Rewriting the Community Story of Wealth I recently watched the movie The Hundred Foot Journey for the third time. It’s a charming story of cultural collisions, good food and community. In the movie, as expected, the brilliant chef Hassan leaves his family and the tiny village to pursue a higher level of success and acclaim, […]

Unlocking Knowledge Capital to Build Community Today marks the 6th anniversary of my husband’s death. Keith Hogan was an extraordinary person in every way, from his incredibly positive attitude towards life to his genius way of problem solving. He was well known for his blue eyes and is well remembered for his infectious laugh. He […]

The subject of this week’s post was going to be the purpose and possibilities of a generative economy. However, I read this article and it felt like a great way to share a story about the power of transformative capital to create a more inclusive solution to an issue faced by every community: how to […]

Assembling the Tool Kit: Ours to Own An unfortunate reality lies at the core of most economically challenged cities in the US– there is a desperate need for funding of infrastructure projects, yet governments and charities cannot meet the full financial need. Ours to Own, a crowdsourced investment initiative from the Calvert Foundation, arises out of […]

Flipping the Script: From Affordability to Ability to Afford I live in Austin Texas where the two most common topics of conversation these days are affordable housing and manageable traffic. When I think about them I’m reminded of the “Your Home Sweet Home Is My Home” episode of the old “Dick Van Dyke Show” in […]

“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.”– W.E.B. DuBois, American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. THE COST OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION I recently re-read the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in which the financial […]

Assembling the Toolkit – Savings Groups In attempt to start filling out our toolkit of culturally appropriate financial solutions for African Americans, last week, Jessica, Kevin, and I spoke with Jeff Ashe who is an expert on all things related to Saving Groups. Ashe worked for years abroad figuring out the most efficient way to […]

“I’ve never seen a tree grow from the top down.” – Ruth Glendinning, Founding Principal, Thriving Community Solutions Community Roots I grew up in an educated, financially comfortable, middle class family in suburban West Houston. Most of my friends’ dads worked for oil companies and it was normal for them to spend a couple of […]

(Above: One of Thornton Dial’s pieces, “Don’t Matter How Raggly The Flag, It Still Got To Tie Us Together“) Using the Lens of Culture to Craft Financial Tools In Mr. Dial Has Something to Say we are told the story of an artist named Thornton Dial. Growing up poor in the Black Belt of Alabama, Thornton […]

The Missing Infrastructure for Black Wealth Creation In the first blog post of a new project aimed at understanding and improving the state of wealth creation in black communities, much was left unsaid about the origin of this problem. With this second post, some gaps will be filled in. Let’s start with a hypothetical example. A […]