“Meaningful involvement affirms that anyone who would be affected by decisions impacting their neighborhoods and quality of life should be given a meaningful voice with opportunity to influence those decisions” – Amy Krings & Tania M Schusler

Julian Agyeman talks about the 4 aspects of Just Sustainability. The first aspect is the improvement of the quality of life and well being. He says that it “is essential for both justice and sustainability, and why economic growth cannot be relied upon to deliver just sustainabilities.” This aspect can apply to all the other aspects of Just Sustainability. For example, it can relate to the third aspect of justice & equity in terms of recognition. Amy Krings & Tania M Schusler states “Meaningful involvement affirms that anyone who would be affected by decisions impacting their neighborhoods and quality of life should be given a meaningful voice with opportunity to influence those decisions”. To simplify, an improvement in the quality of life cannot be obtained until all voices are equally heard and listened to.

For the homeless, an improvement in the quality of life is hard to come around. However, this is what Community First! and other sustainable housing projects focus on. In the image above, you can see a lot of different aspects go into this idea of life quality. If you notice, affordable sustainable housing can offer an answer to every single one of them.

” With the interest that my firm has in engage, inspire and belong, I’m looking at how environments do that well and because I think that’s really important for mankind.” – Heather H Mckinney (talking about her job)

“This place really empowered me to do great things… this is where I got my life back.” -Tracy (homeless for 23 years, now member of the Community First! village.)

– Community First! Village gathering for a community movie night