CTA Projects

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 1 in 68 individuals in the U.S. is somewhere on the autism spectrum. Because adulthood constitutes most of the human lifespan, the majority of these individuals are adults. In New York City, where AFSS is based, this corresponds to a population of nearly 100,000, with closer to 200,000 in the Greater New York area, most of which have not yet been identified. A common misconception is that individuals with autism prefer to be isolated and are not interested in either friendships or romantic relationships; in fact, for most adults, nothing could be farther from the truth. Consequently, there is a need for venues where adults on the spectrum can meet others who live with the same challenges, discuss and share the difficulties that they face in various aspects of their lives in a supportive environment, and be able to simply socialize with people who perceive and interact with the world in a manner similar to their own. Also, even though unemployment statistics for autistic adults are greatly overestimated (roughly half of AFSS group members are employed at some level), they are still higher than for any other disability. As such, many will not be able to afford the kinds of group and cultural activities that AFSS is working to provide. These costs can only be met through outside contributions and donations.

AFSS support groups, currently held in rented venues, allow members to discuss issues of concern to them in a group setting among other adults living with similar challenges. Each meeting starts with a specific theme chosen by the group. Past themes have included community, relationships, dating, isolation, and employment-related difficulties. For example, we have had discussions on what it means to be part of a community and on what an ideal community would be like. We then allow the conversation to evolve during the session, allowing members to relate their own personal stories to the group.

AFSS social groups encourage members to go out in public with others like them and to feel more a part of and accepted in a community, and meet at different restaurants and locations throughout the New York City area. This also provides an opportunity for the greater community to see that we are no different from anyone else and fully capable of participating in society in spite of our minor differences. These groups provide a sense of community for individuals who otherwise may not have many suitable opportunities to socialize, as well as somewhere to go, on a regular basis, with a relaxed, comfortable, judgment-free atmosphere where people can be themselves amongst others sharing similar difficulties and interests.

AFSS cultural events provide opportunities for our groups to attend a variety of artistic, scientific, and cultural events. These take place in museums, galleries, exhibitions, theaters, and other venues throughout the NYC area.

AFSS Leadership

Stephen Katz, Program Director AFSS

Stephen Katz facilitates a variety of support, social and cultural groups for adults with Asperger’s syndrome, along with those who are on the autism spectrum. In the past, this has included the GRASP Manhattan support group in New York City. He has also worked on a variety of projects for GRASP; including, “Persons on the Autism Spectrum in Their Communities of Faith”, a ground breaking seminar, moderated by GRASP founder, Michael John Carley.

AFSS Advisory Board

Karl Wittig, P.E.
Irma Jacqueline Ozer, Ph.D./ J.D.
Brian R. C. Kinghorn, M. Phil.
Jonas, Arnaldo, Founder of AFSS
Kelly D. Barndt

Food on campus is expensive, and the Cornell campus lacks a full-scale grocery store. For many students, a lack of time, transportation, money, or knowledge prevents them from accessing nutritionally adequate food. In a 2019 survey of Cornell undergraduate students, 17% reported having to skip meals frequently due to financial constraints. For Hispanic students this number jumped to 28.2% and for Black students to 34%.

The same survey showed that a lack of transportation and a lack of time to shop and prepare food are also significant barriers to eating well for Cornell students. Thirty percent of students said that they frequently did not eat as much as they needed because of a lack of transportation to an area grocery store. This number rose to almost 38% for Black students and 35% for Hispanic students.

Twenty-nine percent of students surveyed said they frequently ate less than the needed because of the lack of time to shop for food and almost 37% said they were frequently hindered by a lack of time to prepare food. These numbers are significantly higher for Black and Hispanic students: 41% of Black students and 35% of Hispanic students responded that they ate less than they wanted to because they lacked time to shop at area grocery stores: 48% of Black students and 44% of Hispanic students surveyed said they ate less then they want to because of lack of time to prepare food.

Our approach to addressing the problems of food insecurity and the associated stigma is to operate a student run grocery store on campus with low-cost, nutritious food for all Cornell students. Yet, Anabel’s is far more than a grocery store

We hope to increase nutritional literacy and cooking skills through easy to make, nutritious and inexpensive recipes, and programming events such as cooking classes, community dinners, and guest lecturers. To make cooking more accessible, we have established a pot and pan rental system, since access to adequate kitchenware is a barrier for many students. We also collaborate with like-minded student organizations to tackle the systemic forces that give rise to food insecurity, and racial inequities in the campus food system. For example, we have established an Anti-racism Action Fund, from the sale of produce donated to us by the Dilmun Hill student farm and the Cornell Hydroponics Club. This fund supports anti-racist student actions on campus and is distributed by Cornell4BlackLives.

By design, Anabel’s has a somewhat unorthodox organizational structure, one that is lateral rather than hierarchical. We don’t have supervisors, managers or directors. Anyone can take the initiative to make decisions and effect change. In fact, we want everyone to have agency in decision-making and taking action because Anabel’s then benefits from the good ideas, passion, interests, and skills that each and every one of you bring to the organization. That said, we do have structure, policies and defined roles that are consistent from semester to semester. And although everyone has agency to make decisions, our organization isn’t completely flat. Those with more experience naturally take on roles with more responsibility. We have three committees (Org Strategy, Operations & HR; Purchasing, Sales & Product Promotion; Collaboration & Education) that meet weekly and are facilitated by a committee coordinator. These committees largely govern themselves, determining their goals for the semester and who will take which roles. While committee roles are defined, they can change depending on the talents and interests of members and the evolving needs of the organization. The committee coordinators meet weekly to ensure effective communication and coordination between committees.

Our team is made up of about 40 students from across years, majors, and colleges. All members of our team are currently or have taken AEM 3385, a social entrepreneurship practicum focused on Anabel’s Grocery. Everyone in this course is helping to run Anabel’s. After taking the course, some students continue with Anabel’s to coordinate one of our committees and staff the store.

The impacts of the legacies of African enslavement and colonialism are far reaching and endure to the present. Systemic racism, economic exploitation, extreme violence, loss of language and culture, environmental degradation, and mass incarceration are some of their many ongoing consequences. White supremacy and Eurocentric knowledges systematically erase the history, culture, and contributions of African people. Today, the African diaspora spans the globe, and yet the history of enslavement and colonialism has largely been forgotten or ignored, leaving descendants of Africa disconnected from their roots.

The Ancestor Project is a cross-disciplinary effort to encourage dialogue between people of the African Diaspora. Using the universal language of art, the project touches on the disciplines of social, cultural, political and religious understanding to encourage self-expression towards individual and community healing. It facilitates Restorative and Transformative Justice between Africans and other non-African communities, drawing on indigenous knowledge as a bridge to reclaiming cultural heritage in the face of colonial language and culture dominance.

Ancestor Project USA leverages global networks to raise awareness about this transformative work and to garner financial resources to help further the impact of the Ancestor Project.

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo – Ancestor Project Founder and Ancestor Project USA Advisory Board Member

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo is a Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist and educator who is also known for his racial equality as well as cultural activism. He is founder of the Nkyinkyim Museum in Nuhalenya Ada as well as the creator and sculptor of Nkyinkyim Installation in Ghana, Legacy Museum and National Monument for Peace and Justice, Montgomery- Alabama, USA. He is also the creator of Nkyinkyim Za: Creative Communal Labour Festival, Ancestor Veneration Ceremony and Freedom Parade Festivals. In 2021, his Blank Slate Monument toured throughout the U.S., from Louisville, Kentucky, Times Square, New York City, and the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, among other stops. Kwame’s works typically archive historical African living experience while protesting the legacies of African enslavement and colonialism.

With a history of exhibiting in public spaces rather than art galleries, the powerful orator and scholar seeks to take his art into the heart of the community, disseminating his message to an audience beyond art patrons. Through this he is able to create a wholly holistic experience that firmly embeds newly reformed ideas into ones previously established by schematic diagram. His art is simply not art. It is activism, a lesson, an antidote—a realignment of a world dismantled and reconstructed by moments in history that all should interrogate. Having become an expert on using symbolism for effective public visual communication, Kwame currently uses his expertise to assist museums and governments for the communication of sensitive and painful subjects, such as war, genocide, enslavement and healing. Kwame is currently actively working on creating healing spaces for people of African descent around the world; Ghana, USA,Costa Rica, Liberia and Rwanda (talks still in progress).

