Category Archives: Intentional Communities

By Megan Hale | Reporter

Baylors Undergraduate Research in Science and Technology (BURST) is a student-run organization with the hopes of amplifying research opportunities and building a community of knowledge and understanding.

According to the BURST website, the organization provides a variety of resources to help students stay aware of current scientific research, explore their individual interests and develop skills that will aid them in their present as well as future endeavors.

BURST serves to connect undergraduates to the research opportunities that Baylor has to offer both on and off campus and also educates members about research and how they can apply it in their future careers as physicians or scientists, Houston junior and Scientia editor-in-chief Isha Thapar said. It shows the importance that research doesnt have to be a mundane activity but something really applicable to your future career that you can learn a lot from and grow from.

BURST members participate in service opportunities, socials, workshops and more. They also have access to special university events such as URSA Scholars Week during the spring and Research Internship Day in the fall. These events allow members to share their own research findings with both their peers and faculty across campus.

What makes BURST unique is that we are at the size where we can connect members to a lot of research opportunities and hear from really cool speakers and lecturers, but also small enough that we have an individual connection with our members, Isha said.

Undergraduate students studying the STEM disciplines are encouraged to begin research as early as their freshman year. BURST seeks to act as a resource for students, supporting them through this transition.

I feel like all of us at BURST feel like we played at least a part in the R1 research status by fostering research interests and encouraging students and just raising awareness in the student body, Houston junior and BURST publicity chair Ruhi Thapar said.

One of the main ways BURST seeks to immerse students in the world of research is through the BURST Journal Clubs. These small-group discussion clubs, often led by upperclassmen, encourage members to exercise leadership and learn from their peers. Discussions can range from biology to epidemiology to psychology to ethics.

Weve found that people coming into college dont have an understanding of how research works and how research articles work, and they have a hard time reading scientific literature because they dont have exposure to it, Chicago junior and vice president of BURST Journal Clubs Sanjana Ade said. The literature can be very dense and very convoluted at times, so having these journal clubs helps people learn how to read journal articles and get used to that material.

Developing the ability to understand scientific literature aids students not only in the classroom but also in their own pursuits of scientific discovery. Taking the skills learned in these journal clubs, BURST encourages students to practice communicating technical information through their own written work.

Scientia is a Baylor professional scientific research journal that provides students with a platform to publish their own undergraduate research. Every aspect of Scientia is student-run, including the writing, editing, design and final publication.

Students edit the papers, and then we send them to a faculty review board for further editing, and then students completely design the publication, Isha said. The print is also funded by Student Government, so its really just a student publication. We want to give Baylor students who are conducting amazing research the opportunity to publish that research.

According to the Scientia website, the vision of this publication is to promote awareness of student research, enhance research experiences and encourage students to explore various avenues of research.

Anyone whos curious about research is bound to find an interesting paper in Scientia that appeals to them, Isha said.

Ruhi said she has gained not only research from BURST but also multiple types of connections.

You have to be intentional about the communities you put yourself in, and I think that the communities and the people Ive surrounded myself by have completely changed who I am and then, subsequently, who Im going to be, Ruhi said. The connections Ive gained professionally but also personally through BURST have given me more than just research.

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Baylor is BURSTing with student research opportunities - The Baylor Lariat

A new platform will detect and characterize GNSS spoofing operations using artificial intelligence and commercially available data

Geospatial intelligence company Orbital Insight has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to deliver a technology platform for identifying intentional GNSS interference and manipulation operations across the world.

The platform will leverage commercially available data to detect GNSS spoofing, where falsified or manipulated GNSS signals are used to confuse adversaries or obscure illicit activities, presenting risk to both government and commercial operations. Orbital Insight was selected through DoDs Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) solicitation process seeking commercial solutions to counter the growing threat of GNSS disruptions to national security.

Research suggests that Russia conducted nearly 10,000 spoofing operations from 2016 to 2018 alone.

The new technology will significantly improve situational awareness for warfighters, intelligence analysts and safety-of-life applications. Orbital Insights platform will leverage its multisensor data stack, artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities to alert analysts and operators to potential jamming and spoofing events, techniques commonly used by adversarial actors to cover up activities or sabotage operations.

The platform leverages a suite of geolocation data satellites, AIS, ADS-B and internet-of-things devices along with new advanced algorithms designed to automatically recognize anomalies linked to spoofing, complemented by research intelligence from the nonprofit partner Center for Advanced Defense Studies. Research suggests that Russia conducted nearly 10,000 spoofing operations from 2016 to 2018 alone.

Helping organizations understand whats happening on and to the Earth is at the heart of what Orbital Insight does, and spoofing is a national security problem that has proven challenging to solve, said Kevin OBrien, CEO, Orbital Insight. GNSS spoofing is essentially a data problem, and Orbital Insights AI and deep data stack can help identify spoofing, along with other major humanitarian and environmental challenges. This is a perfect example of private and public sectors uniting through technology.

Other areas that may be addressed: identifying drug trafficking, illegal fishing, sea-borne piracy and unintentional commercial aviation disruptions

The technology has broad implications that extend beyond situational awareness of intentional GNSS interference. Other national security, humanitarian and environmental challenges may be addressed, such as identifying drug trafficking, illegal fishing, sea-borne piracy and unintentional commercial aviation disruptions.

Federal agencies are increasingly complementing their systems with commercial technology and data sources that are unclassified, universally accessible, and shareable with allies. The National Air and Space Intelligence Center will be the first customer to utilize the technology. Upon successful integration, the goal will be to expand this platform widely across the defense, intelligence and civil communities.

Orbital Insight received the DoD contract on the heels of announcing a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to deliver a computer-vision model that uses synthetic data to detect novel classes of objects.

The company also recently launched a new class of multiclass object-detection algorithms within its flagship GO platform to help the intelligence community monitor and differentiate activity at thousands of areas of interest. Like all of Orbital Insights products, these algorithms are being developed within an ethics framework that shapes the companys work and values privacy.

