Let’s Talk SDMNEWS wants to encourages Black San Diegans to take this time to talk to each other 5 Habits of Highly Effective Communicators
Recently some new science studies have backed up their claims and I feel it makes for a very compelling case to overhaul my own communication efforts and maybe it’s some inspiration for you too!
Have you ever walked away from talking with someone that you’ve just met and thought to yourself “Wow, this was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had!”? I’ve recently had one of those and at first I quite selfishly concluded “Wow, I’m a great communicator”. But then I realized, hang on a second, I think this other person was the reason I felt so good about this talk, how did he do that?
Let’s dig in: 1. They listen first – then focus on being Active and Constructive
I started to think about a few of the things this person did, that made me feel so comfortable and open to speak with him. In usual Buffer blog manner, I thought of finding some real science to back up some of the simple habits this newly found friend had so ingrained when talking with me. So what I’ve come up with are 5 of the most effective habits famous communicators have used for hundreds of years.
The word conversation generally brings to mind talking—at least for me. However, if you’ve ever seen two people trying to talk to each other at the same time, you’ll know that listening is just as important. In fact, listening is half of a successful conversation—you take turns to talk, and everyone feels heard. This is great communication. You might have heard of active listening before. It’s something we often get confused with passive, silent listening. Active listening, in fact, means taking part in the conversation and working on the rapport between you and your partner. It’s made up of three parts: paraphrasing, inquiry and acknowledgement. Continued on pg.8
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The San Diego Monitor
Entrepreneurship is Key to Building Wealth for Black Families
Reinvesting in Atlanta’s African-American entrepreneurs can serve as a pathway to building community wealth, according to a new report from Prosperity Now, a nonprofit dedicated to building wealth for those in need. Advancing Collective Prosperity Through Entrepreneurship in Atlanta outlines strategies for supporting AfricanAmerican business owners and explains how this work can have a far-reaching impact. “African American-owned businesses are more likely to hire employees of color. They give back to their communities through donations of time, money and services,” write the report's authors. “And, Black entrepreneurs can play key leadership and mentorship roles that invite other workers of color into the world of selfemployment and business ownership.” The report, which utilizes data disaggregated by race and ethnicity, also describes the harsh economic realities facing the city’s black families. It reveals that African-American families in Atlanta are almost three times as likely as their white counterparts to live in “liquid asset poverty,” a finance state defined as insufficient savings to cover three months of poverty-level expenses. The city’s African-American workers are also nearly five times likelier than white workers to be unemployed, and the average black-owned business in Atlanta is valued at over 11 times less than the average white-owned business, according to the report.
In 2017, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site and The Kendeda Fund launched a collaborative comprised of professionals from community-based organizations, public agencies and other Atlanta institutions. With facilitation by Prosperity Now, the group identified ways of connecting African-American entrepreneurs with capital, technical assistance and economic development opportunities. These members also set an ambitious goal: Support 1,000 African American-owned businesses in 1,000 days by helping 900 businesses hire its first employee and helping another 100 businesses offer living wages to existing staff. Advancing Collective Prosperity shares three strategies for realizing this goal: Share and create data that identify and quantify AfricanAmerican businesses. This information can connect entrepreneurs to existing small-business services in a coordinated way and serve as the basis of an ongoing census of Atlanta’s black business owners. Establish an economic development and entrepreneurship institute. This institute would work to grow economic development opportunities among African-American business owners and support efforts to build a pipeline of entrepreneurs ready to seize opportunities. It would also arm community organizers with the data and messages needed to make a regional case for the value of black entrepreneurs. Read More online sdmnews.com
