Building a Movement to Ensure Participation and Prosperity for All

Reflections on
Advancing Regional Equity: The Second National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth

Perhaps there will never be more heart-wrenching images of the need for regional equity and environmental justice than those showing events triggered by Hurricane Katrina as it hit the Gulf Coast and precipitated a series of natural and man-made disasters that will take years if not generations to undo. Not only did the levees and pumps that hold back Lake Pontchartrain fail, so too did the contract between government and the people that is codified in public policy. The issues of race, poverty, and environment that are at the core of the disaster in the Gulf have been evident for years and anyone who professes not to know what a lethal mixture they are is dishonest. Indeed knowledge about the needs of low-income communities, communities of color, and the impact of unchecked or inadequate development on the environment has been the topic of discussion in many forums.

One such forum took place in Philadelphia between May 23 and May 25, 2005. Nearly 1,300 people met at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to hear and share information about how regional equity can increase economic and social equity throughout the country. The forum, Advancing Regional Equity: The Second National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth, sponsored by PolicyLink and the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, was an occasion for exchanging experience and expertise, for spotlighting successful efforts to achieve regional equity, and for nurturing the growth of a movement. The diversity of participation at the summit was extraordinary, including women and men of many races and ethnic groups, a variety of religious experiences, a mix of ages, and a full range of socioeconomic groups. There was geographic diversity, with representatives of urban, suburban, and rural communities. And participants came from faith-based institutions, labor unions, organizing networks, environmental and community-based organizations, government, the nonprofit community, and business. Foundations and corporate financial contributions were critical to the success of the summit, and over twenty funded delegations of individuals who would not have been able to attend otherwise.

Topics of discussion included successful strategies for achieving economic and social equity, including opportunities for residents in low-income communities and communities of color to build wealth; creation of and access to affordable housing and living-wage jobs; the ability to live in communities free from health-threatening environmental contaminants; the opportunity to shop for fresh produce in neighborhood supermarkets?all of which can be achieved by policies that make equity possible. A variety of effective strategies and techniques for effectively advocating for regional equity were discussed and demonstrated. These included e-advocacy, GIS techniques, evaluation and indicator methods, and strategic communications. A multimedia screening room featured clips of documentary films, GIS applications, and e-advocacy tools that can help practitioners and policymakers bring the concept of regional equity into sharp focus, humanize complex issues, and engage diverse constituents. An authors’ showcase and book signing provided summit participants with opportunities to meet and talk with panelists who had published books related to economic and social justice issues. (For details about sessions and lists of multimedia clips and books, see the summit program guide.)

THE POSSIBILITIES OF REGIONAL EQUITY
Central to every summit discussion was the belief that achieving more equitable regions and neighborhoods can enable everyone to live in thriving communities with access to jobs, affordable housing, healthy environments, and services such as well-stocked supermarkets, open space for exercise, and other amenities. Equitable development strategies—those that focus on people and place; seek solutions that benefit communities and investors; reduce disparities among urban, suburban, and rural areas that share a region; and ensure meaningful local participation and leadership—represent real and powerful tools for advancing equity.

Connecting disparate constituencies that sometimes retreat into competing camps based on racial, ethnic, cultural, or issue priorities is a challenge to movement building. But reaching across boundaries is necessary for the movement to succeed. Seizing opportunities to have meaningful conversation, to ask critical questions, and to listen for thoughtful responses lays the foundation for achieving the uncommon common ground. And this happened at the Advancing Regional Equity Summit.

Involving the people in communities that are experiencing change guarantees that messages are formulated and framed in ways that are inclusive. The use of language is just one of the challenges to be confronted to successfully move this movement forward. Listening to the residents in communities of color and in low-income communities taps into their knowledge and expertise about what is needed to build strong, vibrant communities.

THE MOVEMENT’S MOMENTUM
After the first summit, in 2002, there was a sense that a movement was building. In 2005, the second summit revealed that a movement is underway and that the need now is to articulate the goals and aims of that movement and to be more extensive and inclusive in reaching out to those whom the movement would serve. There was concern that local efforts not be overshadowed by attempts to advance a national agenda for policy change. Instead, achievements at the local level should energize activities to promote regional equity nationally, to further establish greater equity as a goal worthy of any great nation. Similarly, there was recognition that the impact of global concerns must be considered in the regional equity agenda. Advocates and activists who work in the international arena have an equal stake in national equity efforts because events in any part of the world inevitably reverberate beyond the borders where events take place. Indeed, achieving equity anywhere inspires and informs community-based activities in adjacent communities and regions worldwide.

