Sam Ludington is deputy director, program development and policy of the nonprofit Children of Inmates, which coordinates care and family reunification for Florida children whose parents are incarcerated. As a Miami Fellows alum, he stepped up to host a My Miami Story conversation at the Everglades Re-entry Center, which houses adult male inmates. Sam shared his experience with us. My … Read More
MIAMI FELLOWS REDEFINE OUR CITY AS “MI AMI”
Miami.
We live in “Mi ami”
Not “Mi amigo” or “Mon ami.” But “Mi ami.”
About a month ago, I found myself sitting in Carl Juste’s studio in Little Haiti. I was there on a walking tour of the neighborhood to plan an upcoming community-based project. Carl, who captures Miami’s stories as a photographer for the Miami Herald, explained how our city’s name is the representation of us at our best.
MY MIAMI STORY CONVERSATIONS 2017: WHAT WE LEARNED
Editor’s Note: This blog post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Miami Herald.
On Tuesday, October 17th, this community made history as more than 3,000 Miamians gathered at hundreds of My Miami Story conversations across the county. Small and large groups of residents came together in homes, schools, restaurants, nonprofits and parks for the biggest community conversation ever in Miami-Dade County. The Miami Foundation, inspired by The Chicago Community Trust’s On the Table program, convened the initiative as part of their 50th anniversary push for residents to share their Miami stories: how you came to this community, why you stay here, what you value about it and how we can all invest in making Greater Miami a better place to live. With support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the conversations will be captured in a participant survey and analyzed by the University of Illinois at Chicago, providing a better understanding of local resident experiences and informing more effective solutions to critical community issues.
PRIDELINES: A SAFE SPACE FOR MIAMI’S LGBTQ COMMUNITY
After 35 years of serving Miami-Dade County’s LGBTQ youth, Pridelines Youth Services is now Pridelines, Miami’s LGBTQ Community Center. In June 2016, Pridelines moved to a 9,000-square-foot community center, a facility large enough to house programs and services for Greater Miami’s LGBTQ youth, older adults, people living with HIV/AIDS, and their allies. The new space allowed us to expand our services and reach more residents. Eleven days after the move, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando rocked the LGBTQ community.
More than 150 people walked through Pridelines’ doors the next day in search of a safe place to gather, grieve, and find healing and support. LGBTQ community members and allies met with grief counselors, participated in an interfaith service and held a candlelight vigil. They held a town hall where they talked about solutions for reclaiming the sense of safety they had lost. Today, the center, supported by a GLBT Community Projects Fund grant, stands as a place of hope for people looking to find a connection to their community. For some, especially youth, it’s the only place where they can simply be themselves.
Dr. Judith Rodin: How Miami Can Be a More Resilient Community
We live in a time when we feel inundated by crises, whether the week brings news of another cyber-attack, international threat or hurricane. But not every disruption has to become a disaster, says Dr. Judith Rodin, author of “The Resilience Dividend.” We can learn to bend, not break, by building a more resilient city.
MY MIAMI STORY HOSTS: WHY WE SIGNED UP – AND YOU CAN, TOO!
On October 17th, thousands of Miami-Dade residents will gather in small groups to talk about life in Greater Miami and ideas to make it better during My Miami Story conversations. Hundreds of hosts have signed up. We checked in with a few about the plans for their gatherings and why they decided to participate. There’s still time to host your … Read More
FEEDING A VILLAGE AFTER IRMA: VALENCIA GUNDER’S MIAMI STORY
I told everyone to meet us at the Community Emergency Operations Center at EcoTech. We scraped up what we could and went to the stores. We went to Publix for supplies and a local meat store. We got some hot dogs and a few bags of charcoal and I took the small grill from my house. We went into Liberty City and we started grilling and feeding people.
When we first got there, people were crying because they hadn’t eaten since before the storm, some for two to three days. Grown people were crying. Kids saw us coming and they ran up to us. They were happy to see us. They were blown away that we were giving away free food. We gave out hot dogs, chips and bottles of water, and then we went to Little Haiti and did the same. We set up on a corner and volunteers walked down the streets. For those who couldn’t walk up to us, we brought them food. There were elderly people who were too weak to get out of bed or even feed themselves, and volunteers fed them.
PUBLIC SPACE CHALLENGE UNCOVERS MIAMI’S HIDDEN GEMS
In Greater Miami, we are surrounded by water, and yet there are so few ways to access the bay. That’s why I was excited a few years ago when a friend told me about his favorite spot in Coconut Grove, close to where I live. At the end of tree-lined Royal Road is a small piece of land that’s vacant without much to it, except for the fact that it’s a rare public space where you can take in views of Biscayne Bay. The first time I went looking for it, I biked over and down the “big hill” that’s there with my fishing pole to escape the city for a bit. I didn’t catch a thing, but it didn’t matter – I’d found a new little gem where I could take in Greater Miami’s outdoor beauty. Flash forward to this spring, I was thrilled to see a Public Space Challenge idea that wanted to transform the empty plot of land into a neighborhood mini park so that everyone can enjoy the view with greenery and seating instead of the dirt and litter that’s there now.
MY MIAMI STORY CONVERSATIONS: WHAT WE LEARNED LAST YEAR
People play, eat, sleep, go to school in all different parts of Miami-Dade County so what does it mean when people say they’re “from Miami?” And what do issues like homelessness, transit options and equity look and feel like in each place?
A professor and Changemaker Faculty Fellow at Florida International University, Malik Benjamin is on a mission to get Miamians more engaged in issues like these. As part of that effort, Malik asked his FIU students to participate in The Miami Foundation’s My Miami Story conversations project last fall.
EMPOWERING MIAMI’S COMMUNITIES MOST VULNERABLE TO SEA LEVEL RISE
Since 2010, The CLEO Institute has educated students and adults about climate change and rising sea levels and trained them in leadership skills to carry the message forward. Last year, with support from The Miami Foundation, they launched a Climate Change 101 community outreach project, hosting workshops and town halls in Greater Miami’s most vulnerable communities. They shared their findings … Read More