Since starting the Charlotte Urbanists group, we've been working hard to help Charlotte to become a better city for
everyone. We've chosen to spent most of our time working on projects that we know would help the lowest-income demographics in Charlotte, advocated for improvements to the poorest parts of Charlotte, and tried to highlight the difficulties that members of our immigrant population encounter here in Charlotte while also proposing policy solutions.
However, we're noticing a trend that we want to address. Initially, our group was a diverse mixture of volunteers from a range of backgrounds. However, we've noticed lately that the bulk of our engagement and membership has predominantly been white men that skew towards a middle-to-upper class income. While we're glad to have so many people that are enthusiastic and care about their community, we want to ensure that our discussions are reflective of the wide range of experiences that many Charlotteans bring to the table.
Herein lies the problem: How can we work towards a better city for everyone if everyone is not at the table?
What does this mean for our group? It means making sure that
all community members feel welcome to come to the table to steer the direction of our advocacy, and ensuring that
everyone feels comfortable and
valued when they show up. It means being
humble, admitting mistakes, and working to address them. It means working to bring on
diverse leadership and
volunteers that feel
safe and heard when they bring up items of concern. And it means
supporting those volunteers when they do so.
We're stepping out of our comfort zone. We want to hear from you, to figure out how best we can bring everyone in our community to the table. We're happy to listen and eager to learn. Let us know what we can do to ensure that we can bring you to this community's advocacy efforts to make the impact you want to see on your city. On May 30th, we'll deem the survey complete and start formulating a plan to address these issues. On June 16th, we'll publish our plan and incorporate any feedback given.
Warmest regards,
John E. Holmes III and Jacob Unterreiner
PLEASE NOTE: ALL SURVEY INFORMATION IS COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL & ANONYMOUS. We have chosen to not receive respondent's e-mails in order to preserve the anonymity. If you feel uncomfortable answering a question, do not feel obligated to answer.
