Week #129
Join us this Friday for OneRouge Week #129 at 8:30am via Zoom. This week’s call will feature a livestream panel conversation with our friends at MetroMorphosis during their inaugural C3 Summit. The panel will center around the results of five community conversations they’ve hosted throughout the year to understand what local citizens believe is the current state of their community, the challenges they face and who they believe is best-suited to create and sustain change. It will feature:
Christian Engle, President & CEO of the YMCA of the Capital Area
Kaitlyn Joshua, Community Organizer
Ebony Starks, Vice President of Place-Based Initiatives at the Huey & Angelina Wilson Foundation
Trey Godfrey, Senior Vice President of Policy at the Baton Rouge Area Chamber
Enlight, Unite, & Ignite!
Quick Links: Fishbowl Session, Zoom Chat, Community Announcements
Fishbowl session
-Kaitlyn Joshua - Agree with all the statements
-Ebony Starks - Would add opportunity
-Trey Godfrey - Ecosystem - creating more of that because it’s necessary to create a thriving community. What is our shared collective goal? All of the different parts have different functions and are based on their own survival. When you look at what it takes to create thriving communities
-Christian Engle - If we work together we can create better communities. We are a volunteer based organization. The mistake some nonprofits make is what do we want to do vs what does the community need us to do.
-Ebony Starks - You can’t preserve places without preserving people. People make up the flavor of a community. It starts with people.
-Trey Godfrey - The people closest to a problem are closest to a solution - a quote from someone else. When it comes to the people side of it, not only is it preferable to have people in the community, it’s requisite to that process.
When asked who are the essential partners in creating this thriving neighborhood, the people across this city identified businesses and nonprofits as being their critical partner in correcting thriving communities. What do you all think about that?
Kaitlyn Joshua - Communities are waiting for churches to be at the forefront of social justice. No matter what part of town you’re in, the tone and tenor was the same. They want churches to be the extension of their households.
What does it mean for the people in this room that they have been identified as correctors?
-Ebony Starks - Speaking to the nonprofit - they are the lifeblood of what’s happening in these neighborhoods and in the communities. Now being part of the Wilson Foundation. They are working many hours with limited resources. Filling in the structural and systemic gaps that we should be filling to serve our communities. Nonprofits are the lifeblood and until we invest in them in a real way, the same way we do for businesses, we can’t see the impact we need.
-Trey Godfrey - It’s important to look at nonprofits as businesses as well. For us it’s the vision - that nonprofit and a church partnering together. That nonprofit and a business. We are engaging with the people we are talking about but that doesn’t always happen. We tend to “should” on people and we forget about the social service sector. It’s about everyone coming together to have one voice instead of a hundred voices.
Co-creation - Building thriving communities was a co-creationship. What should that nugget mean for the people in this room?
-Trey Godfrey - The co-creation aspect of this, do we all know each other? Does our work overlap? The one thing that has to stimulate this work is to know who everyone is and what they are doing. You have nonprofits doing the heart work of community advancement then you have government who plays their role. Then there’s the business community. I enjoy being disruptive in that business space. The business community is equipped to bare that brunt. I want to wake up the business organizations to those opportunities. HowI many of us are shoulder to shoulder. Where do we really want to go with this and then how do we facilitate doing that all together.
-Ebony Starks - I’m new to this community. I’ve been here for 5 months. But I’m not new to the work. Who has projects going on that are overlapping in target area or target population? Projects and work that may be similar in area and design are not always similar in intention or impact. I think there’s something to be said for intentionality. This projects are going to have an impact on communities.
Is it possible to be in a community and not part of a community?
-Everyone says yes.
-Christian - How do we advance the community?
Each of you will be invited to be part of the C3 Academy. It is the building of that incubator of important relationships. In so many different ways in these conversations people lifted up law enforcement in this notion of a thriving community.
-Christian - I moved here from two of the poorest communities in the nation. What law enforcement did was to have police walking and engaging in the community. They had high crime, high poverty, but the fact that those relationships were being built, it was no longer here’s that cop coming into our community. I think that’s one of the things that’s lacking.
