>>Virginia has, essentially the nation has two crises.

It's the trauma of COVID 19, the pandemic as a trauma.

And then it's often this trauma collectively experienced that gets overlooked, which is racism.

I'd also say Virginia is in this reckoning stage.

And so when you think about the communication of an issue, it's supersedes storytelling, but the concept of truth telling, how do we amplify the truths of communities?

>>Production funding for Racism Challenging Perceptions is provided by, community foundation for a greater Richmond, partnering with individuals, families, and businesses to connect local giving to our regions needs and opportunities.

More at cfrichmond.org.

(upbeat music) And by viewers like you, thank you.

(upbeat music) >>Communities and organizations share their commitment to addressing inequities in 2020, through developing coalitions and layered approaches to policy.

I'm joined now by Virginia delegate, Lamont Bagby, and policy professional, Chloe Edwards.

Welcome, it's so good to have you all here with us.

Chloe Edwards is a policy analyst at Voices For Virginia Children.

She leads policy and advocacy work and domains related to public health, trauma informed care, equity and justice.

In 2020, Chloe launched Virginia's first, racial truth and reconciliation week, which was recognized by governor Ralph Northam.

During the 2021 general assembly session, Chloe helped lead efforts to successfully recognize racism as a public health crisis in Virginia, making the state the first in the south to do so.

Chloe serves as a university of Richmond community partner in residence, is the founder of Chloe Edwards consulting and president of black lives matter 804.

The honorable Lamont Bagby serves as the chair of the Virginia legislative black caucus, the house labor and commerce insurance and workers compensation subcommittee, and the house education pre-K through 12 subcommittee.

Prior to being elected to the Virginia House of delegates, delegate Bagby served on the Henrico county school board, as well as the Northfolk state university board of visitors.

Delegate Bagby is committed to breaking cycles of poverty by providing quality healthcare, inclusionary, affordable housing, justice reform and equity in education.

So I'll just jump in, right?

Because we have someone who is leading in legislation and policy, and then Chloe we have you, who's really working through entities and even in community collaborations to kind of bring up community engagement and voice there.

So if you all could just talk a little bit about collaboration and the importance of collaboration in the work that you're doing.

Especially considering the pandemics that we're still pushing through.

>>The concept of collaboration is really complex, especially in this time.

You have the traditional way, organizations have always done things.

When we talk about nonprofit, there's the nonprofit industrial complex.

And then you have transformative, which is, let's recognize our systems have never been just, and so we can't really fall on tradition all the way.

And we have to really think authentically and in an intersectional way about community engagement and voice and choice as it relates to policy solutions.

So, you know I'd like to think it's not, what's wrong with us, what's happened to us, but also what's right with us and how can we practice healing centered engagement and really see community members as the innovators in igniting that change.

And often times that's where I see individuals fall short.

When it comes to community empowerment, especially, delegate Bagby, I know you work in all these places really at the state macro level, but when we sit on these work groups, we're coming up with all of these community solutions and the community is absent.

And so how can we really think in a transformative way about community engagement and empowerment?

>>And I think about sort of my roles outside of serving in the house of delegates, outside of serving as a chair of the Virginia legislative black caucus, even my time on the school board.

Local government is much different than state government and certainly much different than federal government, Local government, you are connected to the people, rather, you want to be engaged with the community.

>>You will be.

>>The mama bear of the house is gonna be calling you if their child is dropped off at the wrong bus stop.

If something happened in the classroom where the teacher did not behave properly, they're not calling their delegate, they're not calling their state congressperson, they're calling a school board member.

You also get engaged and find out who actually has, and I don't have any other way of saying it.

Juice, as it relates to organizations.

You find out who's who, and who's actually standing up some for some of the families and children that don't have voices.

And so, I think it's very important for us to make sure that we engage those individuals, but also make sure that they don't get so wrapped up, just like elected officials do, in the day to day of coffee with the most powerful individuals, but not going back and re-engaging with those individuals.

Often times I get individuals, advocates, and lobbyists, and so forth.

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, but they come into my office, and want to talk about an issue.

They haven't talked to the community.

They don't know the community, community don't know them.

And so that's one of the things we have to make sure that we are mindful of is that the individuals that are representing the communities that they say they serve, are actually engaged with the communities.

And also encouraging the elected officials to continue to sort of do their grassroots, just like local elected officials are forced to do.

>>Yeah, absolutely.

When I think about collaboration, and I wanna go over to you Chloe, and the resolution 537 that I know you really work, really closely with delegate (indistinct) If you could speak to that a little bit more, I think it really speaks to the moment that we're in around some of the racial tension that had been in play.