Image: matejmo/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

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DOD tasks Orbital Insight to help identify intentional GNSS disruptions - GPS World magazine

Colony Collapse Disorder is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees and the queen. Once thought to pose a major long term threat to bees, reported cases of CCD have declined substantially over the last five years. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

I love science and history. And I guess I hate science and history. Mental illness is in every twist and turn of my science and history, imbedded in my DNA, in my family, in my culture and in my country. But I read because not only do they give me the bad and the ugly, they also provide understanding of cycles of weather patterns, cycles of imperialism and power, cycles of seasons and cycles of generations. It gives me patience. It makes me laugh at the way we see other cultures and other lifeforms. It gives me ancient blueprints and guides. Anne Lamott says, How do we celebrate paradox, let alone manage it all? We remember mustard seeds, that the littlest things will have great results. We do the smallest, realest, most human things. We water what is dry.

The colony of Los Angeles has collapsed. If you do not see it, you are living in a virtual reality staring into a carefully spun screen rather than out the open windows. You do not hear the silence, you do not smell the stench and you do not notice the empty rooms. The Environmental Protection Agency says that when a bee hive develops Colony Collapse Disorder, there may be several reasons, such as disease, pesticide poisoning, stress due to management practices such as transportation to multiple locations across the country for providing pollination services, changes to the habitat, inadequate forage/poor nutrition, and potential immune-suppressing stress on bees.

This is not an essay on bees, but I am seeing parallels to the collapse of intentional communities in the tattered thrift-store remnants of the British Empire in California. California is the last edge of the new world. The refugees of New England are settled here. We have no place else to go.

From 1988 to 2013, I struggled with severe mental illness. As a missionary kid in New Mexico, I was shamed, confused, enraged and terrified, caught between neglect, violence and the paradoxes of what I know to be true in one culture and what I know to be true in another. I was given free hope and some community support in the board and care home provided by Homes for Life Foundation, and in the I-CAN program in Pasadena which became a Community Mental Health Center under the Department of Mental Health. If I had not had these, I would be dead, sacked out on illegal drugs in a tent on Skid Row or in jail, three outcomes which some in our society seem to believe can only be managed by forced assimilation through education, economic sanction, withholding primary healthcare, or even scientific euthanization of the useless eaters.

Killing or mechanizing bees and humans is not sustainable. Everything is connected to the flow of abundance. Killing ourselves through stress is not the answer, nor is living with walking corpses who are becoming desperately violent on every corner. But how do we manage paradox, let alone manage it all? Or, like Rumi, we can ask how to get back to that place where birds know how to nest?

While in twenty-five years in community mental health, the L.A. Department of Mental Health marketed at great expense the concept of Recovery. I found I-CAN after nine years doing everything possible to navigate society and my own confusion. I was in abject hopelessness, at zero resource. My family was at zero resource. I had no community. So I latched on to this concept of Recovery, and came to worship the idea that if I continued to be compliant, took scientific drugs approved by the FDA and squeezed into the tiny square box insisted upon in behavioral mental health treatment in the United States, I would come to that nirvana of Recovery. If I sat in my chair in a support group long enough, life would re-emerge.

Some practices remind me of Richard Henry Pratts attempts at the Carlyle Indian School: Kill the Indian, save the man. And when the experiment fails (when you find you cannot make a milk cow out of a honey bee), the statistics show that bees are useless. This substitute for science descends into insanity, a result of the arrogance of limited perspective; if the scientist, Isaac Newton, in the 1600s had found an uncharged cellphone by his bed, he might have collected it as an art object or stuck it in a box for future reference. The technology would have been useless to him disconnected from a tutorial or a wifi tower, and how ridiculous he would have come across in a freshman college class in 2022.

Empirical science is in its infancy in social work. Science is only as good as the innate work of the bees; whether or not you understand what you are looking at, you will find out why they are essential, one way or the other. And community systems have not been permitted in the United States. Education is focused on masculine projects. Civilizations collapse without intact communities and, by the way, villages cannot be sustained without the independent business networking of mothers. Women are natural community builders when respected, supported and left to our own devices. Educating a workforce includes more than an assembly of lines, cubicles and paperwork.

Since 1917, when Mississippi became the last state to pass compulsory education, we have been given the American dream. And in mental health, we were given grand examples of the diagnoses of great European and American leaders who had suffered and risen to greatness. These great leaders are not the leaders who lived in hogans in the desert, nor were they the mothers of the black and white politicians, scientists and artists who raised them. When I began my journey, I believed that I could become strong enough to contribute to my country. Then I thought perhaps I could save my family. And then I came to believe that the only person I could ever rescue was myself. I was wrong. When colonies collapse, the bees are at the mercy of something outside themselves.

We cannot DO self-care when our environment has become poisoned by the seven sins, and only the rich believe they have the means to escape. I guess they could build giant air-rockets and transport the bees off to Titan to let the planet recover, as the British did with their poor and criminalized, shipping prostitutes and murderers to America and Australia, but finally, are the British any better off having deleted the problem?

The State has chosen to deport or oppress our workers, refusing citizenship to many, making debtors and slaves of the college students bred to be our nobles, doctors and Brahmans. The contamination of eugenics in behavioral mental health has created an epidemic of anosognosia in the United States. Now the assimilated can decide which cultures, genders and thinkers are insane and how they should be managed.

Researchers are deaf to the voices of history, geography and all voices not transmitted through established digital frequencies. Special Ed is the State solution for neurodiversity or difference. Unassimilated mothers do not teach the courses on the observed psychology of children from the perspectives of their own languages and cultures. And so, clients are beaten, forgotten, psychologically tortured, isolated, fingerprinted, drugged and finally put to bed. And so the endless search for more beds, in jails, convalescent homes, tiny house villages, tool sheds on the freeways and beautiful new apartment complexes micromanaged and locked in after 5 pm.

How do we get back to the place where bees know how to hive, where unstressed mothers teach each other to breast feed, stop and rock and to discipline gently? Where artists are heard? I would ask if corporate scientists are temperamentally capable of accessing sensory input beyond what they see in front of their physical eyes?

