Many of you are already on your way to Dallas for the national Race Forward conference, Facing Race. The intergenerational event will host representatives from over 40 national and grassroots organizations, covering a broad range of issues for individuals engaged in the racial justice movement, including:  the economy, housing, voting rights, education, criminal justice, and much more.

To better reflect the intergenerational diversity of conference attendees, Facing Race has invited three generations of activisits as this year's keynote speakers: Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon, and Tashawn Reagon will discuss their family's collective experiences in mobilizing generations toward social and racial justice.

This year, the conference will engage participants in three unique tracks: Arts, Culture, and Media; Organizing and Advocacy; and Research and Policy.  View the full conference agenda for more information on the various sessions, plenaries, and featured presenters.

Not attending the conference?
Keep up with conference activities and highlights by following #FacingRace14 on Twitter @RaceForward. You can also follow @PolicyLink to learn more about the resources we have available for racial justice advocates.

Here are some of our resources that you may find particulary interesting:

• National Equity Atlas — Explore the Atlas to get data on changing demographics, racial inclusion, and the economic benefits of equity—in your region, state, and nationwide. Begin with the U.S. Summary to explore indicators (or for conference attendees in Texas, check out the data summary for the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area).
   
• Beyond Confrontation: Community-Centered Policing Tools — A collaboration between PolicyLinkand Advancement Project, these tools focus on improving the relationships between police and communities of color across the country by lifting up effective innovations already underway in different police departments and communities.
   
• Why Race and Place Matters — This report looks intentionally and explicitly at race and ethnicity and what they mean in the context of building healthy communities.
   

Join the conversation and add your thoughts on twitter using the hashtag #FacingRace14.

Next week our country will gather together to celebrate Food Day 2014 and join in the fight for a healthy, equitable food system -- one that supports and protects all Americans, especially those living in low-income communities and communities of color. For many years, these communities have been marginalized and excluded from the opportunities that a healthy, equitable food system brings. Yet, the country’s changing demographics mean that these communities can no longer be ignored or excluded. People of color will be a majority of the U.S. population by 2043 and this shift has already happened among young people and young children of color who now make up the majority population in public schools. The time has come for a food system that is healthy, equitable, and accessible to all.

Over the last decade, community leaders and advocates have made themselves heard, gotten the attention of the policymakers, and made a real impact with innovative projects and policies. We are privileged to have fought at their side.  And, our collective work is paying off.  The Healthy Food Financing Initiative, for example, has so far distributed over $140 million in grants to innovative healthy food projects impacting our entire food system, including the development and expansion of grocery stores, food hubs, farmers markets, corner stores, mobile markets, co-ops, kitchen incubators, and other healthy food retail.  The 100 plus projects in 30 plus states are improving access, finding new markets for our small farmers, creating new distribution mechanisms, building entrepreneurship, creating quality jobs, and revitalizing and improving the health of communities.

HFFI has helped support innovative projects such as Mandela Marketplace, a worker owned cooperative grocery store in West Oakland in a community that had not seen a grocery store in decades. The Tohono O’odham Tribe (TOCA) in southwestern and central Arizona, is using HFFI grant dollars to grow a school food enterprise that will serve 700 children on the Tohono O'odham Nation. And, there’s Green City Growers Cooperative (GCGC), a cooperative 3.25 acre urban greenhouse in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio growing hydroponic leafy greens and selling food to nearby grocery stores and wholesale produce businesses. These are just a few of the exciting projects and policies underway.  See here for more innovative examples.

I am proud to be a part of the movement to build a more equitable food system.  On October 24, I will join others in taking a moment to celebrate the great work we have accomplished together to date.  But on October 25, I’ll be back on the front lines marching forward towards creating a food system that is safe and healthy for all communities.
 

PolicyLink and Advancement Project are collaborating on a series of briefs focusing on improving the relationships between police and communities of color across the country by lifting up effective innovations already underway in different police departments and communities.

The series, Beyond Confrontation: Community-Centered Policing Tools, builds on Community-Centered Policing: A Force for Change published by PolicyLink and Advancement Project in 2001. The first brief in the new series, Limiting Police Use of Force: Promising Community-Centered Strategies, explores steps for reducing the use of excessive or unnecessary force.  A  foreword to the series outlines seven principles that can be used as guidelines in efforts to create safe, trusting, and healthy communities.

The tragic killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the excessive police response to subsequent community protests are a glaring reminder that there is still much work to be done to change how police engage with the communities they are sworn to protect. We hope organizers, community leaders, and advocates will use these principles and in-depth information in the briefs — which reveal positive practices that are already underway around the country — to push mayors and police departments  to change their policies and practices to advance community-centered policing. 

