes of her friends and activities (the drainage pipes on the edge of suburban properties have never looked so beautiful and ethereal). A 21st-century update to the taxonomy of high-school social cliques, the VSCO girl became a main character in videos and posts across social platforms like TikTok and Twitter boosting the eponymous app to an audience that likely hadnt heard of it before.

VSCO, like the apps from which it received this summertime boost, is itself a social platform but it differs in significant ways from its peers and rivals. It doesnt display engagement metrics such as likes and follow counts, and it doesnt make money from ads. Its money comes from a subscription product with plenty of flaw-wiping filters and photo tweaks. Earlier this week, the company released the results of a study about its Gen-Z users (no surprise: the study validates VSCOs approach) that showed many of its young users reportedly deal with online-related anxiety. CEO Joel Flory sat down with Intelligencer to talk about what it all means.

So I guess, like, as a crash course for our readers: What is VSCO? Give me the elevator pitch.

VSCOs a mobile app helps you take professional-quality photos on a mobile device, really focused on both premium high-end photo/video tools, but that are also accessible and easy to use on a mobile device. Kind of a real core piece of it is access to this community really driven around inspiration and education, that helps inspire you to create and share how you see the world.

The first time I heard about VSCO, it seemed like an add-on for Instagram. Did you take any cues from what they were doing?

No. Because initially we launched a desktop product that was for Lightroom and Photoshop. And I think the difference was, from the beginning, VSCOs been about a direct relationship to the consumer, building a product that people are willing to pay for. Instead of creating a platform, which youre broadcasting to the world, how you want them to see you, kind of putting your brand out there, VSCOs has always been about the individual. Our mission is to help everybody fall in love with their own creativity. Its a very journey of self. People say, Other platforms are how I want the world to see me, VSCOs the one safe space, how I can share how I see the world. And so that was very intentional for us from the beginning. Theres very few places where we could share work that was kind of the in between, in the good, the bad, and what were trying now.

What is the balance between supplying professional-grade photo-editing tools to amateurs, and also pushing this authenticity thing?

Theres two parts to that. One of our core values is do it right. If somethings worth doing, its worth doing right. So when it comes to the tools that weve built, weve always been very intentional to build the best possible tool for the form factor that were building for. Flip side of that being, you know, VSCO itself has played an active role in its community. Its never been about building a passive platform that we build the tools, we build the community, and then step back and say whatever happens, happens. Something youll notice from VSCO from day one is that weve had an active voice in our community.

How big is the editorial team at VSCO?

We dont break out based upon numbers. Were a little over 150 employees right now. Were curating and highlighting the content that we have already been created.

Do you just look at every post?

We built the proprietary technology, we call it Ava. Thats our machine-learning computer vision [software].

Does that stand for anything?

No, what the core of it is, is that its bringing together human curation and computer vision. From the beginning, theyve been tagging content, less about object recognition (hey, theres a dog in this photo) and more about how the image makes you feel or the style. So if you go into the app today, for example, youll see a section that is all content based upon content that youve engaged with on the platform that Ava recommends. But if you then click in on any image, youll start to notice its not like you clicked on an image of water and its just showing you other water. Maybe it was the texture of the water, the color. And it will start to recommend things that in a way that we wanted, from a creative perspective, to really get you to dive deeper and explore.

Sure, but isnt that creating also spending time in the app?

I mean, yeah, you have to open the app use it. Anything that we build has something under that. But its all in service of creation. So all the stats and everything were looking at is around content being created, is around content engaged with but not time spent in app. Our business is not selling eyeballs in time spent in app to other brands and companies, but rather, its selling a subscription. Its an experience. So its a member experience around a sense of belonging, being a part of the community.

What are those premium features?

Everything ranging from over 130 of all of our presets that weve created to video-editing tools, and other professional-quality tools. Challenges, which is kind of a combination of editorial and community, so there are prompts to go create with little lightweight guides as catalysts. So thats really what were focused on now.

What percentage of VSCOs user base pays for that stuff?