I never used to think of writing as hard work, or even necessary. Nor, after years of labeling by every white male psychiatrists with no understandingof art, of the feminine principle or of indigenous wisdomdid I ever imagine that I have a reason to exist or that I could have a gift, that of beeing; I spend my days playing in the petals and pooping in the hive. I am a worker bee, and I am dying too. Death is a gift of urgency and energy with the beautiful peace of knowing that you are disabled and able to work in a flow in teams.

Animals and plants teach us how our teeny weeny individual strengths and innate wisdom contribute to the well-being at least of this continent, if not the world, if not the rest of space. I cannot be an activist in Los Angeles. I can only bee. Part of the beeing is sitting with Creativity who calls me gently to the network of restoration of independent intentional communities in Los Angeles.

Heart Forward LA is a restoration project for human intentional communities in Los Angeles. The Clubhouse model is focused on those diagnosed by State criteria, but it a model of the ancient and the contemporary movement to restore urban connected villages where seniors and the disabled, the orphans of insanity, workers, pets, plants and children can dwell together again. It is a pilot that can be replicated. If it can be done at the last seam of emigration on the planet, within twenty miles of the beach, with the most, most marginalized, it can be done anywhere. A clubhouse. A meeting place. The beginning of village. It wont look like what we think. It will look like what we dance in time.

I end with the quote by the EPA with which I began: Once thought to pose a major long term threat to bees, reported cases of CCD have declined substantially over the last five years. Who knows why? Perhaps the pandemic has made an impact on Colony Collapse Disorder, or restoration has been made by some natural cycle of weather or planetary tilt, or maybe bees are returning because of continuing teamwork among bees, beekeepers, scientists and connoisseurs who love their honey?

***

Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussionbroadly speakingof psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers own.

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Consternation of the Bees - Mad In America - Mad in America

ATLANTA, Feb.9, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --Dirty Dog's Car Wash (Dirty Dog's) announced a strategic growth equity investment from Salt Lake City-based The Cynosure Group (Cynosure) to fund the company's growth and expansion into key markets with an aim to open an additional 25 locations nationwide over the next 36 months. In addition to Cynosure's investment, Dirty Dog's also arranged a new credit facility with Synovus Bank to further facilitate this rapid expansion.

"This strategic partnership not only provides Dirty Dog's with the necessary capital to rapidly expand, but it also provides us with additional resources, mentorship and leadership from a group that has a demonstrated track record of partnering with, and collaboratively growing, founder and management-owned businesses," said Martin Emmett, owner and founder of Dirty Dog's. "At this time, we are also excited to be partnering with Synovus Bank who has supported our growth since inception," added Emmett.

Started in 2018, Dirty Dog's currently has locations in Georgia and Alabama. While COVID-19 shuttered countless industries, contact-free car washes experienced growth for several reasons, including being socially distanced and attainably priced. In addition, the contact-free model requires less staff and creates greater time efficiency. To that end, Dirty Dog's experienced strong growth during COVID, and with that comes plans to expand. Plans include expanding into the Florida market, with locations in Melbourne, Tampa, North Ft. Lauderdale, Port Richey, Daytona, Ocala, Royal Palm Beach, Brooksville, Miami, Ft. Myers, Cape Coral and West Palm Beach all opening in the near-future.

"Dirty Dog's has established itself as a leader in a competitive yet growing market," said Andrew Braithwaite, Managing Director at Cynosure. "We are proud to recognize the company's unbridled growth and relentless focus on its customer and community. We are excited to form this new partnership and look forward to being a part of their rapid scaling and expansion."

When Emmett stepped away from a career in law to invest in a contact-free car wash model, he applied innovations such as an enhanced customer experience, elevated branding and quality design. It was this front-end investment that paid off. "We wanted to launch a business model that focused on quality user experience at every step," said Emmett. "So, we created a car wash that is modern, clean, affordable and functional for everyone, with all the bells and whistles."

As part of this strategy, they enlisted a branding firm known for building brands for professional sports teams, to create a playful, intentional, community-minded brand. Among its brand attributes, Dirty Dog's has always supported teachers, law enforcement and first responders through monthly events, discounts and their "Helping Heroes" program.

In 2021 alone, Dirty Dogs donated more than 10,000 car washes to clean squad cars in the local communities it serves.

"Community investment is a major pillar of our business model, First in Service, First in Community," said Keisha Escoffery, COO, Dirty Dog's. "From the start of our business, we made sure that our local frontline workers knew we were here to support them, which intensified during the pandemic."

By prioritizing a clean, modern, self-serve design, Dirty Dog's built customer loyalty, and their dedication to community has further instilled trust and loyalty.

"We were offering cleanliness at a time when people needed it," said Emmett. "Even in a down economy, we were determined to keep our prices affordable and to continue supporting our communities and, in turn, they have continued to support us."

About Dirty Dogs Car Wash

Founded in 2018, Dirty Dogs Car Washwanted to create a different kind of car wash experience, one fueled by our commitment to our customers, employees and the communities where we are located. We know anyone can wash a car, and we believe our values,First in Service, First in Community, are what set us apart in the industry.Dirty Dogs Car Wash provides fast, efficient and affordable car washes. https://www.linkedin.com/company/dirtydogscarwash/about/ https://www.facebook.com/DirtyDogsCarWash

For more information on theirservices and locations, visit dirtydogscarwash.com.

About The Cynosure Group

The Cynosure Group is an independent alternatives asset manager and advisor that makes long-term investments on behalf of families, foundations, and other like-minded institutions.

Cynosure's direct investments target partnerships with founders and management-owners of profitable small to mid-sized companies who will remain meaningful owners of their business.

For more information, visit http://www.cynosuregroup.com.

