Planning for Equity: How Comprehensive Planning Can Advance Racial & Economic Justice
In October, interim executive director, Nyah Berg, spoke at the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development’s annual conference on the panel, Planning for Equity: How Comprehensive Planning Can Advance Racial and Economic Justice.
In her comments, Nyah explained how the current system inadequately supplies systemic solutions for clear systemic disparities. Meaningful community involvement is often thwarted through the siloing and tokenizing of community input. The panel highlighted how comprehensive planning supports both accountability and accessibility by creating transparency, centering the most marginalized communities, and providing the conditions for community leadership. At the end of her remarks, Nyah made a call for courageous policy to accompany the courageous conversations that we have been having.
Critical Race Theory and Its Role in Classrooms
On November 6, Nyah Berg joined other panelists at Start Lighthouse's Virtual Decolonizing Education Hackathon to discuss critical race theory (CRT) and its role in classrooms. Their dialogue included defining critical race theory and its use as a theoretical framework that challenges the way race and racial power is constructed in American society. The conversation also provided a critique on the way CRT has been weaponized against anything related to increasing equity in our school systems. Moreover, the panelists' dialogue cultivated a space in which a diverse and passionate group of individuals composed of educators, administrators, students, and community members could engage in learning, networking, and solution development to one of the most pressing issues concerning our education system today.
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