Dr. Ngozi Ezike
(Host): Hello, everyone. I'm Dr. Ngozi Ezike, and thank you for tuning in
to More Than Medicine. This podcast is about the fight for health equity and
justice, how we need to work to not just heal wounds, but truly address the
root causes of hurt and distress in our communities and our nation.

Host: This episode, we are talking about addressing
system issues in Chicago's divested communities with President and CEO of the
Field Foundation, Mr. Daniel Ash. His foundation is responsible for
collaborating with the board and staff to help Field achieve its mission,
centering racial equity to achieve community empowerment through art, justice
media, and storytelling and leadership investment. Annually, the foundation,
along with its strategic funding partners, distributes more than $6.5 million
in grants to organizations working to address systemic issues in Chicago's
divested communities. I'm so grateful to have you here. Thank you so much for
joining me, Daniel.

Daniel Ash: I am so happy to be here. Thank you for the
invitation.

Host: Thank you. So, you are leading an incredible
organization. Can you please just start off by helping our audience know a
little bit about you and how you got started in your career?

Daniel Ash: Oh, my career has been centered around
social justice, particularly racial justice. And quite frankly, the journey for
me begins in my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. I grew up in a town that quite
frankly experienced significant economic hardship due to steel mills being shut
down. So, I grew up at a time when unemployment in my community, Youngstown's
black community, was very high. And quite frankly, I was always frustrated by
what I was experiencing in my own community. So as I set out to study, attend
college and graduate school, I always had kept that history with me and wanted
to understand why my home community suffered the way it did.

Fast forward, I came to Chicago after undergraduate school in
Oberlin and attended University of Chicago and studied public policy, again
with the intention of trying to understand the systems that were negatively
impacting black communities specifically and the community that I'm from, and
I've stayed here ever since. And my commitment to my hometown has now been
transferred to my commitment to Chicago. Same issues, different city, much
bigger city.

Host: No. Well, Chicago is very fortunate and blessed to
have you. It's a major issue in all cities. And so, we're grateful that you're
here. So if we really break this down, what are these neighborhoods, what are
these cities lacking? And what is your specific call to action so that we can
actually make these neighborhoods and cities more equitable?

Daniel Ash: Well, specifically, the Field Foundation is
focused on funding institutional and community sort of infrastructure that
supports power-building in communities that have been historically harmed,
under invested, disinvested, pick whatever word you want. We are super focused
on communities that have the greatest need. And in this city, that is the
Chicago's south side, Chicago's west side, and those communities are
predominantly black and brown.

Our goal is to support the conditions so that residents in
those communities can inform and set their own agenda and that they're in a
position to advance that agenda. So when you support community organizing, when
you support community media, when you support community leaders, you support
community sort of arts organizations, creative institutions, you're basically
supporting the infrastructure for movement-making.

As I continue on my journey here at Field, we will continue
that work. But we actually want to become even more intentional about helping
these communities advance their agenda. So, it's not just enough to support
organizing. We as an institution want to use all forms of our capital to make
sure that the issues and the ideas that come from the organizer are actually
realized at the community level.

Host: It's inspiring. Not for the faint-hearted, but it
is the work that has to be done. Bringing this home to Sinai, Chicago, let's
talk a little bit about how healthcare fits into this. How does Sinai Chicago,
how do other health systems contribute and help impact this focus of the Field
Foundation?

Daniel Ash: Well, let me acknowledge this. I'm a former
board member of Mount Sinai and I totally understand the importance of
healthcare in communities that have the greatest need. You can come at any
issue, whether it's public safety, whether it's workforce development, whether
it's education. If a community is not healthy, the residents of that community
are unable to fully realize the opportunities that may be available, assuming
those opportunities are available.

So, I see our work as absolutely parallel, if you will, to the
work of Mount Sinai. One thing that I've noticed when I spent my first year and
I just marked my first year anniversary here at Field, I spent most of my first
year listening to community members. I'm asking like, "What should we be
doing more of? What are the issues that are most pressing for you?" And
time and time again, access to healthcare, this is no surprise, was a leading
issue. Again, this goes back, doctor, to this point that I made earlier.
Oftentimes when people fund community organizing, they think just about
community activism, right? So, they think about big ideas like defund the
police, the abolitionist movement. And I'm not making a critique on those
movements. But what you hear from community members are usually much more
practical, tangible needs. We want our schools to be better. We want to be able
to pay our medical bills. We want access to jobs.

