Advertise on podcast: TRENDS: Boulder Community Foundation + KGNU

Severe weather effects like drought, heat waves, unseasonal fires, and high wind make climate change hard to ignore across the Front Range. To talk about what actions Boulder County is taking to prepare for changing climate change and protect the most vulnerable populations, KGNU's Rossana Longo Better speaks with Marina La Grave and Alejandro Murillo of Boulder County Office of Sustainability Climate Action and Resilience (OSCAR). https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/6-16-22_TrendsPanel_ClimatePrep_KGNU.mp3 (Download Audio) Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher.   The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country.   The TRENDS Podcast series is made possible with support from the KGNU Listener-Members and the Community Foundation of Boulder County.    

About one dozen public school districts in Colorado offer bilingual instruction as part of a dual language immersion program, according to the state's department of education. Among them are two schools in the Boulder Valley School District: Pioneer Bilingual and University Hill Elementary.  The goal of dual immersion is to form fully bilingual students by offering instruction in various subjects in two languages. The most common second language in Colorado is Spanish. KGNU’s Rossana Longo-Better spoke with Richard García, member of BVSD's Board of Education and a long-time supporter of bilingual instruction, and with BVSD Superintendent Rob Anderson, about how the district will be looking to expand bilingual education opportunities next year, all the way through the 12th grade, and for those who may not have had the opportunity to enroll in dual language programs during elementary school.   https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-05-19TRENDS_BILINGUALED.mp3 (Download Audio) Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher.   The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country.   The TRENDS Podcast series is made possible with support from the KGNU Listener-Members and the Community Foundation for Boulder County.    

Voces Vivas, a new exhibit at the Museum of Boulder, opens Feb. 26  and explores the history of Latino families in Boulder County. Through an interactive display, the exhibit uses artifacts to document Latino lineage and the communities’ resilience in Boulder County. KGNU’s Rossana Longo-Better spoke with Justine Vigil-Tapia, whose family came to Boulder County in the early 1900s, Linda Arroyo-Holmstrom, lead curator of the exhibit, and Lori Preston, Executive Director of the Museum of Boulder about the year-long exhibit.     Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher.   The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country.   The TRENDS Podcast series is made possible with support from the KGNU Listener-Members and the Community Foundation for Boulder County.    

More than 900 homes were destroyed and more than 1000 more were damaged in the Marshall Fire that ravaged Boulder County on the second to last day of 2021. While this is a tragic event for everyone who lost their homes, even a fire such as this can lay bare the inequities of our society. For those who had already lost their jobs because of the pandemic, for those who are uninsured or under-insured, or for the undocumented, who cannot even qualify for federal aid from FEMA, the consequences of the fire seem disproportionately worse. Such is the case of the Chavez family who lost their parents’ mobile home in Old Superior, where the family had occupied the land for 80 plus years. “Well, it means a lot. So, there were five generations in that group. On this land, my great grandfather homesteaded and built three houses. Five generations of our family have been there since, and, I mean, since it's been more than 80 years that we've been on this land one way or another, one family or another, we’ve always been occupying this land,” says Arthur Chavez. . Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country.  TRENDS podcast: https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1-24-22_TRENDS_PODCAST_KGNU_READY-FOR_POST_mixdown.mp3 The TRENDS Podcast series is made possible with support from the KGNU Listener-Members and the Community Foundation for Boulder County. The biggest struggle the whole Chavez family is experiencing now is that they found themselves underinsured. “First of all, we found out that everybody is underinsured: said Chavez. “So, even though we fill the home's worth a lot more than the insurance is going to pay out, it's because we weren't knowledgeable enough to get with our insurance agent every two years and reevaluate our land and our property and what we've improved. So we basically lose all that. We didn't know that we needed to do that. So I would advise everybody, you know, from a house to a trailer, always check your insurance every couple of years.”  Elsie Chavez, Arthur’s mom, was the holder of the family photos — now all gone. “My mom, she was the holder of all that memorabilia. Albums, family pictures from my dad's side and her side from our grandkids, her nieces or nephews. I mean, every picture you possibly could imagine was in that house and is no longer there. And that's what breaks my heart is the history that we won't be able to show our grandkids — those of our great grandparents,.” says Chavez. Just like the Chavez family, there are others in the same situation of being underinsured, says Abi Ocampo, who works as a lead bilingual advocate at Sister Carmen. “I did encounter folks that were under-insured. So they had to apply for FEMA.

