Racial Equity Community of Practice
In 2021, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, as part of its own long-term learning process to build skills, policies, and practices that foster racial equity, recognized an opportunity for organizations to learn together and support one another in their efforts to advance equity. The Foundation brought together 14 organizations from across different sectors in Kansas City (KC), along with its own staff members, to participate in an 18-month Community of Practice focused on racial equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI). The Kauffman Foundation partnered with the National Equity Project (NEP), a leadership and systems change organization, to facilitate learning and practice.
The participant brief shares learnings from the community of practice journey told through quotes and insight from participants. It is organized following the Liberatory Design Framework, exploring how participants used the Community of Practice to see, engage, and act in service of racial equity.
The funder brief shares lessons from this effort that speak to the question: What does it take to support a racial equity community of practice? Using evaluation findings of this effort, it is intended to support the Kauffman Foundation’s internal learning and inform other funders and capacity-builders interested or engaged in similar work. The brief identifies factors that can facilitate progress by participating organizations, describes issues that can arise when attempting to work collectively, and explores the role of funders in this context. It concludes with recommendations for supporting this type of work in the future.
