TRANSCRIPTTitle: Engaging Communities for Change: Stories from California

Date: November 3, 2016

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.This transcript is being provided in rough-draft format.

www.hometeamcaptions.com

>> LAURA BURR: Welcome to today's dialogue for health web forum. Engaging communities for change: Stories from California brought to you in collaboration from CA for health and dialogue 4 health. We thank the California endowment for funding today's event. My name is Laura Burr, and I will be hosting along with my colleague, Christina Lane. Realtime captioning is provided today by Stacey of Home Team Captions. Click the media viewer icon on the top right of your screen. If you're on a Mac, you will see it on the bottom right. Next, locate the link in the captioning panel that says show/hide header. If you click these links, you'll be able to see the captioning more easily. And if the captioning window ever disappears, click the media viewer icon to bring it back again. Today's web forum is listen-only. That means that you can hear us, but we can't hear you. That doesn't mean, though, that it won't be interruptive. Please share your thoughts and questions by typing them in the Q&A box. If r the Q&A panel can be toggled on and off by clicking. If you're on a Mac, you'll see it on the bottom right of your screen. In the Q&A panel, collect all panelists in the drop-down menu so that your question gets sent to the right place. You can also use the Q&A box to communicate with me if you're having any audio issues. And we'll conduct polls today to get your feedback during the event. When you see a poll, please select your answer, and be sure to click the submit button. We're getting started with a poll right now. You may be interested in seeing how others are attending this event. And we'll bring up that, and you can let us know if you're in a group or if you're attending alone. And I can see lots of responses coming now. Be sure to click submit. And Christina, you can go ahead and close that poll. And click apply, and we'll see the results, but it takes a few moments for those results to come up. And it looks like 94% are attending alone. And about 4% are in a group of two to five people. So thank you for taking that first poll. And now I'd like to introduce you to today's moderator. It's my pleasure to introduce sue Watson. Sue is the program director for the CA4 Health community of practice. Previously she was the manager for public health institute's community transformation grant where she provided oversight for all strategic directions. Susan has over 17 years of experience in various sectors of public health that has included work on a variety of issues in the academic research, government, nonprofit, and community arenas. Both rural and urban. She has managed efforts with community-based organizations, county and state health departments, and community coalitions. So welcome, Sue, and I will hand it over to you now.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Thanks, Laura, and thank you all for joining us. I want to

start by showing a little bit of who might be participating today. I'm having some technical issues of my slides not advancing.

>> LAURA BURR: Hi, Sue, I'll go ahead and advance for you. >> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: They're not advancing. >> LAURA BURR: I think we're just having a little delay in WebEx, but I'll go ahead and

move them for you. >> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Great. Well, we had over 260 registrants from across the

United States and even some located internationally, which is fantastic. The registrants were predominantly from nonprofit organizations and local or state government entities, but there appears to be a really good mix of sectors represented showing the broad interest in this topic. Before we jump into the presentations, I want to share a little bit about CA4Health. It is a community of practice that works across California to unite partners and leverage capacity around chronic decide prevention and health equity. We are excited to showcase examples that highlight the power of community organizing, mobilization, and civic engagement to drive change. I was fortunate enough to attend the California endowment building healthy communities conference earlier this year, and heard about some of the exciting work of our presenters. They are cultivating and engaging community leaders and challenging institutions all in the spirit of healthier and more engaged communities. I also want to note that we had a presenter who is going to share on his work in Watsonville around diabetes, but unfortunately he had to bow out on participating today. He's deep in the final push on the November ballot in the Bay area, so his schedule got really over packed. But we still have two fantastic stories to hear about. The speakers will give their presentations, then we'll have time for some brief specific Q&A after each, and more time after they're done for further discussion. So feel free to type your questions in throughout the presentations in the Q&A box as Laura described. And one more note. We will be showing a short video as part of the second presentation. Depending on your internet speed and connections, there may be a slight delay while the video loads, and you may experience some buffering on your end while viewing. To reduce issues while viewing you should minimize the number of open applications on your computer. If you experience starts and stops, don't leave the webinar. You will be synced back to the presentation when Eli returns to the slides. So to get us going, I would like to introduce Victor Gonzalez. Victor works in his hometown as the civic engagement manager and youth coordinator at the eastern Coachella Valley building healthy communities. Take it away. We will pass you the presenter's ball and you'll need to unmute yourself. Are we able to, Laura, to unmute Victor? There we go.

