a way that's not just about voters. you can fund raise even in the communities that are often portrayed as low income what and thinkers not makers and you can create opportunities for them to feel like they are part of the american democracy. we are really doing some campaign came campaigning in a different way that is designed with front and center. it's changing the way democracy works. that's the first thing, not seeing immigrants is just a strategy where you plop down. second we reframe the conversation around policymaking as not a conversation that's just about how you create a policy and go and translate it or figure out how to get out to immigrant communities and tell

them about that policy. what we are saying is we create policy that can be more cognizant of who america truly is. 38% of the country are people of color. 38%. when you when you talk about policymaking for america, you can't be talking about a policy and a certain old frame and then saying let's go get it out to asian-americans and african-americans african-americans. you have to design policy in a completely different way to upturn what we are doing from the very beginning. the third thing is to put the public back in public service. although that sounds like a, you need to know how we train and support people who run for office. one of the things that we heard over and over that we got a lot of support when we were running for office and then i got put into office but i know were just going to check in with other

policies that we want you to have but that's not how it works. you do need to learn how to play the game at a certain level. part of our job as an organization is not just to train people to run for office but to support them when they get into the office and help them remember and help them understand what it means to be a movement builder once you're an elected official. we are training movement builders and we want them to keep those values once they're in office. it's things like engaging your constituency and creating a feedback loop so that you are hearing from folks about what they need. being a constituent relations officer in a way, if you're at a very local level, you are responding to every day constituent needs and by doing that, understanding what it is what they need from you as a policymaker i help. for the purposes of emphasis,.

38% of the country are people of color and only 14% of our state legislatures are of color. we have a smaller gap in congress and i think more people tend to look at those high-profile races but i think all of you in this room and certainly all of you on the panel know that state and local is where the action is. the last point i'm going to make is that there is not a single state legislature to date that has a proportionate number of asian nationals proportionate to its population not in california, nine way, not in new mexico. those states i mentioned because they have a high proportion of latinos in new mexico and asian americans in hawaii. in terms of being commensurate with the population, there is not a single state. we have a long way to go to catch up, and nevermind to be

ready we know it's not about numbers only, it's about the need and responsiveness to our community. i do want to end on that that the journey is not just about getting diversity but it's about creating a more inclusive conversation and representation in policymaking. thank you. [applause] >> i have so many questions. i want to start with the new politics part of this conversation and i want to invite everyone here on the panel to be in the conversation. just jump on in. i'm from a big family. i want to start first with some of the comments, we have a political system that's broken that's not really addressing and engaging the new american

majority. what is your assessment about the things on the top of your personal list, things that make you crazy and that are really damaging in terms of building and engaging the select for it and what would you do to fix that? >> you want me to go first. i have one thing that drives me crazy and that is if it is not invested in the long-term, and it still frankly not invested in investing in long-term pipeline development. we don't find school board sexy, or not interested in state legislature and so it's really, i'm sorry, i teach my daughter's those words, she needs to know what weapons she can use. i think that whole obsession with the person who is on the

top of the ticket is really, really problematic and it extends beyond the presidential into the congressional. what happens is we have a very shortsighted strategy. we get all excited about 2014 where there there were three or four major races with latinos and none of them one. it was very disturbing and disappointing but it's really the long-term investment that they're not interested in. >> you talk about one of the things that drive me crazy, we've known for decades, we sent this time and time again that voters of color, black voters have a long history of being taken for granted and the assumption is that because maybe

the candidate on the other side is so terrible that i automatically becomes a motivator for turnout and that is absolutely not true. it will be interesting to see how that plays out in this election and i think you all saw the other day trump has 0% of support in ohio and pennsylvania and so folks on this side are looking at it saying that's great, however that does not necessarily mean that those live voters in those states are going to turn out for the democratic candidate. it goes back to the point it's not just lacking on the pipeline side, it's lacking everywhere and every single cycle that i've been doing this work and i've been in the game for two decades, we talk about, we point out the need to do long-term investments and we focus on the need for turnout and still here we are in july, i work with a lot of the organizations that are existing and in place that work on doing political work in communities of color and they are underfunded in july of a presidential year. what the f. we can't start building this show now, we should be building

july of last year. the fact that organizations and collaboratives, why are these organizations not making it rain on them? these are the folks on the ground, these are the folks that have the relationship. these are the things that take time to run large scale programs and that's what we need to turn folks out we understand there is a significant funding gap. they have the capacity to raise the money like we do. we always rely on people power. that takes time and investment. that is not something you can turn on a dime. >> when i learned that black

women, upon which president obama's reelection hinged in the democrats are dependent on black women in particular to turn out in large number, they focus on engaging black women as electorate in this campaign are underfunded. it's not logical. i want to talk to about that. chuck what is on your list of the things that have to change? >> we could be here all day if you want to go through the list. let's go through the highlights? the highlight would be what drives me crazy? what drives me crazy is a media consultant translating an english ad into spanish and that being there latino program. it drives me crazy that poor young kids of color don't have an opportunity to come to d.c. because they can't afford an unpaid internship to try to make

connections in washington. [applause] it drives me crazy to think that the elite political class in washington thinks that donald trump being on the ballot will turn out people of color. it drives me crazy to think about the industrial complex clinical consultants who should be in this room listening to fascinating ideas and people demanding their place in a chair there are certain people out there that came long before me that set the path. we are the ones here no matter what color your skin is in this room, we all have skin in the game. we all have to eat and feed our kids and we all were raised by a mom and a dad or two moms and a dad or they love you no matter what. that's what we should be looking at as an institution.

the reason you don't see people going after african-american women is because 99% of that class are scared of them and don't know how to talk to them. they understand their queen this and understand how bad [bleep] they are. we can be taught. we have to put passion back in our politics. we let donald trump win some of the wars because he makes it very difficult. nobody can make it much more some people than this redneck from texas but we need to put passion back in our politics. i think that that the core of what makes me the most mad. >> i want to put a finer point on what chuck just said because it astonishes me that we treat people of color as if there speaking a foreign language.

sometimes it is and sometimes there's translation that's involved. talking to black voters, were not aliens, we all, the idea that we have to talk differently, no, what needs to be different is who are the decision-makers? we can't translate a white message to a black audience or vice versa. that's not how it works. before going to change the frame then we need to change the people who are behind the cameras, behind-the-scenes in writing campaign plans who are driving campaign budgets. when i go to these gatherings of the political class, they can no longer look like an all white room and we are the only brown spots at the table. it's not just can't look like, we actually can't win. >> how many people are interested in winning in this room? everybody.

it's less of a moral argument or a desperate plea from an invisible people but it's visible to the policymakers and it's more of a direct statement. democrats will not win if they don't figure out how to fund, properly resource, engage and run candidates and run the issues that appeal to the hopes and aspirations of a new america majority of whom people are the vast majority. it can be more simple than that and i guess my question is, for those of you who working campaigns, there is something called the prime voter you go after. they call it swing voter, you know chasing the swing voter, how do we need to evolve who the most important voter is in the city council race or the presidential races that are coming up in the fall, how do we

need to think about who are the most important voters that campaigns should be organizing around? >> chuck talked a little bit about the strategy that he used with the newly registered voters and i just want to put a little personal point on these two. i had been an immigrant for 17 years before i came a citizen. in 2001 i voted in my first election and in 2002 i became commissioner of immigrant affairs. what i'm telling these folks this morning is that i was an appointed government official before i was a prime voter. you need to disrupt our nation who is politically engaged individual or many others in our country now who are in positions where they are more engaged than

someone who is a nativeborn citizen whose primary form of engagement and showing up at the polls every single election. that prime voter, that shows up every time to election is not necessarily our most engaged citizen in the way that the young people who are out there marching for legal status testifying in congressional hearings and all that. there used to be a time where you've come to this country, you you got your legal status, he became a citizen and you voted. that was the trajectory. now, there are so many different points in which you enter the civic engagement strategy trajectory and we are not really accounting for all those different ways that we can really honor immigrants in particular and their commitment to this democracy. we do need to disrupt this