With partner organizations — such as SEIU, Gamaliel, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and PICO National Network  — across the nation, we will continue to advocate for community-centered policing. We hope you will join this collaborative effort and share these briefs and the principles widely.  Collectively, we can push for and advance greater trust and respect between communities and their police force — a critical step towards ensuring that not one more person of color is tragically killed by police.
 

California has one of the largest and most expensive prison systems in the nation and is currently under a federal court order to reduce its prison population. System and community leaders across the state have recognized the urgent need to lower the numbers of current prisoners and the rate of recidivism, in order to decrease state prison costs and increase public safety. 

Earlier this week, Governor Jerry Brown helped California take a major step toward achieving these goals by signing AB 2060 (Supervised Population Workforce Training Grant Program) into law. Authored by Assemblymember Victor Manuel Pérez and co-sponsored by PolicyLink, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, and the California Workforce Association, AB 2060 will establish a new competitive workforce training grant program for women and men re-entering our communities and families after being released from prison, to ensure that they have access to training and education, job readiness skills, and job placement assistance. The bill was also identified as a priority by the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color.

Law enforcement officials and judges agree that opportunity-enhancing strategies are less expensive than incarceration and more effective at reducing recidivism and improving community safety and stability. Investing in workforce development opportunities for reentry populations is a critical step toward expanding access to well-paying jobs and careers, which in turn will improve offender outcomes and reduce recidivism rates, resulting in economic savings and improved public safety.

The program established by AB 2060 is designed to serve the distinct education and training needs of individuals who require basic education and training in order to obtain entry level jobs with opportunities for career advancement, and also individuals with some postsecondary education who can benefit from services that result in certifications and placement on a middle-skill career ladder.

Administered by the California Workforce Investment Board, the new grant program will build on the most promising workforce development strategies and incentivize counties to foster collaboration and coordination with Local Workforce Investment Boards (LWIBs), the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, community-based organizations that serve re-entry populations, labor, and industry. Regional coordination also advances realignment goals, which shift some of the responsibility for housing prisoners from the state to the local level.

An allocation of $1 million from the Governor’s Recidivism Reduction Fund was secured to launch this effort through the budget process earlier this year. AB 2060 will leverage the State’s investment by rewarding counties that commit matching funds. This translates into additional dollars for the program and will help to sustain the strategy over time, ensuring that more women and men can be served.

We must work at the regional and state levels to ensure that every Californian has a fair chance to contribute and thrive. By investing in workforce training and job placement for the women and men re-entering our families and communities, we can improve neighborhood safety and stability and secure a more prosperous future. 

• Read the letter on WashingtonPost.com (also en Espanol) or read the text below.
   
• Stand with the  signatories of this letter and urge President Obama to address the issues of police and community relations with communities of color across the country. 
   
• Add your name to the growing demand for accountability, transparency, and trust;  and ask President Obama what's #BeyondFerguson? 
   
• Share this letter on social media and encourage others to do the same. Here is a sample tweet:  "From policing to incarceration, it is time for the country to counter systemic racial bias: http://plcylk.org/1tNIxrO #BeyondFerguson" 

• Training: Racial bias is real. Whether implicit or explicit, it influences perceptions and behaviors and can be deadly. Law enforcement personnel in every department in the country, under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), should be required to undergo racial bias training as a part of ongoing professional development and training.

• Accountability: Police departments should not be solely responsible for investigating themselves. These departments are funded by the public and should be accountable to the public. Enforceable accountability measures must be either established or reexamined for impartiality in circumstances where police shoot unarmed victims. DOJ must set and implement national standards of investigation that are democratic (involving independent review boards broadly representative of the community served), transparent, and enforceable.

• Diversity: Police department personnel should be representative of the communities they serve. Police departments must adopt personnel practices that result in the hiring and retention of diverse law enforcement professionals. Using diversity best practices established in other sectors, DOJ must set, implement, and monitor diversity hiring and retention guidelines for local police departments.

• Engagement: Too often law enforcement personnel hold stereotypes about black and brown youth and vice versa. Lack of familiarity breeds lack of understanding and increased opportunities for conflict. Police departments must break through stereotypes and bias by identifying regular opportunities for constructive and quality engagement with youth living in the communities they serve. The Administration can authorize support for youth engagement activity under existing youth grants issued by DOJ.

• Demilitarization: Deterring crime and protecting communities should not involve military weaponry. Effective policing strategies and community relationships will not be advanced if police departments continue to act as an occupying force in neighborhoods. The Administration must suspend programs that transfer military equipment into the hands of local police departments and create guidelines that regulate and monitor the use of military equipment that has already been distributed.

• Examination and Change: It is possible to create police departments that respect, serve and protect all people in the community regardless of age, race, ethnicity, national origin, physical and mental ability, gender, faith, or class. The Administration must quickly establish a national commission to review existing police policies and practices and identify the best policies and practices that can prevent more Fergusons and vastly improve policing in communities across the nation.

