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About

The Project

About The Site

The content on this site is grounded in (and often responding directly to) ThirdSpace Action Lab’s anti-racist community development research project made possible through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The research brought together the practical experience of 87 community development practitioners and a literature review of 85 different information sources.

This website is dedicated to anyone who cares about anti-racist community development work and wants to be part of the movement to move anti-racist practice forward in the sector. We believe this work is incredibly important to the future of our country, both in remedying mistakes of the past and building a far better future for all American communities. We intend for this site to be a place for continued conversation and reflection, and we believe that we can find joy and purpose in naming both racism and anti-racism explicitly and then working collectively to move things forward. We hope that you as a reader can see a role for yourself in the wisdom shared.

A Note On Content

Working toward anti-racist community development is incredibly complex. It requires us to sit with tensions and contradictions. It requires us to recognize that no single reform or single innovation is going to get us to where we want to go. There are no silver bullets or quick fixes.

Most importantly, it requires us to make space for a diversity of perspectives grounded in a lot of different kinds of experience. The anti-racist community development research was very intentional about including a diversity of practitioner experience, including participants’ racial identities, job functions, length of time in community development, geography served, and location in the United States. This website is striving to have the same diversity of perspectives in the authors, artists, and researchers it features. The views expressed on the site do not necessarily reflect the views of ThirdSpace Action Lab or our partners and collaborators, but we believe that they collectively point toward the kind of future that’s possible.

 

About ThirdSpace Action Lab

ThirdSpace Action Lab was created to disrupt the vicious cycle of disinvestment + displacement that negatively impacts the vitality of communities of color with low incomes. ThirdSpace is a grassroots solutions studio dedicated to prototyping creative, place-based solutions to complex socio-economic problems. The organization works as institutional + community organizers, turning multidisciplinary research into evidence-based strategies and activating “third places” to co-create more liberated spaces for people of color.

Related Projects

Beyond the Anti-Racist Community Development research project, this website is also grounded in ThirdSpace’s other practice areas, including our Awareness-Building partnership with the Racial Equity Institute, the ThirdSpace Reading Room, and Chocolate Cities. It also benefits from ongoing research and learning partnerships, including our current collaboration with the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations to understand the role of resident voice in the modern community development sector.

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RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Anti-Racist Community Development research project serves as important grounding for the content on this site. Support for this research was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. The project simply would not have been possible without the rich analysis, insights, and candidness that people brought to the exploration as authors + interviewees. We will forever be grateful for their contribution to this project and look forward to continuing to build community with them in the future.

Recommended Reading

Want to dig in deeper? The following are the documents we reviewed as part of the Anti-Racist Community Development research project and are a great place to start around the topic.

10 Principles for Embedding Racial Equity In Real Estate Development 10 Priorities for Advancing Racial Equity Through the American Rescue Plan A New Era of Racial Equity in Community Development Finance Addressing Inequity Through Public Health, Community Development, Arts, and Culture Confluence of Fields and the Opportunity to Reframe, Retool, and Repair Advancing Antiracism in Community Development Advancing Racial Equity in Housing and Community Development Advancing Well-Being by Transcending the Barriers of Whiteness Anchor Institutions Collaborating in their Local Communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic (4th Edition) Behind the Mask Beyond Housing: Why Equity Demands a Complete Overhaul of Land Use Policy Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Elon Musk Top List of America’s 50 Biggest Charity Donors Black Funding Denied: Community Foundation Support for Black Communities Building a National Narrative of Anti-Displacement Strategies Building Narrative Power for Racial Justice and Health Equity Building Trust in American Hospital-Community Development Projects: A Scoping Review Catalytic Change Centering Black People in Community Development: New Visions from Black Women Leaders Centering Equity: Intermediary Relationships Championing Leaders of Color in Housing Equity and Community Development Communicating about Intergenerational Urban Poverty and Race in America: Challenges, Opportunities, and Emerging Recommendations Community Development Corporations and Racial Justice: Accounts from the Field Community Violence Intervention Works, with the Right Support. So Let's Support It. COVID-19 & Race: Principles for a Common-Sense, Street-Smart Recovery Credit Where Credit Is Due: Expanding Access to Capital for BIPOC Developers Developing America's Smaller Legacy Cities Disinvested: How Government and Private Industry Let the Main Street of a Black Neighborhood Crumble Driving Systems Change Forward Enacting Critical Community Development Through Anti-Gentrification Policy Advocacy Every Single Cognitive Bias in One Infographic Following the Money: An Analysis of Foundation Grantmaking for Community and Economic Development Greenlined Economy Guidebook: Transforming Community Development, Transforming Our Economy Health Systems and Housing: Collaborating to Promote Affordable Housing Policy Opportunities Here We Go Again: Philanthropy & Movement Capture Holding Foundations Accountable for Equity Commitments How Do We Know It When We See It? Improving The Measurement Of Structural Racism To Achieve Antiracist Health Policy Insights for Health and Community Development Partnerships from People Who Have Crossed Sectors Intersecting Inequalities and Prospects for Community Development Investing in Grassroots Organizing for Racial and Health Equity: A Case Study and Recommendations for Funders Investment in Infrastructure: The Community Engagement Imperative Lessons from Award-Winning Hospital-Community Partnerships Mismatched: Philanthropy's Response to the Call for Racial Justice Narrowing the Racial Homeownership Gap: A New Strategy for Low-Cost Cities Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Achieving Health Equity Neighborhood Mobility Programs as a Remedy to the Legacy of Racial and Economic Segregation On the Frontlines: Nonprofits Led by People of Color Confront COVID-19 and Structural Racism Opening A Restaurant In Boston Takes 92 Steps Our Power: Pathways to Community Prosperity Partnering With Federal Agencies to Advance Racial Equity Philanthropy OUTlook: LGBTQ Black Communities Race and Place-based Philanthropy: Learnings from Funders Focused on Equitable Impact Race, Wealth, and Homeownership; The Time to Act Is Long Overdue Racial Justice in Housing Finance: A Series on New Directions Racial Representation in Community Development: The Vital Importance of Trust Restoring the Balance between People, Places, and Profits: A Psychosocial Analysis of Uneven Community Development and the Case for Placemaking Processes Seeking to Soar: Foundation Funding for Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities Shifting the Affordable Housing Narrative Through Arts and Culture Shifting the Narrative: Six Case Studies Short Changed: Foundation Giving in Communities of Color Solidarity can’t work without understanding that Blackness has a role in every struggle Spotlight On Impact Storytelling Tackling Racial Equity Through Community Development Talking Values: Identity Talking Values: Organizing Talking Values: Racial Equity The American Rescue Plan: Centering Equity in Policymaking The Core Elements of Empowerment Economics The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of COVID-19 in the United States The Past, Present, and Future of Community Development in the United States The Psychology of Place and the Critical Role It Plays in Individual and Community Health The Racial Wealth Gap and Access to Opportunity Neighborhoods The Structural Racism Remedies Project The Structural Racism Remedies Repository To Avoid Integration, Americans Built Barricades in Urban Space To Bridge Health Equity and Infrastructure, We Must Harness Grassroots Power and Creativity To Tackle Racial Justice, Organizing Must Change Toolkits, Not Triage: How SPARCC Adapted Capital Practices to Support Community-Led Projects Tracking the Unequal Distribution of Community Development Funding in the US Viewpoint: Democratizing Capital Voices from the Field: Lessons learned from BHPN’s Community Innovations Initiative What About Jane? What Does Community Development for Liberation Look Like? Whose voice do community development organizations speak? The trajectory of CBOs in Latino Pilsen in Chicago

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