Regional Equity Conference

Sarah Treuhaft, at PolicyLink, sent this message to the NNIP listserve:

The early bird deadline is fast approaching for Regional Equity '08: The Third National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth, in New Orleans from March 5-7. Hosted by PolicyLink, the summit will gather over 1,000 leaders from the nonprofit, public policy, philanthropic, business, and academic arenas to explore critical issues and trends and share innovative policy and organizing strategies to advance social and economic equity. The summit will also provide an arena for discussing where we are as a field and how to scale up our efforts to have greater impact. Confirmed speakers include Joan Walsh, Van Jones, Tavis Smiley, Manuel Pastor, Gilda Haas, Myron Orfield, and dozens more inspiring leaders and practitioners.

The third summit, like the previous two events, has much to offer to people working within the data and indicators field. Context-setting sessions on major trends in housing, community health, poverty and inequality, development patterns, federal and state policy, and more will provide the big picture. Information-sharing and skill-building workshops will focus on specific topics like transit-oriented development, access to healthy food, and community benefits agreements as well as research, coalition-building, organizing, and policy strategies.

A number of sessions on data, mapping, research, and neighborhood information systems will focus on trends and innovations in the field, including:

- The Latest Research to Make the Case for Regional Equity

- Using Data and Maps to Support Equitable Development

- Show and Tell: Test Drive Neighborhood Information Systems

- Pre-Summit Equity Institute Training on Parcel Data Systems

Please join us at the event! The early bird $66 discount will expire December 17th. Scholarships are available for representatives of grassroots organizations. Go to http://www.regionalequity08.org/ to find out more, register, and spread the word.