Volume 6, No. 4 | Fall 2017
Policy Institute Digest
From the Director
Most people observe the start of a new year on January 1. College folks celebrate that event, too, of course. But for us the start of the fall semester also represents a new year -- the academic year. Like the traditional turn of the calendar we celebrate with champagne and noise-makers, it is one full of expectations, opportunities, and challenges as a new cohort of students starts its academic journey and the quest for knowledge is re-energized after a summer break.

So as the Dog Days of August wind down, we look to the start of the 2017-2018 academic year with anticipation and hope. The Institute is putting the finishing touches on a full schedule of events designed to engage both students and the general public in meaningful debate of public policy issues. Since this is not an election year, political events play a smaller role in the agenda than last year. But as the articles below indicate, our program topics for 2017-2018 reflect our continuing commitment to promoting civil discourse and social justice.

I hope you will pencil the dates into your calendar and make every effort to join us in thoughtful examination of the key issues of the day all through the fall season.

--David Klement
Executive Director 
Upcoming Programs
Forum Will Seek Causes, Solutions to Opioid Crisis
 You’ve been hearing a lot about the opioid epidemic, in which a concoction of heroin and synthetic chemicals has produced a rash of deadly overdoses in Florida and the nation that ripples across health care, law enforcement, first-responders, social service and criminal justice agencies.

The Institute will address how opioid addiction became such a health crisis and what is being done to address it at a forum on Sept. 7, co-sponsored by the Drug Free America Foundation. The forum, titled The Drug Epidemic: How Opioids Became a Death Machine, will be from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Digitorium on SPC’s Seminole Campus, 9200 113th St. N. Admission is free, but advance registration is requested.

Institute Executive Director David Klement wrote a first-person account of his recent experience with opioids as a medical patient and his research into the origins of the pain-pill epidemic, which was published in the Tampa Bay Times on July 20 and in the Bradenton Herald on July 28. 

Workshop Offers How-to
for Citizen Action
A spirit of activism not seen since at least 2008 is sweeping across America. Motivated by the 2016 election campaign and its outcome, people on both sides of the political aisle are energized to become active in the political process – either to support the policies of the current administration at the national, state or local level, or to oppose them. But many are unsure of how the process works. How does one begin to make a difference in the political world?

Former Congressman David Jolly and Pinellas County Commission Chair Janet Long will provide national and local perspectives on our system of government at a workshop as part of our Civics Literacy Initiative. Sponsored by the Institute and the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area Democracy 101: A Civic Action Primer takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 28 at the American Stage Theatre, 163 Third St. N., St. Petersburg. This free workshop will provide the basics of government structure, policy-making, and civic engagement.

Moderating the workshop will be Tara Newsom, Professor of Social and Behavioral Science at SPC, and Julie Kessel, president of the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area. They will give a brief overview of the nuts and bolts of government as well as strategies for engaging with elected and appointed officials. Advance registration is available here. 
Comedian Will Present Lighter Side of Politics
Does reading or hearing news from Washington cause you to stress out? Does the state of political discourse make you want to weep?

Maybe laughter would be a better approach. Comedian Steve Bhaerman, who some compare to Mark Twain, thinks so. The Institute is bringing Bhaerman’s unique brand of social and political humor to St. Petersburg College this fall in a program titled Laughter, Awakening and Evolution .

Performing under the name Swami Beyondananda, Bhaerman will open the new season of the Dinner Series on Sept. 28 from 6 to 8:15 p.m. at the Seminole campus, 9200 113th St. N. Media co-sponsors are the Tampa Bay Times and WEDU Television.

Tickets for the dinner and program are $25 for guests and $20 for students and educators. Advanced registration is now available here.

 
Futurist Predicts Sweeping Change in
Next Two Decades 
An internationally known futurist who predicts that the next 20 years will be as transformative as any similar period in history will be the featured speaker at the Institute’s second Dinner Series program of the season this fall.

