As businesses across the nation vie to increase revenue and market share, they are seeking not only to retain customers but also to continually expand into new markets. Much has been written about the demographic change engulfing the American market: by 2040, a majority of people in the U.S. will be of color; indeed, a majority of young people in the country are already of color. 

However, a majority of people of color in the United States suffer worse socio-economic outcomes in most aspects of their lives—health, education, career, access to financial services, or experiences with the criminal justice system—than their White counterparts. If status quo remains, and a majority of corporate stakeholders such as customers, employees, and suppliers continue to experience racial inequities, then businesses will suffer from a less productive workforce, missed market segments and fewer suppliers from which to choose.

With these realities in mind, in 2017, PolicyLink and FSG wrote a report called The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity.  The research in the report highlights examples of companies that have gained competitive advantage by advancing racial equity. We found that by ignoring the nation’s changing demographics, companies may find their growth curtailed and their global competitiveness undermined. Our research led us to explore specific steps business leaders can take to future-proof their businesses by addressing these inequities. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, FSG and PolicyLink examined two industries where racial inequities are most severe—health care and financial services—to explore how companies in these sectors are advancing racial equity in ways that create business value.

Although these industries are vastly different, our research found 5 action-steps and 3 internal catalysts that are applicable to any industry and that must be adopted by business leaders who want to remain competitive. Here, we share examples from our research on the healthcare and financial services sectors in addition to highlighting opportunities for companies in other sectors. As the business world begins to adopt a racial equity point of view we are inspired by bold innovations that are emerging across sectors and markets.

Companies must offer products or services that effectively meet the distinctive needs of markets of color. To enable that, companies need to:  

1. Authentically understand the needs of markets of color. Markets of color may not always have the same needs as majority-White markets. Yet, the data on needs or consumer behavior for people of color are not always readily available. Companies can conduct in-house research on these markets or seek help from unconventional sources outside the for-profit world. For example, Prudential Financial, a Fortune 500 company that provides financial products and services including retirement-related investments, commissioned research with UnidosUS, a non-profit that deeply understands and serves the Hispanic communities, and captured behavioral insights on the community’s usage of retirement services. This information served as critical input to Prudential’s business units that aim to expand its retirement service offerings.
    
2. Get to the root cause. America’s history of slavery and ongoing structural racism has led to lower incomes, lower levels of wealth, and poorer health outcomes among people of color compared to their White counterparts. Recognizing and understanding this fact is essential to ensure that companies don’t mistakenly attribute inequities to individual behavior. It is also essential to spark business innovation and avoid unintended negative consequences. Let us take for example the impact of structural racism on access to transportation.  is significant evidence that America’s transportation system has historically bypassed communities of color. In our research, we found that Kaiser Permanente, an integrated health care provider, teamed up with a car-sharing service to bring members to their appointments when they could not afford the cost of transportation to their diabetes management appointments.

The same phenomenon of differential access to transportation could also affect companies in other industries. For example, in 2016, an analysis by Bloomberg found that in some of the largest cities where Amazon’s same day delivery service is available, it bypasses ZIP codes that are predominantly Black. Amazon uses many factors to determine which ZIP codes are ripe for its same day service, including the distance to the nearest fulfillment center, local demand in an area, as well as the ability of various carrier partners to deliver up to 9:00 pm every single day. The underlying algorithm, however, perhaps did not consider how communities of color historically lack equal access to transportation, and inadvertently, Amazon denied those ZIP codes same-day service. Since the publication of the Bloomberg report, Amazon made a decision to expand the coverage. Regardless, the unintended negative consequence of being race-blind is that it limits access for these communities, and potential profits for Amazon’s business, since these neighborhoods often lack access to groceries and other retail stores, which could be a potential source of revenue for the company.

3. (Re)design products and services to meet discrete needs. People of color suffer from the effects of structural racism, starting with their level of wealth or access to healthy foods. Providing differentiated products and services to solve for these discrete needs can help to address these inequities and enable companies to enter new markets. ShopRite operator Brown’s Super Stores, found a profitable market expansion opportunity by establishing grocery stores to reach lower-income people of color in Philadelphia-area food deserts. The company offered customized food items and expanded its offerings to include complementary services that were lacking, such as health clinics. The company’s 7 stores generate strong profits on $250 million in revenues and serve 250,000 people.

