Commitment to Racial Equity
The Appalachia Funders Network is committed to an Equitable Appalachian Transition.
The Network has dedicated funding and created peer exchange and structured learning environments to accelerate our collective work, focusing on centering equity.
We want to support our members in deepening their understanding of racial equity and implementing those learnings in their organizational processes and culture. For example, Anna Cruz, Managing Director of Strategic Learning, Research, & Evaluation at The Kresge Foundation spoke to AFN members at a virtual speaker event, Adopting a DEI Lens: Moving from Organizational Learning to Action. You can learn more and view a recording of this session here.
In addition, AFN worked with Dr. Akuoma Nwadike of Inclusivity Education. Dr. Nwadike is a scholar and reacher-practitioner dedicated to Liberation through increasing Inclusivity. Dr. Nwadike uses scholarly, research-based best practices and originally designed frameworks to advocate for, design, implement, and measure Inclusivity development.
As an organization, the Appalachia Funders Network aligns its priorities around those strategies that support our members in their work to address the impacts of structural barriers to economic opportunity and by doing so, advance equity.
We recognize that structural inequities have historic and ongoing impacts across our region, especially for Asian American, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and other people of color. In addition, these structural inequities arise because of where people live and differences in language, education, and culture.
Barriers to opportunities in our region have and continue to include, but are not limited to:
Political and economic marginalization and exclusion
Housing segregation and building restrictions
Lack of access to healthy foods
Discrimination in education and employment
Unequal access to financial capital and business support
Limited open spaces for relaxation and play
No trusted community gathering areas
Unstable employment options that do not help build wealth
Unreliable transportation and broadband/connectivity to access essential services
Underinvestment in disaster recovery systems and resources
our Commitments to Advance Equity
To mitigate these barriers and move our region toward opportunity for all residents, the Network will use its strategic framework and investments in response to our members’ aspirations for equity. This includes offering capacity-building opportunities, convening in collaborative environments, lifting up new approaches involving nontraditional leaders, and research and analysis. We believe that no matter the size, location, or specialization of our members, each one has an approach to overcoming barriers that has potential to be adopted by other members and partners.
Specifically AFN aims to:
Seek opportunities for our members to learn from the lived experience of communities of color and others experiencing barriers and use that knowledge to inform our strategies
Ensure that our programs, approaches, policies, and practices support our members to effectively serve all people in their communities
Remove biases and barriers in the recruitment and selection of Network consultants and staff
Fully embed equitable practices at all levels of AFN’s decision making and policies
Use an equity lens to inform the composition of our Steering Committee and other leadership roles
Encourage funders of our Network’s activities to join us in applying a racial equity lens
