By Ronda Alexander, Vital Village Network Change can begin with anyone, but it is especially powerful when it is designed and led by the people who will be most affected by it. The In the Arena with NOW podcast seeks to celebrate and share the stories of these leaders. The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW), an initiative of the Vital Village Network at Boston Medical Center, is designed to create space and conditions for local coalitions to build their capacity to drive...

On April 27, 2015, Shantay Guy was driving her 13-year-old son home across Baltimore from a doctor’s appointment when something — a rock, a brick, she wasn’t sure what — hit her car. Her phone was turned off, so she had not realized that protests and violence had broken out in the city that afternoon, following the funeral of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who drew national attention eight days earlier when he died after suffering injuries in police custody. As she saw what was happening...

The two police officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark behind his grandmother’s home in Sacramento last March recounted their actions in interviews with police investigators later that night. Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet described the frenzied seconds when they pursued Mr. Clark after responding to a report of a suspect breaking car windows on the city’s south side. As a police helicopter swirled overhead, the officers spotted him at the side of the house and ordered him...

I’ m an “elder orphan,” a solo ager, someone who is aging alone. That may sound depressing until you learn that the American Geriatrics Society calls me and my ilk “unbefriended.” Yikes. An elder orphan is someone “of an age” who has no immediate family in their life. No parents, spouse, siblings, children, or grandchildren. They may have immediate family, but the relatives live too far away to be of assistance in times of crisis. There’s another scenario, as in my case, where my immediate...

(l to r) Kelly Hardy, Allen Mattison, Jeff Hild _____________________________________________________ The March 14 “Strategic Advocacy: Winning Policy Change without Crossing the Lobbying Line ” webinar covered the fine points of where to draw the line between lobbying and non-lobbying activities but also provided useful tips and ideas for effective advocacy—both under the arc of “being braver because our kids need us,” as framed by presenter Kelly Hardy of Children Now . Because the stakes...