Planning & Advocacy Manager
Communities First, Inc.
Committed to Flint, Joel Arnold brings a passion for community planning and collaboration to his role as planning and advocacy manager at Communities First, Inc. His work focuses on urban planning and civic engagement, empowering neighbors to make a material impact in their community.
In this role, Arnold has led a variety of nonpartisan community education activities designed to empower residents and build awareness of Michigan’s redistricting process, the importance of local elections, voter education and registration, and new zoning codes in the City of Flint. Arnold has worked to ease the local housing shortage by collaborating with allies and colleagues at Communities First to advocate for local, state, and federal funding and partnerships to develop hundreds of affordable homes in the region and ensure that new housing encourages walkable, pedestrian, and public-transit friendly communities.
Most recently, Arnold helped organize a coalition called Flint Residents for Stronger Neighborhoods. In this volunteer role, he led a group of residents to successfully push the City of Flint to adopt an update to its zoning code for the first time in nearly 50 years. Under Arnold’s leadership, the coalition has committed to equitable, quality, and effective urbanism, advocating for improving the new zoning code, updating the city’s master plan, pushing the Michigan Department of Transportation’s I-475 project to be built in a way that considers the surrounding neighborhoods, and other critical issues.
Arnold serves as a board member for Friends of the Alley, Flint Fresh, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in social relations and policy as well as urban and regional planning from Michigan State University. He has a master’s degree in public policy from the University College Dublin, where he studied as a George J. Mitchell Scholar.