The New Orleans Citizen Participation Project

First, we hope that everyone reading this is healthy and managing as best as possible in these very trying times.

Needless to say, many aspects of CBNO’s work have been impacted by the coronavirus and by the recent anti-racism demonstrations. As usual, another crisis has again laid bare the inequities in our city, and indeed, across our nation:

- People of color and with lower incomes account for a severely disproportionate share of the coronavirus cases and deaths.
- This same vulnerable population is suffering the dire economic impacts to a far greater degree.
- In May, CBNO surveyed neighborhood associations in New Orleans; 62% were not holding any kinds of meetings. These were mostly the under-resourced neighborhoods, and the most frequent reason cited in the survey was lack of access to technology and the internet.
- Far beyond the necessary management of the crisis, the city has reverted to top-down decision-making with no community input. To cite just one example, CBNO has been asked by the Vascoville neighborhood to help it ward off the building of a new city cemetery in a residential area with no street or parking infrastructure to support this type of installation.
- We are preparing a recap of the first four years of results from the Big Easy Budget Game; each year, the people of New Orleans indicated strongly that they want to reduce funding in the public safety/criminal justice arena and shift the monies to areas such as mental health care, youth programs, workforce training, and affordable housing.

As usual, CBNO is the only organization really seeking out and listening to community voice; supporting residents in having a voice in the decisions that impact their lives; and working to hold government accountable for being responsive to its people.  In addition to working individually with Vascoville, we have submitted the results of our neighborhood associations survey to supporters on the City Council, and received a renewed commitment to work on the CPP once we get out of emergency mode.

Similarly, when we complete the Budget Game recap, we will submit that to the City Council, as well as providing it to partner organizations who are working directly on meaningful reform -- indeed, re-imagining -- of policing and public safety in New Orleans.  This enables us both to amplify community voice and to provide quantifiable data to support those who are working to enact change.

We have also been putting our voice directly into the conversations about racism, equity and participation.  On Tuesday, our local online journalism site, the Lens, published an opinion piece by CBNO president Keith Twitchell about breathing, engagement and people's rights (link to the piece provided below).  This morning, CBNO and the Urban League of Louisiana joined to conduct a webinar on Community Participation in the Age of the Coronavirus, hosted by the New Orleans Citizen Diplomacy Council.  Among other key topics, we emphasized the need to vote, complete the census, and be as proactive as possible in seeking community information on community issues, and participating in community processes.  These seemingly simple actions are ever-more challenging in the pandemic context.

We also continue to work on our Advocacy Training.  As we are flooded daily with information and misinformation, and as our so-called leadership almost across the board seems constantly to be reverting to yelling at and past each other, the voice of the people is in danger of being completely drowned out.  We of course continue to work on ensuring opportunities for people to speak up; but we are constantly reminded that people need to be confident and capable when they have these opportunities.  We are hesitant to switch our approach to virtual programming; we have been focused on making the Advocacy Training as experiential as possible, and we are always mindful that the people we most want to build capacity for have least access to virtual technology.  But if doing the training in person continues to be impossible for too much longer, we will move temporarily to offering it virtually.

Community engagement and participation are challenging in the best of times.  People with power, access and decision-making ability are too frequently reluctant to make more room at those tables.  The pandemic only makes these challenges greater.  Yet we are heartened by the other great current event, the widespread demonstrations relating to calling out racism and demanding real, lasting change in the systems in our country that perpetuate it.  This is the voice of the people insisting that they be heard, and we see renewed opportunities to provide the channels through that voice can be amplified and really focused on systemic results.  It is definitely not smooth sailing ahead, but there are great opportunities for sea change.  We are committed to helping guide this ship on the course to a more equitable and inclusive New Orleans.

Again, we hope you are doing as well as possible in these turbulent times.  As always, we are so grateful for your support.  The opportunities are real, and potentially really significant.  Your support enables us to make the most of them.

Links:

• Breath, Voice and the Human Race