Workshop Series One
The Context for Advancing Regional Equity
Understanding Regional Dynamics: Implications for Social and
Economic Justice
Across the country, communities are experiencing major political,
social, and economic shifts as a result of regional growth and
development patterns. To ensure that individuals and families
in all communities can participate in and benefit from regional
economic activity, advocates must understand these patterns.
This session features several of the nation’s leading policy
and research experts describing trends such as the nature and
location of jobs; racial, economic, and political changes in
the suburbs; and housing affordability across neighborhoods and
regions. They will provide an overview of national data and their
own in-depth analyses, and draw out the implications for effective
regional equity responses.
Moderator
Panelists
New Realities in Federal and State Funding
Since 2000, an unprecedented number of states have faced budget
crises driven by recession and the continuing retreat by the
federal government from supporting longstanding programs that
serve low-income communities. The result has been cuts in programs
and services at the state and local levels affecting education,
health, social services, and transportation. In the midst of
fiscal difficulties how can advocates continue to advance equity
and protect vulnerable populations? Explore the prognosis for
government fiscal support and its implications for communities.
Moderator
Panelists
Civil Rights Leaders Explore Regional Equity
How does where you live influence your quality of life; that is,
how you live? Where you live can determine your opportunity,
your future. Viewing the dynamics of civil rights through the
lens of regional equity unites the vitality and vision of both
movements for racial, economic, and social justice. These innovative
leaders discuss how to develop and implement strategies that
build a better society for all, especially for low-income people
and communities of color.
Moderator
Panelists
The Leadership Role of Public Officials
Around the country, local and state officials are implementing
equitable development and smart growth strategies in response
to the regional forces that influence their communities. Engage
in discussion with officials who are aggressively pursuing new
and innovative strategies to promote regional equity.
Moderator
Panelists
Infrastructure: The Next Equity Frontier
Advocates increasingly recognize the importance of infrastructure
decisions in regional development. Highway builders, agribusiness,
and utility companies typically dominate public infrastructure
decision-making, but community-based groups and coalitions
are increasingly gaining influence in financing, planning, and
regulatory policies for transportation, water, school facilities,
telecommunications, parks, energy generation, and other arenas.
Explore how infrastructure decisions shape neighborhoods and
metropolitan growth patterns and discuss efforts to ensure
that low-income residents benefit from these public investments.
Moderator
Panelists
Politics, Power, and Land Use Policy
Land use decisions have a critical impact on social, economic,
and environmental outcomes in regions. This panel of leading
advocates reviews innovative campaigns that promote fair land
use policies and practices and examines the positive impacts
on environmental justice, housing, transportation, and fiscal
reform.
Moderator
Panelists
Building Shared Perspectives: The Intersection of Smart Growth, Regional Equity, and Environmental Justice
The smart growth, regional equity, and environmental justice movements all seek to influence regional development decisions. Tensions can emerge regarding goals, activities, priorities, and language. This session investigates how some of the nation’s most progressive organizations have started to blend disparate interests to promote more equitable and inclusive metropolitan areas. Hear how advocates address differences, resolve confiicts, and unite around a common cause.
Moderator
Panelists
Workshop Series Two
Trends in the Field
Achieving Prosperity and Opportunity in America’s
Older Core Cities
While some of America’s cities continue to experience positive
growth, many others continue to struggle with issues of population
loss, stagnant economies, large scale vacancy and abandonment,
and concentrated poverty. This session will explore how the regional
equity framework is a viable and effective tool to revitalize
struggling older core cities—primarily located in the Midwest
and Northeast—into vibrant, equitable, and competitive
centers of prosperity and opportunity. Panelists will review
key trends effecting America’s older core cities, key principles
for charting a new course, and promising strategies and policies
being advanced at the local and state level.
Moderator
Panelists
On Track: An Analysis of Transit-Oriented Development
Transit-oriented developments (TODs) are mixed-use developments
centered around transit hubs that hold the promise of connecting
low-income people to employment opportunities, quality housing,
and services. Meaningful participation and leadership by community
advocates in TOD projects are needed to prevent such consequences
as the displacement of existing low-income residents. Increasingly,
a diverse array of community development and advocacy organizations
recognize the tangible opportunity that TODs represent. Learn
about the role that public policy plays in securing effective
TOD and how cooperation between the diverse participants can
yield positive and equitable results.
