Change Your Mindset, Start with Naming Equity

The neighborhoods MHC committed to working in are not new and “up-and-coming” neighborhoods. They are culturally rich, vibrant, established communities with long-time residents who have worked tirelessly to belong. Our investment in each organization and resident group within these communities serves as a response to inequitable systemic forces that disproportionately impact these residents, to amplify their voices in creating their future, and ultimately give credibility to these community power centers. 

This work cannot shy away from naming equity and, with tools from national partners such as SPARCC, we’ve given folks the confidence and language to call out injustice, connect resident experiences with data to tell the story of displacement, and declare equity as the only way forward. There is still much progress to be made when it comes to building mutual respect across entities and people, but already through practice communities have learned and contributed equity perspectives to local and regional efforts.

“Going into this work, I wish initially I would’ve understood that there can be such a gap between city officials rolling out policy and the community that they’re intending to serve. There can be a big gulf there, a gulf in distance, language, trust. And it takes efforts like ours in 2020,”– Renee Martinez-Stone