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Issue, Geographic, and Strategy Caucuses
On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, summit participants will have an opportunity to caucus about issues they find important in working to build equitable neighborhoods and regions. These facilitated sessions provide opportunities to share information, resources, and ideas about issues that may not be covered in the workshops and plenaries or that participants would like to discuss in more depth.
Scheduled caucuses are described below; space is available for a limited number of additional caucuses. If you’re interesting in facilitating one, please fill out a caucus form when you register at the summit. Announcements of caucuses will be posted daily in the registration area.
African American Forum on Race and Regionalism:
Promoting Sustainable Metropolitan Communities
The session features renowned African American scholars and experts
discussing the influence and challenges of race on the sustainability
of metropolitan communities. This session is sponsored by the
African American Forum on Race & Regionalism (AAFRR), which
was initiated in 2002 by the Ford Foundation. AAFRR is a means
to share experiences and build broad strategic alliances that
advance regional equity. Spearheaded by Carl Anthony of the Ford
Foundation, AAFRR is co-chaired by Angela Glover Blackwell of
PolicyLink; Robert Bullard at Clark Atlanta University’s
Environmental Justice Resource Center; and john a. powell of
the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.
Facilitators:
Carl Anthony, Acting Director, Community and Resource
Development Unit, Ford Foundation
Deeohn Ferris, President, Global Environmental Resources Inc.
Transit-Centered Community Development Leadership Roundtable
Using the Philadelphia Allegheny Rail Station area as a case
study, national and local leaders will explore the opportunities
and challenges of creating urban infill transit-oriented development
in low-wealth neighborhoods. This site, located within the low-
wealth, African American Allegheny West neighborhood offers commuter
rail and bus service to a significant number of the region’s
job clusters. Yet the station area is underutilized and surrounded
by abandoned and blighted industrial properties. Join this caucus
discussion about how transit-centered community development approaches
can: (1) improve access to regional employment opportunities;
(2) connect neighborhood-based employers to the regional workforce;
and (3) leverage the transit station area as a focus for redevelopment
efforts.
Facilitator:
Beverly Coleman, Executive Director, Philadelphia
Neighborhood Development Collaborative
Community Organizers’ Caucus
Regardless of the policy objective, organizing remains a critical
strategy for mobilizing neighborhood residents to participate
in major decisions that affect their quality of life. The need
for organizing to keep pace with the rapidly changing conditions
in metropolitan regions is a theme that will be highlighted throughout
the summit. This caucus offers a place for organizers attending
the summit to compare notes, tactics, and strategies about the
challenges they face. Organizers from all levels of experience
are encouraged to participate in the caucus to meet and think
together about how to make the most of the emerging regional
equity movement.
Facilitator:
Dwayne Marsh, Senior Associate, PolicyLink
There Goes The Neighborhood?
The Challenges and Opportunities of Equitable Development and
the Arts
Neighborhood development efforts can place the needs of community
members and those of artists and cultural groups in conflict.
Both want affordable places to live and work and the means to
sustain themselves. Rising costs, competition for available space
and financing, as well as historic representations of communities
and artists as adversaries diminish opportunities for making
common cause. Through current research, case studies, discussion,
and examples from caucus participants, this session will examine
issues, recommend resources, and explore such alternative principles
and practices of cooperation as asset-based development, inclusionary
zoning, and engaging stakeholders.
Facilitators:
Caron Atlas, Consultant
Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Consultant
Starting at the Grassroots:
How to Put ‘Regional’ in Community Building
Civic engagement is an important strategy in linking grassroots
community efforts to regional initiatives aimed at creating healthy
neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitan regions. Community builders
have many strategies and lessons to share about how community
building strategies and advocacy efforts can build civic capacity
and achieve equitable policy outcomes. The National Community
Building Network (NCBN) invites you to a conversation among practitioners,
advocates, and funders that will clarify the role of grassroots
community building in creating meaningful regional equity policy
agendas.
Facilitator:
Thomas Watson, NCBN Board Member and Co-Founder
of the Center for Participatory Change
Pennsylvania Community Development Caucus
Do you feel community development is well represented at decision-making
tables in Pennsylvania? Do you and your colleagues have a coherent
message about the value of your work? Do you field the community
development field has the tools necessary for community revitalization?
These are the questions you and your colleagues from around the
Commonwealth will discuss in this caucus as you learn about efforts
and opportunities to advocate for community development at the
regional and state level. This caucus will bring together rural,
urban, and suburban community development organizations, advocates,
funders, and intermediaries from around the state to share experiences
working on state and regional policy issues. Representatives
from 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Rural Local Initiatives
Support Corporation, the Philadelphia Association of CDCS, and
the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network will share information
about some of the efforts already underway that you can tap into.
Facilitator:
Elizabeth Lynn, Senior Program Officer, McCune
Foundation
Rural Opportunities and Policy Challenges
This caucus offers an opportunity for rural policy players, researchers,
and practitioners to network, build relationships, and start
a process of peer technical assistance. The caucus will lift
up examples of current rural policy campaigns and best practices
and lessons learned that can be shared and built upon by other
rural policy activists. The Caucus will explore what a political
and policy agenda might look like to better connect Rural America
with Metropolitan America by focusing on social and economic
equity.
Facilitator:
Joe Brooks, Vice President for Civic Engagement,
PolicyLink
Housing Advocacy
An opportunity for housing advocates from around the country
to gather and share success stories, challenges, and strategies.
Are you working to create a local housing trust fund? Win inclusionary
zoning? Another housing advocacy issue? Bring materials from
your campaign and be prepared to tell your story. The session
will open with a brief overview of the advocacy elements of the
Philadelphia Housing Trust Fund Campaign.
Facilitator:
Sue Sierra, Policy Coordinator for the Philadelphia
Association of CDCs
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