It has been four years since the MACDC Racial Equity Pledge was launched, and we feel that now is a good time to reflect on it and the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the Pledge has affected their work.

Franklin County CDC is based in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and has been serving the central and western regions of the state since 1979. Their main objectives include providing business development education, access to capital, and commercial office and manufacturing space.

Executive Director John Waite recalls that FCCDC signed onto our pledge “a little over a year ago. We were not one of the first ones, although, I’ve talked to a lot of the CDCs. I go to a lot of the meetings. I think we’ve been working on racial equity, trying to integrate it into our programs, maybe longer than some other CDCs.” FCCDC eventually adopted the pledge to show their solidarity with the other signers.

According to Traci Talbert, FCCDC’s Racial Justice and Community Engagement Leader, their main goal for racial equity work is

to examine everything that we do and ask ourselves, “how are we embedding [racial justice] into our programs and making it a part of everything we do daily?” instead of [having] racial justice as a separate program that we offer as a CDC. We began to examine language. We've examined documents, job postings, [and] looked at what the disruption of white dominant culture actually means. We've been we have our racial justice meetings monthly, and we come together. We read together. We… even feel pain together.

One of the programs being offered by FCCDC is the Racial Justice Reflective Journey. Traci describes it as a series of questions for participants to respond to, then to reflect on their responses. She elaborates by stating that the Journey is

a space for you to just be with yourself and respond to these sessions and… questions in a way that is honest for you, so in the moment, you're able to reflect and say, “Man, I didn't realize that was who I was when I showed up at work,” or “I didn't realize that that's how I behaved,” or “I never thought there was another response to this.”

As of August 2024, around 200 people have participated in in the Journey, and feedback from participants has been good, although some white participants have expressed feelings of discomfort during their self-reflection.

Another program that FCCDC offers is a virtual monthly workshop called Linguistic Bias: What’s the Harm? These sessions focus on identifying and discussing commonly used words and phrases that perpetuate social inequity. However, FCCDC have not limited their focus on minimizing linguistic bias to their monthly workshops. Traci mentioned that FCCDC has also purchased “a software called Textio... We got it one year, and it just was this buzz of helping individuals upload their written documents into the software to help them create a more neutrally toned document.”

John and Traci also said that FCCDC has made a significant adjustment to their hiring practices. Instead of seeking out applicants who would be a good fit to their culture, they are actively looking to add complementary members from all cultural backgrounds. Traci elaborates, “we don't do a ‘perfect fit.’ We're looking to add to our culture, and not looking for culturally fit people.”

Looking ahead, Traci plans to develop a complementary session to FCCDC’s monthly linguistic bias workshop that focuses on “when we judge people based on how they say things. That's something I'm going to be developing because I remember… somebody said they were in a job [interview]… and because of the way they said, “Ask,” they ended up being disqualified from the pool of applicants. FCCDC aspires to continue integrating racial equity into their everyday work and focusing on people who haven't had opportunity to develop wealth as well as those who have been harmed in the past to ensure that they are equitably serving their target communities in Greenfield and western Massachusetts.

Worcester Common Ground is a community development corporation targeting Worcester’s Greater Piedmont Area. They are focused on providing affordable housing, maintaining urban green spaces, tenant advocacy, and economic development. They were originally established in 1988 in reaction to rising rents, displaced families, and vacant properties.  

Due to the nature of their work, WCG was already involved in racial equity work before MACDC’s Racial Equity Pledge. Annessia Jimenez, WCG’s Community Organizer, explained that even though they were doing the work beforehand, “the Pledge just helped to instigate continuation of that work… it was very, very important to our [Executive] Director,” Yvette Dyson. Since this was the case, signing onto it two and a half years ago was a great opportunity for WCG to show solidarity with our other partner CDCs. 

Annessia Jimenez, WCG’s community organizer, explained that some of WCG’s goals for racial equity work include making less biased decisions related to tenants, working with (minority owned) businesses that reflect WCG’s values, and increasing representation within their staff during a time of turnover and expansion. Right now, about half of WCG’s staff can speak Spanish, and therefore connect with more people in the community they serve. According to Annessia, WCG’s main challenge with racial equity work and upholding our Pledge: 

is being able to dedicate time to our goals and working towards them… we're a small team. Everybody's spread thin. So, it's balancing [between] being able to do our work and dedicating the time and ensuring that we're giving enough time to [commit to racial equity] work. 

Over the last few years, WCG has worked extensively with a DEI consultant to review and evaluate their goals as well as the progress that they have made toward their goals using a system of key performance indicators (KPIs). Some of these KPIs include  

They used this system to hold themselves accountable and establish a timeline for their goals. Looking forward, WCG plans to continue upholding the Pledge, because according to Annessia, it has “helped keep [WCG] accountable, and helped us move forward in that work, instead of… not really following through with it.” 

It has been four years since MACDC launched the Racial Equity Pledge, and we would like to reflect on the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the pledge has affected their work.

Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (CSNDC) is “a grassroots community organization committed to developing affordable housing and fighting for racial and economic justice by building community power, especially of low and moderate-income communities of color in Dorchester. Through developing resident leadership, organizing in the community, promoting economic mobility services, and advocating for local environmental justice, [they] build collective resident power to effect systemic change and transform society.”

CSNDC has started explicitly incorporating racial equity into their work since adding a section to their 2016 strategic plan. When we approached them with our Racial Equity Pledge a few years later, they were eager to sign onto it. CSNDC adopted the Pledge because “it was aligned with our racial equity work already” according to Executive Director Gail Latimore. She explains how CSNDC was

pleased when [the Pledge] was first being discussed, since it [was] birthed out of the organizers of the CDCs putting their thoughts together. It was during the time of the George Floyd tragedy, and we really felt it was important to sign on for all those reasons. And we already were very steeped in racial equity… before that.

CSNDC’s goals for racial equity work range from providing learning opportunities for staff and board, to making changes to their hiring practices and business relationships. One of their most prominent programs is their Anti-Racism/Equity Army Academy, which was launched in 2022. The Academy is a series of four two- and a-half-hour classes over about a month. According to Gail, about 100 participants have completed these courses and “graduated” from the Academy.

Our Pledge has also inspired CSNDC to revise some of their hiring practices. They have started posting salaries for their open jobs and making degree requirements for some open positions “a little bit more flexible as a result of the MACDC racial equity pledge.” Not only that, but they have also raised salaries for their employees. Gail explains that “at this point in time, nobody in the agency earns under $63,000 or so a year, whereas before that we had some positions that were in the 40s and 50s.” Additionally, CSNDC is taking a step back and being more intentional about what kinds of companies they are doing business with and procuring products and services from for their projects. Gail said that she and her team have been focused on working with real estate, IT, and printing companies who reflect their target “community in terms of their racial equity [and] ethnic composition.”

Looking forward, CSNDC plans to expand their Anti-Racism/Equity Army Academy to continue their racial equity work now that it is “truly starting to take form. We're trying to add more classes to this academy to [provide] different informational modules that people can take.” To begin this expansion, CSNDC recently offered “Coming to Terms With Race,” a fundamental introductory class offered by the Academy to their board. Gail partially credits CSNDC’s establishment of the Academy to our Pledge, “but also to just the work that we've been doing for a while, trying to develop a body of work… We're still learning.”