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The Architecture of Inequality | Resource & Reflection Guide

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The Architecture of Inequality | Resource & Reflection Guide

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Use this piece as a resource to trace how policies, design, and narratives institutionalize racial inequality across housing, education, health, policing, and wealth. It curates entry points—key histories (redlining, GI Bill), data sources (ACS, eviction, lending), and community knowledge—to ground analysis in evidence and lived experience. For reflection: Who benefits, who bears costs, and where do we uphold these architectures in our classrooms, budgets, or partnerships? What indicators show belonging or harm? Which voices are missing from decisions? Commit to auditing policies, redistributing resources toward repair, and measuring change with disaggregated outcomes, qualitative stories, and iterative, co-created accountability over time.

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The Architecture of Inequality | Resource & Reflection Guide

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The Architecture of Inequality | Resource & Reflection Guide

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Use this piece as a resource to trace how policies, design, and narratives institutionalize racial inequality across housing, education, health, policing, and wealth. It curates entry points—key histories (redlining, GI Bill), data sources (ACS, eviction, lending), and community knowledge—to ground analysis in evidence and lived experience. For reflection: Who benefits, who bears costs, and where do we uphold these architectures in our classrooms, budgets, or partnerships? What indicators show belonging or harm? Which voices are missing from decisions? Commit to auditing policies, redistributing resources toward repair, and measuring change with disaggregated outcomes, qualitative stories, and iterative, co-created accountability over time.

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CDC Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

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CDC Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

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Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age. These forces and systems include a wide set of forces and systems that shape daily life such as economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, and political systems. CDC has adopted this definition from the World Health Organization.

Why are SDOH important to CDC?

SDOH are one of three priority areas for Healthy People 2030, along with health equity and health literacy. Healthy People 2030 sets data-driven national objectives in five key areas of SDOH: healthcare access and quality, education access and quality, social and community context, economic stability, and neighborhood and built environment. Some examples of SDOH included in Healthy People 2030 are safe housing, transportation, and neighborhoods; polluted air and water; and access to nutritious foods and physical health opportunities.

As the federal government's leading public health agency, CDC has a unique role in contributing to work on SDOH.

Why is addressing SDOH important for CDC and public health?

Addressing differences in SDOH accelerates progress toward health equity, a state in which every person has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health. SDOH have been shown to have a greater influence on health than either genetic factors or access to healthcare services. For example, poverty is highly correlated with poorer health outcomes and higher risk of premature death. SDOH, including the effects of centuries of racism, are key drivers of health inequities within communities of color. The impact is pervasive and deeply embedded in our society, creating inequities in access to a range of social and economic benefits-such as housing, education, wealth, and employment. These inequities put people at higher risk of poor health.

CDC is coordinating efforts to focus its resources on the areas where federal public health investments can make the most difference. For example, CDC's Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) focuses on reducing high rates of chronic diseases for specific racial and ethnic groups in urban, rural, and tribal communities. Since 1999, the program has worked across sectors in racial and ethnic minority communities to reduce tobacco use, improve access to healthy foods, change the built environment to promote physical activity, and connect people to clinical care.

Public health actions that affect SDOH

Public health organizations can:

Convene

Bring together community members and organizations to identify local concerns.

CDC has a long history of convening partners through national conferences, webinars, collaborative publications, and guideline development. CDC also encourages other public health organizations to act as conveners by including coalition-building or community engagement activities as a requirement in some funded projects.

Integrate

Collect and use multiple sources of data, including public health data, to help develop strategies for set direction. For example, public health departments can provide GIS maps of community needs and assets based on CDC PLACES data and environmental justice data.

Influence

Lead approaches to develop policies and solutions or leverage funding through various mechanisms to implement and expand priority actions. For example, when CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced that racism is a public health threat in 2021, it reinforced actions that communities were already taking and supported many others as they took subsequent actions.

Contribute to big changes

Collaborate with others to find innovative solutions and put them into place. For example, an LA County public health initiative resulted in the ban of menthol cigarettes.

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Defines social determinants of health and relevance to CDC's work

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The Opportunity Atlas is a data visualization tool that maps economic mobility across the United States. It provides information on how neighborhoods impact children’s future income, education, and other life outcomes, using data to show disparities and patterns in opportunity based on geographic regions. This tool helps policymakers, researchers, and communities understand where to focus efforts for greater economic equality and improved long-term outcomes for residents.

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The Opportunity Atlas is an initial release of social mobility data, the result of a collaboration between researchers at the Census Bureau, Harvard University, and Brown University. While the estimates in the Opportunity Atlas are not provisional, we are still testing aspects of the research product, including census.gov integration, planned annual data refreshes, and variable additions. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. The statistical summaries reported in this paper have been cleared by the Census Bureau's Disclosure Review Board release authorization number CBDRB-FY18-319.

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Map the childhood roots of social mobility

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Toolkit

Watch the RaceWorks video series to learn about race as a doing, doing race and undoing racism through specific topic areas (e.g., immigration), and the role racial perception plays in doing race. For more background, check out the concept guides on defining race and the culture cycle.

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An educator or facilitator who wants to develop students’ or coworkers’ racial literacy

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The Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley advances groundbreaking research, policy, and ideas that examine and remediate the processes of exclusion, marginalization, and structural inequality—what we call othering—in order to build a world based on inclusion, fairness, justice, and care for the earth—what we call belonging.

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Our Story | Othering & Belonging Institute

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A truly unique center for scholarship, research, community partnerships and strategy, the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley takes a multidisciplinary approach to developing forward-

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We offer tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working for racial justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.

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Racial Equity Tools offers tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working for racial justice at every level –in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.

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jQuery(function() { jQuery('a[href*=#]:not([href=#])').click(function() { if (location.pathname.replace(/^\//,'') == this.pathname.replace(/^\//,'') && location.hostname == this.hostname) { var target = jQuery(this.hash); target = target.length ? target : $('[name=' + this.hash.slice(1) +']'); if (target.length) { jQuery('html,body').animate({ scrollTop: target.offset().top }, 1000); return false; } } }); });

Bread for the World Institute

Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation

What is the Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation?

The simulation is an interactive tool that helps people understand the connections among racial equity, hunger, poverty, and wealth. It is a good first step for people unaware of structural inequality, a support tool for those who want a deeper understanding of structural inequality, and a source of information for experts who want to know the quantifiable economic impact of each policy that has widened today's racial hunger, income, and wealth divides.

The simulation helps people understand the connections among racial equity, hunger, poverty, and wealth.

In the simulation, participants learn how federal policies created structural inequalities-property ownership and education are just two among many areas affected-and how these policies increase hunger and poverty in communities of color.

The simulation guides participants to an understanding of why racial equity is so important to ending hunger and poverty in the United States. Our hope is that participants, in becoming more aware of structural inequality, can support policies that undo and/or reduce disparities.

Since the simulation emphasizes the importance of racial equity, it can be a helpful companion tool for churches, organizations, agencies, schools, and communities that have begun working on race and want to learn more about the role that public policy has had, over time, in creating structural divides based on race.

What is the simulation's impact?

Bring the simulation to your community.

How does the simulation break down barriers?

There are many ways of talking or thinking about race. Feeling uncomfortable with the topic can be a barrier to engaging in conversation.

Sign up to receive updates on racial equity issues and new resources

SIGN UP

Yet these conversations are essential, especially if we are going to end U.S. hunger and poverty. This is one reason the simulation calls for participants to randomly select cards that assign them a racial identity that may be different from their own. This helps break down some of the barriers.

At Bread for the Word, we have seen the simulation change people's hearts and minds and inspire them to become committed to applying a racial equity lens to their work.

Ready to get started? Watch Bringing the Simulation to Your Community and learn how.

How did the simulation come to be and where can it be used?

The Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation was a joint effort from Bread for the World and NETWORK. The concept and design of the simulation was co-created by Marlysa D. Gamblin, a policy expert on the racial hunger, income, and wealth divide. Marlysa worked closely with Emma Tacke and Catherine Guerrier with NETWORK to pilot the simulation at Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) in April 2017.

Achieving racial equity means that all people, regardless of race, have fair opportunities to enjoy equal outcomes.

After the initial pilot, Bread dedicated a full year to piloting the simulation in the field and making adjustments to ensure the tool is helpful to a wide variety of communities in different settings.

This tool can be used at home, Bible study, churches, larger gatherings, and schools, and among staff at nonprofits, advocacy organizations, service providers, government agencies, and private entities.

If you are interested in using the simulation, watch Bringing This to Your Community. The video gives further details about the simulation. We recommend using the Facilitator's Guide. The guide offers tips on preparing for and facilitating the simulation in various settings. We also have a Virtual Facilitator's Guide, if you're unable to meet in person. If you want to bring this tool to your church or Bible study, please also download the Biblical Activity Sheet below.

Want to facilitate the simulation virtually? Download these resources:

Want to facilitate the simulation in person? Download these resources:

Additional Reading on Race and Hunger

What can I do next to promote racial equity and dismantle racism?

Now that you have completed the Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation, there are many things that you can do. First and foremost, we want to encourage you to engage in the work of understand how to reverse what has created racial inequities-racial equity. Racial equity is a process that focuses on centering the needs, leadership and power of Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color, as well as a goal of achieving equal, and ultimately optimal, outcomes for BIPOC relative to their white counterparts. Go to bread.org/racialequity to learn more about this term, read key reports to understand how racial equity can be applied to policy to end hunger and address racism, and learn about important tools to help you promote racial equity in your work!

We thank the many organizations that share the simulation with their networks and use it in their work. Email us to learn about becoming a partner.

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Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation - Bread for the World

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Bread for the World Institute Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation What is the Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation? The simulation is an interactive tool that helps people understand the connections among racial equity, hunger, poverty, and wealth.

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Community Commons is a robust online platform that supports change-makers working to advance equitable community health and well-being. For over a decade, we’ve connected those driving change to the best tools, resources, data, and stories to support this work.

