From The Star Tribune: 

"For 73 years, St. Pascal school has operated in St. Paul — now the last remaining Catholic grade school on the East Side, where many used to send their graduates off to high school in crowded yellow buses or in cars with tape decks blasting.

Still, its enrollment has fallen, and there have been worries about St. Pascal's future.

But as of this month, the school has new life — thanks to a consortium of schools tailored to urban families in need. St. Pascal is joining Ascension Catholic Academy, a Minneapolis-based group that has provided centralized leadership and other supports to three other Twin Cities Catholic schools since 2016."

Read more. 

From Pioneer Press: 

"Early in the morning in November 2019, Inna Collier Paske, principal of St. Pascal Regional School, had a vision. “God talked to me at that time. He asked me why I work at St. Pascal, and I said it’s because I want to share my faith,” she said.

Her school’s enrollment was dropping fast, and so was financial support from parishioners.

School officials came up with four pillars for the East Side school to live by: “Believe, Learn, Love and Connect.” Students posted strong test scores, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

And earlier this month, the school was welcomed into a consortium that should secure St. Pascal’s future at a time when many Catholic schools have been forced to close.

The consortium, Ascension Catholic Academy, was created in 2016 with major support from the GHR Foundation, founded by commercial real estate developer Gerald Rauenhorst and his wife, Henrietta. The pair, in life and in death, have applied much of their philanthropy to supporting Catholic education.

The foundation, now run by their daughter, Amy Goldman, sought in 2015 to establish a new model for funding Catholic schools."

Read more. 

From the World Economic Forum:

• Tens of organizations joined the Partnering for Racial Justice in Business initiative helmed by the World Economic Forum following the tragic murder of George Floyd, 25 May 2020.
• Businesses play a key part in achieving racial equity through inward retrospection, collective actions with communities, government and civil society and by listening to those at the sharp end of harms.
• Organizations must recognize the systemic nature of racial inequity and where reforms need to take place for meaningful change to occur.

Two years ago, this 25 May, the murder of George Floyd – an unarmed Black man killed by a police officer in Minneapolis – sparked a global reckoning and movement for racial justice in multiple sectors, including business. More than 60 organizations across 13 industries with more than 5.5 million employees worldwide have since committed to building more equitable and just workplaces as part of the Partnering for Racial Justice in Business initiative – a global coalition led by the World Economic Forum. Now, keeping momentum needs action amid other priorities, such as COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, vying for our attention.

Rewiring an unequal society is a herculean task, however, as the marginalization and discrimination of people of colour is a deeply systemic challenge that white-dominated culture has upheld for centuries. We can, however, draw inspiration from signatories of the Partnering for Racial Justice in Business initiative. They are exploring new ways to improve racial and ethnic inclusivity inside and outside of workplaces. Their work highlights three factors other businesses should consider.

How businesses can achieve racial equity

1. Look within first

The quest for racial equity and social justice is not a zero-sum game but a story of all of our humanity. Everyone has a part in bringing about change and for businesses and their staff, this must start with the difficult practice of introspection and honesty before they can exact outward change. Such inward-looking could take place through a racial equity audit.

Several Fortune 500 and S&P 200 companies, including JP Morgan Chase and the Citibank Group, have engaged independent third parties to conduct internal racial equity audits to diagnose the problem before they treat it and to ensure that what they are saying about racial equity aligns with what they are doing.

“What gets measured gets done,” says Buks Akinseye, Deputy Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer with over 174,000 employees in 32 countries. “You can entrench the power of inclusion when you measure diversity.”

Ingka Group launched a voluntary and anonymous diversity and inclusion survey to gather data and set the baseline for diverse representation, identifying differences in workplace experiences and measuring the progress made. In the EU, this exercise is complicated because definitions of racialized groups are inconsistent across the bloc, while EU privacy laws can be a barrier to obtaining data. This complexity highlights the systemic nature of injustice and inequality and that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, a reality Akinseye says the Ingka Group has to approach with humility, recognizing a nuanced and collective approach is needed for progress.

2. Recognize shared responsibility

Introspection is fundamental to changing hearts and minds and thus holding conscious conversations on race and racism. However, such consciousness is only the beginning and organizations and individuals must work with others for a wider impact.

PepsiCo, a company recognized as a diversity leader since the 1940s, also emphasizes the power of partnerships in advancing equity. According to Tina Bigalke, PepsiCo’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, the corporation has doubled down on efforts to address systemic barriers to racial equity through a holistic approach and create opportunities for communities of colour. It has set up, for example, a multicultural business unit focused on business and equity development and launched a racial equality journey initiative with specific commitments and funding across people, business and community.

“We recognize that PepsiCo cannot move the needle of racial equity alone. To move from commitment to action, we need everyone to join in across industry, working with our peers, working with civil society, working with communities,” says Bigalke.

She explains that when it comes to their business pillar, they have partnered with organizations, such as the National Urban League, UNIDOS and other community organizations to support BIPOC-owned businesses in the United States more effectively. “While we can use our scale and our influence, these organizations are best placed to help us understand and identify who needs that support.”

To move from commitment to action, we need everyone to join in across industry, working with our peers, working with civil society, working with communities.

—Tina Bigalke, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, PepsiCo

3. Listen to those at the sharp end of harms

PepsiCo’s approach also demonstrates the importance of listening to communities businesses serve to understand better how systemic barriers thwart racial equity. By consciously engaging those historically marginalized and underserved, new and transformative solutions emerge that often benefit everyone, including the organization.