-Kaitlyn - I found it refreshing to see that that was something everyone was longing to see. They want to look to them for community building. I think it’s achievable. We know there are pieces of the department that need to be dismantled. We need to have those conversations. I don’t see that right now.
-Trey - I’m going to be careful with what I say. There’s a migration of violent crime that used to be part of those communities that no longer is. Now we have a problem with the capitol region. As long as crime is on another side of town, it’s okay, but now that it’s over here it’s a problem. The business community has now woken up to these problems. It’s a business development issue. This conversation is in circles it ordinarily wouldn’t. I’m going to say public safety instead of law enforcement. There have been some sound bites applied to law enforcement that have been reduced down to soundbites and then that has been attacked. Defund the police is one of those.
Community members expressed an interest in earning and spending money in their own communities.
-Trey Godfrey - I was talking about traffic and we were talking about that being an economic development problem.
-Ebony Starks - Show me where you spend your money and I’ll show you what you care about. We take that opportunity away from our underserved communities. We don’t even allow them to show them where they care. A lot of what we are talking about are symptoms of poverty. They are symptoms of the wealth gap and all speak to the larger infrastructure. We can’t transform communities without speaking to that. There has been a differentiation for the allocation of resources.
The participants in the village chat said it’s impossible to do all of those things without talking about race.
-Christian Engle - It goes back to the first question - Are we with the community? I keep staring at Casey with the Walls Project. That’s where things get solved. We are going to throw out 100 wild things and maybe something will stick. They lead to things. It comes from a voice in the community. If you’re not embracing the culture of that community or where that community is coming from - I don’t think we do that enough. It has to be bottom up. Imagine if a grocery store moved into a YMCA. You already have this community entity, all these things become part of a community. As a white male I should not be determining what a black community needs
-Trey Godfrey - everybody has an entry point into the conversation but you can’t leave yourself there. The issues we face now were not created yesterday. The issues were created over centuries. Until we ground ourselves into a deeper shared understanding. We will never divorce ourselves from issues of race in Baton Rouge. Until we agree on that and we commit ourselves to that, we can’t go further.
-Kaitlyn Joshua- everything we talked to today extends from race and we have to get comfortable with that.
Zoom Chat
08:30:17 From Helena Williams to Waiting Room Participants:
Good morning, we'll open the doors shortly! Thank you for your patience as we set up this very special OneRouge call!
08:30:59 From One Rouge to Everyone:
Good morning, oneRouge!!!
08:31:06 From Manny Patole (he|his, CCBR) to Everyone:
Good Morning!
08:31:11 From One Rouge to Everyone:
Welcome to the special Live Stream event
08:31:55 From SK Groll to Everyone:
morning all!
08:32:38 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Good morning! Hope you're doing well this week.
08:35:59 From One Rouge to Everyone:
What you are hearing is the MetroMorphosis Summit at the Executive Center in Baton Roufe
08:36:26 From Manny Patole (he|his, CCBR) to Everyone:
brb
08:36:39 From Cynthia Walls to Everyone:
Good morning!
08:36:45 From One Rouge to Everyone:
It is the first LiveStream Friday Call event
08:37:37 From One Rouge to Everyone:
Helena Williams' video is from inside the room!
08:37:49 From Carl Motsenbocker to Everyone:
Very difficult to hear.
08:38:06 From One Rouge to Everyone:
Mayor/President Broome is giving opening remarks
08:38:14 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone:
Is there a microphone we can put closer to a speaker?
08:38:17 From Jen Tewell (she/her) to Everyone:
will there be a playback link to rewatch?
08:38:26 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
At 8:45 the round table is the focus of todays call
08:38:46 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
it will have the appropriate sound
08:38:46 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Is the OWL hooked up to the Zoom?
08:38:55 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
at 8:45
08:38:56 From Flitcher R. Bell to Everyone:
I too am experiencing difficulty hearing the event.
08:39:06 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Those are fun tech toys!