Companies should work to reverse the effects of structural racism by strengthening the external business context – thus enabling their future growth. To do that, companies must undertake the following steps:

4. Address public policy failures: While some federal policies improve conditions for people of color, others affect people of color negatively and constrain business growth. Prudential’s research with UnidosUS, described above, found that state regulations discourage small businesses from offering retirement savings plans to their employees, limiting those employees from participating in Prudential’s pension investment services. This disproportionately affects communities of color because a majority of employees of color work for small businesses. Prudential used its lobbying arm to work with coalitions that expanded retirement savings to employees of small businesses, thus opening up its access to an expanded pool of assets for management.
    
5. (Re)build trust and shift norms: Due to historical and modern-day discrimination against Black and Latinx communities, many communities of color are less trusting of businesses – this is particularly true of banks and health care institutions. For banks, this can be costly, as it may limit the size of their total addressable market and for health care institutions, it may mean patients of color are less likely to seek treatment or participate it important R&D, further exacerbating inequities. Companies need to understand, acknowledge, and rebuild relationships and trust with communities of color in order to serve these communities. Racialized norms in society can also cause unintended consequences; shifting those norms requires intentionality. In 2016, the hashtag #AirBnBWhileBlack became popular when a study found that Black guests face higher rates of rejection than White guests.  Since then, a team representing executives from every Airbnb department conducted a comprehensive examination of how Airbnb has fought discrimination in the past, where these efforts fell short, and how they can be improved in the future. Beginning November 1, 2016, AirBnB made a decision that everyone who uses Airbnb around the world will be asked to affirmatively agree to uphold a commitment to treat fellow members equally regardless of race, gender identity, and national origin before they book a listing or share their space on the Airbnb platform – a small, but important step in shifting norms around racist behavior. 

Companies must also ensure that internal organizational conditions support this this work. Essential factors include:

6. Strong diversity and inclusion practices: Most companies are spending increasing resources on diversity and inclusion today. CEOs have come together to publicly state their commitment to this work. Starbucks recently enlisted the advice and counsel of social scientists, researchers and other experts in designing the training curriculum for its employees. Yet, we see time and again, advertisements that are racist or culturally inappropriate or products and services that are discriminatory or exclusionary towards a gender or race. Perhaps if all core business units such as product development, marketing and sales teams have diverse employees who understand equity and cultural humility, and employees feel comfortable raising concerns, mistakes could be avoided. Having a diverse staff is itself an essential goal: Our research shows that having a diverse workforce that mirrors the customer base is critical to unlock the business opportunities associated with advancing racial equity.
    
7. Leadership support, structure, and accountability to embed racial equity in the business: In most companies, diversity and inclusion efforts are entirely separate from the business units responsible for market expansion or ensuring the quality of service. However, some companies are bringing skilled expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion into their operations. When AirBnB found that there were too many instances of people being discriminated against on the Airbnb platform because of race, the company decided to assemble a permanent, full-time product team of engineers, data scientists, researchers, and designers whose sole purpose is to advance belonging and inclusion and to root out bias.
    
8. Establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations led by people of color: While we hope companies will find new opportunities to better understand and authentically serve communities of color in ways that reduce inequities, we know companies can’t do this alone. Leading companies understand the need to partner with experts that work with communities of color. It is important to ensure that these are not token partnerships, but authentic and mutually beneficial for both the business and the local partner. Cigna, a commercial health insurance company collaborated with a local health care system in Memphis, Tennessee, to promote breast cancer screening among its Black customers living in neighborhoods with limited access to screening facilities. Efforts like these contributed to elimination of the breast cancer screening rate gap for Black patients, originally identified in 2012 and 2013 data. This partnership helped reduce unnecessary costs for Cigna and contributed to the goals of the local health care system.

Find all related material for The Corporate Racial Equity Advantage

Contact Us to join companies that are working with FSG and PolicyLink to find new business opportunities by advancing racial equity.

