Resources from Our Organizational Journey Toward Racial Equity & Inclusion

Tools & Practices to Guide Organizations Committed to REI

For the last five years, Living Cities has been grappling with how to address racial inequities within our organization, in order to be equipped to tackle racial disparities in the world. Over the last few months, we have released a number of resources so that we can share our “real-time learning” with other organizations who are taking a look in the mirror and working on racial equity and inclusion (REI) from the inside out.

Below, you can find a compilation of some of those resources, for your organization’s use.

Report: What Does It Take To Embed A Racial Equity & Inclusion Lens?

This report by Hafizah Omar, Nadia Owusu, and Ratna Gill is the capstone project of the Racial Equity and Inclusion Learning Question Team. It captures themes from the team’s field and internal scan, as well as what we have learned from our grantmaking and investments in cities across the country

Survey: Assessing Our Staff’s Racial Equity & Inclusion Competency

Living Cities conducted this survey in July of 2017 to collect data from staff as a baseline from which to track our organizational progress toward building our competencies and advancing racial equity at Living Cities moving forward. It was developed by Hafizah Omar based on questions adapted by GARE’s Employee Survey for Local Governments, D5 initiative’s Field Survey, Vanessa Daniels’ piece “More is Required of Us,” as well as best practices from the field.

Guide: Frequently Asked Questions About REI at Living Cities

As part of our internal work around racial equity and inclusion, Nadia Owusu created this guide on how to answer frequently asked questions on operationalizing racial equity.

Blog: Tools for Getting Started and Keeping At It

This post by Elodie Baquerot Lavery and Nadia Owusu outlines some of the partners who have been instrumental to us along our way, and also links to some of the resources already in this list.

Handbook: Facilitator’s Guide for Continuous Improvement Conversations with a Racial Equity Lens

This guide was designed by Shanee Helfer and Hafizah Omar to support facilitators and leaders to advance cross-sector conversations and efforts aimed at population-level impact with an REI lens.

Blog Series: Themes from Our REI Report

This series highlights the twelve themes we uncovered in the report at the top of this page, through a scan of practices being used by organizations to operationalize racial equity conducted by Hafizah Omar, Nadia Owusu, and Ratna Gill:

Themes 1–4: Contextualizing Systems, Data, and Place

Themes 5–7: Transforming Organizations and Beyond

Themes 8–10: Shifting Systems of Power

Themes 11–12: Centering Arts, Culture, and Healing

The report, survey, and FAQ guide shared above were developed by an internal team charged with researching what it takes to embed an REI lens in the work of one’s organization, led by Hafizah Omar, Nadia Owusu, and Ratna Gill. Our ongoing work to ensure that we an an organization are applying an REI lens to every aspect of our work is led by Elodie Baquerot Lavery, Nadia Owusu, and Shanee Helfer.