Gabriel G Plata

Oct 29, 2024 | aspeninstitute.org | Gabriel G Plata

Mobile home parks can have a bad reputation. They are often depicted as unsafe, lonely, and fractured places, where folks end up when they have no other choice. But for Deb Winiewicz, her mobile home community in Halifax, MA, was anything but that. It was her dream place to retire. A former 911 dispatcher, she moved with her husband a few years ago to Halifax Estates, a 430 homes park for folks 55 and older. They wanted connection.

Oct 3, 2024 | thefulcrum.us | Gabriel G Plata

Plata is communications manager for Weave: The Social Fabric Project. The Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project tackles the problem of broken trust that has left Americans divided, lonely and in social gridlock. Weave connects and invests in grassroots leaders stepping up to weave a new, inclusive social fabric where they live. This is the fourth in an ongoing series telling the stories of community weavers from across the country.

Aug 14, 2024 | aspeninstitute.org | Gabriel G Plata

Just half of Americans trust their local police. That is actually up from a record low of 43% last year, as measured by the Gallup poll. Not so in Parsons, KS. There, 83% of the town’s residents trust the police. And that is mainly thanks to Chief Robert Spinks. After a distinguished career as a police chief in large- and medium-sized cities, Spinks was ready to take his last commission. “When my wife and I came to visit Parsons and looked down Main Street, it was a picture of Americana,” he says.

Aug 7, 2024 | aspeninstitute.org | Gabriel G Plata

In 2020, Marie Constantin was walking her dog around Capitol Lake in Baton Rouge, LA, a peaceful bit of nature near the state capitol, when she realized the shoreline was covered in trash. “I stood there and I was almost paralyzed because it was more litter than I’ve ever seen in my life,” she says. But she didn’t stay paralyzed for long. The next day, she grabbed a trash picker and began cleaning the shore.

Jun 24, 2024 | aspeninstitute.org | Gabriel G Plata

As a small child, Antavia Mason knew what she wanted to be: a storyteller. She dreamed of writing stories that would change lives and make a kinder, more loving world. She just didn’t know how… until she became a grant writer. It all fell into place in college as part of a class, when she got involved with a local organization in Tulsa that helps kids who are deaf or hard of hearing. Over the semester, she worked closely with the organization’s staff, looked at the financials, and wrote a proposal.