Q&A with our Executive Director and Co-Founder

Sam Samarelli, Director of Communications, sat down with SHP’s Co-founder and Executive Director, Dr. Mark Bergel, prior to the launch of the 5 Years or Less initiative

Sam: Why did you start The Shared Humanity Project?

Mark: I had seen after 20 years that what I was doing was not moving the needle. The same people who came to my organization for help in the year 2005 were coming back in the year 2010 and 2015 and we’re still struggling economically. Band-Aids can be helpful, there is no doubt, but if that’s the best we can do. I don’t want any part of that. And so I knew that I either had to overhaul my previous organization, which would’ve meant people losing jobs or just move on myself, and when Katherin mentioned that she would be interested in doing something on a larger scale, the opportunity to work with her made me think we could really do something impactful.

Sam: You’ve mentioned to each of us the confidence that you have in Katherin. Can you share more about that since you have worked with so many people over the years?

Mark: That’s a good question because there would not be a Shared Humanity Project without Katherin. And she came along just in time because for many years I had reached out across the country and was lucky enough to meet and work with people in every sector and at the highest levels. But nobody had the depth of knowledge and the logic in their thought processes like Katherin. So I knew that the best opportunity to move the needle was in working with her.

Sam: Why is five years the number you think is correct?

Mark: Any longer than that, honestly, is disrespectful to people who are in poverty. Similar to the way that we have set goals in this country of reducing poverty by 20% in a given number of years, it’s all just too little humanity, not enough of a commitment to our fellow human beings. Five years is plenty of time to do a thorough needs assessment of your community, identify how you can address those needs, and implement your solutions. Anything longer than that is nothing we should accept.

Sam: Why has it taken five years to launch this plan?

Mark: We had developed a more comprehensive data-driven initiative instead of being the front of our plan we realize we’ll be better as the backend feeding larger points, making it more straightforward and easy for people of all backgrounds, experiences, and ages to get it engaged. We realize that we did not need people to understand all the data to take an immediate action.  experiences in ages to get engaged. And immediate action is what we need. We don’t need a lot of people arguing about data. We have thousands of employees of think tanks who got lots of different degrees and did lots of different studies and again we have more people struggling economically today by far than we’ve had…… 

Sam: Part of my responsibilities includes fundraising for the shared humanity project. I noticed right away that we have not done much in this area. Maybe this is more to help me in my work here, but why is that?

Mark: A major part of the problem when it comes to poverty in the United States is the emergence of a poverty industrial complex over the last 60 years, and fundraising is part of the problem. Obviously it takes money to pay for organizations to function, but

I knoe raising a lot of money and actually Assessing the success of my work based on how much money we raised. It gives me pause and makes me want to raise funds only when I know exactly how those dollars will be used, and if I think those the use of those dollars will be effective and ending poverty, and not just providing a Band-Aid or a temporary answer to a problem that requires Permanent solutions.