Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide: 7 Steps to Advance and Embed Race Equity and Inclusion Within Your Organization.

Advancing race equity and inclusion can sometimes seem daunting and often leaves many wondering how and where to start. One way to achieve social change in an organization is to incorporate race equity and inclusion at every stage of work. The seven steps in this guide provide a clear framework for undertaking this important work. This tool adds to the resources already created by partners who have been working in the field. It works by demonstrating how a race equity lens can be adopted by foundations or other organizations that work directly with systems, technical assistance providers and communities

Creating Cultures and Practices for Racial Equity: A Toolbox for Advancing Racial Equity for Arts and Cultural Organizations

Creating Cultures and Practices for Racial Equity contains a variety of tools that emerged from Race Forward's Racial Equity in the Arts Innovation Lab to help artists, arts advocates, culture bearers, and cultural workers to imagine, plan, and implement racial equity strategies in arts organizations. Whether an arts or cultural practitioner already working with a racial equity team and plan or just beginning the journey towards organizational transformation, these tools can help guide, focus, and reinvigorate efforts. Using a racial equity tool helps give deliberate attention to racial and social justice. These tools can be used to make strategic and equitable decisions in assessing existing or proposed policies, practices, plans, programs, grantmaking, contracting, budgets, etc

Better Together in the South: Building Movements across Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

This briefing paper builds upon the research presented in Applied Research Center's 2010 "Better Together" report by looking specifically at the challenges and opportunities that arise when we connect movements, organizations, constituencies, and issues for racial justice with those for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) liberation in the U.S. South. As mainstream media has dedicated relatively little attention to covering the barriers encountered, and the progress made, by LGBT organizations and activists in southern "Bible Belt" states, this paper highlights trends and organizing initiatives affecting the lives of Southern LGBT people of color. Changes in racial composition and migration patterns contribute to both cultural and political change in the South, with significant implications for national policy change. Through a series of interviews, surveys, and convenings with Southern leaders, and through research on recent developments in the region, this paper identifies demographics changes, noteworthy trends, and successes and setbacks affecting the lives of LGBT people and people of color across twelve Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Relative to most other regions in the nation, there is a clear dearth of progressive legislation in the South. Indeed, when it comes to LGBT and racial equity, the South looks like a progressive policy desert. But that's only one side of the story; a closer examination of on-the-ground community efforts reveals that, even amidst this policy desert, there are many flourishing oases of deep experience, courageous and creative organizing, and promising practices focused on activating and uniting marginalized communities into formidable forces for social change. Many of the insights and models developed in the South -- though often given little attention by the national media, mainstream LGBT, and traditional civil rights organizations and philanthropic institutions -- could substantively contribute to broader movement-building strategies for our nation. A surprising array of grassroots organizations are engaged in innovative and intersectional work across the South, fueling LGBT acceptance and cultural change. They incorporate strategies such as inclusionary and multi-issue framing; explicitly addressing race to build multi-racial cohesion and power; and creatively using cultural expressions such as storytelling, personal testimonies, and the arts to elevate the voices of LGBT people of color. Many of these efforts and strategies that centralize, rather than marginalize, communities of color in LGBT issues in the South have nationwide resonance and relevance and, given adequate resourcing as well as appropriate tools and channels for sharing best practices, they could continue to take transformative projects to a greater scale to expand their reach and impac

Leadership and Race: How to Develop and Support Leadership that Contributes to Racial Justice

This report explores the ways in which our current thinking about leadership often contributes to producing and maintaining racialized dynamics, and identifies a set of core competencies associated with racial justice leadership. Recommendations are included for helping leadership programs develop and support leadership that furthers racial justice in organizations, communities, and the broader society

Beyond Training and the Skills Gap: Research and Recommendations for Racially Equitable Communications in Workforce Development

As part of a three-year Race Forward project on racial equity in workforce development, Beyond Training and the "Skills Gap" – Research and Recommendations for Racially Equitable Communications in Workforce Development provides a broad picture forthe field's leaders and professionals of how the workers they serve – particularly workers ofcolor – are framed in the media coverage of jobs in two expanding, higher wage industries – technology and health care. The report also provides the workforce development field with practical tips for racially equitable communications to broaden the collective responsibility for employment and other economic outcomes in our communities