So as I continue my journey, while I want to be in that
intellectual space and continue to drive public discourse in the right
direction, I also want to make sure that, as a leader in philanthropy, we are
partnering with communities to deliver on what they need most right now. And if
we do that, my assumption is that we create the conditions for the movement for
system change to fully take root. Sometimes I feel that my colleagues, we talk
about system reform and it becomes a very intellectual sort of discussion. And
the people who are actually being harmed or suffering or in need, they're
talking about practical things. And I firmly believe that we need to do both.
We need to transform systems. But first and foremost, we need to meet the
immediate needs. And that's where institutions like Sinai and other safety net
hospitals come in. You're seeing everything on the front line and philanthropy
of all forms should make itself available to support the infrastructure that
you're leading.

Host: No, I appreciate it. I mean, what I heard was
basically like we can all talk the talk, but we got to be ready to really walk
the walk and have those practical, tangible, like boots-on-the-ground solutions
to some of these really harrowing issues. So when I think about all this money
that you give to organizations, tell me who are the kind of organizations that
qualify. And do you mind sharing some of the organizations that you're proud to
partner with and some of the boots-on-the-ground work, those tangible needs
that are being addressed by some of the organizations you partner with?

Daniel Ash: Absolutely. So again, we're funding for
distinct intersectional portfolios. So, we have a leadership portfolio where we
fund leaders. We fund community-organizing in our justice portfolio. We fund
community-centered media platforms in our media and storytelling platform. And
we find creative-making institutions in our arts portfolio. When I think about
like what we do best or when we are at our best, is when we fund organizing
that has a very, very specific goal. So, it's not just organizing for the sake
of organizing, but it's organizing in its truest form, like gathering
residents, identifying needs, and then organizing to address those needs.

For example, the Association of the Southeast is an
organization that organizes on the southeast side of Chicago, far southeast
side. There was an industrial polluter trying to move into their community. And
the organizations that we funded actually helped residents fight that head on
and actually stopped the polluter from getting the license to actually set up
shop in their backyard. What's even more equally important, I should say, to
that defensive posture that the organizing took, is that the same institution
is providing the type of network and navigation to other resources, right? So
during the pandemic, for example, the organizing institutions were the same
institutions that were standing out mutual aid networks and programs. They were
the same organizations that were working with all both public and private
organizations to make sure that folks had access to emergency assistance,
whether it's cash payments or access to other supports.

So, again, the organizations that we fund, we call them
organizing, and that's what they do. But many of them, when they're at their
best, are anchor institutions that have significant amount of trust built with
the community that they're serving. And in most cases, the people who lead
these organizations are from the community. So, that's one example of how we
show up and support that infrastructure. What I want us to do more of as we
move forward is, as the agenda gets set, I want us as a philanthropy to use all
forms of our capital, knowledge capital, social capital, political capital, to
help advance that agenda. It's my belief that historically, while we funded the
organizing, I'm very proud that these agendas or community plans were
developed. Rather than lean in, we stepped back and hoped that the agenda of
the plan would be implemented. I think that's where philanthropy has fallen
short, like we need to be there to help actually realize the dreams that
residents have in these communities.

Host: And is that maybe where that focus on media and
storytelling becomes a focus, being able to make sure that the ecosystem
accurately represents what's actually happening and that it's fair? Can you
tell me how that portion feeds into this important work?

Daniel Ash: Absolutely. I think about media in two ways.
One, communities, all communities, regardless of their economic profile of a
community, all communities need access to good information. And I know as a
public health leader, you know that in the most profound way, right?

Our supportive media is designed to make sure that these
communities that we're targeting have infrastructure that's going to bring good
information, fact-based information, thoughtful reporting into their community.
In addition, these community-centered media platforms also are better positioned
to reflect authentic narratives that exist in those communities. And note that
I said narratives plural, there's authentic stories and perspectives and frames
that emerge from these communities. And our investment in that infrastructure
is designed to make sure that information is reflected to the rest of society.

One way to unpack that is to understand this. Hey, we fund
community-centered media because the larger media platforms need it to be at
their best. So, WBEZ is better when there's a really, really highly trusted,
well-resourced community newspaper or community media platform in a local
community. The broadcast news, local and national and regional, they are better
when there's good reporting and information and data-gathering happening at the
local level. Oftentimes, we think about the bigger players first and the
smaller players second, I actually see it in reverse, like the bigger platforms
that have greater reach need this infrastructure in order to make sure that
they're doing a good job reflecting the community.

So, our bias is to focus our investment at the community level
when it comes to media because we want the agenda setting to be informed by
good information. And when the agendas that come from communities are set, we
want to make sure that they're accurately and authentically and consistently
reflected in larger media platforms.

Host: No, that's really powerful and I really appreciate
the understanding that you're helping to create this very important
bidirectional flow of information. You want to make sure that the good
information comes in and then, at the same time, that those authentic stories
and narratives are pushed out. That is so key. That is so key that both parts
are happening. So as you think about some of the great work that you have been
able to support, what are the kinds of stories that you have seen told that
maybe wouldn't have been told if not for that kind of infrastructure that you
are helping to build?