Media Contact

Liz Lapidus, Liz Lapidus PR, +1 (404) 219-3113, liz@lizlapiduspr.com

Keisha Escoffery, Dirty Dog's Car Wash, 917-929-1190, keisha@dirtydogscarwash.com

SOURCE Liz Lapidus PR

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Dirty Dog's Car Wash Receives $35 Million Growth Equity Investment From The Cynosure Group to Fund New Store And Market Expansion - WFMZ Allentown

Speaker 1: (00:00)

A new jobs program is aimed at helping underserved young people while improving communities across California. The state is putting 185 million in the Californians for all youth job Corps, where 16 to 30 year olds with a variety of challenges may get their first chance to a career. San Diego will seem more than 19 million from the program. The second largest allocation in the state. Joining me with more information about the program is California volunteers, chief service officer Josh Friday, and Josh, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: (00:34)

Great to be with you, California

Speaker 1: (00:36)

Already has active job core centers. Why do we need new Californians for all youth job core program?

Speaker 2: (00:44)

We need this brand new program, which is a collaboration between California volunteers and local governments throughout the state, because the need is so high. We've seen this pandemic have an incredible effect on young people on unemployment and especially on communities of color. And those have been hardest hit. So this is a tough for the state to invest in not just helping our communities by creating jobs where people are gonna be serving their communities in really important ways. But this is also a chance for us to invest in people's futures and the governor and the legislature were very passionate about that. And it's why they wanted to create this program

Speaker 1: (01:17)

Who is this intended to help, but what kind of youth with what kind of challenges

Speaker 2: (01:22)

This program is very intentional about focusing on hiring the most underserved youth youth that are low income youth that are unemployed or out of school that are justice involved are transitioning from foster care or engaged with mental health or substance abuse systems. We are very intentional about making sure that we're targeting that population investing in them. We're calling on them to serve and we're giving 'em a chance for a successful career.

Speaker 1: (01:48)

And what kinds of jobs and job training will be offered.

Speaker 2: (01:52)

Every person that goes through this program is gonna have wraparound services from their city. That includes everything from helping learn how to prepare a resume to leadership training and network training. And these young people are gonna be doing a variety of critical work on issues like climate change and food insecurity. COVID 19 recovery. They're gonna be working on education disparities in communities. They're gonna be doing river cleanups, uh, and climate work, urban greening, and really a variety of work that the city deems important to the entire community, which is why we really think this is such a win-win program. It's a win for the young people who are gonna get a job that pays with dignity at a minimum of $15 an hour, often higher in some cities. And it's a win for the community because these young people are gonna be serving the community and doing work that matters.

Speaker 1: (02:39)

Tell us more about the case management for the young people involved in the program. Cause you gonna be coming in with somewhat troubled backgrounds. We

Speaker 2: (02:47)

Learned from doing research and learning about what other programs exist, what has worked, and what's not worked from best practices that it's really critical to provide wraparound services to these young people, to make sure that they have support, that they are receiving training, that when they finish the program, they have certificates with certain skills that will allow them to go into new careers. So we made sure that of the 185 million that was appropriated to cities and counties throughout California, that cities and counties had the flexibility to use some of that money, not just to pay these young people, but to also pay for these really important wraparound services.

Speaker 1: (03:23)

Now, the money for the new job Corps program, as you say, is being divided up among cities and counties, will each city be able to decide how best to use the money?

Speaker 2: (03:33)

We were very intentional about making sure that this program was flexible. We wanted to make sure that mayors and local governments, uh, were able to use this money to meet their community needs. So while we provided some guidelines, like the young people have to be between the ages of 16 and 30 and they have to meet one of the important qualifications about being low income or underemployed or justice involved, we made sure that these mayors and the local leaders had the ability to put those young people to work in a way that helped their community. So yes, we built quite a bit of flexibility into this program. And

Speaker 1: (04:08)

How long is the new job Corps program supposed to last?

Speaker 2: (04:12)

This program is funded by the legislature and the governors for the next two years and cities and local governments will have the discretion to decide whether they wanna set it up as a summer program or a year long program. But right now we're focusing on making this successful for the next two years now.

Speaker 1: (04:28)

What are your hopes for the young people who will be involved in the program, will their participation help them start a career?

Speaker 2: (04:36)

Our hope is, is that we're not just investing in young people to be able to start a and be able to be on a pathway to a successful career, but we're also inspiring them to a career in public service, to a career where they get to do work. That's meaningful to the community, meaningful and purposeful to the broader society. And we really hope that with this program, with the mentorship, that's gonna come with it with the different training. That's gonna come with it, that we're not just creating jobs, but we're creating jobs where people are committed to service for the rest of their lives. And that's what we're really excited about with this new program.

Speaker 1: (05:08)

How do young people sign up for the

Speaker 2: (05:10)

Program? Young people can sign up through their cities as the cities roll this program out, the cities are gonna be selecting the young people. And we just launched phase one of this program, which is 150 million investment in the 13 largest cities in the state of California. We're gonna be launching phase two very soon, which is for the additional 35 million to smaller cities and counties that apply through a competitive process. So if your city is one of the cities that's participating in this, you can apply through the city. Or many of the cities are also gonna be working with local CBOs, local community based organizations to provide the actual job opportunities. And you're gonna be able to apply through them as well.

Speaker 1: (05:49)

Okay. Then I've been speaking with California volunteers, chief service officer Josh Friday about the new Californians for all youth job Corps program. Thank you so much, Josh. Thank you.

See more here:

San Diego will soon be hiring youth to work in community service-oriented jobs - KPBS

As we celebrate Black History Month, heres a radical idea. What if we stop denigrating Black people and start loving them?

You might be thinking: What is she talking about? Who openly denigrates Black people in 2022? It turns out, we all do.

Media outlets dedicate more coverage to Black deaths than to Black brilliance. Movies about the Black experience often feature a parade of trauma storylines. Even earnest charities and foundations, in fundraising appeals, routinely call Black young people at-risk, Black neighborhoods blighted and Black communities marginalized.

