MAEA’s March Brackets Resulted In More “Equity Wins” For the Metro Atlanta Region. Check Out “Final Four” highlights:
We kicked off March with MAEA Fellow Shermaine Perry participating in Sustainable Atlanta’s first annual Greater Atlanta Ecodistricts Initiative Civic Ecology Training workshop at the DeKalb County Central Transfer Station and Administrative Offices. The workshop was designed to educate community members on the elements of civic ecology needed to begin the ecodistrict process. Following the all-day workshop, participants will then begin the process of mapping and understanding existing communities resources based on the civic ecology process. Shermaine found the experience invaluable and enjoyed the “flow map project” which entailed using a map (simulated as the Atlanta University Center surrounding community) to plot and connect community resources, and demonstrate community sustainability in local/closed resource flows. The group had to provide evaluation criteria, justifications for choices, and suggest natural steps for localities to make strides towards building together. The exercise was designed to simulate group think around matching local needs and capacities. Below are Shermaine’s 6 key takeaways:
- Think big, but start small when it comes to sustainability.
- Sustainability can be defined as simply matching local needs and capacities. Assess your needs, then Qualify your needs.
- Solutions to every issue within ecology can be viewed as needing to: establish, expand, optimize, and maximize.
- Benefit-cost analysis is key to promoting sustainability within any region.
- Remember that when it comes to the discussion of sustainability, we are all starting with the same undesirable reality.
- Each community must define sustainability on their own terms.
March 6th Partnership for Southern Equity leader Nathaniel Smith served as the keynote speaker for the Corporate Volunteer Council (CVC) luncheon that took place at Cox Enterprises‘ Office. Attendees sat attentively as he shared the state of the region, highlighting Atlanta as #1 unfortunately for all of the wrong reasons like income inequality, lack of income mobility for poor children, growth of suburban poverty and poor accessibility for the senior population.
March 11th, Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas Project Manager Erika Hill, informed and demonstrated to Dekalb County residents and community organizations how to use “MAEA” to make an impact in their community. Through a partnership with Decatur Library, community members can now access the Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas directly from the Decatur Library website in three places: Local Web Links (in the “Informational” section) on the Subject Guides page and under the Government section on the Reference Databases page.
More Maps have been added, visit http://atlantaequityatlas.com/maps/browse-maps/