Search or browse to discover:

Thousands of curated tools, resources, data, and stories

Organized into 10 Discovery Streams and over 200 Topic Areas

Hundreds of new resources added each month

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Welcome to Community Commons, a community of change-makers working to create healthy, equitable, sustainable communities. Find curated tools, resources, and inspirational stories to drive your work forward. Learn more.

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Toxic | A Black Woman's Story (Cleveland)

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Toxic | A Black Woman's Story (Cleveland)

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Racism. Toxic stress. Birth outcomes.

How are these things intertwined? The short film, Toxic: A Black Woman's Story, seeks to explore that question...

Peer into the world of the film’s lead protagonist, Nina. An elite lawyer, loyal wife, and loving mother of a teen boy, Nina is navigating life (and a pregnancy) to the best of her ability.

But sometimes the forces on a woman - especially a black woman - can be too much to bear.

In this highly anticipated short film, the viewer is invited on a journey of perspective transformation. Follow Nina in this day-in-the-life drama, and see the world through the eyes of a successful black woman who must navigate an unjust world while trying to protect the world she has created for herself and her family.

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"Toxic: A Black Woman's Story" is a short film about racism, toxic stress, and birth outcomes.

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Improving The Infrastructure For Neighborhood Indices To Advance Health Equity

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Improving The Infrastructure For Neighborhood Indices To Advance Health Equity

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In the US, neighborhood indices help advance our understanding of health inequities, particularly racial/ethnic inequities. A large body of research has documented that in areas where populations live more separated by race and ethnicity, health inequities tend to be larger, ostensibly because residential segregation creates vast inequality in neighborhood conditions that matter for health and well-being.

Public health researchers, and by extension area indices, have long focused on the concentration of negative community factors, particularly poverty concentration, that undermine health. However, neighborhoods vary not only in their level of disadvantage but also in other socioeconomic factors, physical characteristics, amenities, and social and institutional fabric. Therefore, over time, researchers have increasingly used indices that capture multiple neighborhood dimensions.

(IMAGE:)

A comprehensive assessment of neighborhood indices to advance their health equity applications (see exhibit 1) should include index conceptualization, technical soundness, and utility in: measuring neighborhood influences on health, measuring racial and ethnic inequities in neighborhood environment and health, linking such inequities to structural racism, and informing applications in decision making and interventions to improve health equity.

https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/improving-infrastructure-neighborhood-indices-advance-health-equity

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Health Equity in Ashtabula Presentation and Community Discussion

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Health Equity in Ashtabula Presentation and Community Discussion

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Held in April 2023, In Sickness & In Wealth Health Equity in Ashtabula Presentation and Community Discussion

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The process is designed to help leaders and organizations who want to proactively understand and address racism, both in their organization and in the community where the organization is working. The Racial Equity Institute, LLC process is just that: an 18-month to two-year process.

Our experience is that the goals of understanding and addressing racism can rarely be achieved in a three-hour or one-day workshop. Racism is a fierce, ever-present, challenging force, one which has structured the thinking, behavior, and actions of individuals and institutions since the beginning of U.S. history. To understand racism and effectively begin dismantling it requires an equally fierce, consistent, and committed effort.

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An alliance of trainers, organizers, and institutional leaders devoted to the work of creating racially equitable organizations and systems.

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Wearing snapback caps and Air Jordans, the Reality Poets aren’t typical nursing home residents. In Fire Through Dry Grass, these young, Black and brown disabled artists document their lives on lockdown during Covid, their rhymes underscoring the danger and imprisonment they feel. In the face of institutional neglect, they refuse to be abused, confined, and erased. Co-produced with ITVS.

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Wearing snapback caps and Air Jordans, the Reality Poets aren't typical nursing home residents. In Fire Through Dry Grass, these young, Black and brown disabled artists document their lives on lockdown during Covid, their rhymes underscoring the danger and imprisonment they feel. In the face of institutional neglect, they refuse to be abused, confined, and erased. Co-produced with ITVS.

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An unlikely group of nursing home residents launch a movement during the pandemic.

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The Groundwater Approach

The Groundwater metaphor is designed to help practitioners at all levels internalize the reality that we live in a racially structured society, and that that is what causes racial inequity. The metaphor is based on three observations:

1. racial inequity looks the same across systems,

2. socio-economic difference does not explain the racial inequity; and,

3. inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior

"Our groundwater metaphor is designed to help practitioners at all levels internalize the reality that we live in a racially structured society, and that that is what causes racial inequity. The metaphor is based on three observations: racial inequity looks the same across systems, socioeconomic difference does not explain the racial inequity; and inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior. Embracing these truths forces leaders to confront the reality that all our systems, institutions, and outcomes emanate from the racial hierarchy on which the United States was built. In other words, we have a “groundwater” problem, and we need “groundwater” solutions."

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County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) is a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

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County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) is a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

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Explore Health Rankings

The annual Rankings provide a revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work, and play. They provide a starting point for change in communities.

Data Spotlights unmask differences in opportunity for everyone in a community to thrive. In each data spotlight we will amplify a key measure, data point or trend from our research and bring it to life with additional context beyond the numbers and emphasize how system-level barriers prevent many from leading long and healthy lives

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The annual Rankings provide a revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work, and play. They provide a starting point for change in communities.

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In Solidarity: Connecting Power, Place and Health

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In Solidarity: Connecting Power, Place and Health

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County Health Rankings & Roadmaps is introducing a new way to engage in conversations around an idea fundamental to improving health and well-being for everyone: social solidarity. The conversations take place on a podcast launching this week called In Solidarity: Connecting Power, Place and Health.

In its debut episode, CHR&R hosts Beth Silver and Ericka Burroughs-Girardi introduce the concept of social solidarity and how our lives and fates are interconnected. The hosts reveal their own connection, which began before they were even born.

The podcast will launch a six-episode series on the racial wealth divide and how it impacts health. Silver and Burroughs-Girardi interview authors, activists and scientists to investigate the history of the racial wealth gap, its insidious and far-reaching implications for the health of Black Americans in particular, and the evidence-based solutions that could close the divide. All six episodes will be available April 13.

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Blog Post | Join the conversation on our new podcast: In Solidarity: Connecting Power, Place and Health

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County Health Rankings and Roadmaps is introducing a new podcast to engage in conversations around an idea fundamental to improving health and well-being for everyone: social solidarity.

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Introducing the Equity Analysis Radius Map Tool

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Introducing the Equity Analysis Radius Map Tool

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NEWTON, MA (USA) - We are proud to share the Screening Tool for Equity Analysis of Projects (STEAP). STEAP, a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) web application, is a powerful radius map tool that permits rapid identification of potential project locations anywhere in the United States.

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NEWTON, MA (USA) - We are proud to share the Screening Tool for Equity Analysis of Projects (STEAP). STEAP, a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) web application, is a powerful radius map tool that permits rapid identification of potential project locations anywhere in the United States.

The application is based on TransCAD for the Web and Maptitude Online technology, and was recently listed on the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation website and announced by the US Department of Transportation. STEAP provides the ability to identify transportation project impacts on marginalized populations based on race, color, national origin, limited English language proficiency, and minority, disadvantaged, and low-income status (Environmental Justice).

STEAP has a simple user interface that allows you to select existing highways or to draw lines of proposed roadways on the map. Maptitude Online then computes the characteristics of the population within the user-selected buffer of the road or corridor. STEAP allows FHWA and state or other local transportation agencies to generate equity analysis project profile reports without the need for geographic information system (GIS) specialists to perform the work.

Caliper products include an extensive range of sophisticated radius map tools to create buffers and driving radius maps. These can be utilized online, in the Cloud, or on the desktop. For questions or further information, contact Stewart Berry at info@caliper.com.

About Caliper

Caliper Corporation develops state-of-the-art Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and is a prominent U.S. transportation software, consulting, and research firm. The Caliper software suite includes TransCAD transportation planning and logistics software and TransModeler traffic engineering and traffic simulation software. With a focus on usability, Maptitude mapping software is designed to be a cost-effective, professional mapping software product. Maptitude enables organizations to leverage their location-based data to improve decision making and planning, while minimizing expenditure through competitively priced solutions.

Caliper is a privately held corporation and is a leading developer of mapping, redistricting, transportation, and GIS software.

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Introducing the Equity Analysis Radius Map Tool

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NEWTON, MA (USA) - We are proud to share the Screening Tool for Equity Analysis of Projects (STEAP). STEAP, a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) web application, is a powerful radius map tool that permits rapid identification of potential project locations anywhere in the United States.

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Welcome to TRI Toxics Tracker, where you can access nationwide TRI data from the past 10 years and easily explore by geography, facility, industry, chemical, or specific data elements.

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The Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University

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The Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University

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Teaching Pack: Lessons

This teaching pack introduces the social determinants of health through real-world examples in order to understand how broad social factors influence global health challenges. It includes an instructor’s note, a brief guide for educators, lesson plans, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary of terms

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Publication, Teaching Resource 2018

Teaching Pack: Social Determinants of Health

This teaching pack was developed by the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard ...

This teaching pack was developed by the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University to introduce high school and undergraduate college students to the "social determinants of health," which are all of the social factors external to an individual that may not seem directly relevant to health, but that ultimately shape the conditions in which people live, work, and grow in ways that can both promote well-being and confer disease risk. The teaching...

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Teaching Pack: Social Determinants of Health

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This teaching pack introduces the social determinants of health through real-world examples in order to understand how broad social factors influence global health challenges. It includes an instructor’s note, a brief guide for educators, lesson plans, an annotated bibliography, and a gloss...

