Candidate Profile: Faith Gibson Hubbard For City Council In Ward 5

WASHINGTON, DC — Faith Gibson Hubbard, a 41-year-old Woodridge resident, has 19 years of experience in public education, policy, and public administration as a seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher.

Gibson Hubbard is on the ballot for the June 21 Democratic Party Primary. She's running against six other candidates to fill the vacant Ward 5 seat on the D.C. City Council: Kathy Henderson, Gordon "The People's Champion" Fletcher, Art Lloyd, Zachary Parker, Gary To-To Johnson and Vincent Orange “VO”. The winner will square off against Republican Clarence Lee Jr. in the Nov. 8 general election.

Ward 5's incumbent councilmember, Democrat Kenyan R. McDuffie, recently suspended his campaign for the D.C. Attorney General seat, according to The Washington Post.

Patch has asked each of the candidates running in select races to fill out a questionnaire, sharing facts about themselves and why voters should choose them to represent their party in November.

Name

Faith Gibson Hubbard

Campaign website

Faith for Ward 5

DC Neighborhood

Woodridge

Office sought

Ward 5, Council of the District of Columbia

Party affiliation

Democrat

Education

PhD - Public Administration & Affairs, Virginia Tech; Master of Public Administration, Old Dominion University; Bachelor of Arts, Communication/Public Relations, Georgia State University

Occupation

19 years of experience in public education, policy, and public administration — 7th & 8th grade language arts teacher

• worked in the non-profit arena focused on public education
• worked in academia focused on research and teaching masters students - President, Ward Five Council on Education
• appointed by the DC State Board of Education to be the first Chief Student Advocate for DC, established the DC Office of the Student Advocate
• appointed by the DC State Board of Education to be the interim Ombudsman for Public Education
• appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser to be the first Executive Director of Thrive by Five DC
• appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser as the Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs

Family

Yes. I married to my husband of 10 years and we have two children (Colton and Emerson Drew) who are DCPS elementary students.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

Yes.

Age

41

Previous public office, appointive or elective

Yes. I have been appointed to the following roles:

• Appointed by Mayor Vince Gray as a Board Member of the Library Board of Trustees for the DC Public Library
• Appointed by the DC State Board of Education to be the first Chief Student Advocate for the District of Columbia
• Appointed by the DC State Board of Education as the interim Ombudsman for Public Education
• Appointed my Mayor Muriel Bowser to be the first Executive Director of Thrive by Five DC
• Appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser as the Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs

Why are you seeking this office?

I am running to be your next Ward 5 Councilmember because I believe in the power of community.
Growing up my mother taught me that our community was our family. IF we just looked out for each other life would be better. Community is a throughline for me from my time as a 7th grade language arts teacher until today.

When my husband and I were ready to start our family, we wanted to be in a place where we could see reflections of ourselves, feel a sense of belonging and raise our children around people with strong community values. We found all of that in Ward 5

There is so much to love about our city and Ward 5 but we also know there are issues impacting our Ward that I know we can solve together. Issues such as the increasing cost of housing, a need for community-centered development, environmental justice, increasing issues of safety (both gun violence and safe streets); access to equitable city services, access to high-quality educational options from birth throughout life, and so much more.

As a mom, black woman and a wife I want to be able to live in a city where I feel seen and safe. A city where all of our children, and us, can grow and thrive.

Addressing these issues requires a responsive and accessible government, and we can address these issues in a holistic way that serves the needs and interests of our diverse Ward; but it must be informed with community-voice.

I have served in many roles inside and outside of government, but what I am most proud of is my ability to build coalitions; to lean into and trust the lived experiences of neighbors in solving the most pressing issues. For over a decade, I’ve been doing this work, on the front lines.

As councilmember, I promise I will always work with our community and fight for everything our community deserves. I will fight to ensure each neighbor is able to see and feel how the city’s over $17 billion budget is working to make our ward and city stronger.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is ___, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Public safety/Community Violence (along with a host of others) is a top issue facing our community.

The trauma and lingering effects of community violence and issues of public safety impact us all, whether we are the victim, the perpetrator or a part of the larger community. A chronic lack of targeted investments and the inability to respond in a holistic way to the needs of communities has brought us to where we are today.

As your councilmember, I want to work with you to create a Ward and city where we can:

• Address the root causes of violence and crime and focus on holistic, community-centered solutions;
• Invest in prevention, intervention, and appropriate responses
• Ensure that we have an adequate police force that can effectively serve our community;
• investing in training and best practices to reduce harm caused by police and continuing to modernize our police force to enable positive partnerships with the community
• Refocus our systems on a more people-centered approach to violence and public safety
• Balance our public safety funding to include more robust violence interrupter staffing and
• community intervention programming.

My entire platform can be found here.

What is your position on DC statehood?

