New policy directions can dismantle structural racism over time, and create a new social foundation that provides a better life for all of us.  The first step is to make these structures visible.  Only then can we develop and advocate for the ideas that will transform them. 

CSI seeks to nurture ideas and build leadership and advocacy strategies in communities of color that experience structural racism firsthand.  When people of color are able to support their experiences with empirical data, and to communicate them effectively to policy makers, coalition partners and the public,

CSI’s work seeks to nurture this new movement.  Specifically, we:

·        Conduct applied research to better understand how structural racism operates, and how it manifests itself in a specific place.

·        Develop policy positions and tools for policy reform to alter these social arrangements.

·        Test communications strategies for building support for race-conscious public policy, in order to determine the most effective ways to advocate for reform.

·        Disseminate our research and policy models to community organizing groups, policy advocacy organizations, funders and others working to end structural racism.

·        Build the capacity of leaders and communities to advocate for effectively for fair access to resources and opportunity.

·        Engage in public education to make racism visible, and clarify the ways in which the persistence of structural racism harms us all.