Mary Yeboah – Co-Director, Ancestor Project USA
Fiona Duncanson – Co-Director, Ancestor Project USA
Abiana Nelson – Advisory Board Member, Ancestor Project USA
Mawuenya Amudzi – Advisory Board Member, Ancestor Project USA
Bruce Campbell – Advisory Board Member, Ancestor Project USA

WCLA-Choice Matters created The Center for Analysis and Tracking of Clinic Harassers, “CATCH”, in 2022. CATCH is a comprehensive digital system—a database resource that captures the legal tools necessary to fight all those that perpetrate human right violations against abortion providers, patients, and medical facilities. It tracks women’s health clinic invaders; is a repository of the legal tools needed to prosecute them; and is a training and support center for both law enforcement and care providers. CATCH is a powerful deterrent of crime; an essential model for ensuring the safety of our communities; and a critical public safety resource for law enforcement.

In November of 2021, at All Women’s Health & Medical Services in White Plains, NY, was invaded when two women masquerading as patients provided access to three unauthorized men. They were members of Red Rose Rescue, an extremist anti-choice group. They blocked doorways, aggressively moved past staff on the staircase leading to the waiting, examination and operating rooms, terrorized patients and staff, and shut down the facility. Some were positioned outside and physically put themselves in front of the entrance while harassing patients trying to gain access. This went on inside and out for over 2 hours before the intruders had to be carried out by the police. And unfortunately, law enforcement, through no fault of their own, were not up to date on the laws that would have allowed them to arrest and remove these terrorists more immediately, securing the safety of the clinic’s patients and staff.

In response to this invasion, CATCH was launched. CATCH’s exhaustive research enabled the successful prosecution of these repeat offenders and sentencing to the fullest extent permitted by law—for the first time anywhere in the country. CATCH further provided the documentation required to build a record for Westchester’s “Safe Clinic Access” legislation, leading to its enactment in June 2022.

Anti-abortion terrorists and their allies are winning. They have the funding, tools and sophisticated infrastructures to destroy women’s reproductive and basic healthcare rights—and they’re succeeding. There is a rising tide of violence. Attacks on abortion clinics, patients, and providers have hit a record high. The National Abortion Federation (NAF) recorded these 2021 increases: 600% in stalking; 450% in blockades; 163% in hoax devices/suspicious packages; 129% in invasions; and 128% in assault and battery. In 2022, even as many clinics were forced to close, every form of violence increased over 2021. Providers and medical facilities have limited tools and strategies to fight back. While there are national databases that track laws and incidents, no organization is tracking anti-abortion terrorist individuals and groups, or successful legal remedies.

CATCH works in collaboration with law enforcement including the attorneys general and district attorney offices to ensure that those who violate the law are held criminally responsible. In exhaustive detail, CATCH records extremist tactics and analyzes who, what, where, when, how—thereby tracking the anatomy of the crime, including the opposition’s attorneys, legal strategies, verdicts, judges, sentences, and more. It can identify a legal precedent to battle roadblocks injected by the defense. It identifies everything a medical facility, law enforcement agency and/or district attorneys needs to win, prosecute, and hold criminals accountable.

Founded in 1972, WCLA – Choice Matters (originally Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion, thus WCLA) has been fighting for reproductive justice for 51 years. Recognizing the sad fact that this fight would never be over, the women who founded WCLA – Choice Matters created an organization that continuously readjusts to take on every new attack. With the attack on All Women’s Health & Medical Services, WCLA – Choice Matters launched CATCH as the next vital effort in the war to protect abortion rights against those committed to eradicating them.

Catherine Lederer-Plaskett, President, WCLA – Choice Matters, is an internationally-recognized advocate for women’s reproductive rights. Her lifelong civil rights activism has focused on gender, race and economic disparities. As its President and Chair for two decades, Catherine has spearheaded the growth and revitalization of WCLA – Choice Matters, the oldest ongoing pro-choice advocacy organization in the nation. Key to Catherine’s work is advancing comprehensive reproductive health policies and legislation. Frequently, Catherine can be heard discussing abortion rights issues on radio and television, as well as found running educational workshops and seminars at colleges, high schools, and community centers.

In the Great Lakes watersheds, the need for conservation and protection is especially acute. These watersheds are part of the largest surface freshwater system in the world – a system that provides drinking water, recreation, irrigation, and transportation for tens of millions of people. Yet overdevelopment, coastal flooding, polluted runoff, and erosion are taking a toll on the ecosystem. So through education and inspiration, CurrentCast aims to educate listeners about these issues and engage them in solutions.

The goal of CurrentCast is to help the general public better understand and engage in water stewardship. What makes the program unique is its sustained coverage: the segments reach listeners daily, Monday through Friday, with new information. So over time, people accumulate an over-arching understanding of the issues. A tag line at the end of each segment directs listeners to the web site, where more in-depth resources are provided.

Topics covered throughout the year include water conservation, water quality, stormwater management, restoration efforts, species conservation, aquatic ecosystems, agriculture and water use, nutrient runoff, water and energy, water and climate change, tips for personal water conservation, and more. Through careful selection of story topics, CurrentCast helps the audience understand how these issues impact everyone and what steps they can take to make a difference.

CurrentCast is produced by Bridgett Ennis and Erika Street Hopman of ChavoBart Digital Media (CBDM). CBDM is a production firm with a focus on scientific and environmental media. In addition to CurrentCast, CBDM also produces Climate Connections, a nationally syndicated radio series about climate change, which the company produces and distributes on behalf of the Yale Center for Environmental Communication. Climate Connections is heard on more than 300 radio stations nationwide.

The Producers:

Bridgett Ennis has been involved in the editorial production of short-form scientific and environmental radio programs and podcasts for more than 18 years. Prior to founding CBDM, Bridgett was a Vice President at Finger Lakes Productions International – a company which produced and distributed media to more than 600 radio stations during its 25-year history.

Bridgett worked directly with representatives from the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, The Ocean Conservancy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the American Society for Microbiology and more to meet their outreach needs. Bridgett also managed the planning and launch of the Everglades Radio Network, which highlights the restoration efforts taking place in the Florida Everglades. As project manager for Our Ocean World and MicrobeWorld, Bridgett oversaw the writing, production, and distribution of these nationally-syndicated daily radio series.

Bridgett holds a B.S in Community Health from Ithaca College, and a M.A. in Business Policy from SUNY Empire State College. She is an avid gardener and loves hiking through the Finger Lakes.

Erika Street Hopman has diverse media experience that includes work in video, radio, and print.

Before founding CBDM, Erika served as a project manager at Finger Lakes Productions International, where she oversaw the writing, production, and distribution of the nationally-syndicated radio series The EnvironMinute and Animal Instincts. She also managed the ongoing production of the Everglades Radio Network, which highlights the restoration efforts taking place in the Florida Everglades.

An independent documentary filmmaker, Erika’s documentaries and short films has been shown internationally at film festivals and broadcast on outlets such as LinkTV and AlJazeera English.

She is passionate about environmental issues and has volunteered for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, served on the board of the Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, is a member of the steering committee for her local community garden, and acts as the Treasurer for the Shabbona Park Advisory Council. Erika holds a BA in Biology from Cornell University and an MFA in film production from Boston University.

The Science Content Adviser:

The Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (Atkinson Center) at Cornell University is the editorial partner for CurrentCast. As such, the Atkinson Center helps direct the overall content for the initiative through regular story idea brainstorming sessions, and by approving all topics and scripts before production.

The Atkinson Center is the only academic institution in America that unites the three pillars of sustainability — energy, the environment, and economic development — in one center. Its major grant programs and activities spark unusual collaborations that spur new approaches, techniques, and technologies so that the today’s seeds of knowledge can grow into tomorrow’s solutions. But good research is not enough on its own. The Atkinson Center’s priority is to engage with external non-academic partners to jointly bring discoveries to bear, to maximize real-world impact.

Perhaps more than ever before, the coming generation will be challenged to sustain water resources both globally and here in the Finger Lakes. Unfortunately, many young people have surprisingly little opportunity to interact with, or gain understanding of, the lakes and streams in their own backyard. Field trips are expensive for schools, and public access is limited by retaining walls, transportation, private property and concern over liability. We believe that young people, regardless of background, must have more opportunities to experience the resources upon which they ultimately depend.
“In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” – Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum.

Discover Cayuga Lake uses three primary educational platforms. Through the Floating Classroom, we offer highly interactive “eco-cruises” during the warm months for over 1500 students each year. We also coordinate the Finger Lakes “Trout in the Classroom” program during the colder months. And, starting in the summer of 2018 we will be launching our public boat tours and ecotourism initiative on our new boat, the Teal.

Presently, we help over 50 classes at 18 schools raise and release trout to local streams. These programs encourage inquiry-based learning, citizen-science, and the development of a personal relationship with elements of our aquatic environment. We look forward to expanding our educational offering through the new boat tours and ecotourism initiative this summer.

