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OVERVIEW
Swampscott's Blocksidge Field, 2017
Swampscott, MA is a quaint coastal community located roughly 15 miles north of Boston. Historically, Swampscott has been home to a wealthy, white aging population but, the town has seen a recent influx of younger families of various racial and economic backgrounds. Swampscott operates under a Representative Town Meeting style wherein Town Meeting members are elected to vote on behalf of each of the six precincts. The town’s decision-making process mainly falls at the intersection of Town Meeting, the elected Select Board, and the employed Town Administrator. A variety of other boards, committees, and commissions represent special interests or specific town projects; these groups are made up of elected and appointed volunteers from the community. Sean Fitzgerald, the current Town Administrator, has received quite a bit of backlash in the past year as employee retention rates plummetted and the town received multiple lawsuits.
It appears the continuous cycle of scandals within the Swampscott municipal government and high employee turnover has caused a bit of rift between town administrators and residents. Community members cite lack of transparency as their main reason for distrusting the current administration and utilizing virtual community spaces to air their grievances, mainly about the lack of access to information about town decision-making. While the town does employ traditional community engagement efforts, residents often complain about a lack of advertising for said opportunities. The town’s inability to effectively advertise engagement opportunities has resulted in the same few “in-the-know” residents participating and neglects to consider other perspectives. In the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the town needed to shift to virtual meeting platforms which increased ease of access to public meetings. This higher access invited more voices into ongoing town conversations and has already begun to benefit the town. Swampscott now stands at a crossroads as society adjusts to the new normal of a post-remote world: should the community return to its exclusive outreach methods or should the town rethink what engagement should look like?
The town once revered for its strong, welcoming community has struggled to keep its reputation as town administrators fail to meet the needs of their changing constituents. Swampscott town officials are in dire need of updated engagement techniques to better understand and meet the needs of their community. An in-depth curriculum highlighting new, creative outreach methods that are inclusive to marginalized populations will allow the town to build back its reputation and better serve its whole community.
Swampscott's Harold A. King Forest, 2021
SWAMPSCOTT QUICK STATS
Settled: 1692 | Incorporated: 1852
Area: 6.7 sq mi (3.1 land/3.7 water)
Population (2020): 15,111 | ~87% White
Median Household Income: $113,407
Median Age: 44.8
Senior Population (65+): 18.8%
Homeownership Rate: 77.1%
SOCIAL JUSTICE CONNECTION
Municipal governments are tasked with building communities that meet the needs of their constituents and yet, we often find that certain sociodemographic groups are prioritized over others. Our societal structures favor the white and wealthy which allows segregated white communities to thrive. Communities began to integrate over fifty years ago and, yet, municipal governments have not yet learned how to balance the needs of their whole communities-- still favoring the white and wealthy. Community influence remains in the hands of those that have the time, energy, and privilege to advocate for themselves. Our municipal governments have an obligation to represent their entire constituency.
Swampscott serves as a microcosm for all municipalities seeking to expand their reach. Building a community engagement repertoire sensitive to community demographics allows the municipality to empower the totality of resident voices. Investing in marginalized communities is no longer optional but shifting priority from one social identity group to another furthers the gap between populations. Separate but equal has been proven defective time and again, it is time to create singular spaces that force cohesion and engage whole populations. Community engagement techniques that bridge the divide between populations and are inclusive of all voices create stronger outcomes and allow communities to positively engage in community development work.
THEORY
WHOLE COMMUNITY APPROACH
The concept of whole communities, or a whole community approach, stems from language put forth by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA defines this term as “a means by which residents, emergency management practitioners, organizational and community leaders, and government officials can collectively understand and assess the needs of their respective communities and determine the best ways to organize and strengthen their assets, capacities, and interests". The whole community approach empowers all that are connected to a specific geographic location to take an active role in the emergency planning and response process. It also requires an understanding of community history and present-day capacity.
Whole Community Core Strategic Themes, FEMA
TRANSFORMATIVE PARADIGM
The transformative paradigm was introduced by Donna Mertens to acknowledge societal privilege in research. It weights the experiences of marginalized communities equitably to ensure their knowledge informs social justice research and allows for the creation of solutions that alleviate social disparities. This paradigm recognizes how power and privilege allow certain perspectives to dominate in academia and expresses the need for mixed methodology in all social-justice-related research.
ABOUT ME
Elana Zabar (she/her/hers) was raised in Swampscott, MA and has deep ties to the community. She recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire, Durham where she studied Community and Environmental Planning with a Sustainability Dual Major and minor in Political Science. While at UNH, Elana discovered her passion for community engagement through her three years serving as a Treat Fellow with NH Listens which allowed her to facilitate courageous conversations on campus and in the broader Seacoast communities. This program allowed her to explore a variety of social justice topics and discover her zeal for building sustainable communities through empowering community members often left out of decision-making conversations. These passions led Elana to Merrimack College where she is currently a Presidential Fellow and a student in the Master of Education in Community Engagement Program. She now works in the Community Engagement Office at the North Shore Community Development Coalition where she works to ensure marginalized residents are equitably represented in the planning process.
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