We launched the subscription in early 2017, something more than just tools. It was an experience of being a part of something. So both tools and community are part of a subscription. So last year, in under two years, we surpassed 2 million paid subscribers. Were on pace to double that again this year.

VSCO recently released a study about its Gen-Z users. How much of VSCOs user base is Gen Z?

Seventy-five percent of VSCOs user base is under the age of 25. And 55 percent of those paid subscribers are under the age of 25. So the largest segment of those paying us is Gen Z.

So it costs 20 bucks a year? Is that focus-grouped and engineered for Gen Z? Because its not a lot I feel like Ive seen similar services charge more.

For us to get VSCO off the ground, we picked a price point that we felt was accessible. But it also conveyed the value of what were delivering. And so it was something that we were very thoughtful about.

Would you say Gen Z is your biggest focus?

Less targeted to a group and more targeted to a mind-set. So hyperfocused on really, this notion of investing in yourself. And doing that through creative expression. This is the first generation ever, like, before theyre even born, they had some digital footprint. So its no shock to me that, you know, we found that 96 percent of those surveyed were aware and acknowledge mental health, and the importance of it, but then the negative impact of social media has on it. And so I think what youre finding is this hyperaware generation. The study also goes to say more than two-thirds have not posted content, based upon the anxiety.

I guess, in reading all of these stats, maybe some of the behavior seems unique to online spaces, but I dont know When I was a teenager roughly a decade ago or whatever, I had anxiety about social stuff. I worried people were going to make fun of me. How is that different from this? I guess my question is: How much of this is just being a teenager and using social media, and how much of it is actually social media?

I dont even think its about being a teenager. I think its life. I think its human nature to have a worry what others think about you. I think as we grow, though, the goal is to help people find their voice, to be who they are, and to be confident in who they are. And so VSCO is about creating a space for you to do that. It was very intentional to not show likes or comments for the beginning, to not show following accounts publicly, and actually, to not show the count at all. To have all validation be more private and on the back end. So that when you go to look at a photo, or you go to see someones profile, youre not allowing others to make a judgment for you whether or not this is good, or should find this inspiring. But do you personally have a connection with the image? Do you personally have connection with an individual? And from there, you can establish that relationship.

Actually what I think, though, that were seeing with Gen Z here is that its just like everything times ten. For me back in high school, I had the town that I was living in to worry about. I wasnt comparing myself to everyone around the world. And youre being compared to not just kids your age, but to everyone in the world. And theres this anxiety that comes with Am I good enough? Am I missing out by not living the life that others are living? And it was really what we saw was this race to popularity that we felt so compelled to create the communities within VSCO the way that we did, to create a safe space for you to be who you are.

And that was back in 2013. So this is like, before this was being talked about, right? Everyone looked at us like, Are you crazy? Like, youre foregoing some of the easiest growth tactics in business. But its been very intentional in the beginning.

But can you see those metrics on the backend? Can you see who the most popular user is or whatever?

No, because, again, our business is not about getting everyone to follow what is most popular. Our businesses to best understand you, and to serve you the right content that you will find inspiring for you to go create. All the data that we collect is to serve you and to help you on your creative journey.

So like what sort of data would that be?

Just around the content that youre engaging with, the images that youre uploading, and favoriting. So its what you share. When you click on an image to publish, or sharing your location data, what youre typing in as the caption. Well start to recommend other content. And if you go into the app under Settings, you can see and also toggle what you dont want to be sharing.

If youre analyzing user uploads and recommending things similar in some way, how do you avoid everything sort of looking the same or everyone just sort of like trending in the same direction? Or do you want that?

No, no, we dont. It kind of goes back to everything from how the business has been set up. Our business is a subscription. Its not whether or not were able to reach you with ads, its whether you personally find value. If you dont find things that compel you to create, you dont find the tools to express yourself however you choose, youre not going to find value in VSCO.

Is VSCO profitable?

We dont disclose that. But I can say that the business is really healthy and growing extremely fast. Its growing at a pace that weve never seen or launched on the app in 2012. With 2 million paid subscribers last year, were on pace to nearly doubled it again this year.

Just doing some mental math, so $40 million last year?

