Due to structural inequalities, the experiences and outcomes for Black people in White-majority countries are on average significantly worse than those of their White counterparts in every sphere of life – education, employment, income, social care, housing, policing, criminal justice, wellbeing and health. We believe that the only way forward is to centre the voices, experiences and expertise of the full spectrum of Black communities in creating the change that is needed – of the people, by the people, with the people, for the people!
Collective Impact was first described by Kania and Kramer in 2011; this approach recognises that complex social problems cannot be addressed by individual organisations acting alone, but instead, require cross-sector collaboration.
Our experience of implementing the Collective Impact model has shifted our thinking to explicitly place communities at the centre and include systems change as an intentional result. We adopt an approach that is more in line with Tamarack Institute’s Movement Building, to which we apply a Black community perspective.
From:
- Common Agenda
- Shared Measurement
- Mutually Reinforcing Activities
- Continuous Communication
- Backbone
To:
- Community Aspiration
- Strategic Learning
- High Leverage Activities
- Inclusive Community Engagement
- Containers for Change
“The most dangerous place for black people to live is in white people’s imagination.” - D. L. Hughley
The systems, and the people who work within them, consistently create environments that prevent Black people from thriving. We work with individuals and organisations to challenge the mindsets and imbalances of power which underpin policy development, the allocation of resources, and practices. Many Black people thrive in spite of the odds that are stacked against them. We change the odds by embedding race equity into systemic change and take the learning from these experiences so that thriving is not the exception but becomes the rule.
"The first need of a free people is to define their own terms" - Stokely Carmichael
Society places a strong emphasis on the need for evidence to inform policy and practice. For decades, organisations that have the most significant impact on the lives of citizens in areas such as education, health, and criminal justice have claimed that they use evidence to determine their policies and practices. However, the knowledge that is recognised and valued within western societies is often from a eurocentric perspective, therefore silencing the voices of Black people. As a result, interventions grounded in this knowledge are misguided and fail to deliver positive outcomes for Black communities. We work to disrupt the knowledge production process by critiquing existing research through a Black lens and actively contribute to the knowledge base by undertaking research that is led by Black people with academic backgrounds and/ or lived experience. This provides a foundation that enables systems to understand what can transform the Black experience from surviving to thriving.