The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country. Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. Burnout classified by the World Health Organization as a medical diagnosis described as “a syndrome as a result of a chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed” by the International Classification of Diseases, the handbook that guides medical providers in diagnosing conditions. Listen to this TRENDS podcast call-in show: https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/TRENDS_Burnout_Call-IN-Show_KGNU.mp3 The TRENDS Podcast series is made possible with support from the KGNU Listener-Members and the Community Foundation for Boulder County. Our guests today are Rona Wilensky and Janine D' Anniballe. Rona Wilensky, known in the community for her work with mindfulness programs for educators at the Passage Works Institute where she taught SMART in Education, a mindfulness  program for educators. Rona Wilensky  is the founding principal of New Vista High School. Janine D’Anniballe, a licensed psychologist and a nationally  recognized expert in sexual assault and traumatic stress, and treatment  for survivors. Janine currently serves as the  Director of Trauma Services at Mental Health Partners in Lafayette,  Colorado. She also has been the Director of Moving to End Sexual Assault (MESA), Teachers and Nurses are the most vulnerable to get burnout, what seems an occupational phenomenon. The complex topic of burnout - affecting mostly people that hold curtain occupations that tent to be diagnosed with what now is defined as a syndrome as a result of a chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Watch the TRENDS call-in show: Story Sources: * Rona Wilensky, mindful educator, former New Vista Principal and former Passage Works Institute director * Janine D'Anniballe, licensed psychologist, Director of Trauma Services at Mental Health Partners *

The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country. Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. In this episode, we will be diving into the issue of youth mental health, especially after a sharp rise in young patients seeking help prompted several pediatric healthcare professionals in Colorado to declare a youth mental health state of emergency. KGNU spoke with some of these healthcare providers, as well as concerned community members who also work to ensure the well-being of our youth. According to data from the United Health Foundation, in 2020 there were 19.8 teen deaths by suicide for every 100,000 teens between the ages of 15 and 19 in Colorado. This is significantly higher than the national suicide rate of 8.4 teens per 100k. For Colorado, the teen suicide rate had been rising every year by over 11 percentage points in the four year of the pandemic. The pandemic has only made matters worse. In 2014, suicide accounted for 41% of teen deaths in Boulder County. While alarming, the rate has only gotten worse since then. In this podcast episode, we will hear from mental health professionals, healers, counselors, and community activists about the current mental health crisis affecting our youth in Boulder County. Their teachings voice a common thread about the importance for our children to develop a sense of belonging within a community that will accept them as they are, where they will feel safe in feeling and expressing their emotions, where they can feel empowered and supported in the pursuit of their passions and dreams. Listen to this TRENDS podcast episode below: https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/7-15-21_RL-Trends-Podcast-Youth-Mental-Health_KGNU_mixdown.mp3 The TRENDS Podcast series is made possible with support from the KGNU Listener-Members and the Community Foundation for Boulder County. In this TRENDS panel, we speak with Raul Galindo, a local therapist who teaches parenting classes for the Latinx communities in Longmont - Nurturing Parenting Classes. We also speak with Tammy Lawrence and Katie Romero, former high school counselors who are currently Directors of Student Support Services for BVSD. We'll hear what the schools are doing to provide more support for our young students as well as about resources and solutions to address our children's mental health. Listen to the TRENDS panel for this episode below: https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.

From the left: Lori Lizarraga, Betty Aragon-Mitotes, Diamond Hardiman, Tina Griego The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country. Listen to this TRENDS podcast episode below: https://objects-us-east-1.dream.io/kgnu-news/2021/06/6-7-21_TRENDSPodcast_LackofDiversityinNewsrooms_Updated.mp3 Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. A lack of diversity among journalists, reporters and media producers in newsrooms influences the stories suggested by readers and listeners and the coverage they receive. Their lack of representation is true not only in Colorado, but across the United States. This monthly series explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County, through the experiences of community members, especially those on the margins. We aim to shed light on community challenges, solutions and pathways forward for the county and the country. According to an article by Gabriel Arana of Columbia Journalism Review, in 1976 the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) made a pledge that by the year 2000, the percentage of racial and ethnic minorities in newsrooms would match the population, stressing the importance of lifting people of color into management positions. Today, minority newsroom staff are less than half of the population they represent, and minorities in newsroom leadership positions less than a third. Hispanic activist Betty Aragon-Mitotes is the founder of Mujeres de Colores and director of the documentary Hispanic Communities Voices Hispanic activist Betty Aragon-Mitotes founder of Mujeres de Colores and director of the documentary Hispanic Communities Voices, talks about the importance of media producers of color to bring forward the stories from the community. “I want to hear, I want to see people in media in positions of power that look like me because when you see somebody that looks like you they are paving the way for the rest of us, and we need to show people we are capable, we are knowledgeable, and we are educated and we can do this,” says Aragon. Betty Aragon emphasizes that she wants people who are living an experience to tell their own story. “I don't want to tell a story. I want them to tell the story and I'm sorry, but I have to tell you, I don't want white people telling our story. You know, this is about our reality. And when you have people that are on the outside looking in, many times, and you know, I'm really grateful to the white community because they have helped us a lot with funding, but here's the reality of that. They're not seeing our lives through our lens. They're seeing it through their reality.

