Grow your capacity: community meetings and events, millionaires of color, more

Local events and resources

Ward 7 community meeting on the new DCPS chancellor: CM David Grosso, current chair of the council’s ed committee, writes

When the Council returns in January, I intend to hold two public engagement sessions in the community–one in Ward 7 and one in Ward 1–before the confirmation hearing at the Wilson Building. As always, I encourage and welcome public feedback, comments, questions, and concerns about the nomination as we prepare for a hearing on the nominee.

Only 34 Black Women Founders Have Raised Over $1 Million In Venture Funding — And This Woman Is Helping The Next 1,863: Says Melissa Bradley of 1863:

I want to leave behind as many African American, Latino millionaires as possible. And not just because it’s about the money. But the reality is that the economy changes as politics change. And in a capitalist society one of the ways that we’re guaranteed to have our footing is to have access to capital.

So if we are able to build businesses, whether they’re venture-backed or not, and ultimately have them create jobs and multiply the effect, that’s how I define wealth for our community. There is not a single entrepreneur that doesn’t come through our program who doesn’t say I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this for my community.

D.C. Superior Court's Landlord Tenant Branch will be closed on Wednesday, December 5 in recognition of the national day of mourning on the loss of 41, President George H.W. Bush. This means the Landlord Tenant Resource Center and Consumer Law Resource Center will also be closed that day.

Ward 7 Holiday Social, Wednesday, December 12: Celebrate the season at Ward 7 CM Vince Gray’s holiday social. Space is limited.

Winter Weather Best Management Practices for Commercial Buildings, January 15: Do businesses and landlords need to do a better job clearing sidewalks and parking lots during winter storms? Do they need a reminder about winter stormwater pollution prevention? Suggest they attend this free DOEE workshop.

Growing Our Future Harvest Conference scholarships and volunteer opps: Future Harvest Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (CASA) is looking for volunteers to help with their 20th anniversary conference in mid-January in College Park, MD. Volunteers receive a discount on conference registration. Scholarships are also available for the conference. Direct questions to Agatha Grimsley, agatha@futureharvestcasa.org.

Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional training classes, January- March 2019: Level 1 training is a baseline credential in design, installation, and maintenance of sustainable landscapes, with an emphasis on how to properly maintain stormwater best management practices. Sessions take place in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Legal Aid end-of-year closures:

  • Closed to the public from December 24, 2018, through January 1, 2019.   

  • Closed for general intake at both the Northwest and Southeast (Big Chair) locations from December 24, 2018, through January 11, 2019.  Normal intake hours resume Monday, January 14, 2019.

 

Tools and resources

In 2016, the Milken Institute collaborated with the U.S. Small Business Administration to form the Partnership for Lending and Underserved Markets (PLUM). The goal was to "develop actionable solutions to long-standing barriers that constrain minority entrepreneurs from accessing capital to start and grow business." The institute formed pilot programs in Baltimore and Los Angeles, documenting their research along the way.

This month, the PLUM initiative released a capstone report that investigates the current state of minority-owned small business in order to identify actionable solutions. The report gives seven strategies to overcome capital access barriers, including increased transparency of small business lender engagement and coordinated economic development. Read more about the research, and their solutions, here.


At work

I’m not an expert manager. Most Friday afternoons I end up thinking of all the ways I wish I’d done better that week for my team — listened better, coached better, directed better, managed my own psyche better. I imagine I'll look back in another ten or twenty years and shake my head at all the things that seem hard today.

But when Stephanie and Leah, editors extraordinaire from Penguin reached out to me about the idea of writing a book, they helped me realize something: that for a certain segment of managers — namely people thinking about management, or new to it, or still navigating their way to confidence in their first few years — the fact that I’m not an expert and still remember very clearly what it’s like to grapple with questions like "what’s the best way to deliver bad news?" or "how can I make my meetings suck less?" or "how can I improve my relationship with my report?" gave me half the reason that I should write this book now.So maybe plan on buying copies for all your managers, supervisors, volunteer leaders, and others this March. (h/t swissmiss)

Learn something

Good reads

In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 goals for a better world by 2030. These goals have the power to end poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change. Guided by the goals, it is now up to all of us, governments, businesses, civil society and the general public to work together to build a better future for everyone.

 
Building Capacity, Capacity Building, Events, WellnessAnacostia Park and Community Collaborative