IOC Fellowship Reflection: Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity Summer 2019

By Imani Roberson

This past summer I was honored to be selected as a Summer Fellow for Boston University’s Initiative on Cities (IOC).  I spent two months working for the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity (MORRE).  This office has done work to address the unfortunate racial inequities that are faced throughout the city of Boston through a resilience strategy.   This was my first fellowship/internship, so I was extremely grateful to the IOC and MORRE for taking a chance on me. At the time I was so used to hearing stories from my friends about their summer internships where they spent the majority of their day at desks performing menial tasks.  This was the opposite of my experience at MORRE. This office is a small but powerful team encompassing Chief Resilience Officer, Lori Nelson; Director, George Williams; and Executive Assistant, Jisca Philippe.   From the very first day, I was integrated into this awesome team. My opinions were not only valued but expected.  This empowerment gave me the confidence I needed to work on my assigned projects and let my voice be heard.  One of the benefits of having a small team is that it gives you the opportunity to work on multiple projects at one time.  Additionally, having such a trusting team allowed me to be the lead on various projects such as website building, and social media.  Some of the things I worked on this Summer I had experience in, but a lot of things, I had never done before, especially in a professional setting.

One of my first assignments at MORRE was to do research and create an executive summary on opportunity zones.  At the time, I didn’t know much about Opportunity Zones, but I quickly learned.  Opportunity Zones are designated low-income areas that can be invested in through Opportunity Funds. Opportunity zones provide financial incentives that promote long term investment in areas that wouldn’t normally see this kind of investment.  The MORRE office is currently partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation to promote investment through the lens of Opportunity Zones. These investments will work to help support organizations in the community that are currently working to help black and brown communities suffering from financial insecurity created by systematic racism. In addition to creating the executive summary, I got the opportunity to sit down and strategize with Otis Rolley of the Rockefeller Foundation and various community organizations that are working to reverse many of the racial inequities that plague the city of Boston.

Early on in my time at MORRE, we had to deal with a crisis in the community. During a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts, a group of black and brown students from Davis Leadership Academy faced discrimination while visiting the MFA.  I learned early on that certain parts of the job are going to be extremely saddening.  However, channeling that sadness into action can make a huge difference. Our office along with the Mayor visited the kids to learn about how they were feeling following the incident and what they want to see change for the future.  These kids truly inspired me due to their strength to take action and maturity beyond their years. Sitting down with these students really made me excited about the upcoming generation. When I was a kid, I’m not sure if an incident like this would’ve inspired me to take action. Davis Leadership Academy is truly creating the leaders of tomorrow.

One of my most memorable projects was working on the MORRE speaker series. The speaker series invites community activists to City Hall to speak to City of Boston employees about various topics related to racial equity. This internal initiative is so important because I’m a strong believer that achieving racial equity starts with the individuals running the city. No matter how “big” or “small” someone’s role may be in local government, everyone has the power to affect change. Our speaker for June was Paul Breines. Mr. Breines was one of the original freedom riders that fought for desegregation back in 1961. For this speaker series, I worked closely with Jisca to find funding for food, advertise the event to City of Boston employees and coordinate the day-of logistics. I created a flyer template that can be used for the speaker series even after my fellowship was over. These flyers were shown on the elevator screens throughout City Hall. Additionally, I drafted email invitations to be sent out to City of Boston Employees. During the event, I took photos which I posted on our Twitter page. I was initially nervous that my advertising efforts might not have worked, but the day of the event, the room was packed and Mr. Breines provided the room with so much inspiration and knowledge beyond what anyone expected to hear during an hour at lunchtime. Our July speaker was Rev. Liz Walker.  Rev. Walker was Boston’s first black primary news anchor. My second time around, I felt far more prepared to produce a good event. I was tasked with similar responsibilities. However, this time, they came with much more ease. Following the second speaker, I created a survey that could be sent out to City of Boston employees following the event so that the office can track its progress and feedback on the series. I believe this is a super important element because what’s the point of creating initiatives if you’re not aiming to constantly improve them?

