State of the Region 2012

State of the Region 2012 from Urban Habitat.

Social Equity Caucus State of the Region 2012 Conference

The California Endowment Conference Center, Oakland, CA.

On April 26, 2012, Urban Habitat's Bay Area Social Equity Caucus (SEC) hosted its annual State of the Region conference at the California Endowment's Oakland Conference Center. The conference convened more than 100 leaders from San Francisco Bay Area community-based organizations, advocacy groups, foundations, and government agencies to:

• Seed conversations between key decision-makers, advocates, and community-based organizations across the Bay Area that represent and work on finding solutions to pressing regional issues affecting the Bay Area's low-income communities and communities of color.
• Incubate the ideas of researchers, government agencies, policy makers, and community-based organizations from across the country in order to identify innovative solutions that can be replicated in the Bay Area.
• Foster the regional relationships needed to maintain a multi-sector, multi-issue regional network of equity minded decision-makers and organizations that can move a regional equity agenda forward.

Conference Agenda

8:30AM - 9:30AM: Registration and Breakfast

9:30AM - 10AM: Welcome Address

• Allen Fernandez Smith, President & CEO, Urban Habitat
• Joe Brooks, Vice President for Civic Engagement, PolicyLink and Chair, Urban Habitat Board of Directors

10AM - 10:45AM: Morning Keynote Address

• Mitchell Silver, President, American Planning Association

11AM - 12:30PM: Morning Strategy Sessions

The Changing Geography of Race and Class in the Bay Area

• Belen Seara, Director of Land Use and Housing, Urban Habitat (moderator)
• Jennifer Tran, Program Associate, PolicyLink
• Mary Rocha, Councilmember, City of Antioch
• Walter Hawkins, Vice-President, Westside Action Group (San Bernardino, CA)

Building Equitable Neighborhoods in the Bay Area Post-Redevelopment

• Connie Galambos Malloy, Director of Programs, Urban Habitat (moderator)
• Gloria Bruce, Deputy Director, East Bay Housing Organizations 
• Carlos Romero, Councilmember, City of East Palo Alto
• Josh Mukhopadhyay, Attorney, Goldfarb & Lipman LLP

Reforming the Bay Area's Regional Agencies for More Equitable and Accountable Governance

• Bob Allen, Director of Transportation Justice, Urban Habitat (moderator)
• David Campos, Supervisor, County of San Francisco 
• Egon Terplan, Regional Planning Director, San Francisco Planning and Urban Reasearch
• Myron Orfield, Executive Director, Institute on Race & Poverty, University of Minnesota
• Gary Cunningham, Councilmember, Metropolitan Council (Twin Cities, MN)

12:30PM - 1PM: Lunch

1PM - 1:45PM: Afternoon Keynote Address

• Bertha Lewis, President and Founder, The Black Institute and former CEO and Chief Organizer, ACORN

2PM - 3:30PM: Afternoon Capacity-Building Workshops

Reciprocal Accountability: Bringing the Outside Movement Into Insider Advocacy

• Laurie Jones Neighbors, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Urban Habitat (moderator)
• Sharon Cornu, Consultant and Former Deputy Mayor, City of Oakland
• Neva Walker, Executive Director, Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth
• Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Convener, Southern Partnership for Regional Equity (Atlanta, GA)

Strategies for Winning Regional Campaigns

• Lindsay Imai, Associate Director, Urban Habitat (moderator)
• Ya-Ting Liu, Public Transit Campaign Manager, Transportation Alternatives (New York, NY)
• Francisca Porchas, National Coordinator, Bus Riders Union (Los Angeles, CA)
• Azibuike Akaba, Policy Associate, Regional Asthma Prevention and Management 

Funding Regional Advocacy: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities in Bay Area Philanthropy

• Allen Fernandez Smith, President & CEO, Urban Habitat (moderator)
• Ray Colmenar, Senior Program Manager, The California Endowment          
• Alex Andrade, Program Officer, Silicon Valley Community Foundation            
• Francesca Vietor, Environment Program Officer, The San Francisco Foundation

3:45PM - 4:00PM: Closing Remarks

4PM - 5:30PM: Networking Reception: Pacific Coast Brewing Company, Oakland, CA

Urban Habitat builds power in low-income communities and communities of color by combining education, advocacy, research, and coalition building to advance environmental, economic and social justice in the Bay Area. The Bay Area Social Equity Caucus is a multi-sector, multi-issue coalition of social justice advocates founded by Urban Habitat in 1998 to seed conservations, incubate ideas, and foster the regional relationships needed to move a regional equity agenda forward in the San Francisco Bay Area region.