This same conviction underpins the work of Mayo Clinic, which exercises its influence to address health disparities, eliminate racism and advance equity and inclusion on its campuses by reaching out to its patients, staff, learners and communities. According to Dr. Anjali Bhagra, Professor of Medicine, Office of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, Mayo Clinic, efforts include:

- Investment in health disparities research.

- A clinic for transgender and intersex patients.

- Improvement in rates of colorectal screening and diabetes control in minority populations.

- A diversity curricula across schools in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine for better cultural competence and representation in the next generation of health care workers.

“Within the workplace itself, one of our key challenges is hearing diverse voices: Employees from diverse backgrounds and lives don’t always see or hear their voices in diversity, equity, and inclusion activities. We need to work to help people identify themselves in programming that may be perceived to be focused on certain groups,” says Dr. Bhagra.

Businesses are key to the solution

The work of Mayo Clinic, PepsiCo and Ingka Group are just three examples of what is possible when a business approaches the challenge of racial equity with intention and innovation. Businesses on their own cannot solve racial inequity but they can be a significant force for change and key to the solution, acting as change agents within communities and pursuing joint actions with government and civil society to strengthen systemic-level reforms.

Eradicating racism needs an all-hands approach and businesses’ role is to deliver beyond pledges and promises through collective action. Industry leaders are already Partnering for Racial Justice in Business – join them on this shared journey.
​

Written byKimberly Bennett, Lead, Racial Justice in Business, World Economic Forum
Amy Goldman, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, GHR Foundation

From The Catholic Spirit:

"Founded in 1993 out of five Minneapolis Catholic schools — Holy Name, Holy Rosary, Incarnation, St. Albert the Great and St. Stephen — Risen Christ is best known for its immersion program. With the school’s “50/50 model,” students receive 50% of their instruction in English each day and 50% in Spanish. Every student receives daily instruction in English and Spanish literacy. Grade-level teaching teams include one teacher fluent in English and one fluent in Spanish.

The effort began with the fall 2014 kindergarten class, and one grade has been added each year. Today, only eighth-graders did not start under the immersion program.

That model attracted Sonia Rosas, 28, of Minneapolis, and her husband, Jose, to Risen Christ. They have a 10-year-old daughter in third grade, and a 6-year-old daughter in kindergarten. In choosing the school, Sonia Rosas said it was important that students learn in Spanish and English, that it is a Catholic school, and she heard that people at the school “are very supportive with families and have a deep understanding (of) the culture and the language.”"

Read more. 

C2N Diagnostics’ Alzheimer's blood test was introduced into the clinic in October of 2020, a breakthrough healthcare innovation for patients, advocates, and physicians who have long awaited an easy to administer test that can help them better understand Alzheimer’s disease. C2N developed this groundbreaking test based upon longtime GHR partner Dr. Randall Bateman’s initial discovery of how to measure amyloid proteins in blood, validating its results in a clinical trial of 686 patients. 

From C2N Diagnostics: 

"C2N Diagnostics today announced its latest innovative offering for enhancing care in brain health: a high-resolution mass spectrometry-based plasma tau multi-analyte assay (p-tau MAA) for Research Use Only (RUO). 

This assay uses a small sample of blood to precisely and simultaneously measure different phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated forms of the tau protein, including forms with phosphorylation at the tau217 and tau181 sites. The assay draws upon prior discoveries by medical researchers that complex interactions among abnormal tau and beta-amyloid proteins and several other factors play a vital role in Alzheimer’s-related brain changes."

​Read more. 

From the NIH National Institute on Aging:

"As we mark the 10-year anniversary of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which arose from the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA), it’s striking to pause for a moment and consider how far we have come. Thanks to increased congressional funding, NIH spending on Alzheimer’s and related dementias research advanced nearly 4.5-fold between fiscal years 2015 and 2020, reaching $2.87 billion. This momentum has enabled NIA-funded science to take significant strides forward.

NIA small business innovation research funding helped validate and commercialize the PrecivityAD™ test, a more affordable and less invasive alternative to traditional Alzheimer’s tests like spinal taps or brain scans. This blood biomarker-based test is now widely available to doctors and researchers across the United States."

​Read more.

From the National Institute on Aging at NIH:
​
Scientists have demonstrated that a new blood test can accurately predict the presence of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain, according to a new study funded in part by NIA. Published in Neurology, the study analyzed the ability of a blood test to predict the presence of Alzheimer’s disease-associated protein beta-amyloid in the brain. The new blood test, which performs comparably to existing brain scan- or spinal tap-based tests, could lower costs and expand the availability of diagnostic studies for Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more.

.From USA Today:

• New blood tests could offer easier way to detect signs of the disease in older adults with memory issues
• The tests may be helpful in identifying subjects for clinical trials or to screen for treatment.
• Alzheimer’s disease afflicts an estimated 6.5 million Americans.

As pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, other researchers are focusing on a more elemental question.

How can you tell whether a family member or loved one has Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia?

Read more.

In 2022, 40 sisters in Zambia, 17 in Uganda and 27 in Kenya will graduate, joining a growing cadre of sisters with degrees in social work or allied fields. They have studied diligently, worked hard, and pursued their training during a pandemic. They are already using their new knowledge and skills in caring for children and their families.   

These sister scholars are the backbone of Catholic Care for Children, a sister-led, charism-driven movement to ensure children grow up in safe, nurturing families.  With growing appreciation for the importance of family for a child’s wellbeing and the concomitant risks of institutional care, they are leading efforts to transition from over-reliance on institutions toward family- and community-based models of care for children.  In leading the transition, they are using their newly accrued skills to help strengthen families and ensure children can grow up in families or family-like environments.   

GHR produced this summary encapsulating the scale and impact of Catholic sisters in care, along with accounts of what their work has meant to them.

Read the summary here.