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The Office of the Common Council is hiring for the position of Community Engagement Intern through the Affirmative Action Student Professionals in Residence (AASPIRE) internship program. This person will work collaboratively with the Community Engagement Strategist and the Legislative Analyst on projects to: Generate awareness of the Common Council; Assist in research that impacts local decision-making; Assist in the planning and deployment of alder engagement events. The community engagement strategist will be the intern's primary staff mentor. The Chief of Staff and Legislative Analyst will also actively provide mentorship and guidance. The ideal candidate will have a passion for reaching historically underserved community members in creative and innovative ways to increase civic engagement with local government. Preferred skills include: A strong understanding of project management; digital media marketing and social media; content creation; collecting and organizing data; interest in the planning and execution of accessible and diverse initiatives designed to increase community participation. Writing and communication skills. Experience with Canva a plus. The work involves: Assisting Council staff with developing and implementing a comprehensive communication strategy Working closely with Council members in the planning and execution of community engagement activities for the Common Council within a citywide strategic and equity focused context. This work also involves working within a collaborative structure with not only City staff and officials but with the community at large, providing the intern with a vast range of experience for anyone who wishes to be pursue a career in government and marketing/communications. Pay: $19.47hr Link to the ASSPIRE Intern Application: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/madisonwi/jobs/4394250/aaspire-intern For questions about the Community Engagement Intern position, please contact Lorissa at lbanuelos@cityofmadison.com.

When we think of equity, what do we think about it? Is it just a measurement of how well marginalized people are doing? Is it a process? What is equity? According to Steve Gilchrist, EQT By Design's newest team member as of mid-2023, equity is well-being. How did Gilchrist come to this idea, and what does it mean to his work, to EQTs work, and to our community? Gilchrist was born in Japan to an American father and a Japanese mother, and after some early years back and forth, he spent most of his youth in San Francisco. Growing up in the Bay Area and being bi-racial drove Gilchrist to work for community well-being. His time as the only bi-racial student attending a Japanese school showed him in- and outgroup dynamics, at times not Japanese enough and at other times not white enough. In Gilchrist's words, “As I grew older, I wanted to bridge groups and heal relationships between different groups and to try to erase or lessen those divisions. Divisions, in their worst case, are hatred and violence toward others different from ourselves.” Gilchrist studied business in college and ended up in Tokyo for work after an impressionable senior year around environmental work. It was during this time, in such a dense urban environment, that the importance of environmental responsibility became clear. His experience in Tokyo led Gilchrist to return to school, where he worked on sustainable forestry from a social and organism perspective at Oregon State University. Here, he applied his ideas of healing divides, working to find ways for entities like the World Bank, Federal Government Forest Service, Universities, small business owners, large corporations, and NGOs to figure out if there was a way they could all work all together on issues of sustainability. From this work, Gilchrist ended up pursuing a sustainability education doctorate at Portland State University (PSU) graduate school. As he was taking his courses, he obtained a master's in Conflict Resolution, “I loved it; it helped me understand in a more profound way than I'd had previously this idea of, how do you bring groups together? How do you heal these relationships in a structured way to be interpersonally, but, at the intergroup level, at the systemic level,” says Gilchrist, continuing, “or as PSU called it, ‘structural level.’” In this program, Gilchrist did his research and dissertation on interethnic conflict and conflict resolution. Within his work was a community-based process called “Intergroup Dialogue,” where he posted upon this idea of conflict, transformation, and healing. This academic work launched him on his professional path, first working as the Director of Institutional Diversity at a small Liberal Arts college in upstate New York. From there, he ended up in a similar role at UW Colleges and Extension, and then at Edgewood College. As he made this transition, Gilchrist asked himself, “What's the goal of equity? Like, what do we believe is equity in of itself?” As he kept thinking, his thought process led him to a possible answer: well-being. “We are all, in one way, or one form or another, and it will look different, wanting this deeper sense of well-being for ourselves, for our families, for those around us, our community. So whether it's infant mortality, access to fair pay, jobs or health care, or finding deeper meaning in our work or ability to reach our full potential, at work, or in whatever capacity, all those components of well-being are not just physical well being,” says Gilchrist. This revelation led Gilchrist to help start the “Institute for Collective Well-Being.” Still, after a couple of