Jennifer Hawkins, executive director of ONE|NB, addresses the crowd at the release of the Central Providence Roadmap on Monday, March 27, 2023. Photo by Stephen Ide/ONE|NB
By Stephen Ide
ONE Neighborhood Builders
PROVIDENCE — About 50 people joined ONE Neighborhood Builders and Central Providence Opportunities: A Health Equity Zone on Monday, March 27, 2023, in marking the release of the Central Providence Roadmap, a 10-year vision for collective community impact.
The event, held at WaterFire Arts Center, was the culmination of a yearlong effort of more than 60 organizations, residents, and leaders in Central Providence.
Jennifer Hawkins, Executive Director of ONE Neighborhood Builders, spoke about working to develop affordable housing and building a replicable model of community participation and collective impact through the Central Providence Opportunities: A Health Equity Zone.
She highlighted CPO-HEZ’s focus on affordable housing, early education, business and workforce development, and adult education leading to quality jobs with living wages. She talked about ONE|NB’s investment of $1 million for participatory-budgeting efforts that calls upon residents of the nine neighborhoods of Central Providence to vote on how to spend the money and improve the health and quality of their communities.
“We are focused on results, not rhetoric in this work,” she said. “The Central Providence Roadmap is not just a plan, it’s a promise. A promise to ensure that every resident, regardless of their zip code, has access to the resources they need to thrive. A promise to work together, to measure progress, and to hold ourselves accountable. And a promise to build a stronger, more equitable community that we can all be proud of.”
She said that by collaborating, we have the ability to make housing easier to obtain and less expensive. We can also help local companies and people starting their own businesses in the neighborhood. Additionally, we can increase the availability of healthcare and create robust and adaptable communities.
Anusha Venkataraman, the new Managing Director of CPO-HEZ, spoke about the importance of community organizations and art in community development and civic engagement. She said that the Central Providence Roadmap focuses on three core pillars: foundational needs, drivers of mobility, and building community power and capacity.
The Roadmap provides a near-term vision for immediate relief and a decade-long collective approach to uprooting the systems that allow inequity to persist, she said. Venkataraman noted that CPO-HEZ is not the driver, but rather the organizations and residents with deep experience in the nine Central Providence neighborhoods.
The Roadmap includes specific strategies aligned with each of the pillars and provides clear metrics to inform progress, she said. Work will continue, she said, as CPO-HEZ convenes working groups and a steering committee to guide the Roadmap’s implementation.
She called the Roadmap a “playbook for progress.”
“The Central Providence Roadmap provides a near term vision for the programs and the stopgap measures that provide immediate relief,” she said. “But even more importantly, it also provides and offers a decade long, collective approach to uprooting the systems that allow inequity in our communities to persist.”
Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos expressed her appreciation for the community partnerships and collaboration that have made progress possible in Olneyville. She emphasized the importance of including all partners and organizations in the community in the planning process for CPO-HEZ, and said she is committed to ensuring that the state of Rhode Island will provide resources to support the success of the project.
Council President and Ward 13 City Councilor Rachel Miller said the Central Providence Roadmap is foundational to making sure people in the city have a fair chance to get good jobs, education and housing, while giving people a say in what happens: It “represents a tremendous opportunity to build economic opportunity and chart a course for growth together with residents impacted by structural inequity as it relates to health, education, and affordability. I’m honored to partner with ONE Neighborhood as we undertake these challenges together.”
“Without listening to community voice, we make uninformed decisions,” said James Rajotte, Chief Strategy Officer at Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services. He noted the significance of community investment in Central Providence, and emphasized the importance of listening to the community’s voice and designing solutions that honor individual choices. He also stressed the need to sustain a pathway to equity, which looks different in every community.
Jenny Pereira, Vice President of Grants & Community Investments at the Rhode Island Foundation, spoke about the importance of investing in a place to provide access to high-quality education, healthcare, and economic mobility. She spoke of the importance of genuine community engagement and co-designing solutions to address inequities.
Cassandra Thomas, Economic Development Director, City of Providence, said CPO-HEZ and the Central Providence Roadmap align with Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s vision of community-centric economic development planning. She said they are looking forward to working with ONE|NB and its partners as they create their own comprehensive plan for economic development and community engagement in the city.
Lina Bravo, the digital equity and learning coordinator with the Providence Public Library, was a participant in the Roadmap’s creation. The library has made efforts over the years to empower Rhode Islanders to be lifelong learners, offering access to meaningful experiences and learning opportunities, she said, whether through computer classes or individual help. Throughout the process of creating the Roadmap, she said, not only was her voice heard, but so were the voices of many residents she has served over the years.
Peter Mello, managing director of WaterFire, noted that the WaterFire Arts Center serves as a cultural anchor institution in Central Providence. He said the center’s programs and collaborations with other organizations align with the Roadmap’s goals of building a shared vision for prosperity, equity, empowerment, inclusion, and opportunity in the community.