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Linda Villarosa on Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation

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Linda Villarosa on Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation

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On Monday, April 24, 2023, author Linda Villarosa will discuss her new book, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation. In her new book, Villarosa exposes the persistent racism in the U.S health-care system. Here are some of the reviews it has received:

Villarosa’s empathic and sharp-sighted journalism is as astute as it is groundbreaking, as brilliant as it is timely. Let the conversations begin! —Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone

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On Monday, April 24, 2023, author Linda Villarosa will discuss her new book, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation. In her new book, Villarosa exposes the persistent racism in the U.S health-care system. Here are some of the reviews it has received:

Villarosa's empathic and sharp-sighted journalism is as astute as it is groundbreaking, as brilliant as it is timely. Let the conversations begin! -Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone

It's no secret that Black people are subject to the cumulative effects of systemic racism. But Linda Villarosa's Under the Skin walks us through the inevitable consequences of living in a racist country on our bodies, our environments, and our healthcare system. The cultural manifestations of the physical and psychological traumas affecting Black People alter or distort all our lives. Those of us who understand that structural violence has physical ramifications will be in debt to Under the Skin. I am grateful for the arrival of this book. It is a relief to have the truth of racialized trauma exposed in such cogent, undeniable writing and with such genius analysis. This is journalism at its finest. If you read one book this year, let it be this one. -Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen: An American Lyric

In Under the Skin, Linda Villarosa has written a book that will transform how you understand the relationship between race and medicine, one that makes clear the connection between our history and our health. This is a book filled with indispensable research, but also filled with humanity. Villarosa tells us important stories, and also becomes part of the story herself. I'm so glad this book exists, I will be thinking about it for a long time. -Clint Smith, New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed

Villarosa will be in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor and high school teacher Jesse Hagopian.

Buy Tickets on Eventbrite

These online classes with people's historians are held at least once a month (generally on Mondays) at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET for 90 minutes. In each session, the historian is interviewed by a teacher and breakout rooms allow participants to meet each other in small groups, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas. We designed the sessions for teachers and other school staff. Parents, students, and others are also welcome to participate.

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Linda Villarosa on Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation - Zinn Education Project

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On Monday, April 24, 2023, author Linda Villarosa will discuss her new book, Under the Skin, which exposes the persistent racism in the U.S health-care system. This session is part of the Zinn Education Project's Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people's history series.

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Webinar: Defining and Dismantling Racism as a Public Health Crisis

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Webinar: Defining and Dismantling Racism as a Public Health Crisis

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How do we define Racism as a Public Health Crisis? What are the misconceptions? How is the work changing? What does success in this space look like? Listen to our panelists: Councilwoman Janine Boyd, Jenice Contreras, Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development, Habeebah Grimes, CEO of Positive Education Program (PEP), and Walter Patton, creator of Ghetto Therapy™️, as they share their thoughts on racism as a public health crisis and what actions we can take in the community and as a community to dismantle racism.

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How do we define Racism as a Public Health Crisis? What are the misconceptions? How is the work changing? What does success in this space look like? Listen to our panelists: Councilwoman Janine Boyd, Jenice Contreras, Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development, Habeebah Grimes, CEO of Positive Education Program (PEP), and Walter Patton, c reator of Ghetto T herapy™️, as they share their thoughts on racism as a public health crisis and what actions we can take in the community and as a community to dismantle racism.

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Webinar: Defining and Dismantling Racism as a Public Health Crisis - The Center for Community Solutions

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How do we define Racism as a Public Health Crisis? What are the misconceptions? How is the work changing? What does success in this space look like?

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PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up What Works

To advance equity, PolicyLink advocates for groundbreaking policy changes that enable everyone, especially people of color, to be economically secure, live in healthy communities of opportunity, and benefit from a just society. PolicyLink is guided by the belief that the solutions to the nation’s challenges lie with those closest to these challenges: when the wisdom, voice, and experience of those traditionally absent from policymaking drive the process, profound policy transformations emerge.

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To realize the promise of equity, every policy and investment must provide significant, sustained support to the people hurting most; and serve as a bridge to creating an equitable economy, an inclusive and compassionate society, and a strong, accountable democracy.

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Oprah Winfrey hosts and produces a personal look at racial
inequities in America’s healthcare system and what needs to be done
to change it.

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In Sickness and In Wealth – access via library card connection to Kanopy (2008) What are the connections between healthy bodies, healthy bank accounts and skin colour? Our opening episode travels to Louisville, Kentucky, not to explore whether medical care cures us, but to see why we get sick in the first place, and why patterns of health and illness reflect underlying patterns of class and racial inequities.

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Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries

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Healthy Neighborhood Investments: Policy Scan & Strategy Map

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Healthy Neighborhood Investments: Policy Scan & Strategy Map

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Build Healthy Places Network and Shift Health Accelerator partnered to identify policy actions for advancing racial and health equity through cross-sector investments and to serve as a tool for community-owned priority setting that reduces inequities and strengthens neighborhood revitalization

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2017 - San Rafael, CA – As tough as it is to discuss, racial inequity has been woven into the fabric of communities all across our country. The County of Marin has spent years trying to level the playing field for all residents, and now it has taken a public step to address it formally with a Racial Equity Action Plan

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“You start with race, but you don’t end there,” said Roger Crawford, Assistant Director of Human Resources. “You use it to recognize other inequities in our society. Having a racial equity tool is an important way for a government to evaluate programs and assure that there are not unintended consequences. In the past year, we have developed structure and leadership within our staff that will continue to pay off.”

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San Rafael, CA - As tough as it is to discuss, racial inequity has been woven into the fabric of communities all across our country. The County of Marin has spent years trying to level the playing field for all residents, and now it has taken a public step to address it formally with a Racial Equity Action Plan.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors adopted the plan at its April 25 meeting and will work with County staff as it prioritizes racial equity, engages residents, strengthens community partnerships, and re-establishes itself as an employer that places equity among its highest goals. Marin is one of the first counties in California to formalize such a plan.

Supervisor Kate Sears, the Board's point person on equity issues, is among the employees participating in the second County team to discuss race in government through the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE). She called the plan a "tremendously sophisticated document" with achievable goals.

"Each of the steps sends us forward in a way that's extremely thoughtful," Sears said during the Board meeting. "... We're rolling now, we're implementing and we're getting a lot of people engaged."

Through GARE, the cohort members learn how to normalize conversations about race, develop new policies within their own departments and agencies, and become leaders in recognizing and eliminating structural racism.

"Marin is breaking new ground and one of the jurisdictions in the lead," said GARE Director Julie Nelson. "In the Bay Area, because of the large number of jurisdictions involved, we're really starting to change the overall expectations of government through the dialogue that's taking place. There is more of a shared understanding of what racial equity is and the shared tools that are available. We applaud the progress you're making in Marin. To have the plan adopted, it's a great example for others not only across California but across the country."

Assistant County Administrator Angela Nicholson said the plan clearly lays out community partnership, initiatives, metrics and deadlines in reaching equity goals. She and other County employees discussed equity initiatives and GARE with the Supervisors during the first day of the County's budget planning workshops on April 24. Representatives of the GARE cohort and the County's Leadership Academy also spoke about the challenges of openly discussing a sensitive topic like race with fellow employees.

"We have acknowledged that inequity has been baked into government structure through the years, and this gives us a tool to address it in our community," Nicholson said. "We need to work with the public and our employees to ensure that we represent the diversity and values of our community."

In the past decade, the Board of Supervisors has included equity among its "Four E's" of ongoing focus (equity, economy, education, environment) and tries to assure that even its most routine actions positively influence at least one of them. Also, equity was listed as a focal point in the 2016 State of the County update as income disparity and discrepancies in life expectancy based on ZIP codes continue in Marin. The County is developing a social equity calendar, leadership projects related to equity and online resources to share with members of the public and employees.

The vision of the County's 5 Year Business Plan, adopted in 2015, is to become a more adaptive organization where engagement, learning and leadership at all levels was encouraged. Diversity and inclusion were singled out as a focus area in that plan, and the County is rolling out cultural intelligence and structural racism training for every employee this summer. Programs are underway to increase gender and ethnic diversity on hiring boards and to create a diversity tool kit for all recruitments, including openings for top administrators. A Racial Equity Work Team will assure that all County employees are trained to recognize inequities in public programs and that all artificial or real barriers to employment are removed.

"You start with race, but you don't end there," said Roger Crawford, Assistant Director of Human Resources. "You use it to recognize other inequities in our society. Having a racial equity tool is an important way for a government to evaluate programs and assure that there are not unintended consequences. In the past year, we have developed structure and leadership within our staff that will continue to pay off."

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County Commits to Actions on Racial Equity

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San Rafael, CA - As tough as it is to discuss, racial inequity has been woven into the fabric of communities all across our country. The County of Marin has spent years trying to level the playing field for all residents, and now it has taken a public step to address it formally with a Racial Equity Action Plan.

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Mission is to transform the way organizations work together across the health, community development, and finance sectors to more effectively reduce poverty, advance racial equity, and improve health in neighborhoods across the United States.

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Our latest crosswalk explores how community organizations, community development corporations, and health partners can help funnel Infrastructure Law dollars into community health efforts.

Written by Build Healthy Places Staff on 02/17/2023

Join us as we explore models for racial healing and reconciliation that are community-led and grounded in ancestral and traditional knowledge. Hear from BIPOC-led Community Development Corporations that are leading...

Written by Jessica Mosher, MBA, DrPH Candidate on 03/16/2023

Reflections from a Native Listening Circle and the impact of multi-sector partnerships in Tribal and Native communities.

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By joining forces, community developers and health professionals can have a more powerful impact. Learn More Featured Crosswalk Finding Health in the Infrastructure Law: New Opportunities for Community Investments that Address the Social Determinants of Health Our latest crosswalk explores how community organizations, community development corporations, and health partners can help funnel Infrastructure Law dollars into community health efforts.

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Funding Opportunities

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds a wide array of research and initiatives to help address some of America’s most pressing health challenges.
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Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health

Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health welcomes proposals that are primed to influence health equity in the future.

