Cassie Haynes
“I remember feeling a sense of infinite freedom and with that came joy, while at the same time, the deepest grief, guilt, and shame I’ve ever felt because I was also ending a marriage,” Cassie Haynes tells GO about her coming out experience. And while that moment was both “the most amazing and most horrendous experience,” it helped the Philadelphia community organizer and self-proclaimed “non-journalist” be fully out in every aspect of her life. However, Haynes’ work is driven not just by her own identity; her background in community organizing, public policy, and strategic planning and execution plays a part as well. It’s this combination that’s gotten Haynes to her role as the Co-Executive Director of Resolve Philly, an organization that works to develop and advance journalism built on equity, collaboration, and the elevation of community voices and solutions. “For us, equity is 90% of our contracts being held by Black, POC, Queer, Trans, Woman, and/or Disabled-owned and led businesses,” she tells GO. “That’s one way we practice what we preach. And we — the leadership of the organization that Jean [Friedman-Rudovsky] and I have built together — get to prioritize that. We get to say, ‘It’s okay if this contract is a little more expensive, we’re buying Black.’” Haynes’ work is so important to the community, in fact, that not even a pandemic can stop it; Resolve Philly was recently awarded a $1 million grant to create a COVID-19 crisis response and recovery plan that provided better access to information for Philadelphians most affected by Coronavirus’ impact. Before Resolve Philly, Haynes served as the Deputy Executive Director of the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity, where she directed the policy and programmatic initiatives impacting city residents experiencing deep economic hardship. —GP
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