Dear Friends and Colleagues, As a reminder, the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities, is taking place February 8-10, 2007 at The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, in Downtown Los Angeles. TLUC would like to invite you a panel disccusion on Smart Growth and Social Equity: Lessons in Civic Engagement. Conference registration is required. For more information, or to register for the conference see http://www.newpartners.org Smart Growth and Social Equity: Lessons in Civic Engagement Friday, February 9th 1:30-2:45 pm Ask an environmental advocate how they engage their constituency in policy and political action and their answer will be very different from how a low-income or community development advocate engages their constituency. We know that sprawl has significant negative social, economic, and environmental consequences for low-income and immigrant communities, yet we often lack these communities' voices and input in the Smart Growth discussion. This session will examine the type of outreach needed to engage low-income and immigrant communities in the planning discussion and development stages. Panelists will address how to turn conversations with city officials around to ensure that the entire community is engaged, how to work with local residents to help them understand why their input and advocacy matters, and how to ensure that the smart growth movement is also a social equity movement. The session will highlight two cases studies and include public outreach consultants that worked with the community as well as community residents that are part of the process. Moderator:
Panelists:
Sincerely, Monica Villalobos |