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Evidence for Action: Innovative Research to Advance Racial Equity

Evidence for Action prioritizes research to evaluate specific interventions that have the potential to contribute to dismantling and counteracting the harms of structural and systemic racism and improving health, well-being, and equity outcomes.

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OVERVIEW

In support of this belief, we fund program and policy initiatives in four areas which are each critical to health equity-enabling everyone in our nation to live a healthier life:

WHAT WE FUND

In relation to our focus areas, our grants and grant programs generally have three major aims:

Connected with these objectives, we fund a wide range of activities, including but not limited to:

Planning and demonstration projects

Research and evaluations

Policy and statistical analysis

Learning networks and communities

Public education and strategic communications

Community engagement and coalition-building

Training and fellowship programs

Technical assistance

In general, the activities we support are carried out by public agencies, universities, and public charities that are tax-exempt under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. While we are focused on a healthier U.S., we also fund grants that help us learn from and adapt global innovations.

View a sampling of RWJF featured programs and initiatives.

How We Develop and Administer Grant Programs

In general, our grant programs are developed by RWJF program staff, in consultation with leading experts in our fields of interest, and with guidance and final approval from our board of trustees.

In many cases, we issue a competitive call for proposals (CFP) which defines the challenges we wish to address, activities we will support to achieve desired outcomes, and eligibility criteria. Very often, we also establish an intermediary organization to support subsequent program activity and provide technical assistance. In addition, we provide funding through open calls for ideas and different types of challenges and prize competitions. Also, we issue direct solicitations for projects in support of specific programmatic objectives.

What We Do Not Support

RWJF funds many initiatives in support of our vision for a Culture of Health. Specific activities we do not fund include:

Basic biomedical research

Research on drug therapies or devices

Lobbying of any kind

On a continual basis, we monitor trends in our fields of interest, and assess and adjust our grantmaking in ways we believe will help us achieve the greatest impact. Through this process, as we transition into new priority areas over time, we may cease funding in others.

Often, our major shifts in funding priorities come following long-term investments that have helped to plant seeds of sustained progress. In all cases, we continue to draw on lessons from our past work to help guide our current and future grantmaking.

MORE INFORMATION

If you have questions, view our Grant FAQs, or contact our Office of Proposal Management via email or at (877) 843-RWJF (7953), (International: +1 609 627 6000), Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time.

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In support of this belief, we fund program and policy initiatives in four areas which are each critical to health equity-enabling everyone in our nation to live a healthier life: In relation to our focus areas, our grants and grant programs generally have three major aims: Connected with these objectives,

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What are Racial Equity Impact Assessments?

A Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) is a systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. REIAs are used to minimize unanticipated adverse consequences in a variety of contexts, including the analysis of proposed policies, institutional practices, programs, plans and budgetary decisions. The REIA can be a vital tool for preventing institutional racism and for identifying new options to remedy long-standing inequities.

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From Seed to Harvest: A Toolkit for Collaborative Racial Equity Strategies is a guide to racial equity practices within your community-government collaboration for sustainability and renewable energy policies and programs.

With this toolkit, you will learn a process for cultivating your plan, program, or policies through three steps:

1. Preparation

2. Planting and Growth

3. Harvest and Regrowth

This guide also highlights important questions to ask in your collaborative effort. Keep this tool in your racial equity shed for ready reference.

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Organizing for Racial Equity Within the Federal Government 

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Organizing for Racial Equity Within the Federal Government 

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Organizing for Racial Equity Within the Federal Government offers a clear path for federal civil servants who are committed to helping their institutions reach an organizational tipping point.  The resource focuses on unifying strategies and structures that facilitate a deep, widespread, and sustained commitment to racial equity across the whole of government.  Emerging and leading racial equity practitioners who understand it is important to continually bring more people together and to build staff and organizational capacity for change will find this resource helpful.

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This study is being conducted by Liam Leveto, a GIS Specialist at the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and Graduate Student at Kent State University (MGISc) and Cleveland State University (MUPD), in response to a request from RoLesia Holman, Ward 3 Councilwoman, and HOC Committee for Racial Equity and Public Health. This study is meant to support the 2022 Ashtabula County Community Health Needs Assessment and reflects methods derived from County Health Rankings and Esri Demographics to assess health equity in Ashtabula, Ohio.

A health equity assessment is a process generally conducted by public health organizations to measure inequalities in health outcomes. It is a valuble tool that can be used by local governments to implement resources to groups of people disproportionaly impacted specific by health issues.

Identifying such issues can provide an opportunity to also identify barriers that contribute greatly to Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) such as economic vitality, affordable housing, education, employment, and other quality of life measure that contribute to a communities overall wellbeing.

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This study is being conducted by Liam Leveto, a GIS Specialist at the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and Graduate Student at Kent State University (MGISc) and Cleveland State University (MUPD), in response to a request from RoLesia Holman, Ward 3 Councilwoman, and HOC Committee for Racial Equity and Public Health.

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5 Ways to Teach About Structural Racism in Polarized Times

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5 Ways to Teach About Structural Racism in Polarized TimesUse a solutionary approach to turn controversy into learning and action.

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5 Ways to Teach About Structural Racism in Polarized TimesUse a solutionary approach to turn controversy into learning and action.

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KEY POINTS

There are 5 approaches that educators can use to teach about structural racism with a solutionary approach.

We must distinguish between empirical issues that are not subject to debate and policy issues which should be debated.

Fostering “perspectives consciousness” increases psychological flexibility and helps students bring a solutionary approach to address racism.

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Key points

There are 5 approaches that educators can use to teach about structural racism with a solutionary approach.

We must distinguish between empirical issues that are not subject to debate and policy issues which should be debated.

Fostering "perspectives consciousness" increases psychological flexibility and helps students bring a solutionary approach to address racism.

This post is co-authored by Ayo Magwood, the founder of Uprooting Inequity.
It's been more than a year since the backlash against teaching U.S. students about racism began. Many administrators have borne the rage of (mostly) White parents angry because they perceive that their children are being taught they are racists (even though this is not what teachers have been doing). Many states have passed laws to prevent any instruction in schools about historical or structural racism.

As the new school year begins, it's crucial that we not shy away from teaching about our history of racism honestly, accurately, and with a solutionary approach in mind so that we can address its continued consequences and build a society in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Toward that end, we offer five approaches to teach about historical and structural racism through an evidence-based, solutionary framework.

1. Use evidence-based inquiry to trace the historical roots of contemporary structural racism.

Structural racism refers to policies, practices, and entrenched norms that result in racial disparities in treatment and access to opportunity. Examples of structural racism include the enduring legacies of the historical wealth gap and the hyper-segregation of low-income African Americans in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty with poor access to opportunity. To be clear, outcomes are the product of a combination of factors that include individual effort, merit, and sheer luck, and are not solely determined by structural inequities; however, structural racism is highly influential in determining outcomes.

Contemporary racial wealth gaps are in part the legacy of the exclusion of African Americans from centuries of government investment in White families. These government benefits included college and vocational training subsidies under the 1944 G.I. Bill and subsidized mortgages made possible by the 1934 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Veterans Administration (VA). While the G.I. Bill was considered colorblind, it was virtually "White only" in implementation and, ironically, actually exacerbated rather than narrowed the economic and educational disparities between White and Black Americans: Less than 2% of the $120 billion (over $1.4 trillion in 2022 dollars) the FHA and the VA spent underwriting new housing went to all non-White Americans combined.

Through inheritance and financial assistance, generational wealth continues to be a major source of today's racial wealth gap.

Moreover, the roots of current racial hyper-segregation lie in decades of discriminatory housing policies and practices, including racial zoning, housing covenants, and White-only suburbs financed by the FHA and the VA. Today's exclusionary zoning regulations often reinforce racial segregation patterns originated by discriminatory policies that have since been outlawed, but still persist. Consequently, historical redlining continues to be correlated with the racial makeup of neighborhoods, concentrated poverty, and low homeownership rates.

Formerly redlined neighborhoods also offer little access to high-quality public schools, which results in the education system reinforcing socioeconomic inequality instead of acting as an engine of mobility.

It's important to be clear that those with greater privilege end up reproducing structural racism not because they are "bad" or "racist," but because (like everyone else) they seek to maximize their own self-interests within the constraints of systems and institutions available to them.

These systemic disadvantages become more deeply entrenched over time and across generations and shape and constrain the individual choices and behavior of the urban poor, particularly low-income African Americans.

2. Distinguish between empirical and policy issues on race.

To avoid ideological conflict while teaching about structural racism, it's important to distinguish between empirical (evidence-based) issues and policy (opinion) issues. Empirical issues have a right-or-wrong answer that can be discovered through evidence and are not subject to debate, while policy issues are a matter of opinion and should be debated.

For example, "Does structural racism exist?" is a settled empirical question based on a substantial body of studies by mainstream experts, while "What should the government do about structural racism?" is a policy question that is meant to be debated.

An "empirical vs. policy" framework allows educators to help students analyze the roots of structural inequalities while fostering deliberation across ideological differences about how to address those inequalities. This framework sets up safety guardrails around classroom discussion, as it precludes both racist claims that racial disparities are due to inherent inferiority (instead of structural racism), as well as accusations that non-Black students are racist. Deliberating policy issues also encourages productive civic discourse across ideological differences.

3. Use Data: Show, Don't Tell.

Research studies have concluded that data is more effective than personal narratives at demonstrating the magnitude of racial disparities and structural racism, because the focus on personal stories taps into powerful misleading cultural myths about high rates of mobility (e.g. that all U.S. citizens are equally able to achieve the American Dream). These misperceptions lead to significant underestimations of structural challenges and significant overestimations of the power of individual will to overcome these challenges.