notion of not this prime voter by engaged americans. >> chuck, you run campaigns, how does one do that? >> it's hard because in all honesty, if you just want to speak about the truth, it's all driven by money. at the end of the day, no no matter what we would like them to do and talk to all the poor brown folks are black votes or any other boats that are the swing voter it's because they have a targeted voter and they are supposed to run this campaign and they said were putting up yard signs and you're supposed to do it this way. you don't always have to do it in this way. i said it this morning when we were having the discussion that every cycle, the beautiful thing about what i get to do, beyond working with great beautiful wonderful people is i get to be inspired every day and learn new things and that's the first thing you should find in your political consultant. they should be wanting to learn from you, not just telling you once a week what you should be doing. they should be having their ear to the community and

understanding what that community is. every campaign consultant is taught that you go into a race and figure out what your win number is based on the number of people who are supposed to turn out historically in the past and put together a layer communication structure and you going talk to them. you higher media consultants and you send them some mail and you may knock on their door and send them some ads, just targeted to that group of people who have the highest likelihood, for god sake there is a model that would tell you what the likelihood might be and that's how you target consultants and run the campaign every single way. there was a person of color at the table helping to make a decision and what i think that you have to do and i think the way we get around this, is to show the vote there. show that florida nine community i know what's happening in the island in puerto rico there are

droves of people moving in with their family in orlando and because of that the voter registration is biking on top of the presidential election. we have all these anomalies that the strategy consultants don't know about. their government just shoved an agreement down their throat on the island. they would be tied to another part of the community, whatever that might be in d.c. with artists or african americans but it's a fresh new concept of how do we test a model or test something different that you can come back and have a larger audience with to actually make social change. i think that's important. >> i think my job is just to think about things like this, but you talked about money and campaign budgets. i think the reason why we have

this reliance on prime voters to have a proven track record in previous elections is that there are cheaper votes to get to the polls. if you have someone who has repeatedly voted, all you need to do is to get out on election day. that winds up being cheaper than investing internal. investing in folks, if if you get them to come to the polls, it's a turnout game. quite frankly when you're talking about african-americans, latinos, unmarried women, they have a lot more challenges to even get up and get out to vote. so in order to get them off the couch and to the polls, it takes a lot more money. i think in different cycles you have different averages. a turnout voter is $21. vote.

we have to get used to what is an investment look like. it is going to cause more money. vote but that is something that is going to expand your basis. we are going to see the big national. it's a combined strategy. you can't just rely on one tactic. tv is a tactic that will communicate to a very large audience and it's the most cost-effective way to get to numbers, but you have to layer that a few years ago, a a book release called globalizing for inclusion written by two people out of california talked about a way they were able to get these new voters out to vote by knocking on doors and having a one-on-one conversation.

yes tv can help and it's not just television. right now your digital strategy needs to go hand-in-hand with your tv strategy. people just aren't watching and consuming the media on their television. most of it is coming from your home. how does your communication strategy translate from television to your tablet and phone and whatnot. a very much has to be a layered strategy. >> you brought up the strategy of that voter contact and another thing i shared this morning that has been is this movement for automatic voter registration which i think conceptually is a great idea and brings people into the system but automatically registering a voter does not automatically --

the type of work they do when they're registering people in the field that allows the conversation about them democracy, we are going to lose that. we shouldn't assume that because there automatically registered they will show up. i think there's even more that we have to respond to which is how do you connect with these folks on a person to person level? people feel very disconnected. i think we turn up because it's this great movement and this great illusion that they're going to turn out but i want to pivot for a moment, in the down ballot races you absolutely have to have that person-to-person contact otherwise folks are not going to know there's an

election. second, i want to do justice to this so i'm going to briefly mention that tom has done some incredible modeling on reaching voters. part of what he suggests is the investment in the prime, there is a group of prime voters in which yes it's cheaper to reach them but perhaps because they are almost guaranteed to turn up, if you reduce the amount of contact, reduce contact with voters and use some of those dollars to reach more voters is also beneficial. i think for down ballot races, for the types of people we are talking about in pipeline development, reaching new people is actually a much lower cost strategy that would be for a traditional candidate.

we are from those communities and engaging with them and we've crossed hurdles that some random person coming into your community has to overcome. that is sort of my pitch for down ballot. >> i want to ask, does anyone care to assess our national campaigns and how well they are doing on said approaches? i think that was a layout for you. >> i just want to say, chuck, you just came from seven months, running and hiring every color person for bernie sanders and you talked about that, that being the course of strategy for winning voters, you have that experience under your belt and you've worked on the national presidential level, now i would would like some assessment. we are going into the democratic convention in two weeks. we are going to have a nominee

and we are going to have up presidential election and we have all the other down ballot as you were saying. how are we doing and it are our consultants getting with it or not? >> bz answer would be no, but let me give more credit to a few people and take some blame and credit as well. i think in our staff, all those beautiful faces of color, i always tell my staff it's easy to be an hole and it's hard to be humble. i think we need to learn that in the consulting class. if you look at what hillary is doing, she is putting together a phenomenal team, as she should. she has the pick of the very best out there but what is the best? i think they are doing some things that are really good and hiring lots of people of color, some of whom are literally my best friends, but behind the scenes i think me and the people on the no were really running the day-to-day of the

operation, i know what they're going to do a week before they do it because they're doing it the same thing everybody else is doing. they don't have to do a perfect, that's the bottom line. they will do well and they've done wellin hiring good good people. they've even hired people of color or consultants. latino decisions will make good polls. in her case, i would give her a b-. i believe there's much more she could be doing but they're going to be doing good enough and i'll say thank god they're running against donald trump. be, that's the good stuff for. the bad score is every senate race in america, it may be the last bastion of good old boys system. it's not just me but every consultant that i know that represent the new american majority, they still run things with somebody's brother-in-law and somebody's friend and they translate and add into spanish and it's good enough and it's still the good old boy system.

i worry constantly about those campaigns. they been one of the slowest institutions to show change or the ability to want to run change. in full disclosure, the dsc c is run by a great guy. he's gay and progressive but there's more than just one man who run something or one woman who runs something. there should be more openness. it's now run by latinos, call me two weeks ago to do spanish language at a california primary. i've never gotten called to do any work like that before. things are starting to change there. i think in full disclosure, steve phillips, what you've done, what the fannie lou report showed is help push the envelope more than i've ever seen done before in my entire lifetime. [applause] >> taken from the old man who has been there, who has been taught by a wonderful group of white people.

i say this everywhere i speak. what do you have against black folks? i love black folks. my mom is black. let's get this clear. some white folks in my life have changed my life giving me an opportunity. were not putting everybody in a cage. i'm saying a consultant, political, industrial complex a has to change, not only within the party but within our progressive movement as well. they run. >> we often can point the fingers that the organizations within our movement, some whose representatives may be in this room or at the conference sit on millions of dollars that are going to be invested this election cycle and if the same consultants with the same frame of mind, without involving the idea of the prime voter our commitment, if they decide

they're going to run the campaign the same old way, it's going to result in the same and. >> how do you assess? >> i actually came from one of those organizations. one of the things that i credit it for that i would love for other organizations to look at, think about and engage with those folks on is that several years ago they realize it's not just an issue of diversity, you can change the staff that you have, you can hire more people of color, you can even give them a seat at the table. they fundamentally needed to change the way that they operated. the way that inequality and discrimination gets perpetuated, that is institutional and internal and so policies and

practices need to change. : >> it's already showing some impact and i think that you will see in the way that they do, they make investments both in their own programs as well as supporting programs from organizations on the ground that already exist. >> what i read an inflection point where our largest progressive organizations, if their leadership is almost exclusively white, we have a problem. so that's a hard conversation to have amongst progressives but given the connections and the