years, for personal reasons, Gilchrist needed to move on, and during that time, he had breakfast with Annette Miller, EQT By Designs founder and CEO. At EQT By Design, we work to ensure outcomes in systems that produce community well-being, so bringing Steve on as a consultant was a natural fit. At EQT, Gilchrist found that “a unique aspect of EQT By Design is the connection between community engagement and organizational change, and that they're interconnected,” and he’s working to strengthen those connections. To Gilchrist, the “systems change process starts with understanding what's happening in the system currently.” The work is to collect data, do community engagement, see what's happening, and what are the voices that are often traditionally underrepresented or intentionally excluded from these conversations in the past?” This helps EQT understand what is or isn’t happening within the current system. How does this work out in the world? Gilchrist and EQT look at this work and think about what organizational changes need to happen within their own organizations as part of this work of well-being. Data and information are excellent, but organizations must know what to do with them afterward. The work must start internally; if organizations work for external well-being, internal well-being must be the first step. The beginning of the process, the first goal, is to work with organizations to co-create well-being for employees and their clients. As you move forward, you have to start connecting issues, such as environmental sustainability, health care, mental health, and economics; these are all well-being issues. Gilchrist asks, “What if we said the ultimate purpose of education was this idea around collective and individual well-being? What would it be if you had a clearer sense of purpose? Then you could start thinking; this is how we would shift education. Same with the economy,  what if the goal of the economy was to support the well-being of humans and nature?” Instead of thinking about GDP, production, growth, or test scores, we center people, our lived environments, and how we can create well-being. Everything else grows and branches out of that. When we start approaching our social problems by asking questions about well-being, we end up with beautiful answers of flourishing communities. Steve Gilchrist brings a perspective of seeing the issues connect, a sense of connected humanity, pushing for this collective well-being as the end goal of equity. This perspective and approach fits well within EQT By Design in our people-centered approach of equity:  not platitudes and data, but people. As you think about equity in your work, organization, or community, perhaps add that end goal of “What would well-being look like here?”

Growing old is difficult, and increasingly so in our modern United States; it is increasingly a lonely endeavor, your contributions forgotten and cast into isolation away from family and, many times, our wider community too. And like many ills in the United States, BIPOC and LGBTQIA populations disproportionately are underserved as they age. EQT by Design has been working with the City of Madison to engage BIPOC and LGBTQIA older adults in the city through surveys and focus groups about services and programming. We’re trying to learn what they feel would be programming and services to meet cultural, social, and emotional needs, and what shifts need to be made to current programming to meet those needs. In total, 193 older adults responded to the survey, and 54 BIPOC community members engaged in a focus group. The focus groups included Mandarin, Hmong, Spanish speakers, and African Americans. Through these groups, we understood how these populations utilized Madison’s Senior Center, a city-supported center on West Mifflin Street. We just completed this work, and while it is a little early to say too much publicly, we learned quite a bit. Even though we’re not ready to release our findings, we have some high-level observations we’d like to share. Importantly, we’re good at recognizing the young, their potential, and what they can bring. At the same time, we don’t fully understand or acknowledge the ways our older adults have and are contributing to our community. As you age, you become more vulnerable, less active, and, for most, no longer at the center of things— you end up sitting more on the periphery. The world becomes more narrow as you age; things like technology and transportation are essential but have become more challenging to access. Many of these things affect your independence, and we all have pride in our ability to care for ourselves. The narrowing of the world is compounded by retirement being forced upon many, or at least semi-retirement, living off a mostly fixed income. As people age, they receive less respect and fewer accolades unless they fall into a unique box of accomplishment, such as a researcher or political leader. But in general, as a whole, we stop paying attention to our older adults as a community. And while this might not be true about some family units, it holds as a society as a whole. These are people who, in their heyday, did a lot, a lot of themselves, their families, and their communities; now they want things to be taken care of, to be as healthy as they can be, to still have relevance in society, to be as independent as possible, and to be treated with respect— and this does not sound like an unreasonable ask. Now that we have good data, our guiding question is how do we use it to create well-being for our older adults? How we create that well-being will be publicly released soon, and we’re excited to share it with you all when it is.