When educators provide students with opportunities to evaluate cultural assumptions with data, it leads to better perspective-taking and solutionary thinking. For example, data demonstrates that the U.S. actually has one of the lowest levels of upward income mobility among high-income nations. With this knowledge, students can consider how to diminish the impediments to economic success for everyone.

4. Foster perspectives-consciousness.

In the Indian parable of the blind men and the elephant, a group of blind men who have never seen an elephant touch different parts of the animal - a tusk, leg, or ear - and then describe the elephant's shape. Each man assumes that the part they touched represents the whole. The moral is that humans tend to universalize their subjective perspectives and limited experiences as the absolute truth. To relate this to structural racism, our perspectives are based on our limited experiences in largely racially and socioeconomically segregated communities. In other words, we are not only touching, but also living, on different parts of the proverbial elephant.

Educators can foster this kind of perspectives-consciousness, an awareness of how our identities and lived experiences (our positionality) affect our perspectives on policy issues and our interpretation of evidence on empirical issues. In doing so, they help students actively seek to understand others' perspectives and resist the tendency to interpret evidence on empirical issues subjectively.

5. Adopt a Solutionary Framework to address structural racism

Once students understand the continuing legacy of structural racism and have learned to investigate and analyze the data taking positionality into account, they are poised to address racial disparities with a solutionary lens. The Solutionary Framework invites students to learn from a range of stakeholders outside the classroom and pursue careful research, constructive deliberation, and real-world problem-solving. This is a win for students and their learning, a win for classroom and school culture, and a win for the nation.

There has never been a better time to teach about structural racism.

Given the polarized society in which we live, many schools seek to avoid controversial issues. But where better than the classroom to learn how to gather empirical evidence and develop research skills to ensure accuracy? Where better than a school to learn how to deliberate and collaborate to build a nation where everyone can succeed? Happily, this way of teaching and learning also diminishes polarization and provides an important foundation for civic engagement and democracy.
Ayo Magwood is an educational consultant specializing in evidence-based education on historical and structural racism for adults and students. Visit her website to learn more.

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5 Ways to Teach About Structural Racism in Polarized Times

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There are 5 approaches that educators can use to teach about structural racism with a solutionary approach. We must distinguish between empirical issues that are not subject to debate and policy issues which should be debated. Fostering "perspectives consciousness" increases psychological flexibility and helps students bring a solutionary approach to address racism.

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This toolkit is published by the
Government Alliance on Race and Equity,
a national network of government working to
achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all.

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Survey Results: Municipalities Doing the Work

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Survey Results: Municipalities Doing the Work

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Expanding Equity Inclusion & Belonging Guidebook

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Expanding Equity Inclusion & Belonging Guidebook

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As many corporate leaders know, inclusion and belonging are vital to company health and success. Creating workplaces where every employee can bring their whole selves to work leads to deeper levels of commitment and higher levels of innovation. A key question is: how can leaders and companies create a culture that embodies a feeling of inclusion and a sense of belonging for all employees? This guidebook, created as part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Expanding Equity program, will support you on that journey through the following sections: 1. What is racial equity? 2. Putting the "I" in DE&I 3. Talking About Race (and Racism) in the Workplace 4. Moving Beyond Allyship to Sponsorship 5. Developing Champions for Racial Equity

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Expanding Equity Inclusion & Belonging Guidebook

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As many corporate leaders know, inclusion and belonging are vital to company health and success. Creating workplaces where every employee can bring their whole selves to work leads to deeper levels of commitment and higher levels of innovation. A key question is: how can leaders and companies create…

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Candid worked in partnership with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) to expand the definition of racial equity grantmaking for this data set and capture the full range of activity in this space. In September 2021, Candid introduced these changes to the data set criteria, which significantly increased the number of grants and pledges displayed below. Complete information is available in our FAQ.
Read the FAQ

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police. The information below shows funding earmarked for racial equity starting in 2020, which has increased dramatically since Floyd's death and the coronavirus pandemic sparked this movement.

*Cash grants, employee matching gifts, employee volunteer services, in-kind gifts, matching grants, officers and trustees discretionary grants. Total may include re-granted funds.
Last updated: October 12, 2022

Who's investing in, and pledging to fund, racial equity? Where is that funding going? Granted and pledged totals, displayed in aggregate here, are cumulative since 2011.

Total number of recipients

Total number of grants and pledges

Total dollar value of grants and pledges

Where does this data come from?

Funding pledges and grants paid are identified from publicly available sources, including press releases, websites, membership reports and surveys, and local reporting. Information on grants paid is also provided by a growing number of funders sharing data directly with Candid through eReporting. All cash grants, pledges, and in-kind gifts with a dollar value are included. Grant and pledge data, including top funders and recipients data, data by subject, and an interactive map that supplies grant and pledge data visualizations, are all freely accessible. The Council on Foundations and Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative have been key partners in sourcing fund information and grant/pledge data. All data should be attributed to Candid with access date identified.

Pledges and U.S. foundation grants awarded to U.S. recipients to address issues related to racial equity since 2011. Pledges and grants are shown as aggregated data.

Research, data, and insights to improve life outcomes for African-American men and boys.
Visit collection

About

Candid created this page to raise awareness of work to realize racial equity in the United States and feature related funding data.

Data on pledges and grants are identified from publicly available sources, including press releases, websites, membership reports and surveys, local reporting, and IRS filings (once they are made available). Information also comes from funders who share their grants data directly with Candid. All cash grants, pledges, and in-kind gifts with a dollar value are included. All data should be attributed to Candid with access date identified. For more methodological details about Candid's racial equity data, visit our FAQs.

Funders can share grants data with us via Updater or by emailing egrants@candid.org. For more details, take a look at our how-to guide. Organizations can update their nonprofit profile, including demographic data and data about the populations they serve, by accessing their Guidestar profile.

Note: Candid neither endorses nor disagrees with the information on this page. Our goals are to provide as complete a picture as possible, as objectively as possible, of philanthropy's activities; to enable decision making based on facts, and to promote a general understanding of the issue.

Please direct media inquiries to Adia Colar, Communications and Outreach Manager, at media@candid.org.

Candid worked in partnership with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) to expand the definition of racial equity grantmaking for this data set and capture the full range of activity in this space. In September 2021, Candid introduced these changes to the data set criteria, which significantly increased the number of grants and pledges displayed below. Complete information is available in our FAQ.
Read the FAQ

Research, data, and insights to improve life outcomes for African-American men and boys.
Visit collection

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Candid believes that realizing racial equity here and around the world is going to require nonprofits and foundations to step up like never before. In an effort to get you the information you need to understand the issues surrounding racial equity, we're sharing continuously updated data as well as news, analysis, and perspectives from the field.

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The Foundation for Appalachian Ohio is a regional community foundation serving Appalachian Ohio's 32 counties with the mission to create opportunities for Appalachian Ohio's citizens and communities by inspiring and supporting philanthropy.

Since 1998, the Foundation has been working with donors who are passionate about Appalachian Ohio, its communities, and its future. We're here to help donors give back in ways that are meaningful - to them and to our region.

What is a community foundation?

Community foundations are public charities with a common purpose-to improve the quality of life in their region. Through gifts of all sizes from people who care about that region, community foundations invest these charitable funds in perpetuity so the income can be used as grants to invest in the community forever.

In short, a community foundation helps donors give to the charitable causes they care about, work together to accomplish a shared vision, and better understand the needs in their region.

For a quick overview of FAO, please read our and download our Fact Sheet. To hear stories from FAO and our region, please visit our Watch Our Stories page.

For FAO's privacy policy, click here.

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The Foundation for Appalachian Ohio is a regional community foundation serving Appalachian Ohio's 32 counties with the mission to create opportunities for Appalachian Ohio's citizens and communities by inspiring and supporting philanthropy. Since 1998, the Foundation has been working with donors who are passionate about Appalachian Ohio, its communities, and its future.

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Keeping promises while keeping score: Gauging the impacts of policy proposals on racial equity

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Keeping promises while keeping score: Gauging the impacts of policy proposals on racial equity

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Editor's Note: This research brief is part of a joint research project by Brookings Metro and the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School.

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On May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers fatally injured George Floyd, a Black man, while he was under their custody-a searing, caught-on-camera killing that sparked the largest mass protests in American history. While the protests ostensibly focused on police killings of Black people, they also called out the systemic racism that fuels many other manifestations of racial inequality. In Minnesota state court, a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder, and in a federal trial, the other three officers were found guilty of violating Floyd's civil rights. But beyond justice for George Floyd, how much progress have we made in addressing racial inequality in the U.S.?

A central plank in accountability-in that different way to govern-is gauging the equity impacts of public policy. This has been done in ad hoc ways for laws, regulations, spending plans, and other instruments of policy for decades. What's new, and what we and others are advocating, is formally and routinely embedding equity assessment, including racial equity impact assessment, into government consideration of policy in addition to assessment of actual policy impacts over time.

There are four main findings in our research so far, and the first is a very hopeful one: In a range of communities across the country and across multiple functions and levels of government, applying an equity lens in the form of impact assessments has gone from the margins to the mainstream of thinking about how government can serve everyone more effectively and address a history of exclusion in the process. For now, local governments are in the lead, the federal government is making notable progress (at least in the executive branch), and state decisionmaking shows great room for improvement, especially in basic transparency and accountability.

Our second finding is that such progress has put a spotlight on key gaps and chronic challenges, some of which undermine all types of government innovation-not just changes to advance equity. We need better and more disaggregated data that makes meaningful equity impact analysis possible on the full range of issues government touches. We also need innovative and collaborative forms of public engagement and expanded operating capacity to help public agencies respond when communities and elected leaders press for equity analyses. Finally, to deliver the work of government more fairly and effectively, we need concrete plans that measure impact.

