Community leaders working together to build a thriving Bronx

Grounding the work in appropriate data and context requires that participants in the collective impact initiative develop a new and shared understanding of terminology, history, data, and personal stories. Many widely accepted but false and damaging narratives in our society are used by those with power to conceal structural racism. Long before analyzing data or proposing solutions, participants must create a shared language of agreed definitions about race and equity.

Equitable outcomes and solutions that focus on addressing root causes of social problems at a community, regional, or national level cannot be achieved one program at a time. They require deeper changes in public and private systems, structures, policies, and culture that consistently produce, and often were designed to produce, racist or otherwise inequitable outcomes.

Public policies, rules, and resource flows are too often controlled by individuals who don’t reflect or represent the populations whom their decisions affect. Too often, we focus on diversity to change who sits at the table without changing the underlying dynamics of decisions made at the table by shifting culture and power. Realizing equitable outcomes and achieving systems change requires shifting power to the affected.

When we look honestly at the roots of challenges facing many communities, we find that we must move from working in communities to working with communities and supporting work by communities. Listening to the community requires trust and engagement. Families, friends, neighbors, and groups already operating in the community have the knowledge, skills, and experience essential for producing equitable change.

Our focus is on leadership and accountability that centers equity in the work by advancing Collective Impact strategies. Leadership must not be centralized but should be distributed throughout the collective impact effort with backbone staff and collective impact stakeholders, such as steering-committee members, working groups chairs and funders, partner organizations, and the broader community.

Resilience is in our bones. A vastly diverse community makes the Bronx stronger, especially when we work together. Many of our ancestors fought for equity, joy, safety, and sovereignty for themselves and for their community. That fight is still alive in our community. We will continue to dream and imagine a healthier, safer, more prosperous borough because we know that together, we can uncover systemic inequity and realize a different future for the Bronx.