What it's like to walk a mile in another person's shoes isn't always easy to imagine, but one nonprofit group in Indiana is doing what it can to help broaden people's horizons in Lake County.

The Legacy Foundation has been engaging the community with an old-fashioned form of shared experience: the book talk. Over the course of 2021, the "Conscious Conversations" program brought monthly public book discussions to northwest Indiana. Each month, a different book was selected.

Maranda Engquist, marketing and communications manager for the Legacy Foundation, said the goal is to raise awareness about inequity in the community.

"All of the books focused on Black America, and really helped individuals identify some racial injustices within our own communities," Engquist explained. "The whole goal was really to utilize these stories as a guide to work towards a more equitable and inclusive Lake County, Indiana."

Engquist noted if you would like to start your own discussion group, resources are available, including free copies of selected books. The Conscious Conversations discussion guides and related questions are on the Legacy Foundation's website.

While some might see book clubs as relics of the past, Engquist pointed out the Conscious Conversations program proved to be so popular, other groups sprung up around the selections to host their own talks.

"We also had partner sites," Engquist emphasized. "We had professors at local universities, we had some of our local libraries, we had individuals that were very interested in this, and they would host their own conversations, their own monthly book club. So, in total we had about 100 conversations throughout the entire year."

In addition to books, some months included short films or documentaries for discussion. As the community came together for the discussions, Engquist added many came to learn from the works, while others shared their own experiences with lack of inclusion.

"So, it was very interesting to see and hear about one book from both perspectives," Engquist observed. "Of people coming in for the education piece, but then also others then wanting to just utilize the space to talk about what they experience."

Support for this reporting was provided by The Legacy Foundation.


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The five largest cities in Texas are spending far more money on criminal justice than on community services, according to a new study.

The Social Movement Support Lab data showed money spent on police departments, court systems, and corrections departments in Texas' five largest cities was much higher than the amounts spent on such services as affordable housing, parks and recreation, and mental health programs.

Christopher Rivera, criminal injustice outreach coordinator for the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the state has one of the world's highest incarceration rates, even as people need community services, like housing, more than ever.

"Especially now, since there's so many people facing eviction," Rivera pointed out. "I think that's why people are so appalled that we notice that there's so much money being taken away from actually keeping communities safe, and put into systems that criminalize us and penalize everyday people."

The study found Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin all spend more on police than community supports, and it is especially true for Fort Worth, which is spending six times more; about $1,300 per household on law enforcement, compared to $200 per household for community care. Many police departments cite increased crime during the pandemic as a reason they need more money.

In 2022, Houston spent $1 billion on what the study refers to as "mass criminalization," compared with just $213 million on community care.

Rivera, who monitors budgets in the Houston area, noted while crime is often reduced when people have access to affordable housing, Texas cities are not responding.

"Texas has always had a mass incarceration problem," Rivera pointed out. "I just know locally, the last 10 years we see that police budgets have gone up, but yet services for like housing, public libraries or even health care have gone down."

In 2021, as Austin appeared poised to reduce some police spending, the Texas Legislature passed a law effectively barring cities from doing so. The city sent more than $130 million back to the police department.

Colorado's Spanish-speaking communities can now access comprehensive pricing information for health-care services through a new Spanish portal in the Shop For Care tool developed by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care.

Cari Frank, vice president for communications for Center for Improving Value in Health Care, said the tool is a game-changer, and has saved consumers thousands of dollars in medical bills, because it allows anyone to see the true costs of medical procedures across all of the state's hospitals and other care facilities.

"This tool actually enables people who maybe have high copays to be able to say, 'OK, if I need a colonoscopy, or I'm having a baby, I can actually use this tool to figure out where I can get the best quality of care at the lowest price,'" she said.

Creating a tool that Spanish-speaking Coloradans could access has been a top priority for the center. Frank said it works to improve health equity. More than half of Colorado Latinos speak Spanish and it is the sole language spoken by one in ten Coloradans, according to the Latino Leadership Institute. The Spanish and English versions can be accessed at the Center's website: 'civhc.org.'

Shop For Care also has been used by health-care providers to see how their prices compare, and to help patients without health insurance find lower-priced options. Frank said some medical procedures can cost as much as $60,000 more at one facility versus another. When consumers are better informed about their choices, she said they can be a significant driver in lowering health-care costs.

"And if a consumer makes a choice to go to the lower-cost facility that has just as great quality, then we're actually lowering the overall cost of health care, which reduces premiums for all of us," she said.

Price is not the only important factor to consider when choosing a health-care facility, so the tool enables consumers to compare health-care quality and patient experience at many facilities. In addition to the Spanish addition, Shop For Care has been improved to make the tool more mobile friendly, and can now be accessed using multiple devices.

Colorado's low-income workers and communities of color along the Front Range said they face daily environmental threats, including poor air and water quality, according to a new report released by 9to5 Colorado and the Colorado Fiscal Institute.

Hannah Recht, senior organizer for 9to5 Colorado, noted sources of air and water pollution including highways, refineries and coal-fired power plants, have been zoned for and installed where low-income and communities of color call home for decades.

"And so we see higher amounts of pollution in those areas," Recht explained. "Both in terms of air pollution and difficulty breathing, but also polluted water."

She pointed to the City of Denver's move to replace old lead water pipes, which includes providing water filters to affected neighborhoods until the work is done, as one example of a known threat being tackled head on.

But Recht pointed out many of the 333 residents surveyed in 85 ZIP codes across the Front Range have been told by officials drinking water is safe, even though their water smells bad, is brown or cloudy, and leaves their skin feeling itchy.

Many respondents said they have experienced respiratory problems and breathing difficulties due to air pollution, from nearby industry and recent wildfires. Addressing climate justice is a big part of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and Recht noted the report's recommendations include centering investments in communities disproportionately impacted.

"We will need to be transitioning away from oil and gas and coal," Recht asserted. "What that provides is actually an opportunity to be creating new types of jobs, good-paying jobs, union jobs, to be able to bring everyone along in this transition."

Recht stressed the main obstacle to addressing decadeslong climate injustices, and the root causes of climate change, continues to be the undue influence of industry on policies. She added the technological solutions are known, but what is lacking is the political will to make bold steps to address climate change in ways to benefit almost everyone.

"It may jeopardize the ability of a few large corporations to make billions of dollars," Recht remarked. "But it has the opportunity for more people to be able to live well, to be able to live sustainable, healthy lives."