Community-Centered Governance: Richmond's Approach to Tackling Income Inequality

Collaborative governance—or “co-governance”—offers a model for shifting power to ordinary people and re-building their trust in government. Co-governance models break down the boundaries between people inside and outside government, allowing community residents and elected officials to work together to design policy and share decision-making power. Cities around the world are experimenting with new forms of co-governance, from New York City’s participatory budgeting process to Paris’s adoption of a permanent citizens’ assembly. More than a one-off transaction or call for public input, successful models of co-governance empower everyday people to participate in the political process in an ongoing way. Co-governance has the potential to revitalize civic engagement, create more responsive and equitable structures for governing, and build channels for Black, brown, rural, and tribal communities to impact policy-making.

Still, co-governance models are not without challenges. The hierarchical and ineffective nature of our current governing structure is difficult to transform. Effective collaboration between communities and politicians requires building lasting relationships that overcome deep distrust in government. So far, successful models of co-governance tend to be local and community-specific—making it critical that we share stories of success and brainstorm ways to scale.

In this series, we share stories of co-governance in practice. For this interview, New America’s Hollie Russon Gilman and Lizbeth Lucero spoke with Policy Strategist Chaya Braxton of the Richmond Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB), whose mission is to create policy and structural change to address income inequality and the racial wealth gap. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation on OCWB’s mission to address systemic poverty.

Can you tell us about the Office of Community Wealth Building?

The Office of Community Wealth Building in the City of Richmond is a new kind of municipal department that addresses systemic poverty through programs, initiatives, and policy recommendations. Former Mayor Dwight C. Jones realized that neighborhoods were changing rapidly and that the city needed to protect the interests of those who were most impacted by poverty. He formed the Anti-Poverty Commission in 2011 to advance interventions on housing, employment income, mental health, transportation, and childcare.

In 2015, the commission established a permanent department now known as the Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB). OCWB has a dual focus. First, we focus on reducing the effects of poverty, and second, on enhancing the quality of life for the residents of Richmond.

Are there other cities around the country that have replicated a department like the Office of Community Wealth Building?

Cities across the country have looked to the City of Richmond and our work to implement something similar in their municipalities. Several that are interested in combating poverty have reached out to us to learn from the work we are doing here. For example, in 2018, the City of Rochester, New York, visited as they were launching Rochester’s Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE). The Washington D.C. Poverty Commission also visited us in Spring 2022 to learn more about OCWB’s programs and initiatives.

What was the process for the OCWB becoming its own department in the City of Richmond?

Prior to 2015, the Anti-Poverty Commission published a report recommending the permanent establishment of the OCWB to address poverty and the wealth gap.

The City organized in support of the OCWB and its emphasis on workforce and economic development. We know upskilling the workforce is a central element of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.

Our office has launched the Richmond Resilience Initiative, a guaranteed income pilot program under the national collaborative, Mayors for Guaranteed Income. More than 40 families are receiving $500 cash payments per month to go toward their household expenses. This initiative is particularly important because research shows that it can take several generations for Black and brown communities to escape poverty. So, we want to help families jumpstart their path towards financial security and advocate for jobs with living wages for long-term stability.

How do you identify which neighborhoods to focus on in your outreach efforts? What data and/or metrics do you use?

We use data from the Census and Department of Labor to help us identify which people, communities, and families need our services most. In the City of Richmond, this includes prioritizing resources for residents in Voter Districts 6, 7, and 8, which have high concentrations of poverty. We also consider factors of educational attainment levels and age. As needs arise and are assessed, additional neighborhoods are prioritized for service.

There are fewer Black people now living in Richmond than there were 10 years ago, but they are still excessively represented in the populations experiencing the highest rates of poverty. Our ability to expand resources available to these communities rests on our ability to increase partnerships with local organizations whose relationships would help us overcome language and cultural barriers that have so far inhibited our success.

How is the OCWB working with local organizations and community groups to combat poverty?

It is extremely important to connect people with the right resources and get people involved with the work we’re doing. The City of Richmond Ambassadors program has been essential to this process. The Ambassadors are a group of selected individuals who participate in our workforce programs, share information about the resources available throughout the city and build trusted relationships with community members to assist them in not only increasing their access to services, but providing feedback on the various needs of the community so that policy and procedures can be created or refined to address those needs systemically. In many instances, the Ambassadors have been the first point of contact for people interested in our services.

We also have an Office of Strategic Communications and Civic Engagement, a new office founded by Mayor Stoney in 2021, to connect communities with city government. Collaboratively, our offices engage residents to encourage their involvement in local government and provide them with the platform to have their voices amplified.

