COMMUNITY WELLBEING PROCESS IN
LONG ISLAND CITY AND ASTORIA
For the past three years, we've been working in Queens — in Long Island City and Astoria — hosting the EMC at Socrates Sculpture Park. Through that work, we've come to see how LIC and Astoria's parks and green spaces carry their own histories of neglect and repair, often led by the residents who live around them rather than by the institutions meant to care for them.
This year, we're bringing together long-term residents, neighbors, community organizations, and Indigenous Stewards of this land to help shape the wellbeing and future of this neighborhood.
we're bringing together 75 RESIDENTS AND INDIGENOUS STEWARDS OF THIS LAND
Over three community sessions, we'll talk about:
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What community well-being means, in our own words
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What we want our neighborhoods to look like in the years ahead
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How we relate to land — including land that can't speak in the ways we do, but that shapes everything we do
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What it would take to have real influence over the forces (gentrification, displacement, climate risk) already reshaping our neighborhoods
The conversations will be synthesized into a report, which will directly inform organizing, policy advocacy, and future planning work.This is also an exercise in governance for us as a group — practicing what it looks like to actually listen to community and let that shape what we advocate for.
WHY THIS, WHY NOW?
Developers, real estate interests, and governments plan in 50- to 100-year horizons.
Community organizers are usually working in 1-2 year windows, at most, 5-to-
10-year stretches. That gap in timescale is part of how communities lose ground.
At the same time, the water is rising. Storms and flooding are intensifying.
The land we live, gather, and build community on is already changing, and the decisions
being made now about what comes next are largely happening without the people who
will be most affected.
We want to close that gap by starting the long-timeline conversation early, and by
making sure the people rooted in this place, past and present, help shape it.
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help co-design this process
participants
If you live in LIC and Astoria, take part in the sessions and shape the future of wellbeing in your neighborhood.
FACILITATORS
We're looking for community organizers
and inviduals to
volunteer to facilitate
these conversations.
If you speak Spanish, Chinese, Russian, or
another language, we
could use you as an interpreter at the sessions.
translators
Collaborate with us to shape how we frame "community well-being," and hold land stewardship in this process.
PARTNERS
Frequently asked questions
What is this project?
Who can participate?
Do I get paid to participate?
What language will the sessions be in?
Can I volunteer to help facilitate?
Why are Indigenous stewards part of this process?
WHY THIS, WHY NOW?
Developers, real estate interests, and governments plan in 50- to 100-year horizons.
Community organizers are usually working in 1-2 year windows, at most, 5-to-
10-year stretches. That gap in timescale is part of how communities lose ground.
At the same time, the water is rising. Storms and flooding are intensifying.
The land we live, gather, and build community on is already changing, and the decisions
being made now about what comes next are largely happening without the people who
will be most affected.
We want to close that gap by starting the long-timeline conversation early, and by
making sure the people rooted in this place, past and present, help shape it.