Part 6

Facilitator Playbook

For the seven track leads. Everything you need to run a standardized, dignified session — the script to name the problem, the data to hand the room, the moves to design the solution, and the exact steps to enter the score in this app.

Your table

Track lead. You. Owns the arc, the artifact, and the room.
Recorder. Fills the scorecard in this app in real time from a phone or laptop.
Community voice. Named in advance. Ensures lived experience is heard on every decision.
Data curator. Cross-summit. Delivers your Mobility Snapshot and keeps indicators consistent.

Norming · 5 minutes at the top

The session that saves the summit

Read this out loud, word for word. It sets the tone.

"We have 90 minutes and one job: leave with a shared answer, not seven private ones. One conversation at a time. Every claim comes with evidence or a question. When a voice goes unheard we say, 'Say more about how that lands where you live.' The recorder will type what the room decided, not what any one person said."

Morning · 90 minutes · Name the problem

Step-by-step script

Open with the Mobility Snapshot (the data)

0:00 – 0:10

Pull up this track's brief from Per-track briefs. Read all five parts out loud, in this order:

Current state — the headline number today.
Trend — which direction it's moving.
Comparison — Birmingham vs the U.S. or a peer city.
Mobility indicator — the one sentence that names the gap.
Design question — the room's job for the next 80 minutes.

Say: "This is the data we start with. If a number is wrong or missing, we mark it and keep going — we do not skip the design question."

Root causes on the wall

0:10 – 0:40

Prompt: "Why does this gap exist? One cause per sticky note. No debate yet."

Silent write 5 min → each person posts and reads (10 min) → cluster into 3–5 themes (10 min) → dot-vote (5 min).

Recorder enters the top 3–5 clustered causes into Root causes in the app as they land.

Evidence pass

0:40 – 1:10

Every root cause on the wall must get either a data source or a named informant beside it.

Prompt: "Who knows this to be true, and how do we know? A number, a report, a story from a named neighborhood."

Recorder types each source into Evidence & sources. Lived-experience quotes count; attribute them (first name + neighborhood is enough).

Propose one keystone metric

1:10 – 1:25

Show the 2–3 Keystone Candidates from this track's brief. The room picks ONE. Community voice speaks last and has veto weight on the choice.

Rule of thumb: one metric beats ten. If you cannot name an owner for it in the afternoon, it is the wrong metric.

Recorder enters the choice into Keystone metric proposed.

Submit the morning half

1:25 – 1:30

Recorder confirms Root causes, Evidence, and Keystone are all filled, then leaves the scorecard in draft — do not press Submit yet.

Afternoon · 90 minutes · Design the solution

Step-by-step script

Confirm the keystone and name the owner

0:00 – 0:15

Re-read the morning's keystone metric. Ask: "Which table or organization commits to owning this number for the next year?" Write the answer on the wall.

Recorder types the org into Owner (table or organization).

Build the domain — metric, owner, checkpoint

0:15 – 0:40

Walk the room through four fields, out loud, one at a time:

Metric. The keystone, phrased so a resident can understand it.
Owner. Named org above.
Checkpoint. Pick a date within the next 6 months when the owner reports back.
Domain score 0–4. Use the Ore-to-Forged scale (below). The room agrees on the number; recorder taps it.

Score the 5 system measures

0:40 – 1:05

Ask each of the five questions below. The room agrees on a 0–4 for each. Recorder taps as you go.

SA-1 Shared definitions. Do organizations define success the same way?
SA-2 Data sharing. Is data shared across sectors, not siloed?
SA-3 Ownership. Does each metric have a named, accountable owner?
SA-4 Coordination. Do partners act together rather than in parallel?
SA-5 Resident voice. Do residents help decide what counts, with real power?

Set the 6 / 12 / 24 month checkpoint owner

1:05 – 1:20

Confirm who reports back at each interval. Add anything the curator must know into Session notes.

Submit the scorecard

1:20 – 1:30

Recorder presses Submit scorecard. Photograph the wall, attach into notes if a photo field exists, then close the room.

In the app

How to add the scoring

The recorder does this live from a phone. Everyone at the table can watch it fill in.