At OCWB, we have prioritized service delivery to lower the barriers for residents to access services such as child care, education, employment, health and wellness, housing, income, and transportation. As a cross-sector collaborative office, partnering with community-focused organizations is the foundation of how we do what we do. These organizations include local community colleges, labor unions, and the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Our Program Coordinator for Wealth Building stewards our relationships with external partners and is constantly looking for ways to forge new relationships with organizations across the city.

How does the OCWB build trust with residents?

One of the things that make us a really strong team is that many of us have been doing this type of work for over 20 years, with deep roots in the community. We often leverage our existing, long-standing relationships to get work done. For many of us, this work is very personal. We know one another. We are each other’s neighbors, and we work with Ambassadors to make connections with other residents who may not know about who we are and what we do.

OCWB continues to integrate the perspectives of residents in our service delivery system. The Maggie L. Walker Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) is an independent body recognized by Richmond City Council under ordinance 2014-234-215 to oversee the progress of the city’s comprehensive strategy to address poverty reduction. It is comprised of those who are experiencing poverty or representing organizations, businesses, or service providers that are responsible for servicing residents who are impacted by poverty.

In Richmond, residents trust OCWB to be resourceful and connect them to the proper tools and services across all our departments. I think that speaks to the importance of building local connections and relationships early on and stewarding those long-term relationships.

During the pandemic, how was the OCWB reaching out to hard-to-reach communities?

There were times during the pandemic when it was really tough, but we did not close our doors to the needs of the residents. When other entities went home, our staff rotated on an in-person schedule that provided safer environments for services to continue. When physical space became challenging, we opened outdoor service areas where residents could get essential assistance without the increased risk of exposure to health concerns. Once physical space gatherings were prohibited, we migrated to a virtual platform in which we hosted virtual sessions three times a day to share key information around areas like homeownership, food insecurity, rental assistance, eviction aversion, career exploration, unemployment insurance, health updates, and much more.

We also had our Engagement Specialists, who remained in constant communication with our residents about training, job search, and supportive services. The Ambassadors even provided door-to-door outreach for school-aged youth and seniors. We leveraged technology to host in-person watch parties in locations where poverty was highly concentrated so that residents who were not as technically savvy would not miss out on pertinent information and services. People sat spaced apart and masked up, watching the virtual sessions together.

It is especially important for us to coordinate with partner organizations we can count on in harder-to-reach communities. We don’t always have the capacity or expertise to reach out to undocumented communities, for example. The Office of Immigrant Refugee Services help us do outreach for these populations.

Sometimes, simple solutions like having a translator on staff are essential. Other times, there are a lot of nuances that can make outreach challenging. We also try our best to direct residents to other community organizations in that case.

For those experiencing homelessness, it is most important to us that their physical needs be prioritized. So, in these cases, we make referrals to other partners such as Homeward and Housing and Community Development. Many of our Engagement Specialists go above and beyond to help stabilize people on the journey to self-sufficiency, but it takes a lot of resources and hands to do this successfully.

We also have financial literacy programming that supports wealth-building strategies like saving, investing, and buying a home. The OCWB is a part of efforts that need to span generations to get people where they want to be financially.

What does effective outreach look like in the City of Richmond?

Door-knocking and being intentional about showing up in places where other community residents and partners are present to cultivate deeper connections is the catalyst for effective outreach to OCWB. Last year, we created two Community Advocate positions. In addition to the Ambassadors, we have our own, in-house, community advocates, some of whom have been through the Ambassador's program and want to continue to help with outreach efforts in their communities. Ultimately, our desire is to see our communities thriving—communities in which neighborhoods are safe, adequate housing is available and affordable, food and other aspects of wellness are plentiful and accessible, and communities have everything that they need to enhance their quality of life.

Is there any additional information folks should know about the work of OCWB?

People should know about the participants that go through our cadre of programs. For instance, we were working with someone who came from New York, spent some time in Richmond, and participated in our customer service training class. Now, he runs a nonprofit organization that feeds 300 people experiencing homelessness every single week. Ex-pro-athletes have come through our program, which has helped them restore their lives and provide for their families.

We also have been partnering with other city agencies internally on issues like justice-involved expungement to best support people with minor offenses to return to society, earn living wages, and attain credentials in high-demand occupations. These efforts are just a small part of the holistic, systems-based change that is needed to elevate our communities.

We would like to thank Chaya Braxton, Mark Schmitt, Maresa Strano, Amy Eisenstein, and Alexander Fung for their incredibly helpful comments and editing support. Thank you also to Jodi Narde, Joe Wilkes, and Kelley Gardner for their communications support. This would not have been possible without them.