Urban Sustainability Directors Network: Equity Foundations Training

In September 2015, USDN developed a holistic curriculum of webinars, videos, and worksheets to help local government staff to apply an equity lens to a sustainability project, including choosing a good project, communicating about the project and racial equity, building a team, applying proven equity tools, and designing the project to embed an equity lens in local government practice.

Racial Equity Tools

Racial Equity Tools is designed to support individuals and groups working to achieve racial equity. This site offers tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities and the culture at large.

An Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System (Seventh Edition)

The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to provide current research and outreach on structural racism in the U.S. food system for the food system practitioner, researcher, and educator.

Our intention was to look at literature and videos that broadly cover structural racism across the entire food supply chain as well as to examine specific sectors.

A RACIAL EQUITY IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE FOR FOOD HUBS: A framework for translating value into organizational action

We have to stop pretending that our food system is not broken. It is broken, and it isn’t just broken because of the threat of GMOs or people not knowing their farmers or where their food comes from. That is, indeed, part of it. But it is also broken because it has always reflected back to us the inequalities that exist in our society. To really reckon with that means that we have to consider how race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. are not just individual experiences or identities. They are structures, often oppressive structures, that we cannot ignore. To treat them intersectionally is to consider how food is not separate from race, not separate from gender, not separate from ability, etc. and that where a person or community stands at these intersections means that they have radically different life chances and access to food.

– Ashanté Reese, Assistant Professor, Sociology
and Anthropology, Spelman College

FSNE 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge

A self-guided learning journey for individuals and groups for examining the history and impacts of racism and inequities and how they are connected to our food system. The Challenge is updated every year with new daily prompts, resources and inspirational examples of dismantling racism and inequities in ourselves, our communities and our culture.

Elements of the Challenge

• daily email prompts (readings, video, audio) that take about 10-15 minutes each (with optional “deeper dive” materials)
• a launch webinar (recorded so that late joiners can view it as well) orienting participants to the Challenge
• a printable/PDF Discussion Guide to support groups at schools, colleges, businesses, churches or other organizations that may want to do the Challenge together
• online discussion forums for those who may want to talk about the daily prompts and other learning along the way
• New in 2020: extra support for Racial Equity Challenge facilitators (i.e. groups withing businesses, schools, organizations, etc.) to help make discussions during the Challenge more helpful and relevant. This will take the form of a facilitators’ webinar, one-day in person facilitators’ workshop at UNH (limited capacity), and mini grants of up to $1000 for New England based groups (in collaboration with New England Grassroots Environment Fund and the Garfield Foundation) to support group convenings and discussions related to the Racial Equity Challenge

Growing Your Grassroots: Employing Local Community Leaders for SNAP & Incentive Outreach

Presenter: Food Navigator and Fresh Link Ambassador programs

Interested in engaging community members with outreach, promotion, and education for your market’s nutrition incentive program? Experts will present on two different community outreach programs: FreshLink Ambassadors and Food Navigators that employ community members to spread the word about how to access fresh, healthy, locally grown food. 

FreshLink

FreshLink Ambassadors is a peer-to-peer marketing and outreach approach to spread the word about farmers’ markets to support the use of SNAP and nutrition incentives. Developed and evaluated through community-engaged research at Case Western Reserve University, Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio, the FreshLink Ambassador approach leverages social connections, trustworthiness, and capacity of community champions who raise awareness about and build social connections to farmers’ markets located in their neighborhoods. The FreshLink Ambassador Technical Assistance team now seeks to share learnings with individuals, organizations and communities interested in implementing this approach in their local context.  

Participants in this webinar can expect the following:

• Learn more about the core components of the FreshLink Ambassador approach.
• Understand the impact FreshLink Ambassadors has on individuals, communities, and farmers’ markets.
• Hear testimonials from a former FreshLink Ambassador and Farmers’ Market Manager about their experiences and the benefits of this peer-to-peer outreach approach.

Food Navigators

The Michigan Farmers Market Association in collaboration with the Michigan Fitness Foundation created the Food Navigator program which operates in farmers markets that accept food assistance benefits and are located in underserved communities. Food Navigators work to increase access to fresh, affordable food and help shoppers eat healthy.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and FAQ can be found here:

• FMC and Hub Introduction
• Main Presentation- Food Navigator
• Main Presentation- Freshlink Ambassador
• Q&A

Why diversity, equity, and inclusion matter for nonprofits

The National Council of Nonprofits stands with others in denouncing racism, bigotry, and intolerance. Yet taking a “stand” is not enough. We, along with many other charitable nonprofits, are traveling a journey to identify how to build the core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all our nonprofit’s operations, as well as model those values as we advance our mission. We believe that embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion as organizational values is a way to intentionally make space for positive outcomes to flourish, whether in the nonprofit capacity building or public policy spheres.

• Practice Pointers
• Questions to Consider when Cultivating Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity as Values at Your Nonprofit
• Resources for Your Nonprofit’s Learning Journey
• Unconscious / “Implicit” Bias
• Diversity on Boards of Directors
• Diversity in the Workforce

DEI STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT

Included on this page are a set of individual guides that cover key steps and processes involved in creating and sustaining an organization-wide DEI plan that may be adapted to your own environment, including foundational components and signature initiatives.

University of Michigan: Defining DEI

At the University of Michigan, our dedication to academic excellence for the public good is inseparable from our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. It is central to our mission as an educational institution to ensure that each member of our community has full opportunity to thrive in our environment, for we believe that diversity is key to individual flourishing, educational excellence and the advancement of knowledge.

Diversity: We commit to increasing diversity, which is expressed in myriad forms, including race and ethnicity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, culture, national origin, religious commitments, age, (dis)ability status and political perspective.

Equity: We commit to working actively to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status.

Inclusion: We commit to pursuing deliberate efforts to ensure that our campus is a place where differences are welcomed, different perspectives are respectfully heard and where every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. We know that by building a critical mass of diverse groups on campus and creating a vibrant climate of inclusiveness, we can more effectively leverage the resources of diversity to advance our collective capabilities.