relationship with organizations that do the advocating for particular issues it's a crucial time to have a conversation. i want to talk about trump because no conversation would be complete without figuring out -- when you said thank goodness hillary clinton is going to run against a trump and you're also -- all three of you call intoed question the fact that we have really this horrible racist that's attracting and saying all of these things that are essentially antinew american majority in every sense of the word, we have them running but you also saying it's no guaranty that people of color which include progressive whites would be motivated to go to the pools, why is that? why wouldn't people say i have to beat him so let me go vote, let me go vote for hillary clinton and all the way down ballot, why are you saying that, give me the details? >> i will say very quickly, there's three things that we don't talk about in progressive

politics that keep people from engaging in the political process, one of them is the structural disadvantages that are opposition has been, you know, that they've been able to put forth in terms of voter id or voter suppression laws in terms of campaign finance and the way that they're able to fund their campaigns. and we districting, between those three things. these are all structural disadvantage that is we -- disadvantages that we have to overcome to get our people out and i think secondly you see that there's a huge -- people are so disillusion in the political process that trump has made it this far should be laughable. in no way, shape or form regardless of politics is this

person qualified to run one of the most influential countries in the world and so i think people are checked out. >> that's kind of a sad state. are we so checked out we are not going to go to a ballot to beat a trump? >> there's a couple of points to be made. the last point i want to give credit doc, that should be recognized. we can be at debate of who has much power but i believe not only sitting around and people that are trying to make -- to trump, let's get down in the nerd world and think about basic numbers when you think about trump. because trump got 13 million votes, keep in mind that mitt romney lost by getting 60 million votes. there's a difference between 13 million to 60 million who voted for mitt romney. people assume because he's so

outlandish. don't assume. folks in our movement think that they can take that money that they had set aside what little bit that was, what chicken scratch that was for latino outreach or african-american outreach. if they can move that to something else because donald trump will turn out that vote. i would remind people because we are all students of history that there was a governor in california pete wilson who had a very antiimmigration bill who was suppose today mobilize latinos in california. prop 187, thank you. it wasn't just the proposition and it wasn't just an evil man at the top saying evil things much like donald trump. there was orchestrated effort and the folks as old as i am will remember that there was a 10 million-dollar investment by organized labor and progressive community into the neighborhoods

registering latinos and educating latinos and turning out latinos and that single 10 million-dollar investment has literally, and i've used literally changed the state forever to where there's a latino state speaker, state senator and they control almost everything. >> it ushered in a super majority for democrats. >> because of the investment of the community. you don't have to invest in the whole people of color universe across america. start off small, take a bite out of it somewhere in nevada, colorado. donors need to be shown that it's okay and thatly get reciprocal results from that and if you show them that, they're smart enough to do it, they're smart enough to be billionaires. you leave that horse right on down there, you splash water in their face. they will get it.

>> yes, now what do you have to say and we have mics and you have to stand in the mics. just clarify. [laughter] >> we are interested in the comments or questions, go. tell us who you are. >> i think it's also -- >> it's okay, it's for the recording. >> my name is ernesto vil villasenor. one of the questions that i have is a lot of political consultants whether from people of color or otherwise spend so much time in legislative and executive and the executive systems of our government but we spend so little, in fact, if anything on the judicial branch of our government which is if not crucial but more effective -- well not effective but more powerful in terms of getting representations there as well. you start thinking about it,

when we start looking at citizens united and the hobby lobby case, a lot of the decisions were done by scotus representatives which are not as diverse and start looking at the judges that are not representative of the constituency they represent. is there some sort of movement to start shifting and focusing on the judicial branch? >> it's an excellent question. it's about under investment in judicial. i will throw in for the panelists, what about these district attorneys that have such an influence at the local level on these cases where there's police killings like what we as a nation experienced over the last week. those are largely elected and over 90% jena funded this amazing that district attorneys

largely 90% of them go unopposed and who is charged, what do they charge and how fast they are charged and reflect what the community wants and needs. what do you think? >> pipeline development, good idea at all levels. there's so little money and there's so little motivation on the part of the communities that we work with to run that we have a very broad recruitment strategy, right, not specific to any office. we want to get them in there thinking about it. i think the idea of creating programs specifically targeted at recruiting folks to run da and giving them range of support, not just one week of training, doing the same thing, you can go to law firms where there are lots of people of color who are interested in the issues, recruit them and get them to run.

i don't think it's a different strategy, strategy that's not being employed right now because of the limited investment in pipeline development. >> right, right. thank you. >> i will wait. >> i'm chris pryer from rochester, new york, it's up state, 400 miles from new york city and i'm representing myself. my question is you keep talking about we need money, we need money, if i give to -- who should i give money to? if not the senatorial, congressional committee, the congress, how do i get it to where you people say it should go? >> so are you as an individual? >> as an individual. i will be giving money this year. i have no idea. i haven't given the money yet because i don't trust them so i'm asking you who do i give money to? >> it's worth noting this is the question because it is a question of resources as we've

heard over and over again. steve phillips and susan sandler are organizing progressive donors to develop a series of best practices before they give. those are large donors who give a lot of money to campaign. how can you make sure that a campaign is actually committed to engage in the new american majority and so they're helping through the democracy alliance and other progressive donor circles to educate and bring donors in. but then there are also individuals who have to decide what campaign or what funding vehicle and then we get into this a little bit of a question because the organizations power pac, for example, we have individual donors and we are committed to funding candidates and initiatives that are at the center of the new america majority. power pac, individual gifts to

and you see nonprofits or c3's or you look at other institutions, then it gets a little more merky. what are your thoughts? >> they don't know where to go. back to the brother's point, voters and people only know what you're giving the information to know about. people don't vote for judges because it's not sexy, if you would tell them what's at risk for them personally and at stake, they would do but there's no investment but much broader than that. to the giver's point and people who want to donate, i literally had a lunch talking about the donor networks and networks that want to give if we target donors much like i learned with bernie sanders. you have people that all want to pull the cart in the same direction but you have to let them know about the cart and how long it's going to take them to get there. they may want to get.

we all wear so many hats. i'm very passionate about the side and taking young people of color and getting them outside of national parks and enjoying this. where would i fit in -- i give my money to groups like latino outdoors. i got active and now i'm the vice chairman because it's something i'm passionate about. find that passion and do the research. >> you can give to the american leaders. >> absolutely. >> americanleaders.org. i highly recommend it. [laughter] >> you don't need to research. >> i have a report right here that i can give you. [laughter] >> i love it. we will have it up. >> higher heights for america. >> and the other thing this that this is taxable contribution to either organizations, you know,

political contributions are not tax deductible. >> yes. let's hear -- >> hello, i'm jennifer fernández with the women donor's network. i wanted to mention to the last question there's a new effort i'm on the advisory board called movement 2016 and so the website is movement2016.org and the idea is to mobilize in the this election year donations, small and large to movement community based groups reaching the new american majority in key states, so there's data, you can go state by state, you can find groups in those states to invest in. you can donate right there. it's a really great resource that everyone should know about and it's starting. i wanted to mention that and then there's also -- i wanted to mention there's another panel going on right now and there was also one earlier this morning about the prosecutor piece and sort of like electing reflective candidates to the really important criminal justice

positions and it's quite exciting because this movement is starting to happen. more people are getting involved in these elections. the women -- woman from the black prosecutors association was talking about she's trying to get lawyers to run for these offices and they are 87 unopposed according to research. you can go to wholeadsu.s..org that lays it all out. i wanted to offer that. >> thank you, great. yes. >> hello my name is matthew, deputy director of public citizens global trade watch. i use today work with stan greenberg. they call it the rising american electorate. i'm glad to hear you folks talking about it today. right now we are at an important moment where we are trying to increase our outreach specially with trump really playing on bernie sanders and the trade movement and one of the issues that we are facing is it's very

labor-heavy and a lot of people have said white-heavy movement but when we've done polling and focused groups we found stories from folks from latin america who have -- after nafta displaced from their homes and one of the reasons the family immigrated to the united states. we have seen online and trying to engage communities and raise their voice but our biggest concern is trump is using trade to electrify white-working class americans against hillary and there's a whole subset of rising america electorate, majority, folks that we want to get engage because they are being left out and i wanted to know if you have a thought to get people

amplified? >> i went to work in a factory in east texas when i was 19 year's old. my father worked there, six of his brothers and 12 of my cousins. i never graduated college. that's where i got educated in the assembly making tires. nine years ago the plant shut down and now sits in china. my father last his job and entire family lost his job and 1300 men and women in rural east texas went without work. i watched how that community, tax-base and the influence all over the areas around it and when people went out there handing out pink slips, they didn't give just to white people, they gave to black and brown people. when i was doing bilingual i drove them because i know what organization and i'm familiar with everything that went on there, i use that had language that laurie taught me and other friends taught me and that keeps

us -- i get so pissed, i have to slow down. you take one thing from the message is you can't put all latinos in a -- in an immigration box. you can't put african americans in a box. you come from a background for god sake. immigration may open up the wound but you pour the salt with the trade later and rub it in real good and that's how you move that message, with something that ties to something that they care about which is feeding their kids. >> people that can understand and translate the hopes and the dreams and the needs of the community, is that what you mean? >> i was brown. i can go to a latino community and talk about a latino and strong latino family who lost jobs because of trade because i was putting a face to it.