Additionally, we offer internships for high school and college students throughout the year, and maintain a scholarship fund to ensure that all schools and communities have access to our programs.

The Floating Classroom was founded in 2003 (rebranded as Discover Cayuga Lake in 2018), by volunteers acting on behalf of the Cayuga Lake Inter-municipal Organization. Bill Foster became the Director in 2008 and has worked with our Advisory Board to bring the organization to its present level of operation. The Advisory Board is currently chaired by Jeffrey Werner. Our staff includes Program Manager Lee Yoke Lee, who plans class visits and oversees our intern program, and seasonal instructors Chase Lurgio and Caroline Hoover. Our Volunteer Coordinator, Phil Koons, accommodates a growing community of “Trout in the Classroom” mentors. We will introduce a new vessel, the Teal, to Cayuga Lake in the summer of 2018, and anticipate a substantial increase in staffing, including ship’s captain and crew and interpretive educators.

There are two colliding trends in this stage of American society as we confront the realities of climate change, mass extinction, and ecosystem collapse: the increasing pressure on our students, future global leaders, to measure their success in broadly (but strictly) economic terms and concomitantly, the rise of “mindfulness training” as a commodity. Highly motivated and passionate students, often have a limited tool kit for cultivating a textured and meaningful life while studying at Cornell: students who can discuss the theories of social justice and food security but have no hands on experience growing a plant, let alone preparing even a simple meal; students who are driven to be more mindful and calm, but the only access they have to training their minds outside of intellectual endeavors is through apps on their phones and computers.

Fallen Tree Center was created to provide a non-denominational context in which students can combine a practical experience of cultivating a more sustainable lifestyle with real hands-on work and non-competitive learning, and a daily meditation practice that includes using daily activity as meditation (called samu in Japanese).

Our approach is that one learns through doing. One learns, does, and then learns to teach what one has embodied through practical experience. We offer summer internships and classes where students learn to connect their heads to their hands through the practical skills of everyday life: cooking, fermentation, bread-baking, cleaning a house, gardening, caring for poultry, building projects, hügelkultur, beekeeping and more. We rely on many experts in our community, so the quality of education is first rate but not offered within the context of a graded class. In 2018, we added a 40-acre tract of land in Cortland County to our offerings and have a small cabin there for meditation, bird watching, and insect habitat conservation (particularly monarch butterflies). Students have been active participants in creating the nature preserve at this place in Freetown, NY, near McGraw. The long-term plans are to maximize the use of Fallen Tree as a concept, both in its Ithaca base on Muriel Street and the new nature preserve in Freetown, with the core focus being on cultivating Cornell students and other young people, whether for a weekend or a summer internship.

Since starting in 2015, Fallen Tree Center has offered summer classes for free and uses Cornell interns as both learners and also teaching associates, but the free public classes (offered twice a week) are brought to those who are extremely poor in our region. In any given summer, our free summer class members include marginalized people within the Ithaca community looking to cultivate a garden in their apartment complex, migrants or newly arrived refugees living in our region hoping to advance their skill sets as gardeners and community members, elderly, non-English speakers, retired, or partially disabled people, and Cornell students. Our classes often give people who are marginalized in some ways (economically, culturally, linguistically) a chance to become teachers in their own right, educating us about food systems, plants and even pickling methods in our fermentation work. For our Cornell students, this is critical, as our students encounter a great deal of diversity in many areas, but not much in terms of educational diversity. A major component of our classes is working directly with whatever language groups sign up, and we have had classes where people spoke only Burmese, Chinese, Spanish or Arabic. In our classes, we start from the perspective that hands on work is its own language and working together builds bonds that can transcend difference. This actually works (really!) and with google translate and good translators a few times a week, we manage to create deep and enduring relationships surrounding our common goal of connecting to our daily lives with a quiet mind and an attentive presence. We also have a great time and learn a lot of creative and global ways to use space, create built environments, and prepare food.

Director, Jane Marie Law, Associate Professor of Japanese Religions, Fellow, Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell University

Advisory Board

Christopher Rivera Betancourt, Sophomore in Environment and Sustainability, Cornell University
Su George, Senior Lecturer in Chinese, Cornell University
Sorayya Khan, novelist, Ithaca, NY
Ven. Masaki Matsubara, Ph.D. head Priest Butsumoji Zen Temple, Chiba, Japan (lives in NYC)
Maiko Sein, Junior in the College of Arts and Architecture, Cornell University
Nancy Thompson, retired elementary school teacher, Cortland, NY School District and avid up-cycler and creator of sustainable fashion
Ben Velani, Senior in the Arts and Sciences College, Cornell University
Kelly Wessel, Professor of Ecology and Sustainability, TC3

Malawi, located in southeastern Africa, has a current population of 16.4 million, over 80% of whom live in rural areas and rely on agriculture for their food and livelihoods. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated per capita income of $US270, over 70% of the population living below the poverty line, and higher poverty rates in rural areas. An estimated one-third of Malawian households experience chronic food insecurity and calorie deficiencies. High rates of gender inequality in Malawi has contributed to these high rates of food insecurity and malnutrition, as women have little control over agricultural decisions, experience high levels of physical violence, and have lower education and training opportunities.

SFHC works to empower smallholder farmers in Malawi to build sustainable, healthy, equitable, resilient communities. SFHC uses farmer-led, participatory research, ecological approaches to farming, local indigenous knowledge and democratic processes, while addressing economic, health and social inequalities at the household, community and national levels in Malawi.

Friends of SFHC are academics, farmers, students, journalists, nutritionists and community members in North America who believe that the participatory, democratic, ecological, farmer-led approaches spearheaded by SFHC are critical in building a resilient food system. We aim to provide opportunities for engaged citizens in North America to learn about the work being done by SFHC, and the issues they are fighting more broadly, and to contribute to this work through fundraising, and information sharing. Some of the advocacy efforts are focused on increasing government and non-profit support for agroecological, community-led efforts to address food security and nutrition in the Global South, and for not supporting policies and programs that work directly against such an approach. We also plan to arrange for training and speaking opportunities in North America for partners at SFHC. These opportunities would further build and strengthen these relationships while continuing to grow the international profile of this work and further develop expertise within SFHC.

Rachel Bezner Kerr –Advisory Board Chair, Friends of SFHC; Board Member, SFHC
Isaac Luginaah – Advisory Board Member, Friends of SFHC
Catherine Hickey – Advisory Board Member, Friends of SFHC
Laifolo Dakishoni – Chairperson, SFHC
Esther Lupafya – Co-Chairperson, SFHC

The average farmer in the United States is 58 years, white, and male. The aging farming population urges the need for programs that support the next generation of farmers in starting and growing profitable and sustainable businesses. Fortunately, the Finger Lakes is renowned for its vibrant local food economy and is home to a plethora of profitable and ecologically-sound farm and food businesses. However, the current food system landscape falls short in addressing inequity and injustice and fails to reflect the diversity of this region. There are numerous barriers and risks for all beginning farmers, yet historically systemically marginalized groups may face additional barriers including language difficulties, lack of financial resources, and discrimination, which prohibit equal access to education, loans, and resources. Moreover, few farms and organizations supporting farmers have the tools and resources to integrate topics of equity and justice into their business model or current trainings within a rural context.

Groundswell Center addresses inequalities in the food system and supports producers to launch and expand businesses by offering programs that support diverse beginning farmers, educating current farmers and the public about food justice, and collaborating for change. The Farm Business Incubator Program provides affordable land, equipment, tools, mentoring, training and business support to limited-resource and underrepresented aspiring farmers – including immigrants, refugees, people of color, women, and people with disabilities. The program is an ideal, low-risk way to explore or start a farm business concept and build self-sufficiency. Groundswell also organizes courses, workshops and networking groups to support start-up and growth of farm and food businesses that not only build technical skills but also incorporate discussions and training regarding food justice. Groundswell works collaboratively to hold community events and conferences that promote learning and discussion about our local food system.

Groundswell Center was founded by Joanna Greene in 2010. After her retirement, Elizabeth Gabriel took on the role of Director, Kate Cardona is Outreach and Equity Coordinator, Liz Coakley is Incubator Farm Program Manager, and Natalie Hughes operates as Development Manager. Groundswell also contracts with hundreds of farmers and community organizations to facilitate workshops, serve as mentors to incubator farmers, host tours, organize events, speak at conferences, and more. Groundswell Center’s work and mission is driven by a volunteer Advisory Board that guides organizational decisions, a Development Committee that creates and implements fundraising strategies, an Incubator Farm Committee that supports a successful Incubator Farm program and an Equity & Accountability Committee, of which community leaders of color evaluate and provide feedback to Groundswell as we strive to build an equitable and diverse organization.

