Worcester Common Ground Racial Equity Pledge Profile
It has been four years since MACDC launched the Racial Equity Pledge, 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.
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
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watching TV shows in Spanish and practicing on Duolingo to communicate with Spanish-speaking tenants and community members
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taking the IAT test twice with a journaling and reflection period between both tests in order to reduce bias in decision making.
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creating a list of MWBEs for development projects, establishing actionable and achievable hiring percentages for various trades and services, attending at least one related event per month.
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.”