Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.

Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder
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Around the Institute | Winter 2017, IDEAS Article, and Longform

Good Sports

December 1, 2017
Rob Manfred and writer Terry McDermott
Chiney Ogwumike

According to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL commissioners all agree that the best athlete is one who plays several sports. “Multiple sports give body parts rest,” Manfred told more than 400 people at the Institute’s 2017 Project Play Summit in Washington. “Some of you crazy parents are making these kids go nuts, playing one sport,” former MLB player Harold Reynolds said. “I want you playing all kinds of different sports.” To that end, the Institute’s Sports & Society Program announced its new Project Play 2020 initiative, which marks the first time industry and nonprofit organizations have come together to increase youth participation in sports. “It is absolutely amazing how fast this formidable group got Project Play 2020 off the ground so quickly,” said Craig Robinson, a New York Knicks executive (and Michelle Obama’s brother), who made an appeal at last year’s summit for just such an initiative. The summit sold out for the third straight year, and #ProjectPlay trended nationally on Twitter. Speakers included Olympic hockey star Angela Ruggiero, WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike, ex-NFL player Chris Kluwe, and former US Surgeon General David Satcher.

Longform Publications Section 4: Strengthening Practices to Improve Job Quality

Tools: Employee Ownership

View tools and resources related to employee ownership.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Centering Workers in Workforce Development

The Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance collaborates with employers and stakeholders to boost employment, earnings, and equity for local workers.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Lessons and Leadership To Foster Economic Justice for Illinois Workers

LEP trains workers to promote equity, enforce rights, build unions, develop leaders, ensure workplace safety, and advance economic justice.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Worker Owned and Worker Driven

While the rideshare apps have increased convenience, they’ve eroded job quality. See how the Drivers’ Cooperative is helping to end exploitative conditions.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Creating Employee-Owned Businesses That Provide Good Jobs and Succeed

Through employee ownership, The Industrial Commons is building a new Southern working class that erases the inequities of generational poverty.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Strengthening the Hidden Resilience Workforce

We see the effects of climate change, but we rarely see the people who help to rebuild — and they often lack safe conditions, decent pay, or benefits.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Advancing a Pro-Worker, Pro-Climate Agenda in Texas

The Texas Climate Jobs Project advances a pro-worker, pro-climate agenda — helping to solve the climate crisis while creating millions of good jobs.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Organizing and Coalition Building for Structural Change

LAANE, led by Job Quality Fellow Roxana Tynan, is fighting to build an economy rooted in good jobs, thriving communities, and a healthy environment.

Blog Posts Job Quality Fellows Profile Series Longform

Organizing Unemployed and Underemployed Workers

UWU, led by Job Quality Fellow Neidi Dominguez, engages unemployed/underemployed workers, a population that has not been mobilized at scale since the 1930s.

Blog Posts Longform

How Local Journalism Can Bring Communities Together

MIT Center for Constructive Communication Director Deb Roy explains how the caricatures Republicans and Democrats paint of each other diverge from reality, and the ways local newsrooms can leverage their “trust capital” and emerging technology to promote listening and understanding amid disagreement.