Moderator
Panelists
Promoting Equitable Development in Rural Communities
More than 55 million people in the United States live in areas
defined by the Census Bureau as rural, yet these areas are often
forgotten in regional policy discourse. However, there are many
best practices found in Rural America that have relevance to
other communities. The lessons to be learned there address ways
to organize residents and ensure that their voices are heard
in policymaking and asset development strategies. Discover the
issues that confront advocates in these communities and the significance
of rural policy agendas for achieving regional equity.
Moderator
Panelists
Building the High-Road Economy: Labor, Jobs, and Smart Growth
What are the promising strategies for promoting a high-road economy
in the face of globalization and fierce corporate competition?
In this session, labor, business, and community leaders will
discuss challenges and opportunities to meet the needs of working
families through smart growth and regional economic development
initiatives.
Moderator
Panelists
Food for Thought: Regional Access to Healthy Foods
The availability of affordable, quality fresh fruits, vegetables,
and other healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods determines
dietary choices, well-being, and influences local economic
development. Learn about innovative strategies to improve access to healthy
food, including: efforts to help rural Latino farmers resist
the commodification of water and ensure sustainable agricultural
practices; a colorful mobile market that brings healthy food
and nutrition education to residents of an underserved neighborhood;
a health maintenance organization that hosts farmers’ markets
for their staff and plan members; and a successful policy advocacy
effort that secured $100 million to bring grocery stores, farmers’ markets,
and healthy corner stores to residents in underserved neighborhoods
across Pennsylvania. Engage in discussion with speakers and
session participants about how efforts to secure healthy food
can transform the physical and economic health of communities
and regions.
Moderator
Panelists
Separate and Unequal Infrastructure: Public Investment in School
Facilities
More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, racial segregation
persists and regional development patterns and population growth
have resulted in a massive need to modernize old schools and construct
new ones. School districts across the country are in the midst
of a $90 billion three-year building boom. Unfortunately, many
low-income communities of color receive less of this public investment
than wealthier communities. Examine how recent litigation and legislative
advocacy are pushing states to make their school construction expenditures
more equitable.
Moderator
Panelists
Crossing Borders: Immigrants, Communities, and Regional Development
Recognizing the vibrancy and energy that immigrants bring to
regions paves the way for a discussion of the various challenges
and opportunities
when engaging diverse communities in regional equity efforts. Join
speakers representing philanthropy and community development, as
they discuss how these demographic changes affect the regions and
communities in which they work. Participants will learn about promising
practices to promote social and economic inclusion.
Moderator
Panelists
Workshop Series Three
Leveraging Local, Regional, and State Policy
The Philadelphia Story
This panel offers a case study of our host region that looks
at efforts underway to promote greater economic prosperity
and inclusion in Greater Philadelphia. The session will review
the key opportunities and challenges that confront Greater
Philadelphia and will feature initiatives being advanced at
the local, regional, and state level to return Philadelphia—and
indeed the whole state—to economic vibrancy. Hear from
a diverse array of perspectives including the community development,
social service, smart growth, and business communities.
Moderator
Panelists
The Double Bottom Line: Business Perspectives on Equitable
Development
Private sector leaders are essential partners in advancing regional
equity. This session features a moderated discussion among business
leaders who seek a double bottom line from their investments.
Panelists share how they can receive necessary financial returns
while creating community benefits such as good jobs, quality
housing, environmentally sensitive production values, and increased
opportunities
for ownership and wealth building for residents. Participants
will learn practical ideas on engaging business leaders in double
bottom line discussions in their communities.
Moderator
Panelists
Rural and Urban Alliances for Economic Opportunity
In many states across the nation, low-income rural and urban
core communities face similar challenges such as economic crises
and concentrated poverty. While their agendas for confronting
these challenges may be similar, political alliances between
rural and urban constituencies are rare. Where are the connecting
points for alliance-building and shared leadership opportunities?
Hear about experiences that are equitable, environmentally
sustainable, and benefit both rural and urban constituents
and share insights on advancing strategies and building political
alliances to promote economic growth and vitality.
Moderator
Panelists
Promoting Equitable Transportation Investments
Federal and state transportation investments offer opportunities
for infiuencing regional development. But too often, rather than
reinvestment in existing infrastructure or public transit that
can revitalize older communities, these resources are distributed
in ways that encourage sprawl and disinvestment. Across the country,
coalitions are seeking to influence the way transportation dollars
are allocated and to promote reinvestment, greater mobility,
and access to regional opportunity for low-income people. Leading
transit advocates discuss what they are doing to achieve transportation
equity.