Repeating such tropes has dire consequences. Cognitive science tells us that the pervasive use of stigmatizing language and images can arouse fear and trigger negative associations in the greater public consciousness. Research from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and others shows how we are wired to react automatically and draw on familiar narratives. Even well-intentioned foundations and nonprofits inadvertently dehumanize population groups if they repeatedly link them to their deficits. This can contribute to how employers, teachers, investors, police officers, health care workers and others treat and judge Black people, which can ultimately diminish the life outcomes of the populations that these charities seek to improve. More harmful, these narratives affect how Black people think of themselves these narratives get internalized and can affect self-esteem and resilience.

I remember one time a local newspaper ranked certain neighborhoods in Detroit among the most dangerous in the country. Shortly after, I met a young man who said to me, I live in that neighborhood but Im not dangerous. It was heartbreaking to know just how right he was. By labeling that neighborhood dangerous, he felt like he was the one being labeled dangerous. And this isnt just about how people feelthis is a matter of life and death. Weve seen this in Minneapolis with the well-known death of George Floyd and most recently, Amir Locke, who were automatically assumed to be dangerous.

Throughout history, Black people have sought the same dignity, freedom and universal rights that all humans across the globe seek. Against daunting odds, theyve succeeded in making enormous strides. To show our support, it is time to make a pledge to support Black peoples long-held aspirations to L.O.V.E. live, own, vote and excel freely. In a national focus group that aimed to understand the priorities of Black people, they cited their aspirations to:

1) Live with a sense of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being

2) Own their financial future, including the ability to create generational wealth

3) Vote to protect Black interests

4) Excel in all that they do and amplify narratives of Black excellence

Supporting Black L.O.V.E. requires an intention to speak about Black people as contributing human beings, not as problems to be solved or threats to be mitigated. Every individual, corporation and organization professing to champion Black L.O.V.E. needs to focus on better understanding this incredibly diverse population of nearly 48 million Americans. We need to see and appreciate them as the valuable caregivers, community leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators, artists advocates, voters patriots, volunteers and visionaries that they are.

The good news is that this asset-based approach is gaining traction. For example, BMe a network of grassroots leaders, social innovators and donors has introduced asset-based framing to banks, foundations, nonprofits and communications networks using research and understanding of cognitive, social and cultural psychology.

Similarly, at the McKnight Foundation, the private family foundation I lead, we believe its long past time for new narratives. When we speak about racial equity, were intentional to point out how targeting resources to specific cultural communities create a ripple effect of broader social and economic gains for all communities.

McKnight is dedicating even more of our grant dollars and deploying all the other resources available to philanthropy to create vibrant and equitable communities in our home state of Minnesota. This year, $32 million in grants will go to organizations that accelerate economic mobility, build community wealth, cultivate a fair and just housing system, as well as strengthen democratic participation.

Last year, on the first anniversary of George Floyds death, we awarded 10 unsolicited, trust-based grants to organizations that work to create a state that could have sparked and enabled, rather than extinguished, the life of George Floyd. These Black-led organizations take a holistic approach to strengthening and healing, as well as offer community-crafted solutions to realize their aspirations for a just Minnesota. In addition, weve begun an intentional process to track our spending on vendors and ask how we can invest our money to create more enabling conditions for wealth-building for Black businesses.

The call for L.O.V.E. boils down to this: Value people for their full humanity. Take the time to understand the Black communitys dreams, not just the issues that serve as nightmares. This isnt about being charitable or kind. This is about learning to define Black people by their aspirations and contributions, so that we can more readily recognize the policies and practices that oppose those worthy aspirations and meaningful contributions. Lets grow the movement to lift people up rather than put them down with the Black L.O.V.E. pledge.

Tonya Allen is president of the McKnight Foundation.

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Black History Month: What if we stop denigrating and start loving? | TheHill - The Hill

Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, remains the number one cause of death for Americans.

The National Center for Health Statistics data shows heart disease-related death rates have fallen in the last 20 years. But underlying factors and healthcare disparities mean the risk factors that can lead to cardiovascular disease, and the risk of deaths from it, are higher for people of color.

We asked Bipul Baibhav, MD, a cardiologist with Rochester Regional Health, about those risk factors and what can be done to help reduce some of the barriers to care experienced by people of color.

There are several factors that can put a person at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Currently 43 percent of all American adults have at least one of those risk factors.

Age is one of the biggest risk factors that cannot be controlled. The older a person is, the higher their risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Elements more within an individuals control include:

Over the last three years, health care disparities have been recognized as a major contributor to the health of people of color. The disproportionate effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on this group of people highlight the need for racial justice and health equity.

In the past, research related to race, ethnicity, and heart health was focused on how an individuals biology was connected to their race. However, in more recent years, research is showing that social determinants, driven by race and ethnicity, have a larger impact on heart health than an individuals biology.

Some examples of social determinants include:

Patients who are of a lower socioeconomic status and a lower level of education often do not have access to healthcare and affordable health insurance, Dr. Baibhav said. Frequently, they live in underserved communities where grocery stores, safe places to exercise, and access to healthcare are limited or not available. Those tend to be more among communities of color.

As a result of the systemic inequities previously mentioned, people of color often experience more obstacles to receiving preventative high-quality health care.

Using high blood pressure as an example, Black Americans are more likely to develop high blood pressure as compared to white Americans. Research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association shows approximately 75 percent of Black Americans will develop high blood pressure by the age of 55, compared to 47 percent of white Americans. Cases of cardiovascular disease linked to high blood pressure or stroke are higher in Black Americans as compared to other ethnicities.

For patients seeking a doctor to talk about hypertension, having access to primary care providers is a challenge in some underserved communities; access to cardiovascular specialists is even more of a challenge. Some people may be dealing with a lack of transportation, so they are unable to get to an appointment.

Over the course of the pandemic, many providers expanded their use of telemedicine for patients to offer opportunities to receive healthcare without an in-person visit. Some people may struggle with newer technology or lack access to high-speed Internet. This can prevent the use of telemedicine for screenings which could help identify risk factors such as high blood pressure.

Paying for medical visits can also be a barrier, even with something as simple as checking on high blood pressure. The Affordable Care Act has helped some uninsured individuals obtain insurance through the New York State of Health insurance marketplace, but the cost of care can still be prohibitive for some individuals.

