Miami's Wealth Gap
These oral histories were conducted by FIU students in collaboration with Catalyst Miami and include interviews documenting the experiences of Miami-Dade residents facing the county’s persistent economic inequality. Participants include community advocates, members of Catalyst Miami programs, and a local public official. The narrators describe the interconnection between the wealth gap and issues of housing, business ownership, and the digital divide.
The project includes a series of interviews with 12 community members in which they tell their stories of how they’ve been personally affected by one of the three focus areas. We work alongside these frontline community members to collectively shape our shared vision of Miami. Their stories showcase the current realities of our broken systems and offer community-based solutions.
Click here to listen to the full set of interviews from the Oral History Collection.
Below are some of the resources and additional media developed by the students during this project.
Housing Resources
After speaking with Catalyst Miami community members, FIU students developed a one-stop-shop website to assist Miami-Dade residents in finding housing assistance. The website also includes personal stories from participants, sharing how they have navigated the current housing crisis.
Business Ownership in Miami
When themes of business ownership and wealth-building started to arise from their interviews, the students compiled them into a long-form podcast. The episode is designed to inspire other potential entrepreneurs in Miami-Dade and share the stories of a few existing business owners in the county.
Connecting Housing to the Wealth Gap
This team of students compiled excerpts of the interviews and blog posts in one place to further draw the line from our housing disparities to Miami's wealth gap.
The Digital Divide
Two groups of the FIU students chose to focus on the county's "digital divide" that came up time and time again in the oral history interviews. One team wrote an op-ed that pulled from the lived experiences of the Catalyst Miami community members and shared resources to help address the divide. Click here to read their piece.
The other team met with the Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, and her staff to discuss the issue. They compiled their learnings and resources in the presentation displayed here.