The number of local and regional food system development projects throughout the world, especially in North America, is growing dramatically. However, much of the current work in food systems development lacks established foundations for practice. Many issues limit the impact of the most innovative projects like food hubs, midscale value chains, farm-to-school programs, and shared-use kitchens.

Most community and regional food initiatives are launched with the best of intentions. But if they lack informed program planning and execution, they can be a waste of precious public and private resources. This not only hinders future work in a given community but also tarnishes the image of the food movement overall. We attribute the lack of training and program success to a number of key issues:

Relying heavily on biased, unsubstantiated, or otherwise non–research-based information, such as blogs, word of mouth like presentations, and informal reports and other gray literature, despite their important role in sharing ideas and strategies.
Experts on top rather than on tap: experts lead a project and assume that buy-in is enough, rather than securing leadership and ownership of a project by those it is intended to benefit.
Projects in communities of color being managed by (predominantly white) outsiders.
Mission creep: chasing grant dollars and thus acting on a donor’s interest instead of those defined by the community.
An attitude of “if we build it, they will come”: using a trial-and-error approach or launching whatever program is currently popular.
A toxic competitive environment leading to silos of activity and staff at the community and regional levels.
Reinventing the wheel by replicating projects that have already been done without learning from their successes and failures.
Painting problems in overly simplistic terms that pit project stakeholders against each other.
The common belief that impacts cannot be measured or that evaluation is too expensive.
The tendency to focus on symptoms of problems rather than the underlying causes.
A lack of focus on systems (the full range of production, supply chains, and food security), and instead a focus on a single aspect of food systems.

Food is a basic need that all people share and around which vital social and economic activities evolve. We see regional agriculture and food systems as a lens through which stakeholders can understand community challenges, opportunities, and processes, and with that understanding make transformative change in their own community and wider society. Yet we often see disparate and sometimes even competitive efforts. For example, there is a gulf between farm advocates (who desire fair prices to support livelihoods) and food security advocates (who desire affordable food). Finding viable supply chain models that bridge the interests of both needy family farmers and needy eaters has been elusive, and sometimes reveal dichotomies such as rural poor vs. urban poor, black vs. white, foodie vs. hungry, and organic vs. conventional. However, by fostering constructive discourse across ideologies and creating opportunities to work toward a positive shared vision, the Lyson Center is helping to navigate a “middle way” in food system theory and praxis.

The Lyson Center does not provide direct services in communities of need. Instead, we see ourselves as part of the critical support infrastructure for the good food movement, similarly to foundations, funding agencies, national advocacy organizations, and the like. By publishing JAFSCD, we provide not only a publishing outlet for scholars and cutting-edge practitioners, but also a conduit through which the two can share and reflect on their challenges and opportunities to address tough problems at the local and regional levels. By facilitating NAFSN, we believe that the improved knowledge and skills of practitioners are likely to lead to more effective and efficient programs, and ultimately to more sustainable and transformative food systems.

The Lyson Center’s mission is to encourage equitable and sustainable community food systems that reflect civic agriculture by:

supporting the proliferation of high-quality applied research and scholarship on food systems;
fostering professional development of food system development practitioners; and
building the capacity of communities to engage in cutting-edge food system development work.

Organizing strategies that we engage in include reducing the silos of activities; encouraging institution-building; coordinating effort across national programs; encouraging virtual community development, professional development, communities of practice, organizational partnerships, core competencies, and best practices; building networks; and supplying research-based information.

Advisory Board

Loretta Carrillo, retired, Latino Studies Program and the department of Romance Studies at Cornell University.
Cheryl Danley, community food systems specialist in Detroit, Michigan.
Ardyth M. H. Gillespie, retired, Community Nutrition Program in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University.
Amy Guptill, professor and chair of the Sociology Department at the College at Brockport, State University of New York (SUNY).
Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman, senior extension associate with the Community and Regional Development Institute (CaRDI), Development Sociology, Cornell University.
Craig Chase, director, Marketing and Food Systems Initiative at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Iowa Food Systems Working Group for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
Gilbert W. Gillespie, Jr., retired, Development Sociology, Cornell University.

Staff

Amy Christian, co-coordinator of the Lyson Center and managing editor of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. amy@lysoncenter.org
Duncan Hilchey, co-coordinator of the Lyson Center and editor in chief of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. duncan@lysoncenter.org

Maternal guilt, shame, and isolation cause extreme stress to mothers and families, often resulting in depression and anxiety at a great cost to family and community. Well-meaning unsolicited advice can be hurtful and sometimes destructive to new mothers. When humans are hurting, the foremost needs are to be seen, heard, and held. Maternal suicide is highly correlated to the presence of acute guilt and shame. Disarming these emotions saves lives.

We provide lovingly moderated online peer support forums that adhere to a unique set of respectful and kind community guidelines and boundaries. One forum is for emotional support issues for mothers around the world; another forum is for using online communications to facilitate real-world interactions and mutual assistance in the Ithaca area. Since it was founded in 2012, Mama’s Comfort Camp has offered online peer support at all times: 24/7/365. We also hold local events in the Ithaca area that support and strengthen the community.

MCC supplements mental health services in many ways: even those who have the financial ability and the courage to seek therapy and if need be medications rarely see their providers more than once a week. Having constant access to peer-to-peer emotional support, regardless of time, place, financial ability, or transportation is truly revolutionary and unique. For those who don’t have access to mental health services, MCC is the closest thing to mental health support — always available, and totally free.

Leadership Team

Yael Saar, Founder: is a mama on a mission to remove the guilt, shame, and blame from the parenting experience, in order to make room for connection, love, and (all the) rest. As a postpartum depression survivor, she became a mothers-support advocate and is passionate about reducing maternal isolation and normalizing the asking for help while building a community that provides it. Yael, a mother of two boys aged 8 and 13, founded Mama’s Comfort Camp in 2012 to provide a judgment-free support network for moms of kids of any age: from new moms to grandmothers, and every stage in between!
Hannah Shayler, Lead Moderator (“Den Mother”) works with a team of volunteers to uphold Mama’s Comfort Camp as a unique safe space as the group evolves. Hannah also works as an Extension Associate at Cornell University, where she coordinates the “Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities” research/outreach program to help lessen the impacts of soil contaminants through healthy gardening practices. She has a 5 year old son.
Celeste Ptak, Lead Moderator has been a member of MCC from the very beginning in 2012 and has enjoyed her role in helping transform it into the unique space that it is where all moms can get support and validation through the struggles of motherhood. Celeste received her PhD in biological chemistry in 2005; however, motherhood has created a new path in her life. She is the mother of 4 children, a 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old triplets (girl/boy/boy).

Advisory Board

Erica Marx: (Board President, owner, Courageous Communications, certified mediator) communications and community outreach, online program design and delivery, systems management, mediation.
Susie Hatch: (Formerly: The Law Guardian’s Office) nonprofit long-term view, grant writing, long history of action in the local human services community, relationships with seniors in our community.
Gretchen Samter: development, grant writing, moderation support.
Sally Manning: (Franziska Racker Centers) child development, community mental health issues.
Gregg Pitts: (Natural Investment) financial advice, budget planning, governance.
Kate Downs: planning, marketing, outreach, moderation support.
Diane Hamilton: (Greenstar, Om Child Yoga) volunteer management, human resources, community relations.
Elizabeth Stilwell: (Formerly: Family Reading Partnership) organizational design, early childhood advisor.
Yamila Fournier: (Formerly: Ithaca Children’s Garden) long-term planning, volunteer management, community outreach.

LGBTQI persons and their allies often face serious physical and legal threats in their countries of origin, including persecution because of sexual orientation, gender identity or identity (SOGIE), or because of HIV status. While the U.S. recognizes SOGIE-based asylum claims, many LGBTQI and HIV+ immigrants face constraints in accessing information about the asylum process, or legal support necessary to file asylum claims. The increasing focus on detention and deportation in U.S. immigration policy exacerbates the vulnerability of LGBTQI immigrants, who are disproportionately at risk of physical abuse and sexual violence inside of immigration detention.

With its focus on protecting and building power among LGBTQI and HIV+ immigrant detainees, QDEP was established in 2013 in response to a gap in culturally competent services for LGBTQI and HIV+ immigrants coming out of immigration detention. QDEP organizes around the structural barriers and state violence that LGBTQI detainees and other undocumented persons all too often face in relation to their immigration status, race, sexuality, and gender expression or gender identity. QDEP is committed to assisting individuals in building lives outside of detention, breaking down the barriers that prevent folks from building fulfilling and strong lives, and keeping queer and trans immigrant families together by demanding an end to deportations, detention and policing.