Education also plays a role in healthcare. Health care information can be hard to comprehend. Ensuring that information is clear and accessible helps patients understand how to follow through on recommendations and treatments for high blood pressure.

We want to make sure that patients who have high blood pressure get access to primary care physicians and cardiovascular specialists as needed, so that their blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors can be adequately treated, Dr. Baibhav said.

Breaking down the barriers that keep underserved communities from access to providers, high-speed Internet, affordable healthcare, and education will require significant changes. There are several ways to make progress in these areas that could improve heart health.

Making intentional efforts to partner with patients and community organizations to advance cardiovascular health is a good goal. Efforts such as the Barbershop Trial published in the New England Journal of Medicineare examples of providers working with patients and businesses in their own communities to improve the heart health outcomes through mutual trust.

At some Rochester Regional Primary Care offices, trained social workers or health coaches work to identify ways to help lessen the impact of some of these issues when it comes to heart patients. These individuals help find transportation, ensure culturally sensitive dietary changes for cardiovascular patients, and identity other ways of using social determinants of health to create a better patient experience and outcomes.

Given the amount of time and effort researchers have put into studying these disparities, Dr. Baibhav suggests it is time to move from observing to implementing change.

There is an abundance of research examining socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in healthcare, Dr. Baibhav said. It is time to take action and bridge this gap.

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Race, Class, and Heart Health | Health Hive - Health Hive

The Ann Arbor YMCA is a long-standing nonprofit serving its communities for over 160 years.

For many people, the "Y" is basketball courts and swimming pools. And while physical fitness is an important aspect of what we do, there's much more. Our three main areas of focus are youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. We provide services in these areas to all of Washtenaw County and Southern Livingston County. Our particular association also has a priority focus on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as global innovation. Weve grown and changed, and well continue to do so as the needs of our community change.

In more recent years, our team's worked to expand our wraparound services, increasing our focus on mental health, and our programming around youth development and social responsibility. These services are becoming more important because of the great financial needs we see in our community, and because of the trauma our youth have been experiencing over the last couple of years that's challenged their social and emotional development and their academic achievements.

When COVID-19 first arrived in Washtenaw County in March of 2020, our YMCA was one of the first sites to be exposed. Like many organizations, we closed our doors for what we thought would be a brief period of time. Yet, due to government regulations and safety precautions, our facility at 400 W Washington would not reopen again for six months.

We pivoted quickly to serve our community in innovative ways. During lockdown, we were able to offer group exercise classes to the entire community for free, thanks to funding we received from United Way and the Ann Arbor Community Foundation. It was important to us to help keep our communities as healthy as possible and to keep them connected with others.

We also worked to provide learning opportunities to children and teens at home. Teachers from our child development centers led virtual arts and crafts, STEM projects and reading activities. Our teens engaged in their action and advocacy programs, entrepreneurship classes and Youth Volunteer Corps online. Today, we continue to offer virtual programs for the comfort and safety of our members, even as we provide daily in-person engagement.

While our building was closed, we had the opportunity to collaborate on the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program. From May to October of 2020, we distributed free 25-pound boxes of produce to the community on a weekly basis at 15 different sites throughout Washtenaw County. There was such a need for fresh food that families often lined up long before distribution. Helping to supplement the great work others were doing was meaningful to me and my staff. It allowed us to meet and serve our community where they were at.

Since Fall of 2020, weve remained open. Our membership is not back to pre-COVID-19 numbers, but it's slowly building. We were extremely fortunate to have members who continued to pay their monthly dues while our building was closed. These donations, and others, helped us keep our staff employed, which was of great importance to our board of directors and leadership team. You have to be responsible to your staff first or how else can you say to the community that you're a socially responsible organization? How can you serve the community?

When it comes to social responsibility, making sure the Y is for all is a large focus for us. We know that in all communities there are people who are underrepresented, who are marginalized, and who aren't receiving the services necessary for them to thrive. Our organization works in collaboration with government, with other nonprofits and educational institutions to address the intergenerational poverty and the academic discrepancies that exist and to work toward changing systems that create unjust inequities.

This includes providing scholarship assistance for individuals facing economic struggles. We offer reduced rates on membership, childcare, summer camp registration, programming and services. We also create specific programming for individuals and communities who otherwise might not feel welcome, such as our Gender Embodiment Through Voice and Movement workshop and a range of LGBTQ+ offerings.

A social responsibility commitment compels us to make a stand on social justice issues. At the beginning of COVID-19, when there was a lot of hate messaging directed towards the Asian community, as if they were responsible, we put together marketing materials to combat this misinformation. Our social justice work has called us to protest together as staff at Black Lives Matter rallies and to offer public support and advocacy for our African American community.

As a leader of color, I believe that having persons of color in leadership roles is extremely important to allow for representation and cultural competencies. There are fabulous white allies doing great work in diversity, equity and inclusion, but it's important to have people of color in all roles in an organization, many who bring a more intentional focus on equity issues. Nationally, leadership in the YMCA movement still does not match the demographics of the communities we serve. It's important that we make concerted efforts to overcome this.

For myself, my team and everyone in our community, the last two years have been exhausting. Its a challenge to continue to serve when you have reduced staff members, and need to find those individualswho want to be in-person caring for the well-being of others. Its hard to keep up morale, and to be able to adequately reward staff for their perseverance, their loyalty and their passion towards service at a time when revenue is reduced.

These are challenges that many nonprofit leaders are facing, along with staying creative and able to turn on a dime to meet the needs of the community as they constantly shift and rules change. We look for opportunities to stay relevant, and to continue serving the community in ways that are motivated by their voice.

I'm encouraged that the YMCA often serves as a bridge builder. There's so much dissension in our communities amongst people. We hope the programs and services we offer, and our commitment to inclusion, can allow people of differing opinions and backgrounds to come together, to feel welcome, and to find commonality and compassion for each other.

