A Year in Review: 9 moments that inspired us in 2017
By Kevin Thurm, Acting CEO of the Clinton Foundation
At the Clinton Foundation, we believe that every day is a new opportunity to expand opportunity and improve lives for people in the United States and around the world. That’s been at the heart of our mission for more than 16 years and it’s what we’ve worked hard to accomplish over the past 12 months.
Collaboration is at the center of how we approach philanthropy. President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation on the simple belief that everyone deserves a chance live their best life story, everyone has a responsibility to act, and we all do better when we work together.
That’s why we’re working together with partners on innovative initiatives to create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service. The Clinton Foundation’s unique, partnership-driven approach has redefined philanthropy — for example, providing access to life-saving medicines to those affected by the opioid crisis, mobilizing relief efforts to help hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, promoting inclusion and opportunity in the clean energy sector, and cultivating leaders from all walks of life who are eager to address pressing challenges in their communities.
Keep reading as we share some of the moments that inspired us most in 2017. We look forward to working with critical partners like you to grow our impact in the year ahead.
1. Getting much-needed relief into the hands of Puerto Rico hurricane victims
The 2017 hurricane season was unprecedented in its devastation, with Puerto Rico’s inhabitants reeling from massive power outages and a shortage of medical resources months after Hurricane Maria touched down.
In October, Direct Relief, the Clinton Foundation, and other partners led the largest emergency airlift of medical aid to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria struck the island. Rebekah Curtis-Heald, commitments manager at the Clinton Global Initiative, was on the ground in Miami as the Direct Relief-chartered MD-11 cargo jet took off for Puerto Rico with 152,604 lbs. (roughly 76 tons) of urgently needed medical supplies. In November, Direct Relief announced $25 million in additional medical supplies to assist in Puerto Rico’s recovery, and just this week, Direct Relief chartered an aircraft to deliver 79,365 lbs. of medical aid requested by members of Puerto Rico’s medical community.
This November, President Clinton visited the island to get a first-hand look at the Foundation’s hurricane relief efforts on the ground.
He joined Governor Ricardo Rosselló in Canóvanas to deliver medical supplies from the Foundation and Direct Relief to an emergency shelter for families displaced by Hurricane Maria. President Clinton also joined San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz at the Plaza del Mercado de Rio Piedras market, which will be solarized following an installation of solar panels from the Solar Saves Lives initiative done in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, The Solar Foundation, and various other partners.
President Clinton concluded his visit by confirming the Foundation’s commitment to helping Puerto Rico recover in the months ahead during a meeting with Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, Congresswoman Jennifer González-Colón, and local mayors. Americans can help by donating to the One America Appeal, launched this year by President Clinton and the four other living former presidents to support recovery needs from this hurricane season.
Read more about his trip to Puerto Rico from the AP.
2. Student leaders from around the world convene for the 10th annual meeting of CGI University in Boston
In October, President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton brought together more than 1,200 college and university students from schools around the world for the 10th meeting of CGI University, held at Northeastern University. Students who participated in the milestone meeting made more than 750 Commitments to Action addressing gender inequality, the refugee crisis, climate change, and other pressing challenges facing their generation.
President Clinton launched CGI U in 2008 under the belief that no one is ever too young to start engaging in meaningful solutions to local and global issues. Student leaders at this year’s meeting continued the CGI U community’s history of stepping up to the challenge – new commitments included efforts to provide professional-led naloxone administration training to combat the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia, establish academies that will increase access to a STEM education for African women, and help ride-sharing companies become more accommodating of customers with disabilities.
Read more about the CGI U 2017 meeting and student commitment-makers making a difference in their communities from The Big Think:
3. Clinton Foundation and Johns Hopkins University co-host summit on the opioid epidemic, release landmark report
Americans are now dying of overdoses than died at the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and various studies estimate that 80 percent of those struggling with opioid use don’t get the help they need. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 64,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States last year — more than any year on record.
The Foundation has been working to address the opioid crisis for several years — bringing together academics and researchers to advance evidence-based recommendations for addressing the crisis in our communities, and cultivating partnerships that help save lives in the event of an overdose.
This October, the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, partnered with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to convene leaders from various sectors for a one-day summit that explored policies and recommendations to reverse the deepening epidemic. The summit also included the co-release of a groundbreaking new report from the Clinton Foundation and the Bloomberg School which maps out a blueprint for national action to stem the crisis.
At the summit, President Clinton laid out the challenge facing the nation and announced new partnerships, including a joint effort between the Clinton Health Matters Initiative and the Vera Institute for Justice: “This is a public health problem, we recognize it — we’re finally seeing all these people as individuals. Unfortunately, there’s a woefully inadequate public health response that is not properly coordinated with law enforcement, with the treatment community, with insurers, and others.”
Read more about the summit from the Baltimore Sun.
In November, President Clinton continued raising awareness about the opioid epidemic during a visit with partners who are helping to fight addiction in Florida and a television appearance on CONAN. The episode featured President Clinton and Conan O’Brien discussing the Foundation’s work to combat the epidemic and save lives. Check out part of their conversation below:
4. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush host a conversation on leadership, humility at the 2017 graduation of Presidential Leadership Scholars
The Presidential Leadership Scholars program serves as a model for forging past political, ideological, religious, and socioeconomic differences and finding common ground in America. The program was launched by the Clinton Presidential Center, George W. Bush Presidential Center, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation to cultivate leaders eager to address the country’s most pressing challenges through public service.