In 2023, Madison Metropolitan School District opened up a new elementary school on the Southside of Madison, right next to Badger Rock Middle School, currently called Southside Elementary School. This school replaces Allis Elementary, housed closer to Madison’s far Eastside, which served mainly Southside Madison families. With Allis based on the East side, most students had long bus and car rides to school. Now, the Southside of Madison has its own community-based school and a school they were central in creating. EQT By Design, in partnership with Urban Assets and the Madison Metropolitan School District, engaged with Southside of Madison residents to design their school through our community-centered equity engagements. Our part in this project started in 2020 and into the first quarter of 2021. The first question we asked ourselves was, “What would a strong programming curriculum be at the elementary school level?” As the district attendance lines for this school were drawn, we designed our engagements, deciding that doing engagements at Frank Alice and virtually would ensure accessibility for as many families as possible. These engagements aimed to understand what people really wanted in a school. Through these engagements, intersecting key areas arose. We learned about what people wanted from a cultural perspective regarding the use of art, language, and history, and in seeing it as a “show me, don't tell me,” I belong here. The other big theme that arose was how we can honor the past while serving the future. How can you embrace culture in iconic ways, racially, ethnically, and linguistically? How can groups reflect themselves in the space and being of the school? How can we see that show up in the schools using color, recognizing and lifting up people from the past, and showcasing student art? Then, we wanted people to close their eyes and asked what they imagined. We wanted to hear how they thought about the physical attributes of the design in their mind. Such as how do you make school and community cohesive, but also you need to have it separate, right? When you're doing school, you're doing school; when you're doing community, you're doing community? So, how do you use the space where people eat? How are they thinking about height and sizing? If you have a person of small stature, how might they feel going into and around the halls? Are the walls big and intimidating? What materials are the walls made of, and how do they feel? We wanted to hear about how you can create safe spaces and how a space feels visually and physically safe. This led us to the broader experience and feeling in the space, such as acoustics and other sensory experiences, to remember the array of lived experiences, such as for children on the autism spectrum. A space where people, or small groups, can have quiet zones or furniture that makes you want to sit in and use it, where gathering is convenient and feels joyful and safe. A building where it is easy to navigate, feel safe, know where you want to go, and feel good as you move through it. Then, regarding the physical site itself, it was important to make it easy and safe to get to the school to be dropped off and picked up. The weather doesn’t affect whether you walk, park your car, or take a bus. Another piece is Badger Rock and Rooted, which are already on that site. So what was the relationship in the connection going to be with Badger Rock and Rooted? We wanted to identify some opportunities for bridging critical community resources and making the connections more cohesive, not less. The last piece is what we wanted to know from a community-specific perspective: what would make people spend time in the space? Such as community sports resources, wellness, and social and emotional needs. Is there a welcoming center? What kinds of things can people do there in that space as community members? For example, is there evening and weekend programming that meets the needs of families? What kinds of entertainment could be in the space? And how could you showcase what's happening in the community and at the school that is welcoming to the community to experience it and to demonstrate the space isn't just for parents and kids. After we engaged the community, we broke down the information to present it to the architects in a digestible way that would translate into cohesive design concepts. We did this by translating the experiential and sensing information — what does that mean when discussing space, color, and design? We took that information and explained it in tangible, practical ways. We also consulted with them about what a space meant for not only surviving but thriving looked like for the community. So, the space becomes and feels inclusive. It comes down to well-being, thinking about how to avoid minimizing the needs of different demographic groups, and helping people understand how all of it was important and beneficial for everyone, not just the traditional student. We wanted to ensure they thought about all these different ways students and the community show up in space. We worked with the architects to help them understand what kinds of reflections they needed to design to resonate so the community knew they were listened to when they entered the building. Now, in 2023, students at Southside Elementary are experiencing their first school year in the building, their building. And we’re already seeing positive effects with record attendance numbers. Students have a place where they can thrive. The future is bright on the Southside of Madison, where community members have a community school to call their own.

