The new infrastructure package could be one of the nation’s most consequential investments in equitable wellbeing — but only if we make it so.
In a new Viewpoint essay for Planning magazine, FFI’s CEO Katya Fels Smyth and Brookings Senior Fellow Xavier de Souza Briggs make the case: we must reckon with how past investments have been used to institutionalize and deepen inequities and make concerted decisions to steer funding into the creation of a built environment that provides universal access to wellbeing.
Infrastructure investments aren’t neutral. Imagine a future where people’s wellbeing is the starting place for how decisions are made about what, where, when and even whether we build. Our new tool is a step towards that future.
We participated in an important conversation that explored how investing in the built environment can be used as a lever for decriminalizing mental illness, increasing public safety, enhancing civic participation, addressing inequities and improving public health
How effectively is your organization centering community? Use this tool with the Community Bill of Rights to guide conversations around what is or isn't being done to center community in your organization.