 Welcome SoCAP family. My name is Taj and this year you've all been invited to the cookout. We're gonna have a real talk kitchen table conversation about what needs to happen to shift capital, to build the relationships and the power we need to advance the equitable development and just transition that so many communities are trying to to move and make happen so it's just great to be with all of you. I'm with Full Spectrum Capital Partners along with Steph and Reuben who are the two other co-founders and run a small project within that called Full Spectrum Labs and you're gonna be meeting a bunch of the folks who we have the pleasure to be in community with and in partnership with if we explore this question of how we align our financial value with our deepest values to build to build the kind of change that we all all need and need to see and want to want to start by saying the name of two recent ancestors Sister Landria part of the part of the Highlander family one of the one of the giants in the global movement to build a solidarity economy and brother Cecil from React and the giants of the environmental and climate justice movement who who both recently left us too soon and we know they're having a cookout right now so I just want to bring them in and appreciate all the ancestors shoulders who were standing on in this conversation including those who have left us too soon. If you never got a hug from Cecil then you missed out because that's the best hugs you will ever get so just just gratitude to Cecil and Landria as we as we come into this conversation so thank y'all for coming this is you know see you how you been what's going on how's the family you know about a year ago Steph and Ruben and I went to Ghana Plain from Chicago from Colorado in an Oakland in Flute of Memphis because we were there to see a very important person named Nasa Troutman who was doing some work to to reclaim the story of Claiborne Temple which is the site of Martin Luther King's last campaign the site of the sanitation worker strike and to bring that bring that community institution back to life as a part of a strategy to to transform Black Memphis and to transform the Black Belt South and now she's she's leading a whole initiative a Southern shift initiative with other Black women around the South to advance restorative and regenerative development and so we want to call Nasa into the room because Memphis is a is a is a it's a really important place and and some of the people in this call Peter you can see you Peter Peter he is here an amazing filmmaker follow me home La Mission the lowest the documentary but Peter's also like a Nasa not just an artist and a creative but a community developer and Peter's working on a project with Friendship House in the Village in San Francisco and and Peter and Nasa are connected and the work of Indigenous folks in San Francisco and Black folks in Memphis is connected because Peter and Nasa are connected and they're sharing the lessons across those networks and let's say how to Christina Christina brought Eldra into our into Peter in my life and Eldra is the leader of Inside Circle and they are doing deeply transformative work with folks inside and outside of the system formerly incarcerated folks and building a whole new economy around that and Peter and Eldra are trying to figure out how Black folks and Indigenous folks in San Francisco who are trying to make space make sure there's housing make sure there's healing make sure that that's available and that can happen so we'll see if see if Eldra can come to the cookout today because he's got he's got a lot to well but I just want to you know I want to start with you Peter to just you know like appreciations and gratitude for for everything that you're doing and you know you're working on a development project you know you need around 60 million dollars to get get things moving and going you know and there's a set of relationships and partnerships that are happening to move that you're supporting Eldra and their efforts to get you know housing for folks in San Francisco you know one of them is it's really powerful about what you've shared is just the way that your community has come together recently in a way that is unprecedented like that hasn't happened can you say a little about the circle that's going to happen and just like what the significance of that circle is in this time for humanity what does it mean that that's happening first of all thank you for having me brother and all the other relatives who are on the panel good to see you Ruben but as I introduced myself I'm my name is Peter Rat and I'm from the Quechua people and so when I speak you know I'm also represent my family circle and my tribal background so I do want to I do want to start by as a filmmaker one of the interesting things is is that I see this conversation happening right now in the country where you know referring to James Baldwin who said that our origin story our origin narrative as a country was deliberately designed to reassure us all that no crimes were committed and I think today that that's so many people are realizing well there was a little bit of crime that was committed when the formation of this country and I'm specifically speaking to the conjoined twins of American Indian genocide indigenous genocide and land theft and the enslavement of millions of Africans and and I've been approached by many many different white relatives who are coming in and have reached this point particularly when when brother George was murdered like enough is enough we have to deal with this we have to confront this this this painful past and how do I become part of that conversation and so within within that context within the American Indian community in San Francisco so many of our our native nonprofits and groups have kind of been pursuing their own individual agenda