Our Mission.
Our mission is to create opportunities for community members with lived and living experiences of poverty and related issues, those who have been historically excluded from policy decision-making processes, to incorporate their knowledge, perspectives, and expertise into the design of the policies and programs that directly impact their lives.
Equitable Spaces provides customized training, technical assistance, and additional supports to local, state, and national groups that seek to include this expertise in research, program, and policy design, implementation, and evaluation.
What people are saying.
“As part of the Center for Health Care Strategies project, Exploring Cross-Agency Partnerships: Fighting Hunger by Connecting State Partners and Centering Lived Expertise, Diane Sullivan and Jimmieka Mills have been incredible partners – advising us every step of the way on meaningful community engagement efforts.
They have impacted not only this project, but the way our team thinks about community engagement as an iterative, ongoing, long-term process that is critical to building trust. We are grateful for their partnership and mentorship in helping us to thoughtfully incorporate individuals with lived expertise in our work.”
— Alissa Beers, Kathy Moses, Diana Crumley, and Vanessa Finisse; Center for Health Care Strategies
“Diane and Jimmieka were instrumental in preparing our network to take a more meaningful step in co-creating inclusive spaces with community members and people with lived expertise in our annual National Meeting.
They were thoughtful collaborators that asked clarifying questions and coached us to consider inclusion and equity from the planning phase, implementation and evaluation phase of our event.
Through our partnership, our initiative has a better understanding of its strengths and gaps where we can continue to improve how we share space and center community voice in our programming.”
— Miriam Castro and Anna Barnes, Data Across Sectors for Health Program Office (a partner for All In: Data for Community Health)
Creating Equitable Spaces.
Learn more about how we can support and guide your organization or agency in creating more equitable spaces, so that you can meaningfully engage those with lived and living experience in the work to end poverty and related issues.