Toni Kayumi serves as CEO of the Ann Arbor YMCA. This entry is part of ourNonprofit Journal Project, an initiative inviting nonprofit leaders across Metro Detroit to contribute their thoughts via journal entries on how COVID-19, a heightened awareness of racial injustice and inequality, issues of climate change and more are affecting their work--and how they are responding. This series is made possible with the generous support of our partners, the Michigan Nonprofit Association and Co.act Detroit.

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Ann Arbor YMCA works to build healthy mind, body and spirit for allThe Nonprofit Journal Project - Concentrate

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic enters a third calendar year, the Department of Health and Human Services is poised to make key decisions about future access to the pathogen. This moment in history may prove to be an important inflection point in the regulation of emergent pandemic pathogens and is an occasion for careful reconsideration of the decision-making process. While regulation plays an important role in securing against accidental or intentional release of biological threats, missteps resulting in overregulation could stymie scientific progress, leading to deficiencies in public health preparedness and security infrastructure in the long term.

Todays list of the most dangerous biological agents, which is key to regulating their possession, use, and transfer, first took form in 1996 as a list of select infectious agents proposedby the Working Group on Civilian Biodefense. Throughout its history, the list has served as a mechanism for bolstering the biosecurity of the United States by preventing unauthorized access, theft, loss, or release of dangerous pathogens and toxins. This is orchestrated by the Federal Select Agents Program (FSAP), which rigorously reviews individual and laboratory requests to possess and work with restricted agents. In addition, the regulations guide regular inspections of laboratory facilities and protocols, review of import and transfer requests, and penalties in the case of failure to meet standards (see box below). Over time, the type and number of agents included have changed, and todays list contains 67 pathogens and toxins. The addition of a new agent is relatively unusual; however, it is reasonable to assume that additions of the future are likely to be emergent diseases with significant risks to global health security.

At first blush, SARS-CoV-2 may seem to fall squarely into this category. If added to the select agents list, it would be the first novel pandemic pathogen added since its close relative SARS-CoV-1 was included in 2012. But the decision isnt as simple as it may appear. Not every dangerous pathogen that emerges makes the listfor example, another deadly coronavirus, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), was discovered in 2012 but has not been added. And pathogens including HIV and the bacterium causing tuberculosis, two diseases that represent a considerable proportion of the global infectious disease burden annually, have not made the cut, either.

Clearly, criteria beyond novelty, pandemic potential, and total fatalities factor into whether an agent is select. But these factors are not as clearly defined as one might think. Four general criteria were determined by the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which considers the virulence or toxicity of an agent, its mode of transmission, and the availability of treatments. But from a critical analysis of agents on the list, its apparent that further, unwritten factors are routinely considered, which confuses an already obfuscated process. In 2010, the National Research Council more carefully describedthe actual criteria that appear to be used, based on the agents on the list currently, and this analysis expanded the considerations to include the ability to produce and disseminate the agent at scale, the publics perception of the microorganism or toxin, and previous reports of bioweapons research on the agent. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not clarified its official criteria in response.

There is a reason for this lack of transparency: it is the general stance of the US government that the exact deliberations behind an agents inclusion or exclusion is information that, if public, would pose a risk to national security. But obfuscation of how agents become select and a dearth of clear guidelines and metrics for evaluating the effectivenessof the attendant regulations has frustrated many in the scientific community. Some see the list as an obstacle to biosecurity advancements that ultimately leads to negative effects, such as the destruction of invaluable microbial collectionsand the shuttering of important research programs. These effects have stemmed from a variety of restrictions, most notably burdensome transport logistics, reporting rules, and the massive security and safety installation costs necessary to make a laboratory compliant for work with a select agent.

As a first step in addressing whether SARS-CoV-2 deserves select agent status, HHS has presented an interim rule in the Federal Register that seeks to add chimeras combining features of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 to the select agents list. This is in line with the stance of the government to carefully review and often limit dual-use research of concern, and in particular, gain of function research. However, in our estimation, such chimeric viruses are already regulated by the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts access to HHS select agents and toxins . . . that have been genetically modified. This newly proposed regulation is therefore duplicative and unnecessary.

The natural next question is: Should SARS-CoV-2 be added to the select agents list? Such a decision seems premature, at best. It is worth noting that the additionof SARS-CoV-1 took nearly a decade, and was a contentiouschoice even then. At the very least, more time is warranted to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 meets the full range of criteria for selection, particularly in regard to whether it could be a desirable candidate for bioweapon development by nefarious actors. Further, the situation begs for the governments reconsideration of the criteria themselves, both stated and presumed. How dynamic do the criteria allow the security community to be in the face of emergent, novel pathogens, which may represent the clearest examples of the select agents of the future? What improvements can be made in the clarity and stringency of such criteria to enhance scientific progress on protective measures without risking national security? And to similar ends, should we establish clearer and more transparent guidelines for future addition and removal of listed agents?

Our position is that regulation of an emergent pathogen is not in the best interest of public health during an ongoing pandemic, and we argue against regulation of any material that may play a role in development and promulgation of necessary biological technologies for preparedness and mitigation efforts. To support this position, we have evaluated SARS-CoV-2 using the National Research Council criteria, and from this analysis, can come to some general conclusions, presented in the table below.