So if you can talk to that a little bit more and just what that process was like for you, working for as an advocate to bring that forward.

>>Unfortunately, declaring racism as a public health crisis is still seen as a very partisan issue.

But when we talk about community, like this is literally our livelihood.

And so we definitely wanted to advocate in order to make it successful.

We engaged in grassroots petitions, organized meetings, divided in conquered roles and responsibilities.

And then the whole concept of organizing testimony.

But when we really break it down and look at the context, Virginia has, essentially the nation has two crises.

It's the trauma of COVID 19, the pandemic as a trauma.

And then it often this trauma collectively experienced that gets overlooked, which is racism.

Everyone's sitting at home, social distancing, et cetera, and really having to reckon with the troops of the Commonwealth as the Confederate capital, as well as the history of the United States.

>>And I don't recall, what was the vote on that piece of legislation?

>>I'd say there was one person that crossed the aisle, but it was mostly a partisan vote.

>>And so, that's the part that I don't want to lose.

Often times, people look at the progress that we're making in Virginia, whether it's voting rights, where we are going, what I consider forward as opposed to backwards, like a number of the states like Texas and Georgia and Florida are making it harder to vote.

We're making it easier to vote here in the Commonwealth.

And so it comes into place not only when they advocate doing the time where the legislation's in place, but also when there's elections.

>>So it shows up, when you see the bill or the resolution, but there are often times years and years and years of work that comes into there.

I'm thinking about people who want to make change, but don't know how, or may sometimes feel lack of better words a bit defeated because they feel like, well, if I do this, this won't make a difference, right?

And so what do you say to those who want to make change, understand that it's, things happening at a macro level is important, but just don't know how to get engaged and may often feel like what they do, doesn't matter.

What do you say to them to keep them hopeful and engaged in the process?

>>I would encourage them, and I know Chloe would do the same to just talk to an individual whether it's an elected, appointed or someone selected.

Communicate with individuals because it, a lot of people look at this as a big elephant, but my grandfather always told me the best way to you eat a elephant.

You already know how the best way to eat a elephant, right?

One bite at a time.

>>One bite at a time.

>>And so it's one meeting, it's one email, there's one communication at a time.

And, folks like Chloe do a good job of making sure that they coach those individuals up to being able to present.

Cause often times the elected officials doesn't, don't don't care your physical presentation, or they want to know what you think.

>>They want to hear your voice.

>>They want to know what you can what's on your mind.

You got typos in your emails.

We can look past that.

I want to know what the position of of my constituency is.

And often times they can give you valuable, valuable information to help you as an elected official, make the point and encourage the balance of the body to get that legislation over the finish line.

>>And I wanna back up a little bit, cause I like to keep it real and be a little transparent, but the HJ 537 resolution was actually introduced during the special session previous to that general assembly.

So it was something that wasn't looked at, it had to be reintroduced.

And that's just.

>>Awesome.

>>That's an example of what we deal with in, you know, advocacy, like the delegate said, I mean, Virginia is a very purple state, fairly moderate.

And so a lot of times whether democratically controlled at Republican, it's often incremental change and people at the Grassroots level activists, I mean it's tiring.

To consistently have to speak up, ask for change.

And it be like, oh it's not time for that yet.

We don't have the political culture.

We don't have the right, you know, generally to make up.

And these are the real realistic issues that advocates and activists face.

And so often when it comes to igniting change, we really have to think, does the opportunity exist?

Because that's often an advocacy, connecting it to the political opportunity.

Or do we need to apply a little pressure and ignite that change and that's really truly activism.

But unfortunately what everyone will face is that that political opportunity whether created or pushed for will into the systems.

And so it's a lot of work, but what I, would implore people to do is really engage with your, your people.

Your community members to really organize divide and conquer.

>>I think what I'm also hearing is what we know about racist systems.

It is embedded in so many different aspects, whether it's education, whether it's voting, whether it's housing.

And so I think your ability to really look across the landscape and introduce, you know, bills in various areas that we know is gonna really increase the importance of us bringing this to light.

I was really impressed with.

If you can share maybe one or two things that you are that you're proud of, that's been introduced and then maybe talk to us about, we know there's a bill, but what does that mean for the people?

>>One bill is Juneteenth.

The legislation to make Juneteenth a holiday.

>>Yes.

>>You know, folks can discount it and say, Hey, it's just a holiday.

But it speaks volumes to the space that we're in right now.

>>Yes.

>>And it says a lot that we're just doing it now.