• Oversight: If somebody isn’t tasked with ensuring the implementation of equitable policing in cities across the country, then no one will do the job. The Administration must appoint a federal Czar, housed in the U.S. Department of Justice, who is specifically tasked with promoting the professionalization of local law enforcement, monitoring egregious law enforcement activities, and adjudicating suspicious actions of local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding.

Over a decade ago—and as a response to past police brutality incidents, racial profiling, and stop-and-frisk practices directly effecting people and communities of color—PolicyLink published various reports focused on community-centered policing strategies for advocates and organizers.

In light of recent events across the nation, particularly in Ferguson, MO, we thought it would be a good idea to resurface some of our past materials on this very issue with the intention that these resources will  support advocates as they continue to find solutions to bridge divisions and build relationships between police departments and the communities that they serve.

Organized for Change: The Activists Guide to Police Reform, contains strategies to help advocates move their police departments closer to a vision of community-centered policing.

Community- Centered Policing: A Force for Change discusses promising, community-centered police practices implemented throughout the country: practices that are opening police departments to traditionally underrepresented communities; engaging communities as partners in solving neighborhood problems; and making police departments more accountable to the communities they serve and protect.

From Protest to Proposal: A Police-Community Relations Forum highlights proceedings from a convening held in Cincinnati to discuss promising police practices in cities across the nation and to explore possible application locally.  The goal was to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore strategies for improving community-police relations; develop a shared understanding of community-centered police practices; and to develop an action agenda grounded in the experience of local communities and police departments that have achieved some measure of success in addressing similar conditions.

Since October 2013, over 60,000 unaccompanied children—many not even 12 years old—have crossed the border to reach the United States in a desperate attempt to escape drug-related violence, poverty, and abuse in Central America. These young boys and girls are fleeing their countries to escape life as a forced laborer, drug cartel member, or child sex worker. They come not to chase the American dream but to escape a nightmare.  

Yet, upon arrival, they find themselves exchanging one nightmare for another. At the border, they are treated like criminals. Taken to border patrol holding facilities, they experience overcrowded conditions that are ill equipped to meet their health and trauma needs. Shortages of social workers and immigration lawyers create a void in the delivery of appropriate due process and legal protection. Protestors call for the immediate deportation of these young people; politicians stand by unwilling to protect and support them.

This is not what our nation stands for. As Americans, we do not turn our backs on children in need. And there are those among us who are doing the right thing. Organizations arranging alternative shelter are working diligently to provide children with necessary treatment and services. Many local communities are self-declared "welcoming cities," setting an example of inclusivity for the rest of the nation. Some state leaders have pushed for a compassionate approach as federal officials search for appropriate shelters to host unaccompanied children. These responses track with the view of most Americans, who believe we should provide shelter and assistance to children fleeing the conditions at home.  

Unfortunately, laudable actions have been the exception rather than the rule. Too many elected officials__including many members of Congress__have failed to act, and are instead reviving the politics of immigration reform instead of offering a real solution to this urgent crisis. While our elected officials have already headed home for August recess, these children are in limbo, fearful of having to return to the violence-ridden countries they have fled, yet not knowing if they have a future here.

As a nation, we must decide how to respond to the injustice occurring on both sides of the border. What can we do to improve circumstances for these children, for a more productive and cost-effective system, and for improved political accountability?

Here are some suggestions:

• Call Congress to take action - Join the American Immigration Lawyers Association and 190 direct service providers, faith, civil, and human rights organizations to urge the passage of a clean supplemental funding bill and oppose amending the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to water down protections for children.
• Appeal to United States and Central American governments - Sign on to this joint statement by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and CARECEN to demand that the United States and Central American governments take immediate action to initiate a process for long-term solutions that provide children with the care they need.
• Support the ACLU, along with American Immigration Council, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and the law firm K&L Gates LLP - in pressuring the federal government to ensure that the unaccompanied children at the center of this crisis receive taxpayer-funded representation at deportation hearings.
   

While action from our elected officials is imperative, it is ultimately each of us in our local communities who must care for and stand up for the health and well-being of these children. Long after the surge at the border is appropriately addressed and media coverage fades, the needs of these children will remain.

The answer is up to us. We must demonstrate to these children what America truly stands for.  
 
PolicyLink
The Center for Global Policy Solutions
The Children's Defense Fund
Children Now
Dr. Manuel Pastor, Director for The Program for Environmental and Regional Equity
Prevention Institute
Public Health Institute
Rhonda Moore Ortiz, Project Manager for The Program for Environmental and Regional Equity  
 

Last year, California advanced a significant number of policies that advance equity-the idea that investing in low-income communities and communities of color is essential to achieving a healthy and prosperous state.