Third, to advance the work and make it endure must change our political culture and grow a broader, more resilient base of political support for racial equity beyond the brave leadership racial justice advocates. Building political support against the tide of politics and fear-mongering tribalism that has driven so much of our public life will take creative and bold leadership and, we realize, a broader moral awakening. Racial equity, like other forms of equity, must be understood on moral, not just pragmatic, grounds. That, too, was part of the call when hundreds of thousands of everyday people from all walks of life took to the streets in 2020 to demand better. Equity impact assessment can and should be embraced by a bigger tent of allies, because it makes better, more innovative government possible.

Our fourth finding is that to address the gaps that act as barriers and build that bigger tent, advocates for change inside and outside of government also need well-defined, generative projects-such as plans for public investment in infrastructure or innovative public safety strategies-as well as new practices for making public budgets at all levels of government. These will show how equity impact assessment changes the conversation, generates new insights about problems and persistent disparities, and drives better solutions, with resources attached. We give several examples of such generative projects in this brief, and will expand on them in a longer report later this year.

In sum, community advocates and pathbreaking governments have gone from conceptual framework to concrete and innovative practice in just a few years and in a remarkable range of ways. But for the work to become broadly transformative and supported, governing for equity-and, specifically, embedding equity impact analyses-now needs more public sector capacity, more allies, and more generative projects that show the idea in action and deliver visible, valued results in communities.

The current landscape of racial equity assessments and the origin of this project

At the same time, our colleagues Andre Perry of Brookings Metro and Darrick Hamilton of the New School's Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy that "just as we score policies' budget impact, we should score for racial equity as well." They called on elected leaders, especially in Congress, to build in mechanisms to evaluate policy for impacts on racial equity beyond traditional cost scoring. Perry and Hamilton called for "a scoring system to hold government accountable" for fairness and racial equity, and invoking the nation's history of racial injustice and struggles for equality, they emphasized, " We must take on an anti-racist orientation to policymaking and implementation-a proactive weeding-out of racism."

Scoring legislative proposals for their racial impact could serve as a key proactive mechanism, complementing the guard-rail function of analyzing policy and practices by disparate treatment disparate impact . Those approaches have a long and important history in civil rights law and anti-discrimination work. Much of that work is vital for assessing equity impacts after new laws, regulations , or administrative policies are adopted.

The administration has also launched a number of special initiatives. For example, driven by President Biden's Justice40 pledge (to deliver at least 40% of the benefits of federal climate action to disadvantaged communities), the White House Council on Environmental Quality published a Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool . And the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) action plan , developed by a multi-agency task force led by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was inspired by showing systemic and costly racial biases in the home appraisal industry. Both initiatives illustrate how careful and creative equity impact assessment can lead to promising shifts in policy and practice. But it will take time to gauge impacts on the ground, whether in the targeting of infrastructure funding to promote more equitable and effective climate resilience or by making it possible for homeowners to build wealth regardless of their race or neighborhood of residence.

Our work with a larger team, led by Hamilton and Perry, is a joint effort by Brookings and the New School to concretize their proposal, with support from the Robin Hood Foundation, fighting philanthropy . Learning from the efforts of advocates and experts nationwide, our project is analyzing and addressing barriers to adopting racial equity impact assessment effectively in government. In a parallel effort, PolicyLink, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing equity, and the Urban Institute launched the , which is initially focused on equity scoring of proposed federal legislation. Equity Scoring Initiative ¹

All of this work builds on pioneering efforts by leaders, advocates, and institutions across the country, particularly at the local level. Local efforts to promote equity and change government decisionmaking practices intensified significantly over the past two years, particularly in the wake of 2020's protests. But foundational work preceded and informed much of that, especially the work of the initiative; Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), a project of Race Forward and the University of California, Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute. GARE has worked to equip city and county governments with racial equity impact assessment and other tools to improve decisionmaking and the design and delivery of government programs. GARE's work emphasizes that the assessment part of governing for equity is, first and foremost, about changing what questions get asked when policy is made-thus improving policymaking and implementation and not just making pro-equity policy choices on a given issue. Other leaders in this local work include PolicyLink, as part of its All-In Cities New Practice Lab Living Cities, a consortium of the nation's largest financial institutions and philanthropic donors, in its work to "operationalize racial equity," especially in local government and cross-sector initiatives; and New America, a think tank, through its .

Strategic questions about assessing and advancing racial equity

This pioneering work has generated a number of key questions. Some are definitional and foundational: What is equity, and what does it require? This has moved beyond the principle that policies must not be racially discriminatory-typically conceived as a treat-everyone-the-same approach that is still contested in many areas of government policy. But in moving beyond that approach and instead responding to a diverse range of needs, abilities, and disadvantages among those served by government, another question arises: Does equity in governing also require making amends-through reparations or other means-for years of discrimination and cumulative disadvantage that racism and other forms of exclusion have caused? For many advocates and policymakers, assessing equity raises fundamental questions that range from the moral and political to the constitutional.

Finally, some questions are organizational and operational. Are equity-focused efforts, at any level of government, best housed in existing agencies like a budget bureau, human resources, or contract compliance unit? Or should there be a new, cross-cutting senior executive function with oversight and assessment authority over government functions as well as support functions to build the capacity of agencies? Should an equity office be independent of the legislature or executive, like an inspector general or New York City's Independent Budget Office? Or would that hamper its ability to push for change in institutional practices?

Cutting across these questions is the need to make judgments in context and learn and adapt over time. Under what conditions is one answer better than the other? And when should a given approach modify its methods or increase its scope?

This much is clear: Because of activist communities and pioneering work by nonprofits and some governments, we now can learn from practical experience and ongoing experimentation, which in turn can foster wider adoption and improvement of racial equity tools and practices. Operationalizing equity in governing is no longer a set of isolated innovations. It has emerged as a dynamic field of knowledge and practice.

In taking stock of these efforts, we focus on policy decision tools to advance racial equity while being mindful of the need to apply similar assessments on other dimensions, such as gender, sexuality, class (often measured by income level or educational attainment), and geography at multiple scales.

While some of America's local governments are blazing a trail for peers around the world, in certain ways, our federal government is lagging other wealthy nations. Those nations are ahead of us when it comes to routinely and systematically considering the potential impacts of national policy proposals-for example, the impacts of annual budgets and proposed regulations on different (e.g., by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, or socioeconomic status) and (e.g., regions, or rural versus urban areas).

How this analysis is organized

In our larger report to come, we will recommend changes to accelerate progress in governing and share in-depth working examples of that progress across the U.S. To set the stage for that, in this research brief, we offer a functional typology of equity assessment mechanisms in use by governments in the U.S.-distinguishing the motivations that drive them and highlighting several new or unrealized opportunities. We also summarize the major recurring challenges confronting the wider adoption and effective use of equity assessments.

Improving these governing practices and the tools that support them is both practical and moral. Practically, it is a critical step toward grounding equity work in data, analysis, and the routine practice of making and implementing policy-thus achieving greater equity by documenting gaps and their drivers and by helping devise effective solutions. And morally, America, especially its institutions of representative government at all levels, must be more accountable to its promise of fairness and equal opportunity for all. We begin by reviewing the evolution and range of equity analyses as a tool to help make that possible.

The evolution of equity analysis in public policy

For decades, analysts, advocates, and policymakers have worked to understand the equity implications of public policy decisions. This often is done through "distributional" or similar analytic frameworks that focus on disaggregated rather than aggregated patterns-the drivers of income and wealth gaps by race, for example, not just median income. Broadly, we can think of equity analysis as seeking to understand how different groups, places (geographies), industries, institutions, and other stakeholders are affected by policy design and implementation, in order to make the process and outcomes of policymaking more fair and equitable.

Much foundational work has been grounded in empirical analyses of policies already adopted. That is, equity analyses often examine the effects of past policy design and implementation choices to understand the differential effects of policy, from education to employment, health, the environment, and other domains. For example, how have changes in the minimum wage affected the median incomes of male versus female workers, or Black workers versus white workers? How can we distinguish these impacts while recognizing that workers from different groups are unevenly distributed across industries, occupations, and jobs at or near the minimum wage? Similarly, an analysis of regulatory policy might examine the effects of past rulemaking and enforcement on one type of business or one group of business owners versus others. We also see this type of work in analyses of government contracting opportunities or credit availability for different groups of business owners, whether those groups are defined by race, gender, location (owners in small towns versus large urban areas, for example), or in other ways.

However, disaggregated analyses can only be performed where the right data are available reported. We saw this during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, case data were not disaggregated in official reporting. When they were disaggregated by race and other factors, we immediately saw that people of color were disproportionately at risk of contracting the virus, suffering more severe symptoms, and dying. Further data and research helped us understand why: People of color and low-income workers were more likely to hold jobs with greater exposure to customers or coworkers infected by the virus--for example, jobs in retail, food processing, and public services. And they were also more likely to suffer from preexisting health problems and a lack of medical care to fight the virus. This understanding, and its influence on policy when mobilized by advocates and government, would have been impossible without reliable, disaggregated data.

We also learn about the present and make more informed forecasts from trend analyses of past disparities by race, gender, class, and other persistent dimensions of inequality. Analysts and advocates use such findings to highlight disparities and make predictions about the likely impacts of new policy proposals. In other words, equity analysis has long been more than backward-looking and diagnostic. It has generated new and important policy ideas and strategies, from programs to expand college or health care access to more tailored, "user-centered" designs for cash benefits delivery and even innovative land use and investment policies to address the racial wealth gap.

As we previewed above, what's new, and what we and others are advocating, is formally and routinely embedding equity impact assessment (including analysis of likely impacts on racial equity) in government consideration of policy proposals. Another significant innovation is ensuring the active participation and voices of affected stakeholders in the work of assessment. ² For example, Race Forward's widely used question framework emphasizes both process and product. It identifies and engages stakeholders in assessing inequities and their causes, the relevance of a policy proposal, alternatives for improving it, and the most appropriate indicators of success. Using the example of federal welfare reform in the 1990s, one longtime practitioner reminded us, "Success was defined mainly as reducing the welfare rolls, not people being better off." Different definitions of success can lead to dramatically different choices, efforts, and outcomes at any level of government and in any policy domain.