How our streets are built and designed came about within the last quarter of the 20th century, being built for cars and in service of the suburbs instead of being made for people and urban density. Many of us feel these design decisions every day, whether we’re hurriedly crossing a street, avoiding specific bike paths because they aren’t protected, or when we’re annoyed at having to take a quick drive to pick up something little that is just out of walking distance. We also feel it in communities where we’re more disconnected from one another and the wider city in our individual pods. Not only did it not used to be like this, but much of the world doesn’t live like this, and we don't have to either. We can build streets to serve people over cars, making connecting with your neighborhood and broader community more accessible and making walking and riding your bike with your family safe. EQT By Design is proud to have participated in an innovative project aimed at doing precisely that. The American Planning Association Wisconsin-Chapter (APAW), during their annual 2023 Conference, awarded the City of Madison “Best Practices” for their Complete Green Streets (CGS) initiative. EQT By Design is proud to have taken part in this project with our partners in  TOOL Design and the City of Madison; through diligent community engagement, we provided a community-oriented equity design process, now built within the City of Madison’s new approach to Complete Green Streets. So what is this approach, and why is it so different? The first thing it does is invert priorities. EQT By Design worked behind the scenes, in and with communities, to help design this innovative approach to street design for the City of Madison. Throughout our process, we engaged in equity engineering to embed equity within and throughout the project, making its way into the entire process of street redevelopment. We launched multiple cycles of community engagement to accomplish this. The first phase being listening, the second phase designing, and the third, is affirmation that we correctly incorporated the voices of communities into the design to ensure the city's process can do its best to meet the needs of our most marginalized communities. One community we want to highlight is the Darbo/Worthington community, one of Madison's most underserved communities. The multiple focus groups held within this community were pivotal to ensuring equity was engineered within the project. With the assistance of Will Green from Mentoring Positives, we engaged a group of women and mother community leaders to ensure this project would address their needs and concerns. With this information, in partnership with TOOL Design, we developed a multi-layered process to ensure communities like Darbo/Worthington would be prioritized, have community needs and concerns met in street design, and ensure broader community concerns are addressed by deepening the city's approach to equity in government. We created an Equity “Sphere of Influence” and an “Equity Process through these listening engagements.” The Sphere ensures wider issues of equity, beyond streets, are addressed. The City report states, “Some neighborhoods in Madison experience systemic inequities. The City needs to pay special attention in those areas and prioritize them for investment across all departments (for example, parks, health, housing, and utilities).” This Equity Framework was designed to create a more holistic process to address local inequities. From here, a process was built, ensuring greater engagement and listening by City Transportation Department staff, prioritization of marginalized communities, and increased cooperation between city departments to address inequities. This systems approach to solving problems of inequities is the EQT By Design approach; when we engage with communities and with entities, we work to address the systems or inputs to increase equitable outcomes. This equity process integrates with Complete Green Streets by marking these communities “Equity Priority Areas” or EPAs and by making pedestrian and bike safety, public transportation access, and wider city resources at the center of street design. This equity process, including the EPAs and overlay, was our small part of the project, and the City of Madison is already taking full steam with this approach. South Park St, one of Madison’s most diverse communities yet most car-centric roads, will be the first road to be redeveloped under this innovative Complete Green Streets approach. We’re excited to see how South Park Street evolves from its current state, serving commuters coming into Madison, to one that serves those who live on and around Park Street on the South Side of Madison. We're looking forward to seeing how other communities benefit and evolve from Complete Green Streets in the coming years, as we build a city that is built for its people to safely live and move, making this city greater than it already is.