Virulence, pathogenicity, or toxicity of the organism; its potential to cause death or serious disease

Yes

Clearly met and is likely to remain a risk for a significant period of time

Availability of treatments such as vaccines or drugs to control the consequences of a release or epidemic

Partial

Will clearly present lower risk in the near future as a result of mass vaccination campaigns, concomitant protection from vaccination and natural infection, other emerging therapeutic approaches, and general public health precautions like isolation and quarantine

Transmissibility of the organism; its potential to cause an uncontrolled epidemic

Partial

Ease of preparing the organism in sufficient quantity and stability for use as a bioterrorism agent; for example, the ability to prepare large quantities of stable microbial spores

-

Relate more specifically to bioterrorism concerns that are difficult to assess currently. It is still too early to determine the possibility of preparing SARS-CoV-2 at scale, and while ease of dissemination would appear to be high due to natural transmission dynamics, considerations that exclude criteria 2 and 3 will similarly temper this as a risk factor

Ease of disseminating the organism in a bioterrorism event to cause mass casualties; for example, by aerosolization

-

Public perception of the organism; its potential to cause societal disruption by mass panic

Partial

Remains a risk factor, but this is likely to wane precipitously in the near term as infections become less severe and common

Known research and development efforts on the organism by national bioweapons programs

-

While some have claimed that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a laboratory, until data is presented to support these claims, we determine this risk to be inapplicable

SARS-CoV-2 appears to soundly fit only one of these seven criteria, and it is too early to determine whether ongoing biomedical research and public health efforts will successfully alleviate the concerns put forth in three others. While there is not a defined threshold for how many criteria an agent must meet to be selected, there are other pathogens that better fit these criteria which are noton the list. As an example, HIV meets criteria 1, 2 (partial), 3, and 7 more than 35 years after its discovery and has still not been designated a select agent. This illustrates that even these expanded criteria fail to encompass all of the factors that go into government decision-making, in large part because they are undisclosed.

Ultimately, the decision about whether SARS-CoV-2 is named a select agent has broad implications for the scientific and policy communities. Regulation in this manner would severely restrict access to clinical and field samples, and would result in a mass destruction and consolidation campaign the likes of which may rival the one ongoingfor polio, which, though not a select agent, is the subject of an $5.1B eradication effort that includes destroying most samples of the virus and restricting others to certain well-secured labs. Such a campaign for SARS-CoV-2 would have economic ramifications that, while perhaps not debilitating for individual laboratories, are clearly burdensome. But more importantly, these burdens would translate to unavoidable losses in research productivity, which may ultimately harm public health security both in the US and globally. In particular, the development of therapeutics and the acquisition of fundamental knowledge about coronavirus biology could be hobbled.

These concerns are echoes of the past; the scientific community has voiced them before, when SARS-CoV was under consideration for addition to the select agents list. As a biosecurity community, we must seriously consider whether the decision to make SARS-CoV a select agent was connected to, and partly responsible for, the worlds vulnerability to SARS-CoV-2. If we are honest with ourselves about the likelihood that it was, we should take pause at the prospect of similar, rippling regulatory ramifications this time around.

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Opinion: Coronavirus and Regulating Access to High-Risk Pathogens - The Scientist

Whats distinctive about your parish? What is your parishs charism? St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church and its school, Holy Cross Academy (pre-K-8), are large and dynamic. With more than 18,000 parishioners, its a unique parish with a small-town feel. Located in the historic town of Fredericksburg, the community is vibrant and filled with many programs created to assist folks in the city and the surrounding counties of Stafford and Spotsylvania. The parishs charisms are service and prayer, which are powerfully witnessed by their collaborations with, and support of, the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank, Thurman Brisben Homeless Shelter, Micah Ecumenical Ministries, Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services, Marys Shelter, Birthright of Fredericksburg and St. Vincent de Paul Society, to name a few. Increased adoration and confession hours and opportunities for more frequent reception of Holy Communion add zeal to an already active parish.

Is there a special way your parish encourages and supports faith formation? An intentional emphasis on cultivating and supporting marriages and families, as domestic churches, has begun to grow over the past several years with the creation of new ministries: Marriage Ministries in both English and Spanish; That Man is You (stressing the role of fatherhood/manhood); the Cana Family Group (small communities of families gathering to share the Gospel and encourage family life); and Special Blessings (specific support/activities for families with special needs children). The surge in family ministries has added to the more than 80 ministries that already exist and make St. Marys a place where everyones gifts are needed and welcomed.

Whats the one unique thing visitors to your parish should do or see while there? Our pastor, Father Jon P. Mosimann, has an impressive collection of more than 900 crucifixes from around the world. He began collecting interesting crucifixes from his travels. Over the years, parishioners caught on, gifting him crosses from their homelands and travels. They are displayed in our Courtyard Meeting Room and throughout the parish offices. One can easily spend hours gazing at Our Lord and appreciating the various cultural expressions that depict him.

With 11 Masses celebrated every weekend, and the churchs proximity to I-95, we have many visitors visiting the charming town of Fredericksburg. They often remark how friendly our greeters and parishioners are. We are proud of our southern hospitality.

Is there a standout or longtime staff member or volunteer youd like to tell us about? One of the gems at St. Mary, is Elaine Stanislawski. She has worked at the parish as the business manager for more than 27 years. Her wealth of information is extraordinary and her ability to juggle countless details with such accuracy is a gift to the parish family. Elaine has served under four pastors and worked with more than 28 priests and deacons. When asked how she has served so long and with such goodness, her response was simply, It is all by Gods grace. Elaine is married to Joe, her husband of more than 51 years, and has two sons, Adam and Jason, and four beautiful grandchildren. She is a fully professed member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites.

Parish Information

St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

1009 Stafford Ave.

Fredericksburg

540/373-6491

Website: stmaryfred.org

Mass Times: Daily M-F: 6:30 a.m., 9 a.m. M/W/F: noon

Saturday: 9 a.m., First Fridays 8 p.m.

Sunday Masses: Saturday Vigil, 5p.m.; Sunday 7 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:30 (Spanish), 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Holy Cross Academy, 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Confession

Wednesdays 11:30 a.m.-12 p.m., 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the church.

Saturdays 8-8:30 a.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Parish Life Center.

Pastor: Fr. John Mosimann

Parochial vicars: Fr. Sean Koehr, Fr. Michael Folmar, Fr. Scott Sina, Fr. Phillip Cozzi,

Deacons: Deacon Alberto Bernaola, Deacon Dick Delio

Parish was originally established in 1858 and moved to its current location in 1971.

Total parishioners: 18,000

Holy Cross Academy

250 Stafford Lakes Pkwy.

Stafford

540/286-1600

Website: holycrossweb.com

PreK-8th grade

Total Students: 480

Principal: Stephen Fry

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St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Fredericksburg - Arlington Catholic Herald