By Alexis Stephens

PolicyLink is proud to be a co-host of this year's People & Places, happening April 15-17 in Arlington, Virginia. During the convening, more than 100 speakers will be sharing successful strategies that promote equitable development, bolster small businesses, encourage asset growth, remediate blight, make places healthier, weave the arts into community development, and more. As an event co-host, we are highlighting how community development organizations are integrating arts and culture to help them better achieve their goals and how cities are embracing equity as a core operating principle. If you have yet to register or make plans to go to the conference, advance registration ends April 9. If you are already planning on attending, here are the sessions you hope to join us for:

Claiming the Torch: Community Organizations Advancing Racial Equity
Monday April 15, 8:30am-11:30am

"Claiming the Torch" was one of the themes of Equity Summit 2018; to us it means advocates working together to make equity priorities the driving force for our cultural institutions, governments, and communities. Engage in an interactive workshop facilitated by PolicyLink to learn from leaders of community-based organizations who found ways to disrupt mainstream organizational and community development processes to advance racial equity. This workshop will feature new research from PolicyLink on innovative ways to achieve more equitable outcomes such as non-traditional partnerships, organizational shifts, and arts and cultural strategies. Join PolicyLink Senior Fellow Jeremy Liu; Program Associate Lorrie Chang; Chelsea Alger, formerly of Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership; Mallory Nezam, Justice + Joy; Carolyn Johnson, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation; Mallory Nezam, Justice + Joy; Adela Park, Fairmount Park Conservancy; and Michaela Pommells, The Village of Arts and Humanities.

What Does the Future of Banking Hold for Communities of Color?
Monday April 15, 4:15pm-5:45pm

Lessons from the Great Recession and digital innovations have changed the financial services landscape dramatically over the past decade, leading to an experience that is safer and more seamless for consumers. Unfortunately, accessing the right financial tools is still not easy or affordable for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities, especially those of color. What does the future of banking hold for LMI communities? How can we boost their economic potential? And what strategies can we employ today to address their financial challenges and opportunities? Join PolicyLink Director Christopher M. Brown in conversation with John Chin, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation; Christina Corea, Citi Community Development; Emanuel Nieves, Prosperity Now; and Marisabel Torres, UnidosUS.

The Promise and Peril of Opportunity Zones
Tuesday April 16, 10:30am-12:00pm

What can equity groups do to shore up the positive potential of Opportunity Zones to benefit long- term residents and businesses while guarding against the biggest threats of gentrification and displacement? In this session, a panel of national and local experts will discuss new research on the use of financial services within LMI communities and what the public sector, financial institutions and on-the-ground groups can do to ensure that financial services are better serving these communities. Join PolicyLink Director Christopher M. Brown in conversation with Robert Bachmann, Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.; and Christopher Coes, Smart Growth America.

Reimagining Community Engagement and Organizing for Impact
Wednesday April 17, 9:00am-10:30am

Innovative community engagement and organizing techniques draw on creative expression to help communities envision what they want for their future and advocate for that vision. Incorporating artistic practices into community organizing is complex, requiring collaboration with artists. This session is designed for community developers who want to use artistic practices to deepen their community engagement and organizing process. Participants will learn how to conceive, structure, and implement relationships with artists to support community engagement and organizing goals. Join PolicyLink Senior Fellow for Arts, Culture and Equitable Development Jeremy Liu for a participatory learning session and conversation with Kier Johnston, Amber Art & Design; Scott Oshima, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center; and Ashley Hanson, PlaceBase Productions.

Strengthening Social and Cultural Fabric as an Innovative Practice for Community Development
Wednesday April 17, 11:00am-12:30pm

The process of change within American cities and towns has not always been supportive or protective of vulnerable communities. The approaches described in this session position social and cultural fabric as the foundation for community development, deepening the root of empowerment while fulfilling critical needs. The session will explore cross-sector partnerships that have developed innovative practices for celebrating and preserving cultural identity as an effective way to advance self-determination and community development. Join PolicyLink Program Associate Lorrie Chang in conversation with Joseph Claunch, Zuni Youth Enrichment Project; Karoleen Feng, Mission Economic Development Agency, and Chelsea Alger, formerly of Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership.

Community Powered Strategies to Fight Displacement: Lessons from the All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network
Wednesday April 17, 11:00am-12:30pm

In recent years, many cities are experiencing a surge in investments and economic activity. However, too many low-income people, especially people of color, who lived in cities through their long decline face displacement as rents rise and wages stagnate. Such displacement pressures destabilize families, neighborhoods, and entire cities. This session will highlight policies and strategies that local leaders and equity advocates from the All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network are using to fight displacement and promote equitable development in their communities. Join PolicyLink Associate Director Tracey Ross in conversation with Harper Bishop, PUSH Buffalo; Pamela Phan, Community Alliance of Tenants; Mercedeh Mortazavi, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Foundation; and Nefertitti Jackmon, District Six Square: Austin's Black Cultural District.

