Innovative Collaboration to Further Community Self-Determination

The built urban environment is the product of more than a century of policy decisions that have both intentionally discriminated and have had the effect of discriminating, against African Americas, immigrants, the work class, low income individuals and other undesirables. While more than fifty years have passed since the passage of civil rights legislation in the United States, individuals in today’s cities are living out our discriminatory legacy. In Dayton, Ohio, a new movement has risen from the community to disrupt the legacy of de jure and de facto discrimination by the collaborative efforts of the impactive individuals, neighborhood leaders, organizers, and lawyers to re-imagine how development occurs and who benefits. Through mutual support within the community, Dayton is a living example of building a sustained movement that places community wealth building, self-determination, collective hope and praxis at the center of its efforts. An example is the origins of the Gem City Market, specifically how the community utilized Public Health Montgomery County & Dayton Opportunity Maps as the basis for a larger discussion about needs and aspirations community, and how lawyers, working with the community, were able to translate the vision of a full service grocery store to address food inequality into the policy and structure of the market