With its focus on the protection and empowerment of LGBTQI and HIV+ immigrant detainees, QDEP has a unique role within the grassroots immigrant movement, both in New York and nationwide. QDEP works to build a trans and queer narrative, enhancing the dialogue and activities within the immigration justice and prison abolition movements, as well as ensuring a safe space for persons of all national origins and immigration statuses within LGBTQI movements. QDEP is an active member of the Detention Watch Network, the International Detention Coalition, and the National Prison Divestment Campaign Steering Committee.

QDEP provides its members access to information on policy issues that affect them as immigrants and as LGBTQI persons, and advocates for justice for all persons and families who are affected by US immigration laws and policies.

Ending detention of all immigrants is a strategic advocacy goal for QDEP, with priority given to immediately abolishing detention for LGBTQI immigrants who face the greatest risks for physical and emotional abuse while in detention. QDEP advocates for an end to the isolation and segregation of transgender immigrants (the so-called “GBT pods”) in detention, a practice that is tantamount to psychological abuse. QDEP has worked with other immigrant rights advocates to advocate for the New York City Council to pass resolutions in support of humane alternatives to immigration detention, including the elimination of solitary confinement for all immigrant detainees.

Advisory Board

Lilla Crawford
Olando Charles
Uchechukwu Onwa
Tania Mattos

Sexual harassment in any workplace is abhorrent. Perpetrated by elected officials, it is strikingly egregious: a betrayal of public trust and gross abuse of power. And yet, it is rampant in political workplaces, with women and minorities bearing the brunt. It forces survivors into an impossible decision: speak up, risking career fallout, or stay silent, leaving the perpetrator to harass. This unchecked corruption traumatizes workers, interrupts careers, hinders diverse representation, inhibits good governance, and impedes the advancement of sexual harassment policy nationally. If we want to address the issue everywhere, we must start with government workplaces.

National Women’s Defense League uses research, coalition building, trauma-informed care, and legislative advocacy to create sustainable legal, mental and physical support for survivors, while changing policies to prevent harassment from occurring.

Emma Davidson Tribbs, Co-Founder and Project Director: Emma is a professional advocate and government affairs operative who has made a career of joining political and social movements at key moments of change to define the next stage of success.

Emma brings more than 12 years of experience in advocacy campaigns, message development, corporate legislative planning and lobbying to her work. Her expertise is in finding common ground on some of the nation’s most contentious issues, including protecting reproductive health rights, passing gun violence prevention policies, expanding voting rights and access to the ballot, increasing renewable energy solutions to local communities, and electing progressive candidates to local, state and federal offices. As a Co-Founder and Principal at Harrison Clark, Emma serves clients by developing multi-state campaign plans, designing and implementing PAC endorsement programs, and overseeing strategic ballot initiatives.

Emma is a co-founder of Statecraft Collective, an association of purposeful thought-partners who work as a braintrust to network, collaborate, and utilize their unique and extensive backgrounds in advocacy and electoral efforts on some of the toughest fights in the country. She has been trained as a spokesperson by the Women’s Media Center, completed management training at the Center for Creative Leadership, and is a graduate of the New York Junior League’s Nonprofit Boards Clearinghouse. Emma is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University and earned her Master’s Degree in International Development from the University of Bristol.

NAFSN’s mission stems from our collective knowledge that the world’s dominant food structures have undermined the wellbeing of humans and Earth. Urgent issues include:

the ubiquity of diet-related human diseases;
farmer economic insecurity, aging-out, mental health concerns;
unjust and unsafe working conditions of farm workers;
farmland loss;
inability for new and BIPOC farmers to access farmland and resources;
degradation of soil, water, air;
confined, disease-prone livestock;
disparities in rural communities;
lack of local infrastructure supporting food processing and distribution;
poor access to healthful foods in many communities;
disregard for traditional knowledge of regenerative practices;
climate change threatening food production;
industrial food production contributing to climate change;
multi-cultural foodways lost and replaced with cheap, highly-processed products sold as “food”.

According to the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, effective solutions to these issues “will address the interrelated challenges across both food and nutrition security and climate change and work towards transforming national and global food systems. This work will include strategies to promote local and regional food systems, which have been shown to reduce food waste, support local economics, increase the biodiversity, freshness, and nutritional value of foods, and reduce food insecurity.”
NAFSN knows that this workforce requires unique skills, science-based knowledge, and trust-based networks. We offer learning and networking opportunities for practitioners at all career points (emerging, transitional, seasoned) to help this workforce become better known, valued, and engaged in driving meaningful change. We lean toward newcomers, and value lived experiences, place-based knowledge, and activism as cornerstones of this profession.

NAFSN’s work is organized within four programmatic “circles.”

ACRE Circle – AgriCluster Resilience & Expansion (ACRE) is a values-based strategic planning process to help groups of food/ag stakeholders collaborate more effectively. ACRE is rooted in place-based value chain development. The ACRE Circle manages a comprehensive, 18-part ACRE facilitator training.

CARAT Circle – The Community & Agriculture Resilience Audit Tool (CARAT) helps community stakeholders assess how they currently utilize the assets of their local food system to achieve a substantial level of community resilience. CARAT measures the resources within a food system via 101 indicators to determine possible next steps to increase community resiliency and food sovereignty.

COM-FED Circle – The Community Food Systems Employment Data project (COM-FED) seeks to understand the evolving roles and trends of the workforce engaged in community food systems development. This Circle helps “make visible” these job opportunities and tracks the collective impact of community food systems practitioners over time.

PRODUCTIONS Circle – The Productions Circle is responsible for creating events & content to engage, educate, and empower community food systems practitioners and the public at large. This work includes overseeing the website, webinars, podcasts, jobs board, book club, and social media, as well as learning events with subject matter experts.

In support of NAFSN’s programmatic circles, the CAPACITY-BUILDING Circle takes responsibility for guiding internal matters. This circle provides guidance to the Co-Directors to guide strategic planning and implementation, develop business plans, oversee financials, request and respond to outcomes studies, recruit leadership with needed skill sets and networks, connect NAFSN to aligned organizations, and identify funding opportunities and collaborations.

Natalie Cruz
With a background in sustainable food systems, my purpose has always been to decolonize the interconnected components of our food system at the intersection of social justice and social innovation. My goal is to create spaces where efforts to promote fairness, equity, and justice intersect with innovative approaches to creating positive social change. Ensuring that all members of society have equal access to opportunities, resources, and rights regardless of their background, identity, or circumstances. My efforts are grounded in a commitment to social justice values and principles while identifying creative and innovative approaches that leverage community engagement, partnerships, and interdisciplinary collaboration to drive progress toward a more just and equitable society.

Kim Hines
As a former executive director of a nonprofit leading food systems development along the Central Savannah River region of Georgia, I deeply understand how challenging this work can be, particularly in communities that lean conservative when our work is inherently progressive. It is necessarily slow, requires constant relationship building, and must be based in actions rather than steeped in words. Since my time as an ED, the movement has snowballed and so has the role of community-based food systems practitioners. I’ve been a front row witness to real struggle and hard-won progress made by people in these roles. Of course, I’m terrified for humanity and the existential crises we’ve created by hitching our neo-capitalistic wagon to the stuff of our daily sustenance. But at NAFSN, I get to meet and work with those who are proactively, innovatively, and bravely addressing these concerns in their communities on a daily basis, and THEY are my motivation for this work.

While many workers might know about the power of organizing from lived experience or community history, they might not be able to readily access support in their current situations. Even when workers are aware of unions and want to form one, depending on where they live or the industry they work in there may not be a local union with the resources to support a campaign or forming an NLRB recognized union may not be feasible. In these cases, workers need access to concrete information about how to organize and connections to worker centers or other worker rights organizations that can provide technical support to their workplace organizing efforts. The NYC Partnership for Workers’ Rights sparks new organizing by building cross-sector partnerships to reach a broad range of workers.

The NYC Partnership for Workers’ Rights sparks new organizing by building cross-sector partnerships to reach a broad range of workers. We support service organizations to incorporate workers’ rights information into their existing programs and to connect with workers’ rights organizations relevant to their constituencies. We create beautiful, powerful, and accessible workers’ rights curricula and materials to support organizations’ work in this area.

