The elements of equitable collaboration can help any community or institution guide community-based decision-making. They can be applied to both simple and complex processes. Designing and running a basic community meeting, a community dialogue, or a long-term community collaborative change process - all benefit from the use of these principles.

Develop appropriate goals and process for each situation, while adjusting as circumstances change

Foster brave spaces where participants honestly and openly confront past and present, for learning, growing, and shared civic thinking.

Reach all segments of a community, and account for racial, ethnic, gender, class and other dynamics to ensure meaningful participation.

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Acknowledge and respond to community questions, needs, concerns and ideas in timely and meaningful ways.

Focus on relationships, and prepare and support people in ways that prevent, minimize, or mitigate renewed trauma

Invite honest, complete histories, even when such histories are painful to hear and understand

Most institutions or communities use standard public hearings or appointed committees when faced with controversial issues. With hearings, the assumption is that giving everyone the same opportunity to show up and speak is how engagement should be done. With committees, the hope is that putting a select group of knowledgeable people in a room together may result in solutions that will resolve the controversy. These responses are rarely helpful for any but the least significant issues, and may even be harmful. Ordinary public hearings or committees may reinforce inequities, make conflict worse, and lead to decisions that alienate and that don’t last.

Community spaces with problematic histories pose deep challenges for engagement. Standard public hearings and committees do not allow or foster:

• The expression of grievances;
• Story-telling and examination of history;
• Discussion among participants; or
• Exploration of options.

Neither do they allow for the appropriate care of people for whom these spaces represent traumatic histories. They do not foster listening that leads to learning; on the contrary, they often inflame conflict and division.

For some community groups that have historically been disempowered, public hearings merely reinforce their distance from power. Members of those groups are justifiably cautious about attending, much less participating actively in, yet another such hearing. They may even feel threatened by an institution or community’s standard way of doing things, when standard ways have left them behind.

For other groups, especially those that have historically occupied positions of power, standard public hearings may be alienating as well. Such hearings limit the ability to see or feel the experiences of others. Some people avoid public meetings altogether or may not feel free to fully express how they are impacted by the issues. People from historically dominant groups may not understand “what the big deal is” or may feel threatened by a change to the status quo. They, too, are unlikely to find value in the standard public meeting.

Equitable collaboration refers to a particular type of public deliberation - whether one-time community meetings or dialogues, or long-term community collaborative change processes - that addresses community spaces where power, historical trauma, and ongoing disparities are at stake. These disparities are commonly found along racial, ethnic, religious, class, gender, or other lines of identity. By focusing on trauma-informed practices, inclusion, responsiveness, truth-seeking, deliberation, and adaptability, equitable collaboration promotes equitable and sustainable processes and outcomes.

As one begins to consider what types of engagement would be suitable, the questions below can help inform that thinking. As always, also consider who is part of the asking and who is part of answering.

• Who is seen as the interpreter of a site?
• Who are you talking to that might have a radically different experience?
• Are you confident that people with traumatic experiences that want to be involved are being approached in appropriate, informed ways so that they are able to safely participate?
• Are you making efforts to begin talking to people who are hard to reach and might be thought of as either disinterested or “troublemakers”?

Adaptive - Each institution or community needs to use the appropriate process to achieve desired goals for their particular space or spaces as well, as to adapt to changing circumstances.

• Is there a clear, widely recognized purpose and set of goals for this process tailored to the issues and community?
• Are there resources available - consultants with community and transportation knowledge, facilitators, and web designers? Are they appropriate for this specific process, these specific issues and this specific community?
• How may we make wise use of participants’ time?
• How may we adapt to changing needs and circumstances?

Going Deeper

Depending on your institution or community’s needs, the circumstances, and the resources available, an equitable collaborative process may be designed from the start for a single meeting or community dialogue, or for a more ambitious community collaborative change process. Or the process may begin as open ended and may evolve organically over time, adapting to changing circumstances. Whatever the specific structure and pace, effective groups that follow the principles of equitable collaborations at the community level pay attention to the six elements of equitable collaboration.

Equitable collaboration is:

Trauma-informed - A trauma-informed process acknowledges and prepares for the trauma responses that problematic community spaces evoke in many individuals and groups. It also acknowledges that deliberation about these spaces may itself renew or perpetuate harmful trauma. This principle recognizes that trauma may exist at the collective (group) level as well as at the individual level.

Inclusive - If learning and growth is to be enduring, it has to reach all segments of a community. An inclusive process acknowledges that solutions will be stronger, more enduring, and more sustainable if all segments of the community have opportunities to contribute. This principle also affirms a basic value that learning and growth are strengthened through engagement with different perspectives. It fosters cultural humility - a commitment to learning and self-awareness, along with a willingness to see others in their own terms. Cultural humility is different than cultural competence, which reflects knowledge and skills in relation to specific cultures.

Responsive - Leadership that declares it wants participation and then is slow to respond will generate “meeting fatigue” or outright opposition. Too many communities view their governing authorities as distant, uncaring, and out of touch. A responsive process takes the contributions of participants seriously. Leaders who launch the process, facilitators who steer it, and those who are in a position to support implementation of its outcomes should all respond actively to ideas and concerns raised by community participants. If this does not happen, participants risk experiencing  “meeting fatigue,” cynicism about the true intent of the process, or outright opposition to those seen as leaders.

Truth-seeking - Conflicts over problematic community spaces invariably involve competing claims of history. Many formerly hidden community histories can be painful to hear, but healing and legitimacy for actions cannot be accomplished without honesty. This must be done in a way that recognizes the potential for both re-traumatization and for healing as participants share and learn painful truths.

Deliberative - Effective community deliberation begins with the premise that people can and will learn from one another. It fully explores issues before seeking solutions. It fosters brave spaces - places where participants honestly and openly confront their past and present, knowing that a better future depends upon such engagement. It fosters real shared civic thinking, not by a false civility that privileges order over candor but by acknowledgment that all can learn and grow, and that institutions and communities need to do so together. As people participate in a deliberative process, they often find their own attitudes and perspectives are broadened and transformed.

Adaptive - An adaptive process respects the unique and changing circumstances of community challenges. Each institution or community needs to use the appropriate process to achieve desired goals for their particular space, and the process may need to adapt to changing circumstances.

This Toolkit provides more guidance on each of the six elements of equitable collaboration in Section 3.2 through 3.7.

Should I/we Participate in This Process?

Your institution/community has decided to convene a group to offer guidance or make a decision about what to do with a problematic site. How do you decide whether or not to participate?  This Section will offer you a chance to answer three questions:

Is the issue and situation appropriate for a collaborative approach?

Is the proposed process likely to be equitable - leading to authentic learning, just outcomes, and real change?

Are you or your organization suited for participation?

If considering participation, then there is a need for increased consultation with colleagues and advisors prior to proceeding. If a decision is made to participate, there is an increased need for process structure and discipline as well as continued consultation with other groups and colleagues during negotiations or discussions.

Can you achieve your goals without going through this process? Collaborative processes take time and energy that might be better spent organizing.

Is the convener/organizer committed to using an equitable collaboration process? Raise this question early, and note what trauma-informed, inclusive, responsive, truth-seeking, deliberative and adaptive mean in this particular situation.

Will this process ensure that historically marginalized voices most impacted by the space(s) and related issues are not just represented, but centered? Centering means more than a seat at a table; it means shaping the table, framing the issues, getting the necessary support (including financial support) to be effective, and more.