Due to rising living costs, persistent income inequality and diversity, equity, and inclusion rollbacks, communities of color are experiencing growing economic anxiety, which Children’s Services of Roxbury (CSR) addressed in a event about the role of healing and stability in securing economic mobility.

“We’re going to be celebrating our present,” said Sandra M. McCroom, president and CEO of CSR. “We’re going to be aspiring for our future.”

On June 16, the “RoxTalks Live: Freedom to Thrive” program offered two panel discussions in which local business, policy, social service and thought leaders explored community-informed methods for economic growth. CSR’s Facebook page livestreamed the intimate, invitation-only event to the wider public.

“We are resilient people,” said Dalinda Ifill Pressat, CSR’s assistant vice president of marketing and communications. “Everything that’s happening is nothing new.”

Mirroring the ethos of the RoxTalks event, she said, “The darkness is there, but we don’t decide to stay in the darkness. …It’s an intentional choice, to lean into the light.”

The first panel addressed “Pathways to Freedom,” with speakers contemplating how healing and access relate to economic opportunity. GBH Host Paris Alston moderated the discussion about the factors necessary for residents to thrive economically.

Rev. Liz Walker, founding director of the Can We Talk…Network, defined freedom as living authentically, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Connor Schoen, cofounder and executive director of Breaktime, observed that when “internal chaos and trauma” besiege people’s lives, it blocks them from realizing their potential.

The talk continued down a sobering path, as Walker declared that the system for people of color in this country is broken. Boston’s former acting mayor Kim Janey, who is president and CEO of EMPath, argued instead that the system works as intended: producing wealth for a few, at the expense of many.

“Poverty is a policy choice,” she asserted, adding that healing is impossible without justice, as the two concepts go hand in hand. Schoen affirmed that poverty is a “full-time job,” allowing no space for healing.

With Juneteenth representing a delayed freedom, the panel ruminated on the unfinished freedom experienced by people of color in America today. Walker spoke to the problem of isolation in modern life. “We don’t trust each other, even though we need each other.” Her advice to the audience was to decolonize one’s own imagination, to broaden the scope of possibilities.

Offering another perspective, Schoen and Janey spoke of the necessity of securing fair pay as a tool for liberation.

Janey dismissed the myth that “people can just bootstrap their way to success,” insisting instead that leaders must “make sure we’ve cleared the pathway.” She added, “We can create laws that give people…equitable opportunity to get ahead, or we can create laws that keep people trapped.”

Over 3,000 Boston residents are experiencing homelessness, a condition that keeps many of them entrenched in cycles of poverty. During a Q&A segment, attendee Cassandra White asked about mental health services, particularly for the unhoused. In response, Schoen talked about his Boston-based nonprofit Breaktime, which works to combat homelessness among young adults by offering medical and mental health services. This location, called The Hub, will also provide job training, basic necessities and shelter for young adults experiencing housing insecurity.

The evening’s focus shifted to ownership and mobility during a second panel, “Investing for Impact.” Nicole Obi, president and CEO of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), stated that thriving comes not just from financial success, but from good health and political power. Her philosophy is that wealth is tied to ownership rather than salary. While the next generation might not be able to inherit a job, she said, “you can leave them a business, you can leave them property, you can leave them assets.”

Obi’s work with BECMA involves advancing people of color from being employees to owners, because in her words, “that’s how every other [group of] people have built wealth.”

Darryl Settles, president of Catalyst Ventures Development, suggested consulting databases of Massachusetts nonprofits to improve access to economic opportunities. Obi agreed, adding that residents can also leverage influence over local elected officials.

In the context of “the American Dream,” real estate is closely connected to economic mobility and sustained wealth. Turahn Dorsey, president and CEO of Eastern Bank Foundation, cited major building projects in Upham’s Corner as an example of “development without displacement.” He noted that the projects had an innovative mix of housing, libraries and facilities to establish an intergenerational community.

“That neighborhood can be a model for so many other neighborhoods,” said attendee Alyssa Benalfew-Ramos, who has partnered with the Upham’s Corner project in her work at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Speakers acknowledged that not all recent changes have been for the better. Settles pointed to how conditions are changing for people of color in America, naming that it’s recently been harder and costlier to start business ventures than it was five years ago. He pointed to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling that permits firing workers on the grounds of gender or sexual orientation.

“I’m nervous about where we are, and where we’re going,” he said while warning audiences not to follow temptation to put their “heads in the sand” by disengaging, ignoring news and retreating from society. “It’s the last thing we can afford to do. We gotta work with each other.”

Panelists made efforts to highlight opportunities for business owners to grow during this period. Among them were state classes on how to use AI. Dorsey speculated that if adults “find out what kids are passionate about,” they can better serve the new generation’s evolving needs.

Between the panels, McCroom received recognition for 10 years of leadership. As the event came to an end, she delivered closing remarks praising staff and the way communities of color had “withstood the test of time.”

“I’m leaving full,” said departing attendee Gigi Jean, a local hairstylist who grew up on nearby Cheney Street. As a mother, she came to the event curious about resources for young men “so that they can stay off the street.”

She expressed gratitude at seeing the community coming together for planting seed “that the new generation can learn from.”

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