Project Description Background: EQT By Designs Community Engagement Team, in partnership with Wisconsin Population Health Institute (PHI) seeks to prototype a model of employing Neighborhood Ambassadors through a project focused on collecting data on health inequalities. This project, in partnership with PHI, will amplify the voices of those most impacted by health inequities by surveying South Madison. The South Madison focus makes your organization uniquely capable of being knowledgeable of potential Community Ambassadors. This project would begin June 1 2023 and run through August 31st, with the possibility of extending into September of 2023. Community ambassadors will canvass homes in the study area, focusing on rental properties, multi-family homes, and the mobile home park in addition to attending events hosted by local organizations, faith centers, and eldercare communities. The first canvassing phase will entail talking to people in the neighborhood, dropping door hangers, and otherwise letting folks know they will be knocking on doors to ask for resident opinions in exchange for a token of thanks. The second phase entails conducting in-person data collection door-by-door and at events. Ambassadors will work with a team coordinator at UW who will track the incentives distributed to participants of the study, overall data collection activities, and monitor data storage. Community ambassadors will have fair compensation (see LTE description below for more details) for their work. For EQT this is to serve as a proof of concept of the benefits of recruiting and compensating Community Ambassadors to assist in projects that involve deep community engagement. Our belief is it won’t only deepen community engagement, but build community, and elevate community voices in projects and programs affecting their communities. Ambassador profile: A Southside resident(s) preferred/ideal, or someone with deep Southside community connections Representation demographics or expectations (BIPOC and multilingual, renter, homeowner, seniors, timing and availability (night/weekend)) Ambassadors should understand the cadence and rhythms of where community members reside, live, and hang out. Community connections within the South Side of Madison, preferably currently residing within Madison's South Side. Community Ambassador Position Description Limited-Term Employment: Four positions open In coordination with the Public Health Initiative (PHI), we’re working on community power-building efforts at the local level by amplifying the voices of those most impacted by health inequities. This project will target South Madison, to assist in this we are hiring four (4) part-time, LTE, “Community Ambassadors.” Goal and purpose of this role: To be available and visible when community members are free is vital to the outreach strategy. Ambassadors should plan accordingly in terms of thinking about the time of day, week, and weekend to ensure the successful reach and accomplishment of the goals and objectives outlined below. Term of employment: June 1 - August 31st, with the possibility of extending into September of 2023. Hourly Wage: $25/hour Hours per week: 8-10 hours/week Application Link: EQT South-Side Community Ambassador Application Duties: Canvassing homes in the study area, focusing on rental properties, multi-family homes, and mobile home parks in the South-Side area; Attending events hosted by local organizations, faith centers, and eldercare communities. Position expectations: Canvassing will entail talking to people in the neighborhood, dropping door hangers, and otherwise letting folks know they will be knocking on doors to ask for resident opinions in exchange for a token of thanks; Conducting in-person data collection door-by-door and at events. Patterns of outreach and engagement - ambassadors should ensure that they make themselves available as community members; Number of people to engage - 200+ people of historically marginalized and disenfranchised community members in the south side of Madison; Any supplies such as safety vests, data collection tablets with cases, and outreach materials will be provided. What a candidate brings: Ambassadors should understand the cadence and rhythms of where community members reside, live, and hang out; Community connections within the South Side of Madison, preferably currently residing within Madison's South Side; Language skills in Spanish or Hmong a bonus. Work Schedule Expectations Flexible work schedule; we will work with Community Ambassadors to customize their work schedule while meeting the goals of the program; Be in the field during the time of day and days of the week when community members are active and freely available; This will include evenings and weekends; Available for training and team building during the last two weeks of May for three 2-hour retreats.