By Francis Yu and Jeremy Liu

The Para la Mission mural located on 19th Street and Mission Street, shortly after artist Mel Waters repaired damages from vandalism. (Francis Yu 2018)

A jarring splash of white paint defaced an iconic community mural after it was vandalized by an unknown suspect late in mid-July 2018. The mural, named Para la Mission, displays guitarist Carlos Santana, a native of the Mission District, centered within a backdrop of Latinx iconography. The Mission District of San Francisco — a historically Latinx neighborhood where, for decades, murals have served as a representation of a rich cultural legacy — has contended with the pressures of gentrification for almost two decades now. This vandalism is just one reflection of a dynamic, but sometimes contested, relationship between arts and cultural identity in a changing neighborhood.

Through arts and culture, communities can explore shared understandings of identity, values, beliefs and heritage. As cities all over the nation grapple with rapid change and development pressures, arts and culture can also provide an equitable approach to guiding growth. In other words, a cultural lens helps to answer the question, “How can cultural equity contribute to planning and development in a just, fair, and inclusive way?”’

Increasingly, community development organizations (in sectors such as affordable housing, economic and workforce development, health, etc) are collaborating with arts and cultural institutions and individual artists to more comprehensively address community issues, like displacement and health inequities. The field of creative placemaking — and the reframing of the field towards the values of “placekeeping” — amplifies how arts and culture help to preserving community identity and belonging as physical spaces are transformed. In San Francisco, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), a long-standing economic development organization focusing on the needs of the Mission’s residents, and Galería de la Raza, a major cultural and arts anchor in the Mission, have been working as strategic partners to comprehensively address issues of cultural and physical displacement. Through a grant from The Kresge Foundation and with assistance from PolicyLink, they have identified a shared understanding that belonging is not just about physically living in a neighborhood, but is also about the cultural identity of a place. They have been working together to understand how arts and culture contribute to the work of equitable housing and economic development, have identified anti-displacement strategies around this understanding, and are in the process of shaping broader policy goals for their partnership.

Often considered ground zero for gentrification in San Francisco, rents in the Mission continue to rise and restaurants and services catering to more affluent populations have taken over local ‘mom and pops’ establishments servicing the neighborhood’s Latinx communities. These communities include Mexicans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, El Salvadorians, and more — all foundational to the Mission’s cultural identity. Murals, such as the recently-defaced Para la Mission, adorn many of their walls, sometimes filling entire alleys with pieces from local arts organizations and artists. Yet, many of these community murals are disappearing, and in one case, painted over with a different mural reflecting the tastes of new ownership.

Near the end of 2016, MEDA started exploring strategies on how to protect the Mission’s culture and culture bearers, with initial conversations centering on creative placemaking. Ani Rivera, director of Galería de la Raza, offered a critical voice to that conversation and pointed to the framing of “placekeeping” as “respecting the legacy of the community.”

“We have the culture and we have the artists. How do we preserve that?” Rivera recalls asking in her initial discussions with MEDA. MEDA has preserved or created 1,173 affordable units through their Community Real Estate program, with a laudable goal of creating 2,000 units by 2020. These units have been vital to ensuring the sustained presence of long-time Mission residents and families in the neighborhood. But the relationship with Galería de la Raza has opened them up to other opportunities. The two partners decided to relocate Galería de la Raza into a new space in one of MEDA’s new affordable housing developments. Together, they have crafted a real estate strategy that takes advantage of the City of San Francisco’s Small Sites Program to prevent the displacement of the local artistic community. The program offers loans for nonprofits seeking to acquire four- to 25-unit buildings in order to keep them permanently affordable. By intentionally seeking out spaces where local artists reside, this secures that they will continue to have an influence on the culture and cultural expression of the neighborhood.

“Saving the buildings was more than just saving the units or creating below market rate opportunities, it was saving the cultural legacy of the Mission,” says Rivera.

Ani Rivera and the team at Galería de la Raza prepare for the opening of the Comida Es Medicina show at Studio 24 located on 24th Street and Bryant Street. (Francis Yu 2018)

“PolicyLink served as a provocateur — a point of inspiration to challenge the work that was going on, to look beyond arts as a space issue,” says Feliciano Vera of MEDA. Both organizations also benefited from being connected to other cohort members from the Arts, Culture, and Equitable Development initiative. Throughout the grant period, which ends this month, they connected with other cohort members experiencing similar issues within their communities, such as gentrification, cultural erasure, or a drastically changing economic landscape. Events like cohort convenings and the 2018 PolicyLink Equity Summit helped the cohort form a support network of organizations addressing various community development challenges through the lens of arts and culture.