Daniel Ash: Well, there's so many. I'm trying to think
what would be a great example. I'll use one that I know will resonate with you
and where your career has been recently. We've fund ed consistently, from the
time they launched, thetriibe.com media platform created by two black women
from Chicago, sort of rooted in Chicago. One's a filmmaker, one's a journalist,
and they've created infrastructure to authentically reflect black Chicago.
They're committed to serving this very specific community.

During the pandemic, there was a lot of reporting about parties
that were thrown during the early days of the pandemic. And the initial framing
of those parties was that there's just a bunch of reckless black youth
disregarding messages that they were receiving from leaders like yourselves and
your peers. The TRiiBE and its team, they dug into the stories and they were
able to determine that, and I'm oversimplifying here, but that quite frankly,
the folks didn't have access to the information that was being delivered
through other channels. And they weren't just ignoring public health messages,
that they truly were sort of outside those information ecosystems that we tend
to rely on when it comes to delivering information. I use that example because
if they had not been present and had the capacity to do the second day, third
day story, the public's perception, broadly speaking, would've just been
anchored to that idea that, in this case, young adults, black youth, were just
like, quite frankly, being antisocial in their behavior, anti-system
recklessly. And it was much more complicated and nuanced.

More recently with the recent mayoral election, The TRiiBE and
other community platforms, I think, really were seeing before mainstream press,
the movement that was actually being cultivated to actually drive Mayor Johnson
to victory. I use that example, again not to make this a political
conversation, but to underscore the fact that the community press was, by
design, closer to the community and was able to see things earlier than those
who aren't as proximate as they are.

Again the examples here illustrate the point that, I would say,
news gathering and reporting is best when the folks in the newsroom have a deep
understanding of the community that they're covering. And I would also add
another point that's equally important. There has to be a deep understanding of
like a mutual trust with the reporters or the documenters, like in community.
And so, places like The TriiBe, and again, there are many others, they spend a
lot of time developing and fostering that trust with the community because
they're seen as part of the community. And again, their work dates back to a
long tradition in black and BIPOC communities. When I think about Chicago's
history with the Chicago Defender, community center press, going back to
platform like that one, the Defender always developed a high level of trust
because the reporters were seen as reporters, but they were seen as reporters
who were going to not only do good reporting, but be fair and be trustworthy.

Host: No, I think there's so much wisdom in that
because, as people will always say, there are always at least two sides to a
story. And so without being able to get the richness to see these other sides,
another quote I thought about as you were saying this was the author, Chinua
Achebe, who said that, "Until the lions have their own historians, the
history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." So, you just have to
have representation to make sure you're gathering all of the story. So, that's
brilliant.

Daniel Ash: And unfortunately, even in modern times to
this day, we don't have representation, BIPOC, particularly for black community
and brown communities, we don't have adequate representation in newsrooms. And
that creates the challenge that you see in, quite frankly, how we report on
issues, be it public safety, be it the pandemic, be it healthcare broadly or
school reform broadly. Those issues don't get adequately covered and reported
because, in many cases, the reporters don't have authentic and long-lasting
connection to those communities. And again, I think more inclusive newsrooms
actually makes the entire newsroom stronger, not just for black and brown
communities, but for all communities.

Host: Yeah, for sure. And then, I really want to talk
about some of the specific goals that are top of mind when we think about what
you're doing with the leaders for a New Chicago Award or the Field Foundation
Grant Fellowship. Who are we thinking about for that and what are we trying to
achieve there?

Daniel Ash: Well, our leadership program, which is a
wonderful partnership we have with the MacArthur Foundation, is designed to do
exactly what the name implies, is we want to support those leaders who are
shaping Chicago's future. We call the program Leaders for a New Chicago. And
sometimes when people hear or see the title of the program, they think New
Leaders for Chicago. So, they think the program is designed to support young
emerging Leaders. The program actually is, designed to support the network of
leaders, both young and older, or as they say, more seasoned leaders who are
working to shape the city's future.

Our bias with the program is to lift up those leaders that are
working at the community level and, in some cases, tirelessly year after year
without much recognition. And so, we offer support to them no strings attached
$25,000 awards that's matched by a $25,000 award to their host organization.
And the point is to, A, acknowledge their work, right? Acknowledge them, see
them, and make sure that we lift up their stories. Two, we want to make sure
that they have access to resources to, quite frankly, do whatever they need to
do to take care of themselves and stay connected to the work. Oftentimes, you
know, when I think about some of the more grand programs, be it MacArthur's
Fellows Program, commonly known as this sort of Genius Grant, we wait until
someone sort of has these big innovative moments and we acknowledge it. And
again, those programs are important, so I'm not saying they shouldn't exist. But
when it comes to supporting leadership infrastructure in a city, at the
community level, you have to have the courage to lean in and find those leaders
that are doing the work. And then, as a philanthropy, use our position, our
power to make sure that these leaders are connected to one another.