The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country. Listen to this TRENDS podcast episode below: https://objects-us-east-1.dream.io/kgnu-news/2021/04/4-21-21_Trends-Podcast_GunControl_KGNU.mp3 Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. Gun Violence, which President Biden has called an epidemic in America, continues to affect the youth of color across the country. According to CDC data for 2019, in Colorado young Black males aged 15 to 34 are 12.6 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than their White counterparts. Colorado also ranks among the ten states with the highest suicide rate in the country. The public gathers to remember those lost in the Boulder King Soopers shooting According to the CDC’s WISQARS web-based injury statistics query and reporting system, homicide with a firearm was the leading cause of death for youth age 10 to 24 in the US in 2019. Almost 7,500 youth aged 10 to 24 died from intentional firearm injuries, including 4,483 homicides and 2,972 suicides. Since the early 1990s, males of color have suffered a disproportionate number of firearm homicides. From 2015 to 2019, males died from firearm homicide at a rate of 12 per 100,000, which was nine times higher than females. Black youth died from firearm homicide at a rate of 28 per 100,000, which was 10 times higher than White youth. Additionally, in 2019 4% of high school students in the US, including 7% of males and 2% of females, reported carrying a gun in the last year, for reasons other than hunting or sport, and 4% of 12 to 18 year olds recorded having access to a loaded gun without adult permission. These shocking statistics are provided by Sabrina Arredondo Mattson, PhD, a Senior research associate at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, a part of the Institute of Behavioral Science at CU Boulder, where she has been conducting research about gun violence in youth since 1995. According to Arredondo Mattson, there are particular challenges in addressing youth gun violence in communities of color because of structural issues that create inequalities among different groups. “The problems of youth violence and firearm violence are magnified in hybrid communities and communities of color. There are ideologies, institutions, and policies that foster structural violence and create unequal power that perpetuate social, political, and economic conditions that harm some groups and privilege others. For example, concentrated poverty, structural racism, limited services, and over-policing of low-income black neighborhoods are challenges that make it difficult for communities to provide the protective factors that are needed to promote healthy youth development and reduce risk factors that undermine healthy youth development,” said Arredondo Mattson.

The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country. featured image: Fred Glover in line for a coronavirus vaccine. Listen to the Coronavirus Vaccine: Community Voices TRENDS podcast episode Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. It has been almost one year since the first lockdown order went into effect in Boulder County to curb the spread of the coronavirus.  People are experiencing COVID-19 fatigue and are anxious to know when things might start to return to some normalcy. People being monitored in a waiting room after receiving their coronavirus vaccines in Boulder County Experts and government officials tell us that, although the future remains uncertain, the timeline depends greatly on following precautionary guidelines, like mask use and social distancing, and on a large portion of the population getting the vaccine. CDC experts are still trying to determine the percentage of the population that needs to either get the vaccine or have had the disease to achieve herd immunity.  Most estimates are around 70 to 75 percent. Michael, a nurse at a Boulder County vaccine clinic, administers a coronavirus vaccine to Fred Glover This is a very high number, not only because of the challenges in rolling out the vaccine program but also because not everyone is willing or able to get the vaccine.  The reasons for this are many, including fear, mistrust, medical issues, and those who choose not to get vaccinated. Fred Glover, a distinguished professor who retired from CU Boulder, got his first vaccine on an icy early morning in February. Glover says that it is unfortunate that some people are afraid of a vaccine. "If you don't get the vaccine versus the likelihood of having a reaction, if you do, there's just no comparison. It's all your chances of coming up ahead are just dramatically better, if you get the vaccine," he said. Glover lost a brother to polio when he was  14 years old, a year before the polio vaccine became available. "And my gosh, if we had only had that vaccine, my brother's death could have been avoided. And all of the people whose lives were saved by that vaccine is a testimony to the importance of getting a vaccine for a serious illness when it's available." Raquel Cagan, a neuropsychologist who lives in Boulder, was born in Colombia and worked primarily with young children, specifically in underserved and impoverished communities. She remembers a time when children were encouraged to donate 10 cents to help eradicate polio in other parts of the world. "I remember as a child well, and we moved to this country, you had to go and give 10 cents to the March of Dimes… my mom didn't have a lot of money, but I had my 10 cents and you went and you put it in a little caniste...