During this internship, I found the fact that I’m majoring in both public relations and political science extremely helpful. One of the projects that was given solely to me, was revamping the MORRE website and managing social media. The website hadn’t been updated in over a year, and a lot of information was simply outdated. I originally had a broad plan for the website with multiple elements. However, working in government, there’s fortunately and sometimes, unfortunately, a lot of protocol that we need to abide by. Therefore, I had to change my original vision for the website, but I’m still proud of the results. The website features work that the office did with RBR Production Group and Econ Development to create an NAACP welcome video. It also features all the important documents related to the office’s work and partnerships. I would say my favorite part of the website is the “meet the team” portion. I personally thought it was important for constituents to see the amazing people behind MORRE. I also got to call on my passion for photography and updated headshots for our Director and Executive Assistant. The Twitter page gave me the opportunity to publicize the things that people don’t typically see. I created the hashtag #ThisWeekAtMORRE to highlight the work that the office is doing.

Another project that I worked on was the NAACP 2020 Annual Convention welcome video. The 2019 convention was held in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan and next year’s convention will be held in Boston which has been my home for the past four years. As mentioned before, MORRE worked with RBR production group and Econ Development to produce a video that highlights the Boston experience in the black community. When you see images of Boston, you often see places like Back Bay or the North End. We wanted to show all of Boston and specifically feature the vibrancy of Black communities in Boston. Additionally, Boston is a place with so many black leaders, many of whom, are first in their position. I got the opportunity to assist on shoots and provide general feedback on the video and production process. I was so honored to be fully included in this project and I got to meet so many inspiring black leaders including DA Rollins, Linda Dorcena Forry, and Councilor Kim Janey.  I also got to see my passion for videography first hand as I enjoy creating my own videos in my free time.

Throughout my time at MORRE, there were a lot of firsts for me. The entire experience was a first, as it was my first internship. However, each day presented something new to me that I had never gotten the opportunity to accomplish before.

• Though not completely related, I relied on the MBTA for the first time, and I believe I’m beginning to master it. This opened my horizons to how much Boston expands beyond my limited view of BU’s campus.
• I wrote a speech for the first time for Chief Nelson. She came up to me one day and said, “I give you full control over what I’ll say”. I was completely shocked that she had that much faith in my ability that it only helped me to have confidence in myself.
• I used branding guidelines to create an original flyer. I had made flyers for various clubs at school before. However, I had never used specific brand guidelines which include specific fonts, colors, and styles in a design. This allowed everything I designed to be consistent and clean.
• I wrote a program initiative proposal for a relaunch of Dialogues to Action. Dialogues to Action is a program that connects neighborhood associations and creates an environment for discussions regarding racial equity led by a trained facilitator. This required me to complete a budget breakdown as well as provide background, a timeline, and logistical information for the initiative.   Additionally, I created a logo for Dialogues to Action to be used on various marketing materials.

Though the work I did this Summer was important, I personally believe that I got so much more back from this experience.  Before I worked at MORRE, I never genuinely thought it was possible to fix the world’s problems. I was far removed as a constituent, and I didn’t feel like my voice could make much of a difference. Working with MORRE helped me learn that even a small team can make huge differences in a city. Lori taught me that it doesn’t matter how small you are if you know how to build a team.  Everyone on the MORRE team has something special to unique to offer which will take you much further than a large team with people who all have the same strength.  I also learned the importance of collaboration in local government. During my time at MORRE, I got a chance to collaborate with speechwriters, econ development, diversity, and even environment.  I never knew that there were so many moving parts in local government, and this experience simply reinforced my desire to want to work in local government. City employees have so much influence on our day to day.  This ranges everywhere from ensuring that your recycling gets picked up to creating major social shifts when it comes to racial equity.  Being able to make a difference at such a close level changed my perspective as a constituent as well.  It’s important to know what individuals have a huge impact on your life whether you endorse it or not.  If we want to see change, we have to start by addressing those who have the power to make it.

I can’t say enough how grateful I am to have had this opportunity to work at MORRE. Not only did I grow professionally, but I also grew personally. I’m far more confident in my abilities thanks to the trust that Lori and the team put in me. I also feel so much more prepared for what’s beyond my college years, as I got the opportunity to feel like a “real” adult this summer. If I could go back and give myself some advice for my first day, I would tell myself to not be afraid of not knowing something and to ask questions. Working in city government, there’s a lot of terms and information that people on the outside just wouldn’t know. There’s no shame in not knowing something, and you’ll go so much further if you’re unafraid to ask.  As I embark on my senior year, there’s a lot of unknowns ahead of me. However, This experience at MORRE has taught me to embrace the unknown that’s ahead and I feel so much more prepared because of it.

Below I’ve provided some images as samples of my work:

Click here to read Imani’s interview with IOC staff.