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: Cool. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, everybody, for making this happen for the great folks that are listening. My name is Victor Gonzalez. First, I'm going to talk a little bit about what building healthy communities is, for those of you who might not know the work. It is an initiative that came out of the California endowment. It's a ten-year initiative where in the middle, in the sixth year of the initiative. And it's an initiative that spans all across California with 14 communities over 14BHD sites. And a focus of building healthy communities has is to improve employment opportunities, education, housing, neighborhood safety, unhealthy environmental conditions and access to healthy foods, and much more. The sites have picked up on things that are important to each site. In the Coachella Valley, for example, we focus on schools, prevention, access to health care, and also in neighborhoods. So getting access to infrastructure. I can expand a little bit of what that means in a local context.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: This is Sue. I just want to make sure that if you have slides, that you advance them.

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: Perfect. Thank you so much, Susan. So yeah, our focus on building healthy communities is to make sure that usually when I used to think of being healthy, it was about having access to a doctor, make sure that I was eating healthy, and that is very important. But one of the priorities we have is looking at our neighborhoods in the local context in which we grow up in, and understanding the -- our health conditions, how they are affected by outside forces. So you know, one example is that we focus in school so making sure that people understand -- the community understands the budget process, how they can be engaged and the implementation of tax money going into the schools, it's important for the communities to understand that they have a say in how this money is being spent. The other thing is making sure that people have access to health care regardless of document status. And I mention with infrastructure, there's a lot of trailer parks in our community, for example, that are not connected to water grids or sewer systems and don't have pavement. These are things that we focus on, being a rural site. It might look a little bit different from urban areas. So we have a lot of issues with Transportation, you know? And basic infrastructural things that I just mentioned. So, for us, the community has collaborated and we felt that Vota, which is the initiative for engaging people civically is one of the things that we have focused on as a collaborative. So, you know, I just want to make sure that I want to say that right off the bat, that I have a lot of pictures. There's really no words on my slides. So if you want to take notes or listen, that's really great. Just know that I'm just going to be showing pictures as I speak. So the Vota campaign is getting voters to participate and make sure there is links with being civically engaged to having better health and overall wellness. So our mission is to improve the health of people within the community as they engage civically. So Vota emphasizes the importance of youth forces. It empowers the disenfranchised population. There is a clear distinction from the west side to the east side which has service jobs and agriculture and things like that. For us, we feel it's time -- our community has always been empowered, but I feel like we have been missing structure. So through the campaign and working collaboratively, we have really jumped the numbers as to how many people have been engaged civically within the school council, within community councils and things like that. For us, Vota is something as a community that we hold very strong. In addition to that, so I work with very closely with youth across two high schools, and they are part of the youth organizing council. And they have also taken up their own civic engagement, which is the Y vote, the youth vote. It's a coalition within southern California with organizations that are targeting voters between the ages of 18 to 35 to make sure that the message is clear to make sure that they are one of the important young voters in California that can make an impact in the next election. Some of the things that the youth focus on is making sure, since we're a nonprofit, we can't say who people can vote for, what ballot issues they should vote for. We make sure our volunteers are aware of that. But we do want to make sure that we engage people so that they can engage civically, and the way we reach out to the voters is they have the ability to change rules within how people are sentenced, for example. Or they have a chance to influence how spending is prioritize in California. So those are some of the things that our youth are taking up. Some of the youth are not eligible to vote, so it's up to them to outreach to people that can and remind them about the importance of why we do this. Historically, we are a community that, you know, is composed of immigrants from mostly from Mexico and other areas in Latin America. It's an area that is often neglected when it comes down to decision making or people running for office or prioritizing what the needs of the community are. I'm sure there are many other communities from the listeners that share some of these struggles. So, for us, it's important to make sure that people recognize that we are a community that deserves to be listened to. And one way that we're doing that

