Earlier this spring, our 2025 Equity Summit brought smart growth leaders, advocates, and practitioners together to explore how communities can work together to address their most pressing priorities for the built environment. From moving beyond housing scarcity to focusing on outcomes over process, the conversations we had over our two days together helped us gain … Continued
We’re thrilled to announce Jerusalem Demsas, staff writer at The Atlantic and thought leader on housing, urban policy, and economic equity, as the keynote speaker for the 2025 Equity Summit. Jerusalem is known for her ability to connect policy with real-world impact, and her writing deftly sheds light on the challenges and opportunities in creating … Continued
Join us on Thursday, December 12 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for our Equity Forum: Centering community to prevent displacement. The event will feature Sheila Somashekhar from the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, participants from SGA’s Community Connectors and Healing our Highways programs, and partners with ICF and Partnership for Southern Equity, who will present a new resource … Continued
Our staff has been working around the clock to prepare for the 2024 Equity Summit: Meeting the Moment, which is only seven days away! As we gear up for the event, we took a moment to reflect on why it matters to us and what will make this year’s Summit particularly special.
Day 1 | 4:00-4:55 p.m. At the Equity Summit, we’ve invited partner organizations to lead workshop sessions to examine real-world equity implications in planning. Join the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, CityFi, and Center for Creative Land Recycling for engaging and interactive discussions to move what we hear at the Summit into practice. Check out the … Continued
Divisive infrastructure has had long-term damage, both tangible and intangible, on Black and Brown communities. While we are beginning to see policies, programs, and funding to combat the destructive legacies of past decision-making, work remains and barriers to finding solutions exist. This panel will discuss how street design, community engagement, and a holistic approach to … Continued
Smart growth practitioners seeking to advance equity in and through our work experience tremendous, often overwhelming, stressors and challenges on a daily basis that can lead to exhaustion and burnout. This workshop aims to help people engaged in equity and justice work become more attuned with how such stress may be showing up in our … Continued
To provide a practical response to the information presented in Dangerous By Design, a Smart Growth America report that identifies unsafe road design as the main culprit in rising pedestrian deaths, this panel will explore a unique partnership between WABA, Howard University, and local high school students to address traffic violence before it happens through … Continued
Learn from cultural organizing groups from community-based organizations across the country working to preserve commercial corridors and community centers through arts and culture outside of historic urban ethnic enclaves. BIPOC/immigrant community members will find effective cultural community organizing strategies to build power and renegotiate exclusionary, top-down, community planning processes. Panelists will also discuss national initiatives … Continued
Structural racism in land use, infrastructure, and lending policies have physically divided and damaged communities of color and denied generations opportunities for wealth-building. Frontline community and advocacy organizations, frequently led by people of color, have fought these discriminatory practices and policies as well as their de facto effects for years, often with little support from … Continued