and we all serve the same people the same population but we hit this point recently where we realized like we ain't getting nowhere and so we we started to combine forces and we started this long process of building this coalition and we started we realized that in order to move forward we have to kind of go back to our original teachings and systems and so kind of borrowing from our Oglala relatives in South Dakota we're using what they call the Buffalo systems of organizing and that is if you look at the Buffalo Nation there's not one leader and at night what's telling is the male but the male bulls they they make the outer circle and they face the outside and then within the inner circle are all the female the calves and then in the center are the are the are the are the babies the little calves who who are the center of the nation and so this outer circle everything works to preserve this new younger generation and everybody works in concert for that purpose so there's a there's a kind of a values and principles that align with the Buffalo Nation teaching and so we started to organize ourselves as a coalition using the Buffalo Nation organizing system and and we've created this coalition and what we want to do is we want to build the first urban traditional village in the United States and the reason why why this is exciting to so many of us is because the majority of Indian people today live in cities just like San Francisco and Oakland and Los Angeles and Seattle and New York and yet there's there's a disconnect Indian health services they're supposed to provide for the general social services of Indian people by by way of treaty but less than 1% of IHS budget goes to serving urban population so there's there's a disconnect and so what we want to do is our village is really a 21st century solution to a 21st century reality and that is that we're urban we're in a tribal we're often interracial and we're still without a physical and cultural home so the village is really this concerted effort to to really give our people a new space to kind of come together and and have and have a have a physical space where we can not just provide social services but a place where we can thrive we kind of been in the survival mode for I would say decades if not centuries and we kind of need to move out of that sphere into what my brother Taj calls the consciousness of thrive and so and so our intention is to build just that and in the last 12 months you know we made a lot of headway we just got site control of a lot and and a number of native nonprofits have banned together and will be the first organizations housed in the village core. I know it's not a lot of time so I want to quickly sum that up but it's an exciting movement I think that has really gripped not just the Indian community because there's the kind of word is getting out on the street oh you guys building a village and so we've also heard from a lot of our African American relatives in the city saying we want to build sister villages and let's build these bridges between our peoples that reflect the rich history that we've had together already for over 500 years. Our safety and thriving depends on space space for space to be space to create space to grow space to thrive and so this question of site control of land return of the transfer of access to space to land the buildings for the regenerative productive economic activity that our communities need to drive is so foundational literally the ground in the soil foundational to all other forms of capital so the work that you're doing the work that an ass is doing the work that that Eldren inside Circle are doing to just sort of establish space in my sense is like some of the most important work that we have to do as capital students is make sure that you have access to space to grow space to create space to heal as you as you were talking about the wisdom practice that you were organizing that had the little ones in the center of course I start thinking about my sister here Leslie who is a giant in the world of maternal health and the leader of the birth center equity fund BCD capital and in both Detroit and I just want to turn to you Leslie to say hello and you know what's been amazing to me as someone who's like building a birth center you know a university professor working with other birth center leaders and maternal health leaders around the country to figure out how to make sure that that our communities have access to safe and healthy birth and that the children are cared for at the center of all of our lives and all of our villages from from before they enter the world from even before then you know just wanted to hear from you like what what as you've been sort of on this journey what is your community need like what is what is the birth center community need to to really um this is why you're right next to Christina on the screen because you all are you all are engaged in a it's in parallel work which is you're not just trying to help individual birth centers but you're trying to build a whole new birth center economy and Christina is working with Eldra and Joseph to build a whole new decarceration economy so we're not just financing individual projects you're financing multiple projects infrastructure like you have a whole economic strategy that you're building at the same time that you're building a birth center so so that's that's a lot of has to wear how can we help when you need we need we're we're launching a campaign that says we need a hundred million dollars we have identified 50 million dollars of immediate need for the birth centers in our current network and then there are more and more leaders out there who are reaching out every day saying I'm out here trying to build a community birth center and I think that what resonates so much is that origin story is helping people understand