is to make sure that we outreach to people that can make that difference. As I go forward, I want to explain that the leadership development that we have follows a linear path. Although it is not linear, we try to think of it in those terms, and we try to engage people, so build awareness of what's going on with building healthy communities and what the coalition is about. After we develop an awareness, we find ways of supporting people with things that they want to change in the community. After that we try to engage them in other ways where they can contribute to the actions that are happening. And our end goal is to make sure that people are leading the work that needs to happen in the community. The work that I do, I am a facilitator to make sure that we provide the tools for our young leaders, our parents to be civically engaged to prepare them for the process. How to speak at council meetings, you know? Skills that I think are sometimes overlooked in our community, those are the foundation for creating the empowerment to say something, and having the feeling that they can actually do it. For us, we engage. We build awareness.And you know, we try to move them as much as possible into them contributing their ideas and their dreams to eventually lead into action. One of the biggest focuses that we have here, and we identified as a coalition, Building Healthy Communities. One is civic engagement over community. Second, the youth leadership that we want to see. The youth leadership is very important, because we often engage -- and I think it has to do with a variety of factors, working conditions that many of our parents go through. The lack of attention that our students in our schools -- I have often taken the role of supplementing what is missing from schools, and that's the ability to dream and the ability to be engaged in places where actions can happen. Oftentimes I have the students do a basic drawing, and you know, these are high school students that I mostly engage with. And sometimes they share with me, you know what? I don't want to -- I don't feel like I can draw. I'm not creative. I can't do this. For me it's reinvoking that it's up to us to really envision what we want to see in it. I spent a lot of time developing a narrative with the students of where they come from, who they are at this moment. Just because -- our goal is to engage them civically, that's very important. But I've noticed that I can't engage students without first identifying what's important to them. So for me and for the collaborative, it's, you know, engaging in their stories. Their stories of where they come from. And the reason why this is important is because, you know, we might have some students that feel like they need to leave the Coachella Valley because there is nothing being offered to them to expand their leadership. For us, it's like what are things we can do to engage them. It starts with engagement and it starts with students standing up for themselves. This will kind of be like my closing remark. The main important thing is that we want to do is develop relationships with the community. Here our focus is not to be highlighted in the work that has been happening. We have identified that, you know, if people work alone, it's easier for them to get things done or get those victories. But, if we don't move forward as a community, then the sustainability piece is what's missing. You know? We don't want to do things as an organization, we want to do things as a community. It's important for us to pass it on to the community. I am from here, too. I'm a community member. It's important for me to share that knowledge of what -- and not being fearful of somebody one day taking the roles that I'm in. That's what I always reiterate with the students. I remind them this is where I'm at. This is where you can go. So I think dealing with young people, parents, or you know, parent leaders, just remind them of the importance of the work that they are engaging in. So for that, you know, I have here base building. One of the things that we have identified as one of the biggest factors of developing this relationship is having follow-up. Sometimes I engage a lot in the work and I can't call people and remind them, you know, just thanking them for the work when we have actions. That is one of the biggest things

that I have taken with me is just following up with people. Another thing that I have taken up is following the line of the youth leadership is having them engaged with the community. As you can see here, community forums, so we make sure that the youth are the ones planning the events. We give them the spotlight, you know? It's not up to me to say I did this event and I should be glorified for it. That's not what the intentions that we have here. So the sooner we can get them up stage, the sooner we can get them to planning, the better we feel and the more we feel that our efforts are taking place. So, here's a picture of an event that the students led. The parents and people show up and we have the students thank them for being there. The connection with the youth is really important for the community. With that I would like to end it. I know it's probably better for me to kind of get questions. I know that I kind of glossed over a lot of things and a lot of details, but I kind of wanted to give an overview and go over the values which are important to me, which is civic engagement and finding the empowerment within each individual and spending time to really develop an individual's narrative and find what moves them. What moves me may be different from what moves a student.And me trying to put that on them without really -- without an incentive from them, then the work would not go very far. With that I conclude and thank you so much for listening and I hope you got something out of our conversation. If you have questions, feel free to type them on the Q&A. Thank you so much.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Thanks, Victor. The work that you all are doing there is really inspiring. And I hope that people do use the Q&A section to type in some questions for Victor. And you'll also have a chance later on in the web forum with other questions. Before we go to some questions, let's do another poll. And so, given, you know, what victor was talking about in all the different ways that people can be engaging the residents, just want to hear from those of you that are on this web forum, in what context are you all working with or supporting work that is led by community residents? We have options around schools and education, built environment, civic engagement, voting, talking with elected officials, work site wellness, other campaigns and events or other. Feel free to tell us more in the Q&A box. I know that it's taking a little bit for us to see the results, at least on my end of the polls. I know we're not supposed to have dead air. But it looks like a lot of folks are working in neighborhood infrastructure with residents, doing some work with schools and education. And then, some on the work side and civic engagement campaigns seem to be pretty close together.And then other. We would love to hear some of those examples of the other. I'm not -- yeah. And the poll -- sometimes it doesn't like multiple choice. We apologize for that. If you only got to pick one. So if there are -- I don't have any questions yet, for you Victor, in particular. But hopefully as we continue, there will be some questions that come out of it. Let me just ask you this, Victor. If you have an example of a barrier you might have had in doing -- whether it's Vota, or the youth coordination work, and how you may have overcome that barrier.

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: I see a lot of questions here. I'm not sure if anybody else is picking them up, but would it be okay for me to answer these questions?

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Yes. So they are not showing on my screen, but that's great if you've got questions coming in.