Open Enter, type your name, choose Facilitatoror Recorder, and select this room's track. No password. On phone: tap the ☰ menu, then Enter.
Go to My Track. If you are assigned to more than one, pick this room's track from the dropdown at the top right.
Morning (top of page). Add each root cause and each piece of evidence with the +Add button (or press Enter). Type the keystone metric into Keystone metric proposed. Everything autosaves when you tap out of the field.
Afternoon (lower half). Fill Owner and Checkpoint date. Tap the 0–4 circle for Domain score. Then tap a 0–4 for each of the 5 system measures.
Add any context the next room needs into Session notes. Every change is stamped with the editor's name in the room activity log at the bottom of the page.
When the room is finished, press Submit scorecard. The card locks and shows up on the Live scorecard for the closing plenary.

The 0–4 scale — Ore to Forged

Ask three questions: Is it defined the same way by more than one org? Does someone own it on a cadence? Is it tied to a real decision about money or policy? The number of yes answers is close to the score.

0Ore
No shared definition. Counted in fragments.
1Smelting
Defined by one group, not yet shared.
2Pouring
Shared metric, partial adoption.
3Casting
Shared, owned, tracked on a cadence.
4Forged
Public, owned, tied to where dollars land.

The data · use this at 10:35

Per-track briefs

Every track's Mobility Snapshot and its 2–3 keystone candidates. Read the snapshot out loud; hand the candidates to the room at the 1:10 mark.

Capital Access & Wealth Building

Expanding capital, ownership & financial opportunity · Forum A

Current state: Poverty is 24.7%, nearly double the U.S. rate of 12.5%; median household income $46,051; homeownership 45.5%.
Trend: Property values rising (14.6% YoY) while ownership stays low — gains accrue to existing owners.
Comparison: U.S. poverty 12.5%. Black-majority ZIP codes are systematically undervalued; Ensley properties have been appraised near $0.
Mobility indicator: Homeownership gap plus appraisal and lending bias.

Design question · read out loud
"How does capital reach the residents and neighborhoods it has historically skipped?"

Source: Data USA / ACS 2024; Brookings valuation research · SOURCED

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Homeownership gap across neighborhoods
Primary wealth vehicle; the playbook's worked example. · Owner table: Investors · Data: ACS; HMDA
Mortgage / small-business loan denial rate by race
Where capital stops flowing. · Owner table: Investors · Data: HMDA; CDFI partners

Education & Workforce Pathways

Birmingham's talent pipeline · Forum B

Current state: About 29.4% of Birmingham adults 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher; 88.1% have a high school diploma (2023).
Trend: VERIFY: pull the multi-year attainment trend from ACS S1501 to show direction.
Comparison: VERIFY: Alabama ~27% and U.S. ~35% bachelor's+ — confirm exact current figures.
Mobility indicator: Postsecondary attainment gap and the earnings premium it carries.

Design question · read out loud
"How do we connect education to career so a diploma reliably becomes a living wage?"

Source: U.S. Census 2023 est. · PARTLY VERIFY

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Living-wage employment 2 years after a credential
Outcome, not activity: does training pay off. · Owner table: Implementers · Data: State wage records; workforce partners
Postsecondary attainment gap by neighborhood
Names where the pipeline breaks. · Owner table: Community Leaders · Data: ACS S1501 by tract

Neighborhoods & Infrastructure

Designing places that expand opportunity · Forum C

Current state: City homeownership is 45.5%, far below the U.S. rate of 65.2%; median property value $158,800.
Trend: Median property value rose 14.6% in a single year ($138,600 → $158,800, 2023–2024): appreciation without broad ownership.
Comparison: U.S. homeownership 65.2%; Alabama 70.2%. Place still predicts opportunity (Opportunity Atlas).
Mobility indicator: Homeownership rate and neighborhood-level access to transit, housing, and services.

Design question · read out loud
"How do we invest in place so where you live stops predicting how far you rise?"

Source: Data USA / ACS 2024; Opportunity Atlas · SOURCED

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Homeownership rate by neighborhood
Place-based wealth and stability. · Owner table: Investors · Data: ACS; county assessor
Transit access to jobs within 30 minutes
Connectivity as opportunity. · Owner table: Decision Makers · Data: Transit authority; LEHD

Justice & Government

Trust, safety & civic opportunity · Forum D

Current state: VERIFY: City of Birmingham procurement dollars reaching local and Black-owned firms as a share of total spend — pull from the Office of Business Diversity & Opportunity / BOLD reporting.
Trend: VERIFY: procurement trend from City reporting.
Comparison: VERIFY: minority-procurement share vs a peer city.
Mobility indicator: Share of public contracts and dollars reaching local and Black-owned firms; institutional-trust and civic-participation measures.

