Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Racial Justice Housing Jam will host its final public speaker series event on Thursday, February 16 from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m Eastern Time. The speaker series is designed to explore the roots of racial discrimination in housing policy and practices; how current systems continue to reinforce oppressive practices; the real impacts of racial inequity on daily life and economic well-being; and new efforts and ideas that can help change the tide. Addressing systemic racial injustice can spur action on policy and programmatic changes to expand access to affordable housing for all Vermonters.
The guest for this final session is housing policy expert Leah Rothstein. She and Richard Rothstein have co-written a sequel to Mr. Rothstein’s book The Color of Law, which brilliantly recounted how government at all levels created segregation. The new book, Just Action, to be released in Spring 2023, is a blueprint for concerned citizens and community leaders. It describes dozens of activities that can be undertaken to make commitments real and to produce outcomes that might finally challenge residential segregation. Leah Rothstein will join Dr. Jude Smith Rachele, CEO of Abundant Sun, and several of the Vermont Racial Justice Housing Jam’s previous speakers, to discuss what citizens can do in their own communities to begin the process of redressing segregation, with reforms that can build towards state and national action.
To participate in this free, live event on Zoom, please register by February 16 at 3:00 p.m Eastern Time at: www.abundantsun.com/what-we-do/projects/housingjam/.
The public speaker series has been developed by Abundant Sun and the Vermont Racial Justice Housing Jam, a committee of community members with lived experienced and representatives from nonprofit housing organizations. This statewide initiative has been coordinated by the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, working in partnership with Abundant Sun, Champlain Housing Trust, Downstreet Housing & Community Development, RuralEdge, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, NeighborWorks® of Western Vermont, NeighborWorks America®, and Vermont Housing Finance Agency. Additional support for the series comes from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and Evernorth.
View this powerful, award-winning, 18-minute film to learn more about the role of government policy in creating racial segregation as described in The Color of Law: www.segregatedbydesign.com/.