it's much broader than that. >> thank you. yes. >> i have one quick question and another one for the whole team. of the people that you guys have running for office what percentage is first-immigration generation? >> i'm guessing probably 50% because i know on that list, for example, there are people who, you know, got immigration benefited from amnesty in 1986, people who have been on the no-fly list. it's quite a wide range of ethnicities and background. >> just from the question after discussions, it looks like there's some fragmentation in terms of how candidates are doing their work and outside of dfcc, is there a sort of umbrella or conversation about umbrella under which the progressives can come together

and i mean people that are running for office, share best practices and kind of maybe have a sort of funding funnel that then allows to fund certain types of candidates and people open to ideas versus a broader establishment? >> the short answer to that is no. >> no. >> the longer answer to that is it keeps getting tried and there are lots of different groupings that -- that come together at certain points that don't manage to sustain themselves, partly because one of the things that happened is that we have strategic conversations and then election time comes and everybody goes into their silos. a couple of things i want to say just like we can't put latinos into one bucket or african americans into one bucket, there's a different side of the problem which is is that we are not always coming together around common issues. even the work in these

communities is often -- the political work as well as the broader organizational work is political silo, you have the latino organizations, asian american organizations, the african american organizations working with these communities and in our case, for example, because we are -- it comes down to ethnic silos as well. asian american relations and they don't know what to do with that. it's not like they are saying, let's all give you money. wait, what, who are you. just like there's that issue, there's the issue around progressives, environmental justice groups, women's donors groups, we are not even going to have a conversation if you can't

guaranty every candidate is pro-choice. they probably are pro-choice but i don't know. very specific ways in which people think that make it hard to -- i don't know what your experience is but as an organization, that's been a real challenge for us. like it's a nonstarter if you're working with multiple communities or around multiple issues. >> we are running out of time. >> i just want to say that there's great hope and possibility. it's not just about how things are right now and should, it's about what we want for our country and how we want to do the the business of politics. very briefly starting with carol, your greatest hope. >> i think that the greatest possibility and the greatest hope was that we have the chance to fundamentally transform the way that our politics work and

the policies that come out of that. one of the things that i encourage all of us to do is that when we close our eyes and try to think what our vision is and what would it look like if we got the world that we wanted, what does it look like when we are all free, i really do believe that we have the opportunity to get there. >> great. >> i have three hopes. i hope that you will ask your employer when they hire somebody to do something, are they hiring a person of color to be consultant, i have hope because of the bernie sanders campaign watching that young people are more progressive than i give them credit for and they truly know how to still dream and hope and my last hope is that you would follow me on twitter at chuck rocha. [laughter] >> nice. >> my hope is to be as charming as chuck rosa and also as brilliant.

i also hope you will follow me at sayu bhowwani and my other hope is that every day we are training americans to run for office and today we have gone from having three alumni in the room to a fourth alumni in the room. every day we are increasing the number of young people, people of color, immigrant who are getting ready to run for office and they really are the only reason that i'm hopeful. >> finally, i just -- i hope you will go to democracy of color on facebook and twitter. the voices of new majority means that experts are doing the work of future of politics have voice. that's what we are all about. democracy and color. i hope that if you are in facility week after next that you will join us at our luncheon, come and talk to me if

you want to be there on the monday of that day to talk about the leadership of women of color and uniting the party and leading the nation. and i wanted to let you know my book on -- called the new politics of women of color coming out in september, very excited to bring together the issues of women and people of color, women of color and the exciting possibilities that that officers as part of the new american majority and finally, i hope you have a fabulous rest of the conference, please give these amazing people a round of applause. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> book tv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they're reading this summer. >> reading is such an exciting thing. i read ability a hundred books a year and done book report on every one of them after graduate school. one of the things i'm doing now is reading some of the mystery books that i have read before,

there's an author cj box that writes stuff about joe picket who solves mysteries as well as acquainting people with wyoming and some special things there. i get advances of his book usually and on that one i actually got to be involved before he wrote the book because there was a zone in wyoming in yellowstone park that was actually considered to be part of yellowstone. consequently you can commit murder there so he asked me to make sure that wouldn't be a possibility before the book came out and encouraged people to kill people in the part of idaho. another wyoming author that i'm reading is craig johnson who

does the longmire series who is on television, but the television ones are not the same as the books. another phenomenal character store writer. i do international reading. i've been to bostwana to work on the aids problem. president bush surprised us and put 18 being dollars to fight the aids problem. that's how we do things. but bostwana is one of the places i went to and there's a series of books called the number one ladies' detective agency that's great on bringing the culture of all of africa particularly bostwana. i carry books with me all of the time. that's why i have these. everybody has to have their cell

phone with them. it's real easy to have apps on there. there's a kindle app and on that one right now i'm reading my 60 years on the planes and that's about a guy that was a trader, trapper and indian fighter and his dairy has been written into a book which came out not long ago. fascinating stuff about the west. i carry kindle with me. it fits in my pocket easily. it's easy to read outdoors because it doesn't have the color depth that the other does and on this one i'm reading girl on the train right now. really a strangely written book, totally different style of writing and some people would consider a chick novel but i thought it was in the top-ten reading list. i thought, well, i better read that one too and i have and well i haven't finished it yet, i'm

about a third of the way through it. i also read some technical books that have to do with my job. the reason i read several books at the same time, you can get tired of reading one book one style and keeps the interest going particularly if they're textbook types and one of them that i've been working is dead men ruling that fits in with my budget work because this is about the people that wrote the budget act who are all -- who are all either dead or former senators and there's some problems. i'm trying to redo the budget act right now and there's a lot of help in that. another excellent book that i'm going through and when i read a technical book, i actually try to get the gist from the introduction and try to switch the last chapter to see if they have any good suggestions and if they do, i read the part in

between to see how they got to that point. .. which really doesn't -- shouldn't have a lot of reading but he gave us a reading list of books that didn't have anything to do with business, and had is write down the idea wes got as we did that. the lost science of money is another one i'm reading right now. a very thick book that takes a different approach to the federal reserve and some of the ones that are anti-federal reserve, some that are pro-federal reserve. this is more of the history of

money and actually has in good discussions -- suggestions in the last chapter. i'm in between right now. so, another part of my reading, every night when i finish up, i've got to get my mind off of what i've been doing. if i keep talking budget and working budget or working health or education or working pensions or small business or whatever committee i'm really focused on that evening, if i go to sleep i keep working on it, unless i read something different and that's when i read some of the novels but i always finish up by reading some books that have some religious background. right after 9/11, i got a copy of the koran -- a translation of the koran, and started reading that and i had to see the chaplain because that's really a bloody book, and really concerned me. he said youd in to go back and read the old testament.