One of, I think, our most pressing challenges as a city is that
too many of our leaders, again motivated in the right way, passionate about
their work, passionate about their communities, but oftentimes they don't have
the relationships with other leaders in other communities. So, as we identify
with our community partners, these leaders, we're very intentional about
creating opportunities for these community leaders to be connected to one
another, bridging communities. And our hope over time, that these network of
leaders will take the responsibility of building bonds of trust, bonds of
affection, so that as community challenges emerge or, more broadly, challenges
emerge to confront the entire city, we're better positioned to work with one
another to meet and solve for those challenges.

Host: That's phenomenal. I mean, I love the idea of
bringing those individuals that have this shared passion for creating the
Chicago that it could be and really trying to get that multiplication effect,
right? Because if you bring one leader and another leader, you get more than
2X, right? Because the synergy between them and the ideas and the span and the
scope of what they can do when they put their heads together is bigger than
just the additive sum of what the two of them would be doing in their separate silos.
So, that's fantastic.

Daniel Ash: Absolutely. It's like an emotional
multiplier effect, right? We think about multiplier effect in business and
whatnot, but like the emotional energy that comes out of the community
leadership, which is usually grounded in some level of organizing. it's the
potential of the city, the potential for doing collective good is enhanced
undoubtedly.

Host: That's awesome. So, can you speak tangibly about
some of the big impacts that you are seeing, whether it's thinking about things
that are moving us towards this new Chicago or some improvements helping us get
to that more racially equitable Chicago, what can we put our finger on and say,
"Yep, I see this, I see the progress."

Daniel Ash: Well, here's what I'm seeing, I'm seeing
community leaders who bring an organizing sort of frame to the table. They're
doing more than just agitating, right? They're actually taking responsibility
for driving the type of development that they want to see in their communities.

One quick example is RAGE and Inglewood. When I think about the
leadership of RAGE, they're organizers in a very traditional sense, they're
resource navigators, so they're the folks that people go to figure out how to
access healthcare systems, how to understand health and human service systems,
public benefits systems. But they're also taking on development projects,
economic development projects. So, you have the leadership of RAGE buying
homes, developing homes, and selling those homes to residents in their
community. Organizers in our portfolio are asking me about how to access
capital so they can actually buy the blighted buildings on a business corridor
because they want to take responsibility for owning it and developing it, so
that there's a collective community benefit.

One person I remember saying recently, "We want to decide
who goes into the little shopping plaza that's like near our community."
And so, what's powerful about that is that residents aren't just interested in
informing quality of life plans, they most certainly want to do that, but they
actually want to take lead responsibility for implementing those plans with a
very clear-eyed understanding that, as our communities develop improve and
evolve, we want to maintain ownership. Others are welcomed in, so they're not
putting barriers onto to their community, but they're saying like, "We
don't want to just develop a plan and hope that it happens. We want to be at
the fore, be at the lead and pushing the plan to implementation and, again,
underscoring the idea that we want to reclaim space and own it." And if we
do that and we do that with intention, we'll make sure that the communities,
the collective communities that have actually experienced significant amounts
of harm benefit from the progress that everyone's advocating for.

Host: No, that's inspirational, right? We want to go
beyond just flashing the flashlight and saying, "Hey, here's the
problem," but actually going into the problem. You know, yes, you got to
highlight it first, but then, "Okay, let's roll up our sleeves. What are
we going to do about it?" Right? Whether it's buying blighted buildings
and developing it into a community center or whatever, we've got to finish it
out with execution and implementation. I love it.

You are doing such incredible work and spearheading such
incredible work and just supporting people in doing the incredible work that
they're already doing in the community. So, I'm really grateful for the
spotlight that we've been able to shed on your work and your life's work. So,
thank you, Daniel, so much for joining me. And thank you for your very intense
efforts in addressing inequities. I am so looking forward to hearing more about
the ongoing work of the Field Foundation, and I want to thank you so much for
this time today.

Daniel Ash: Well, I'm happy to be here, and I'm equally
thankful for you and your leadership in your current role, your previous role.
And I'm sure any future endeavor that you take on, you're going to have an
indelible impact on our city.

Host: Thank you so much. Stay well.

Scott outro: Thank you for listening to More Than
Medicine with Dr. Ngozi Ezike. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe
to Sinai Chicago's YouTube channel, as well as follow @SinaiChicago on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram for information on upcoming podcasts. Until next time.