that how and where we're born means so much to our opportunities for health and wellness in life and this time in our country's history the results of this the impact of this will live on for generations to come because we hold the past and the present and the future in our wounds in our bodies and we we need space for black indigenous and people of color to have our babies and to grow our families where we know right we are getting the best quality care in a safe environment and where we can be home and what we know right now is that we don't we don't have that right that the majority of communities of color across this country do not have access to birth center care care led by midwives care that we know right makes a huge difference in our health and our safety in our experience of birth in the economics of birth it even costs less for those who want to know that and it can make a life or death difference for folks of color to be cared for in spaces that honor our culture and and we want that for our families today and for generations to come and we don't just want to rent our spaces we want to own our spaces we want our communities to own our spaces so that there's there's no possibility that they could immediately be taken away because we need them Leslie can you can you tell folks a little bit about mom and Jenny and when who she is in your life and how you're supporting her so Jenny Joseph we call her affectionately mama Jenny is a renowned midwife she's been practicing midwifery for over 30 years and she has in Florida a birth center easy access clinic and the very first accredited midwifery school to be owned and led by a black woman in this country right and she is a mentor and inspiration and exemplar to so many of us who are starting easy access clinics or opening birth centers in our community and to be clear they're not a ton of us right so our network right now is about 25 and then you know growing and growing but mama Jenny has had a hand and an impact on so many and so what we're trying to do with her in the network is to support her in in a way that she supported all of us and that is helping her to to grow what she's building helping her to grow her easy access clinics her telehealth ventures and to you know solidify the sustainability of her important work thank you Leslie it's amazing to see you provide support to someone who supported you in so many ways with grants with equity with acceleration support with venture capital as you're building your own birth center so it's just been remarkable to see you sort of take all that on and in the way that you are it's been beautiful and I see that brother Eldar has joined the cookout good to see you welcome to the kitchen table I have to tell you all that when Christina introduced me to brother Eldar and he shared some of his story my life was forever changed and and if you get a chance to spend some time with Eldar here and speak you'll know why because he loves us he really does and he he he sits with those who have experienced the most deepest and profound suffering and in that space creates healing creates the possibility for healing just just just in who he is and he is working with other folks who've been impacted by our criminal legal system we've been harmed by it to heal inside and out and to build a whole new economy that's not based on fear and violence and incarceration but based on care based on care and community sovereignty right in working in the communities all around the country so I welcome you Eldar and you know I'm just excited for for you all to be meeting each other because you know we've been talking about where we're building some of this housing for folks who are coming out coming home you know maybe put that right next to the birth center you know that some of this right next to the village that the kinds of development that you are doing is so holistic and integrative that there's there's just natural connections between the folks who are deploying capital in healing ways so just want to invite you and Christina to share a little bit about what you're dreaming what you're creating what you're hoping for and what you need because working with Christina this is one of the projects where you know there's there's there's all kinds of opportunity for participation in this on the capital side at a significant scale because we're talking about some very large scale systems that we are shrinking in order to grow some other systems so yeah Christina Eldar what do you need? Eldar you want to you want to take that one and I'll just follow on. Sure sure first I apologize for my tardiness I'm in Sonoma California right now headed home I'm actually doing a bit of work trying to nip off the the problem in the bud with the pipeline to prison schools the prison pipeline we were at Arch Bishop Hannah High School it is a high school for young men who have been kicked out of public schools and we just spent the morning and half this afternoon with those young men trying to set the stage to begin creating a space for them to take ownership over their lives and developing new ideas about themselves and what's possible so that's kind of what I'm passionate about me myself having spent so much time in prison myself trying to reach some of these individuals before they wind up in prison these conversations that we're having right now and what it is we're trying to build housing for I'd like to be able to put us out of business and not have to have the need for this but unfortunately right now we do have the need for this and at inside circle what what where it was born was in New Folsom prison in 1996 following a massive race riot and a man named Patrick Nolan who was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood went around after that riot and and got some of the the leaders of different gangs on the yard to come together or