Last week, we were honored to be in the room for the very first SAW Housing Summit. The event was the culmination of six months of work with a team of passionate people from The Community Foundation of the Blue Ridge, The Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, The Valley Community Services Board, and neighbors with lived experience of housing instability.  The goal of the summit, as defined by the planning team, was to:

convene the community to create a shared framework to catalyze solutions that house everyone.

One Key Difference - All the Voices

Folks with lived experience in housing instability were not only speakers but attendees and part of the planning team. Their thoughtful inclusion from planning to execution is part of what made the day so impactful.

DAY ONE of the summit focused on regional local housing data and curated conversations with neighbors, community, nonprofit, and business leaders. 

DAY TWO focused on leveraging the wisdom, experience, and creativity of the participants to ideate around what kinds of work can be done to bring creative solutions to bear to address housing challenges in the region.  With over 200 community members from all sectors of the community participating on Day 1 and 90  participating on Day 2, the goal was achieved!

Takeaways

Here are some of our key takeaways as facilitators of the experience in reflecting on the event and the months of planning leading up to it:

• The importance of planning with intention. Building an engagement that honors all of the voices. We focused on intent and desired outcomes for participants before we designed content.

• The whole experience was rooted in a posture of what can we do in the midst of the struggle and not blame.

• Inclusive spaces reveal opportunities to connect with others in unimaginable places. Seeing the humanity in one another is the first step to justice.

• We followed the Stockdale paradox - acknowledging the brutal reality while at the same time never giving up hope that things can get better.

One of our favorite quotes came from Lydia Campbell, Community-Based Services Supervisor for the Valley Community Services Board who said,

“Housing is healthcare.”

To be housed changes our relationship with physical, mental, and financial health. We loved that local news sources covered the event because we know that awareness is key to understanding housing and creating regional solutions. First SAW Housing Summit to address housing and Priced Out: Navigating affordable housing in a housing crisis.

Next Steps

Our journey with the design team is not finished.  The work is just beginning as we take all the input from Day 2 and begin to work with the team to start to coalesce on a regional approach to addressing housing in the Staunton, Augusta, and Waynesboro community.