The full integration of an arts and culture lens to these strategies, or a “Culture-in-All-Policies” approach, akin to the “Health-in-All-Policies” movement, can provide a comprehensive approach recognizing the Mission’s cultural legacy in areas such as housing, education, immigration, and others. “When we think of the Mission and community development [we need to] understand the critical role that arts and culture play in facilitating and sustaining community for seven generations forward and seven generations back,” said Rivera referring to the importance of a holistic approach to community development. Work to bring “Culture-in-All-Policies” into the San Francisco Latino Parity and Equity Coalition's policy agenda is ongoing and permeating the collaboration between the two organizations in other ways as well.

Earlier this year, working with PolicyLink, Galería de la Raza and MEDA hosted an informal meeting with a coalition of Mission activists to explore the way arts and culture approaches or considerations could support their fight against planned bus-only lanes on a major thoroughfare in the neighborhood. Equity issues raised by the activists included how private shuttles, i.e. “Google buses”, would be allowed to use the lanes, prioritizing the transport of newer, wealthier residents through the Mission over benefiting Mission residents themselves.

In the meeting, participants were led through a visioning exercise where they were asked to recall or envision the most positive way transit was a part of the life of the neighborhood. Later, as discussions of strategy where being debated, a MEDA policy staffer realized that they, as a community, had overlooked the cultural arguments for reversing the bus-only lane decision. She shared how meaningful bus stops had been to her to meet and connect with neighbors, and that the elimination of bus stops in the Mission to streamline service on the bus-only lanes would disrupt a vital cultural function. The coalition realized once more that one of their most important assets — their cultural identity — could be used in advocacy and organizing. The campaign to change the bus-only lanes continues, but the collaborative work of Galería de la Raza and MEDA to integrate arts and culture into equitable development continues.

By Abbie Langston and Lorrie Chang

Photo Credit: Malcolm Wilson, Humans of Central Appalachia

Letcher County, Kentucky is at the very heart of Appalachia, a region as rich in history and culture as in natural resources. Over the last 10 years, the county has lost more than 90 percent of coal jobs that had sustained its economy. About 98 percent of residents are White and 80 percent voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

At first glance, this rural area might seem to have little in common with diverse urban centers like Detroit and Pittsburgh. But the challenge of advancing a just economic transition in coal country is not dissimilar  with the challenge of building an equitable economy in metropolitan regions once dominated by steel, automotive, or other manufacturing sectors.

Like these cities and other “company towns,” Eastern Kentucky citizens once drew their lifeblood from a single industry, and now face the challenge of charting a new economy. One resident likened coal’s hold to addiction. The coal companies proclaimed, “you mine the coal and we’ll take care of you,” she explained. When coal collapsed, this dependency left communities in fear and desperation. So it’s no surprise that many residents have welcomed the prospect of a proposed federal prison as another economic anchor to fill the void.

But across the political spectrum, a consensus is building that Letcher County’s future cannot depend solely on one company or industry. A group of community-led organizations have formed the Letcher County Culture Hub, a network designed to foster and develop residents’s agency and assets, and build on the strength of its own rich cultural wealth. Today the growing list of partners include volunteer fire departments, businesses, community centers, and artist and cultural organizations collaborating with elected officials and other local, regional, and national organizations. Partners bring together resources and work in consensus to pursue common goals including reviving cultural events like the region’s bluegrass festival, founding new social enterprises including one that employs formerly incarcerated people, and expanding opportunity such as broadband Internet.

The Letcher County Culture Hub is also a part of the Arts, Culture, Equitable Development Initiative, generously supported by The Kresge Foundation, for PolicyLink to expand the impact of six community based organizations across the US in equitable development and policy change through arts and culture.

Centering Grassroots Power: Self-Determination through Arts and Culture

The Letcher County Culture Hub was born out of Appalshop, a 50-year-old multimedia arts, culture, and workforce development center that supports residents to tell their own stories, strengthen Appalachian culture, and work for more just communities.

With its arts-and-culture focused mission and deep roots in Letcher County, Appalshop took a unique approach to economic development: unlike traditional development that begin with a plan for a community to develop assets, they began with the community and the assets within it. Ben Fink, an Appalshop organizer who collaborated with community leaders to start the Culture Hub, explained, “This isn’t a project about saving Appalachia. This is a project about Appalachians saving ourselves.” From this perspective, culture isn’t just a way to add local flavor to economic development or market products; it is the very context and medium that make economic and social relationships possible. As Fink put it, “culture means more than music, dance, or art. It means paying attention to the language, interactions, and how meaning gets made.”