08:39:26 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Hi Helena & Casey!
08:40:03 From Summer Dann La STEM Reg II to Everyone:
Who is the speaker?
08:40:08 From One Rouge to Everyone:
HEY! It's Raymond Jetson
08:41:36 From Aimee Moles to Everyone:
cant hear anything
08:41:47 From One Rouge to Everyone:
Intros of instrumental partners in the room
08:42:26 From Alexis Jones to Everyone:
Amazing!
08:42:31 From One Rouge to Everyone:
WooHOO! Audio starting
08:42:48 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
Thank you all for sticking for the main part!
08:42:59 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
This is cool
08:43:03 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
excited to be here!
08:44:30 From Casey Phillips to Everyone:
thank you all for being here. all of the Harvard fellows and the MetroMorphosis team welcome you all!
08:47:10 From One Rouge to Everyone:
The C3 panel will center around the results of five community conversations they’ve hosted throughout the year to understand what local citizens believe is the current state of their community, the challenges they face and who they believe is best-suited to create and sustain change.
08:48:05 From One Rouge to Everyone:
After the panel, we will move into community announcements. For now enjoy today's speakers: Christian Engle, President & CEO of the YMCA of the Capital Area
Kaitlyn Joshua, Community Organizer
Ebony Starks, Vice President of Place-Based Initiatives at the Huey & Angelina Wilson Foundation
Trey Godfrey, Senior Vice President of Policy at the Baton Rouge Area Chamber
08:50:49 From Jen Tewell (she/her) to Everyone:
will there be a replay option or no?
08:51:26 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
Because this is in the standard format of OneRouge we do not record, but notes will be distributed
08:53:03 From Jen Tewell (she/her) to Everyone:
thank you Helena!
08:53:56 From Tristi Charpentier | HAWF (she/her) to Everyone:
All nonprofits are businesses, but not all businesses are nonprofits.
08:54:53 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
Amen! This TED talk really hits on the misconceptions about how nonprofits need to function https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfAzi6D5FpM
08:59:57 From SK Groll to Everyone:
You can be IN the community and not OF the community. Really appreciating this convo.
09:00:39 From Summer Dann La STEM Reg II to Everyone:
In Texas they plan communities, developers have to build a school, business and non profits are also included.
09:03:45 From One Rouge to Everyone:
@SK, that is absolutely true. Being in a place provides no real understanding of the place
09:04:16 From Alexis Jones to Everyone:
Yesss, @SK ^^^^
09:05:20 From One Rouge to Everyone:
👀 nobody wants to talk about policing?
09:05:33 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
@sk we can see the real impact of that in historically Black neighborhoods where the parishioners are no longer of the community but will travel into the community a few days of week.
09:05:53 From One Rouge to Everyone:
taht's not an inference
09:07:04 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
Suddenly we care about public safety… when it hits the country club areas… but our neighbors have been expected to just live with for generations… and we don’t think that has heavy impacts on their mental/physical health outcomes?
09:07:26 From One Rouge to Everyone:
^^^^ co-sign
09:08:22 From Aimee Moles to Everyone:
None of this is new. What will it take to actually DO something about it??
09:08:57 From One Rouge to Everyone:
“public safety" is achieved by providing living wages, affordable housing, economic opportunity, and accessible education. Police is strictly CRIMINAL So if your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail
09:08:59 From Flitcher R. Bell to Everyone:
There's a huge difference between Community Policing (engaging and protecting), and Community Patrolling (just making arrest)
09:08:59 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Yes Aimee!!!
09:09:19 From SK Groll to Everyone:
I would LOVE to see us really separate out “public safety" and law enforcement. We are limiting ourselves in imagining a better future.
09:10:49 From One Rouge to Everyone:
MAN! the grocery store discussion is much deeper and complicated than people want to admit.
