Nikita Anderson on the Importance of Lived Experience and Creating Sacred Spaces
Nikita Anderson is a straight shooter – unafraid to tell it like it is. She gets it from her mom. It’s a quality that has served her well in her work with Cohear over the past 4 years, first as an everyday expert and now as Director of Community. Nikita knows the power of sharing personal stories to foster connection and change, and she is incredibly proud of the work her team and their partners are doing to engage previously unsung voices. Cohear helps organizations and decision makers leverage real world experiences to improve their policies and better serve their communities, one focus group at a time.
Interview by Kristyn Bridges. Photography by Chelsie Walter. Sponsored by Cohear.
This interview is a part of our series, “Cohear: Harnessing the Power of Everyday Experts.”
The following Q&A is based on the interviewee’s firsthand account of their experiences and opinions alone. Look for editor's notes with additional information in [bold brackets] throughout the article.
Tell us about your role with Cohear.
I am the Director of Community. I’m building our Cohear community and making sure our network not only networks with one another, but also gives support and payback to Bridgebuilders [Bridgebuilders are a powerful civic network that Cohear leverages to bring everyday experts to the table with decision makers.] with events, like sip and chat, Bridgebuilder lunches, training sessions, and things like that. Our volunteers give their time to do the work, so that’s how we pay them back. I run the community partnerships that we have, any event that we partner with, and our continued engagement with our clients. We also do our policy pitch nights with our partners and we did that for the first time this year, which was a success. [Education Policy Pitch Night, co-hosted by School Board School and Cincinnati Public Schools, gives everyday experts the opportunity to present their ideas to improve education in C.P.S.] We’ll be doing more. But all of that goes through me.
What about your own upbringing or life experience drew you to Cohear? What makes you so passionate about what you’re doing?
My experience with riding the bus. I was first invited to participate in the Cohear conversation as an everyday expert about transit and Metro and what that was like. After sitting through that conversation, I realized that this was a really cool concept — to be able to talk to the decision makers. I was also very frustrated because you realize decision makers, at least in this issue, either aren’t using the services that they’re making the decisions about, or they’re just removed from the situations that people are in when they are using these services.
When you have people who aren’t riding the bus making decisions about transit, they just have no clue on what it should look like at a bus stop, if buses are operating, or what amenities should be provided on a bus. It is important to have a special seating where strollers actually fit under it so you can break them down and put them under there [Laughing]. And when Dani [Isaacsohn, founder of Cohear] and I met to follow up about that, I immediately asked if he was hiring and he was. I ended up being the first hire. [Since this initial conversation, Metro has teamed up with Cohear to create the Bus Rider Advisory Board to improve our bus system.]
The first project we worked on was our housing work. I’ve experienced housing insecurity; I’ve dealt with homelessness. Here I was in Avondale looking for a place to move and I couldn’t find anything that was big enough and nice and clean and safe on a decent street. So it was very frustrating.
We literally do have a housing shortage: a lack of affordable housing, a lack of housing that accommodates more than just the two bedroom standard. Having that insight while doing that work was really helpful because my boss, though well-meaning and great, hadn’t lived in subsidized housing. We’re talking to property managers, subsidized property managers, renters, and really having the lens of, “Okay, if we’re going to talk about housing insecurity, what does that really mean for someone who is housing insecure?” There’s certain things that you say and there’s ways you say that; whether you’re asking someone to participate and do the emotional labor of sharing their experiences or if you’re framing the questions, you want it to be sensitive. [According to Cohear’s report, The Stories of the Housing Crisis in Cincinnati, over 40,000 Hamilton Co. residents spend more than half of the money they earn on rent and 11,807 Cincinnatians experienced homelessness in 2015.]
My lens has been able to shape a lot of our work and make sure that it’s done authentically. I have that cultural competency required to make sure that it’s done in the right way. So I’m really happy that I am in this position. We’re really doing it the right way and we’re valuing people, not exploiting them.
How do you feel being there from the beginning to now seeing how you guys have grown?
It's surreal sometimes to think about. All the work that we've done to change policy. We're in a crazy successful place only five years in, and it's great because we're not taking advantage of anyone. We're not polluting the world, we're not poisoning anybody, we're doing really good work. And we're creating a sustainable business for people, like me, to really grow and develop.
What is an everyday expert? How would you describe it in your own words?
An everyday expert is someone who's living the issues. That experience makes them an expert in that area. So if you're a mother, you're an expert at taking care of children because that's what you do every day. Or you're a bus rider, you're an expert on riding the bus because you're using it all the time. It’s really validating lived experience. You know how to make that process better, whatever it is, because you're doing it every day.