What do they Want you to KNOW? What Everyone Needs to Know About 2020 Census Questions By law, the U.S. government is required to count the number of people living in the United States every 10 years. Getting an accurate count is important because census numbers impact daily life in the United States in many ways. For example, census data are often used to determine how much federal funding is allocated for important projects and services that benefit local communities. The census also plays a vital role in our nation’s system of government by determining how many representatives will be sent to Congress from each state. Because getting an accurate count is so important, the process is designed to be fast, easy, and safe. On average, it takes no more than 10 minutes to answer the questions on the census. How Are Census Data Collected? During the first census in 1790, census takers visited nearly every U.S. home to gather data. In 2020, households will have the option of responding online, by mail, or by phone. The Census Bureau expects many households to complete the questionnaire online, using instructions received in the mail. These instructions will also include information about how to respond by phone. Some households will receive a printed questionnaire which they can mail, postage-free, back to the
Be Counted! SDMNEWS’S Motivation Information
Census Bureau. A small percentage of households, primarily located in remote areas of the country, will be visited by a census taker who will help collect the necessary information to complete the form. Who Receives the Census Questionnaire and How Is It Filled Out? Most housing units in the United States that receive mail at their physical location will receive a letter by mail with instructions on how to complete the census questionnaire. Housing units include houses, apartments, cabins, mobile homes—pretty much any place where people live in the United States. In areas where the majority of housing units do not have mail delivered to their physical location, census workers will leave questionnaire packages at every identified housing unit. The census process also includes special provisions to count people who are homeless and those in other types of living quarters, such as college dorms, military barracks, ships, prisons, nursing homes, and homeless shelters. The person in the housing unit who fills out the census questionnaire or talks to the census taker is known as Person 1. Typically, Person 1 is the owner/co-owner or renter/corenter of the housing unit. READ MORE sdmonitornews.com
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The San Diego Monitor
The phrase isn’t ‘RecessionProof’ it’s Pandemic Proof” As the government continues to introduce measures to slow the spread of the virus and promote the best ways to guard against it, some employers may be reluctant to let their staff go just yet!
Coronavirus is fast disrupting Americans’ daily lives, from school to work to going out to socialize— and job experts say that will spell trouble for some U.S. workers more than others. Restaurants and bars in seven states –– California, Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington have been ordered to close with the exception of take-out services. The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut also agreed to close movie theaters, gyms and casinos in addition to banning gatherings of more than 50 people, effective Monday at 8 p.m.
“Declining consumer confidence, potentially severe retailtraffic declines, and temporary store closures are evolving risk factors that depend on uncertain variables like the geographic spread of the virus and the timing of containment/eradication solutions,” analysts at Cowen, an investment bank and financial-services company. wrote in a note this month. This did not show up in last week’s jobless claims report where jobless claims dropped 4,000 to 211,000 in the seven days ended March 7. The total number of people already collecting unemployment benefits declined by 11,000 to 1.72 million. That number reached nearly 6.6 million near the end of the Great Recession. Thomas Simons, senior money market economist at Jefferies LLC, expects to see an increase in jobless claims in Thursday’s report. “That will be the start of a trend,” he said, adding that “The travel, leisure & hospitality, airline, and other industries are going to experience layoffs, as well as small businesses in areas where large public gatherings have been cancelled or postponed.” Already, there have been 634 job cuts in the U.S. specifically tied to the outbreak of novel coronavirus as of March 15, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement and career-transitioning firm. Challenger arrived at that number by tracking company announcements and news reports that explicitly link job layoffs to the coronavirus outbreak.