Moderator
Panelists
Action for Regional Equity:
A Massachusetts Advocacy Case Study
For nearly three years, leading activists in Massachusetts have
been promoting policies that address affordable housing, transit
investment, and environmental justice. This work necessitates
building partnerships that transcend traditional geographic and
issue boundaries across individual neighborhoods and all the
way to the State House in Boston. Discuss the challenges of working
with diverse interests, stretching limited organizational resources,
engaging a politically resistant culture, and the progress that
has been achieved: the first statewide policy campaigns led by
Action! have begun to bring a wide array of community organizations
into collective advocacy for regional equity.
Moderator
Panelists
Sub/urban: Building Alliances for Metropolitan Equity
The inequities associated with sprawling development patterns
harm not only urban centers, but increasingly older, first-tier
suburbs. In response, numerous coalitions are emerging among
urban and suburban communities. This session examines the successes
and challenges of organizing urban-suburban political alliances
to advance regional equity. Panelists focus on strategies that
move a statewide policy agenda for regional impact, develop and
motivate constituents, and sustain efforts over the long haul.
Moderator
Panelists
Lessons from Los Angeles: Managing Public Investment for Growth
and Equitable Development
With 10 million residents, Los Angeles County is the most populous
county in the nation. It has grown by one million residents in
the past 10 years, and is expected to keep on growing. A variety
of approaches are being employed to deal with the challenges
brought about by this growth, including infill development and
the revitalization of urban neighborhoods. Hear about several
equitable development efforts underway and discuss how lessons
from these struggles are relevant for much of the rest of the
country.
Moderator
Panelists
Workshop Series Four
Building Skills and Crafting Effective Tactics
Forging Effective Cross-Sector Collaborations: A Focus on Health
Disparities
Collaboration across diverse sectors is critical to achieving
regional equity. This session focuses on how to build and maintain
effective coalitions—including outreach, communications,
leadership development, and balancing divergent perspectives.
An analysis of a cross-sector collaboration to address health
disparities brings on-the-ground perspective to the session.
Emphasis will be on understanding the intersection of a variety
of community factors that impact health, the need for comprehensive
strategies, and the role of philanthropy in funding broad scale
initiatives.
Moderator
Panelists
e-Advocacy: Effective Strategies for Policy Campaigns
The 2004 elections underscored the rapid and dramatic emergence
of e-advocacy as a tool for change. In particular, ballot campaigns
demonstrated how a host of online techniques—emails, blogs,
alerts, flash videos—can facilitate direct interaction
and immediate action. Come see exciting examples of e-advocacy
tools
and explore how they can be used to advance your policy campaigns.
Moderator
Panelists
Communicating About Regional Equity
Ongoing strategic communications plans and campaigns are essential
to efforts to achieve policy change. Challenges to such efforts
include limited organizational resources as well as media that
appear disinterested or uninformed about issues related to
poverty and equity. The session will focus on building the
skills necessary to develop effective messages, pitch stories,
get placements, and deliver key messages to target audiences.
Discuss how to develop internal media resources and build relationships
among traditional, ethnic, and alternative media. Learn high-tech
and no-tech tips for effectively making the case for regional
equity.
Moderator
Panelists
But Did it Make a Difference? Evaluation and Indicators
Are you interested in measuring or documenting the outcomes of
your organization’s work? Do you wonder how funders, evaluators,
and researchers capture the important facts and trends in your
community? This session helps demystify evaluation, indicators,
and other methods and measures used to assess progress and make
the case for neighborhood revitalization and regional equity.
The panelists are leaders of innovative community-based research
and evaluation projects, and provide first-hand accounts of how
residents are engaged in this work. The session gives examples
of how data can galvanize public interest, improve practice,
and leverage greater philanthropic resources.
Moderators
Panelists
Winning Affordable Housing Policies
Most regions in the United States are in desperate need of more
affordable housing. Across the country, community advocates and
elected officials are pursuing the adoption of housing trust
funds, inclusionary zoning, and mixed-income and transit-oriented
developments
to increase housing opportunities for low-income and moderate-income
residents. Advocacy campaigns are critical to securing affordable
housing. Effective use of media, public events, community forums,
lobbying, and press conferences can move policymakers to adopt
much needed housing measures. In this workshop, some of the nation’s
leading state and local advocates share strategies to increase
session participants’ efficacy in securing affordable housing.
