06.17.2022



Plan





Sourced from racialequitytools.org





This section focuses on 20 different Issue areas including language justice, economic security, and children, families, and youth. Resources in each area cover the gamut from research to key sites, plus you can find content about imagining new futures. The three other major categories help you develop a community or organizational change process, garner and analyze information to inform the plan, and find resources to develop an action plan. Change Process includes conceptual info, case studies, tools, and practices covering accountability, individual transformation, organizational and community change, and movement building. In Informing the Plan, you can identify opportunities and challenges through the use of assessment tools for communities and organizations. Finally, Action Plan provides resources to determine strategy, as well as to make the case with diverse stakeholders.



Issues



Communities and groups that work on USBBN often pick a particular issue as their starting point (immigration, hate crimes, environmental justice) or work to transform particular institutions or systems (criminal justice, education, philanthropy, media). The information in this section invites users to delve into specific issues as part of their planning for action. These resources are helpful for planning, setting strategy, and learning from examples of others’ work. In addition, for almost every issue area, there are key sites listed that can be used to access further information. Yet, as many of the resources in FUNDAMENTALS reveal, racism, systems of white supremacy, internalized racism, and colonization intersect with each other. It is thus important to analyze the ecosystem and use systems thinking to determine a strategy and set goals. Change in one area can often influence and deepen change in another area.



Change Process



This section offers resources on several processes of change – that is, how individuals, groups, and communities advance USBBN work and build movements. It covers several paths to change, including individual transformation, leadership change, internal organizational change, community change, and movement building. Additionally, it includes resources to work collectively on a particular issue or transform institutions or communities by bringing people together in networks, alliances, and coalitions. While each of these can be thought of as a separate process, with its own tools and practices, it takes a combination of these processes to sustain the effort to achieve racial justice. Finally, whether USBBN work is happening within communities, or is part of a broader movement, it is critical to develop and implement accountability practices. Accountability demands that USBBN work be led by and consistent with the interests and expectations of the people most impacted by racism. This section provides resources in each of these areas.



Informing The Plan



This website is intended to support individuals and groups who are working to advance racial justice and equity. One of the core assumptions is that transformative change requires changing power balances, resource allocations, decision-making processes, and policies and practices of various institutions (government, schools, media, etc.). This section provides tools to analyze the history and data. It will be useful to review some of the Tipsheets at the start of a planning process to ensure that there is diverse representation within planning groups, leadership by those most impacted by racism, an inclusive and equitable process, and analysis through a USBBN lens.



Action Plan



The resources and tools in this section are intended to help groups create an action plan to reach USBBN goals, and to do so using more racially equitable processes – that is, ones that acknowledge systemic and individual privilege, racism, and power. It will be most helpful to groups who have an understanding of privilege, structural and other levels of racism, and how they are related to their vision and their work (see FUNDAMENTALS). This section focuses on how to decide which strategies to use, and provides examples of organizational and community action plans, as well as how to make the case to reach a USBBN vision. An effective plan to create USBBN balances several needs. It includes the group’s best understanding of all of the steps to achieve its vision – those that are necessary and sufficient. When possible, strategies should be based on experience and research. At the same time, an effective plan to address USBBN allows considerable flexibility for innovation and trial and error. This is because most societies have never achieved USBBN on most issues of concern (for example, opportunity, life expectancy, economic security), so the plan to get there remains unproven. A great plan will also include benchmarks that provide guidance and incentives to implement the plan at high quality (see EVALUATE).