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The San Diego Monitor
SDMNEWS Must Read 2020 CA Census Guide Table of Contents Section 1: General Information (PDF) •
Initiative and Referendum Qualification Requirements
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Candidate Qualifications and Information
Section 2: Nomination Requirements (PDF) •
Presidential Candidates
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United States Representative in Congress, and Member of the State Legislature Candidates
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Nomination Documents – Nomination Papers and Declaration of Candidacy
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Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee
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Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee and/or Nomination Papers
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Ballot Designations
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In General
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Campaign Filings and Responsibilities
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Candidate Intention Statement
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Campaign Contribution Account
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Exceptions
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Additional Filing Information
Section 3: Candidate Filing Information (PDF) •
Required Filing Fees, Nomination Signatures
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Write-In Candidates for the Office of President
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Write-In Candidates for Voter-Nominated Offices
In-Lieu
Signatures,
Section 4: Candidate Checklist (PDF) •
President of the United States
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United States Representative in Congress
For download please go to www.sdmonitornews.com
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The San Diego Monitor
Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is also a great one to read for tips on improving your listening skills (and, in fact, how you build relationships in general). Stephen’s advice stresses the importance of being nonjudgmental and not making assumptions when listening to others. He also talks about empathic listening— understanding your conversation partner fully, rather than seeing what they talk about through your own point of view. This overview of Stephen’s chapter on listening breaks down the five types of listening he explains: • • • • • •
Ignoring – The “La La La, I can’t hear you” fingers in the ears school of listening Pretending – The “Uh huh, Oh really? That’s nice” school of listening Selective Hearing – The “But I’m sure I heard you say…” school of listening Attentive – The “I know exactly how you feel, when that happened to me…” school of listening Empathic – The “And how does that make you feel*?” school of listening Empathic listening is the one we want to aim for to have meaningful conversations with others. It works in four stages, one after the other:
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Mimic – Repeat what the other person said
• Rephrase – Rephrase their comments to show that you’ve understood Reflect – Put their feelings into words for them Rephrase and Reflect – Combine steps 2 and 3. If this seems overwhelming at first, you might like to think about it in a more simple way. I like the idea of ‘bouncing the ball back.’ This means you listen to your conversation partner, take in what they’ve said and add to it, passing the turn back to them to elaborate further. In fact, studies have shown that people who express interest in their conversation partner’s viewpoint and followed up with questions to encourage debate were more liked and more likely to be picked for future interactions. 2. They use people’s names more – others will be more likely to help you In Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends & Influence People, he says this about names:
Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Read on Online
EPIDEMIC VS. PANDEMIC
“An outbreak of this”, “epidemic of that”, “protect yourself against a potential pandemic of some horrible sounding disease”. Whether discussing disease in humans or animals, all are terms we hear on the news frequently, but do you know what the differences are between them? In this article, we take a look at the terminology used by epidemiologists and scientists to describe the occurrence and spread of disease.
Endemic Disease Endemic refers to a disease or the level of a disease which is present in a population or area all of the time, not as an exception to the rule. The endemic level is the baseline level of disease which is normal, although it may still not be the desirable level. The causative agents of an outbreak, epidemic, or pandemic may be classed as endemic in a country, like human influenza for example in the UK. Something like Ebola or yellow fever though are not endemic in the UK, any case that might occur would be an exception, likely as a result of infection outside the UK. Diseases that are not endemic in certain areas (i.e. the base level of cases is zero) are normally as a result of environmental factors preventing survival or spread of the transmission vector (as with malaria), geographic isolation from infected areas (as with strangles in Iceland), tight control measures (such as for rabies in the UK) or vaccination and eradication strategies (as with smallpox). If the endemic level of a disease in a population is persistently high, then It is referred to as hyperendemic. The term holoendemic refers to a disease with which essentially all individuals of a population are infected. However, it differs from hyperendemic disease in that typically, clinical signs are typically only shown in the younger population when they are first infected after which disease becomes asymptomatic.