Michelle Flores

Michelle Flores is an independent consultant and coach partnering with clients at the intersection of grassroots organizing and systemic change, specifically focused on workers’ rights, base building, and leadership development. Her work is grounded in over a decade of experience supporting worker organizing as a researcher and resource mobilizer. She is the former Director of Development at Brandworkers, a worker center based in Long Island City. Previously, she was a campaign researcher at Workers United, where she supported the Nail Salon Organizing Project and other retail worker organizing projects. Michelle is a board member of the Undocumented Women’s Fund, Law at the Margins, and is a fellow of the Sterling Network NYC, which is supporting her to develop the NYC Partnership for Workers’ Rights. Michelle studied politics at Hampton University and the University of Southern
California.

Sundrop Carter

Sundrop Carter is an independent consultant partnering with clients to build sustainable and liberatory organizations. Raised by hippie parents, Sundrop always knew she would be part of movements to advance social justice. Her work is grounded in over two decades of working as an organizer and legal advocate and a childhood imbued with a commitment to building a better world. She recently stepped down as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC), where she focused on establishing a sustainable organizational culture and expanding partnerships with immigrant-led grassroots groups. During her time at PICC she facilitated the creation of PA is Ready! a participatory grantmaking fund focused on building statewide legal and organizing capacity within the immigrant rights movement. Previously, Sundrop had a varied career, working at Make the Road New York assisting low-income immigrant workers with workplace issues, including wage theft and workplace safety violations, organizing low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Allentown, PA with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and managing a small business promoting the use of renewable energy in rural Arizona. Sundrop received her B.A. from Clark University in Worcester, MA and her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

The ICSW project will address three strategic areas to promote sustainable well-being: urban development, human health, and agro-food networks.

o Sustainable Urban Development:
With more people living in urban areas than ever before, and urban population expected to continually rise, cities have the potential — and responsibility — to be healthier places for humans and the natural surroundings. The challenge is for cities to harmoniously grow with the planet for generations to come. Cities occupy 2% of earth’s total land but account for 54% of the world’s population. A UN report projects that by 2030, the urban population of developing countries will double, and 90% of that increase is expected to be concentrated in Asia and Africa.

o Human Health
Environmental health (EH) addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviors. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health. To give a proportion of the problem, one should bear in mind that outdoor air pollution alone caused 3.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2015 (Lelieveld. Nature. 2015;). EH is targeted towards preventing diseases and creating health-supportive environments.

o Sustainable Food and Agriculture
When it comes to well-being and health, what we consume in terms of food has high impact on our long-term health and the environment. The development of sustainable agriculture and agro-food networks — that is to ensure access to food in sufficient quantity and quality, as well as reduce the ecological impact through a redesign of the agricultural sectors — is a challenge for the coming decades. Various stakeholders in the agriculture and food sectors aim to innovate strategies and healthy, sustainable interventions that find new centrality in policies of socio-economic development and regional planning.

By bringing stakeholders – planners, policy makers, architects, shop owners, residents – to the table, we aim to support the “scaling up” of successful sustainable urban initiatives. The ICSW aims to work with these stakeholders from key developing regions, such as Asia and Africa, as well as developed regions, such as North America and Europe. Having a broad and diverse reach will help the ICSW facilitate cooperation and knowledge sharing among various regions and expertise around the world.

Climate change, air pollution, occupational health and sustainability (among others) are often seen as remote, abstract problems expressed in parts per million, in terms of temperature change of mere degrees, or in sea-level rise predicted decades into the future. The ICSW will support and advocate for public health experts to present another view, namely spelling out the dire health consequences that could occur both now and into the future, especially if steps aren’t taken to reduce harmful carbon emissions that are increasing the planet’s temperature and jeopardizing long-term health for all types of environments. Ultimately, health and well-being are the human face of climate change and global pollution.

Through publishing articles, co-organizing educational events and workshops, including the ICSW summer school, that will target stakeholders in the sustainable agriculture field (small and medium agricultural enterprise and agribusiness, trade associations, agricultural and agri-food cooperatives, business networks, and consortia), we will be able to promote the transition to environmental sustainability and well-being by providing local actors with expertise for designing and managing sustainable supply chains and rural development interventions.

Anthony Advincula, Journalist
Rebecca Behrmann, Impact Evaluation Specialist
Enrico Marco Heffler, Physician
Stefano Massaglia, Agricultural Economist
Christiana Peano, Agronomist
Savino Sciascia, Physician

A growing body of scientific evidence is revealing that optimal human health can be achieved by eating predominantly whole plant foods, minimizing or eliminating animal products and refined or highly-processed foods including added oils and sugars, all of which are staples in the standard American diet. A WFPB dietary pattern works through many mechanisms to reduce chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and imbalances in the gut microbiome while bolstering the immune system and even modulating gene expression. This nutritional pattern is championed by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and is documented to prevent, treat, and even reverse common chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, autoimmune disease, common cancers, and others.

Despite nutritional confusion in the marketplace — and with confounding industry-sponsored research — the results speak for themselves when individuals adopt this dietary pattern. Cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar can all fall naturally and quickly when dietary fat and processed foods are dramatically reduced, helping people to get off their medications or reduce them to low and manageable levels. Small symptoms that are harbingers of greater problems ahead can reverse completely. Across the country, individuals are turning around their health, and pioneering clinicians are using whole plant foods as medicine.

In a country where the public health narrative is about “chronic disease management,” PPMNY is excited to serve as a catalyst of a new paradigm in which individual people can take control of their health merely with foods from the supermarket, rather than expensive pills and procedures. PPMNY builds bridges between this life-saving information and the people in our community who need to hear it most.

As an organization committed to health empowerment, PPMNY recognizes that individual people are profoundly impacted by their health and, out of self-interest, will seek to adopt healthy behaviors when given both critical information and lifestyle support to experiment with and maintain new behaviors. PPMNY works from a theory that average people will change their dietary habits with:

Repeated exposure to new ideas and knowledge that challenge their assumptions of what constitutes a healthy diet and a healthy body,
Trusting relationships with people who have changed their diets and improved their health and well-being, including those people who have some standing or power in their lives (like clergy members and elected officials), and
Sufficient instruction on how to eat differently, in a way that makes the change feel achievable.

Our empowered leaders and educators are often able to touch on each of the three areas above: repeatedly exposing people to new ideas, building trusting relationships, and modeling or teaching how achievable a healthy plant-based diet can be. We have organized our volunteers and are acting as a connector of community-based organizations, health care practitioners and clinics, businesses, and individual change agents who are bringing greater credibility, passion, and determination to our movement.

Lianna Levine Reisner, Network Director
S. Lynn Diamond, Network Empowerment Coordinator
Sherrisse-Lee Lewis, Network Operations Manager
Vivian Lee, Network Communications Manager

Our homes, the shops and offices in our cities and towns, the roads and bridges and sidewalks we travel along – the built environment — account for more than 40 percent of carbon emissions. It is critical that we find solutions to lower these emissions while also addressing issues of resiliency and equity tied to climate impacts. While bold and collective action is necessary, many organizations and communities are siloed in their efforts for lack of resources, whether those resources are funds, staff, time or a wider network. The Christopherson Center works to break down these silos, inviting others to the table and serving as a forum for collaborative efforts that lead to greater good for our entire region.

The Christopherson Center works with stakeholders throughout New York State communities large and small to develop equitable programs and policies to address climate resiliency and the built environment. We believe change can occur when more people lend their voice to an issue; we are committed to inclusivity and outreach to populations and communities that are often neglected or left out of planning conversations and processes. Our current areas of focus include:

Policy initiatives and financing mechanisms that address current inequities while increasing climate resiliency, such as the need for affordable climate retro-fits so that low-income home owners and renters do not bear out weighted financial burdens.
Practical solutions regarding construction demolition and debris (CDD) and its place in the circular economy, in order that deconstruction and salvage become more prevalent than demolition, building waste is diverted from the region’s landfills, and the resulting economic opportunities benefit marginalized populations.
Community engagement and education to help more people understand how climate impacts affect them and the meaningful actions they can take.

Gretchen Worth, Project Director

Advisory board

Jeffrey Chusid, Chair, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
Rod Howe, Supervisor, Town of Ithaca; former Executive Director, The History Center; former Executive Director, Community and Regional Development Institute (CaRDI)
Tom Knipe, Deputy Director, Economic Development, City of Ithaca
Derek Crossman, Chair, Deputy Regional Director, Empire State Development, Mohawk Valley
George Frantz, Associate Professor of the Practice, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
Danielle Hautaneimi, State Extension Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension

Kate Maynard kate.maynard@cdrpc.org

Nicolette Wagoner

Our society is going through a period of fracturing, as people of different socioeconomic, cultural, and educational backgrounds divide into ever more insular groups. One reason for this is a lack of opportunities for people to interact in meaningful and non-threatening ways. This has had disastrous consequences in politics, public health, and many other areas.

