Project Sites

Today, more than 15 years after communities began their Project Change work, three of the four original sites are still actively engaged in anti-racistwork that isacontinuation and legacy of the original partnership. Albuquerque and Knoxville continue and have expanded significantly — as the Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest in Albuquerque and the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee in Knoxville with full agenda, staff and programming. In Valdosta, Project Change continues to operate as a volunteer task force and to support programming and activities within a constrained budget. In El Paso, Project Change officially ended in 1999. Several of its key leaders continue doing anti-racist work in other settings

While the sites made strides in reducing institutional racism, particularly in Albuquerque, for the most part they found it easier to make progress toward the other Project Change goals — diversifying key community institutions; improving race relations across groups and stopping or responding assertively to hate crimes.

What Worked

• Economic Equity
  Albuquerque, NM & Valdosta, GA

• Leadership Development and Training
  (all four sites)

• Hate Crimes Prevention
  El Paso, TX, Knoxville, TN & Valdosta, GA

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Trust: Invest time in building trusting relationships and a safe environment for working with diverse groups through storytelling, ritual, and honoring the sacred in all traditions.

Language: Develop and utilize inclusive language with an anti-racist/anti-oppression focus.

Action: Connect to strategies and values that lead to institutional and structural transformation while continuing to focus on a larger vision of community building.

Research: Deepen understanding of anti-racist/anti-oppression work through the targeted use of applied research.

Training: Make ongoing anti-racist/anti-oppression training a requirement for all participants; however, do not confuse the training with the work.

Commitment: Recruit and retain only those community leaders and volunteers who demonstrate commitment to changing the status quo, and are willing to take personal and professional risks.

Leadership: As a group, choose to model the behavior and accountability desired in the larger community.

Inclusiveness: Continue to redefine issues in an inclusive way, i.e. race, class, culture, gender, sexual orientation, language, immigration status and religion.

Self-Examination: Insist on looking inward in order to focus on rigorous self-inquiry and reflection.