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: Great. So I think I'll answer -- so the question is do you have typical examples of ways that people define civic engagement in the wrong way? How do you know when residents are engaged? I think that's a really good question, Chris. The way we would define civic engagement is first, it's either through the meetings that we have, to meetings that parents have or youth have on their own terms to then being engaged in council meetings whether it's school board council, city council, things like that. For us, you know, we know that people are being politically

engaged once they are touched by an issue. Civically engaged, people come up with issues and that's as far as they go. For us, the way to take it further is explain the governing structures that are in play to make that issue or how the issue came about. I think once they understand the governing structures, they start seeing the possibilities of okay, I know this issue is big, but let me take it down so that I can work with what's given and the possibilities. We then kind of work on data or testimonies that the parents have to kind of help out with that issue to make it clear, to make it specific, and to also have an action step following that. Having civically engaged parents can look many different ways, but we know it's been effective when there's an action plan associated with it, when there's a plan that backs it up. What might seem to somebody like complaining. What's important for us is we emphasize the steps so that we can have an action. I don't know if we have time for more questions, but there's more questions and there's one that seems good to answer.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Yeah, definitely go ahead. >> VICTOR GONZALEZ: And I'm asked how do you engage the parents?

Often youth are limited by the parents' non-involved status or parents asking youth to stay at home and take care of young children, etc. So, Dora, to answer the question to the best of my abilities, I know there's a lot of different things at play here. I think coming from an agriculture community where, you know, either people are working in resorts or doing landscaping or things like that, to people picking grades and, you know, carrying big bags and having to come home and just wanting to take a rest. Those are things that we take into account. And we make sure that we don't post it as a barrier for the parents that we engage in. So, you know, it's hard to engage parents in the way of how do we tap into the parents?I think what's important is working with the parents that you might already be working with. One of the things that we have seen is that we acknowledged, obviously, the work that it takes to be in those spaces. I could see that there was a growth in parent involvement with us. I think what's -- what was important for us is not necessarily how do we increase the capacity of the parents but more how do we work individually with each parent so they feel they are contributing something to the work that is happening. So providing leadership roles for them, providing and allowing them a space to dream and to kind of envision what is possible, kind of like what I explained with the civic engagement process and identifying the possibilities, what is important there is that once that parent feels empowered, they will most likely talk to a neighbor or friend or something that they know about the important work that they are contributing to the community. And that is something that we have seen. Rather than let's call as many parents as we can and figure out how to tap into our parents, what we saw in the work was engaging with parents that we currently have to make sure that they, themselves, become organizers, so that they too can learn to make phone calls, can outreach to other people and involve them in the movement. So the same work that I do, now a parent helps, for example. So it's really about giving them those roles. I hope I was able to explain that, Dora. That is in the context of me and Coachella. I hope that was helpful.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: This is great, Victor. And we'll have more time after Eli presents to go through some more questions. So let's move on to the next presenter. We have a presentation from Eli Moore, who's a program manager at the Haas institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. He facilitates processes to allow those most affected by injustice to lead decision making and trans formative change efforts. Eli will be changing a great story about how Richmond residents got involved with an anchor institution that was going to be coming to their community. And we did have a little -- WebEx is not being our friend today. We had a little technical difficulty

with the video disappearing from being loaded, but we're going to try to get that back. When you send questions, please send them to all panelists. We're working to get the video back so that you all will get to see that. Let me switch it over to Eli.

>> ELI MOORE, MA: Good to be here. I wish I could see and hear all of y'all. Thanks, Victor. I really liked hearing about your work and the principles and strategies you were lifting up. So the Haas Institute is based at UC Berkeley and founded several years ago by John Powell. A big part of our work is partnering with organizations based in marginalized communities to support their work. Build, empower and changing structures by offering training and technical assistance. And what I'm going to talk about today is really a project where UC Berkeley had plans to develop a new research campus in Richmond, about ten miles north of Berkeley in an historically disinvested majority community of color, almost like a left out type city in the Bay area. This has happened over the last three years with several partners including ACCE, a member organization of lower income tenants. Safe return, a membership of formerly incarcerated community leaders, and some others. And the work really started with these organizations and community members kind of asking the question of if this research campus is coming here, what is the need for our community? What's at stake? What would it take for us to be at the table shaping how it gets developed so that it really is a catalyst for the vision that we have for our community. And so all the work is following those questions and that intention around a community vision that would shape the development project. I'm going to talk a little bit about what that process looked like. As soon as that video's ready, we can watch it or we can skip it. Oh, looks like it's coming up. [ Video ].

>> Today we have a lot of economic inequality. We need to transform the structures that are keeping people from access and belonging in society.

>> Richmond got de-industrialized and faced a lot of disinvestment. A legacy of segregation and has been lately finding its place in the new economy.

>> The university of California is coming to Richmond. >> I'm here to talk to you about where we should go, what is Richmond's future now

with this project coming here? Known as the Berkeley global campus of Richmond Bay. It is going to be the biggest economic development to come to the city since the shipyards of World War 2, but it also presents a bit of a risk.

>> I'm concerned that the children of my church will not participate in what it means to be a global community.

>> I will work on behalf of our community and as a part of our school district to make sure I'm asking the right questions.

