The 2004 election year has come and gone and, beyond soliciting votes, politicians had little to say to low-income communities of color. Local and national candidates of all parties made promises and pledges about what to expect should they be elected. But their plans did not, unfortunately, make good use of the wisdom, voice, and experience found in local constituencies throughout the United States. The failure to incorporate this knowledge deprives the nation of valuable input for policy formation. The solutions these communities could share are sources of inspiration and instruction in addressing perplexing problems that plague America’s neighborhoods and regions.
The recognition that people experiencing problems should be integrally involved in proposing solutions is the source of the PolicyLink commitment to Lifting Up What Works, to advancing a new generation of policies to achieve economic and social equity. Lifting Up What Works—through media, presentations, and publications—allows the nation to use this wisdom, voice, and experience to address seemingly intractable problems and to make policy change and equitable progress.
A new generation of leadership is necessary to harness constituency knowledge and use it to advocate for a fully inclusive policy framework for the twenty-first century. Yet there are few avenues to policymaking available to leaders who are truly representative of low income communities and communities of color. Last year, PolicyLink conducted research about leaders of color and policy development and published its findings in a report called Leadership for Policy Change: Strengthening Communities of Color Through Leadership Development. Drawing on interviews with over 100 leaders of nonprofit organizations and foundations, an analysis of 72 leadership development programs, and an extensive review of current leadership development literature, the report concluded that there is a need for more leaders of color who can be effective in developing and implementing economic and social policies; that barriers exist to their full participation; and strategies exist for removing these barriers and enabling leaders of color to use their expertise to benefit low-income communities of color and the nation.
Involvement in policymaking is more critical than many people realize. Public and private policies impact everyday life: jobs and education; health care and well being; environmental preservation and neighborhood services; and transportation, recreation, and housing are guided by local, state, and federal policies often formulated with little input from the many different residents who will be affected by those policies. Policies determine how and how long people will travel to get to work, result in disproportionate funding for inner city and suburban schools, influence the quality of the air, and can be the means to affordable housing. Residents led by effective leaders can guide efforts to achieve policies to overcome neighborhood and community-wide challenges. Legislators, advocates, and the business community should engage these communities in advancing policy solutions that can address economic and social inequities based on race, class, gender, and geography.
Leadership for Policy Change makes clear that engaging more leaders of color in policymaking requires a shift in resources, priorities, and power. Foundations and other institutions can facilitate this shift through concerted efforts to prepare and position more representatives from communities of color to have policy impact.
When leaders who are directly connected to community concerns are engaged, new priorities emerge. In Washington, DC, for example, after decades of a relentless focus on attracting businesses and high income residents back to the District, a coalition of community-based organizations known collectively as The Campaign for A Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning Policy is urging the adoption of mandatory inclusionary zoning as a tool to increase the availability of affordable housing to low- and moderate-income residents of the nation’s capital. Campaign goals were based on PolicyLink research reported in Expanding Housing Opportunity in Washington, DC: The Case for Inclusionary Zoning. Campaign leaders represent a broad coalition of labor, housing, and grassroots organizations that are committed to influencing housing policy in the District and to protecting the housing interests of poor and working class people.
The campaign held community forums, collected signed postcards urging the adoption of a mandatory inclusionary zoning policy, and has mounted a public education campaign using organizing, press conferences, letters to the editor, and attempts to interest local media in helping to tell the story of affordable housing in the District. The campaign is inspiring similar efforts in other parts of the country, which highlights the need for national policies to address critical affordable housing shortages in cities, towns, and suburbs and the potential for change that comes with coalition building.
Successfully
advancing economic and social equity agendas requires vigorous leadership
to guide efforts to develop policy solutions that can ultimately benefit
residents throughout the United States. These efforts must be led by leaders
of color—and leaders who are not of color but who share a belief in
the power of community, collaboration, and coalition-building—who
are fully prepared to engage the policy arena. Foundations can provide the
support for skills development, training, and mentorship opportunities that
leaders need. Leadership for policy change is critical to the success of
equitable development efforts, and to making sure that practices that serve
communities well are maintained and expanded for the greatest impact. This
is the kind of leadership that must be actively encouraged and diligently
supported in 2004, and beyond.