HUD Sustainable Communities grantee convening

Last week was another amazing week for Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant recipients, myself included. This signature program of the Obama administration is drawing to a close and last week the final grantee convening was held in Washington, D.C.
The convening was comprised of workshops to share lessons learned and best practices with other grant communities, and keynote speeches and panel discussions from leaders in the non-profit and public sectors. I had the opportunity to present complete streets work in Victor during the "Rural Greatest Hits" workshop, and was extremely fortunate to be in the audience for Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink's keynote on the Equity Atlas, and a panel discussion featuring Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the EPA, Secretary Julian Castro, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Secretary Anthony Foxx, head of the Department of Transportation about sustainable development.

Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA, addresses the crowd of Sustainable Communities grant recipients.

Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and president of PolicyLink, addresses the audience. I am fortunate to have heard Ms. Glover speak about the equity agenda twice this year.