AMHERST — Addressing historical and continuing racism in town policies and practices, recognizing discrimination and racial profiling of Black and brown residents, and rebuilding community centers like the former Boys and Girls Club are among recommendations made through the Liberatory Visioning Project.
The town recently received the final 19-page report from the initiative, which aims to create a more inclusive and welcoming community for all residents. It staged listening sessions, both in person and via Zoom, and conducted a community survey.
The project was created by Barbara J. Love, a local author and professor emerita of social justice education at the University of Massachusetts, and its report contains a range of suggestions. They include developing Black-controlled media to tell the community’s stories, creating a first-time homebuyer assistance program to help low- and moderate-income residents purchase homes, and even undertaking a process of changing the town’s name. Some participants said Lord Jeffery Amherst is associated with both genocide and colonial history.
“The Town of Amherst Liberatory Visioning Project was designed to translate community aspirations and lived experiences into a liberatory vision for the town of Amherst, along with recommendations for actionable reforms,” the report reads.
While it’s uncertain whether more will be done with the report, Pamela Nolan Young, who oversees the town’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department and coordinated with Love, said the results give a blueprint for how Amherst can do better, as well as how much Amherst already does for equity.
“In my opinion it was civic engagement at its best. An initiative called for by the community was completed by community members who focused on both what the town is getting right and what the town could improve upon,” Young said.
The idea for the Liberatory Visioning Project developed from the Community Safety Working Group and a recommendation in its final report from October 2021. That report emphasized the importance of dismantling white supremacy, healing the harm it has inflicted, and creating a community characterized by equity, fairness, justice and liberation.
Much of what is in the report, and what was heard from residents, was not a surprise, Young said.
“The report confirmed what many already knew: Most folks in the community desire to live in a community that values inclusion, equity and justice,” Young said.
Young said she hopes her department can build on the work and results of the listening sessions. One possibility explored is Community Heart & Soul, “a resident-driven process that engages the entire population of a town in identifying what they love most about their community, what future they want for it, and how to achieve it.”
Before this can start, though, she would need to get approval from Town Manager Paul Bockelman for a grant application, a two-year commitment, and would continue to engage the community facilitators.
The final report, which is also going to the Town Council, can be read at: https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/79916/D1-Final-Report_–Town-of-Amherst-Liberatory-Visioning-Project?bidId=