Planning by way of

Dignity-Infused Community Engagement

 

Thrivance Group works to bring transformative justice into public policy, urban planning and community development, asserting that race, place, and joy matter in defining individual and community outcomes. When developing an approach to engagement and community-based planning, Thrivance Group’s point of juncture is honoring and enhancing the dignity of those who will be impacted by the project. (Scroll to the bottom for the DICE infographic)

It’s helpful to work backwards to truly arrive at a definition of dignity that resonates on a personal/individual level. Unlike so many contexts for planning, thinking in terms of dignity reminds planners to honor the ways each person sees themselves, how they want to feel and be, and what respect looks like from the individual perspective or lived experience.

To honor dignity within the context of planning, emphasis should be placed on fortifying and creating spaces and processes where dignity can be expressed, accounted for, and accommodated. Thrivance Group measures and expresses dignity within the context of a quotient; A compositional score that is obtained by measuring the differences between self-perceptions and perceptions of others. This framework illustrates how the individual needs the world to show up for them (not how they show up in the world). Mostly deriving from the Public Health sector, these constructs were the most frequent and consistent measures of dignity identified through both cursory and long-term research:

  • Being Understood - More than being “heard,” the desire to be understood is a critical element of a subjective notion of dignity. Understanding, in this case, requires a critical analysis and an active/responsive demonstration of said understanding. Special attention should be directed toward non-verbal communication we make as public service providers and planners which either demonstrate a lack of (interest in) understanding or a dignified level of understanding. This shows up as processes and outcomes. Fatal flaws in an intention to convey understanding include:

    • Ambiguous or unclear fact sharing

    • Incongruence between the final outcome/project and what was communicated initially

    • Failure to incorporate feedback (accepting feedback is a performance of understanding)

  • Bodily Autonomy - Bodily Autonomy is the spatial understanding of a more common term: bodily integrity. It is the belief that there should be irrevocable self-determination in movement, access, navigation through space, and the policies that govern these elements. This is not synonymous with “bodily control” which is more so about physical ability. This construct is about the freedom to govern one’s body without force or coercion. It helps to understand the body as a political location when learning about bodily autonomy as a construct of dignity.

  • Community Connection - Community Connection can be understood as being physically or spatially connected with a community. This is not the same as being “in” a community or a member of a community (although that is an important cultural consideration). This construct is about an inclination toward social cohesion. Examples of opportunities for community connection include sacred gathering spaces (not synonymous with but including religious gatherings) and direct action/protest. Honoring community connection means to consider the delicate spatial ecosystem that is “community.”

  • Hope - Hope as a dignity construct is the consideration and facilitation of an expectation of positive outcomes. To that end, it’s important to be clear with people you engage about the potential for negative outcomes. If you or the organization you represent has a track record that historically undermines hope or has caused harm, present intentions/actions must adapt to the likelihood that building hope will require additional effort.

  • Love - In her book “All About Love,” bell hooks defines love as “the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth...Love is as love does. Love is an act of will–namely, both an intention and an action.” We should focus on the latter half of the definition and recognize that working in the interest of nurturing another’s capacity to thrive has to be anchored to a capacity and willingness to act on our intentions in a timely and dependable manner.

  • Relief from Suffering - Dr. Eric Cassell defines relief from suffering as “The moral act of respect for humanity and for human dignity. Constant, wracking, and mind-twisting pain separates a person from himself and from loved ones. It shatters human integrity. Adequate control of pain is, then, an essential part of living an integrated life.” The important point here is that our planning and public service efforts often focus on quantity as a measure of quality. This has worsened conditions of suffering and created/compounded outcomes that shamefully shatter notions of humanity throughout our society.

  • Sense of Home - Sense of home is not about a specific structure or geography. This construct is defined by its reflexive context. In his book “Giovanni’s Room” James Baldwin describes home as “not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” It’s crucial to understand the impact of disrupting a sense of home in that: place and trauma are linked in the same ways place and joy are linked. While holding the joy of home in mind, requires maintenance, trauma is almost irrevocable or inextricable from one’s acclimation into and out of space. Within the context of planning, it's important to see the ways in which efforts to infuse characteristics of one community into another could annihilate a sense of home for many people–or trigger reminders of trauma associated with the imposing culture.

  • Sense of Purpose - Sense of purpose is not synonymous with selflessness, moral compass or altruism. Rather, it’s self interest that happens to align with a desired outcome for the greater good. The ability to connect one’s own interest to a greater good is a construct of dignity.

  • Sense of Routine - Sense of Routine is inextricably linked with the subjective meaning in life (aka wellbeing). Routine can provide linkages between one’s personal history and one’s ecological, socio-historical, and cultural contexts throughout one’s life and contribute to a continuous sense of self that is created and reflected through everyday practices. Routine is therefore meaningful and adaptive. Always ask this question: In what ways do we disrupt the sense of routine in the name of improving quality of life?

Thrivance Group has taken these notions of dignity and incorporated them into a standardized project development process.