And so Juneteenth was special because it was a piece of legislation that I had worked on when I first got into the general assembly that we couldn't get across the finish line because again, the climate wasn't right with, as it relates to the makeup of the general assembly.

But then the second piece of legislation was dealing with predatory lenders.

And in Virginia predatory lenders were having their way, particularly in individuals, in impoverished communities.

And you know, you had people that borrowed $250 and end up paying $2,500 back.

Borrowed $2,000 and end up paying $10,000 back.

Lose your car, lose, you know, lose so much off of these small loans.

And so it just snowballs.

And so I was so happy when we were able to get that legislation across the finish line.

>>And so even something such as that that's happening on this very macro as you kind of talk kind of, this feels like a glass box at times, place is really affecting folks, you know, on the ground, in the community, in such a significant way.

Chloe, you do such a great job.

As we talk about engaging with folks who are proximate to the issues proximate to the concerns.

And you make it seem so easy.

You absolutely do.

But I know it's a lot of work that's involved there, right?

With some of the background things that are happening, when you're preparing people to share their story, their real life actually, to share their life, you know, say in a committee meeting or something of the sort.

What does that look like for you as an advocate?

>>Yeah.

I always say I navigate a lot of spaces.

There's the advocate, the activist, me when I'm at home chillin'.

>>You said about three Chloe's, three or four Chloe's.

>>About three or four Chloe's, really.

Cause it's, it's a different culture that comes with each position.

>>Absolutely.

>>And so when I'm advocating, often times within those systems, community has an innate distrust for systems.

They don't wanna talk to the public.

I'm not gonna assume everyone doesn't, but they don't trust the system.

They don't care about the governor or the first lady or any of these fancy hats.

These aren't the people that they see in their day to day, day.

That's you know, taking care of them and influencing their outcomes.

And so there's, you know, really that relationship building piece, the trust boating piece, it's not a matter of attending a meeting.

It's probably going to the girls for a change black girl rally, even if you're not a speaker.

Just showing up and being a part of the community.

And so the relationship piece takes a great level of time.

And then often times when I'm in, in these systems, attending coalition meetings and the nonprofit sector community's not represented.

I mean really when you look at coalitions, it's about neutral decision making and active engagement with community.

A lot of these coalitions do not have community.

And so we can't necessarily rely on these powerful lobbyists or non-profit organizations for the community perspective.

Now when I'm in the activist space, often times under resourced, black lives matter 8 0 4.

We don't oftentimes, smaller organizations, don't qualify with these big grants and resources.

And so we have a lot of volunteers.

I mean, lawyers, graphic designers, photographers, et cetera.

People, I can really lean on.

People that review my press statements and stuff like that.

Teaching people how to organize a March, doing your coalition volunteer meetings code.

Cause I'd say when you're an activist, you wear a lot of hats that you don't necessarily professionally specialize in, but you just have to learn the ropes because advocacy, when you really think about it, it's inaccessible.

Requires a certain level of privilege.

And then we're breaking down these trusts because of these systemic barriers, right?

So I'm in this space where people trust me, but they don't trust the system.

And so how do you facilitate that and really navigate the complexities of community engagement.

>>Delicate place and balance to hold, you know, as you're moving things forward and just in thinking about moving forward, I think what we have in front of us right now is, is more than enough, right?

The things that we're working through.

But what's on the horizon.

You know, when you look at kind of the state, you know, the kind of current that we're under.

What would you all, say from your perspective, is on the horizon when it comes to legislation and policy and things of the sort?

>>I think the biggest thing for us right now is often times we hear elected officials aren't trusted.

Whether it's on the federal level, state level.

But most times, and when you see polls, the polls says we don't trust Congress or maybe even we don't trust the general assembly, but they trust their congressperson.

They love their delegate.

>>Okay.

>>But how does that pan out in the greater scheme of things?

What does that really look like?

And so I think it becomes fair, when we have fair maps.

Individuals are able to really express particularly the black community because they have put us in compact districts.

And sort of packed us in respective districts where I hope just like with the advocacy and the marches and showing up in public spaces, I hope that we will spread that out a bit.

To make that voice louder.

So that individuals, on both sides of the aisle, urban, suburban, and rural individuals will know what the issues are.

And I think that's really the way that we do it.

We spread it out a little bit.

And I think that's the charge for all of us.

Rather, it's the individual that wants to be heard the activist, the advocate, the lobbyist, the elected official, the media.

I think that's the charge for all of us to figure out how to expand the power of the people.

>>Absolutely.

I like that.

Anything else from you on that, Chloe?

>>I mean, I could talk all day.

I mean, but the people are tired and what I'm really hoping as both an advocate and an activists is that last year was not performative.