We dont disclose, but yes.

Regarding VSCOs arc, Im not sure which metric to use here, but has the graph been steadily going up? Has it had, like, a pop? And then like a dip, and then going back up again?

Oh, its been its been a great ride. I mean, you know, the business is definitely growing. And like I mentioned

Has it always been growing?

Well, its growing at a pace like weve never seen.

Would you say theres been a resurgence in interest in VSCO?

You know, I think I would say theres a growing interest around creativity. You walk around the streets here in New York, and in any city, every billboard, from every phone manufacturer is about the camera. Because we believe that as devices continue to get better and better, because were in the business of creating these professional-quality tools, were just having more and more opportunities to build great technology and software.

Theres a term thats recently popular, the VSCO girl. How would you define that?

On one end, its no surprise, because we see trends like this popping up on VSCO all the time. Granted, with that, I will say, never anything thats gone global and beyond VSCO the way that this has. But I think at its core, its really a testament to what I was talking about with the community, and in particular Gen Z, looking for a safe space to share how they see the world, and truly who they are, free of judgment. And I think what youre seeing with VSCO girl is an extension of that.

So given all that youve said about being creative, comparing yourself to each other, etc., is it weird that there is an archetype for someone that uses VSCO? Does that run contrary to your operating philosophy?

Were working to create a world in which differences are celebrated. Theres space on VSCO in which anyone can share who they are, and how they see the world. And so while VSCO girls represents one group and one style, youll see that theres so much more. And so this is one of many.

Yeah, but its sort of like how redditors are a specific type of person who uses Reddit. Like there are a bunch of differentpeople who use the site, but theres one type of person that comes to define it. Is that good? Bad?

A VSCO girl doesnt define everyone on VSCO. Yeah, it defines a group thats there, for sure, but theres so many more. I think the best thing I could encourage you to do is to get on VSCO and you will see that theres so much more.

So the community has kind of embraced it?

I think theres an element of so what if I am? [Following our conversation, VSCO presented me with my very own Hydro Flask.]

Julie Inouye, a VSCO communications rep, who came in during the interview: The firm we did the study with is run by Gen-Z people. And one of the things they told me is that, when you or I go on a flight, the last thing Im doing is using that time to be super-productive. They download, apparently, hundreds of photos, so that they can then edit those photos and reedit things that theyve done before on a long flight. These are the kinds of behaviors that are so unique to them. Theyre taking care of themselves.

I hear what youre saying. Part of what Im stuck on is that the behavior doesnt seem all that different from how people use other apps. Like people on Instagram or whatever are also obsessed with editing photos. So its the same behavior. Its the same type of engagement on a certain level.

It is very, very different, when you look at someones profile, from one platform to another.

Its weird to hear the idea that users want to appear more authentic and less perfect and less competitive and then also hear that theyre spending hours editing photos. It seems contradictory.

[Boots up his phone.] If we can use one of the self-proclaimed VSCO girls, Hannah Meloche: You look at her VSCO, there are many things that are not of her. These arent the perfect close-ups that are of her face or what shes wearing on Instagram. Its not just the one best curated photo, you can see her entire day. Its why theres so many VSCO links in peoples bios on Instagram. If you want to know who I am, check out my VSCO.

Does it seem like VSCOs existence is supported by these larger, more competitive platforms? Does VSCO exist in the way that it does without being able to position itself as different from something else?

Yeah, absolutely. Theres a ton of free editors out there. People are choosing VSCO for well beyond just the tools. Were very self-aware; its not just about using one platform or another. We help you share your content to wherever you want to share. Were not trying to keep everything just within VSCO. And so for that, were uniquely positioned in a way that helps you express yourself.

In some ways, does that runs contrary to this low-stress, anti-competitive nature of VSCO, that youre making it easy for people to put VSCO stuff on other platforms?

No, because again, go back to our mission and our vision: VSCO is the place where youre actually creating that content. No person just exists in one location.

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VSCO CEO Joel Flory on Social-Media Metrics and the Summers Biggest Meme, the VSCO Girl - New York Magazine

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