Kirwan Conference Slated for March 11-13
February 15 is the Early Bird Registration deadline for the Kirwan Institute’s upcoming conference, Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama. The conference will be held at The Hyatt on Capitol Square in Columbus, Ohio, March 11-13. Early Bird Reservations deadline is February 15. Some 600 advocates, activists, scholars, students, spoken-word performers, and practitioners from all stripes will engage in roughly 50 plenary sessions and panels, workshops and performances, tackling the pressing issues of our time with a focus on race. Keynote speakers and topics include: Glenda Eoyang, Executive Director, Human Systems Dynamics Institute, Seeing and Influencing Systems to Transform Racialization; Celinda Lake, President, Lake Research, and Drew Westen, Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Emory University, Assessing and Challenging Subconscious Racial Bias; and john a. powell, Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, The Ohio State University, The Racial Landscape in 2042.
As optional Friday-evening entertainment, Sarah Jones, Tony-award winning Broadway performer, will be on hand with an insightful one-woman performance. For more information go to transforming-race.org.
Kirwan Maps Lead to $5 Million Loan Allocation
As a follow-up to Kirwan's mapping work in the state of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership has committed $5 million in zero percent interest, second-mortgage financing to support the development of affordable rental housing in suburban and high-opportunity communities. This financial boost will ensure that communities have increased housing options, stabilized neighborhoods, and an increase in affordable rentals for families in the midst of a very difficult economic time. Working in collaboration with the Massachusetts legal community, the Kirwan Institute provided an analysis of low-income groups and ethnic populations in relationship to geographic areas of high opportunity.
MHP News article
Kirwan Authors Featured in Luncheon Series
The 2010 Authors and Conversation Soul Food Luncheon Series, sponsored by The Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural
Center and Office of Minority Affairs at The Ohio State University, will feature three Kirwan Institute authors’ discussion of their recent books: January 29, Hasan Jeffries, Bloody Lowndes; Feb. 26, Sharon Davies, Rising Road;
and March 26, Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
All sessions are held on Fridays, beginning at 11:30 a.m., and include a buffet lunch followed by the author presentation. For more information, contact Wanda White at the Hale Center, White.4@osu.edu.
FairRecovery.org Tracks Stimulus Spending
The Kirwan Institute continues to track and analyze stimulus spending as it impacts race on the Web site FairRecovery.org, operated in collaboration with several partner organizations. New on FairRecovery: The ACLU has created a state by state guide for advocates, activists and state governments seeking to abide by their state and federal circuit's racial equity laws and limitations. The Guide provides a brief and user-friendly explanation of relevant constitutional standards that are laid out in greater detail in the ACLU Racial Justice Program's memorandum, Expanding Opportunity Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 The Legal Landscape. In addition, the guide is linked to an interactive map where users can click on their state to open a page of state and circuit specific legal guidelines. See the latest information for your state at FairRecovery.org.
Kirwan Launches Race-Talk Blog
Race-Talk blog and online magazine, launched by Kirwan December 1, is garnering a great amount of attention for its sharp design, its compilation of over 30 extraordinary and accomplished authors, and its thoughtful articles. With a theme-based special edition every month, Race-Talk hopes to revolutionize thought, communication, and activism related to race and equality. Cross-posting with the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos, and Op-Ed News, Race-Talk eagerly awaits your input and insight. Come be a part of this energizing public forum at race-talk.org.
Kirwan Now On Facebook and Twitter
The Kirwan Institute has joined the popular social-networking sites facebook and twitter. Keep updated on our work and the current issues revolving around race by becoming our friend or follower. Hope to hear from you soon! Visit us at www.facebook.com/kirwaninstitute and www.twitter.com/kirwaninstitute.
Kirwan Leaders Featured As OSU Experts
Kirwan leaders are among key Ohio State University experts called upon to address timely issues for the national media. In the following sample comments, Executive Director john a. powell discusses the moment of opportunity created by the stimulus recovery funds and Deputy Director Andrew Grant-Thomas discusses the criminal justice system and hidden biases. Both are frequently quoted on these and other issues in a variety of national media.
GIS Updates
Our GIS group at the Institute has been extremely busy rounding off the past year with a vast array of projects, presentations, and collaborations.
Connecticut Opportunity Maps
Connecticut Fair Housing Center (CHFC) partnered with Kirwan Institute to perform research that leads to better understanding of how to support and promote inclusive, diverse communities of choice. CHFC looked to our work in the area of opportunity mapping in order to identify how fair housing can become more of an intervention point for marginalized communities across the state. Access to good education, affordable housing, quality of health care, employment and open space was assessed to create maps showing spatial distribution of opportunity in the state. The maps and findings were presented to our clients and stakeholders in Connecticut on Nov. 12, 2009.
Kirwan Maps Post-Katrina New Orleans
As the recovery efforts in the city of New Orleans are unfolding, the city is still faced with great challenges. Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), through an audit report, found discrimination against Housing Choice Voucher holders in the Greater New Orleans rental housing market. Kirwan Institute assisted GNOFHAC to conduct opportunity mapping analysis for the city to study the spatial distribution of opportunity. These opportunity maps were overlaid with Housing Authority of New Orleans Section 8 properties to study the correlation of opportunity and concentration of Section 8 voucher properties. The results were presented at a Fair Housing forum organized by GNOFHAC in collaboration with Kirwan Institute. The Section 8 Voucher discrimination issue and findings from our opportunity mapping were covered by The Times-Picayune on Dec 26.
Following maps show the spatial distribution of opportunity in post-Katrina Orleans Parish. To include expanded data, this analysis will be revisited once Census 2010 data is released.
Map 1 Map 2 Map 3
Building A Fair Florida
Kirwan is also tracking economic impact of recovery money on marginalized communities in Florida in an ongoing partnership with Miami Workers Center (MWC) and the Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy (RISEP) at Florida International University. The next phase of the project focuses on job creation in the region based on infrastructure projects funded by recovery dollars. The research looks at total ARRA funding for the state, Florida Department of Transportation contracts awarded, and the award recipients in order to study this impact. This research will assist and support the town hall meeting organized by MWC in Orlando on January 28, 2010.
Mapping In Austin, Texas
Kirwan Institute assisted Green Doors (formerly Community Partnership for the Homeless) in 2007 to study the spatial distribution of opportunity in the Austin, TX metro area. Green Doors has approached Kirwan Institute to revise the opportunity maps and analysis based on updated data with focus on emerging opportunity areas, transportation linkages and children’s optimal health. |
