#UjimaWednesdays | Power in Systems | 4.9

Month Desscription:

This April, we are continuing our yearly theme with From the Ground Up: Building Power With Land, in collaboration with the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and the Kensington Corridor Trust. In this series, we’ll explore how communities are reclaiming land and building grassroots governance as tools for collective liberation.

Through conversations with organizers and practitioners on the ground, participants will explore real-life models of community control, gain insight into the power of land stewardship, and build strategies to root movements in place-based power. Together, we’ll learn how community land trusts and community-led governance structures create pathways for long-term stability and economic justice.

Event Description:

In this first workshop, Adriana Abizadeh of Kensington Corridor Trust (KCT) will introduce us to community land trusts and community-led governance. Adriana will explore how the KCT is using community-led governance and systems change strategies to build long-term neighborhood power.Together we’ll learn about the Trust’s innovative model, how it centers resident voice in decision-making, and the ways it challenges traditional development systems to create more equitable outcomes.

Facilitator Bio:

Adriana Abizadeh is the executive director of Philadelphia-based Kensington Corridor Trust (KCT). The mission, duty, and purpose of the KCT is to utilize collective ownership to direct investments on the corridor that preserve culture and affordability while building neighborhood power and wealth in Kensington. Abizadeh is also a policy fellow at Princeton University and Rutgers University. With deep interests in public policy, Abizadeh has taken every opportunity to utilize her privileged position as a nonprofit leader to speak out for what she believes in and to lift the voices of impacted community members. Immersed in policy initiatives, she has facilitated community collaboration to address the intersectionality between immigration status, housing, poverty, and race. Abizadeh has a BA in Political Science from Rutgers University with a minor in Security Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. She also has an MS in Public Policy from Drexel University. She has committed herself to serving on several boards that reflect some of her deepest passions: immigration, racial and health equity, and youth development. When she isn’t serving her community, she is at home with her two children and their dogs.