Over the past four years, Fair Chance has worked to take the roles and strategies identified in our Racial Equity Framework and Plan and solidify them in our work. In 2021, we “Focused Internally to Act Externally” to examine how well we were living out our racial equity values as an organization. We continued to build on these efforts in 2022. Internal conversations saw us broaden our scope from racial equity to REDI – race, equity, diversity, and inclusion. We continued to create and strengthen structures and systems that promote equity within Fair Chance. We also identified how we could better support our nonprofit partners and community-based nonprofits, with emphasis on organizations led by people of color. This work culminated in the creation of our 10-Year Strategic Vision — charting a course forward to realize our vision of a racially equitable DC where every child succeeds.

We are proud of all that we accomplished in 2022. As a team, we reflected on a year of REDI work and the lessons we have learned as we continue on this journey:

• The team is overwhelmingly positive about the progress on our REDI journey: Feedback from anonymous surveys show positive feelings about our REDI journey thus far. Staff believe we have made progress since the creation of our 2019 Racial Equity Framework and that every staff member owns a portion of the work.
• Staff time and budget constraints are a real barrier to meeting REDI goals: REDI is a priority at Fair Chance, but realities of staff workload and budget constraints have made ability to progress on some goals much slower than anticipated. As an organization, we have had to pause, regroup, and prioritize which goals to pursue in order to keep momentum going. It is our hope that in future years we will be able to bring on a staff member dedicated to REDI work to work alongside the Racial Equity Task Force.
• Difficult conversations are necessary for true change to occur: There were times throughout the year where we had to have difficult conversations. In creating an equitable compensation system, we had to address harmful practices that existed historically in our organization and in the nonprofit sector regarding valuing certain kinds of work over others. During a strategic visioning session with the board and the staff, a miscommunication occurred that required a larger conversation as an organization on unconscious bias and difficult conversations. With the support of Dr. Cathy Royal, board and staff came together over three sessions to gain tools to understand unconscious bias (e.g. Johari window model) and modeled how to have difficult conversations in small groups.
• Cross-department work and board-staff engagement is necessary: Our REDI goals live across departments and we need to create intentional time to connect and build relationships in order to achieve our goals. Our December staff retreat was an important step in our REDI journey; however, we also need more opportunities for ongoing board and staff engagement.
• We must clarify what relationship building looks like in this work: Our REDI work does not exist within a vacuum. We need to identify not only how we can better engage our partners, donors, and community in this work but also who on our staff is on the lead of cultivating and growing these relationships.

As we look ahead to the remainder of 2023, we are excited to continue our work with H3 Diversity to create a road map of our REDI learning agenda for the next 3 years. This will allow out team to carve out opportunities to increase our REDI knowledge and improve how we show up with one another and in the communities we serve. We will also continue to ensure we are living out our REDI values in every facet of our programming, operations, and role in the sector. As we continue on our REDI journey, we look forward to sharing our achievements, lessons learned, and plans for the future.