Pilot Sites

• ERASE Racism on Long Island, New York
• IMPACT Silver Spring in Maryland
• Tellin’ Stories in Washington, D.C.
• South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race in New Jersey

Please take the time to read more about them and check out their web sites.

ERASE Racism

ERASE Racism began as an initiative of The Long Island Community Foundation, a 24 year old division of The New York Community Trust. The LICF board and staff recognized racism as a critical issue affecting Long Island. In 1999, LICF began convening a diverse group of individuals interested in racism, social equity and human rights to listen to invited speakers and share their ideas, experiences, and concerns. The recommendation was to focus LICF's work on institutional racism and with funding from participants and others, in June 2001, the ERASE Racism project was launched.

ERASE Racism’s mission is to undo institutional racism – the structures, policies and behaviors that create segregation and inequality in every aspect of daily living. Its strategies include:

		Educates and promotes a dialogue among community leaders about the history, continuing existence, and operational realities of institutional racism on Long Island.
		Identifies specific manifestations of institutional racism, initially in housing, public education, economic development, and health.
		Initiates and facilitates discourse, approaches, and tools to undo the structures, policies, practices, and relationships that perpetuate institutional racism and result in discrimination, segregation, and inequities based on race.

The organization has engaged over a thousand individuals in educational and problem-solving activities designed to increase public awareness of the history and effects of institutional racism and to develop a variety of remedies that address institutional racism in the region. A systematic strategic planning model designed by ERASE Racism called Study-Action Groups has built a growing constituency of individuals and key organizations that embrace the initiative's agenda and continue to contribute to the design and implementation of the action plans. ERASE Racism’s growing leadership network is developing and implementing strategic, coordinated action to undo institutional racism.

The organization has convened seventy representatives from a broad cross-section of large and small organizations to explore a process of organizational self-assessment, which identifies behaviors within organizations that contribute to the perpetuation of institutional racism. ERASE Racism spotlights how institutional racism is keeping African Americans and many other people of color from fully accessing the social, economic, and political opportunities of the region. The initiative operates as a central information and networking hub. Staff informs and educates through briefing sessions, the media, and custom-designed training sessions for interested institutions.

Contact Information:

ERASE Racism
6800 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 112W Syosset, NY 11791-4340
Telephone: 516-921-4863 Fax: 516-921-4866
E-mail: info@eraseracismny.org
http://www.eraseracismny.org

IMPACT Silver Spring

IMPACT Silver Spring was founded in 1999 by a group of citizen leaders concerned that the voices shaping the redevelopment of Silver Spring did not reflect the diverse communities living there. Its mission is to create the capacity needed to build and sustain Silver Spring as a thriving, multicultural community. This is accomplished by raising awareness, developing leadership, building relationships, fostering dialogue and facilitating collaborative action. IMPACT Silver Spring is an intermediary organization, implementing programs that act as bridges between the city’s diverse communities and providing access to professional outreach, training, mediation, and facilitation services for community members taking on leadership roles.

Its major programs are:

Community Empowerment Program (CEP) – IMPACT’s centerpiece leadership development training program for existing and emerging community leaders. Key to the training is learning and practicing strategies for successfully communicating and working with people across lines of race, class, and culture.

Lasting IMPACT – a continuing support network initiated by and for CEP graduates to support their community action plans. Through meetings, gatherings, educational workshops, and information resources, it provides the infrastructure for CEP graduates to work together in pursuing community reforms.

Neighborhood IMPACT – leadership development and diversity awareness training and support in the context of existing community endeavors.

IMPACT in the Schools – a team of CEP graduates who work at the local school level to empower minority and immigrant parents to understand the growing achievement gap and exercise their voices in pursuing changes to close the gap.

IMPACT in the Schools is the project which worked specifically on Evaluation Tools for Racial Equity. The project has developed six steps to reach its outcomes:

• Developing Relationships of Trust With Targeted Parents
• Increasing Parent Awareness: Achievement Gap and Call to Action
• Building Skills: Parent Involvement, Leadership and Multicultural Teams
• Creating New Parent Membership Structure for Sustainability
• Building Relationships with Current School Leadership Structure
• Initiating Collaborative Model for Strategic Planning and Action

Program components include: After School Enrichment Program for Targeted Students, One on One Outreach to Parents of Targeted Students, Small Group Support Sessions for Parents, Direct Linkages to Social Services and Support Resources, Self-Organizing Parent Membership Structure, Action Research and Evaluation, and Dialogue. Also the team is working on developing a Parent Institute which will include: Parent Involvement and Leadership Training, Multicultural Awareness and Technical Assistance.

