This four part blog and video series shares lessons learned through RhodeMap RI, an initiative through which the state of Rhode Island “sought to strengthen [its] economy, meet current and future housing needs, and plan for future growth” through a cross sector, regional planning process that embedded equity into its fabric.
The videos feature some of the most honest and candid reflections that you’ll find captured about the challenges of integrating equity work into urban planning through cross-sector collaboration. Additionally, members of the project’s Social Equity Advisory Committee (SEAC) include representatives from state government, nonprofit organizations and community members who share useful tidbits about how they approached the process, where they would do things differently, and the value of the process despite its challenges.
The four lessons highlighted in the series are to:
- Weave equity into the planning process AND the content of the resulting plans.
- Design the process for maximum and meaningful involvement, particularly of those who are most directly affected by the inequities, and build the community’s capacity and infrastructure to participate in the process.
- Build the capacity and culture within public planning institutions to focus on equity and to facilitate broad-based public engagement.
- Lead boldly, collaboratively, authentically.
