As a longtime resident of Oakland, California, I am worried about unhoused people in my beloved city. The Bay Area is becoming a more and more unaffordable place to live, and too many people, too many families and kids, are living on the street.

For this first newsletter, I wanted to dig deeper into this idea of “mindset” as a practice. I read that: “the failure rate for New Year's resolutions is said to be about 80 percent, and most lose their resolve by mid-February.” That made me think that maybe what we need for a new year is not just new goals but a new mindset.

Featured article on Nasqad:

Bilen Mesfin Packwood, the Founder and CEO of Change Consulting, is dedicated to advancing racial justice and social change through strategic communications. Established in 2009, Change Consulting has emerged as a vital force in supporting change makers to amplify their voices and drive transformative action.

I started Change Consulting in February 2009; at the time, I was a solo consultant working at my kitchen table and, more occasionally than not, at many coffee shops around Oakland and San Francisco. My mantra was that all I needed was my laptop, and I could make it do what it do. From its inception, Change (team of one) got to work on all sorts of exciting projects to address issues impacting Black communities and communities of color.