For the Culture Hub, starting with culture means starting with the methodology of story circles utilized by Appalshop’s longtime collaborator Junebug Productions, an African-American arts organization rooted in the civil rights movement. Story circles create a space where all voices are equal, identify and build on common bonds, and generate ideas from the intersections and contradictions between stories.

This has been a crucial process for the Culture Hub whose constituents span a wide spectrum of philosophical beliefs and political leanings. Fire chief, former mine owner, and conservative political activist Bill Meade reflected, “If you told me I would be here at Appalshop three years ago, I would have never believed you.” Appalshop has long been viewed by some with skepticism for its progressive political orientation in a place steeped in conservative traditions. But by building from the common ground of culture, the Culture Hub has bridged long-standing divides and forged new bonds of collaboration. Story circles, community plays, and other cultural-based approaches have allowed participants to not ignore their differences, but to work across them through shared values and aspirations. Meade, a founding member, is now one of the network’s central leaders. He has played an integral role in economic development, helping launch the county’s first large-scale solar project with partners; and the arts, playing a lead role in Appalshop’s recent play The Future of Letcher County.

Playing the Long Game: Rooting Culture in an Economic Model

For over a hundred years, Appalachia has been dominated by an economic model that suffocates rather than encourages creativity, new ideas, and self-determination. The Culture Hub’s vision for the next hundred years is very different: build a culture of entrepreneurial spirit, interdependence, and unbounded imagination among residents who believe the future is theirs to create. This is why their mission is not just job creation or economic development. Instead, it is guided by the broader principle, “We own what me make.” The goal isn’t to employ everyone; but to create the conditions for everyone to enact their cultural, civic, and economic agency; identify and build on their assets; and find self-directed ways to turn them into community wealth.

The Culture Hub is playing the long game to redefine who owns and designs the narratives, strategies, and policies that will define Appalachia’s economic transition. Policies or programs alone cannot achieve true equity — a society in which all can reach their full potential — without shifting the culture of how people relate and make meaning and value together.

By building trust and a common voice through the intentional, collective production of culture, participants recognize and act on opportunities and needs in ways that might not be possible in traditional planning processes. As Fink explained, “honestly I think there was some shame about, you know, feeling helpless…[These deeper opportunities and needs weren’t] going to come up but for the kind of really intentional work around relationship building and strengthening that we did.” Because the Culture Hub roots development in people and their stories, participants are able to “not only to tell a different story about themselves, but also to act on that story”. Residents can rewrite their story from helpless to empowered and shape the solutions that turn this story into reality.

The Culture Hub is expanding. What began in 2015 with four partners is now nearly 20. Furthermore, the Culture Hub joined community cultural organizations in the Black Belt of Alabama, Mississippi Delta, West Baltimore, and rural and urban Wisconsin to found an emerging coalition. This project, called Performing Our Future, brings grassroots partners alongside economists, researchers, and technology developers together to advance community-led, culture-driven development on a national and international scale. The Culture Hub and the coalition continue to look for collaborators and funding to support work in which all people, voices, and perspectives make their own future and own what they make.

This is how "Winning on Equity" happens!

Last Thursday, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey demonstrated the meaning of radical imagination by putting forward a legislative framework to confront climate change and uplift the lives and well-being of Indigenous communities and communities on the front lines of climate threats across the nation. Their proposed Green New Deal (GND) builds on work many of you have led over the last decade: it confronts the threats of climate change by proposing a transition from fossil fuels while investing in the communities and the 100 million economically insecure people in America that have borne the worst of our carbon-based economy.

Let's show Congress that the Green New Deal has our support. Transformative solidarity is the prerequisite to realizing the promise of the Green New Deal vision.

Contact your congressional leaders and tell them to cosponsor the Green New Deal framework and move it forward into bold legislation.