the difference between the koran and the bible with the new testament is the new testament is the teachings of jesus, which are recognized by the other great religions and much more peaceful. so i'm reading another translation of the koran now that was given to me by a muslim who said that you'll find this to be a less violent version. it might be, but there's still a lot of violence in it, whether you believe or don't believe. i'm reading biography of billy graham also, and i particularly like the chronological bible. this different booked of the bible with written at different times, and even some pieces of them were written at different times and somebody took and compiled it so that it flows straight through, and you fine out they weren't sent into

babylon six different times. it was parentment primarily once, and when you get to the gospel it's a little shorter than the gospel because there's some repetition in there and they don't repeat the same verse four times it was in the four gospels. so, that's pretty good way to read the bible. and i was also challenges once to read the bible over a short period of time, suggested to read it over three months, and my son and i both took the challenge and did it. you can do it with any bible. just look at the number of pages it's got and you divide it by the number of days in those three months and then read that many pages each day. the advantage of doing that is you're looking at the big picture then instead of the individual verses, which we sometimes get hung up on. so, that's a little bit of what i'm reading. and what i'm doing with my summer.

i make a plane trip to wyoming pretty much every weekend, and of course you have to come back again then to vote and that's a three-book trip. so, get quite a bit done there besides the studying i have to do on the plane. >> booktv wants to know what you're reading this summer. tweet us your answer,@book tv or post it on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. white house coverage continues later today as senator continue kaine, hillary clinton's running meat bill we part of a registration rally at florida a&m university. c-span will cover that at 2:15 eastern, and you can watch it at 2:15 eastern on c-span. in ten minutes we'll return to the conference on aging and wellness and housing options for seniors and later a panel on health sharing for seniors.

live coverage at 1:45 eastern. in the meantime a portion of today's "washington journal itch." >> host: the direct contractorde of the kissinger -- after an extended trip to china looking at the economy there and get something reaction to people in china on what is going on here in the u.s. with the presidential election. how did you wind up doing this tour? what was the motive behind it? >> guest: the american embassy in beijing invited me out for two weeks to go to the west, the northeast, beijing itself and down south to speak with chinese think tanks and general audiences about the american elections. try to explain to them. during the conventions what was going on in the united states and uh-oh americans select their leader. >> host: what was the most common question from the audience you would get at america's presidential election this year? >> guest: what would a clinton presidency mean for thousand and a trump presidency in particular mean for china.as

that is what most othe questions are. >> host: in texts of the reaction to personalities, donald trump and hillary clinton broadly, give us a flavor of what you heard about both of them. >> guest: well, in general, the chinese have a book on secretary clinton and the official view, which is reflected in theth state-run media, is that she takes a hard line on china, and this dates back to 1959 when -- 1995 when he gave a speech in beijing where she sad women's rights are human rights and thes see her as emphasizing human rights and the role of international civil society, and under the communist secretarien has been clamping down on civil society and as a candidate secretary clinton has been fighting back against that. they also see secretary clinton as one of the primary architects of the american rebalance to asia and the official line of china is that is aimed at

encircling and containing china. they find her mow predictable than a president trump might be and they know what her dispositions and know who her advisers on china are and i think in general are comfortable with them. so the brings more predictability. >> host: in terms of her record as secretary of state with china, was it a favorable reaction, positive relationship? >> guest: general from the chinese -- again, official side, no. secretary clinton in 2010, at a very famous meeting in southeast asia, declared for the first time that the united states had core interests in the western pacific.ad the south china sea in particular, and china saw this as insiring countries like vietnam and at the philippines to resist china. so that was a major moment for china. the same meet agent which china's then foreign minister said to the countries of east asia, you have to remember you're small countries and china

is a big country and that's the way it is. a mutualing to the down of the gauntlet. >> host: barely a donald trump speech where he doesn't mention china either in terms of banks or trade. what's the chinese view, unofficial, the people you heard from, on donald trump. >> guest: a range of views, and because i've been speaking with hundreds of people i let them vote. they were very concerned and we would do a show of hands and i found it run 55:00% trump, a 45% clinton. when you unpack that, ask the followup question, the majority of the chinas -- this is -- anecdotal they supported trump because they thought he would be bad for america in ways that would be be good for china. that was the majority of the trump support i discovered. also a group that simply liked the entertainment value of watching the trump campaign from day-to-day, and a more sophisticated read on trump as well and people thought ifso trump, regardless of what he

says, during the election-he says things which are offensive to china and things which are encouraging to china, but the positive critique if she shows and is just a businessman, transactional president whowa wants to negotiate based on interests that china could deal well with a trump presidency of that kind. china is very used to playing hard ball on the negotiating table and could welcome that kind of transactional trump presidency. a range of views. >> host: do you find the chinese knew donald trump as a personality, as either a developer personality or his tv persona? just his brand? was there an aware this. >> guest: they know him from the headlines. they follow the american press very closely, and a lot of the chinese press, when they're reporting on heron domestic politics simply transcribe what is in the main stream media.

>> robert daily is our guest to talk about china's view of the u.s. elections. 202-8001, democrats, 202-748-8000 and independents, 748-8002 and we welcome your cheats. we mentioned -- your tweets.sp we inningsed the donald trump talks a lot another china. we want to play you his comments in a recent speech.our relation with the china sunnies. >> they have no respect for our country and our leadership, and we don't blame them. we don't blame them. we want to put yourselves in that position very soon. you watch. and they'll like us better unanimous they do now. they don't like us. they're building a massive military fortress in the middle of the south china sea that they're not allowed to do. they're doing that and yet they're ripping us economically. we have tremendous power over china. economic power. tremendous.

we don't do anything. >> host: a couple of things there. we have tremendous power over china, economic power, and they will like us better. what is your thought on howl the chinese views statements like that. >> guest: china and the united states have tremendous economic influence on each other through the trade relationship. it's not the case that the united states has a whole lot of very powerful chips we could play to instantly have our way with china that we're holding back. that's not true. a number of the statements, china is building a massive military fortress in the middle of the south china sea. also not true. china is building out islands in the south china sea and put something military asset underh really small locks. it's not a massive military fortress and heron military leaders are all of one mind in saying that in the event of conflict, which we're struggling to avoid, these assets that china is putting in the south china sea would be instantly taken out and also just said that they're not allowed to

build these. that is not the military fortress. that also is not true under international law. there's an issue -- he said they dent respect our leadership and he avoid they don't like us. this is a much more complicated issue. the chinese in general, while increasingly nationalistic, are not anti-american. they're very prochina and they don't like it when they see the united states standing in the way of chinese power, but anybody can tell you this is not an anti-american country and there is considerable worry about what the united states is doing to limit china. that is a form of respect. they respect our leadership across the board? that's more complicated. >> robert daly just back from u.s.a. embassy sponsored tripe to china, talking about the election, we welcome your comments. you lived in china for some period of time. how long.. >> guest: 11 years. >> host: were you teaching or working sunny started as a diplomat in the late '80s and early '90s and was back for

six years in an academic center and has been pack with government businesses and ngoss a. >> host: plenty of callers would like to chime in. we start first with peopleth peter from tampa, florida,ican n republican line. >> thank you for being a guest. appreciate your comments. ot you had to say about hillary clinton was relative to me because she is a very well-known commodity and i think they feel here comfortable with her because they have a history and know what she is going do donald trump is unpredictability is a question mark not only for the chinese but for all the people around the world. i had a little more to say but you just brought one one aspect about donald trump bringing up different things which are blatant lies. i'm a republican and it's almost like i have this abused wife complex. he keeps abusing us and abusing us and abusing us, and after a while you just can't take and it you have had enough. and basically what i'm going to be doing right now is i'm going to be switching and i'm going to vote for hillary clinton because

i just can't take it anymore. he just comes across so -- just 0 so dangerous to me, and i'm 72 years old. and i think about that all the time. that i've never seen anything like that in my lifetime, and that's all i can say, sir. again, i appreciate you being on this program today. >> guest: well, thank you. the mention a range of views in china and some see things that candidate trump saying is dangerous and also see trump -- this came up a number of times in my trip -- as reflecting an intermental trend toward greater populism and strong-man politics, seeing this in vladimir putin and china's leadership, xi jinping, and the elected president of thete philippines, and so a number of questions in china about why do we see a number of countries in the west and the east, turning more inward, more protectionist,

more bombastic and more pop list. trump is seen there as part of that trend. >> host: witness her, california, charles on the independent line. >> caller: good morning. good mr. daly, it seems to me that as a member of the think tank, our relationship with china, which began with nixon opening up china, it seems to me that because of our indebtedness to china, that regardless of what we say, concerning human rights and concerning civil rights anding the rights of the chinese people, it seems to me we're never going to be able to disagree with china politically we're doing damage to them. they may do exactly what they like and we may say what we think about what they do, but it's not going to change anything because it's a matter of economics.