This year, we brought together the program’s third class of distinguished scholars — a diverse group of veterans, educators, public servants, and corporate professionals from across the United States who participated in several months of workshops and lectures led by some of the top leaders and thinkers from past presidential administrations.
This year’s curriculum culminated in a graduation ceremony that featured a conversation on leadership between President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. Watch the video above for the inspiring discussion, moderated by renowned philanthropist David Rubenstein.
Read more about their conversation and the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program from CNN.
5. President Clinton visits Foundation partners and programs in Baltimore, Northeast Florida, and St. Louis
This fall, President Clinton embarked on a three-day tour of Clinton Foundation projects and Clinton Global Initiative commitments in several U.S. communities, starting in Baltimore.
In Baltimore: After convening the opioid epidemic summit at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, President Clinton visited a Baltimore County library and playground where Too Small to Fail, the Foundation’s early childhood development initiative, has worked to incorporate early literacy tools and prompts. He cut the ribbon to dedicate the new panels featuring TSTF learning tools for the playground and met with local families about the importance of talking, reading, and singing with children from birth. Read more about President Clinton’s trip in Baltimore magazine.
In Jacksonville, Florida: The second day of President Clinton’s trip included a number of projects related to the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Initiative (CHMI). Stops included a visit to CHMI community partner, the Azalea Project to meet with mothers in recovery from substance abuse. President Clinton also toured a medical center to speak with beneficiaries and partners that work with CHMI to address to the opioid epidemic, and met with CHMI partners who are leading a food repackaging program that reduces food waste and provides hot, healthy meals to people in need. Read more about President Clinton’s stop in Jacksonville from the Florida-Times Union.
In St. Louis, Missouri: On the final day of the trip, President Clinton saw our work with partners on the ground in St. Louis — including one of the nation’s Healthiest Schools — the Gateway Middle and Michael Schools; a community initiative using an old metro bus to tackle food insecurity in St. Louis; and a Clinton Global Initiative commitment working to cultivate girls’ interest in science and technology. Read more about his visit from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
When asked his message to the young people he met on the trip, President Clinton said: “Keep going. The future belongs to you and the more you know it the more you can claim of it.”
6. Chelsea Clinton leads Day of Action service projects to help U.S. communities
This year, Chelsea Clinton and the Foundation hosted several Day of Action service projects to give back to communities in the U.S. Projects included a Day of Action for the broader Boston community, where 475 college students and community members joined President Clinton, Chelsea, and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh at the end of CGI U 2017 to refurbish playgrounds, clean parkland, construct mini-libraries, and restore wetlands.
Founded and led by Chelsea Clinton in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Clinton Foundation Day of Action program seeks to create service opportunities and mobilize thousands of volunteers to give back to their communities. To date, the Clinton Foundation has hosted 36 Days of Action in the United States and abroad, which have mobilized more than 7,200 volunteers and donated more than 29,000 volunteer hours.
Read coverage of the Clinton Foundation Day of Action in Boston from News @ Northeastern.
7. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the election of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Gore
November marked the 25th anniversary of the election of Bill Clinton as the 42nd President of the United States and Al Gore as the 45th Vice President. From the time he announced his candidacy at the Old State House in Little Rock on October 3, 1991, to the moment he stood as President-Elect on its steps on November 3, 1992, then-Governor Clinton traveled America sharing a vision that was built on simple ideas: everybody deserves an opportunity, everybody has a responsibility to one another, and we are all part of one great American community.
In recognition of the milestone, the Georgetown University launched an event series reflecting on President Clinton’s journey from Georgetown to the White House, his time as president, and his vision for the country and the world. And, the Clinton Presidential Center hosted commemorative events, including a conversation in which President Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and James Carville reflected on the values of his election and how they inform and inspire the Foundation’s work each and every day.
Read more about the event from Arkansas Public Media.
8. The Clinton Presidential Center opens exhibit on the life of Nelson Mandela
In September, President Clinton attended the opening of “Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu,” a moving new exhibit on display at the Clinton Presidential Center through February 19, 2018. The exhibit highlights the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa whose journey to lead his country out of Apartheid inspired people and movements around the world. Clinton Center visitors can view the arc of President Mandela’s life through the camera lens of a Nelson Mandela Foundation-commissioned photographer and even step into a recreation of the eight-by-seven-foot prison cell that Mandela was sentenced to live in for 18 of his 27 years in captivity. Also on display are artifacts from the personal collection of President Clinton, who considered the South African leader a friend and a mentor.
Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu is one in a pair of temporary Clinton Center exhibits debuting this year to celebrate the rich cultural history of Africa. In August, the Clinton Center also opened Art of Africa: One Continent, Limitless Vision, which highlights the colors, shapes, and textures of the African continent through its art. The exhibit is open through February 12, 2019.
Read coverage of the exhibit openings from the Associated Press.
9. The movement to increase gender inclusion in the clean energy sector gains momentum
Fourteen percent of senior management positions at the top 200 worldwide power and utility companies are held by women, according to an EY survey. Fortunately, programs and partnerships aiming to help women take the lead in renewable energy efforts have gained steam this year as the consequences of climate change become more evident.
2017 saw the growth of the Clinton Climate Initiative’s Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network, the first network of its kind to empower rising women leaders working in island energy sectors . The WIRE Network has grown to more than 400 members who have received mentorship, technical, and leadership skills development.
Another encouraging development in the area of gender inclusion occurred at the United Nation’s largest annual summit on climate change, COP23, where 41 organizations, including the Clinton Foundation, announced their partnership with the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) People-Centered Accelerator. SEforALL will bring together a coalition of partners who are committed to seeing the full and equal participation of women in efforts to transition to clean energy around the world.
