Meena Jagannath is co-founder of the Community Justice Project, a network of lawyers who collaborate with grassroots groups to serve low-income communities of color in South Florida.

At every turn, we see a new Miami emerging. Growing investments in tech and the arts, and the explosion of the local tech scene, are helping create many new opportunities. But we’ve also seen social and economic success stagnate or even decline in some of our neighborhoods. That too is an opportunity, a chance to bring greater connectivity, understanding and collaboration to our community. ­­­­

For the last few years, I have been working with Charles Elsesser and Alana Greer to seize that opportunity. In 2014 we organized JusticeHack, an event where storytelling laid the groundwork for greater collective problem-solving around issues faced by students in Miami’s urban core working with Power U, taxi drivers from New Vision Drivers Association, low-income renters from Miami Workers Center and farmworkers allied with WeCount! from Homestead.

The collaborative process helped raised awareness about the challenges these communities face, forged meaningful connections between participants, and generated ideas such as neighborhood-based community land trusts and an app-based child care system. That success, together with our legal work with grassroots organizations, prompted us to found the Community Justice Project to address the pressing problems of economic and racial inequality in our rapidly changing city. We believe that together we can identify local, community-based solutions that draw on the creative energy that flows through every corner of Miami.

Through our legal and strategic work over the years with communities in areas such as Liberty City, Overtown and Little Haiti, we have witnessed the wealth of untapped ideas and innovation in communities that have been historically overlooked. And as a new social enterprise that launched just one year ago, we are also witness to the many new startups, organizations and local initiatives that are eager to help make Miami more inclusive and equitable.

This is why we are excited to launch our Knight-supported programming to design forums to build connections within and across neighborhoods in Miami and ensure representation in existing events. Our hope is that this programming will help connect talent from underserved areas of our community to opportunities, training and resources.

We are inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, during which salons, community panels and street-corner debates were sites for robust exchange, intellectual stimulation and creative development. Our forums are meant to spur similar idea sharing and creativity. And given the considerable buzz before elections this November, we thought no topic better fitting than political participation in an age of increasing disillusionment for our inaugural salon, “On Mobilizing, Against the Odds,” Sept. 28 at The Anderson. The salon will feature an interview with incredible grassroots community leaders Henrietta Ricketts and Anthony Butter who, motivated by their personal struggles and a desire to improve their communities, have been tirelessly knocking on hundreds of doors in Miami over the last months to encouragement engagement. The interview will then anchor a broader discussion among participants over good food and drink.

We will also hold at least one workshop that will connect community-led ideas to technical expertise and resources and surface talent in places where investments have been historically lacking. Community leaders emerging from these forums will become part of a “speakers’ bureau” to broaden the pool of speakers that other organizations and entities can draw from in planning their programming. The demand for such a speakers bureau is clear; we are often approached to identify community voices for a variety of forums – op-eds in the New Tropic, speakers for Creative Mornings and even panelists at talks at Harvard Law School – so we know this will be a great resource for Miami.

If all of this wasn’t exciting enough, we’re going to take our launch party up a notch this year for our fundraiser on Oct. 20 to celebrate our one-year anniversary. As with all of these spaces, this event is bound to be yet another space for cross-community exchange, lifting up of the amazing people we work with, and celebrating social justice in our communities. Save the date. There will be more details soon.

This is just the beginning. We know this programming will inspire others to dig deep into communities in all corners of Miami, get to know one another, and create similar spaces in which community members can participate in driving forward Miami’s development. 

Follow Meena Jagannath on Twitter via @meenajag.