Meet the Staff: Q&A With Biani
Biani is a rising junior at Tufts University majoring in International Relations and minoring in Cultural Anthropology and Arabic. Through the Tufts Tisch Scholars program, they served as the 2022-23 ERN Member Coordinator under the Community Organizing & Advocacy program.
Note from Nicole, Director of Community Organizing:
We are so grateful for Biani’s commitment to the housing justice and antipoverty mission of CAAS this academic year as a Tufts Tisch College Scholar/Intern. They expanded the capacity of our Eviction Response Network, reached hundreds of residents through know your rights canvassing, deepened the relationships we hold with our volunteers and leaders in Somerville, and much more. I’m especially proud of how much Biani has grown as a community organizer, and know her skills will remain an asset to this community, and any other she becomes part of! Want to learn more on how to get involved with CAAS Organizing? Visit our webpage here.
Despite being here for less than a year, my time at CAAS was truly valuable and will forever shape how I approach community organizing and civic engagement. Before interning at CAAS I had never gotten involved in housing justice. But now, I have a better understanding of housing as a human right and how housing is so interconnected with other social issues like heath, food insecurity and incarceration.
What’s your role? How long have you been at CAAS?
I work under the Community Organizing and Advocacy program, and serve as the 2022-23 Eviction Response Network (ERN) Member Coordinator. I have been recruiting new ERN volunteers through in-person and virtual outreach strategies, and led events to engage ERN volunteers, such as Know Your Rights (KYR) canvasses. Unfortunately, I only got to be with CAAS for less than a year (9 months), but these months have been filled with so much learning, community-building, and growth.
What have you found challenging about this work?
Before interning at CAAS, I had never been involved with housing justice, nor was I aware of the extent in which we lacked affordable housing in the greater Boston area. I was familiar with concepts related to housing like redlining and gentrification, but I still had to do a lot of research and training on tenants rights in Somerville, poverty in Massachusetts, how to retain volunteers and housing injustice pertaining to the greater Boston area.
I was also used to volunteering/interning at community organizations for much shorter periods, and so getting used to setting long term goals and building connections with the people that you work with was something that was very different from what I was used to.
What has been your biggest takeaway from your time at CAAS?
I am grateful for my time at CAAS and my biggest takeaway from working under the CO&A is how to approach community organizing. The ERN is so special and different from other community organizations I have worked with because it empowers members of the community that are most vulnerable to be leaders within their own communities. No outsourcing is required, and I find that very empowering. Everyone has the ability to organize and be a leader in their community. It’s so amazing to attend the Somerville Monthly Renters Meetings and see community members also serve as speakers and co-hosts of the event to encourage other Somerville neighbors to take action and do the same. This is a legacy that CAAS has left with me.
How was long-term goal setting and connection-building different from your previous experiences?
As aforementioned, I have never worked at a community organization for this long, and so with goal setting, it was exciting to have these big end goals and a step-by-step process on how to get there because I had the time to do so. Although not all the goals I set were reached, when you work somewhere for a longer period of time you get to achieve more, and that is incredibly satisfying. For example, being able to do four canvasses instead of just one – because with each canvass I led, I got better at organizing supplies, giving instructions, etc.
As for connection-building, it was great to see volunteers that I have done one-on-one (1:1) conversations with over the phone at a canvass that I was leading, or at a Renters Meeting. It’s sometimes hard to build community with people outside of Tufts because the university tends to feel like a bubble, but long-term community building helps combat this. It’s always great to know someone a little bit more with each interaction you have. My experience at the ERN definitely played a role in better understanding the difference between long-term and short-term involvement.
What did success look and feel like during your internship?
What success looks like is something that we are always discussing in my Tisch Scholars cohort. Beyond achieving the goals that Nicole and I set at the beginning of the semester, I have found success through the one-on-one calls that I conduct with ERN volunteers. Connections are really important when working at a community organization, and so I get really excited when I am able to learn more about volunteers, such as what got them into housing injustice and what they enjoy doing in their freetime. As someone that wants to get more involved with communities beyond Tufts, having a successful one-on-one is now a measure of success to me. This is not how I would have measured success prior to working at CAAS, but I have been really moved by the stories and experiences of others during my time here. Through storytelling and community building, my idea of success has definitely changed for the better.
What was an exciting project or big win that you’ve experienced here?
An exciting project I have completed was an event on “Housing Injustice and the Carceral State” in collaboration with the Petey Greene Project, which is an organization that supports the academic goals of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals by offering them high-quality volunteer tutoring. The aim of the event was to get more students on the Tufts campus involved with CAAS and the ERN through an already well established organization on-campus. It was great to have the opportunity to not only educate other college students about CAAS, but to also educate myself on the affordable housing shortage that Massachusetts is currently facing, as well as the legal barriers put in place that hinder formerly incarcerated people from finding adequate housing and being safe. Students with varying levels of knowledge on the topic came to the event and so it was great to both teach and learn from others. Even after leaving CAAS, I hope to be able to host more events like this that encourage college students to get involved with a community organization.
What do you like to do for fun outside of work?
Outside of working at CAAS through Tisch Scholars, I am on a competitive afrobeats dance team at Tufts, called COCOA. I love being a part of this because it’s so lovely to build community with people from common ethnic backgrounds that also have a love for dance. I do other forms of dance on campus as well. I am also getting into podcasting, and so I will be co-hosting a podcast at my university in the near future, which I am very excited about.