April 7th: Designing Affordable Housing For and With the People Who Live There
Resident Agency in Home Space: Why resident agency in their living space isn’t just critical to build a sense of belonging and home, but makes for more efficient, inclusive, and connected communities.
This is a ZOOM event. Register in Advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAoceCgqzIrE90qoMRJ4oMsMQTOyWHqjD5k
Panelists:
Meaghan Tedder, Connections Coordinator at Evernorth Housing.
Will Condry and Jennifer Herrera Condry of Juniper Creative Arts
Sal Millichamp, Resident Leader at Laurentide
Join us for our first Fair Housing Friday of Fair Housing Month, “Designing Affordable Housing For and With the People Who Live There: Resident Agency in Home Space.” Our speakers include Meaghan Tedder, Connections Coordinator at Evernorth Housing, Jennifer Herrera Condry and Will Condry of Juniper Creative Arts, and Sal Millichamp from Laurentide.
Evernorth Housing, formerly Housing Vermont, is a nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing and community investments in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Meaghan joins us from Evernorth, bringing insight from her 5 years of housing advocacy experience, including at Champlain Housing Trust and Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. Meghan will be sharing how Evernorth has incorporated opportunities for resident feedback into their housing rehabilitations projects, and how those new feedback systems have strengthened the work they do at Evernorth.
Juniper Create Arts is a Vermont-based Black and Dominican family collective of passionate artists, educators and storytellers creating at the intersection of spirituality, identity, community, healing, and justice through ancestral practices and the lens of Hip-Hop culture. Juniper Collective’s Will Condry and Jennifer Herrera Condry will share insights from the field of community arts. The collective’s community-driven mural and art installation includes experience of engaging affordable housing residents, community members, and other people utilizing the spaces they make their work in. The team has much to say about equitable community-engagement, how arts can be successful in bringing people together and highlighting our community needs, but also how misdirected efforts toward equity and agency in space can fail the people they are intended to serve.
Sal Millichamp is a resident at Champlain Housing Trust’s Laurentide Building. She is a committed resident leader and advocate in her community. Sal has initiated numerous community-connective activities for her building and neighbors, from collaborative art projects and inviting in programing from Parks and Recreation, to spearheading a weekly coffee hour with invited guest speakers. Sal will be sharing from her experiences of living in affordable housing, how opportunities to influence how community spaces are used can strengthen community, and what challenges might exist for residents to express their needs in their home spaces when living in affordable housing.