As a white woman from a conservative Pennsylvania town, I was disappointed but not shocked to learn that 53% of white women voters chose to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. My hope at the time…
#WealthInColor: Honeymoon Brewery [VIDEO]
In the first of our six-part #WealthInColor video series – featuring Black, Latinx and Native American founders – Ayla Bystrom-Williams of Honeymoon Brewery shares her entrepreneurial journey. She discusses the business landscape in New Mexico, the challenges of raising capital…
Capital for the New Majority: Reflections from HBCU@SXSW [PODCAST]
What does it take to disrupt barriers to access to capital for people of color and shift who ultimately gets to grow and build wealth? At HBCU@SXSW we had a conversation with ecosystem builders and capital providers about how increasing…
What is a Community Data Portal and What Difference Can it Make?
A few years ago, I described the need our community of Louisville, KY had for a “third place” for data. At that time, government at all levels were in a boom of the deployment of Open Data portals for a wide range…
Putting Entrepreneurs of Color in the Center: What Ecosystems and City Government Can Do
Living Cities has been working with eight municipalities that are trying new approaches to address the fragmentation and barriers that founders of color experience in their communities. Like many cities, they recognize their local economy is weakened when their entrepreneurs…
Impact vs. Intent: Initial Lessons from Third Sector’s Equity Journey
What does a low-income community look like? What systems and programs, while often well-intentioned, serve as the foot of oppression for keeping this neighborhood economically poor? After conducting this power analysis as part of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s…
Decolonizing Lunch Part I: Interrogating our Org Culture Around Food
This two-part series explores how we are living our value of racial equity and inclusion by interrogating and shifting the ways we approach food and catering as an organization. In this piece, read on for more about the relationship between…
Decolonizing Lunch Part II: Putting Our Values into Action
In the first piece of this two-part series, we explored the relationship between our racial equity practice and our procurement practices, and some of the questions we continue to grapple with in our journey. In this piece, one staff member…
Skills Development and Talent Placement: Reflections from HBCU@SXSW [PODCAST]
What does it take for companies to operationalize racial equity? At Opportunity Hub’s HBCU@SXSW we chatted with leaders in the tech field about how companies can support black and brown entrepreneurs through skills development and talent placement. Opportunity Hub (OHUB)…
What We’re Reading: A Terrible Thing to Waste, by Harriet A. Washington
Ten, twenty, one hundred times a day, I think about the end times. They are coming and I am terrified. In July, Alaska experienced record-high heat of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. A paper released by an Australian think tank laid out…
Building the Field: Reflections on Undoing Racism
We cannot address racial disparities without being clear about the historical, social and political meaning of race in America. As part of our internal racial equity work, Living Cities has asked all of our staff to attend racial equity trainings…
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Capital for the New Majority with Monique Woodard [VIDEO]
This video features Monique Woodard, a venture capital investor who is a contributor to our Builders and Benefactors series. Monique is part of a network of private equity investors, venture capitalists, and founders of color who are intentionally investing to close…
A Day in a Life: Imagining a Country without Racial Gaps [INFOGRAPHIC]
At Living Cities, we are actively working to reimagine a world without racial wealth and income gaps. This second iteration of our A Day in a Life infographic is one of our visions for what that world might look like….
Through the Eyes of Wakanda: On Screen Lessons for Off Screen Impact
Join us throughout the upcoming weeks as we feature the stories and work of Builders and Benefactors, a network of private equity investors, venture capitalists, and founders of color who are intentionally investing to close racial wealth and income gaps. Together,…
Normalizing Deep Conversations about Race through Coaching
This blog is part of a series that will tell the story of our organizational shift toward centering racial equity by sharing details of the experience and how we’ve handled bumps along the way with an emphasis on the ways…
Reflections on Leading Racial Equity Work in Collective Impact
OneCranston’s story has many similarities to the stories of those leading racial equity and inclusion work in many cities and institutions throughout our country. As we read and hear about more and more institutions each day talking about race and…
Lessons Learned from Regional Inclusive Economic Growth
We spoke with Living Cities members, partners and practitioners in the field to gather the critical lessons from past regional efforts in the US. We’ve shared why Living Cities is looking at a regional approach on inclusive economic growth in…
Building Local Startup Ecosystems That Work for Entrepreneurs of Color
In light of our ImpactAssets50 recognition, we are sharing blog posts, originally posted at Impact Alpha, that highlight the unique values that led the Catalyst and Blended Catalyst Funds to be included in the ImpactAssets 50 among an impressive set of peers…
Building OneCranston through Collective Impact
As a Working Cities Challenge participant, Cranston, Rhode Island is working to undo the city’s longstanding racial divides. Two partners in the work reflect on efforts to build unity through collective impact, and share tools and resources that they’ve found…
What Does Racial Equity & Inclusion Look Like for the Public Sector?
Where do we go from here? That is the question. There was a training, or a book, or a conversation with a person you trust that broke down systemic racism for you. Now you can’t unlearn what you know but…