Health equity, wealth creation, environmental justice and wrongful convictions were among the topics highlighted at the 50th Annual Legislative Conference sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
The virtual symposium, held September 12-17, featured dozens of sessions with expert speakers dissecting the challenges and opportunities minorities face in fields such as science and technology, civic engagement, financial wellness and professional development. Other topics emphasized national security, lifestyle and culture, voting rights and Black women’s leadership.
A lively discussion emanated during the session on “Building Sustainable Communities in Our Underrepresented Communities – Creating Change in our Social Systems.” The program, hosted by the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce, was opened by Azizza Davis Goines, Chamber president/CEO, and moderated by Larry Lee, publisher/CEO of The Sacramento Observer.
According to Goines and Lee, the goal of the conversation was to offer tactics to enhance equity for Blacks in the areas of health, economic development, education, housing and energy.
“Equity means you looked at each individual and said what do you need to succeed? We need that in the community because sustainability is people, planet and prosperity. You have to have all three,” insisted Leonard Robinson, partner and chief strategist at consultant firm SEMCO and sustainability strategist for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia.
Robinson, who has more than 45 years of experience in environmental management and sustainability, recommended three activities that municipalities must implement to achieve sustainability – good policy, education and activism. Elaborating further, he said, “We have to help our politicians make good policy by telling them what the needs are and the best strategic advantages. What we have to do with education is not only educate, but put our children in the best environment to succeed. The last thing is we have to get involved. We need activism and protest. Voting is activism.”
Dr. Torence Powell, associate vice chancellor at Los Rios Community College District, echoed the importance of education to build equity and improve underrepresented communities. His institution, Powell said, focuses on increasing an area’s economic development by preparing a workforce for craft or skilled professions as well as white collar jobs along with ensuring that students have access to the same level of instruction that more affluent colleges offer.
“As the education sector, it’s our role to ensure that we’re creating the opportunities for students to prosper in the economy and then also improve the outcomes in our communities. We are essentially preparing these students by equipping them with information and knowledge that they’re going to need to be responsible leaders moving forward and we have the responsibility to prepare them to be better stewards of the environment. It’s our responsibility to essentially equip them so they can push on our civic leaders to really advocate for improvements that are going to help us all,” noted Powell.
And one of the more pressing improvements needed is in the area of healthcare, which is often reported as sorely lacking in minority neighborhoods. To upgrade the quality of medical care, Dr. Mario San Bartolome, suggested that healthcare should be approached “from a whole person type of perspective” and as an “investment into the community,” which will help to determine a person’s “real health.”
“When you think of healthcare, I would say maybe the most important thing to really consider is that movement toward equity around those social determinants of health and invest in it. We’re past the days of being reductionistic. We really need to look at health from the context of all of our environment. We should be holding all of ourselves accountable to the investment, particularly among those healthcare [factors], which is such a large part of our economy and our lives. Let’s keep everyone accountable around those social determinants,” advised Bartolome.
In addition to accountability, another critical element in building sustainability is the collaboration between public and private sectors in advancing a better community. Louis Stewart, who heads strategic initiatives for Developer Ecosystem at NVIDIA, said his company advocates “training Black and Brown folks in the community” to prepare them to contribute to the local economy. NVIDIA is a multinational technology company that creates interactive graphics for computers and similar hardware.
“Everything is connected. It’s going to take government, academia and industry and all three of those sectors have to be super-intentional about how sustainable they’re making the world,” said Stewart, the former chief innovation officer for the city of Sacramento.
“From the private sector side, there’re a whole lot of companies speaking equity. Now it’s time to have people make them do equity, not just in dollars and cents, but programmatic and relational. There’s a lot of folks out there that the [people] can reach out to and actually help make a change,” he said, adding that NVIDIA tapped him to help the firm nurture relationships with minority partners and develop a more inclusive tech community.
Sharing closing remarks, Robinson concluded, “A whole bunch of things are tied up into [sustainability] and a society can’t go forward unless the underserved are brought along. We have to communicate the idea of sustainability. It’s about embracing social opportunities. We have to communicate things better.”
To learn more about the legislative conference, visit cbcfinc.org.
