Over the past two months, our Youth Board, staff team, and Board of Directors each engaged in a conversation about Equity at Open Roads. We took this Pledge, and encourage you to try it out too. It comes from a blog we're following, Fakequity, which is based on the premise that Fake Equity is bad. It shows up as all talk and no action. We're all about action here at Open Roads, and we need to get started. As a part of this community, we hope you will join us! Below is a resource guide for topics related to equity, understanding and dismantling racism, nonprofits, and books, movies, and other media to  help guide your education in these subject areas.

As for the immediate future at Open Roads, we've established an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist Organizational Change Committee to meet quarterly. The first order of business will be reviewing and improving equity in our employment systems and equity in our program development and implementation. 

All of this requires a set of informed policies and practices, intentionally designed to promote opportunity and rectify disparities, and it requires informed people positioned to implement them effectively. Out of the *nine positions of leadership within Open Roads, three of those individuals are People of Color. Therefore, the majority of people with the most power and control within the organization are white and have not experienced systemic racism themselves.

A Few Definitions:

Organizational Racism: The way normal, seemingly neutral or objective organizational policies and systems (e.g., the way we hire people, recruit board members, develop programming) can create disparities in access and outcomes for racialized and Indigenous individuals and communities. If not addressed, policies and systems can increase disparities in power.
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Anti-Racist Organizational Change: Making organizational changes like reviewing and modifying management structures and procedures in a way that intentionally addresses structural racism and creates greater diversity, inclusion, and equity

Conversation Guide: Talking about Racism, Racial Equity and Racial Healing with Friends, Family, Colleagues and Neighbors (borrowed from National Day of Racial Healing)
Truth & Racial Healing in Kalamazoo: Advancing racial equity and racial healing in Kalamazoo and beyond
ERRACE: ERACCE exists to eliminate structural racism and create a network of equitable Antiracist institutions and communities, based in the Southwest Michigan region - they offer trainings and workshops to deepen understanding and encourage action
Nonprofit AF Blog: Vu Le is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the Executive Director of Rainier Valley Corps, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by developing leaders of color, strengthening organizations led by communities of color, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities. This blog features an awesome cultural competence topic section.
Bicycle/ Race book: Bicycle / Race is a book of borderlands and intersections, a cautionary tale about the dangers of putting infrastructure before culture, and a coming-of-age story about power and identity. Our Board of Directors is reading this one right now!
Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A helpful booklist, particularly for white readers
Racial Equity Tools: A resource list of books and films 

We just officially launched a special winter corporate Bike Build Experience package where your team can buy bikes for youth who are in need of one, and come to our workshop to build them together! A team of engineers from Stryker Instruments joined us in the morning for bike building fun. ​We deliver those bikes, helmets, and locks to young people who are experiencing financial and/or circumstantial hardships that make earning a bike with us themselves a challenge.