Stories have always brought people together. They’re how we make sense of ourselves and how we learn about one another. Tompkins County is full of writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and storytellers of all kinds, as well as organizations with important stories to tell. With this in mind:

Story House creates. We dream up, organize, and present workshops, discussions, readings, talks, screenings, exhibitions, performances, participatory projects, and other activities.
Story House collaborates. We work with organizations, artists, activists, scholars, and others to plan and present compelling programming.
Story House connects. We help creative people and groups find new partners and reach new audiences.
Story House empowers. We help members of our community acquire the skills they need to tell the stories they want to tell.

In all our programs and activities, we are committed to creating inclusive spaces that welcome diversity. We strive to foster interactions between people of different cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, with the goal of working toward shared understanding and a more equitable, anti-racist society.

Lesley Greene (co-director) is a producer, designer, writer, and director. She worked for many years at the Kitchen Theatre Company, where she curated and produced three performance series, created sound and projection designs, and served as chief grant writer and head of marketing. She is a co-founder and co-organizer of Porchfest, a festival that began in Ithaca in 2007 and now takes place in more than 150 cities across North America.

Jonathan Miller (co-director) is a writer, journalist, editor, radio producer, podcaster, and media project leader whose work has taken him to more than 20 countries. Since 2006, he has been executive director of Homelands Productions, an award-winning journalism collective that specializes in public radio features and documentaries. Jon serves on the board of Ithaca City of Asylum and on the community advisory council of WRFI community radio.

The designated.health team and board are composed of highly experienced healthcare and business professionals, with roots in the vulnerable communities the organization aims to serve. Designated.health is joining the fight against healthcare disparities by enabling virtual care solutions for vulnerable communities, accounting for their unique obstacles and the many opportunities to improve the care for those that are often overlooked. Given the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable communities, designated.health has the opportunity to provide a crucial and cost-effective healthcare solution at a time of acute need, while also testing and validating a longer-term tool for high-quality remote healthcare delivery.

The heart and soul of designated.health are our medical volunteers; our volunteering model focuses on convenient incremental contributions that fit into busy schedules and are supported by technology. Unlike a 15-minute urgent care visit or 60-90 minute emergency room (ER) visit for a patient with mild COVID-19 symptoms, the designated.health encounter begins with an online or over-the-phone self-check assessment, followed by a free online visit with a volunteer physician. Over the subsequent 14 days, patients receive daily education, requests for biometric data (i.e. temperature, respiratory rate, etc.), and questionnaires to screen for food insecurity, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. The patient’s entire community will benefit from protecting local primary care and the reduced community exposure by a COVID-19 patient who is appropriately managed and quarantined at home rather than traveling to the ER.

Designated.health recruits and trains volunteer clinicians to power the digital platform on an incremental and rotational basis. To date, hawse have completed training and onboarding of a small army of clinicians. Our current funding levels, however, limit us to about 5 hours per day of clinician coverage, [with the capacity to handle 100 new patients per week]. Additional investment will enable us to recruit, train, and go live with an estimated 60-80 clinicians monthly, throughout the US.

We are prepared for immediate expansion of our clinical work once we receive additional funding. We are targeting clinicians in both the public and private sectors by leveraging national medical partnerships. We also are applying engagement marketing campaigns.

Our long-term goal remains opening a free virtual clinic (not a physical location) in every state, allowing designated.health to inherit federal and state malpractice immunities for medical volunteers delivering virtual care. Based on current estimates, with the support of clinical volunteers, staff support, and the ability to conduct 100K patient encounters annually, we are a non-profit that is bringing real access to patients at a $10 cost per constituent. This includes COVID-19/ Flu face-to-face online consultation, 14 days of monitoring, education, and mental health screenings.

Learn More!

Neiger Patrick-Greene – President https://www.linkedin.com/in/neigerpatrick/
Dr. Andres Jimenez – CMO https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajimenezmd/
Kasi Dean – COO https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasiadean/

New York City’s powerful social justice groups often fail to include women’s oppression as a root cause alongside racism and classism, weakening their campaigns. For example, U.S. history of discrimination against women in housing and a devaluing of caregiving work contributes to current injustices in affordable housing workers rights or safety nets for families. These organizations may also inadvertently perpetuate sexism, such as when workers’ rights groups ignore the issue of workplace sexual harassment or when men speak over women in membership meetings. Patterns of bias also hold back the leadership of staff organizers. For example, male colleagues claim credit for women’s ideas or bosses don’t objectively measure their work and have higher expectations of productivity than with men. Elected officials sexually harass them, and the self-confidence needed to do community organizing can be more challenging for women. When women rise into management positions, they often find that the habits they have learned are perpetuating these inequities, and they need to create new ways of managing.

The common patterns described here were revealed through a deep listening campaign with 200 women organizers across New York City in the first stage of developing The Women’s Organizing Network in 2015, and have been confirmed through group discussions with an additional 100 organizers participating in WON activities over the years. A recent set of interviews with 30 women and non-binary organizers demonstrated COVID-specific issues, such as a lack of boundaries infringing particularly on mothers’ schedules, women being cut off or ignored in Zoom meetings.

WON’s strategy centers the power of women and non-binary organizers as catalysts for transforming organizations across NYC’s formidable grassroots organizing landscape.

WON believes women and non-binary community organizers must learn to identify and navigate bias, in a group of peers to counteract self-doubt and share experiences. Together they can envision bold, new cultures and structures for their organizations.

Organizers are well positioned to press for organizational change because the change they seek
aligns with their self-interest, given the hurdles they face in advancing their own leadership. Working closely with community members, they hear the challenges for members more acutely than their supervisors do.

However, when an organizer feels personally affected by the challenges in the
organization, it can be particularly hard to act strategically. Therefore we offer staff and peer
coaching to consider how to raise ideas with executive leadership. Finally, Executive Leadership must come to terms with the need for improvement in internal practice. Executive leaders rarely prioritize these issues and may underestimate the significance of these challenges on their organization’s effectiveness.

For organizations that do prioritize this work, we offer direct technical assistance with access to tools, methodologies and other resources to make internal change to culture, processes and structure. We have found direct technical assistance provides the depth needed for executive leaders and all staff to learn new methodologies, attitudes and approaches. For example, they can get vulnerable and openly work through confusions or assumptions about women, sexism or gender expression.

Even when they desire change, often the case with women of color directors, for example, they may need resources and assistance to unlearn top-down methods, rigorously introduce intersectional gender analysis and implement their new vision.

With these new power dynamics, processes, and cultural practices they envision, organizations
can achieve deeper impact. WON supports organizations to do this by building leadership across all levels of an organization, with a particular focus on developing the leadership of women and non-binary organizers.

DAHLIA GOLDENBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
As the Founding Director of The Women’s Organizing Network, Dahlia Goldenberg merges a decade of international experience with grassroots women’s organizations and her experience with local community organizing. Previously, Dahlia worked for two global networks of grassroots women’s organizations, GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission. There, she spearheaded membership expansion, growing the network’s base of organizations, particularly in Latin America. She organized and facilitated multi-day peer learning exchanges and coordinated delegations of grassroots women leaders to UN policy spaces on urban sustainability, food security, housing and disaster recovery and resiliency. Her most passionate work there was in designing workshops and trainings in grassroots women’s leadership development.

When she made a career shift and began local organizing in New York City, she discovered a lack of focus on women’s leadership or gender analysis. This discovery led her to develop The Women’s Organizing Network, together with the other women on the team.

As a local organizer, she worked on issues of health equity, Hurricane Sandy recovery and economic justice at Brooklyn Congregations United, Queens Congregations United for Action, Faith in NY and Make the Road New York. She holds an MA in Gender and Development from The Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex and completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Ecuador, studying the work of Ecuadorian women’s grassroots community development organizations. She has published several articles on women and community organizing internationally, including “Grassroots Women’s Leadership and ‘Deepening Democracy’: the Huairou Commission’s Local to Local Dialogue Replication” in Oxfam’s Gender and Development Journal, an essay in Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change” and “Grassroots Women Organising for Resilient Communities around the World” in the Institute for Development Studies Bulletin.