Moderator
Panelists
The Advocate: Tools and Strategies for Progressive Policy Change
This session provides an introduction to the policy process,
advocacy tools, and useful strategies for new advocates, and
provides an opportunity for long-time advocates to network with
one another, identify useful resources, and share helpful strategies.
Small group discussions with advocates working on similar issues
will focus on strategies and experiences in choosing goals, organizing
a coalition, gathering and using research, building public will,
and working effectively with policymakers.
Moderator
Panelists
Exploring New Information Systems: GIS as an Advocacy Tool
Successful advocacy is increasingly being supported by a wide
variety of data analysis and display systems. This session
reviews the latest desktop and web-based Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) and data analysis tools for policy advocacy.
Presenters showcase GIS projects developed by nonprofits, universities,
public-nonprofit partnerships, and the private sector. Experience
some of the most powerful applications and learn how strategic
mapping tools can be used to advance regional equity.
Moderator
Panelists
Workshop Series Five
Strategic Alliances, Public Will, and Community Organizing, Part
I
Inclusionary Zoning Campaigns for Diverse Communities
Inclusionary zoning (IZ) is increasingly used as a policy tool
for creating affordable housing by setting aside affordable
units in new or rehabilitated housing developments. In the
process, IZ also promotes the creation of mixed-income communities.
In this session, panelists discuss campaigns underway in Chicago,
New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington, D.C.,
sharing their successes, how they are overcoming roadblocks,
and how to build public will for this important affordable
housing tool.
Moderator
Panelists
Detroit: Re-establishing the Motor City as the Engine for Regional
Development
Facing tremendous impediments to economic recovery, community,
business, and political leaders have begun to advance strategies
that promote greater prosperity among all residents in Detroit
and the broader region. This session addresses the unbalanced
development patterns that have created challenges for regional
equity and highlight emerging strategies for economic recovery
that advance social, economic, and racial equity. Leaders from
some of the region’s most powerful and innovative institutions
will discuss essential components of the regional equity agenda
for the Motor City: inclusive transportation policies, land use
reforms that level the playing field for development, city-suburb
alliances, and addressing race and regionalism.
Moderator
Panelists
Advancing Environmental Justice Across Regions
Regional dynamics affect land, air, and water quality in communities
across the country. Environmental justice advocates are addressing
these dynamics by building strong coalitions, speaking out, and
working with a variety of partners to reach their goals. Panelists
will talk about the strategies and networks that hold the most
promise for achieving greater environmental justice in regions
across the nation.
Moderator
Panelists
Messaging and Framing: Engaging the Public in the Regional
Development Discourse
While the number of individuals and organizations working to
achieve regional equity and smart growth is on the rise, their
efforts have not yet captured the widespread media attention
that is necessary to engage the general public in the need for
policy change. Attracting media attention and reaching desired
audiences requires developing and framing key messages in ways
that are compelling and cogent and that underscore their relevance
to the lives of all people, including those in low-income neighborhoods
and communities of color. In this session, panelists explore
why successful communications strategies begin with an understanding
of the importance of messaging and framing to position regional
equity and smart growth issues as vital to local, state, and
federal policy conversations.
Moderator
Panelists
Securing Community Benefits
Agreements
Community benefits agreements (CBAs) have emerged as a powerful
equitable development strategy by providing community members
the means to ensure that public investments result in defined
public benefits tailored to community needs. This session examines
best practices from completed and promising CBAs, drawing on
the perspectives of community-based organizations in California,
New York, and Wisconsin.
Moderator
Panelists
Friends in High Places: Administrative and Legislative Alliances
Elected and appointed officials are working to promote sustainable,
equitable regional development through strategic alliances
with community partners and advocates. This open dialogue presents
their inside perspectives and experiences and how outside influences
can play a critical role in policy decisions.
Moderator
Panelists
Racial and Cultural Competencies in Advocacy Work
This workshop explores the racial and cultural tensions often
present in the struggle to promote regional equity. Advancing
equity touches on sensitive issues of wealth, race, and class.
How do advocates develop the cultural competencies needed to
promote inclusion and build diverse community leadership? Attention
to this human dimension of social change is central to effectively
building lasting coalitions for addressing longstanding inequities
in communities. Discuss strategies to address these issues and
effectively engage all residents in policy advocacy, with particular
emphasis on low-income people and communities of color. Lessons
from the Twin Cities, the Mississippi Delta, and the nation’s
capital demonstrate promising practices for further consideration.
