Centering lived experience in community engagement involves recognizing, valuing, and prioritizing the personal experiences and perspectives of individuals within a community. Many community engagement strategies aim to include a broad range of voices from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, with a priority to center those who consistently are positioned at the margins. The execution of that vision is rarely delivered leading to more excuses versus solutions.
In this session, UNIDOS and LUCHA Arizona will convene for a conversation with NGIN to discuss the various methods and approaches they have deployed to identify, resource, and activate the Latinx community in local economic decision-making.
Participants will learn:
Methods of centering equity and inclusion in workforce development outcomes
Tactics used to mobilize the community in advocating for pay equity that benefits working families
Strategies that help build bridges with individuals and organizations with decision making power yet lack relationship or understanding with those most impacted
About Our Speakers:
Chris Gilfillan has served as the Director of Political Strategies and Development since 2018 at Living United for Change in Arizona or LUCHA. He earned his law degree from Mississippi College School of Law and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He comes to organizing after serving as one of Barack Obama’s first field organizers in Arizona and North Carolina in 2011 and 2012, serving as Field Organizer and Deputy Regional Field Director in Durham, NC.
Luis A. Quiñones is the Deputy Vice President of Workforce Development and Adult Education at UnidosUS. During his nearly three-year tenure with UnidosUS, he has articulated and aligned the strategic direction for UnidosUS’s programs for adult learners with the overall organizational strategy. This includes cultivating relationships with funders, government, and corporate partners, and growing programmatic partnerships with UnidosUS Affiliates, a national network of nearly 300 Latino-serving nonprofit organizations. In 2022, Luis led the internal effort responsible for securing an $11.4M Department of Labor Good Jobs Challenge grant, the largest Federal grant in UnidosUS’s history. He manages a team of 13 staff focused on ensuring that Latinos have equitable access to digital skill building opportunities, in-demand skills training, access to jobs that pay family-sustaining wages and career advancement opportunities.
Jessica L. González Martínez is a Senior Advisor serving on the Insights and Innovations team at NGIN. She currently leads the Small and Midsize Cities Hub (SMC Hub), a practitioner-driven effort to provide actionable insights, tools, and best practices while also driving systems-level change to alter the trajectory and outcomes for communities marginalized from the economic development growth outcomes found in SMCs. In this role, Jessica supports practitioners through relationship-mapping and resource deployment, supporting practitioners solving some of the most pressing economic issues in small and midsize communities. Throughout her career, Jessica has dedicated her time and talent to elevating and enhancing access to resources that support the mobilization of communities pushed to the periphery and bringing them back to center.
This is the final virtual learning event as a part of the Small and Midsize Cities Hub (SMC Hub) initiative, a specialized hub with dedicated resources to drive inclusive economic development, advance racial equity, and reduce health inequities in U.S. cities with populations ranging from 50,000 to 500,00 residents.