Samantha Hamilton loves a good visual analogy. And among her favorites is the image of an umbrella she created for a slide presentation. The umbrella, she says, represents the Live Well Springfield Coalition and the more than 30 organizations it brings together in Springfield, Massachusetts, to build a culture of health though everything from healthy eating to housing, economic opportunity, education, renewable energy access and age-friendly living.
“Folks get to see the visual relationship of the work,” says Hamilton, who is director of coalition building and community engagement at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, which convenes the Live Well Springfield Coalition. “And under the umbrella, there is a subset layer that includes partners and residents. It shows how collective agreements and collective decision making move us forward.”
For Hamilton, visualization is an important part of the knowledge building that is essential to community engagement. She argues that unless all coalition participants fully understand the ideas or policy changes being presented to them, collective decisions cannot be made.
As an example, she points to work funded by The Kresge Foundation through its Climate Change, Health & Equity initiative to advocate for policies to advance racial and health equity and expand clean energy choices for the Springfield community. It was important, she explains, to help residents understand that they could choose solar as their energy source and achieve price stability by simply opting in, with no change to the way electricity would be delivered to their homes.
“We even worked with a video animation company to explain the concept of switching, why it’s important, and how it improves our lives,” she explains. “We presented it to the city council in 2022 and that got approved.”
It is also important, she adds, to judge the success of collective decision making not by how many people you bring into a room but by how their views shape a course of action. “It’s one thing to hear people’s voice and not do anything. It’s another to hear their voice and incorporate it in the next steps,” she says. “Then folks feel their voice is being truly honored.”
“It’s one thing to hear people’s voice and not do anything. It’s another to hear their voice and incorporate it in the next steps.”
Born in Jamaica, Hamilton came to the U.S. when she was nine years old, arriving in Massachusetts blizzard. While this was a shock to someone who had never experienced the cold, her most transformative experience proved to be the 15 years she spent working at Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Services in Springfield, which offers everything from after-school programs to support for families and art, dance, and sports events.
Starting as a volunteer camp counselor while in college, she progressed through the organization, eventually becoming director of operations. But it was getting involved in a wide range of MLKFS services and activities and learning to build community relationships that equipped her for her work today.
“My hand was in everything,” she says. “I saw how systems move and decisions get made. And while at the time I wished I did just one thing, being able to hold space for so many ideas and concepts became a muscle—and I can’t tell you much I use that muscle today.”
“Being able to hold space for so many ideas and concepts became a muscle—and I can’t tell you much I use that muscle today.”
Given the funding challenges created by the current U.S. administration, she will need to use that muscle more than ever. However, she remains optimistic. “A stream of resources is being pulled away, which will deeply affect a community in need,” she says. “But the strength of our collective partnerships and the creative power within the community will ensure the work continues.”