Why do you think it's so important to empower people who have those lived experiences and really get the message out to these decision makers?
Because they're smart [Laughing]. It's super important because only they know. If you're a C.E.O. or executive director of a major institution like [Children’s hospital], you're not necessarily living in that neighborhood. You don't know what the neighborhood needs first hand because you're not a resident of that neighborhood. It's really important to get that perspective from that everyday expert because you just don't have it. You might be brilliant, you might be great at running an institution and crunching numbers and making sure you make a profit but that doesn't mean that you have any experience as to what it would be like to live in that area. Or riding the bus. Now, we [Metro] have a very intentional executive director that gets on the bus and plans his routes where he can ride a couple times a week. But before, I don't think we had many C.E.O.s doing that. I don't think it was a big deal for them to have that experience. But, because of our work, he realizes, “Oh no, I'm going to continue to ride the bus. It's important for me to know what's going on on the bus.”
We help nonprofit or government institutions that provide services. If you're not eligible or receiving the same benefits then you don't know what that process is like on the flip side. Coming in and applying for benefits or requesting help, what is that process like? You don't go through that because you're running this and you're not on the other end. It's really important to have someone tell you what it's like to come into the building and be greeted at the desk. How hard is it to fill out the paperwork? How hard is it to get the verification? You need someone that's going through that to tell you how to make that process better. And a lot of times you have decision makers who just are really unaware because they don't know that they don't know.
Why do you think it's been so challenging for people to be heard by community leaders and organizers? Why do you need businesses like Cohear to bridge the gap?
We can't get over white supremacy, and how people are discredited left and right. I mean, this is the United States. Unmarried women couldn't even get a bank account [until the 1960s]. If you weren't a white man, nothing you said really mattered and you weren't necessarily taken seriously or considered an expert. You have women and people of color in positions that traditionally were white men and things still haven't changed. It's business as usual, but business as usual just isn't working. We cannot keep saying that it is.
Cohear is an internal activist, giving employers a safe space to be like, “Yo, we might have messed up and haven't done things perfectly.” It's really hard for individuals to say, let alone an institution, especially ones that are praised for doing so much good. But for them to just be like “Okay how can we be better?” is a huge step. So Cohear exists for them to safely walk through that process. And I feel like most of our conversations are never really that one sided; there's usually some good that's going on even though there's a lot that can be improved. For institutions and people who've never had to be accountable outside of their board, it's a really radical new concept to just be accountable to random people. And they're not really random, right? They're everyday experts, people who are either using their service or product, or involved in some kind of way. But if you didn't have to be accountable to them in the first place, then opening yourself up to that scrutiny, you know, it's brave.
It’s a gift and an art to be able to make people comfortable enough to talk. A lot of times, if you're that institution or that decision maker, you can't solicit ideas. No one's going to trust that you really want to hear the truth. So that's also a challenge, and why it's important that we exist as that third party. I mean, I'm awesome right? So talking to me before you have to sit in this focus group is a good prep too, right? Like “Okay, I can be honest, I can say what I need to say and people will hear me.” I think what we guarantee that other focus groups don't is that the decision maker will hear you. Cohear’s main thing is, the decision makers sit down at the table with our everyday experts. So they don’t just read it later in a report and blow it off. You saw someone's emotions, someone's tears, someone's frustration, someone's excitement, someone's total appreciation when something good or bad happens dealing with your organization, and you know how to move forward. If it was bad and you watch someone in tears, you are empowered and moved to your core to go to work the next day and change that policy. Or if you see someone so appreciative that something went right, again you are moved to go back and duplicate this experience for everyone. You don't get that if you're not able to sit down and have a real conversation with somebody. There's not a traditional business format that requires leadership to just have conversations, internally or externally, with the people the decisions are impacting. Until then, Cohear is necessary.
In your experience, cultivating that kind of connection and environment for both the decision makers and the community, how have you seen active listening play out? How has that helped serve the community?
Sometimes it's hard, right? Sometimes everyone at the table is in tears because somebody just talked about a horrible experience and you either can relate or just can't imagine being in that experience. Everyone is transformed in that space. It becomes almost sacred in a sense. Because people are able to bare their souls. Sometimes people tell us stuff that they've never said out loud to anyone else. That creates a really sacred space, because within two hours people feel comfortable enough to share things they couldn't even tell their closest friends. And these kids, their parents, like you know they're talking about a horrible experience they weren't even able to tell an adult in their life that they're sharing for the first time. Sometimes it's therapeutic. It really changes you every time you hear one of those conversations, no matter what the topic is about because you now have at least a handful of people’s lived experience on that issue that you just can't shake.
