As collective consciousness around systemic racism has grown, many legal aid and public interest organizations are re-examining their internal policies and practices to ensure that they are not just serving communities of color but bringing a more intentional antiracist focus to that work. Establishing a commitment to advancing race equity and justice through advocacy is an important first step. But the greater challenge comes when seeking to operationalize that commitment.

The journey towards a diverse, equitable, and inclusive institution that is equipped to advance racial equity and justice both externally and internally can be complex. It requires organizational leadership to assess and modify organizational structures and culture. Throughout the process, staff must confront a wide range of issues, such as explicit and unconscious bias, microaggressions, stereotype threat, racism, and racial anxiety.

Join Kimberly Jones Merchant, Director of the Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Institute as she shares the framework to operationalize and realize a true commitment to race equity.  Topics to be addressed include:

Setting the context for why race equity is an imperative given the current status of our nation (15 minutes)
Level setting foundational knowledge on race and poverty and how systemic racialized structures are created and perpetuated (20 minutes)
How a four-prong framework to assess an organization’s readiness to engage in antiracist practice, including an assessment of (1) diversity and inclusion, (2) capacity, (3) structure, and (4) culture provides an essential foundation for developing a successful racial equity action plan for staff to operationalize their commitments and transition to a more inclusive multi-cultural antiracist organization (25 minutes)