I Was a Latch Key Kid and I Loved School, Like, Loved It

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I know you describe yourself as sort of like pretty much a latch key kid too. From time you're about eight were eght ye, it was you pretty much. As an only child, and, like, i think, just who i am, kind of am fundamentally as a person, i was very independent. When i came home after school as a kid, i took the bus home, and i came home and let myself in, and did whatever chores i was supposed to do, and did my home work. I had this really amazing community that i kind of n and, like these groups of people who i kind of crossed over kind of traditional school boundaries i'm with.

Mia Birdsong is a pathfinder, community curator, and storyteller who engages the leadership and wisdom of people experiencing injustice to chart new visions of American life. She has a gift for making visible and leveraging the brilliance of everyday people so that our collective gifts reach larger spheres of influence, cultural and political change, and create wellbeing for everyone. In her book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, (https://amzn.to/30WJWX9) Birdsong examines community life, reimagines family and chosen family, and points us toward the promise of our collective vitality. Previously, as founding Co-Director of Family Story, Mia lifted up a new national story about what makes a good family. As Vice President of the Family Independence Initiative, she leveraged the power of data and stories to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives. Her public conversations, like the New America series centering Black women as agents of change and her 2015 TED talk “The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True,” draw targeted attention to the stories of people who are finding their way into leadership roles despite myriad barriers, while also highlighting the vibrant terrain of all marginalized people who are leading on the ground and solving for tomorrow.

Birdsong is a Senior Fellow of the Economic Security Project. She was an inaugural Ascend Fellow and faculty member with The Aspen Institute, a New American California Fellow, and Advocate-in-Residence with the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. Mia lives and dreams big on the occupied land of the Chochenyo Ohlone people (AKA Oakland, CA).

You can find Mia Birdsong at:

Website : http://www.miabirdsong.com/

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/miabirdsong/

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