09:11:45 From One Rouge to Everyone:
i would argue it is impossible to talk about all those things without talking about racISM - cause pretending it does not have influence is disingenuous
09:12:33 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
^@sk agreed. Public Safety is so much more than reactive criminal justice. There’s so much more that isn’t supported that would prevent crime in the first place. We cannot incarcerate our communities into peace. If locking people up worked… we as the prison capital of the US would be thriving.
09:13:06 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
*Prison capital of the world
09:13:21 From Aimee Moles to Everyone:
follow the money
09:13:27 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
Oop you right. We’re #1 WHOOOO
09:14:23 From One Rouge to Everyone:
SAY THAT, TREY!
09:14:53 From Alexis Jones to Everyone:
Mic drop!
09:15:53 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
I'm with Vera Institute of Justice now. These are the exact types of issues we're advocating for in New Orleans - investing in communities and prevention instead of only in police. Looking forward to building more partnerships in Baton Rouge to continue this necessary work!
09:16:24 From Casey Phillips to Everyone:
thank you amazing humans...wow, that was powerful!
09:16:43 From Helena Williams to Everyone:
Heading to the engage in the summit! Thank you everyone!
09:18:11 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
I just want to lift up how pivotal these weekly convenings are to getting below surface level solutions. Keep engaging and diving deep #onerouge fam ❤️
09:18:51 From Mary Stein to Everyone:
Library will be all over the Book Festival. FREE festival!
09:19:00 From One Rouge to Everyone:
@Morgan, yeah, you right!
09:19:20 From Alfredo Cruz to Everyone:
Happy Anniversary PREACH!!
09:20:04 From SK Groll to Everyone:
09:21:33 From Rev. Alexis Anderson-EBRPPRC to Everyone:
Yes!!!
09:21:52 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
Agreed SK. I appreciate that in the space we can trust that folks will name the elephant in the room. No matter how uncomfortable.
09:23:11 From David Summers to Everyone:
BIG SNAP
09:23:23 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
EARLY VOTING
09:24:04 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Thanks for the great convo today! I have to run to my next meeting. I'm hiring for a Senior Research Associate at Vera Institute of Justice. It's a New Orleans/hybrid position. More info at https://www.vera.org/job?gh_jid=4108802005 You can email me at kmosby@vera.org
09:24:10 From Kim Mosby to Everyone:
Have a great weekend all!
09:24:34 From Tristi Charpentier | HAWF (she/her) to Everyone:
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) is hosting an Heirship Know Your Rights and Legal Clinic session coming up on 11/5/2022 in partnership with Southern University Law Center and Louisiana Appleseed.
09:25:00 From Mary Stein to Everyone:
No Sistah Left Behind Domestic Violence Prevention fashion show at the Main LIbrary moved to SUNDAY at 4, outside.
09:25:39 From Alfredo Cruz to Everyone:
Housing Summit Nov. 1 at 8:30-1 pm. register here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/housing-stakeholder-summit-tickets-439688769947
09:26:12 From Alexis Jones to Everyone:
Catholic Charities has been working a lot with that community and they still need a lot of help!!
09:26:13 From Morgan Udoh (She/Her/They) to Everyone:
Wishing a reverent and joyful Dia de Los Muertos and All Saints Day to our community next week!
09:26:38 From Tristi Charpentier | HAWF (she/her) to Everyone:
Heirship Institute Education and Intake Seminar: https://www.sulc.edu/news/4926
09:28:22 From Mary Stein to Everyone:
yes
09:28:40 From Mary Stein to Everyone:
But River Center Branch is ALSO fantastic!
Community Announcements
Louisiana Book Festival Saturday, October 29th. 9 am - 4 pm
PREACH is celebrating their 25th Anniversary
The LORI Gala was spectacular!
Housing Summit Nov. 1 at 8:30-1 pm. register here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/housing-stakeholder-summit-tickets-439688769947
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) is hosting an Heirship Know Your Rights and Legal Clinic session coming up on 11/5/2022 in partnership with Southern University Law Center and Louisiana Appleseed.
Sow Good Saturday is November 5 https://www.givepulse.com/event/287784-Sow-Good-Saturday-Baton-Roots
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