>> We know we deserve better, and that's why we're fighting and that's why we're here. >> We're all here to call on the university to do a legally binding community. >> Benefits which will include the people in Richmond to get minimum wage jobs and a

career. >> We will not be moved. All of us will stay here because we care about our city. We

worked to trans form it thus far, and we want to keep working to trans form it. >> Raise up Richmond!

>> We're looking for education and job opportunities. We're asking them to incorporate in our community college and in our schools.

>> I'm at McDonald's to support my family or to fulfill my goal to go back-to-school. >> We want to stay here with our friends and our families. We don't want to get pushed

out. >> I demand that uc Berkeley set up a trust fund to put money in to support people in

Richmond to stay in Richmond. [ Chanting ].

>> ELI MOORE, MA: All right. That was some of the voices of people. That was a rally about a year ago. At city hall, when there was -- at that point, there was a really clear set of policy proposals and strategies that this pretty broad community coalition had put together and presented to the university. So they were organizing actions like that so push the university to make legally binding commitments. So backing up a little bit, we -- we wanted to -- we really see the work of doing work like this on a university as being a part of understanding anchor institutions and their place in local communities and regions. And being really influential in the social determinants of health, really influential in the local and regional economy. And often not recognized for the potential that they have. And so even though in a lot of places the hospital or the university or other public agencies are the biggest employer or sometimes the biggest landowner. Sometimes we don't think of influence that they have and how it can be leveraged. So this little pie chart just pulls up some of the capacities from the purchasing that they do. So for instance, UC Berkeley spends around $800 million a year purchasing goods and services. Employer -- the UC system is actually the largest employer in the region here. So what they do doesn't just affect the people they directly employ, but affects the whole job market because the wages they set, the benefits they set ripple out and set standards. Real estate developer in that they own lands and control how that's used and designed Obviously the university offers classes that relate to pathways and careers but they do things like internships and apprenticeships and other trainings can fit into pathways that way. Being a cluster, they attract businesses to site next to them so they can really have a neighborhood-wide effect in that way. And infrastructure builder because what they do on their land whether that's creating open space and parks or a building for a community center or contributing new systems and street lights. That's a big thing, too. And in this case, it's the classes and research that a university offers, but for a hospital it would be health services. This was one starting place for thinking about kind of what's the potential here. On the community side, when there were a series of workshops with community members about what was their vision for their community and what would they like the university campus to be contributing to as far as achieving that vision? People talked about local living wage jobs. They talked about educational pathways, better education in the local schools K-12 and community college. They talked about local businesses, small businesses, micro businesses being able to grow and flourish. They talked about housing affordability and not being pushed out by the increases in rent that might come with a new set of demands for housing in the area. And they talked about inequality in racial justice and wanting to close the gap in terms of inequality. And then what people often didn't talk about but became clear to us over time is that doing this work around anchor institutions and community benefits, they have other benefits, too. So one was just people started to think differently about government and the public. The public sphere and appreciating and understanding its value in terms of community conditions and the economy. The word got brought together unlike the allies so unions and community groves and the community college and some of the local health clinics and neighborhood associations. Groups that hadn't worked together in the past, but they all had an interest this big project. They all came to the table to work together.And what that led to was a really comprehensive vision for social justice and community health. Because there were folks at the table who really knew what was going on with small and local businesses and understand what the university could do as far as bonding requirements and breaking

up contracts and the specific things that increase access for local small businesses. And then other folks who were really concerned with local schools and how to support students and so, all of that came together to a pretty comprehensive plan. It doesn't just relate to the new campus. So that that short version of the campaign story is that about two years ago, the university chose Richmond for the site, and the community groups started kind of looking into the question of what's at stake. And really like, is there a way to be at the table? Can we organize people or is it something that is completely out of reach? But ultimately they decided it was worthwhile and possible, and built this coalition I was just talking about. The community benefit became the policy mechanism for getting a legally binding agreement across all of the areas of the community vision. The ultimate decision makers were the UC Regents. They created a formal community engagement process that we called the Community Working Group that they hosted and ran. And then the city council. The community coalition got the city council to pass a resolution calling on the university to sit down and negotiate with the community. And so ultimately, there were a great agreements reached related to local hire in the construction phase and in the operations phase. Disadvantaged hires, so hiring people with barriers to employment, like people who were formerly incarcerated, long-term unemployed or homeless. Affordable housing funds and payment into that fund. And then partnership in pre-K through community college educational programs. And prevailing wage construction jobs. So, the components of this campaign were kind of like any campaign. There's leadership development where it's really community members. I was talking about understanding the government structure and understanding their own story and the connection between the issues individually and the broader community. There's research and policy work. I'm not going to get into depth on all of these, but a couple of these Mobilization and actions, coalition building, communications with media and so forth, and then negotiation. And often community engagement, I think, is sort of thought of well, it's one piece of all of this. And we really tried to make community engagement the central piece. Really the skeleton that everything else fits on to and should be supporting so that community can lead. So those who were really most at stake and most impacted by the work can be in the lead. What that meant for the technical assistance and research is that the community members really formed the research. What data they needed collected. And then experts came in, they were really called upon to make their technical knowledge accessible and build the community's capacity to do that on their own technical analysis and policy work. But that wouldn't be at the expense of it being high quality and critical. In concrete terms, what that meant is the community-based organization chose the technical assistance providers and the providers were working for the community-based organizations. Not how it's often done that the providers get their own funding and accountable to their own funder. And that kind of creates a power differential where they're not held accountable to the community groups. So we tried to shift that by making the TA providers accountable to the community groups. Coalition building is sometimes at odds with community engagement and leadership development because of the speed at which coalitions move, and is a power that gets negotiated at coalition tables. So that was just a real tension. And I think, you know, we could have a whole conversation just on that. But some of the key questions for us in driving that work was building the coalition that should really be about who is most impacted by an anchor institution, how are they organized, and how can they be at the table? What organizations are already working on behalf of those communities? And then what are -- how do all of our interests align to create a coalition that builds the leverage we need? On the communications side, a lot of it focused on the story-telling that victor talked a little bit about

