Mohanad Alnajjar

Place-Based Strategies for Building Community Power and Addressing the Root Causes of Housing and Land Injustice

Two community coalitions share how they shift local community power by embedding racial equity values into collective decision-making structures. They will discuss the structures for equitable governance and community engagement that allow their work to be led by and accountable to communities of color.

They will share the tools they use to ensure their community development and health equity policy priorities emerge from and are vetted by communities of color and address the root causes of the injustices baked into our housing and land systems. Some tools shared will include power mapping, root cause analysis, and policy prioritization, as well as models for collective governance that leverage the many resources, experiences, and knowledge from partners.

A conversation will be facilitated about the inside/outside strategies these coalitions use to work with allied institutions. This will explore how they maintain their coalition’s commitment to systems change and community decision-making while collaborating with partners who have varying degrees of commitment to racial equity.

The presenters will investigate the common themes and obstacles that emerge across places and points of deviation, while encouraging participants to consider how similar efforts might look in their own communities. The session will be designed for participants to engage in conversations about deepening racial equity analysis and practices in their own place-based and systems change work and decision-making processes.

Participants will leave with a set of tools and practices around community ownership, coalition building, and collective governance structures to bring back to their own communities.