Service is the Rent We Pay

Let America Be America Again

Today we’re welcoming Liz Brown, President & CEO of YWCA Columbus, a nonprofit focused on housing, youth development, and social justice. Liz is also a former Columbus City Council member first elected in 2015 and reelected in 2019 before leaving in 2023. In this first part of our conversation, we discuss Liz's time on council, her thoughts on our housing shortage, her work at YWCA, the impacts of the current federal administration on nonprofits, and, among everything happening, what keeps us hopeful. Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907/let-america-be-america-again [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907/let-america-be-america-again] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645871/there-is-no-place-for-us-by-brian-goldstone/ [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645871/there-is-no-place-for-us-by-brian-goldstone/] https://www.csb.org/ [https://www.csb.org/]

Service is the Rent We Pay

For part two of my conversation with Tasha Booker, CEO of Action for Children, we begin with a commentary on the brevity of pilot programs like Success Bridge and Healthy Beginnings at Home that get so much initial funding, impact a few hundred people, and then are never scaled up or extended. From there we make a call to action. As our community faces higher costs of living and our social service sector is threatened and weakened, it falls on all of us to do whatever we can to protect each other. American civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman famously said “Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”

On Housing and Education

Today on LVL With Us, I am joined by Tasha Booker, Homeport board member and CEO for Action for Children. Tasha has been a part of our board since 2021, ran CityYear Columbus for more than six years, and joined Action for Children at the beginning of this year to become more engaged in education here in Columbus. Tasha actually grew up in an affordable housing community once called Agler Green, now named The Heritage Apartments, right near Homeport’s current headquarters. During our conversation, we discussed how housing affects educational outcomes, the challenges faced by our school system, and the changes we can make as a community to better care for our children and families. Action for Children is a nonprofit organization that supports parents, caregivers, and teachers in the pursuit of better educational outcomes for the children they care for. Sources: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/09/see-2025-ohio-school-report-card-grades-for-every-district-in-the-state.html [https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/09/see-2025-ohio-school-report-card-grades-for-every-district-in-the-state.html] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/u-s-high-school-students-continue-to-lose-ground-in-math-and-reading-as-yearslong-decline-persists [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/u-s-high-school-students-continue-to-lose-ground-in-math-and-reading-as-yearslong-decline-persists] https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/about-us/collaboratory/addressing-inequities/kindergarten-readiness [https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/about-us/collaboratory/addressing-inequities/kindergarten-readiness]

The Future of Housing Pt 2

We’re back this month with David Staley of Columbus Futurists. Our first episode with David lays the groundwork for what we’re discussing in this second part, giving more context as to what futurism is and how it can be a useful lens through which we view even current issues. The main point of today’s conversation is that, while futurism does rely on certain drivers – or factors that indicate the likelihood of one outcome or another – it's not a crystal ball. We are not resigned to the predicted outcomes as if they’re prophecies. We have agency that allows us to shift our current methods to achieve different outcomes. We have the power to reverse engineer the future. Knowing the risks and opportunities is what allows us to build a future we want, rather than passively waiting for it to get here.

The Future of Housing

This month, we welcome on President of Columbus Futurists, David Staley, who is also an associate professor of history at The Ohio State University. Together, we discuss not only the future of housing, but the driving factors that determine it and ways we could possibly build the future we want. This month’s episode lays the groundwork of what futurism is and explores more grounded applications. Stay tuned for next month's episode, when we’ll discuss topics like the implications of AI, how to address systemic inequalities, and how we could restructure our culture and economy to not only guarantee housing for all, but to actually place a person’s intrinsic value above their ability to generate income and rethink what it means to be a contributing member of society. Who is David Staley? David J. Staley is a writer, designer, mark maker, futurist, historiographer, presenter, educator, advisor, and journalist, and was recently described as an "eclectic academic" and as a "polymath."   He is an Associate Professor in the departments of History and Design at The Ohio State University, and is the author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education [https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/alternative-universities__;!!KGKeukY!wwP7ISQG30unqTwXGA0dgSpMngRCsM8XNrMa8K2aMQOKVC93LzFED_noxsgiwdSQSrcULlEdiWVcIY-z4UIBazX8--IORpom$], the co-author of Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets [https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12918/knowledge-towns__;!!KGKeukY!wwP7ISQG30unqTwXGA0dgSpMngRCsM8XNrMa8K2aMQOKVC93LzFED_noxsgiwdSQSrcULlEdiWVcIY-z4UIBazX8-zQKx8NW$] and author of Visionary Histories [https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://csi.asu.edu/books/visionary-histories/__;!!KGKeukY!wwP7ISQG30unqTwXGA0dgSpMngRCsM8XNrMa8K2aMQOKVC93LzFED_noxsgiwdSQSrcULlEdiWVcIY-z4UIBazX8--AUzNBm$], a collection of his essays about the future. He is the host of the "Voices of Excellence [https://podcast.osu.edu/voices-of-excellence/]" podcast, and president of Columbus Futurists [https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://columbusfuturists.org/__;!!KGKeukY!wwP7ISQG30unqTwXGA0dgSpMngRCsM8XNrMa8K2aMQOKVC93LzFED_noxsgiwdSQSrcULlEdiWVcIY-z4UIBazX8-7CYbh6U$], a local think tank. In 2022 he was awarded "Best Freelance Writer" by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his "Next [https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/columbusunderground.com/author/dstaley/__;!!KGKeukY!yqjZM-kCceBo8dVOUHiax1muEiZAUy6f1uS6c9qa1FFL2qjZkklVqgjhcvKz8Tdp58znKex9RMLVAxef5mbQMg6KRek$]" futures column with Columbus Underground.