as people -- community members getting the confidence and practice in talking about their own experience and their vision and telling their story in a powerful way that leaked it to the overall values in the opportunities in this anchor institution development project. And then agreeing as a collective on what were the core values and frame. Which in this case is access and inclusion. That was kind of a catch phrase and a value system that people return to a lot when they were giving testimony or advocating for things. And it's supporting media outreach and making sure that when there was something that needed to be public that the community could get a voice out there in the media. I just wanted to throw a couple of things from the policy on why community leadership is so important. Besides it just being kind of the right thing to do, it really is what's best when hearts and minds -- I just found that you can present data for days and weeks. It's not the same as hearing the voice of somebody talking about the issues from the perspective of direct experience. And then a lot of times we have policy ideas and the experts have policy kind of best practices. But without community members who can talk a lot about really what it looks like on the ground to interact with these institutions, those policies don't get ground troops into -- and really like are at risk of not working because there's the local context that just isn't well Understood with communities at the table. And then what's huge is that, you know, people who, you know, it's their family, their kids, their neighborhood that's going to be affected, they will keep pushing when nobody else will. Maybe when some of us would say this is as far as it's going to go. So that's just a different relationship, and it's really critical. And lastly, I just wanted to point to a series of videos that we did, interviewing the local organizers here about this work and then a set of guides that go along with those videos kind of strategies and practices for folks in other communities who might want to do similar work. So hopefully that will be useful to you, and the link is here if you want to take a look. That's the end. Thanks for listening and hopefully this was useful.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Thanks, Eli. And I really commend you for powering through your cold. I know that's not easy to do. Before we take some questions, and I do have a couple questions for you, Eli, we have another poll. I hope that some of what Eli shared and gave you ideas about the ways anchor institutions can be worked with in your communities. And so, some of you may already be doing some of this. So what institutions are your communities engaging in their efforts?A long list of options. And as we learned from the last poll, check all apply may not be working today. So your options are hospitals, universities, faith-based institutions, museums, libraries, community colleges, local philanthropies. To get my word right in my mouth. Local nonprofit organizations, local health departments. Maybe some of you haven't approached that, and this might get you thinking about new groups to work with or others. And feel free to share some of that additional comments in the Q&A box. And just as a reminder, if you send in questions, to send it to all panelists. That helps us on our end assign them so that I can read them out so the presenters don't have to do double duty. So we're waiting for the poll results to come up to get a sense of who folks are already working with. And it looks like the majority would be working with local health departments or nonprofits. And we have some working with hospitals and other. Like I said, hopefully seeing some of these as potential institutions in your community that you can be engaging in different ways. So Eli, we do have a couple questions here from your presentation. And one comes and says how does -- does it generally tend to trickle down policy implementation. From what the communities actually need or want do you have any thoughts on how you can resolve that tension?

>> ELI MOORE, MA: I think that's why it can't just be the anchor institution kind of deciding for itself what policy work it does. And how the power of community groups and a broader

coalition of stakeholders to define what their vision is and what's needed is really essential. Additional funding is sometimes needed, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's about changing internal practices or policies at a hospital or another anchor institution. So it's -- it shouldn't just be about new funding sources.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: And one person asked to show the link again for your tool kit. So I have put the slide back there. In case folks didn't have a chance to write that down. Another question comes from Chris, and he's asking what's the working group's response and future plans to the chancellor's August message to indefinitely suspend plans to build the campus? What's the status as a result of that?

