“Carmen, a former teacher at South Lake Elementary School, had a daring vision—that every child in her community should feel safe. Inspired by this vision, Carmen and her neighbors built Safe Places, the tenants’ association at Cider Mill Apartments to negotiate and win better living conditions. Most importantly, she showed so many of us how to build and wield power.” —Tanushree Dutta Isaacman

Reflection from Carmen:

“AIM helped me find my voice within my community. As a teacher at South Lake Elementary School and a resident in the community since I was a child, I had a very unique perspective on what was going on for families and the unjust conditions they had to deal with.

At Cider Mill Apartments where I lived, there were serious issues with safety and conditions like rodents. Time and time again, people would go to the management office individually, and their concerns would be blown off or swept under the rug.

We were tenants working hard, paying our bills on time. We deserved to live in a safe place with sanitary conditions. The community got labeled in a very negative way, but there were so many good things and people in our community that defied that label. 

I didn’t know what to do about the injustices I saw, but I was upset and knew I wanted to do something. 

After I started working at South Lake, I met AIM organizers and leaders and went to a 3-day training for AIM. I was really moved and inspired by everything I learned there, and realized that it was possible to do something about the issues that I myself and the families at Cider Mill Apartments were experiencing. AIM helped me find my voice and a way to speak out so we could move toward solutions as a community.

With AIM’s help, some of my neighbors and I started a tenant association and organized events at Cider Mill like an outdoor movie night where we invited all our neighbors. We slowly started sharing a little bit about who we were and what our intentions were. We got a few people signed up to advocate for change at Cider Mill, and it slowly grew from there.

We named the tenant association Safe Places, because that was our goal for our community. The Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative (GBCI) at Asbury United Methodist Village helped us make Safe Places official. Through this process, I met so many people who cared and wanted to make a difference.

After that, we focused a lot of our energy on door-knocking. We went to our neighbors to listen to them. After that, we organized listening sessions and worked together as a group to identify the issues we really wanted to focus on, and create tangible goals to address them.

Our biggest priorities were safety and maintenance at Cider Mill. One of our biggest wins was improving the lighting in the neighborhood to help with safety.

As a leader, I think AIM really helped me develop better listening skills. I learned how to listen effectively within a community and use that information to empower others to speak up about what they felt was not fair.

I remember when the management company at Cider Mill hosted a Q&A session at the library, and my neighbors we had organized with AIM showed up. Seeing these women and men, my neighbors, be so empowered and brave to stand up and speak for themselves in front of a group of people in spite of their fear of retaliation, that really moved me.

Today, while I no longer live in the community, I’m truly moved when I see pictures of my former neighbors still so empowered and still working towards a great cause.”