On May 21st, Stephen Menendian presented the book Belonging Without Othering to the Berkeley Rotary Club. Download a copy of his slides here.

Equity-centered data is the foundation for creating a more inclusive and just society, ensuring that data collection, analysis, and decision-making processes include the needs of historically marginalized groups when setting goals for strong and inclusive communities.

President Donald Trump on April 23 issued an executive order misleadingly entitled “ Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy .” This order announces that it is now “the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact...

Co-founder of Conscious Community Connectors, Fatima Elkott shares how OBI's recent North American Equity Data convening has impacted them. This is an excerpt of Elkott's first-person narrative which was initially published in full on May 7 here. I...

Stephen Menendian presented at the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California annual fair housing conference on April 23, 2024 as a keynote speaker. He presented on recent racial demographic data, patterns of racial residential segregation, and...

Why do some political leaders thrive on anti-corruption rhetoric, even when accused of corruption themselves? In her latest Connecting the Dots piece, Míriam Juan-Torres, Head of Research at the Democracy & Belonging Forum, explores how authoritarian...

On April 16, Journalist Shereen Marisol Meraji sat down with renowned scholar john a. powell to discuss his new book, The Power of Bridging, which lays out a framework for bringing people together across deep divides. They dove into how “bridging”...

On April 15, john powell and Stephen Menendian sat down with interim Dean of Social Work Susan Stone to discuss their book, Belonging Without Othering at the UC Berkeley School of Social Work. Transcript Susan Stone: As you might know, social work is...

On April 11th, Assistant Director Stephen Menendian sat on a panel at the Austin Housing Works Regional Affordable Housing conference. His presentation covered the problem of municipal fragmentation as undermining regionalism.

Stephen presented at the Housing Works Austin Summit on Housing and Regional Affordability on April 11th, 2025. Stephen was on a panel that discussed the need for regional approaches and the costs and problems of continued municipal fragmentation...

The calluses and scars on Shamichael Hallman’s hands serve as lasting reminders of the frigid Alabama winters he spent as a 20-year-old logger, cutting and bundling 20-foot cedar logs in a Birmingham lumber yard—timber destined to build homes. “I’d...

How can the contaminated lands that dot urban neighborhoods and rural lands across the country and the world, often for years or decades, be cleaned up and put to reuse in ways that ensure environmental health, social equity, and thriving local...

We hosted the second installment of our Arab Women & Feminist Visions for Equity and Belonging webinar series on Tuesday, April 8, with speakers from Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the Western Sahara sharing their experiences related to the theme of...

Watch the explainer video and enroll in the free course now! Targeted Universalism is a framework that goes beyond inclusion in existing structures that serve only some of us. Instead, it invites everyone to roll up their sleeves and co-create new structures designed to serve all of us.