Design question · read out loud
"How do public dollars and public trust become engines of mobility rather than barriers?"

Source: Needs local administrative data · VERIFY

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Share of contracts reaching local / Black-owned firms
Public dollars as a mobility lever. · Owner table: Decision Makers · Data: City procurement data
Resident trust / civic participation index
Trust precedes participation. · Owner table: Community Leaders · Data: Community survey; turnout data

Data, Strategy & Measurement

From silos to shared measurement · Forum E

Current state: Birmingham has committed leaders and many programs, but organizations collect data independently, define success differently, and measure with different methods — so collective impact is invisible.
Trend: No shared, ecosystem-wide mobility scorecard exists today; this summit is the first attempt to build one.
Comparison: Peer cities that sustain mobility gains run a shared, independently-governed measurement backbone (Urban Institute Upward Mobility Framework).
Mobility indicator: Presence or absence of shared definitions, data-sharing, ownership, coordination, and resident voice.

Design question · read out loud
"What must Birmingham measure together to know whether any of this is working?"

Source: Playbook diagnosis; Urban Institute framework · DIAGNOSIS

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Adoption rate of shared metric definitions across partner orgs
The precondition for every other measure. · Owner table: Data Curator + Decision Makers · Data: Partner MOUs; scorecard sign-ons
Number of Layer-A domains with a named accountable owner + cadence
Ownership is what makes a metric real. · Owner table: Data Curator · Data: This app · curator console

Public Health & Environmental Justice

Healthy communities that support mobility · Forum F

Current state: Jefferson County average life expectancy is about 73 years, roughly 5 years below the U.S. average of 78. Historically Black neighborhoods (College Hills, Fountain Heights, Titusville) show the lowest; wealthy majority-white areas (Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills) the highest.
Trend: County health leaders flagged ‘excessive premature deaths’ at the 2025 State of the County Health event.
Comparison: U.S. average 78 years. VERIFY: exact neighborhood gap in years from the Community Health Equity Report / City Health Dashboard.
Mobility indicator: Life-expectancy gap between neighborhoods — the summit's most politically charged keystone.

Design question · read out loud
"What would it take to close the neighborhood life-expectancy gap as an economic strategy, not only a health one?"

Source: Jefferson County Health 2025; BirminghamWatch 2020 · PARTLY VERIFY

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Life-expectancy gap between neighborhoods (years)
The honest keystone; economic as much as health. · Owner table: Community Leaders · Data: Jefferson County Health; City Health Dashboard
Food and healthcare access in Black neighborhoods
Upstream driver of the gap. · Owner table: Implementers · Data: USDA food access; county health

Economic Opportunity & Entrepreneurship

Pathways to ownership, innovation & wealth · Forum Theatre

Current state: Black residents are about 67% of Birmingham, but only about 29% of the area's registered / minority-owned businesses are Black-owned (roughly 770 of 2,653).
Trend: The Birmingham Black Business Census launched in 2025; volunteers have identified roughly 650 active Black-owned businesses so far.
Comparison: Nationally, Black-owned firms are just 2.4% of employer businesses vs 14.2% of population. Birmingham ranks ~53rd nationally; Atlanta leads.
Mobility indicator: Share of Black-owned employer firms relative to Black population share — the ownership gap.

Design question · read out loud
"What would it take for business ownership in Birmingham to reflect the people who live here?"

Source: 2022 ABS / Urban Impact; Brookings 2024 · SOURCED

Keystone candidates · pick ONE

Black-owned employer-firm share vs population share
Directly measures inclusive ownership, the wealth engine. · Owner table: Implementers · Data: Annual Business Survey; Black Business Census
City procurement dollars to local / minority firms
Ties opportunity to real public spend. · Owner table: Decision Makers · Data: City Office of Business Diversity & Opportunity

Checklist

Before the room opens

☐ Recorder is signed in and can see this track's scorecard on their phone.
☐ Data curator has confirmed your Mobility Snapshot (green = go, amber = say "verify" aloud).
☐ Wall space, markers, and dots staged for root causes and prioritization.
☐ Community voice knows they speak last on the keystone choice.
☐ A phone ready to photograph and submit the artifact at 4:00.