and politically, we all know that the chinese philosophy is based on their ties with communism. as a result, it's the same with north korea. these are political questions that neither hillary clinton nor mr. trump are going to be able to solve because they're not interested in solving them are just interested in making the american public believe they're doing something because of what they say. >> host: several points there, charles. appreciate that. >> guest: i think that the issue of american indead itness to china is often exaggerated and mishard to in the media. often written about that china is america's bunker, as though we go to them on our knees and beg them to bail us out. that's not the case. foreign governments and foreign entities own about 40%, less than half, of america's publicly owned debt.

of that 40% that is foreign unioned, china holds about a fifth. so china owns about eight% of america's publicly owned sovereign debt weapon don't go to them cap in hand and beg for money. they buy american treasury because that is in their interests to do so. that's the best, safe investment, the best place for them to park excess u.s. dollars and this sense it's very much a compliment to the united states. so eight percent of total debt. we don't have to dance to china's tune, and this threat that is dangled that what happens if china sells all of its american holdings. they wouldn't do that because if they were to suddenly sell that eight% of america residents publicly owned debt its value would decline rapidly and china would lose money. they may slowly draw down the amount of debt they hold but there are buyers for it. so this issue is not well understood. it's exaggerated.

they hold eight percent of our debt for their own reasons and even since the financial crisis they have not drawn down because u.s. dollars, u.s. debt, remain the most reliable investment. >> host: that caller raised the issue of human rights and an issue that was most famously brought in front of the chinese by hillary clinton in 1995 in her speech there and used this speech as part of her -- great deal in her current campaign. set the scene for that speech. why did she go to chinain' 1995. >> guest: the was a u.n. conference on women's rights and there were a number of different parts of the conference, and the section on international ngos, advocates for human rights. the chinese were worried about that because you had independent nongovernment actors, and so instead of holding those meetings, which drawl the international activists in downtown beijing, they moved it out to the suburbs, very inconvenient.

media couldn't get there they tried to sideline it and this is where then-first lady said women's rights are part of human rights and made that a major plank of her international policy. interestingly when she came in as secretary of state under president obama, she said, together with the president, that human rights couldn't be the measure of all things and couldn't drive the relationship. there was a move away from human rights as being central to u.s.-china relations early in the obama administration and then they swung back. as a candidate, china has been reminded of clinton's interests. last spring, china, during a major political meet, suddenly disappeared. secretly arrested five young feminist activists who wanted to put sticker's on chinese become buses opposeing sexual harassing; groping on businesses and they disappeared. at the same time the chinese secretary whereas making

statements about women's rights. secretary clinton tweeted that they this was shameless. that made headlines in china and was seen as a direct attack on xi jinping so she is now seen as having -- after her initial advocacy for human rights and then drifting away from it early in the obama administration, now shifting bark toward and it is a leading advocate for the importance of civil society organizations internationally, china's cracking down on nose and this is something that is a red flag. >> host: i-a quick look back for view listeners for the seattle 95 moment. >> if there's one message that echos forth from this conference, left it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights. once and for all. [applause] >> we're going to go ahead and

get started. welcome, everyone, and it is my pleasure to have you all here this afternoon, and thank you for joining the ttm home housing options journey. mona, a former board member of the transition -- was involved in initiating programs and cofounded the ttn home, program of the san francisco bay area chapter that developed a sear of workshops to explore innovate give progressive -- for housing shortages form people 50 plus. they work to build connections and community in their housing journey. please join me in welcoming mona credence. >> thank you. thank you very much. so, welcome to the positive aging conference, and i can't

think of anything that is more important about living positively and aging positively is knowing where you are going to live. and this is -- turns out, strangely enough, this has become a big conundrum. who knew we would have to think about these things now at this stage in our lives. so, what i'm going to take you through a journey that we did in the east bay, near san francisco, on trying to figure out how could we figure out what kind of options there are for different housing in that area. my hope is when you come out of there, you will have gleaned some clarity about your own particular situation, as well as if you are representing a group, you may want to take this program back to your group and develop something there. so this sort of a two-fold goal.

why isn't this -- it's not -- -- aim it. okay, great. this one here? thank you. sorry about that. so, in addition to housing being a crisis, half the people are not going to be able to afford to stay where they are even if they want to. and so the question is, have you been thinking about where and how you're going to live when it's time for you to retire? whatever retirement means nowdays. so, teaching -- how many of you know about the transition network? okay. for those who don't, i'd like to introduce you to susan collins, our executive director, and carol oswald, the chair of the transition network, and to tell

you that this is a national organization for women over 50 who are trying to figure out what their next steps are regardless of the transdiscussion they're in -- transition they're in and ttn home was a program developed in the bay area of san francisco, for thinking about housing. so, we're trying to figure out how we are going to live in the next iteration of our lives. so, we launched and grew this program in 2012. it started with a terrific workshop that was given by chris kennedy, for those who know her, of age 2 age, where she presented a program on housing options. and there were about 50 or 60 women there. where did they come from? so we realized there was a need for this. so we created our program called the bay area senior women's

housing options, which is a mouthful, and we started to explore and figure out what we wanted to do. and we started to design and test this program. so, on your -- in your handouts you'll see a legal-sized sample of documents, and there's an enlargement of it on the back wall, for those who have difficulty reading something so small. the purpose of this was to give our group in the bay area an idea of what is available, what the advantages are to each kind, and what the disadvantages are or the challenges of each kind of housing, and it sort of gave them a jump-off point for thinking about what they want to do. now, this document is useful but when you go back to your area, every community and every city and town is different.

for example, we don't have separate houses in new york city. we have to think in terms of apartment living. so -- but this is just -- this was our guide. and we just kept figuring out and every month, people kept on coming. we couldn't understand where they were coming from, but every month we were getting 40, 50 women in a room, and sometimes men, too. they were welcome, believe it or not. and -- right? and what we did was we just kept trying to figure it out, and -- i just had a little blip -- thank you. so, in 2013, by 2013 we entered into a collaborative relationship with ashby village. how many of you do not know what the village movement is about?

okay. well, the village movement started several years back in beacon hill where a bunch of people said, i am not leaving home until they take me out in a box. i really want to age in place. you have heard that expression. this program, the beacon hill village, became a movement around the country, and there are village movements all over the country. there's a great village in berkeley called ashby village, that is very successful, that we teamed up with. the reason being is that we said to ourselves, wait a minute. there's a lot of people there who are living alone in these huge homes because they've lost their husbands or their wifes or partners, and they're lonely and they're isolated and they need help as they get older, and we have people coming to our group who are -- whose resources are dwindling and they need a place to live.