David Houle, who has delivered his message of disruptive change on all six continents, will bring it to SPC’s Seminole Campus Conference Center from 6 to 8:15 p.m. November 1. The program, titled The Shift Age: A Futurist’s View of 2017-2040, is co-sponsored by the Tampa Bay Times and WEDU TV. Advance registration is required.

The dinner and program is $20 for students and educators and $25 for guests. Registration will be available in mid-September on the Institute's website. 

Sea Level Rise Collaborative: Chasing Coral
Documentary Screening
If you are at all environmentally conscious, you probably know that the world’s coral reefs are in serious trouble. Just how serious is that threat has been documented in an acclaimed new film called  Chasing Coral . The Institute will host a screening of that film at 6 p.m. October 19 at the Seminole Campus Digitorium, 9200 113th St. N. 

This free event is another project of the Suncoast Sea Level Rise Collaborative, a group of concerned citizens who helped stage the 2015 conference  Sea Level Rise: What’s Our Next Move? at St. Petersburg College. The program will include a facilitated discussion after the film.

Join us for an informative movie night, and feel free to bring your friends and family. Registration will be available in mid-September on the Institute’s website.

Institute Updates
Citizens Offer More Input on City’s Quality of Life 
The second in a series of Community Listening Sessions was held at the Child's Park Recreation Center in St. Petersburg on July 29th to continue gathering community input as part of the city’s initiative to become an official Age-Friendly City recognized by the World Health Organization.
The session was designed to assess the city’s assets and opportunities as they relate to eight Age-Friendly domains—Transportation, Housing, Public Spaces, Social Participation, Respect and Social Inclusion, Civic Participation and Employment, Communication and Information, and Community Support and Health Services. 

The Listening Sessions are planned to gather input from community residents on what is needed to make their city more age-friendly. The first was held Feb. 11 at the Sunshine Center in downtown St. Petersburg, and a third will be held this fall in another area of the city. Representatives of local social service providers also provided input at a Collaborative Labs workshop in May at the SPC EpiCenter. 

Four New Board Members Take Seats 
The Institute welcomed three new members to its Board of Directors at the board’s quarterly meeting in August. They are Ken Burke, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Pinellas County; Watson Haynes, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pinellas County Urban League, and Richard O. “Dick” Jacobs, attorney with Johnson Pope Bokor Ruppel & Burns.

They replace three retiring board members who have served since the Institute’s founding: Dr. William “Bill” Heller, Dean of the College of Education, USF St. Petersburg; Deborah Kynes, Vice Mayor and City Commissioner of Dunedin, and Glenton Gilzean Jr., President and CEO of the Urban League of Central Florida.

At its annual organizational meeting on Aug. 15, the SPC Board of Trustees named trustee Bridgette Bello as the college governing board's liasion to the Institute board. Ms. Bello is Publisher of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
Save the Date!
Aug. 28, 2017, 6-8 p.m.: Democracy 101: A Civic Action Primer . In partnership with League of Women Voters of the Greater St. Petersburg Area. American Stage Theatre, 163 Third St. N., St. Petersburg.

Sept. 7, 2017, 6-8 p.m.: The Drug Epidemic: How Opioids Became a Death Machine. In partnership with the Drug Free America Foundation. Seminole Campus Digitorium, 9200 113th St. N.

Sept. 28, 2017, 6-8:15 p.m.: Dinner Series. Laughter, Awakening and Evolution . Conference Center, Seminole campus of SPC, 9200 113th St. N.

Nov. 1, 2017, 6-8:15 p.m.: Dinner Series, The Shift Age: A Futurist’s View of 2017-2040 . Conference Center, SPC Seminole Campus, 9200 113th St. N. Registration available mid-September on the Institute website.
Download our 2017-2018 Program Calendar!
St. Petersburg College | P.O. Box 13489 | St. Petersburg FL 33733 | 727-341-4772 [email protected]
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