Our most recent meeting this week was with Children's Hospital, [discussing] their growth and acquiring a property in Avondale. It's been an interesting story. The neighborhood has definitely not felt heard, listened to, or valued. We had our first round of focus groups two years ago where community residents that live throughout the neighborhood, and just anybody who is super active in Avondale came to these conversations to talk about what they would like to see on Children's property. And two years later, they're showing us the draft and it has almost every element that people said. I got to participate on both sides as someone that's leading the work and someone that's an everyday expert. We’ve seen a huge institution go “Okay, walk us through this process. What are your ideas?” Now they are able to bring back markups, have more focus groups to make sure it still makes sense. They are willing to apply the same amount of thoroughness that they do with their patients to this design process. In the same way, they have their patient boards to make sure that they're providing good care, they’re now doing the same with their community, making sure that the neighborhood is able to give feedback and be a partner on this work. They’re dedicated to making sure the community feels like it's for them now and not just for the future residents of Avondale. [Cohear has begun the second phase of their partnership with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) as they move to incorporate everyday expert insights in the creation of a greenspace in the Avondale neighborhood.]
What is an issue that Cohear is working through now that you're most excited about and what is something you hope to help address in the near future?
I'm super excited about the Children's project. It means a lot more when you think about long term engagement. On a more serious note, the work that we are doing with addiction. There’s disparity in the care provided by the Hamilton County Health Department to treat addiction. When crack cocaine addiction was impacting Black and brown communities, it was criminalized. People were locked up. It wasn't, “Oh, let's get you rehab and all these services we can. Let's support your family.” You didn't see that. Parents were thrown in jail, families were ripped apart, kids were awarded to the state or thrown into foster care temporarily. [According to AP News, incarceration rates for Black Americans tripled from 1970-2000 following stiffer penalties for crack cocaine and other drugs.]
My dad went to jail; never for a really long time, but frequently enough because he was getting caught with dope. And now, there’s money flooding in because of heroin and fentanyl which is impacting a different type of community. But the Health Department is like, “Okay we know that systemically there has been unfair treatment around addiction in Black and brown communities. How can we make sure that we're using the money that we have coming in now to really uplift those communities and support them?” There is still a lot of stigma and criminalization around drug use and addiction in Black and brown communities. But the Health Department is really serious on how we can get these resources to the people who need it the most. I'm really curious to see how these conversations play out.
What has been the most rewarding thing for you with working with Cohear?
The most rewarding thing about working with Cohear has been turning work relationships into personal friendships. That is the most rewarding. Just [recently] I decided to have a baby; I was single and about to be 35, a crazy situation to be in. I decided to open up and be honest about the support that I needed. My doula was a friend but she was also a Bridgebuilder. All the support that I got were friends or associates, and they were all Bridgebuilders. It was just crazy the amount of support. That's my favorite thing about doing this work. The friendships that I was able to build. I built a whole village of people that I would not have met.
Tell us about an influential woman in your life.
Well, I would have to start with the first person that I met, my mother. Her death (10 years on April 7th) definitely rocked me to my core. I was only 25 and as independent, assertive, and ambitious as I am, I was not ready to live without my momma. She definitely got me ready to live without her – I think about my ability to serve my neighborhood and my community and my peers and the work that we do. I watched my momma take care of neighbors and family. She would buy food for some of our neighborhood friends who were moms who just didn't have it for whatever reason. Everybody loved her, and all the kids called her “Momma Sue.” I don't think she ever was intentionally trying to be nice, it was just who she was. She could also be brutally honest, but it didn't stop people from liking her overall, even if she had to tell them about themselves.
She always got up and was hard working, and able to take care of business by any means necessary, but with character and with integrity. Always do your best and with integrity. She could not stand a liar or a thief; if you can steal, you can lie and if you can lie, you can steal. That was definitely drilled into me. Her ability to give even when she didn't have a lot, I think that just really meant a lot. I have an obligation to work hard and to take care of others and to do my best, not just for my immediate household, but for the people around; for my neighborhood. My mom was definitely that person for a lot of our neighbors who checked in on them or made sure that they had their groceries or took them to the store if they needed a ride. I really think a lot of her caring and giving is why I am the way that I am.
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