why don't we start educating the village people that maybe it's a good idea to bring somebody in to live with them. and to share their home with them. so, we partnered with ashby village in 2013, and in 2014 they came to us from the next village in san francisco and invited to us join them then. and then just this year, the ttn chapter in new jersey asked to us come and show them what we were doing so they could apply it in new jersey. so, ttn homes, we see it as a central hub that provides new ways to think about housing issues, because a lot of us are very confused, and a lot of us think about when we start thinking about it, there's so much going on, it's hard to figure it out. so by having a group of women or people who are in the same situation, it allows them to connect with each other, to be

able to talk about the situation, and share and support each other in this uncharted territory, because it is confusing. so, where are you in your process? how many of you know exactly where you are going to be living in your next while? great. one person in this whole room. okay. and those of you who don't know, and even for those who know, what do you need? what do you need to know more about? and what are your must-haves and deal-breakers. so you received a little writing exercise at the beginning. we are not going to talk about that now. want to give that to you to make you think about it. but take that writing exercise and i'd like to give you a few minutes to mark down what you feel are your must-haves and

dealbreakers. what must you -- if you're going to move, what must you have? and what will you not put up with? so, for example, i'm looking for a place, a larger place to live so that i can bring someone in to live with me. that's for me, and when i move -- so i must have a larger place instead of a downsized place, and i want a view. so for me that's a must-have. so take a few minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> okay. so, let's hear what some of your must-haves are. someone like to share? yes. >> um -- [inaudible conversations] >> you want to be near your children. okay. >> i'd like to be near my children. >> that's important. anybody else? >> i'd like to -- sorry -- i'd like to be in a peaceful scenic surrounding. >> low utility costs so solar

pear and other renewable energy sources. >> renewable energy, excellent. >> i want access to the outdoors. a porch. >> you two should meet. >> i a want a well-organized local exercise program and arlington county where i'm from has one of the best in the country, and that's a hard one to find, to duplicate at least. >> great. so you're well-situated. >> yes. >> ability to have a dog and a cat. >> right now some people can't have pets, so that's important to know. so, these are some of the must-haves that we came up with in the area where we were in the bay area, and a lot of you i income can relate to -- i think can relate to these. pet friendly, sunny. yes, you were going to say? >> that's what i was going to say.

>> i want sunny, too. >> warm. >> warm. warm. so, now we're going to see what we used to do in our workshops. so every workshop had this kind of a component. so, for example, we would always have a panel of experts in the workshop. this panel, when with say experts, we weren't talking about experts who would come and sell you something. we're talking about people who were actually living the options. so if we were talking about sharing housing, we would have people coming and speaking about their experience in terms of sharing, or if we were talking about co-housing, we would have people who are living in co-housing, talking about their co-housing experience as opposed to someone coming and selling you the idea of co-housing. and in addition, we always had

brainstorming of some kind to maximize the group. so for example i may be standing occupy here and you think i'm the maven on it but you know just as much from your own experience so we make sure that everybody has a chance to express themselves. another thing we do -- this is really important for building community -- we do what we call deep introductions. in other words, when you good around the room and say who you are, it's not about your resume and it's not about just your name wimp talk about what we like to do. i like to garden. i like to work out. i like to hike. things that we -- that are important to us that gives people in the room an idea of who they're sitting with, because you never know. you might find somebody there in that room who you can connect with. we also always have small group discussions. it's unfortunate we only have an

hour today so we can't do any of this. but i did give you that reflective writing exercise at the beginning, as a sample of what we do, because we found that writing exercises are very important, because it first of all gives people who are introverts the opportunity to see what they're thinking about and it makes them more comfortable speaking out, and it also -- people who are coming to these workshops are very confused about what they want. so this is a way of them getting their thoughts down in a way that is more orderly. and of course, if you feed them, they will come. we always have -- this is also very important for networking. for building communities. there has to be a socializing component to it. so, what are the housing options? there's three basic overarching

themes. one is aging in place. those of you who do not want to leave home. there's aging in community. and there's shared housing. but all of these -- they're interchangeable. they sort of go one with the other. so, for example, if you're aging in place, what do you need to think about? well, obviously, what are we going to do about transportation? as we get older they're going to take away the keys to the car. who is going to pick us up at a colonoscopy. these issues we need to think about we have been doing all the time and don't think about. another thing is how do we do our meals and groceries if we can't drive? and another one is, home safety, of course there are people here who are teaching us about how to adjust our homes, how to

reconfigure our homes for those who want to stay where were so it's safe, and i think there's someone here who does that. no? i thought there was -- yes. okay. could you just say your name and -- >> i don't do it. i just -- >> just say the name of your organization. >> the center for health design. >> the environment for aging conference and -- [inaudible] -- environment as it relates to people as they age. aging in place in the home but also in various other settings, assisted living, long-term living, ccrc, palliative care. >> excellent. and this is something we have to think about. how are we going reconfigure our home if we're planning on staying where we are. or if we're not planning on staying where we are, how are we questioning to reconfigure the home we're moving to if it's not outfitted properly.

are there any other things about aging in place that you would like to add to this? is this just like a brief -- yeah. >> [inaudible] >> right. that's what -- that's why we are co will be britting with the village -- collaborating with the villages because we have people -- people are coming to our group, need places to live, and they no longer can afford to live in nice places because of the craziness, especially in the bay area, and this is one of the ways we're combating the isolation factor. >> so aging in community. pocket neighborhoods. it's an area where people are living, they know each other, they don't necessarily -- they

aren't necessarily best friends but they make sure that they connect. they very often have social events. i remember being at a great party at a cul-de-sac in mountain view, for this -- in other pocket neighborhood, and these people sort of watch out for each other. it's a great way to live. you get to live independently. but you know that there's people around that you can call upon should you need it. another one, of course, is retirement communities. we all know about retirement communities. there are many different ways of living in retirement communities. my issue with retirement communities is that they're expensive in many cases, and they're not very diverse, and they're not intergenerational. so this is something to think about when you're looking at a retirement community. accessory dwelling units. when i first moved to california

i lived in a shed that had been -- they had built a deck around and it an outdoor shower and a toilet and a sink and a bed and a little tiny desk with a little fridge, and it was great. i lived in that until i found a place to live. it's a great way to live when you're -- if you want -- if you're the kind of person who really needs your own space and you don't want to live with people, if you can find a little house on a property behind a big house, it's a great way to live, and then of course you -- if it's not your -- very often family does switches. in other words the children take over the big house and the elders move into the adu. or if it's not a family situation, make good friends with the people who live in the big house. this is an issue that is very complex. and if you are in that category

of needing affordable senior housing where you can't find a place that you can afford, except if your under certain income, it's very difficult. the lists are years long, and i say, you're turning 80 anyway. just get on the list. just get on the list. you'd be prized how quickly it will come to your turn because unfortunately, part of that is people die. and so the housing becomes available again. and then we have co-housing. co-housing is a wonderful opportunity for people to live together, yet own their own place you. see this guy over here? he the person to speak about co-housing. it's a manner of -- my thing just fell down -- a way of

living in your own private home, but you're living in a community where you have shared common spaces such as dining room. i think you eat together fairly often, although you do have your own kitchens in your own homes. you can -- you have meetings. there's a -- and it's run by consensus. so, please, i'm just giving you a very quick overview, but if you want to know about co-housing, he is the man to tell you about it, and it's a wonderful -- a lot of people when they first hear about it, they really warrant it. -- they raley want it. then there's limited equity housing co-ops, co-ops that -- when it's limited equity you can buy into this property at a relatively low price. they're owned by land trusts. and then when it's time to

leave, whether you're moving away or you die, the home gets sold back to the entity. in other words, it's not yours to leave to somebody else. it's for you to live in. it's like owning a share in a corporation. and the corporation is the land trust, but the land trust gets its back. shared housing. well, we all know what shared housing is itch don't have to tell you. but we also halve the shared housing maven here, anna marie, who is going to be doing a workshop right after this one, on shared housing, which i recommend -- i'm certainly going to go to because i think that this is -- as far as i'm concerned, this is the way to go. when we are -- yes. >> [inaudible]

>> cohouseing? >> do you want to talk about that? >> the context you're discussing it here, shared housing is under one roof. sharing in a single home, and co-housing is a neighborhood sharing an extended community. >> thank you. so, those of you who are interesting in finding out more about shared housing, i'm going to give you -- i'm going to say stay here, stay right here, for an -- an anna marie, on your resource page there's a list of books to read and her book seems to be one of the favorites and the "money house, our home" another one about shared housing that is very much appreciated. so, how do we build our

connections? in addition to having our monthly workshops, we have a moderated list serve. we have over 500 people on it. they can post what they want in term what they're looking for. they can post if they have something available. there are housing-related resources and articles and also housing focused support groups because we very often encourage people to make small peer groups to continue to look for -- to help each other move forward in their housing journey. then there's the affordable housing group. we do have a separate group for affordable housing that they're very much focused on that, and it's a very -- because it's so complex and it's so difficult, they sort of hold their feet to the fire in terms of making sure that they get done what needs to be done in terms of affordable

housing. and then we have this ttn home in home is a program that we do quarterly which is great. it happened when we were sort of burning out from the monthly workshops, and because woe couldn't get off the dime because we had all these new people coming and all of these people who kept repeating, and we just couldn't move forward. so we started to think, how do we do this differently? so the ttn home in home we were burning out and one of the women wanted to cancel it. i said we can't cancel it. let's do a home at home. and it was really interesting to see the difference in terms of when people were meeting in someone's home, as opposed to a room like this, how much more got accomplished in terms of making the connections. it was so valuable.

