Community Change Process
Overview
Many groups target their racial equity work to community change. They do this work for many different reasons. Some are aiming at improving a particular set of outcomes for whole populations, for example, decreasing infant mortality in a city – knowing that, in that place, infant mortality disproportionately affects some racial groups more than others. Some aim their work directly at eliminating racial disparities for a particular system, for example, eliminating racial/ethnic gaps in the number of high school students passing AP exams in a school district. Some work toward building trusting relationships and collective action more generally, perhaps in response to hate crimes, or as part of an effort to organize for political action.
Regardless, groups who do this work share some common lessons. They note that community change work often includes engaging formal and informal leaders who will invest in the process, and serve as messengers and catalysts for change. They also note that part of designing a complex community change effort or supporting an organic community change process involves understanding the community’s history and culture, and the areas where change can be leveraged. They attend to the processes of their work – trying to mirror equity, and identifying ways that the dominant culture and white privilege may be influencing the initiative’s goals, strategies and definitions of success. They are explicit about structural racism. And they pay a great deal of attention to constructing messages and delivering them in ways their intended audiences can hear.
This section provides selected examples of racial equity work aimed at community change. Several describe current racial equity initiatives in the United States. Other resources offer frameworks and ideas in addition to examples of work.
Community
- Erase Racism NY
- Create Community
- Race and Social Justice Initiative
- Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance
- Boston Racial Justice and Equity Initiative
- Anchor Richmond: Community Opportunity and Anchor Strategies for the Berkely Global Campus at Richmond Bay
- Inclusive Dubuque
- Building the We: Healing-Informed Governing for Racial Equity in Salinas
- Blueprint for an Equitable Chicago: A 10-Year Plan
- A Community Vision for Health & Justice 25 Years After the 1992 LA Uprising
- Racial Justice Health Equity Initiative 2015 Overview
- Getting Ready for Racial Equity Work: Lessons Learned for City Governments From the Racial Equity Here Initiative
- Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable
- When Baltimore Awakes: An Analysis of the Human and Service Sector in Baltimore City
Research
- Advancing Racial Equity in Communities: Lessons for Philanthropy
- Building Inclusive Communities: Cross-Canada Perspectives and Strategies
- Community Change Initiatives to Address Racial Inequities: Building a Field of Practice
- Community Change Processes and Progress in Addressing Racial Inequities
- Looking Back: Project Change from 1991-2005
- Boston Busing/Desegregation Project For Truth, Learning, And Change Key Findings From Data Collection To Date
- Community Equity Initiative: A Collaborative for Change
Practices
- Power and Social Change
- 15 Tools for Creating Healthy Productive Interracial/Multicultural Communities: A Community Builder's Toolkit
- Equity and Social Justice Annual Report
- PlaceMatters: Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All - A Summary of Place Matters' Community Health Equity Reports
- Bringing Human Rights Home: How State and Local Governments Can Use Human Rights to Advance Local Policy
- The Wheel and the Web: Shifting and Sequencing Investment to Balance Human and Ecological Systems
- Key Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) Documents
- Community Tool Box
- Advancing Racial Equity and Transforming Government: A Resource Guide to Put Ideas Into Action
- Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide Embracing Equity: 7 Steps to Advance and Embed Race Equity
- Place Matters Blueprints to Action: Community Strategies to End Racism and Support Racial Healing
- City of Madison Equity Initiatives
- What Happens When Communities Organize?
- Strong, Prosperous, And Resilient Communities Challenge - SPARCC
- Metathemes: Designing for Equitable Social Change
- Loving Cities Index
- Movement Mic Check: Rapid Response to Racial Disasters
- Facilitator's Guide for continuous improvement conversations with a Racial Equity Lens
- City of Portland Racial Equity Toolkit
- Closing the Racial Gaps: Together We Can
- Communities Creating Racial Equity: Ripple Effects of Dialogues to Change
- Measuring Love in the Journey for Justice: A Brown Paper
