The Center for Urban and Racial Equity (CURE) outlines concrete opportunities for organizations to uphold their commitments to dismantle institutional racism.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 26, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today, the Center for Urban and Racial Equity (CURE) announced the release of its highly anticipated report designed to equip organizational leaders to deliver on the anti-racist commitments they made in 2020. ​​Based on CURE’s extensive experience guiding nonprofit leaders through racial equity organizational change processes over nearly five years, the report outlines concrete ways for organizations to make measurable improvements in their racial equity transformation efforts, containing case studies and organizational trends observed through CURE’s work. The full report can be downloaded here.

Across the nonprofit sector, leadership including boards and senior staff are often ill-equipped to lead racial equity change. According to a study conducted by the Urban Institute in 2021, 79% of executive directors and board chairs are white, despite leading organizations that primarily serve communities of color. Funders and nonprofits are also making insufficient investments in equitable workplace practices, with nearly half of employees of color reporting that their race has impeded their career advancement. Finally, many nonprofit programs and services are designed without the input of impacted communities and are thus shaped by an attitude of white saviorism. CURE’s report helps demystify the process of dismantling institutional racism for organizational leaders by sharing their approach, process and lessons learned from thousands of hours of analyzing employee survey data, facilitating trainings and workshops and co-creating racial equity action plans.

In the report, CURE shares its Racial Equity Organizational Change (REOC) framework and process, a carefully sequenced systems-thinking approach that has been used to guide CURE’s clients through racial equity organizational change processes.

The approach helps organizations focus their efforts in four key domains:
1. Organizational Culture & Commitment
2. Shared Language & Analysis
3. Empowered People
4. Equitable Policies & Practices

Through its client work, CURE has observed what it takes to build racially equitable and justice-driven organizations. First, racial equity organizational change requires a commitment from the top, with leadership that is willing to name and confront racism and shift power to prioritize leadership from impacted populations. Racial equity organizational change also requires that all employees develop shared language to fully articulate what racial equity means to their organization and feel empowered as full contributors in working towards that vision. Additionally, racial equity organizational change must be carried out in partnership with impacted communities, viewing Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x and Asian and Pacific Islander communities as partners, rather than beneficiaries of services.

“At its essence, racial equity work is healing work, which is why we are driven to share the insights from our lessons learned of supporting leaders through long-overdue conversations and organizational change processes, explained Judy Lubin, CURE president and CEO. “Organizations now have an opportunity and an obligation to move beyond acknowledging how we got to this moment of reckoning, beyond the surface level commitments and go deep into the transformative work needed to make lasting change. I’m encouraged and excited that this report will provide the tools and support for organizations to initiate and facilitate meaningful shifts in organizational culture, practices, policies and outcomes.”

About CURE:

The Center for Urban and Racial Equity partners with people and organizations to
advance racial equity and justice through policy, systems, institutional, community and
societal change. CURE works locally and nationally and across sectors and issue areas to deliver research, training, strategic planning and stakeholder engagement services that foster equitable policies, programs, practices, workplaces and communities. To learn more, visit www.urbanandracialequity.org.

Chantelle Wilkinson
Center for Urban and Racial Equity
cwilkinson@urbanandracialequity.org

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