Engagement (n): When people most impacted by decisions are centralized in decision-making.
It’s not remarkable, it’s just engagement.
Why just engagement?
When it comes to promoting equity and inclusion, a lot of attention is placed on legislative action as the mechanism for change. While policy is critical to structural and systemic change, it isn’t the only mechanism. Institutions can start the transformative work through the practices and tools they use for community engagement. We worked with residents from Dorchester and East Boston to understand what community engagement should look like.
We have 5 big ideas
Through our co-design process, we identified 5 big ideas for promoting equity and inclusion through engagement. We advocate that the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) begin adopting these practices now, in order to better center Boston’s BIPOC communities in decisions about development in their neighborhoods.
Community stories
Rapid development is deeply affecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Boston. Hear stories from real people about how development is affecting them now in their own neighborhoods.