When you look at any metric of community well-being and disaggregate the data, it is far too easy to predict on the basis of race alone who will be on top and who will be on the bottom. It is just one reason why our 2021-23 Strategic Plan identifies racism as a root cause of poverty and recognizes that we can’t effectively fight poverty without addressing underlying systems and applying a racial equity lens to everything that we do.
This plan also outlines our commitment to employing community schools as the central organizing framework for everything that we do. Community Schools is a systems-based, equity-centered strategy that coordinates relationships and resources through a public school to accelerate equitable outcomes in health, education, and employment.
But in order to do this work well, we must challenge ourselves to learn and grow as individuals and as an institution. That’s why we’ve undertaken some of the following actions and we hope that if you have questions about any of them, you reach out to us: