TPCH released Striving Toward Racial Justice: A Call-to-Action for Pima County Community-Based Organizations, in partnership with the University of Arizona Southwest Institute for Research on Women in November 2021. As we begin 2022, we are calling on community organizations and our housing partners to deepen our shared resolve to advancing racial equity. This email series provides a summary of key concepts and strategies discussed in the Call to Action and i packed with useful resources and tools to help community organizations as they strive toward racial justice. In this issue, we introduce the fourth of 7 key actions defined in the Call to Action: Determining Desired Outcomes. This issue focuses on making the change we want to see within our organizations and our community explicit and measurable. Don’t miss our next issue in which we introduce Action 5 – Building Racial Justice and Minimizing Harm. Can’t wait? Click here to download the full Call to Action now. |
| Action 4: Determine Desired Outcomes |
| After a comprehensive review of the organizational landscape, it is time to set priorities for policy and program changes and develop a timeline. Plans will work best if you lay out clear, measurable and attainable goals with specific indicators assigned to each goal in order to measure success. Developing desired outcomes for the organization and for clients will help build a roadmap of the direction to head toward. Outcomes should be mutually agreed upon by leadership, staff and clients. Consider budgetary and staff needs. Prioritizing this work means that those charged with leading tasks should be properly compensated; work should not be in addition to regular job duties. Also important is to anticipate potential unintended consequences of your work and aim to mitigate these challenges if possible. One unintended consequence may be pushback from different segments of the community who may not understand the need for prioritizing racial equity. It is critical to continuously articulate the importance of advancing racial equity in order to dismantle deeply-held beliefs and structures that perpetuate systems of advantage/disadvantage. |
| Check out this video from the National Alliance to End Homelessness introducing the equity-based decision making framework. |
| Recommended Strategies Develop short- and long-term targets specific to areas for improvement. Potential areas for improvement: Board, leadership, staff, and client representation. Identify the positive outcomes that revised policies might have on staff members. Consider measuring community reinvestment. Research the potential impact of compensating staff who have assumed additional labor to improve services to clients. Develop data-driven objectives. Analyze by race and ethnicity, and other intersecting identities with high impact/influence. Determine populations who might not be adequately represented in the data. Develop objectives for populations not represented in the data. Develop outcome goals. Practically, there should be no differences in client outcomes based on race or ethnicity. Strategize outcomes that are important to the stakeholders and outcomes that are important to funders; may differ from one another. Evaluate the impact of investing in appropriate document translation. Involve all stakeholders in the development of outcomes. Develop a process that allows an equal voice in the process. Maintain transparency about your goals related to racial justice for the organization and for clients. |
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| Authors |
| It is with the upmost admiration, respect and appreciation that we thank the authors for their critical contribution to this call-to action. In addition to their daily tireless commitment and relentless dedication to achieving racial justice in our community, they lent their expertise and passion to the hopeful notion that local organizations are willing to better serve their clients and better support their staff. Each of you makes our community a more just place. Claudia Powell Casey Chimneystar Limón-Condit Marisol Flores-Aguirre Anna Harper-Guerrero Mildred Manuel Andrés Portela III Claudio Rodriguez |