so now we're doing it eve -- every quarter and home in home and it's member who is a member on the tn. you never get -- on the home in home you might get 20 people. so it is really comfortable. and then there's the inner home workshop, which is very valuable. this is not a therapy group but we have a gerontology social worker who comes to the group and leads a workshop that is getting down to figuring out what is it that is preventing me from getting -- from moving forward, because this is the -- we're so much -- thinking about it here but we can't take that step. well, a lot of it is declutterring. you know, when you walk around your house and say how can i think about moving? what am i going to do with all

of this snuff once you figure out what your problem is, what is keeping you from moving ahead, we all know, once we know the answer, it's much easier to take the action. so the inner home workshop is becoming very popular. in addition to the -- i'm having another blip -- i wanted to talk about something else. there was an article in the "washington post" i just found out about on august 15th0. so it's not on your resource list, and i highly recommend it. it's called "solo aging" in the health opinions. section of the "washington post." and it talked about the issues that we need to think about now.

now, the word "community" keeps coming up over and over again. community can be a whole community of people, like we had in -- like we have in berkeley, like the co-housing community, the ttn home community, but it can be a community of maybe two or three that you know that there's a commitment that you're going to watch out for each other. so, here are some of the outcomes we can talk about. so we have an ongoing support group for women who are seeking affordable housing. and some of them have actually signed up, gotten themselves on lists. they make sure that they get to know the people who are running the list. that the people think about them. they keep -- they're in their face. they have -- there's home sharing rentals, which anna marie is going to talk about. that's very viable thing.

and we also have -- see this picture up here. this is a group of women who got up and one of our meetings, somebody -- the woman with the white hair said, i'm interested in buying a place to live in with a group of other women who. who is interested in doing that? they all -- these people stepped forward and they started to talk about it there. and now they are -- some of them are actually live together in a rental and they're waiting for something to come up in the land trust so they can buy into it. and we have people in a co-housing communities and new co-housing community opened up recentfully phoenix, and some of our women went there, and a lot of people relocated to be closer to family. one of the people on my committee finally sold her house and moved to a rental unit

across the street from her children, and she is having such a good time, like when she is on the phone with them and she walks by her window, they can see each other. and her grandchildren wave at her when they see each other on the street, and she is just so happy in that. so, moving to be closer to your family, if you have good relationship with your family, is a wonderful idea. and we have -- some eave haulty found pocket neighborhoods in the berkeley area because they -- these pocket neighborhoods very often form neighborhood associations and it's all word of mouth. the minute they find out a house is going up for sale, they tell their friends, and so they -- it's almost as if they get to choose who moves in. so it's really neat. and one of our people built a rental -- redesigned her home

and created a rental unit in her home, and the need thing is, her daughter was living in brazil, and has just returned to berkeley. doesn't have a place to live. she is now living in the rental unit. she might even be paying rent. so, these are some of the outcomes we have had. now, on your handouts you'll see numbers like 2 and 3 and stuff like that. you should know these numbers were just -- as i was designing this, i was saying, okay, who do i know who has done this? so these are just numbers that as you can see i have little memory lapses. these are numbers and i will tell you out of the 500 lists, people on the list serve, the reality is that there were an additional 47 who were on the list serve who have left because they have resolved their issue. so they don't need it anymore.

they found their place to live. so, that is the whole point of ttn home, to help you think about -- help you solve -- you know, get focused. that's really what it does. it helps you focus on what you want, and when you're focused on it, then you can find it. but when you're not focused, it's very hard to find because then, oh, i want co-housing. oh, no, i want limited -- you know, so, it's really about focus and it's about knowing that you need community. so, i'd be interested to know if any of you have questions you would like to talk about or share. yes. thank you. >> i've been very interesting in the tiny home movement. and i've done a lot of research in that and i know there's places like in portland, and maybe seattle, that are groups

of tiny homes that are together with a central community room and i've been very interested in that. i've talked with some of my friends in rural west virginia, which the price of real estate is really quite affordable in west virginia, and it's close enough to cultural events so that you're not so terribly isolated. the problem, the challenge there is the health care, but what are your ideas about the tiny homes? >> well, i know that a lot of people who have come to our workshops have looked for the tiny -- have expressed that interest, and i think it's great. if you feel comfortable living in a little tiny home, and you are part of a community, i think it's a wonderful thing. and i -- whenever i get anything about tiny homes i always post

it on the lest -- list serve? >> a slight plug. if you want to go to vermont next weekend, on sunday, there's a tiny home festival, one day long so you can look at that. my concern about tiny homes is that i live in vermont, and in the winter you are really isolated by snow. and so i would want people under the same roof. >> different subject entirely i was going to raise my hand for. i found out recently there's a bill in california going through for junior accessory dwelling unit zoning which would allow a person to build a bedroom in their house to rent out. and i think that this is a wave of the future and very exciting.

>> i'm interested to know how this works in an area like new york city. >> ah. this is very interested. i received a call last week from one of the women in our organization who said, know you have been work only this out west and she wanted to meet me for lunch, and i had just returned to new york after being away for a couple of years, when i left new york i wasn't thinking about this issue at all. and so i said, to be honest with you, don't know what is available in new york. although i do know that it's very different from where i was. so whatever i was doing won't work here, except that i know one thing. we need community. i know two things. we are dealing with apartment living. how do we do that? if -- so then i think there's -- for me, i thought of three things.

there's the naturally occurring retirement communities or norcs, where you're in a building and everybody ages at more or less the same time, and so you've got your retirement discommunity you're in your apartment. or i said why not get a loft? get a loft, rent a loft, buy a loft that has two or three or four bedrooms. there's another way of doing it. right? or of course if you have the resources and your community owns apartments why not sell and buy apartments in the same building. and then we talked about this, and i said, you know, i think what we need to do is we need to create a little think tank. we need to figure this out for our area. we need to think about --

because it's one thing to say, when you're in college and you're looking for a roommate, you get thrown together with whomever the school matches you with and if you're luckity works, and if you're not lucky it doesn't, right? but here you're not going to find a home mate just by lottery. it's not what you do. this is like getting married. there's serious things to think about. so, first, i think we need to think about how to build communities, and how to find the people that would work for us. so that is what i -- my feeling is about that. and that article i told you about that is not on my resource list, "solo aging" i encourage you -- i think i have a copy of it here. it's in the health and science section by sheila sullivan, and it's called "aging solo." okay, i don't have a child to help me but i do have a plan.

i think that's great. and i sent this out to my list serve and also i also run programs for women over 70, and i also sent it out to them. you would be amazed at the responses i'm getting. that this article has really touched a nerve, and it's for people who have children as well. because not everybody can rely on their children. their children could be 3,000 miles away. so i highly recommend this article. i really think this issue about positive aging aging and communs the key. get together with some people that have the same desires, and see what you can work out. that's my thought about it. >> yes. >> i'm sorry. >> i think the other value that applies anywhere where you live is that you started with, was the value in the exercise and

the questions you asked, because so many times when you ask people, well, what is your goal housing-wise, they don't have a clue. and so a lot of -- sometimes the work is how do you narrow down what they really want? and putting it into the must-haves and the challenges, sometimes is easier way for people to -- oh, okay,... >> that we've done. remember i said that we couldn't get off the dime on the monthly meetings? we realized what we need to do is we need to do three months. in other words, if you sign up