Highlights of the Green New Deal include:

• Universal Access to Clean Water and Transportation: The GND prioritizes investment in green infrastructure including drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure that can ensure universal access to clean water for the 77 million people across the U.S. who lack access to safe and affordable drinking water. It would dismantle fossil fuel infrastructure to protect our natural water systems, while developing renewable energy sources. It would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and would repair and improve our transportation, energy, housing, and other infrastructure.
• A Federal Job Guarantee in the Green Economy: Amid growing economic insecurity and persistent racial economic inequity, a federal job guarantee can be a cornerstone for an inclusive, thriving, and sustainable 21st century American economy. By ensuring that every person who wants to work has access to a quality job, a job guarantee would eliminate involuntary unemployment, decrease poverty, and raise the floor on low-wage work while building stronger, more climate-friendly communities. The GND explicitly addresses historic, social, economic, racial, and gender-based injustices and includes a federal job guarantee as well as additional policies that ensure economic security and build wealth and ownership at the community level.

Climate change and growing inequality are among the greatest threats to our nation. As the nation's population becomes majority people of color, the Green New Deal can enable us to become a just, fair, and sustainable society where all — including working-class communities and communities of color long locked out of opportunity — can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.

Tell your congressional representatives to support the Green New Deal by cosponsoring the bill, moving forward committee hearings, and shaping bold legislation.

In solidarity,

Michael McAfee, PolicyLink

 

The political power of Black women has been on full display, particularly in America’s cities where a growing number of Black women have taken over as chief policymaker.

PolicyLink and ESSENCE recentley announced the ESSENCE-PolicyLink Mayors Roundtable -- a network for Black women mayors to exchange ideas, share best practices, develop strategies to create equitable cities, and shine a spotlight on their work and communities. Participating mayors include: Catherine Pugh, Baltimore, MD; Sharon Weston Broome, Baton Rouge,LA; Vi Lyles, Charlotte, NC; Karen Weaver, Flint, MI; LaToya Cantrell, New Orleans, LA; London Breed, San Francisco, CA; Muriel Bowser, Washington, DC; and Lovely Warren, Rochester, NY.

The network kicked off last Friday in Washington D.C., following the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, and will close July 4-7, 2019 during the ESSENCE Fest in New Orleans. In the interim, the mayors will participate in monthly virtual roundtables on topics related to policy and leadership hosted by the PolicyLink All-In Cities Initiative. ESSENCE will also be publishing a series of articles and videos profiling the mayors and highlighting the work that they are championing.

Read more about the event and watch the short video clip on Essense to learn more.

Art is a must-have for any thriving community. And that’s why we are proud to announce today that we have been selected as a recipient of a Hewlett 50 Arts Commission. Launched in 2017 to celebrate the foundation’s 50th anniversary, this is a five-year, $8 million initiative supporting the creation and premiere of 50 new works by world-class performing artists working in five disciplines. PolicyLink is among a group of 10 Bay Area-based non-profit organizations that will receive $150,000 each to create important and unique work that facilitates discussions around the most pressing local issues.

“We, the 100 Million,” will be a series of place-based, community-driven choreo-poems performed with music and multimedia storytelling exploring inequity in the United States. "We, the 100 Million" expands on the work of PolicyLink over the past two decades to advance racial and economic equity in the United States by combining data, policy, performance and poetry. The piece will be a 10-part spoken word performance that lifts up the lives of the 106 million Americans living near or in poverty. (See also: “100 Million and Counting: A Portrait of Economic Insecurity in the United States,” the newly published data profile that provides a breakdown of who is economically insecure in America.)

One source of inspiration for the development of the performance will be data from the National Equity Atlas (the PolicyLink partnership with the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California). Another important source will be direct engagement with people in communities across the country affected by economic insecurity. Lead artist Michael “Quess?” Moore and PolicyLink Senior Fellow and creative director of “We, the 100 Million” Jeremy Liu will work closely with our staff of researchers and public policy experts and local communities to communicate a richer and more nuanced understanding of the lived experience of 100 million Americans struggling to make ends meet.

To learn more about the Hewlett 50 Arts Commission and the nine other awardees, click here.

An attack on any of us, is an attack on all of us!

The present Administration continues to demonstrate that the society it seeks for America is the exact antithesis of an equitable society. An equitable society is one in which ALL can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. The New York Times reported this weekend that the Trump Administration intends "to establish a legal definition of sex" that would "exclude [transgender individuals] from civil rights protections under federal civil rights law." Such actions defy the very principles of equity and put the Administration's inhumanity once more on full display.

The proposal would impact the lives of two million people, causing disarray and revoking equal access to health care, housing, education, and fair treatment under the law. Like so many efforts promoted by this Administration, the proposal ignores the legal and medical precedents, strong science, and general decency and compassion that undergird these supports for transgender individuals.