COVID-19 has been devastating for everybody, but even more so for the Latinx community. Colorado Public Health data shows that while non-Hispanic whites in the 70+ age group in Colorado have been vaccinated at a higher rate than their representation in the overall population, only about 5% of Hispanics in that same age group have been vaccinated, even though they represent almost 22% of the overall population. Sheila Davis, the Health Equity Coordinator for Boulder County Public Health, says that the problem exists in our county as well, where vaccination rates for minority populations, including the Hispanic community, are much lower than those for dominant populations. Listen to the Equity and Vaccines TRENDS podcast episode   Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher.   COVID-19 has been devastating for everybody, but even more so for the Latinx community. Colorado Public Health data shows that while non-Hispanic whites in the 70+ age group in Colorado have been vaccinated at a higher rate than their representation in the overall population, only about 5% of Hispanics in that same age group have been vaccinated, even though they represent almost 22% of the overall population. Sheila Davis, the Health Equity Coordinator for Boulder County Public Health, says that the problem exists in our county as well, where vaccination rates for minority populations, including the Hispanic community, are much lower than those for dominant populations. "I suspect it's because traditional COVID vaccination strategies were designed for the dominant culture, that they were designed for people who have (medical) providers who can enroll in a vaccination through their provider," says Davis. Boulder City Council members are working to address the issue of unequal access to vaccines. Councilmembers Mary Young, Junie Joseph, and Mayor Sam Weaver drafted a letter with recommendations for equitable vaccine distribution. "This came about, of course, because of what we have seen throughout the whole pandemic and what this pandemic has basically exposed, something that has been with us all along... the inequitable treatment of people of color and the data backs everything up," says Councilmember Young. Young says a significant piece of progress is the county's mobile testing unit. "We wanted to make sure that mobile testing unit was going to the places that most needed the access to the testing," she said. Boulder County has also hired a cultural broker to do specific coronavirus outreach into the Latinx community. "I know they've been to places in Longmont, to a mobile home park in Longmont. And so the County has been working really hard to put in place the infrastructure that will enable them to have a more equitable approach to addressing the pandemic, both testing, and the vaccine," says Young. COVID tests being prepared on the Salud mobile clinic. Debbie Salazar, Migrant Health Director with Salud Health Centers, says one issue is the information about the coronavirus that is made available to the Latinx community.

The TRENDS podcast is a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Boulder County and KGNU. It dives deep into the community’s most pressing issues and explores the changes happening throughout Boulder County through the experiences of community members, especially those often rendered invisible by commercial media, to shed light on community challenges, solutions, and pathways forward for the county and the country. Listen to the  TRENDS podcast on Wildfires below: https://objects-us-east-1.dream.io/kgnu-news/2020/12/12-17-20TRENDSPodcast-FOREST%20FIRES_mixdown.mp3 Subscribe to TRENDS on iTunes to get new editions automatically. Also on Spotify and Stitcher. In 2020, wildfires burned more than 625,000 acres across Colorado, causing estimated damage of almost $200 million. The Calwood Fire, view from Highway 119, October 17, 2020. According to the recently published 2020 Ecosystems TRENDS Report, rising temperatures in Boulder County have resulted in drier summers. The report is a collaboration between the University of Colorado at Boulder, The City of Boulder, Boulder County, and the Community Foundation for Boulder County. It shows that the trend in the number of days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit in Boulder has been rising steadily since 1990, with the 10-year average increasing from about 19 days per year in the 1990s to 39 days per year in the 2010s. It is worth noting that 2020 alone has had 51 days over 90 °F! This data suggests climate change is contributing to a longer fire season. Ecologists also worry that fires are now burning at higher elevations in areas that were never before hot and dry enough to burn.  It is estimated that fighting the fires in Colorado required 38 helicopters, 198 fire engines, and more than 3,000 firefighters.  In addition, air quality in Boulder County was worse than at any time during the last decade.  Heat, drought, and high winds combined to make 2020 the worst fire season in history, with two of the fires breaking records in size and duration. Forest fires feed off trees and undergrowth that have grown exceedingly dense. Over the past century, the US Forest Service has focused on fire suppression, rather than prevention.  Now, more attention is being placed on prevention, given the costly losses from the fires.  Managing the forests, including cutting down young trees, can help eliminate fuel for wildfires.  Mark Grandie, from the US Forest Service, says that small trees in the forest can become “ladder fuel.”  “This means that if a little tree is somehow on fire, it has the potential of lighting bigger trees.  Once the fire gets into the higher areas of the forest, it becomes much harder to get under control.”   Sorkin-Coehlo Family - Cutting Trees and helping Restore the lands in the Pike National Forest One way of mitigating this risk is to cut down trees smaller than six inches in diameter to relieve the forest floor of unnecessary fuels.  The US Forest Service has devised a program to allow Boulder County families to cut Christmas trees for a fee, to help with this fuel mitigation process.  For Grandie this is a win-win situation, "the public can help mitigate the risk of fires and they can, in turn, cut their own Christmas tree to take home.”