APPLIED RESEARCH TRAINING / PUBLIC EDUCATION

BUILDING MODELS CONTRIBUITING TO AND DEVELOPMENT OF NETWORKS

To promote strategic, long-term reforms that will dismantle structural racism and create a foundation for new structural arrangements, we must make these structures and how they operate visible.

Communities of color must better understand the mechanisms behind them to create effective reform strategies. They must be better able to support their experiences with data and communicate them to national and regional entities and policy makers.

National, state and local governments, organizations, and advocates must have access to this information to better craft policy responses which understand the impact of their activities on structural opportunities within communities and the need for alliance-building and cross-cutting multisectoral work.

CSI supports these efforts through the following activities.

Applied research answers questions related to a specific set of problems in context. It is research in the service of change. It is collaborative, and requires that we work in partnership with communities, policy makers and others to identify questions we must answer to better understand what is happening on the ground. With this research, we inform strategies for naming, responding to and, ultimately, dismantling structural racism. Applied research enables us to identify advocacy priorities, develop strategies and create tools to implement the strategies.

Applied research activities include:

• Identifying issue priorities for communities and likely allies;

• Identifying questions that must be answered with quantitative and qualitative data;

• Locating data and collecting it;

• Analyzing data and developing findings and recommendations for reform.

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TRAINING / PUBLIC EDUCATION

Applied research is a tool. CSI uses applied research to open up discussions with communities, potential allies, policy makers and the public. These activities include:

• Translating data and findings for communities;

• Conducting community trainings to better understand structural racism, evaluate efforts to reform systems and institutions and develop strategies to dismantle structural racism;

• Disseminating publications for policy makers and opinion leaders, including reports and white papers;

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BUILDING MODELS

CSI develops local policy education and policy reform models to inform discussions about the nature, extent and impact of structural racism. By engaging in targeted projects at the local and state level, CSI applies theory about structural racism and reforms to practice in actual communities. We feed what we learn back into larger discussions between academics and national organizations to create increased understanding of structural racism and to advance collaborative efforts to formulate and expand on important policy reforms which show promise in dismantling structural racism. We do this through publications, convenings and strategic meetings.

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CONTRIBUITING TO AND DEVELOPMENT OF NETWORKS

CSI contributes to existing networks, alliances and coalitions and supports the development of new ones through the following activities:

• Providing information to community-based groups and others to identify possibly new allies and alliances;

• Hosting meetings and other convenings to help potential allies make connections;
  
• Developing policy analysis and frameworks which assist potential allies in identifying strategic ways to work together.

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