Things to be hopeful about in 2019

Posted on by Xpress Contributor
Photo courtesy of BeLoved Asheville

Amy Cantrell, co-director of BeLoved Asheville, reflects on things that made her hopeful in 2019.

  1. Proud to Be Brown at BeLoved Asheville, MANOS of Buncombe County Schools and De Mujer a Mujer co-wrote and received a city proclamation for Latinx History Month. It was powerful witnessing over 60 Latinx youths and adults fill the City Council meeting sharing their words and presence. In a time when you are under attack in our nation, we recognize all the ways that you share your gifts.
  2. In the coldest and most brutal winter weather and day to day, you will see them with their yellow paramedic bags: BeLoved Asheville’s first-in-the-nation homeless/formerly homeless Street Medic teams are out saving lives. They are my he/she/theyroes!
  3. Workers are the heart of this community. Living and working in downtown, I see you coming to work early and going home late. You are the heartbeat that makes Asheville hum. You deserve living wages and to be able to afford to live in the place you love.
  4. The people who came together in so many ways pushing for transit, a hotel moratorium, fair elections, sanctuary, police accountability, protection of our urban forest, new management for the city and county, climate justice, racial equity and reparations and so much more.
  5. Raising the wall of the first home in the BeLoved Village on Oct. 14!  The BeLoved Village is a new model of deeply affordable housing. The village targets the housing gap by creating homes that are deeply affordable for those earning 30% of the area median income, sustainable, community-oriented, and where residents earn equity that lifts them out of poverty. It gives me hope seeing people from every walk of life working side by side to build this model from the ground up.

 

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