Special Premier for MLK Day...

Offering Lived Experience of the Civil Rights Movement and Wisdom needed for 2026. Hosts Joy Gilfilen and Karen Ball are joined by Civil Rights Activist Mel Hoover, a pillar of wisdom whose life experience bridges the worlds where Martin Luther King Jr. and his family walked and lived. We are profoundly enriched by this elder sharing his lived experience of the civil rights movement and his personal knowledge of his namesake, Dr. Melvin Watson, who was a close friend and mentor to the King family.

A trailblazer in ministry, education, and social justice, Mel opens the windows to bring in fresh air for a frank, grassroots understanding of what “I have a dream!” meant to “we the people.” This episode—the first of several—brings forward a powerhouse of lived experience from a challenging period of history to help us navigate our current times.

Inside this Episode:

• Predicting the Past: Mel explains why we must honestly examine our history to change our present. If we don’t understand how the "foot on the neck" functioned in the past, we cannot remove it in the future.

• The Messenger vs. The Movement: A deep dive into how Dr. King was the voice, but the community—especially the power of Black women—was the engine.

• Geographical Perspectives: Comparing the marches in Texas to the border-community perspectives of Whatcom County, Washington, to see how location shapes our understanding of race and restorative work.

• Logic to Legacy: We explore shifting from transactional, hierarchical systems to a Living Restorative Legacy based on shared humanity and the "eyes of love."

Mel Hoover demonstrates how focusing on local needs promotes positive community changes. Join us for this "Major League" conversation on rehumanizing the human race.

Available NOW on all streaming platforms. 🎧Broadcasting Thursday, Jan 22nd at Noon on KOYS-LPFM 94.1. 📻🕛

Welcome to the Season 5 Premiere of iChange Justice! In this landmark episode, hosts Joy Gilfilen and Karen Ball celebrate an incredible milestone with our dear friend and international collaborator, James White. James is a member of Community Living British Columbia, serves on the Board of the Restorative Community Coalition, and founded the ESATTA Cooperative (Empowering Self Advocates To Take Action) over 40 years ago. Trailblazing anew, it’s achieved a distinctive level of civic leadership!

Focusing on 2026, James identifies this as the Year of the Fire Horse—his own Chinese astrological sign—signaling a time of high energy, passion, and rapid advancement. A globally recognized mentor in the international learning community for person-centered practices, James is guiding us to use this "on fire" energy to move away from cold, transactional bureaucracy and back to the heart of Human Connection.

Inside this Premiere, he introduces tools and demonstrates action:

The "Who Am I?" One-Page Profile: James details how ESATTA uses this tool to help people move past labels and "ableism." It’s a blueprint for building symbiotic, life-giving friendships and professional support systems based on who we actually are, rather than institutional "pigeonholes."

The Mission, B.C. Success Story: We dive into the "Reimagining Community: Welcome Home" project. Using the power of World Cafés, James shows how he helped bridge the gap between city councils, 27 diverse tribes, and everyday citizens in British Columbia to create a roadmap for true civic inclusion.

Breaking Down Barriers: Following the theme of "Nothing About Us Without Us," we discuss how to challenge systemic barriers and return control to the individuals most impacted by the justice and care systems.

Moving from Logic to Legacy: This episode sets the stage for a series of five intensive trainings James will be leading in 2026. We are moving from the “logic” of the system (the data, the labels, and the rules) to a “living restorative legacy”—utilizing the powerful "Fire Horse" energy of the year to create a world where everyone is treated with compassion, respect, and dignity.

In this Season 5 Premiere, Whatcom's own Joy Gilfilen and community justice educator and activist Karen Ball (currently located in Texas). engage in a high-level dialogue with Kathryn Alexander, MA, founder of Bridge to Partnership. An early student of the Fifth Discipline and systems thinking, Kathryn brings decades of research into how "tacit values" shape our leadership and our culture.

The conversation explores the imbalance of Western culture and Kathryn’s shift to nature as the ultimate expert. She introduces the Resilient Values Set™ and her Birds of a Feather™ model—tools designed to move us out of the "Protective" value systems that fuel social and environmental fighting. We dive deep into the Biotic Pump and her work with SoilSmart-SoilWise, revealing how a scientific understanding of the Earth’s self-cooling systems provides a blueprint for human community health. This is a vital look at how we move from the noise of systemic crisis to a legacy of restorative action.