KYLAH GUION, PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Kylah Guion (they/she) is a young non-binary organizer from North Carolina. Kylah’s advocacy and organizing background include reproductive justice, gender equity, economic inequality, government accountability, and labor organizing. Before coming to WON, Kylah worked as the CEEP NC Assistant State Director where she helped students across the state develop campus-specific campaigns and strategies to civically engage their universities. Kylah also worked as a Logistics Coordinator and curriculum curator for Black University, an organization that shares Black history, organizing development and political education to Black students in North Carolina. Kylah has held a number of community organizing roles and fellowships with organizations Generation Progress, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Common Cause over the last 6 six years. Organizing for better conditions is their passion work, and Kylah is very excited to bring nuanced perspectives, experiences, and practices to WON while learning and growing as much as possible

Gayogohó:nǫˀ people were largely displaced from their ancestral homeland (around Cayuga Lake) in the late 1700’s, when George Washington sent a military contingent to destroy crops and villages of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ and other members of the Hodinohsó:nih. Residents were scattered to Ohio, Canada, and Buffalo Creek, and later to Oklahoma and Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Canada. Only a few remained in their ancestral lands.

Land fraud by white settlers and the State of New York further exacerbated the separation of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ people from their land, which is an integral part of their language and identity. Many Gayogohó:nǫˀ people were forced into residential schools and Indian Day Schools. Non-indigenous governmental structures hindered the passing-on of traditional culture and language.

Barely 250 years later, the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language is considered critically endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. As of December 2021, there are less than a dozen first-language speakers remaining – one of whom is a member of our group. Most live on the Six Nations reserve in Canada. A few hundred people have learned or are learning Gayogohó:nǫˀ as a second language, but with efforts, such as those of our group, that number continues to grow.

The impacts to mental and physical health of separating indigenous peoples from their language, culture, and land are well-documented. Language and culture revitalization efforts provide paths by which to address the health, socio-economic, and ecological impacts of colonization.

Our project seeks to complement and amplify existing Gayogohó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) language revitalization efforts from within Gayogohó:nǫˀ ancestral lands by supporting educational programs and access to language resources, and increasing opportunities to hear and see the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language in public spaces. Through this work of tangibly teaching and using the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language in the place it developed, and by creating opportunities for dialogue around difficult topics such as colonization, we hope to increase understanding of the history and current status of Gayogohó:nǫˀ people, language, and culture. A key part of our work lies in providing support for Gayogohó:nǫˀ people and others working to revitalize the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language. Through our work we hope to both explore and spread awareness of ways in which Gayogohó:nǫˀ and other Hodinohsó:nih languages and cultures are connected to the land of the Finger Lakes and explore ways in which all people might cultivate healthy relationships with the land.

Stephen Henhawk – Gayogohó:nǫˀ, otahyǫ́:ni: (Wolf clan) Historian and first-language speaker. Stephen grew up in a traditional Gayogohó:nǫˀ household at Ohswé:gęˀ (Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Canada). Stephen is our language teacher, historian and conveyer of the inspiration behind the Gayogohó:nǫˀ Language Project. The inspiration itself comes from the wisdom and strength of all Gayogohó:nǫˀ people who came before who maintained language and culture and ties to the land against much adversity.

Michelle Seneca, project leader – Gayogohó:nǫˀ, genyahdę: (Turtle clan). Grew up on the Seneca Cattaraugus reservation in Western New York and lived for a number of years in the Gayogohó:nǫˀ community at the north end of Cayuga Lake. She currently resides in Ithaca. Michelle holds our whole project together.

Adrianna Hirtler, project co-leader – born and raised on Gayogohó:nǫˀ lands, of Latvian/Slovenian/German heritage. She is the biomonitoring coordinator for the Community Science Institute and a nature/culture interpreter. Adrianna is a lover of water, trees, plants, rocks, animals, dirt, winds, thunder, and language of the land that she calls home.

William Hurley, advisory board member – works as a repairman of stringed instrument bows, a maker of violins/violas, and a teacher/performer of violin and viola. He’s affiliated with various performing groups including Music’s Recreation, The Binghamton Philharmonic, and others. He has an interest in Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’ music, and has been studying the language since summer, 2021.

Patricia Longoria, advisory board member – was born in a town of unusual name—Falfurrias, Texas—with an uncommon surname. She has been drawn to the stories of place name origins and of the people who came before us on this land, especially of the mix of indigenous and non-indigenous in her own Mexican ancestors. Patricia has lived on Gayogohó:nǫˀ lands for almost two decades and is grateful for and respectful of the introduction to Gayogohó:nǫˀ language and culture and open to how it informs her work as a writer, editor, and local historian.

Noah Mark, advisory board member – has been a student of Gayogo̱hó:nǫʼ nigawęnó:dę’ since June, 2021. The mission of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʼ Learning Project resonates with him as someone who was born and raised on traditionally held Hodihnohso:nih lands and as a descendent of Japanese immigrants who underwent intergenerational loss of language and culture. His past work experience includes grassroots organizing and fundraising on environmental issues and sexual assault prevention, vegetable farming, and research on emerging contaminants. Currently, he serves as technical director of a citizen science-based nonprofit called the Community Science Institute.

Josephine Martell, advisory board member – has lived on Gayogohó:nǫˀ lands for the past ten years and is of French, Scottish, and German heritage. Josephine is a social scientist who studies how message framing and language affects decision making and behavior, and leads the Office of Research Development at Cornell University in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She has over 20 years of experience in policy, research, advocacy, and grant writing. Josephine is a passionate mother of three children and an avid trail runner.

Karen Melamed Smith, advisory board member – has lived on Gayogohó:nǫˀ land for forty years. With a background in music, philosophy and education, she served as the education director of the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) from 1998-2018 and continues to teach piano and to perform with Music’s Recreation. Of Eastern European Jewish heritage, she has always wondered about the interrelationships of heredity, culture and place and feels honored to learn and support the language that is rooted here.

Risa Yamazaki, advisory board member – immigrated to Ithaca from Japan and started learning the language and culture of Gayogohó:nǫˀ in June, 2021. Risa has always worked in the health sciences field: as a pharmacy technician, pharmacist and researcher (strong interests in sleep research). Living abroad, she realizes that language and culture play a very strong role in her identity and this has motivated her to join the working group. She is also interested in medicinal use of native plants.

More than half of the current inmate population at the Tompkins County jail at any given time have recidivated or returned to jail after previously having been incarcerated. African Americans make up less than 4 percent of the population in Tompkins County but are more than 30 percent of the jail population. More than 65% of the county jail population live at or below the poverty index before incarceration. These statistics tell a harrowing story of systemic failure to address the needs of the neediest in our community, who then tragically become the people with the highest recidivism rates. At URO, we work to eliminate systemic barriers to reentry as well as to address and redress the root causes of over incarceration in Tompkins County

Our approach to this work is through the utilization of The Collective Impact Model Approach to systems change. URO was initially established as the Backbone organization to this issue in 2014 but then worked to earn that distinction. We earned this position by first building report, trust and cooperation with likeminded people and organizations to forward the agenda of our motto which is Humans Humanizing Humans. We are working with people in the social service sector, the health and wellness sectors, the employments sector, the education sector, governmental sector, criminal justice sector and the transportation sector. Each of these sectors have significant impact on the service delivery of reentry services as well as the administration of “justice” and are core to addressing the social determinants of health affecting folks in reentry. In bringing these people and organizations together, we work to establish agreement on a common agenda which can only come about after we have thoroughly investigated the issue. In 2018 we started with researching the national landscape for reentry best practices. We followed that up with a local qualitative study of people in reentry and reentry services in Tompkins County which was recently completed. This project was only possible through the collaboration and cooperation with our partners at Cornell University, Ithaca College, the County, REACH Medical and OAR. This study has allowed us to organize summits addressing specific areas and within the summits we develop short term and long-term goals. At every juncture of decision making, we always have the voice of the people impacted by decisions input as part of the process for developing solutions and action steps. We have developed a working group for each of the sectors that we are working to address and key to moving the needle is ongoing and continuous communication between stakeholders and the systems that we are working to change. We as organization’s also support each other to organize and facilitate mutually reinforcing activities that keep us moving in the direction of equity and inclusion.

Team Members
Taili Mugambee Program Director
Suzzane Scholten Administrative Assistant
Angelina DeBenedet Administrative Assistant

Keyanna Vann Healthful Transitions Program Coordinator
Temitayo Sanusi-Parkinson Healthful Transitions Program Assistant

Program Interns
Ella Knibb
Netra Shetty
Willow Maisel

URO Advisory Committee
Schelly Michelle-Nunn Committee Chair
Kenneth Schlather Committee Finance Chair
Laura Branca Committee Secretary
Henry Granison Committee Parliamentarian
Sue Robinson Sargent at Arms

Center for Transformative Action

Projects

Our projects have innovative solutions

CTA Projects

Projects

Our projects have innovative solutions

CTA Projects

Quick links

Get connected