But while the goals are clear, the methods to achieving them require more opportunities for conversation, debate, and finding answers to provocative questions: How do we frame regional equity so that it has broad appeal and can attract the attention—and the engaged commitment—of people of color, people in rural communities, people in suburbs, and policymakers? If we believe in a double bottom line, how can local residents and the business community reach agreement on how that double bottom line can be realized? Summit participants expressed a hunger for the perspectives of business leaders on alliances between the private and public sectors. How do we confront the suburbanization of poverty that we see emerging in older inner-ring suburbs? How do we build on the intersecting interest of regional equity proponents and the labor movement?

Such questions are just the tip of the iceberg, but if we are serious about advancing policies that make it possible for everyone to participate and prosper in healthy communities, we must be equally serious about finding answers and taking action on what we find. Each of these areas has challenges that must be overcome, but the urgency of the issues to be addressed demands that strategies for overcoming the challenges be engaged.

One measure of the movement’s growth is the total number of people who participate in it. Reaching new constituents through community forums, petitions, on-line forums and email, public events, and the media is important for building the public will for change and amassing the numbers to pressure policymakers. Such efforts require care in framing key messages and in identifying audiences and the best ways to reach them and must be an ongoing activity to advance regional equity. Equitable development, social justice, and smart growth constituencies must find ways to stay connected and to provide one another with mutual support and to understand and appreciate the depth and richness each brings to the movement and to one another’s campaigns.

BEYOND THE SUMMIT
Comments from summit participants reveal strong commitments to using the tools of equitable development and smart growth to advance regional equity and a consensus about some of the goals that must be realized to ensure that regional equity is achieved. Thinking about the commitments and the points of agreements yields additional questions. For example:

• Movement members must find the courage and commitment to address the issues related to tensions associated with race and ethnicity. Race has never been an easy subject for conversation in this country, but such uneasiness cannot be allowed to undermine the potential for equity or to destroy the movement. Many participants felt the summit had given them opportunities to have conversations about race that they had never had before and wondered how they might engage others on the topic when they returned home. How can these conversations be jumpstarted or sustained? What resources are available and what need to be created?
• Reaching Latino and Asian communities—new immigrants and those who have been here longer—is a critical necessity. Their successful participation and prosperity in this country will depend on access to the same opportunities being sought by everyone else: affordable housing, good schools for their children, a healthy environment, supermarkets with high-quality foods, and other amenities that people in high-income, largely white communities have long taken for granted. What are the strategies for reaching out to these communities, for securing their support, and for ensuring that their wisdom and experience inform the goals of the movement?
• The growth of the movement will also depend on support for local communities as they work to build vibrant, cohesive neighborhoods that attract mixed-income residents who are committed to community building. Foundations have an important role to play in supporting such efforts as do intermediary groups with expertise garnered from work across the country. How can we connect these local organizations to sources of funding, technical assistance, and each other so that collectively they can use the techniques of advocacy to force the policy changes that are necessary to reach their goals?
• An expanded movement will also depend on resolving competing priorities to develop a platform for change that begins locally but has the potential to expand nationally. Disagreements about where to focus organizing efforts related to land use, conservation, preservation, gentrification, and development should not be resolved at the expense of low-income communities and communities of color. Are there effective strategies for prioritizing the regional equity agenda? What are they?
• The movement’s growth requires more cross-sector collaboration at the nexus where effective coalitions are built and sustained. The places where environment and housing, health and transportation, and mixed-income communities and quality education meet are many and overlapping. Working in silos on any of these issues will not get the job done. Working in concert will. What is the mechanism for articulating and resolving differing priorities?
• Finally the growth of the movement demands planning for its future. The movement needs leaders who are grounded in community, who are committed to advocacy for policy change, and who have the skills to lead locally, regionally, and nationally. Foundations and intermediary organizations have a critical role to play in developing and supporting such leadership and in leading the way to succession planning, to imagining “who will carry the torch.” The movement must be proactive in reaching out to young people and encouraging their participation in educating others, in forming networks, and in understanding the relationship between regional equity and sustainable communities. Such leadership must reflect the diversity of the movement, be rooted in the various constituencies that make up the movement, and have the skills in organizing, use of data and information, and an understanding of advocacy and policy.

As part of our follow-up to the summit, PolicyLink is launching an online forum called Advancing Regional Equity to facilitate the exploration of these and other questions. We begin the forum with the most basic question: What do you think we should do to advance the movement for regional equity and how can it be done? Over time, if participation in the forum demonstrates the need, we will expand the number of forums to reflect participant areas of interest. We hope that the forum will provide an opportunity for continuing conversations begun at the summit and a way to expand our knowledge and apply what works in the movement for economic and social equity. To take part in the forum conversation, go to http://forums.policylink.org. We look forward to the conversation.

We share your concern for the people—and their families and friends—in the Gulf region. We must all double our efforts to ensure that they are able to rebuild their lives and thrive, even as we work to assure that all communities provide every person with the opportunity to participate and prosper.