Events

Building Power for Housing Justice

Hosted By

During this full-day, interactive training, you'll connect with grassroots leaders from communities across Connecticut and learn some of the basic skills and strategies for building grassroots organizations in your town with the power to change laws and policies, influence public decision-making, and work toward housing justice for all.

Register

Training topics will include:

How power works in your community -- for good and ill -- and what it takes to shift the power structure.
How power and housing connect -- who makes the decisions about what happens and doesn't, and how we can change that.
How to meet neighbors where they're at, learn what matters to them, and make effective connections.
How to build relationships and strong organizations, including with people you never thought could be allies.
Where to start, and how we can support each other across town lines!

This training is offered free of charge and open to all. A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided for attendees. Parking and the entrance are located on Saltonstall Avenue, behind the building.

For questions, please contact Jared Cavanguolo at jared@thehousingcollective.org or (203) 260-4931.

Speakers

Ben Fink Community Organizer & Consultant
Sarah White Attorney

CT Fair Housing Center

Ben Fink

Ben Fink is a community organizer, trainer, teacher, singer, and theater-maker who works with neighbors near and far to share stories, overcome divides, discover common interests and unexpected allies, and build the power to make change together. He founded the Letcher County Culture Hub in the coalfields of east Kentucky, which brought strip miners and environmentalists together to start community-run businesses, support community centers, revive beloved cultural events, and produce the biggest non-industrial solar energy project in the region’s history; the All In alliances, in towns across the Naugatuck Valley and South Central Connecticut, which have united renters, homeowners, developers, and landlords across race, class, party, and town lines to win tenant protections and affordable housing development; and the Performing Our Future coalition, connecting grassroots networks in West Baltimore, east Kentucky, the Black Belt of Alabama, and rural and urban Wisconsin. He has also run nationwide storytelling projects on the future of the economy for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, trained and directed plays with the homeless-housed zAmya Theater Project of Minneapolis, and taught cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In the aftermath of the 2016 election he cofounded the Hands Across the Hills project, a six-year grassroots cross-partisan dialogue exchange bringing together residents of Kentucky and Massachusetts. Ben’s work has been featured by Salon.com, the Brookings Institution, Harvard Law School, MIT, the National Endowment for the Arts, Moyers & Co., PolicyLink, Braver Angels, the New York Times, CBS News, PBS, NPR, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2020 Ben was recognized by Time Magazine as one of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and frequent collaborator Isabella Segalovich and their cat Pikachu, and maintains an occasional newsletter and podcast at weownwhatwemake.substack.com.

Sarah White

Sarah White is an attorney at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, where she works with tenant unions and community organizations to address unsafe conditions in housing and promote state and local policies that protect tenants. She trains local Fair Rent Commissions, helped lead the successful grassroots campaign that won a Right to Counsel for Tenants in Connecticut, and works on the ongoing campaign to expand Just Cause eviction protections. Previously she represented homeowners in foreclosure and brought legal claims against mortgage serviers. She is the past co-chair of the Housing & Homelessness Committee of the National Lawyers Guild and has been involved in community organizing for tenants’ and immigrants' rights for more than 15 years.

Hosted By Housing for All
with Connecticut For All Justice Fund
Topic Community Organizing; Housing Affordability
Region CT

Hosted in partnership with

Connecticut For All Justice Fund

Connecticut For All is a statewide coalition of labor, community, and faith organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people—black, brown, and white. We stand united in a long-term mission to eliminate systemic inequalities and rebuild a better Connecticut.