Acknowledge civic trauma. What is civic trauma? It is when you go out into neighborhoods to door-knock or co-design policy and people say they don’t want to engage. It stems from residents having tried to engage before but felt like they weren’t listened to, or an engagement backfired, and ultimately people decided it was better to not spend their time working with government than to feel the pain of what it feels like to try. Civic trauma is intergenerational and deeply rooted in our neighborhoods, and it is not going to take one person, one department, or one initiative to change it. It takes consistent efforts over time. – Adapted from comments by Niketa Brar, Executive Director of Chicago United for Equity (CUE)

Education and awareness are essential. Too often, disparities in who has access to information both past and present sits at the foundation of our engagements. Democratizing information, history, and data is essential. Particularly in complex policy areas, it’s important to ensure partners have the tools, resources, and knowledge they need to be fully active participants. For example, many community members in the Digital Equity focus groups had no idea there was a federal program that could give them access to free monthly internet. If we had not built in that education while we had community conversations, they would have missed out on a significant opportunity to improve their immediate lives.

Community is the expert in their own experience. One of the core components of the City of Chicago’s definition of equity focuses on how important process is alongside pursuing more equitable outcomes. Equity in our process requires us to engage “those most impacted by the problems we seek to address as experts in their own experiences, strategists in co-creating solutions, and evaluators of success.” Community members are living the experience the problem is creating. Too often the experience of people most marginalized by systems is not fully represented in official reports or data sets. Our communities carry a deep understanding of the history and context. The insight they can bring to the issue at hand is invaluable.

Convening and connection can be a source of power. Throughout the year, we had a series of convenings, from large events like the 300-person Summit to small ones like a 10-person healing conversation. While convenings have a lot of benefits, one of the biggest things they do is provide us with energy! They bring leaders and visionaries together to be inspired by one another, share tools and resources, highlight success stories, and they make you feel connected to a bigger struggle, a wider community, and remind you that you’re not the only one. Philanthropy, large nonprofits, and local government are uniquely positioned to bring folks together across lines of difference. Use your power! 

Don’t shy away from the inevitable “ouch” moment. At some point along the way, you will make a mistake. You will say or do something, unknowingly, that offends an individual or a group of people. That is because we are all learning and don’t always have the right language and skills to navigate this work. While moving with good intentions is most critical, the inevitable “ouch” moment will happen. The lesson learned here is that you can’t allow the fear of this moment to prevent you from doing the work. Here is a personal example from OERJ that was important for us to embrace: After using the term “Black and Brown,” we were lovingly called-in (not called-out) by members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and made aware that the term did not feel inclusive of them. Instead of shying away from this, we used the moment to deepen existing relationships and make new ones with AAPI leaders in Chicago. While we didn’t leave with a definitive answer, we left more awareness and conviction on how we can be more critical in our work and practice difficult conversations. Chapter 510, an Oakland community-based organization, sums this lesson up well with their slogan, “Care over Careful.”

Center community voices in the design and implementation. We should be mindful that our job is not to be the only ones to come up with new, brilliant ideas. More times than not, our job is to set the table, facilitate a space that allows for diverse community voices to contribute, listen, and then most importantly, go get it done – removing all the barriers that are both known and unknown to community. We must remind ourselves that those closest to the problem know the solutions.  Ensuring community voices are part of each step of the process is essential for success.

Another important aspect to remember is that community involvement and co-design are valuable and should be resourced! Much of our community partnership work was able to happen due to philanthropic partnerships. Some of these resources are significant, such as a dedicated project manager to organize and communicate with external guides. Others, such as having food at community conversations, parking, and color copies of resource guides, are also key to making residents feel valued for their time and contributions.

There is no perfect moment to start healing. Can you begin a healing process when the harm is still happening? That is a question we were confronted with throughout this process. This has particular relevance for institutions and government bodies that do not ever have the luxury of fully stopping the work. To those entities, our advice is that there is never going to be a perfect moment to start a healing journey. Instead, we have to just start somewhere. That could be working within and trying to build the language and dialogue around healing. It could be organizing your institution for a change process which can include creating teams, allocating resources, and building partnerships. It could be working with community members to build a plan that you can execute together. Healing is a nonlinear process. We need to build momentum. 

We need to lead with courage. We all play different roles in this work, and any progress or advancement relies on a diverse ecosystem of leaders at different levels, sectors, knowledge, and expertise. Some people need to play the inside game, working with organizations and systems to institutionalize policies and practices that will produce different results. Some people need to play the outside game and create the conditions for change by changing the narrative, creating the public pressure, and cultivating movements. We also need to find moments when these two sides can see value in each other and, when appropriate, work together for the greater impact. This won’t happen if people who get into leadership become fixated on maintaining their positions and as a result protect or uphold the status quo. Instead, we need leaders who are brave enough to put their power and position on the table and are willing to take risks to dismantle a status quo of systemic inequality. We want to acknowledge that throughout this healing journey, we have seen these leaders move quietly and loudly and they inspire us!

Progress moves at the speed of trust. This work taught us that building trust must be an intentional focus, no matter how urgent the issue is. Community members often start off skeptical of government and institutional leaders and move with caution when engaging with us. This is because there is a history of government and institutions failing to deliver on promises and extracting insights and strategies from community without crediting them or investing in their work. We can’t ignore this lack of trust. A lack of trust can drag the work down and/or cause a withholding of ideas and resources critical to building the solution we are working toward. It can also be the source of conflict. However, this healing journey has taught us when conflict arises it is often a test to see how the values of our partnership will show up. If you can successfully navigate conflict with shared values, a deeper sense of trust is often on the other side of the resolution. Part of the healing work is showing up authentically and continuously through the hard times. It is about making commitments big or small and delivering on them. It’s also about being transparent about your constraints, learning from your mistakes, and trusting that the process and relationships are strong enough to carry you to a win.