Capacity Building
Building leadership capacity through multi-racial coalition building, convenings, leadership development, workshops and trainings.

To get to racial equity at scale, leaders across sectors must have the tools, skills, and capacity to operationalize a structural race analysis to their work. While CSI works to build capacity across sectors, CSI particularly values the people who inspire and mobilize others to make positive change in their communities—from rural and urban Black women organizing healthy food hubs, to Indigenous leaders working for renewable energy independence, to the next generation of community leaders demanding police accountability. We believe that the on-the-ground knowledge and expertise of community leaders are vital to crafting effective strategies that can move communities, and the nation, towards racial equity. To that end, we develop the capacity of leaders to create strategy, conduct research, craft policy asks, share analysis, advocate for their communities, talk effectively about race, and build powerful and sustainable campaigns and communities that are rooted in racial equity.
We convene activists, organizers, and advocates through our programs:
- National First Food Racial Equity Cohort. Read more about First Food here.
- Peas & Justice. Read about our work on Food Equity.
- Puget Sound Equity, Environment, and Infrastructure Cohort.
We also host two fellowship programs:
Historically, CSI hosted the Alston Bannerman Fellowship, which provided a paid sabbatical for activists and organizers of color. We no longer host this Fellowship.
Explore our other three strategies: