How Do We Get Them to Vote and Participate More? 

Jeremi sits down with Pam Bixby to discuss the issue of getting young people to the polls.

Zachary recites his poem entitled, "If Not For Tomorrow."

Pam Bixby is a communications professional whose current job as the Director of External Relations for the National Trauma Institute pays the bills. A passionate volunteer and nonprofit leader, she has served on numerous nonprofit boards in Austin and currently co-chairs the First Vote! program for the Austin Area League of Women Voters. First Vote! is a collaborative effort among the League, the Travis County Tax Office Voter Registration Division and Travis County Clerk Elections Division to educate and register eligible high school students. The League of Women Voters offers extensive information on elections, candidates, and issues at vote411.org.

What are the problems with the current system and how can we reform it?

Jeremi talks prison reform with Michele Deitch and how the current system can be improved.

Zachary kicks off the episode with his poem, "Roll Me Away."

Michele Deitch is an attorney with more than 30 years of experience working on criminal justice and juvenile justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections administrators, judges and advocates. An award-winning teacher and Soros Senior Justice Fellow, she holds a joint appointment as a senior lecturer at the LBJ School and the School of Law at The University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of specialty include independent oversight of correctional institutions, prison conditions, the management of youths in custody, and juveniles in the adult criminal justice system. She co-chairs the American Bar Association's Subcommittee on Correctional Oversight and helped draft the ABA's Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners. She has written numerous articles about correctional oversight, including a 50-state inventory of prison oversight models, as well as many reports on juvenile justice that have received national attention. Her TEDx talk "Why are we trying kids as adults?" was named a TEDx Editor's Pick in January 2015. Prior to entering academia, she served as a federal court-appointed monitor of conditions in the Texas prison system, as the policy director of Texas' sentencing commission, as general counsel to the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee and as an independent consultant to justice system agencies across the country.

What are the challenges for prospective politicians in 2019? What are the opportunities for change?

This episode reprises many of the voices on our podcast from 2018 to emphasize the vibrance, diversity, resilience, and idealism of our democracy today. We are on the cusp of a moment of democratic renewal, and our podcast guests exemplify the bright future of reform in front of us. As Franklin Roosevelt advised in a prior moment of democratic renewal, our young citizens are writing the new chapters of democracy. Please listen and give them your support.

Voices featured in this episode:

Sophie Wysocki and Meena Anderson, Ep. 4 - Young citizens promoting democracy

Dr. Peniel Joseph, Ep. 6 - Race and Democracy in America Today

Augusta Dell'Omo and Chris Rose, Ep. 7 - Gender and Democracy

Sean Hassan, Ep. 9 - Religion and Democracy: How are we making our democracy more open and inclusive for different faiths?

Paul Stekler, Ep. 11 - The Media and Politics

Dr. Ruth Wasem, Ep. 12 - Congress and Democracy

Juliet Suarez and first time voter Jillian B. Smith, Ep. 13 - New and Future Voters: Why does this election matter so much?

Bryan Jones and Dr. James Henson, Ep. 14 - What did the 2018 elections mean?

Dr. Michael B. Stoff, Ep. 15 - The 100th Anniversary of the First World War

This week Jeremi sits down in conversation with Ann Howard, Executive Director of Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) to discuss homelessness. How do we understand the problem? What can we do as a society?

Zachary Suri's original poem, "Trees, Sleep and a Cold Christmas" sets the scene.

Ann Howard is the first Executive Director of the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition in Austin, Travis County; she has held the position since October of 2011. After 1 year of Ann's leadership, the Texas Homeless Network named ECHO as the Outstanding Coalition in 2012.  Since then, ECHO has partnered with CSH to examine feasibility for Pay for Success and plans to advance to the deal structuring stage, acquired 3 HUD HMIS grants and 1 COC Planning Grant; been included in a $3.5 million state grant, and a $3M VA SSVF grant and has increased the ECHO budget from $100,000 to over $1,000,000.  ECHO participates with the CAN Indicator Dashboard Steering Committee, the PSH Finance Leadership Committee, Travis County Criminal Justice Planning Council, the Mayor's Task Force on the Innovation Zone, the Psychiatric Stakeholders Committee and the Housing Works Board of Directors as an advisory member. Ann was an active leader in the city-wide campaign to pass the recent $65M Affordable Housing Bonds and City resolutions to dedicate proceeds from a downtown Austin Density program to support housing first PSH and to set a new goal to build 400 units of PSH with at least 200 of them being housing first and to increase funding for health and human services.

Ann is an alumnus of the University of Texas, with a JD from the School of Law, and an MPA from the LBJ School of Public Affairs.  Ann has been married to John Howard, her law school classmate for 26 years and together they have been active in Austin public schools, youth sports, scouts, The University of Texas and Baylor University and the Lutheran Church.  These activities assist Ann in her work to build collaboration and partnerships.

Website: www.austinecho.org

Volunteer sign up for the annual census of the people experiencing homelessness