>> ELI MOORE, MA: So in August the chancellor announced that he's resigning, and he was kind of the champion for the idea of a campus in Richmond. So he has suspended plans for developing the campus.And probably won't be until a new chancellor comes on that it gets picked up again. Because it needs a champion on campus. The way the community groups have responded is look at other opportunities to implement and advance the vision that they have. So the nice thing about the vision and policies that they have is they apply to lots of different types of development projects. That I can be used to shape development in the city more broadly. And there's a lot of buy-in already. So that work isn't lost. And then to continue to work with the university because the underlying needs for a new campus is still there. They're just out of space and they do need a new campus. Most of us believe it's just a matter of time.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: And there's one other question, and then we'll open it up for questions of Victor or Eli, or just information that the presenters might be able to share. Julie barton is asking the video shows a diverse group of organizations. I was wondering if there was a meeting called of all coalition leaders to create Rise Up Richmond?

>> ELI MOORE, MA: Was there a meeting called? The way the coalition was called is Safe Return and ACCE initiated a set of conversations, and they reached out to organizations one to one and invited them to come together with a coalition table. And that kind of built gradually over time. And so that was the coalition work, but then there was -- as far as who you see in the video, there were also just dozens and dozens of community workshops at local churches, at community college, at community centers, at nonprofits. Continuing to engage residents in making sure they knew about the campus. Making sure, seeing what they thought, what their vision was, what issues they thought needed to be addressed. That was related to the coalition, but it was more about how to get residents engaged in the decision-making. That's what was the main thing to bring people out to the marches.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Great. Thanks, Eli. And so for participants, feel free to write in questions for either Eli or Victor. Victor you may have other questions that showed up in your Q&A that went to you directly or Eli, you may have some there. I just want to share from the poll a couple of people did write in some other institutions that they're engaging. So I thought I would share this with the group. Boys and Girls clubs, community centers, foster centers, WIC programs, not sure if this is health plans with high schools, and local governments. So those are some of the other institutions that folks are saying that they are engaging for change. While we see if some other questions come in, we did get some questions during registration And one we thought was kind of interesting, and this would be for both you, Victor, and Eli, if you have a perspective about, you know, were there any narratives in the media that helped drive or hinder your efforts? And this is the term of the questioner used was around solution-based journalism, connecting that to civic engagement. We often talk about "the media" and using social media and narrative framing. And just seeing if you've noticed along the way that any of those narratives were really helpful or not helpful to what you've

been working to accomplish? And maybe I'll start with Victor and give Eli a chance to breathe. So Victor, you'll just need to unmute yourself.

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: Am I on? >> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Yes, you're on. >> VICTOR GONZALEZ: All right. So I think as far as stories or narratives go in our

community, as I explained earlier, there is a big difference between the west side and the east side. Most of the news sources that are created emerge out of the west side. And I'm not trying to say that they don't have a context of the east side of the community, even though that's kind of the case, but even when they -- when there are stories created for the eastern Coachella Valley, they come in with a perspective that is not really our own. Other than the California funded Coachella incorporated which focuses on the valley, which is the youth telling their own stories. As far as, you know, the actual news articles that come out, I often feel that they focus on the negative things that happen in the eastern Coachella Valley. And one of the things that we focus on with the parents and youth that we engage is the narrative shift. They focus on developing their own stories, you know? One of the first things that we talk about is what do you hear about who you are? Your community? Some things that you might be -- how is that being pulled for you? And we kind of like analyze like underspending on the things that they might have for themselves, for one another or for the community might be things that other people have created for them. So we kind of start there with like understanding where we come from. After that, it's easy to kind of -- it becomes easier for a resident to engage in developing a narrative and being engaged in actions that can challenge those narratives. And I do think that social media is very important when people are interacting and you know, being -- taking shape of that. It's very important. So I mean, I would say in general, community members receive, you know, negative highlights within mainstream news articles, but I think what's important is for them to read that in a different way. And for them to seek opportunities to rewrite that in a positive way for the community. I'm not sure if that answered the question, but that's how -- that's what I do.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: No, I think that's great, Victor. It is saying that there is a background there. A narrative that is potentially counter to what it is that you're -- you're working towards. And so that in and of itself presents a barrier and, you know, and hopefully we find through our -- through the media that we are able to create for ourselves, but hopefully through partners we may find in the broader media that cannot just talk about the problems but talk about the solutions. And so, Eli, I want to give you a chance if there is anything else that you would like to add on that around solution-based media or narratives that might have hindered or helped the Rise Up Richmond project.

