Voices For Racial Justice

Programs: Racial equity policy: we have released a legislative agenda on racial equity at the beginning of each legislative session, followed by a racial equity bill watch, and finally a report card at the end of each biennium. We have now created similar agendas at the local levels (minneapolis and duluth) and are following with a report on progress toward racial equity in minneapolis this year. Following our strategic visioning process, we are now conducting an assessment of our policy tools and hearing from legislators and community partners. Organizing training: voices for racial justice has been known for its racial justice organizing training for 24 years. We currently have two organizing cohorts in greater minnesota (worthington and duluth) with the goal of building sustainable organizing and leadership capacity grounded in those communities. In addition, we have a summer youth organizing program that brings an arts and culture lens to the organizing training. We are also developing a training cohort focused on organizing leadership of parents for education equity. Prison justice: we work with communities impacted by the system of mass incarceration to advocate for change in prisons and in the culture of criminalizing entire communities. We are building networks of formerly incarcerated individuals, families of incarcerated individuals, and currently incarcerated people who work together to change the narrative about who is in prison and what incarceration is doing to our communities. We recently completed a community-based report on how incarceration affects health. We will soon start an organizing training cohort of people connected directly to mass incarceration.