Awards, milestones, and the continuing trust conversation

The Aspen Institute is gearing up for an exciting summer of dialogue, ideas, and connection around the largest challenges of our time. That includes rebuilding trust in the U.S. healthcare system, improving youth sports participation, and empowering everyone from community colleges to authors and high school students to take on these challenges, too. You’ll learn all about those efforts, and more, in this newsletter.?

One fun thing:?The Aspen Ideas Festival and Aspen Ideas: Health made a big speaker announcement last week. Check out who’s slated to speak this June, and?register to attend!?

Let’s talk about trust in health

Watch?this new conversation?between Ruth Katz of the Institute’s?Health, Medicine, and Society Program?and Dr. Richard Baron, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, all about trust in the health system.?

• When people don’t trust the healthcare system, the health of the nation suffers.?
• Healthcare providers need to recognize the causes of this trust breakdown and actively work to reconstruct it.

“Trust is built from a whole series of human interactions that have nothing to do with randomized controlled trials.” - Dr. Richard Baron

Extra credit:?Look into the work of the Institute’s Health Strategy Group, of which Dr. Baron is a member, and check out the Edelman Trust Institute’s?new release?on trust in health.

Awardees abound at the Institute

Across the Aspen Institute, programs elevate excellence in their fields across topics ranging from higher education to literature. Here are a few of the winners announced in recent weeks:?

• The?College Excellence Program?honored two community colleges leading the way in making sure students succeed in college and beyond.?Amarillo College?in Texas and?Imperial Valley College?in California were both named winners of the?2023 Aspen Prize?for their?exemplary work during a time of extraordinary challenge.?
• The Aspen Words Literary Prize?named its 2023 awardee: Jamil Jan Kochai and his powerful short story collection?The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories.?Kochai writes about Afghans, Afghan Americans and the surreal, violent aftershocks of state violence.
• Students from Brooklyn stepped up to pitch innovative solutions to the borough’s most pressing problems as part of the?Aspen Challenge. Three out of 20 student teams were named Aspen Challenge winners for their bold, disruptive solutions and?won a spot on the Aspen Ideas Festival stage.
• The McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund,?as part of their mission with the?Aspen Global Leadership Network,?has named five winners this year, all early-stage organizations that have demonstrated significant momentum with innovative models of change.?

Go Deeper:?Learn more about one McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund winner, Hear Foundation, which works to?build safer, more trusting communities through dialogue and leadership.

Project Play turns 10

Think back:?What are your favorite childhood memories of playing sports? Is it the confidence and self-esteem you gained or the fun you had playing with friends??

These days, youth sports can be too expensive, too time-consuming, and filled with too much pressure.?

• Only 38% of kids ages 6-12 regularly play sports, down from 45% in 2008.?
• Kids games are leaving too many children behind based on race, gender, income, and ability.?

The big picture:?Sports develop key skills, impart confidence, and create lifelong memories.?Project Play?is the Aspen Institute’s initiative to find solutions to grow sports participation and physical activity among youth aged 6-17.?

• In honor of the ten year anniversary of the initiative’s first meeting, the Sports & Society Program’s executive director Tom Farrey shared “The First 10 Steps to Build a Better Youth Sport System” in an opinion piece for?Global Sport Matters.?
• The program’s Project Play Summit takes place next week in Colorado Springs, and?it’s not too late to register for the May 18 livestream.

The Institute in the news

In a joint op-ed for?The Hill,?the?Financial Security Program’s Joanna Smith-Ramani and the?Energy and Environment Program’s Greg Gershuny write:

“Climate change is a growing threat to household financial security—we need to prepare.”

Extra Credit:?NPR’s 1A interviewed?Yuliya Tychkivska of?Aspen Institute Kyiv?as part of a story on efforts to rescue Ukrainian children kidnapped by the Russian government.

Aspen Ideas announces new speakers

We're proud to announce our 2023 speaker lineup for the?Aspen Ideas Festival?and?Aspen Ideas: Health. You don’t want to miss engaging with these extraordinary thinkers, leaders, and doers—get your pass?today!

One fun thing:?There’s a speaker for any idea that stimulates your curiosity, from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert to National Book Award Winner Imani Perry.