Contact Information:

IMPACT Silver Spring
1313 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Telephone: 301-495-3336 Fax: 301-495-6660
E-mail: info@impactsilverspring.org
http://www.impactsilverspring.org/

Tellin’ Stories, of Teaching for Change: Building Social Justice Starting in the Classroom

The Tellin’ Stories Project of Teaching for Change operates from the belief that, for schools to provide the quality education our children deserve, families, schools and communities must be involved as purposeful partners in the education process. At the heart of Tellin’ Stories’ efforts to engage families and staff is the power of story to connect people from diverse backgrounds, to share valuable information and experiences and to organize collective action. School-based workshops and meetings provide opportunities and skills for families and school staff to bridge differences and achieve shared goals. By recognizing and cultivating the knowledge, strengths, and personal stories of African American and immigrant families, Tellin’ Stories’ increases parents’ access to schools and broadens their school-based roles. In claiming these roles, parents use their power collaboratively to transform schools.

Community Building: Tellin' Stories creates opportunities for families to connect to each other and to their school--often for the first time--through the power of story.

Collaborating: Tellin’ Stories facilitates collaboration among all members of the school— administration, support staff (cafeteria workers, custodial and security staff, and aides), teachers, families and community, beginning the school year with a parent-led community walk. We work with community-based organizations that share our vision of parent empowerment as key to school reform.

Gathering Information and Developing Skills: Parents gain the tools they need during regular parent meetings to analyze the school climate, the facilities, and the quality of teaching and learning at their school.

Identifying And Prioritizing Concerns: By learning to ask the right questions, parents prioritize concerns and determine who has the power to address them most immediately and effectively.

Taking Action: Parent leaders go to the district police station to demand crossing guards, testify at school board and city council hearings regarding dilapidated school facilities, organize mass demonstrations, observe and monitor instruction and offer direct support to classroom teachers to ensure issues are addressed to serve the best interest of all children.

Evaluating: Every aspect of Tellin' Stories' work involves action and reflection. Tellin’ Stories involves key stakeholders in assessing its work to increase its impact.

The three primary long term outcomes Tellin’ Stories seeks to achieve with its strategies are:

		Strong, sustainable parent groups act from a position of power to collaborate with school staff to improve teaching and learning.
		Parent Leaders create and sustain meaningful family-school programs within their schools while contributing to citywide efforts to create better schools.
		Tellin’ Stories’ approach is documented and publicized to broaden awareness and make it more accessible for those wishing to implement it.

Contact Information:

Tellin' Stories
P.O. Box 73038 Washington, DC 20056-3038
Telephone: 202-588-7207 Fax: 202-238-0109
http://www.teachingforchange.org/DC_Projects/Telling_Stories/telling_stories.html

South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race

The South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race was founded in 1996 by citizens of the two adjacent communities of South Orange and Maplewood in New Jersey. It has evolved into a nonprofit organization supported by a large cadre of volunteers, working in a subcommittee structure supported by a small number of highly experienced staff. Funding is provided by private donations, foundations, and the two municipal governments. The volunteer leaders and the organization work to create and maintain inclusive communities and civic processes, free of racial segregation in housing patterns and community involvement.

The Coalition supports a number of efforts to develop a culture that actively promotes integration in housing and civic life, along a model developed in part by the Fund for an Open Society.

Major programs (and committees) of the Coalition are:

Financial Incentives: Operates a below-market rate second mortgage program for home improvements and explores other incentives to draw home buyers into neighborhoods where their race is underrepresented.

Interfaith Outreach: Helps to organize and work through various faith based congregations in South Orange and Maplewood.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Testing: Provides information to track the goals of the work and to assess its progress. For example, the group has developed and applied an analysis of housing values that indicates residential integration maintains or improves housing values in the communities compared to neighboring areas that do not intentionally pursue residential integration. Also oversees relationship with fair housing testing agencies.

Neighborhood Association and Civic Life: promotes a number of activities (e.g. two towns, one book) to promote civic engagement and active relationships among racial/ethnic groups and diverse individuals. Also actively seeks to identify volunteers ‘of color’ whose race is underrepresented in civic organizations for engagement, maintaining a volunteer talent bank.

Ordinance review: looks at local ordinances compared to model ordnances that promote integration, and attempts to affect policy change in areas where it is needed

Marketing Communications, with the Touring Committee, works with realtors, college and corporate relocations offices and the media to attract a diverse group of potential home buyers and renters. Employs a publicist to tell the story of the town to the larger community, focusing on stories of communal interest rather than those of interest to a single race.

Schools: helps to identify options and bring resources to the schools to reduce the achievement gap and support school equity, focusing on racial balance between the schools, within the schools and within levels in the schools. The committee is not an ‘education’ committee. The Coalition identified people’s misperceptions of the quality of schools serving integrated neighborhoods as a barrier to residential integration. The work of the school groups is an example of a strategy to address those misperceptions and any real concerns about school quality.

Contact Information:

South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition
P.O. Box 1309 Maplewood, New Jersey 07040
Telephone: 1-800-CLOSE BY
http://www.twotowns.org/