>> ELI MOORE, MA: The main barrier we came up against is this idea of calling on the university to do local hire, living wage jobs, etc., was anti-development in that we were going to scare away investment. And the community was irrational and idealogical, and the idea of what communities need to do to have development is not ask for anything and wait for it to come. Which is really -- it's so destructive, and it's also just false. Regions that are more equitable have had stronger growth in recent decades. Equity is actually positive -- positively correlated with economic growth. It's really disrespectful and disingenuous to the communities to say that they can't say what they need, and that even when so many community leaders here were saying we want the campus, we're excited about this campus. We just want it to go the right way, often the way it got reported was oh, um, they're opposed to the campus because they're making these demands on them.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Thanks for that, Eli. And we did have a question early on that I think again can go to both of you. Think about, are there any models of engagement that you can refer people to explore? This person, Lucy Hernandez, had actually asked about if you know of

any examples that have a community active academy. But also through the registration, there was a question around resources or models that folks might be able to refer participants to to help them in their work. So any thoughts from either of you? I'll start with Victor.

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: So I can start with what I've been doing. I can not really point to specific resources, but you know, when I first started, I received help from the national network for young men. And then one for young women. I engaged with both young men and women; I grouped the two together. That is the piece I used for understanding our site. This is like my model or the things that I pursue a lot. I want to engage with the person. So that's kind of what I use for that. And then we received help from an organization in LA who has a lot of capacity to engage youth and adults. The other piece that I would like to point out which provided a lot more structure to the awareness, civic engagement, structures, understanding root/cause analysis is the area that helped the youth develop their own narratives, their data and look at what are some assets that you have in your community and how can we build up on that. Those are the part of the schools that have stood out to me the most as I have been in this role.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Great. I hope folks were able to write some of those down. Could you say the last one? The challenge?

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: Mikva challenge. And one of the things that we engage with that is the soap box speeches with youth. I think that's what it's most known for.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Great. Eli, I know you've been able to share the tool kit that you've put together for this work. But are there other models or resources that you might recommend folks look at?

>> ELI MOORE, MA: Yeah, we were really inspired by the model of the Safe Return Project. They've build over 4 million incarcerated residents. They have different strategies. We did a case study about that work that's on our website and I'm sending the link to all of you. It's called "Home with a Purpose." They have a collective impact institute that they do every summer for about 30 residents, that's kind of a training series. And then they also have kind of a fellowship program model where they hire community members for a year to work with them. I think it's a powerful model for community engagement.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Thanks, Eli. And Laura, I'm wondering what Eli just sent out, if there's a way to share that with all participants. It went to all panelists. A link for the Safe Return? Okay.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Great. I want to -- before we close, I just wanted to check. Victor I know some folks were sending you questions to you that I can't see. And if there was anything there you would like to follow-up and address?

>> VICTOR GONZALEZ: So was muted, sorry. So I had to reset my program, but there was a question about how do we recruit youth that was asked. And I guess to put it the way that I recruit youth is I go with -- the first thing I did is I went by myself to schools and I asked teachers if I could go to their homes. One of the things that I do is, you know, I explain to them the program, what it's about, what they can get out of it. My resources and things like that that we provide. But more importantly, I share with them the reason why I got engaged, my personal story. And I think after I do my personal story, I'm able to engage with a lot more people. Some people might -- they feel that they can connect. So what I did this year, now that I have more youth, I took youth with me so that they could talk about why they got engaged and why it's important for them to do it. So again, it's kind of like the youth leadership development and the parent development. My role is to make sure that I step out of the way as much as possible. So I think it's really -- for me it comes back to

developing the story and allowing others to share that story so they can be more positively and more meaningfully engaged in the work that we're trying to do.

>> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Thanks, Victor. And Eli, I don't know if any questions wound up going to you that I didn't read through. If there was anything else you would like to share before we wrap things up?

>> ELI MOORE, MA: No, I didn't see any other questions. >> SUSAN WATSON, MPH: Great. I really want to extend my thanks to Victor and Eli

for sharing their inspiring stories with us this morning. We know that leveraging and engaging community members are important elements to creating more equitable communities and hearing how others are approaching this is extremely valuable for all of our efforts. Please feel free to contact any us for more information. Definitely join us if you're in California at our website to continue these and other conversations. Last but not least, make sure that your voices are heard. If you haven't already done so, get out there and vote! It's important for us to make sure that we're putting our ballots where our mouths are, I guess. So with that, we will close the webinar. Thank you all. Have a safe and enjoyable rest of your day today. [ Your webinar has concluded ].

>> LAURA BURR: I want to let everybody know that today's presentation and the slides from it will be available to you next week, dialogue4health.org. You will receive a survey and we hope you take that. We want to know your thoughts concerning this web forum and what topics you're interested in for future dialogue 4 health web forums. We would really like to thank Victor, Eli and Sue and all of our audience. Thank you. [ Your webinar has now concluded ]