MT. AIRY NEIGHBORHOOD DIVERSITY INITIATIVE (MANDI) PURPOSE AND PRINCIPLES, 2023

• Our group of neighbors from Mt. Airy came together to learn more and to identify strategies for preserving neighborhood racial and economic diversity.

• To maintain our community’s strengths, we need a comprehensive understanding of the neighborhood’s history and the factors contributing to decreased racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in Mt. Airy in recent years

• While our group is committed to overall socioeconomic diversity, our immediate priority is identifying the best approaches to maintaining neighborhood diversity by supporting current African American residents and attracting new African American families and encouraging white neighbors to work for a racially just community.

• Initiatives to promote diversity should be guided by those who are historically marginalized. Our focus is on hearing and learning from the concerns of African American residents

• Our goal is to develop an action agenda and catalyze key neighborhood organizations, realtors, developers, elected officials and others to work collaboratively to create and implement community-informed strategies for fostering diversity, with a focus on supporting and strengthening Mt. Airy’s African American community.

If you’d like to join, please email [email protected] to get the link.