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Doors
Every month Nexus Community Partners staff selects a piece of research, an article or some other selected work to read and discuss together as a team. This month we read an article by Xavier de Souza Briggs, acting secretary for policy development and research at HUD and assistant professor of public policy at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The article was entitled, “Doing Democracy Up-Close: Culture, Power and Communication in Community Buildin
The article was a great read and served as a good jumping off point for discussion related to our work at Nexus and community building in general. Our conversation floated from issues of culture and power to specific thoughts on how to better build more engaged and powerful communities.
As a staff we discussed the critical difference between going through the “empty ritual of participation”, as Briggs states, “to sharing power in real ways that affect the outcomes of neighborhood revitalization processes”. We also acknowledged how sometimes organized efforts to engage residents can have the opposite effect of marginalizing community voices rather than creating authentic points of participation. And that one key way to avoid that unintended consequence is to be focused on building long term relationships of trust and mutuality that weaves into communities a strong fabric of social capital and collective efficacy.
Near the end of our time we began utilizing the symbol of a door to speak to the points of entry that need to exist inside of organizations and communities where community members can authentically be a part of shaping their neighborhoods.
We challenged ourselves to examine which doors to our work are wide open, and which are closed, and to reflect on how Nexus lives out our mission and values in the communities that we work in.
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Are we as an organization being respectful of culture and power and all of the nuances that go into authentic community building efforts?
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Are there places of improvement for us in our own work?
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If community members were interested in knowing what activities Nexus was a part of in their community, could they find an entry point, an open door in which to ask questions or participate?
All in all, another fantastic time learning together as a staff.
Click here to link to the article.