We must all lift our voice to register our outrage at this blatant bigotry. Let this Administration know that we will not stand by quietly while it attacks any of us. The strength of the equity movement lies in our solidarity. An attack on any of us, is an attack on all of us!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Contact senior Administration officials. Let them know that you are opposed to any proposed rule that would strip transgender — or any — people of their civil rights and other protections.
   
  • Secretary of Education Betsy Devos
    Phone Number 202-401-3000
    Send email to: ocr@ed.gov
     
  • Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar
    Phone Number: 202-690-7000
    Send email to: talktodol@dol.gov
     
  • Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta
    Phone Number: 202-690-7000
    Send email to: Secretary@HHS.gov
     
  • Attorney General Jeff Sessions
    Phone Number: 202-353-1555
    Send email via contact form at following link: http://www2.policylink.org/e/78532/our-message-department-justice/6jwgsv/425885935
     

• Call your Congressional Representatives and tell them to pass the Equality Act now — a bill currently in Congress that would explicitly enshrine civil rights protections for transgender individuals. Dial the Capitol switchboard for number or connection, if needed: 202-224-3121.
   
• Join rallies and demonstrations in your local communities. Or organize your own.
   
• For more, read about seven ways to defend and support people targeted by Trump's trans-exclusionary  policies RIGHT NOW.

By Francis Yu, PolicyLink Arts & Culture 2018 Intern

The Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition (OCNC) – which brings together cultural organizations, neighborhoods, artists and residents of color – has accomplished many feats in the few years of its advocacy and community organizing in Oakland, a city that locals proudly refer to as “The Town.” From being an integral component in budget wins that led to the hiring of Roberto Bedoya, the city’s first cultural affairs manager in fall 2016, and increasing grants funds for local artists and organizations last summer, OCNC has proven to be a critical community voice and has won on several equitable arts and culture policies in a city that has been lacking in such policy work for more than a decade.

On September 17, the City of Oakland released Belonging in Oakland: A Cultural Development Plan, in addition to announcing a restructured and expanded arts grant program, approving 80 projects totaling over $1 million.  The plan, one of OCNC’s original policy goals it identified several years back, is a guiding framework that centers on a cultural equity lens in developing policy, apparent in its tagline: ”Equity is the driving force. Culture is the frame. Belonging is the goal.” Through this framework, both community groups and city officials can design policies and interventions rooted in equity – just and fair inclusion for all. Anyka Barber, co-founder of the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition, adds that, “cultural equity is going to be about making sure that equitable implementation happens.”

Below is a diagram that shows the process of how Oakland’s civic leaders, advocates, and residents informed the development of the plan.

A unique and defining feature of Oakland’s cultural plan is its purposely broad nature: by looking at how cultural equity applies to broader policy areas, strategic development of specific policies and programs would center and consider its effects on the culture and identity of Oakland’s residents. “The goal of this plan was to bust the framing of culture within policies wide open, to not see it in a narrow way,” says Vanessa Whang, who authored the plan under Bedoya. She emphasized the importance of looking at “culture as ways of being,” which has broader implications on the cultural aspects of other city agencies and departments.

This was an important organizing principle for OCNC in that this frame values culture as critical to one’s identity and broadens their advocacy efforts to the community at-large, who feel the city’s culture is under threat as Oakland experiences rapid change. “The displacement of culture and knowledge – cultural entities, churches, spaces – are part of a systemic erasure of community,” states Barber. The threat of this change is critical to the formation and the work around arts and culture that OCNC has undertaken.

As OCNC moves to its next chapter, a cultural development plan that centers on cultural equity provides a shared language communicating the importance of culture as OCNC strengthens its relationships with other advocacy organizations such as ReFund Oakland, a multisector coalition that organized around the City of Oakland’s budget and was integral to OCNC’s policy wins. OCNC is also currently advocating for the re-establishment City of Oakland Arts & Culture Commission, which has been inactive since 2014.

Funding from The Kresge Foundation and support from PolicyLink has supported the work of the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition. PolicyLink has provided capacity and technical assistance in helping prepare OCNC leadership to develop, frame, and organize their policy agenda;  prepare for meetings with elected officials; and build and support their communications strategies. Additionally, Leon Sykes, who helps in the operations of OCNC, emphasized the role of OCNC’s presentation to the 2018 PolicyLink Equity Summit. “It was important in helping us realize just how much work we’ve accomplished.”