Moderator
Panelists
Workshop Series Six
Strategic Alliances, Public Will, and Community Organizing, Part
II
Promoting Housing Opportunity Across Regions
One troubling consequence of regional development patterns is
the continued segregation of housing by income and race. These
trends have tremendous impact on low-income people and communities
of color, limiting their access to quality housing, positive
employment, educational attainment, and other economic opportunities.
Achieving racially-integrated, economically-diverse housing
in communities throughout a region requires a combination of
skills: effective advocacy, strategic policy goals, consistent
monitoring, and creative development approaches. Learn what
some of the nation’s leading housing advocates, researchers,
and policymakers are doing to promote the equitable distribution
of affordable housing across regions.
Moderator
Panelists
Faith in Action: Congregational Perspectives on Advancing Regional
Equity
During the last several years, some of the nation’s preeminent
faith-based organizing networks have embraced regional equity
to address issues facing their communities. There is power in
organized constituencies and low-income, low-wealth families
are often organized through their faith institutions. This workshop
reflects on how regional equity issues are viewed by faith-based
organizations, how congregations can help ensure that all individuals
and families can participate in and benefit from economic growth
and activity throughout regions, and how more voices from the
faith community can be added to regional equity discussions and
policy debates.
Moderator
Panelists
Community Factors that Impact Health: New Allies, New Messages
At the intersection of health, community, and region, advocates
are finding powerful new allies and making convincing arguments
about the many factors that contribute to health and well-being.
Access to affordable housing, stores and services, public transit,
and healthy air, water, and land are all factors that affect
health and are profoundly influenced by regional economic and
development dynamics. Find out how advocates for health, housing,
and environmental justice are crossing issue boundaries to build
strong communities. Panelists and participants will explore some
of the unique needs of urban and tribal communities and learn
about promising practices to strengthen these communities.
Moderator
Panelists
Philanthropy as Partners: Funders’ Perspectives
on Regional and Neighborhood Equity
Building on a plenary session earlier in the agenda, this session
allows for a deeper discussion regarding the roles of philanthropy
in advancing social and economic equity. Foundation representatives
discuss how they think about this work and the challenges they
face in making the case for grantmaking in this area. Learn what
grantees can do to help them support this work.
Moderator
Panelists
The Wal-Mart Effect: Building the Momentum to Respond
Wal-Mart has become the largest private employer in both the
United States and Mexico, and a global economic power. As the
retail giant further expands in rural communities, reaches into
new urban markets, and strengthens its philanthropic and public
relations initiatives, the “Wal-Mart Effect” on local
communities has galvanized academics, policymakers, the media,
organized labor, and community organizers around the world. Low-income
communities struggle with the difficult choice of whether to
support a low-wage, non-union employer, or oppose what is sometimes
their
only opportunity for local retail and jobs. Panelists present
multiple sides of this issue, with a discussion that seeks to
move beyond polarizing aspects of the Wal-Mart debate.
Moderator
Panelists
Demonstrating the Struggle for Regional Equity in Camden, New
Jersey
Devastated by the social and economic restructuring of urban
America, Camden is a city struggling with poverty, crime, and
environmental degradation. The State of New Jersey has highlighted
the shared local, regional, and state interest in having Camden
revitalized with the implementation of a five-year, $175 million
receivership. Hear about the “inside game” of rebuilding
Camden as a regional asset, the “outside game” of
addressing the structural and political forces perpetuating disparities,
and about efforts to link people with opportunity throughout
the region that are underway. Hear about the challenges and lessons
learned from people trying to make regional equity a reality
on the ground.
Moderator
Panelists
Gentrification: The Unfinished Agenda
After receiving significant attention in the mid-to- late-nineties,
the issue of gentrification faded slightly from the national
spotlight. Yet as thousands of low-income and moderate-income
residents
can attest, the problem is far from solved. As the decisions
that drive the displacement of longstanding community members
from neighborhoods undergoing revitalization become increasingly
regional in nature, organizers and advocates are tailoring their
strategies and tactics. See how neighborhood, regional, and state
advocacy has adjusted to the evolving character of gentrification,
and how civic engagement has become even more important in advancing
policies that prevent displacement.
Moderator
Panelists
updated May 11, 2005
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