I believe in DC Statehood. I believe we must create a public awareness campaign to bring more attention to just how important it is to our residents.

How would you address the problem of gun violence in the District?

To stem gun violence in the District we must invest in making everyone in our community a part of the solution. We need to address the root causes of violence and crime; we can start even before children are born. Poverty, exclusion, hopelessness, lack of education, mental health; children need to grow up with more than their basic needs.

We can evolve beyond outdated approaches that center only on policing. Prevention, intervention and response – has to involve the entire community;

Together, in partnership, let’s fight to:

• Promote substantial police reform and focus on restorative practices, to move away from practices of criminalization.
• Support community policing best practices that focus on community building, with neighbors and police officers.
• Work with DC Health’s Office of Health Equity, DC Department of Behavioral Health, and community partners to collaboratively define the root causes of violence and create public health strategies to combat the spread of violence. Develop the tools to assess community needs and coordinate behavioral health supports and services.
• Create an advisory body to bridge the gap and to create opportunities for coordinated planning between the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the Cure the Street program in the Office of the Attorney General.
• Fully fund and implement the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2016 (NEAR Act) and expand the programming to move communities.
• Expand and scale Building Blocks DC, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and other place-based strategies to help more neighborhoods get illegal guns off the streets and provide additional resources to communities.
• Establish a Rapid Response team to offer immediate support to communities in crisis and experiencing violence but are not currently connected to a violence interruption partner. The Rapid Response team would include members from the ONSE office, OAG’s Cure the Streets, and Building Blocks DC.
• Promote transparency regarding how funding is spent on public safety efforts by developing a comprehensive framework of public safety investments in the District.
• Scale community outreach efforts to share with communities what efforts are operating in the public safety space and how the programs/resources can be supportive of community needs (i.e. establish a website or portal where residents can access information about the programs and make support requests).
• Use MPD data to better inform our community violence prevention efforts. Expand opportunities for data sharing across violence interruption programs and MPD to be more strategic and community-focused.
• Create a community ambassador program to equip residents, and create awareness about available public safety support.
• Increase workforce training and development opportunities for returning citizens with a connection to opportunities for affordable housing access.
• Use restorative justice efforts to remediate juvenile offenses and scale programmatic offerings to support the needs of youth through mentorship, educational opportunities, mental health supports, and intentional workforce training.
• Increase funding to expand our current credible messengers program for at-risk youth and young adults.
• Increase funding to expand the programmatic and response efforts of the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) community response team to increase rapid response to communities or residents in crisis who are experiencing psychiatric emergencies, trauma, or need support for mental health and substance use disorders.
• Increase funding to expand the school-based mental health supports to meet the needs of students and families.
• Increase funding to support the growth and expansion of community-based mental health providers to meet the unique needs of communities and prioritize the ability of new mental health facilities to be located within communities with the greatest need.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My experience, both personal and professional, is what separates me from the other candidates in the race. I have served in many roles inside and outside of government, but what I am most proud of is my ability to build coalitions; to lean into and trust the lived experiences of neighbors in solving the most pressing issues. For over a decade, I’ve been doing this work, on the front lines right here in Ward 5 and even in a leadership role at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I know how to navigate government to get things done; I understand how our city's budget

works; and I have pushed for legislation that now makes our education system better. Each day I am experiencing our city as a homeowner, mother of two public school students, as a person who has birthed in the District, and as a black woman who is often an afterthought. My experience is robust and will offer a perspective to the council that none of my other colleagues in this race can bring.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

N/A

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

Issues such as the increasing cost of housing, a need for community-centered development; environmental justice, increasing issues of safety (both gun violence and safe streets); transportation equity; small local business growth and supports; housing affordability and black home ownership; supports for returning citizens; quality access to health care; strengthening our workforce pipelines and increasing programming for workforce readiness; access to equitable city services, access to high-quality educational options from birth throughout life, and so much more.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I was the Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time not only did I have to work closely with our Mayor on refocusing our city budget to support the myriad of needs of our community, but I also had to work closely with the Council during that time. I managed 13 offices focused on constituent services to ensure the needs of our residents were met.

In my role as Chief Student Advocate, I worked to build coalitions to tackle tough issues (i.e. student discipline, community violence and safe passage, special education, family partnership, and more) to work toward a more equitable system of public education for families and students. As the president of the Ward Five Council on Education, I worked in a grassroots way to fight for public schools in Ward 5.

As a classroom teacher, I worked to create a learning environment for educational success my students in partnership with students and families.

My advocacy started when I was a middle school student and started a petition to address an issue of racial injustice at my school.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

To believe in myself and take the leap of faith

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

There is no one more passionate or committed to our community. I will always work in partnership with our community and put our community first.

Related:

Candidate Profile: Art Lloyd For City Council In Ward 5