People have really been raising their voice for quite some time.

And it's just that concept of racial battle fatigue.

>>Yeah.

>>So again, it goes to, you know, how do we get people reinvigorated?

>>Yeah.

>>I do have some things on my horizon from a policy perspective, such as codifying the pieces of the racism as a public health crisis resolution in Virginia code.

Implicit bias training for licensed medical professionals, more so connected to maternal infant mortality, but would, you know, it affects all health outcomes.

And then really that concept of not just looking at health from the individual lens, but also from as far as like a fee for service goes, but really looking at how do we create health outcomes?

How do we bridge our systems and services as it relates to the community to actually trusting the services that we're offering, even if we are, if we're advocating for all of this funding, but people don't trust the system.

That's why you have this data that shows an under utilization of services in minority communities.

So I'm really nerdy about really investing in community health workers and then looking at health from a value based care model, health outcomes, rather that individual, you know, fee for service.

>>What I'm hearing and I'm going into my, I was a staff assistant on Capitol hill in I guess four lives ago.

I remember that was my first, like, I think four or five lives ago, right?

But I remember as a staff assistant, I was front office.

So I'm answering phones, I'm open the door.

And in that moment is when I realized the loudest person in the room is who is heard in this world.

For me, that was my perspective because when you call every two minutes, someone is calling with the same line and the same statement, you're forced to make sure right, that you're representative.

Hey, we got 100 calls on this and this topic today, it rises it up as a young black woman.

In that time, I remember saying, man, we don't really have a lot of lobbying groups that are speaking on the really unique issues that are happening.

Right.

We don't have a lot of people who are doing call-ins or even being, having the privilege and ability to come to DC and have a day on the hill and things of the sort.

And because of it, I've always taken the position to tell people we are tired, but we have to stay inspired.

We all need help to move things forward.

And you know, a lot of that, is the people power of saying what needs to be said and moving things forward.

So the individuals know.

What's the opportunity, you know, if there was anything that you could use from people, if there was anything that you could use from, from legislators, right?

Or even people in your work, what is that opportunity or that need, that you would share with folks who are watching or listening?

>>When it comes to equity, what I want folks to realize is that equity wouldn't be needed if all people were nearly equal, if we eliminated the barrier to begin with.

So that is really jumping into social justice.

Right?

And so there's mitigative change.

For example, you have a family who is unable to gain access to fresh and nutritious food nearby.

So you could give them the E B T the snap, but does that change their situation or, or does it only mitigate it?

And so then when we go into transformative change, we're talking about those big policy issues that may come with some partisan tags, unfortunately, but things like universal income or the resolution to declare racism as a public health crisis.

So really looking at a system that we recognized was never right to begin with.

It was never just, it's not a matter of improving the systems or combating systemic racism, but it's creating different systems, transforming our systems.

And then I think the other part that I want folks to realize there's the individual racism, which is at the interpersonal level.

It's where you live, work and play the people that you interact with, but then there's also systemic and structural racism.

And so those are your systems that perpetuate sometimes racist policies, as well as the structural racism, which is the interaction with people and institutions and systems.

And so we have to think with both of those perspectives.

Often times people think individually like, well, I'm color blind.

I don't see color, but we have to think of, of the, those two perspectives.

When it comes to racism.

>>There are individuals that disagree with us.

They don't think that the individual that robbed the bank in Hanover and got 30 years should be released, even though the white lady that robbed the bank, same bank in handover got five years.

And so these are the things, when we think about the systematic, we need to fix not only what was happening in the future, but we need to go back.

Same thing with the marijuana laws.

You know these, the cannabis reforms are not just about how we move forward, selling the product.

It's how do, what do we do for those individuals that are actually serving time right now or have had systematic challenges associated with finding jobs in the past.

Is still showing up these barrier crimes among a commission for barrier crimes.

That's really holding individuals back.

Particularly those individuals that have substance use usage challenges and want help the next individual overcome those barriers.

But those barrier crimes are preventing individuals from finding quality jobs, even helping other individuals that are experiencing the same thing.

>>Well, I just thank you all so much for your time, for your insight, for the work that you all are doing and leading.

I'm looking forward to what's to come with this policy and progress that I believe is, has been made, but I know there's more work to be to continue.

>>Thank you.

>>Thanks for having us.

>>Absolutely.

(upbeat music) >>Production funding for Racism Challenging Perceptions is provide by community foundation for a greater Richmond, partnering with individuals, families, and businesses to connect local giving to our region's needs and opportunities.

More at cfrichmond.org.

(upbeat music) And by viewers like you, thank you.