Endemic vs Epidemic Whilst “endemic” is the baseline level of a disease, an epidemic refers to the, often sudden, rise in the number of cases of a particular disease above the normal endemic level. The number of cases varies according to the disease-causing agent, and the size and type of previous and existing exposure to the agent. The precise definition will depend on the literature in which it is presented, and there is no established threshold for the number of cases, duration of disease or geographical area affected for something to be deemed an epidemic. Seasonal influenza in people is often described as a seasonal epidemic. An epidemic of what is typically an endemic disease can arise for a number of reasons. Many factors relating to the host, cause of disease and environment contribute to the normal fine balance, so a shift in any of these may result in spikes in case numbers. Equally, a disease that was previously absent from an area or population may become endemic following an epidemic if these factors change. For example, changes in the environment may mean that a disease vector that previously was unable to survive in an area now can, as seen with malaria. Increased exposure to disease may change the immunological landscape of the host. The disease-causing pathogen may undergo mutations that mean it becomes better adapted to surviving in a new host population, as seen with the spread of zoonotic diseases. Outbreak definition – or just an epidemic synonym? The terms “epidemic” and “outbreak” are used interchangeably frequently, even in epidemiological and scientific literature. However for the purposes of risk communication to the general public, it has been proposed that the term “outbreak“ should be used to describe a more limited type of epidemic.
‘The Future of Technology Needs Black People’ Talking Tech with Bonin Bough and Angel Rich
Talk about Black Tech royalty. The recently held Black is Tech Conference highlighted two technological giants as keynote speakers during the gathering. Appearing were Bonin Bough, a successful marketing executive, host of CNBC’s Cleveland Hustles, and author of Txt Me (646) 759-1837, and Angel Rich, affectionately known as “the Chairman.” Forbes Magazine referred to her as “The Next Steve Jobs” for the tremendous work she’s done and is continuously doing with revolutionizing financial literacy education. Both gave compelling life stories as they inspired the listening audience. Presenting in the morning session, Mr. Bough, in the style of a fire and brimstone preacher, told the audience as a community Blacks are more powerful together than apart. “We must inspire to do more,” he said. He stressed the need to keep the dollar in the Black community and learn to grow what businesses we have. In telling his story, he stated quite frankly, he got lucky. He grew up in a creative household where he was influenced by his stepfather and 6th grade teacher both of whom were involved in technology. He landed a tech job after college, and his career flourished. In giving a word of advice for longevity, he instructed, “Make sure you are more valuable than anyone else.” He described Black people as a “diaspora of creative thinking.” The main message he brought to the conference was
the new and far reaching frontier of “Mobile Messaging.” He shared with the audience that new age marketing meant building a relationship with consumers. “Dollars follow consumers,” he said. Mr. Bough went on to illustrate his point: “In 2016, 1.58 billion mobile phone users accessed over-thetop messaging apps to communicate. This figure is projected to grow to 2.48 billion users in 2021,” he said. “Messaging represents the largest amount of human attention on any mobile platform. Given its rapid growth in recent years, this platform is now set to represent the next frontier in personalized and permission-based marketing,” said Mr. Bough. He went further into the subject during his exclusive interview with The Final Call. Regarding the Black is Tech Conference, held April 12-13 in New York, he said it was of vital importance. “More than anything it allows you to build networks and meet people and hear from people who are doing it or have done it. Collaboration with the community is probably the most important thing ever.” About his concept of mobile messaging, he stated, “The most amount of human connection occurs in text messages. Almost two trillion business and consumer messages are sent which go unmonetized. As a whole, it is more explosive than anything we have ever seen yet most people are not participating or figured out how to connect with consumers in that channel in a way that is meaningful or quite frankly at all.” It represents a huge opportunity, he explained.
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The San Diego Monitor
State Findings: California, 2019 Strengths: Low prevalence of smoking Low premature death rate Low infant mortality rate
Challenges: Low percentage of high school graduation High levels of air pollution Large difference in health status by high school education Highlights In the past year, excessive drinking decreased 8% from 19.2% to 17.6% of adults In the past year, disparity in health status decreased 14% from 37.1% to 31.8% Since 2012, physical inactivity increased 10% from 19.1% to 21.0% of adults Despite decreasing since 2012, air pollution increased 12% over the past three years from 11.4 to 12.8 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter In the past 10 years, chlamydia increased 43% from 388.3 to 553.4 cases per 100,000 population Since 1990, cardiovascular deaths decreased 37% from 377.0 to 236.7 deaths per 100,000 population
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