Inequality, money in politics and a host of other issues are driving people to tackle our problems at the grassroots level -- one community at a time.
We recently interviewed Sabrina Shrader, a community organizer helping people take back their power in an economy that has left them behind. Sabrina's work with the Our Children, Our Future Campaign was featured in the West Virginia PBS documentary The First 1,000 Days.
She's also speaking out about the vicious cycle of poverty that leaves entire communities in places like McDowell County, West Virginia further and further behind. We first heard about Sabrina when she testified in the US Senate on the impact of poverty on health.
"I was born into a family that was afflicted by domestic violence, child abuse and mental illness," Shrader told the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging. "Some say poverty is a death sentence. Frankly, I don't know how many times I have been given that death sentence." (Reported in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)
We'll be following Sabrina's work throughout this election year because she is Waking The Sleeping Giant! Check out this short clip from our visit with Sabrina in her hometown in McDowell County, and speaking at a community forum in Charleston.