Atlanta Wealth Building Initative Presents
The Community Wealth Building Forum
Event Date: March 25, 2021
Location: Virtual
Time: 11am - 5pm EST
What is the Community Wealth Building Forum?
AWBI’s Community Wealth Building Forum will bring together Racial Equity and Community Wealth Building practitioners and stakeholders with the aim to broaden the understanding of what “wealth" means. The mission is to create actionable conversations on how effective community wealth building and shared prosperity will reshape Black communities. The forum will focus on inclusive conversations, shared strategies and the creation of solutions that can be implemented in communities globally.
This will be done through a series of panel discussions, breakout sessions, and keynote presentations.
This year’s theme is ‘A New Normal for Shared Prosperity’. Having access to the best and brightest in our community can change lives, inspire others, and transform the minds and spirits of any attendee of our one-day forum.
AGENDA
11:00 AM Hope & Action Welcome
Tene Traylor, Fund Advisor, The Kendeda Fund & Founder/Board Chair, AWBI
11:15 AM Presentation
Addressing Atlanta’s Systemic Racial Wealth and Economic Inequity through Community Wealth Building
Latresa McLawhorn Ryan, Executive Director, AWBI
12:00PM KEYNOTE I
Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community: Repair, Truth Telling & Community
Join faith leaders as they share the necessity for community-centered strategies that can begin to restore community and bring about transformational and sustainable change. Speakers will discuss the need for healing from the impact of 2020 and the historical injustices within our community as we work together during the forum with hope to create and highlight equitable solutions for our community going forward.
Speakers:
Rev. James Woodall, State President, Georgia NAACP
Rabbi Peter Berg, Senior Rabbi, The Temple
Rev. Matthew Wesley Williams, President, The Interdenominational Theological Center
Moderator:
Catherine Meeks, PhD, Executive Director, Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing
1:00PM WORKSHOPS
Economic Policy: What We Will Need to Rebuild Communities
Panelists will share data on the impact of economic policies on communities, lessons learned and what we need to move forward. The audience will have an opportunity to share insights from their local communities.
Speakers:
Alex Camardelle, Policy Analyst, GA Budget and Policy Institute
Dayna Cunningham, Executive Director, MIT CoLab
Janelle Williams, Senior Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
All Labor Has Dignity: Impact of Living Wage Jobs & Worker-Owned Models
Panelists will share the importance of living wage jobs in building community wealth as well as the benefits and empowerment of worker ownership models.
Speakers:
Marjorie Kelly, Senior Fellow and Executive Vice President, The Democracy Collaborative
Evan Edwards, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Business Engagement, Project Equity
Abi Henderson, Founder, The Come Up Project
Moderator: Ronnie Galvin, Managing Director for Community Investment, Greater Washington Community Foundation
Intention vs. Impact: How Regulatory Frameworks Incentivize Predatory Practices
Panelists will discuss the impact of regulatory frameworks that unintentionally contribute to furthering the economic divide.
Speakers:
Venroy July, Principal, Miles & Stockbridge - Baltimore
David A. Jackson, Senior Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Dr. Tyeshia Redden, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Gettysburg College
Moderator: Cicely Garrett, Strategic Initiatives Consultant, Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative (AWBI)
1:55PM MAIN STAGE
Entertainment & Meditation Featuring - OkCello
2:15PM Presentation
Advancing Enterprise Prosperity: 1,000 Black Businesses Launch and Presentation
AWBI's Advancing Enterprise Prosperity: 1,000 Black Businesses in 1,000 Days Campaign aims to support 1,000 African American-owned businesses in 1,000 days by helping businesses hire their first employee or offer living wages to staff already employed. The Campaign was a recommendation from Prosperity Now's Advancing Collective Prosperity through Entrepreneurship report, a data-driven and research-based analysis commissioned by AWBI, Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Kendeda Fund.
As the research from the report indicates, 96% of Atlanta’s Black-owned businesses have no paid employees. The campaign not only creates more living-wage jobs and builds family and community wealth, but presents an opportunity to increase the financial strength of new and legacy owned Black-owned businesses. The campaign will support: 1) Research and Data Sharing of the Small Business Landscape; 2) Growth and Scale of Black-owned Enterprises; 3) Workforce Development for Black-owned Businesses; 4) Retention and Anti-Displacement of Black-owned Businesses.
Presenters: Latresa McLawhorn Ryan, Executive Director, Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative (AWBI)
Alan Anderson, Assistant Vice President for University Partnerships, Emory University
2:50PM WORKSHOPS
Reparations in the New Economy
The session will explore the various forms of reparations and restorative policies required to properly address systemic and structural racism including monetary, land-based, subsidized home mortgages, reduced tuition in an effort to repair the lasting impacts of racial injustices against African Americans including slavery, segregation, discrimination in mortgage lending and a race-based system of mass incarceration.
Speakers:
Dr. Ron Daniels, Founder and President, Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW); Convener, National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC)
Mawuli Davis, Founding Partner, Davis Bozeman Law Firm
Kwanza Hall, Former United States Representative
Moderator: Kiyomi Rollins, Founder, The Kenekt
Capital for Community: Supporting Root Solutions for Root Causes
Hear from leaders in the philanthropic field to explore why they invest early in solutions that address root causes to complex social issues. They will share how their organizational philosophies support deep investment in seemingly risky projects by focusing on working impact rather than traditional evaluation measurements. Panelists will also share pathways to adopting such philosophies within philanthropic organizations.
Speakers:
Otis Rolley, Senior Vice President, The Rockefeller Foundation
Tene Traylor, Fund Advisor, The Kendeda Fund
Jeanne Wardford, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Moderator: Pierre Joseph, Pierre Joseph Consulting
The Intersectionality of Wealth: Race, Health and Wealth
Speakers will examine the ways in which wealth is much more than money and financial assets. It is power and agency; a sense of control over one’s life and destiny and the ability to make choices. It affects one's ability to choose and more freely navigate the education, housing, business, healthcare, and criminal justice systems.
Speakers:
Dr. Kevin E. Woods, MD President, Atlanta Medical Association
Dr. Leah Austin, Director of the National Opportunity to Learn Network, Schott Foundation
Cedric Hendricks, Esq., Associate Director, Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA)
Moderator: Crystal Edmonson, Atlanta Business Chronicle
3:45PM KEYNOTE II
Community Wealth Building Strategies in the New Economy: Why These Cities Are Moving for Change
Hear from cities who have adopted community wealth building strategies through their work with The Democracy Collaborative, as well as independently developed strategies. Join them as they share their rationale for adopting the strategies, lessons learned, and the opportunity that new economic models present for deep, lasting change.
Speakers:
Deputy Mayor Phillip Thompson, New York City, NY
Dr. Eloisa Klementich, President & CEO, Invest Atlanta
Dr. Robert Blaine, Senior Executive and Director, National League of Cities, Institute for Youth, Education and Families (YEF Institute)
Moderator: Adrienne White, VP, SBA/USDA Relationship Manager, Citizens Trust Bank