Those bills successfully passed due to the determined advocacy of our state's equity leaders and the actions of Californians - individuals like you - who understood that investing in excluded communities helps the entire state.

This year, we need your help again to advance equity even further. Below, we have identified a number of important bills that would improve the lives of California's most vulnerable communities. Please click on the bill titles and follow the simple steps to send a personalized letter of support. For more impact, please copy and paste the letter language onto your organizational letterhead (if applicable) and fax it to the numbers provided:

AB 1629 (Bonta): Victim Compensation Fund. Supports physical and emotional recovery for Californians injured by gun or other violence by extending peer counseling services and reimbursement through the Victim Compensation Fund.

SB 1391 (Hancock): Community Colleges/CTE Courses/Inmate Education Programs. Increases job skills and employability of people who were formerly incarcerated by providing educational opportunities and career technical education in prison.

AB 1451 (Holden): Concurrent Enrollment. Facilitates access to college through partnerships between California Community Colleges and local school districts regarding the concurrent enrollment of high school pupils in college classes.

AB 2102 (Ting): Health Workforce. Captures more complete and consistent data on California's health-care workforce by requiring various boards, such as Board of Nursing, to report demographic information.

SB 1111 (Lara): Involuntary Transfers. Protects due-process rights of students involuntarily transferred to county community or community day schools.

SB 1151 (Canella): Vehicles - School Zone Fines. Funds school zone safety projects within the Active Transportation Fund by imposing an additional fee for violations occurring in school zones.

SB 1396 (Hancock): School Climate. Creates positive cultures in schools and improves school discipline practices by establishing Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Program (PBIS).

Thank you for taking the time to support equitable policies that will improve the lives of all Californians. Stay tuned for an update on the status of these and other priority legislation.

Originally posted on The Institute for Black Male Achievement blog.

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the Million Man March and the 45th anniversary of the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City—two landmark moments in our nation’s history where the challenges and lack of opportunity facing black men, their families, and their communities were laid bare.

In 1968, our country was at a crossroads.  That year marked the tragic assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and it was also the height of the Black power movement.  Racial tension was mounting and the nation was becoming increasingly divided.

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two American Olympians, raised their fists during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics, they sent a reverberating message to the world about civil rights and the struggle for racial equity and dignity in the United States. Many fans of the Olympics didn’t see race and politics as having a place at this global sporting event. But Smith and Carlos knew all eyes would be on them and seized the moment for change.

Fast forward three decades later to the Million Man March, another powerful call for change that captivated the world stage, when more than a half a million black men and their allies gathered at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to focus the country’s attention on the unique contributions and challenges facing black men. This was a first for our country.  Never before had so many black men assembled to demonstrate their shared vision to change mis-perceptions, ensure economic opportunity, and demand fair treatment at voting polls and beyond.

Shortly after the march, in 1995, the Urban Institute commissioned a study on 51 organizations serving African American male youth. The research found  that after 10 years, one quarter of those organizations no longer existed and less than a quarter continued programmatic focus on black males.

From the 1990s to present day, researchers have observed the following general demographic trends:

•The unemployment rate for black men remains persistently higher, reaching 16.7% in 2012, compared to 7.7% for their white counterparts.

•College completion rates are another area where we see inequity for young black men. Among white and black men and women, black males have the lowest likelihood for college completion.

•The incarceration rates of black males have nearly doubled since the time of the Million Man March to present day.

Reversing these troubling trends requires a steadfast commitment to change by individuals, community groups, public officials, business leaders, and the nation as a whole. When President Obama gave his speech at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, he gave examples of how everyday Americans are marching towards the love, justice, and equity that Dr. King spoke of in 1963.

Obama’s vision — one of a nation continuing to march —is at the heart of our work at the Institute for Black Male Achievement (IBMA). Eighteen years after the Million Man March and 45 years after the Black Power Salute, we continue to march towards that vision by paying tribute to all the organizations and individuals who have worked tirelessly on behalf of black men and boys.  The IBMA is honored to pay tribute to these change makers by supporting and strengthening the black male achievement field around the following areas:

1. 1. Strengthen Capacity builds strong leaders and organizations working to improve life outcomes for Black men and boys.
2.  
3. 2. Promoting the Field of Black Male Achievement advances a shared positive narrative.
4.  
5. 3. Social Innovation Accelerator showcases and spreads the work of effective leaders in the field.
6.  
7. 4. Communities of Practice builds a long-term collaborative base for the black male achievement field.

We commemorate this day and celebrate black male achievement all month as a way of remembering and building on our rich history to achieve transformative change.  March with us by joining the IBMA network and the conversation on Twitter @bmachievement using #bmaoct.