What is the Opportunity Roundtable?
The Opportunity Roundtable is a new initiative which enables the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign to raise awareness about the intersections of housing and other sectors, continually expand its multi-sector network, and reach a diverse array of new stakeholders.
Which Types of Organizations Should Join the Roundtable?
Organizations that participate on the Roundtable are generally supportive of the broad vision of the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign that low-income households should have access to safe, decent, and stable affordable housing in neighborhoods where everyone has equitable opportunities to thrive, and that housing is inextricably linked to many other sectors such as education, health care, civil rights, and economic mobility. Participating organizations can be of varying sizes, ages, structures, and sectors.
How Does the Roundtable Work?
Each participating organization should assign one (1) staff liaison to serve as the primary point of contact with the campaign and to attend meetings. The Roundtable meets in-person three times per year in Washington DC. At the meetings, participating organizations receive updates about the campaign’s progress, engage in robust conversations about the intersectionality of housing and other sectors, and provide guidance and advice to the campaign about its ongoing strategies and tactics. In between the in-person meetings, engagement with the campaign can vary to the extent the organization wishes. Some organizations will be ready to engage heavily with the campaign while others may wish to engage in lighter ways. Roundtable organizations are able to choose engagements from a menu of possible options.
What is the Year 1 Goal of the Roundtable?
The main goal of the Roundtable in Year 1 is cross-sector engagement. By participating on the Roundtable, an organization is not necessarily endorsing the specific policy goals of the campaign nor entering into a formal partnership with the campaign.
Why Should Your Organization Join the Roundtable?
America’s affordable housing crisis demands a broad, multi-sector response. Housing affordability is central to achieving better health, higher educational attainment, and greater lifetime earnings. Students do better. Patients are healthier. People can more readily escape poverty and homelessness. The economy is healthier. And our nation is more just and equal, when all Americans have access to safe, stable, affordable homes. It makes sense that leaders from health care, education, civil rights and many other sectors are ready
to join in the advocacy to advance solutions to make homes affordable to low-income people. Housing and non-housing organizations are coming together through Opportunity Starts at Home because they recognize that housing is central to achieving their own goals.