“You are bigger than your circumstances. Walk into a prison and you will encounter humans”

Richard Miller and Antoinette Montague Richard Miller, a classical Brazilian jazz guitarist, and Master Teacher for MOTI says, "the criminal justice systems needs serious transformation." Richard says he has a background to serve people. He grew up Catholic and served in his Church as a Choir Director. Richard had a calling to teach; with an...

The Transformative Power of Music

Music on the Inside (MOTI)  brings the transformative power of music and hope to incarcerated youth and adults. Its founder, Alina Bloomgarden started MOTI to provide human connection and hope to those reentering society at a challenging and vulnerable time of their lives. As a music lover and the founding producer of  Jazz at Lincoln...

Jewish and Arab Israeli Partners Build an Educational School for Refugees in Lesbos

The International School of Peace (ISOP) is located on the island of Lesbos, Greece. It was founded two years ago by two groups of educators, one Arab - the Ajial Movement, and one Jewish - the Hashomer Hatzair Life Movement. At that time, Greece had thousands of refugees crossing each day by sea from Turkey....

Cultural Diplomacy Through Dance

Sean Scantlebury is a dance teacher at Battery Dance. When Sean was 4 years old, his family moved from Barbados to Brooklyn, where he lived in a poor neighborhood surrounded by gangs, drugs and gun shots. At the age of 8, he was invited to study at the New York City Public School for Dance....

Education for a World on the Move

Veronica Boix-Mansilla is the Director of Research at Re-imagining Migration and Senior Principal Investigator at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero, where she has worked on educating for global competence for more than a decade. She asks: How do we prepare our children and ourselves for a world of increased migration and globalization?...

How to help a Community heal

Chief Melvin Russell of the Baltimore Police Department first met Gary LeBlanc of Mercy Chefs during the civil uprising in 2015, following the death of Freddy Gray. Gary parked one of his food trucks in front of Police Headquarters and promptly prepared and served 4,000 meals a day until the crisis abated.  Their relationship blossomed...