Examining policy effects on racial equity ex ante, as proposals are shaped and debated, and formally institutionalizing that examination in public sector decisionmaking is a sea change in American governance. And it is very much a work in progress.

The four functions of equity assessment tools

Across the country, there are a variety of racial equity impact assessment tools and approaches currently in use, and others under consideration. The typology we propose here centers on function-i.e., what exactly the tool is intended to inform or trigger. We observe assessments serving four distinct decision support functions: legislative scoring; enhanced review; resource allocation plans and targeting tools; and performance management in program delivery.
Legislative scoring: Equity impact assessment as a tool required in the legislative process, across policy domains or in selected domains, for policy proposals that meet certain conditions
The first decision support function is equity assessment as legislative scoring, or rating policy proposals (not just pricing them) once they clear the initial phases of the lawmaking process-e.g., approval by a legislative committee

At the federal level, the aforementioned House and Senate bills introduced last year fall into this category; the Senate version is called the Fiscal Analysis by Income and Race (FAIR) Scoring Act. As part of developing a for equity scoring in federal legislation, the PolicyLink/Urban Institute Equity Scoring Initiative (ESI) compared equity scoring requirements in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Montgomery County, Md., and other localities, and documented criminal-justice-specific scoring requirements in multiple states. The ESI team finds that most of these systems provide specific guidance on what analyses are required, and varying degrees of discretion over which types of bills are exempt or covered, along with provisions to rate (score) a given legislative proposal on a spectrum of positive, negative, or neutral impacts on racial equity, with estimates of how likely those impacts are.

Another set of legislature-centered efforts is analyses by external watchdog groups of annual budget proposals-a broader, albeit unofficial kind of scoring. There often are no requirements in place for public agencies, the chief executive (mayor or county executive, governor, or president) responsible for preparing an annual budget proposal, or lawmakers to define equity assessment standards, let alone make the public budgeting process accountable to them.

But state-level budget assessment and advocacy work are strikingly difficult due to the lack of transparency in budget deliberations. State legislative rules and norms for budget debate and adoption often make budgeting a nontransparent insider's game; negotiations are conducted largely behind closed doors, with few (if any) public hearings and very limited legislative floor time, debate, or public comment. Unlike a governor's proposed budget made public months in advance, the publicly visible budget decision process in state legislatures can often be counted in hours, or at most, a few days.
Enhanced review: Equity impact assessment as a tool added to reviews already required in a policy domain Resource allocation plans and targeting tools: Equity impact assessment as a tool to guide the allocation of resources, typically by executive agencies Performance management in program delivery: Equity impact assessment as a tool to improve policy implementation
This function, closest to frontline implementers and their practices, often joins new analytic tools and methods for training and other capacity-building supports; reporting or other transparency requirements; innovative applications of data science; and an organizational mindset of learning-as-we-go, or "getting better at getting better."

The city of Seattle and surrounding King County, Wash. were pioneers here, adopting this function across all public agencies. This function, unlike the others above, is tied to managerial effectiveness and performance management. But we should not think of it only in terms of the inner workings of government agencies. Many public policies work through private delivery systems, both for-profit and nonprofit. Government rules and benefits for health care, small businesses, affordable housing development, workforce development, and other priorities are delivered through a range of private institutions, from commercial banks, real estate developers, and fintech companies to private hospitals, colleges, and training providers-relying heavily on their delivery capabilities and ingrained practices.

These four distinct functions of racial equity impact assessment share certain operational fundamentals. For most types of policy analysis (for example, in functions one through three above), lawmakers or executives must: assign the analytic work to specific agencies or other bodies to produce specified analysis (who produces what), at clearly indicated moments in the decisionmaking process (when), and in some cases, ensure that the standards of that analysis are met by monitoring results over time (how well).

Researchers and advocates can also do equity impact assessments, often funded by philanthropy and using publicly generated and available data. Much analysis of COVID-19 equity impacts and needs was carried out this way. We also see this work by environmental justice organizations, children's advocacy organizations, housing analysts, criminal justice reformers, immigration experts, and others. Making reliable data with racial and other equity dimensions publicly available empowers community advocates, so that government does not exclusively define the frames of analysis and terms of debate. This was pioneered decades ago by "citizen science."

Second, these applications of equity assessment consistently emphasize the importance of policymakers and implementers learning from the lived experiences of affected groups or communities, not just from credentialed experts. Like the first common thread, this one is not entirely new. The city and regional planning field, for example, has long emphasized the importance of gathering and using local knowledge or community knowledge to shape plans and improve projects. And policy analysis has employed surveys, focus groups, ethnographic fieldwork , and other methods to examine policy from the vantage point of intended beneficiaries. But lived experience is increasingly seen as a critical source of knowledge to inform policy, for reasons of fairness as well as basic effectiveness. The rise of "needfinding" and other user-centered design methods in business-for example, to create demonstrably better products and delivery systems-and growing interest in public interest technology appear to be reinforcing this positive shift in public policy and management.

Recurring challenges for racial equity impact assessment-and where we go from here

Our research has turned up many creative examples of new or enhanced tools in use, as outlined in the typology. On one hand, this is a healthy reminder that government innovate. Governing can be done differently, across the full spectrum of policymaking and implementation-from enacting laws and issuing regulations to creating reviews, risk assessments, resource allocation plans, and an array of implementation improvements. It is a testament to creativity and persistence by leaders and staff inside and outside of government.

On the other hand, our research points to several important and recurrent challenges for the field of racial equity impact assessment and the effective practice of equity by government. These challenges include:

Expanding data collection and reporting. Equity analysis cannot be done without reliable data reported on a predictable schedule and disaggregated by group, geography, or other traits. In many domains of policymaking and implementation at all levels of government, there are gaps in what we collect and report. Interest and progress in data science-and bringing data scientists to many units of government to tackle important problems-is generating new conviction about the value of having data of the requisite kinds. But we need to redouble a commitment to disaggregated, high-quality data collection and regular reporting in order to make data widely available for analysis and deliberation that inform public judgment and government decisions. Such public engagement will also improve data over time by informing what matters, how it gets measured, and how best to encourage the effective and creative use of data (such as through open data innovation challenges ).

Adding accountability mechanisms and mobilizing support for better results. For now, most of the examples we have covered do not include built-in enforcement mechanisms such as consequences for nonperformance, and in many cases, they include only basic transparency mechanisms such as periodic reporting by executive agencies. Achieving results with equity impact assessment rests on the shoulders of motivated public officials and a well-informed, organized, and mobilized civil society pressing for and supporting better results. To some degree, this will always be true in a democratic society. But the gaps underscore the importance of designing more robust mechanisms to support accountability, whether in the form of independent assessments or more developed benchmarks that define good practice and good progress from a given starting point. Strengthening the field nationally to share learnings will be important for this goal.

Improving public engagement as a strategic muscle. A large body of research and commentary has underscored how limited, inflexible, and perfunctory much public engagement by legislative bodies, public agencies, and other government entities remains in American governance. Not surprisingly, this is an important challenge for the nascent practice of racial equity impact assessment. In particular, leaders we spoke to emphasized the need to: 1) draw on lived experiences or community insights to inform choices about metrics and, especially, standards of success; and 2) ensure more transparent and representative public input overall. There is much actionable knowledge to draw on, including well-documented, recent, pandemic-inspired innovations-some of them tied to the cases we have highlighted in this brief and many emphasizing collaborative governance (also known as "co-governance") between public officials and civil society stakeholders. There is a substantial role for philanthropy here in funding analysis, advocacy, and the capacity needed to operate these governance innovations well (we return to this broader need below).

Changing agency culture, including assumptions and norms. Time and again, experienced practitioners have seen the need to lay groundwork that enables productive learning and improvements within government. Effective equity practice will need to work with public agencies to overcome defensiveness and fear of failure and criticism, and also to confront a lack of knowledge about systemic racism or biases and overt resistance to operating differently. Race Forward, which operates the Government Alliance on Race and Equity-by far the largest program of technical support and peer learning-calls this "normalizing" the conversation. Last year's of equity assessment and practice by the White House Office of Management and Budget also underscored the need for organizational change management and culture building.

Building operating capacity, including innovation capacity. The capacity gaps in government are wide and deep, and they reflect both long-run underinvestment in capacity and the higher expectations we now have of our public institutions. By analogy to transformation in business, higher education, or other sectors, creating an antiracist government that is also better able to understand and advance equity on other dimensions depends on developing certain basic forms of expertise and staff capacity. But it also calls for modernizing in the broad sense: building innovation capacity driven by the goal of better outcomes. Organizations in all sectors need this, and there are a variety of efforts to hire people with innovation expertise and also provide more professional development in this area, for both government and nonprofit organizations. Building the capacity to conduct and use racial equity analyses should be central to that work.

In sum, calling for new habits and dramatically different results-from lawmaking to implementation-demands significant investments in new capacity. As a number of leaders shared with us, a substantial part of this must at least initially come from private, philanthropic donors whose support can outlast the terms of elected officials, operate above the fray of partisanship, and build lasting community and analytic capacity. Ultimately, that kind of support is no substitute for commitment within government, but it is essential, and currently far too limited relative to the needs and opportunities we face.

These four challenges-better data, accountability, public engagement, and capacity-interact in multiple ways. For example, a culture of risk aversion in the public sector undermines needed innovation of many kinds, not just the effective use of racial equity impact assessment. This in turn reinforces gaps in reported data-why discuss something if there is little solid evidence to go on? A lack of operating capacity reinforces data and accountability gaps, as well as the familiar pattern-documented since the 1960s-in which government agencies with little track record of effective public engagement do not see much upside in working to improve the way they do it.

