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IN 1992, FACED WITH THE daunting task of choosing a training program to assist in developing its anti-racism initiatives, Project Change commissioned Gary Delgado and the Applied Research Center to conduct a study of ten programs. The goal was to better understand the differences among these ten anti-racism programs, assess their potential utility in assisting community organizations like Project Change, and address some of the critical issues around anti-racism activities and programs. The resulting publication, Anti-Racist Work: An Examination and Assessment of Organizational Activity made a crucial contribution to the field by advancing a structural analysis of racism and assessing organizational activities through that lens. It also pioneered an important conceptual and research framework for understanding and differentiating anti-racism organizations and activities.
Ten years later, recognizing the changing nature of race relations in U.S. communities and the variety
of new training programs that had emerged to address racial and ethnic prejudice, oppression and diversity, Project Change commissioned this Guide to build upon and update the 1992 publication.
Project Change selected the Center for Assessment and Policy Development (CAPD) to draw upon
their considerable experience and expertise in program assessment in leading this initiative. CAPD,
in turn, designated Ilana Shapiro, President of the Alliance for Conflict Transformation, as the principal
researcher because this project closely paralleled her own research—a comparative analysis of
interventions addressing racial and ethnic tensions in U.S. communities.
A natural partnership with the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives
for Children and Families soon formed, based on a shared focus on the importance of addressing structural racism and a common interest in developing racial justice "tools" for community leaders and
organizations. The Aspen Roundtable’s team has been an integral part of supporting, designing, collecting and analyzing data, editing and publishing this study.
Together, Project Change in Oakland, California, the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Comprehensive Communities Initiatives for Children and Families in New York City, the Center for Assessment and Policy Development in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Alliance for Conflict Transformation in Fairfax, Virginia formed a cooperative partnership to develop this publication.