allow their people to come together and sit down in a space that turned into these healing circles that we hold and out of those healing circles we learned how to love self and when I learned how to love myself that put me in a position to be able to learn how to and and have the capacity to love other people it's very difficult for me to want to see harm come to you when I can identify with you when I can see the light in you when I can recognize myself in you and and at heart that's all I want to do is create spaces in the world where people can learn how to love themselves they can recognize the value in self recognize the value in others and and begin to have a life of purpose that comes from that place that's really all I want to do hmm thank you brother Christina anything you want to share about you know the ways that you're supporting we're supporting Eldra to take all of the genius and and solutions that they've developed and make sure that everybody who has access to healing has access to healing everybody who needs access to housing has access to housing because thing I'll tell you about sister Christina is like she's got a plan and it's a big plan and it's working so yeah no I appreciate that you know folks like Eldra they exist all over our country and you know I appreciate Eldra and the work he's doing today because you know that's that's where my best friend got sent when we were 12 and the past of our lives were set by the criminal justice system in so many ways sent to these alternative schools and the school the prison pipeline the the cradle the prison pipeline there's absolutely an alternative continuum that exists because black brown systems impacted communities like the ones I grab but I grew up in you know we're resilient and and so over the last really 25 30 years as mass incarceration has been happening there's also another movement that's been happening and continued in our own communities that is programs like Eldra's inside circle credible messenger programs folks that have been through the system that now are acting as you know community public safety alternatives but we don't resource them we don't resource them and yet they are absolutely embedded and creating value in our community that then developers extract that value they take that value from those communities we gentrify communities when they when they become safe as you know as a city rather than having people actually participate in the safety and wealth building that happens in their community and so at Justice Capital we work with programs like inside circle and credible messenger programs around the country to be able to not just scale and I mean scale like take on the roles of the system so that no longer the system is existing as it currently does but exist in our lights in our reflection in our ways to be able to actually see alternatives to policing alternatives to cash bail alternatives to prisons alternatives to re-entry but also begin to repair the harm that's been done by extracting so much from our communities for so long and so that means birth centers absolutely that means community villages that means all of it because we have to actually repair the harm that's been done and that means expanding housing safe affordable housing and transformational housing that actually helps people a deal with the trauma that has happened in their lives so we're actually breaking those cycles it also means expanding ownership opportunities for people of color and formerly incarcerated people and it includes expanding public health and safety programs so that we don't have to re-exist in the same way. Thanks Christina and thank you all for coming to the kitchen table cookout here we um somewhat we can spend the whole day talking about this and I think for Steph and Ruben and I at Full Spectrum it's just an honor to be in partnership and in collaboration with all of you and I think the we're in a moment in which as as we all know we've got a shift hundreds of millions in philanthropic capital to unlock billions in debt to access trillions in public finance because just on the Green New Deal Biden's climate plans should that be our new administration there's two with trillion dollars that are going to be coming into communities and the work that you all are doing is going to ensure the capacity exists in those communities to benefit from that public investment from that public finance in a way that never happens our community's missed the 2008 stimulus we missed the 2020 stimulus because the investment hasn't been made and our capacity to steward our own capital so we got to divest we got to return the land return the capital give the land back just give it back we've got a we've got a shift capital from Wall Street to Main Street talk to Steph about that she's got some products for you and we got to reinvest you know we got to work with Rachel and Adesina and do our screens and gonna have money in the market we can help you with it but um within this community there is clarity about how we need to fundamentally transform and shift not just the worst of the capital and not just the best but the full spectrum all of it has to shift all has to be repurposed and infused with values um that serve serve are thriving that serve people on the planet so just gratitude for all of you for building those pathways and uh and getting ready because because you've got significant capital you need to do the work you're doing and you are connected to you and represent so many other people so we want to make sure you get what you need when you need it in the way that you need and that's uh that's what the broader SOCAP community needs to figure out so let's do it let's do it and um let's uh let's do this again sometime next time uh Ruben you you cut the food you run the barbecue all right thank you you well thank you brother thank you everybody