Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Dennice Barr

Buffalo Food Equity Network member | Food for the Spirit
Pronouns: She/her
Dennice Barr is an organizer and community liaison for The Fruit Belt neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. She advocates for public education and transportation, food equity and land appropriation and has supported the Fruit Belt community in becoming the first residential parking permit system in Buffalo, co-founded the Fruit Belt Community Land Trust, and also works to fully fund a Black-owned community food co-op. Dennice is a former Western New York Delegate for the Poor People’s Campaign, high school Parent Facilitator, and mentoring program organizer.

Presentations from Facing Race 2022

Not Your Traditional Policy Approach — Redefining a Win for Our Communities

Building from the grassroots, the Policy Innovation Lab collective is working to disrupt the patterns of traditional policy development, positioning communities as owners and decision-makers over the policies that directly affect their daily lives. From food justice, water infrastructure, tenant rights, and energy democracy, these four community-driven organizations are learning from each other’s organizing and taking an intersectional approach in their policy development by connecting these climate justice issues and addressing them through a racial and gender justice lens.

During this session, you will have the chance to rethink the traditional local policy process and provide feedback on the ways we can ground in frameworks like the Just Transition and a Feminist Agenda for a Green New Deal. You will hear how this collective continues to move away from the traditional policy process and redefine how our communities create and drive our collective future. And you will be able to engage in how we redefine what winning means that goes beyond the passage of policy. Come to this session ready to redefine our policy process and to learn from the collective wisdom of the Policy Innovation Lab partners and the pathways they are building to create racially equitable policy.

Speakers: Dennice Barr, Jazmín Rodriguez Lopez, Shawmar Pitts, Janelle Wright