Mutual aid and housing help
Shared meals with unhoused neighbors, organized a blanket and coat drive, and connected residents to rental, utility, and housing assistance during the pandemic.
History
The work started before this campaign.
A Better Banning began in 2020. Its youth-led 2021 fellowship, community summit, and 50-page Capstone Report created a public record that still shapes this work.
What A Better Banning worked on
More than one project.
A Better Banning started in 2020 as a resident-led collaborative built around mutual aid, public participation, and youth leadership. Its work moved between direct help, civic organizing, community gatherings, research, and small projects people could actually use.
A community map for redistricting
Built a public map and carried it into the City’s redistricting process, centering racial and economic equity, historic landmarks, and a fairer balance across districts.
Cafecitos and resident input
Held recurring coffee chats at local gathering places and opened community surveys so neighbors could meet, share ideas, and talk through city issues in a more welcoming setting.
Banning’s Future Fellowship
Three young residents spent eight weeks researching local issues, listening to neighbors, and helping lead Banning’s first youth-led community summit at City Hall. The work produced more than 50 survey responses and a 50-page report.
Little Free Libraries
Helped launch a five-library community project for Banning and the Morongo area, beginning with a Little Free Library at Opportunity Village.
More ways to connect
Co-hosted a homeownership focus group and a summer mixer for young professionals, while sharing resident-facing analysis about Banning’s budget and growth.
A selected timeline
Projects, gatherings, and community work since 2020.
This is not a complete list of every meeting, collaboration, or person who contributed. It is a public record of the main chapters we could document.
Neighbors helping neighbors
A Better Banning begins as a resident-led collaborative and organizes direct help during the pandemic.
Young people shape the agenda
BFF launches, residents gather for a youth-led community summit, and the first community map takes shape.
More doors into civic life
The community map enters the redistricting process. Cafecitos return, and ABB co-hosts a homeownership focus group.
Ideas become visible projects
A five-library community project begins at Opportunity Village, and ABB helps bring young professionals together locally.
The next chapter
The work continues through a governing plan, public deadlines, and a tracker designed to remain after Election Day.
A Better Banning’s first major pilot
Young people helped plan Banning’s future.
In summer 2021, A Better Banning launched an eight-week fellowship that gave local young people a real role in shaping the city they’d inherit. Three fellows listened to residents, studied seven policy areas, and turned the work into a 50-page capstone.
How the pilot worked
Research. Public listening. A written record.
BFF used two guides, Action Civics and the Water of Systems Change. Fellows researched local challenges, gathered community input, and published their recommendations so the work wouldn’t disappear at the end of summer.
Youth leadership
Local young people researched the issues and helped lead the conversation about Banning’s future.
Resident input
Fellows led a community summit, facilitated breakout discussions, and gathered more than 50 survey responses.
Work beyond the report
The summer also included mutual aid, Cafecito Thursdays, a healthy-eating guide, and community conversations.
2021 Capstone Report
Read the original work.
Our Future Banning is the 50-page public record of the fellowship’s research, survey, community summit, and recommendations. It was written by fellows Rania Saber, Habiba Naqvi, and Veronica Menendez; advised by Marco Santana, Chris Castorena, Yoli Aguilar Candelario, and Katherine Avila; and includes a foreword by Shane Arch.
What carried forward
The current plan continues that work.
BFF showed that young people can research local issues, listen to residents, and help shape serious public work.
The 2021 work on transportation, parks, health, housing, food access, and local business carries into the six commitments.
BFF gathered resident input and published the result. The current plan continues that practice with deadlines, votes, results, and a public tracker.
Neighbor to neighbor
A better Banning takes more than two people.
Read the plan, ask hard questions, and share it with someone on your block.
Check the original record.
These posts document several major chapters. They don’t capture every volunteer, conversation, or collaboration that made the work possible.
Mutual aid meals
The public call to keep distributing meals to unhoused neighbors after the work began the prior summer.
Open post ↗Instagram · 2022Community map and redistricting
Residents were invited to support an equity-centered community map before the City Council.
Open post ↗Instagram · 2022Community Cafecitos
Regular conversations designed to make local issues easier to enter and discuss.
Open post ↗Instagram · 2022Homeownership focus group
A public invitation to a local conversation about homeownership needs.
Open post ↗Instagram · 2023Little Free Library project
The announcement for the Opportunity Village ribbon cutting and the larger five-library effort.
Open post ↗Instagram · 2022BFF capstone unveiling
The invitation to hear fellows present their research and recommendations.
Open post ↗Older records will be added as they are recovered.