After having attended numerous meetings with different organizations that WHEDco works with as a part of the many coalitions they are a part of, I’ve been able to see the kinds of work that different organizations are doing and the collaboration between all of the organizations.
WHEDco is a part of the Bronx Wide Coalition, the Southern Boulevard Coalition, and other coalitions. A few organizations that are heavily involved in these coalitions are The Point, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative (BCDI), and the Northwest Bronx Clergy Coalition and Banana Kelly. Through events we’ve organized in collaboration with these organizations, I’ve been able to observe that all of these organizations have one common goal: civic engagement. While this may be brought up in different terms like economic democracy, all of the organizations want their community members to be more involved and create a version of the Bronx that their own community members want.
Through events like voter engagement events, financial workshops for small businesses, parades, and more, all of these organizations desire to teach members of the South Bronx community, and the Bronx overall, about what it means to have ownership and be in control of the decisions that are occurring in your own neighborhood and community. And a good example of this is the Bronx Wide Proposal that BCDI has taken the lead on, and that I mentioned in my last blog post. BCDI provides us with all the graphics, flyers, posters, and they’ve even created a toolkit for how we can provide information about the proposals to our WHEDco members. Despite the different ways in which organizations including WHEDco might talk about the proposals, we’re all going back to the main goal: how can we help and encourage members in our neighborhood to not only fight back, but to simply become more involved in the community and its decisions? Much of this has to do with ownership and explaining to members of the South Bronx community that they could make decisions about how vacant lots and land could be used if they owned it.
When thinking of the bounds on what kinds of organization and individual action are possible, I think about the ways in which Bronxites are constantly told to vote, where they are promised that voting will make change happen, when that’s not really the case. When taking a community that has fought for decades, but has only been destroyed at the hands of the government and they receive absolutely no benefits or assistance – would you blame them if they didn’t want to vote? While these organizations have encouraged people to get out there and vote through hosting their events, it’s important to note that at the end of the day they all desire to empower Bronxites to take back their right to the city. However, there is only so much that collective and individual action can do – if no one listens to the demands of the South Bronx community.
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