Because we conceptualized racism as a public health issue - operating both inside and outside of our organization - our approach to training framed human service work/health care as inherently needing to embody antiracist principles.    

 

St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center reached out to Catholic Family Center as a collaborative partner in the work. Both agencies wanted to build upon the efforts of many prior community initiatives whose aim was to address racism and racial inequity, such as Facing Race, Embracing Equity (FR=EE) and Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative’s (RMAPI). Specifically, the SRI sought to expand upon one of the RMAPI main findings that structural racism must be addressed if people are to be successful in moving out of poverty. While structural racism must be addressed in very large institutions like the justice system, universities, and in public services, it must also be addressed in the institutions that serve people who live in poverty. 

  

The goal of SRI was to provide resources to nonprofit and social service organizations to be able to look within and interrogate the power and privilege that are often taken for granted. The initiative sought to unpack and deconstruct those implicit and explicit biases that we (or society) may carry, in order to dismantle racist structures and policies. The vision was to address these biases at both the individual and collective level within participant organizations. *

 

The initial grant to the Greater Rochester Health Foundation was written to start a multi-year process of racial bias discovery and transformation training. This training would be led by internationally known consultant, educator, and family systems expert, Dr. Ken Hardy. 

* For clarity purposes, the groups participating in SRI are referred to as Cohort 1 within the new REJI framework