But the opposite is also true: Gains on each of these fronts can reinforce gains on the others, in a virtuous cycle. This too has been documented over and over in other arenas of government innovation and performance leadership. As singular as racial injustice and racism are in our society, we need not treat the practice of racial equity by government as unrelated to or utterly unlike other efforts to transform how, and how effectively, government operates. Indeed, as we will explore in more depth later this year, there are many reasons to better align these related efforts-in essence, a commitment to effective government that serves all and earns correspondingly broad-based public trust and confidence.

That final point underscores a different kind of challenge that leaders in the field highlighted for us: he need to enable a much broader and more diverse constituency -a bigger tent of allies- the stakes and support change Racial equity impact assessment offers a way to ground policymaking and implementation in universal human rights and widely shared aspirations that government work to effectively serve everyone.

Conclusion

Racial equity impact assessment, like other forms of equity analysis, is a work in progress. But in a relatively short period of time, led by communities of color and their allies, it has drawn the interest of policymakers, policy implementers, and the public across a wide range of political jurisdictions and policy domains. It builds on earlier foundations of equity analysis-especially in law, the social sciences, philosophy, and management-and represents a break from past practice in a number of important and ambitious ways.

We look forward to working with other institutions and community leaders, building on the basic typology and tackling the challenges we have outlined here. we will offer an in-depth look at practices in equity assessment and how to make it a more effective tool for creating a more equitable and just society. Working together, we can sharpen our goals, methods, and-most importantly-the tangible impacts of a better way of governing. We believe that delivering more equitable decisionmaking and outcomes can help deliver justice to those who fight for and deserve it, and make a better and more fair nation for everyone, from the economy and environment to everyday well-being. It is in the nature of real democracy that our fortunes are linked.

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Xavier de Souza Briggs and Richard M. McGahey

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Keeping promises while keeping score: Gauging the impacts of policy proposals on racial equity

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On May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers fatally injured George Floyd, a Black man, while he was under their custody-a searing, caught-on-camera killing that sparked the largest mass protests in American history. While the protests ostensibly focused on police killings of Black people, they also called out the systemic racism that fuels many other manifestations of racial inequality.

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At this transformative time of equity awareness in our nation, the federal government now has more opportunities to center equity in its laws and policies. Since the summer of 2021 , Urban Institute and PolicyLink have been collaborating to create the Equity Scoring Initiative (ESI), a research project to equip legislators with the tools they need to systematically measure the future equity impact of proposed legislation. The initiative will inform legislative action, public debate, media analysis, and issue advocacy.

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At this transformative time of equity awareness in our nation, the federal government now has more opportunities to center equity in its laws and policies. Since the summer of 2021 , Urban Institute and PolicyLink have been collaborating to create the Equity Scoring Initiative (ESI), a research project to equip legislators with the tools they need to systematically measure the future equity impact of proposed legislation. The initiative will inform legislative action, public debate, media analysis, and issue advocacy.

A scoring system that forecasts the equity impact of proposed legislation

Without a scoring system, lawmakers have no way of knowing how proposed bills could affect different groups differently. The Equity Scoring Initiative helps establish the foundation for a new legislative scoring system that measures what we value - equitable outcomes for a just society. The initiative uses a quantitative approach to measure the extent to which proposed bills can achieve equitable outcomes, and explores how to embed a quantitative measure in the legislative process.

Federal budget scoring can inform equity scoring

Budget scoring, which began with the passage of the "Budget Act" in 1974, incorporates the necessary elements to make equity scoring an effective tool for informing and shaping legislation: budget scores focus on specific policy outcomes, provide quantitative measures, and, by law, are deeply embedded in the legislative process.

Budget scoring shapes legislation by creating a formal nonpartisan process through which federal policymakers develop, coordinate, and enforce budgetary priorities when assessing bills. Approaches to budget scoring have evolved over time, reflecting enhancements in data and methods and changes in congressional priorities and rulemaking. Equity scoring would similarly follow this pathway.

Lessons learned from state and local racial equity assessments

We reviewed the nascent practice of equity assessment in state and local legislative processes and found it is primed for conceptual and methodological advancement. While states or cities passed legislation to require equity assessments, the assessments served an informational purpose but did not trigger any required action or rule. And when precedent for implementation was cited, it was primarily built on a similar budget scoring process already in place.

Most state and local assessments have clear general guidance for analysts to follow. In some examples, there was discretion in determining whether a required equity assessment needed to be conducted, while in others, the assessment was clearly required for all legislation, with named exceptions.

Conclusion

Over the past few decades, great strides have been made in both budget scoring and equity assessment. The initiative seeks to bring this work together to create a government that is working for everyone-a government that values equity and measures what it values. Scoring federal legislation for racial equity is possible now. Like budget scoring and equity assessment, equity scoring could be implemented using currently available data and tools and then improved over time.

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At this transformative time of equity awareness in our nation, the federal government now has more opportunities to center equity in its laws and policies. Since the summer of 2021 , Urban Institute and PolicyLink have been collaborating to create the Equity Scoring Initiative (ESI), a research project to equip legislators with the tools they need to systematically measure the future equity impact of proposed legislation.

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Spitfire creates and shares communication and campaign tools to help organizations think more strategically. Thousands of nonprofits and foundations have used our tools to protect our environment, ensure access to quality health care and fight for policies that help families make ends meet.

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Activation Point AndACTION Digital Smarts Big Ideas to Big Change Just Truth Mindful Messaging Planning to Win See What You Mean Smart Chart 4.0 Smart Plan Smart Scan

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Spitfire: Revolutionary resources & tools

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Spitfire: Revolutionary resources & tools

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Spitfire turns your mission into a motivating force for good. We create narratives, messages, stories and activities that engage audiences and motivate them to take action. We develop campaigns that win. We design gatherings that deepen connections, enhance skills and build confidence to think bigger

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We've created strategies that improve access to education, bolster a fair and accurate 2020 census, make birth control more accessible and heal regions after environmental disasters. Learn more about our work to advance racial, social, gender and economic justice, protect the environment and advance opportunity - especially where it's never existed before.

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Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Achieving Health Equity (eBook)

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Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Achieving Health Equity (eBook)

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Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Advancing Health Equity is edited by Alonzo L. Plough, PhD, MPH, VP, Research-Evaluation-Learning and Chief Science Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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We need to talk about race.
The story of our nation is one of justice and freedom, but the unspoken truth is too many people are shut out of equal opportunities because of the color of their skin. Civil Rights laws and advocacy movements have brought racial inequities to light, but have not solved urgent problems caused by structural racism. This inequity has led to wide-scale poorer health outcomes and shorter life spans.

Structural racism refers to the persistence of inequity in communities of color while others benefit from a disproportionately larger share of the nation's resources. There is indisputable evidence that the impacts of this inequity are generational. Structural racism has led to a lack of basic healthcare, education, housing, and other needs for too many in our nation.

Authentic conversations about racial inequities are essential, difficult, and urgent. There are many forces that prevent people from talking about racism. Without honest reflections on race and the history of this nation, conversation and narratives often generate unproductive fear, shame, guilt, avoidance, and denial. We need to move past that to a place of healing and action. A new book by RWJF's chief science officer, Dr. Alonzo Plough, shows us how.

Live Webinar-June 15 (registration sign-up to the left)

Join Dr. Alonzo Plough as he models how to talk about structural racism. The webinar will also offer insight into how health equity is the operational focus on the Foundation's work. Understand how:

To create space for those with lived experiences to drive decision making
This webinar will be available in Spanish and English, and will be recorded for on-demand use through RWJF's Communications Toolbox.

Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Advancing Health Equity is edited by Alonzo L. Plough, PhD, MPH, VP, Research-Evaluation-Learning and Chief Science Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The book, published by Oxford University Press, features a diverse set of voices, including Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of NAACP, Crystal Echo Hawk of IllumiNative, Gail Christopher, executive director, National Collaborative for Health Equity, among many other esteemed thinkers and doers.

Working together, we can dismantle harmful and inequitable structures of the past, so everyone has a fair and just opportunity for a brighter, thriving future ahead.
Other books in the series include:

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Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Achieving Health Equity

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We need to talk about race. The story of our nation is one of justice and freedom, but the unspoken truth is too many people are shut out of equal opportunities because of the color of their skin. Civil Rights laws and advocacy movements have brought racial inequities to light, but have not solved urgent problems caused by structural racism.

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Inequities across our nation have their roots in discrimination.

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For instance, some minority groups are at increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, low birth weight or premature birth and other serious conditions. A baby born to a black mother has been shown to be more than twice as likely as a baby born to a white mother to die before reaching his or her first birthday.

How do race and racism affect health?

Research has shown that the impact of race on health stems largely from differences in access to resources and opportunities that can hurt or enhance health. Additionally, researchers have found that racial and ethnic discrimination can negatively affect health across lifetimes and generations.

Health varies markedly by income within every racial group, and racial or ethnic differences can be seen at each level of income. These patterns are seen across a wide range of health conditions. At the same time, findings from studies in the U.S. and other countries have found that perceived racial/ethnic bias-and the resulting toxic stress-makes an additional contribution to racial or ethnic disparities in health.

In connection with past and current Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) programs aimed at reducing health disparities and advancing health equity, this collection includes research findings and perspectives on the connections between race, racism and health. To reach a Culture of Health, we must both address the socioeconomic factors that affect health and lift the barriers of racism to ensure everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

Resources and Perspectives by David Williams, PhD, MPH, RWJF Trustee

In a USA Today op-ed, Richard Besser, RWJF's president and CEO, discusses changes that the Foundation is making to its annual Sports Award program to more clearly recognize racism and discrimination as factors in health.
Read the op-ed

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For instance, some minority groups are at increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, low birth weight or premature birth and other serious conditions. A baby born to a black mother has been shown to be more than twice as likely as a baby born to a white mother to die before reaching his or her first birthday.