Research Reports

Revisit Race Forward's groundbreaking national research on the perilous intersection of immigration enforcement and the child welfare system, which is resulting in the separation of thousands of families across the U.S. — in many cases, permanent separation.

Recovery, Interrupted: Gulf Coast Communities of Color Five Years After Hurricane Katrina, a new report by the Center for Social Inclusion, reminds us that disasters are not simply about strong winds or powerful explosions. They are about access to opportunity. Whether quality health services, educational options and public transit are available to and affordable for residents has a tremendous influence on how a community will fare in the face of threats. All too often, the communities that are most vulnerable to disaster are communities of color or poor communities of all races that lack access to such critical opportunities.

In these challenging times, Americans must contend with corporate irresponsibility—like British Petroleum’s failure to address safety concerns on its rigs, increasingly frequent hurricanes and tornadoes in the Gulf Coast region and beyond, and crumbling roads, bridges and schoolhouses. Less obvious but even more important are the increasing poverty and social dislocation experienced by too many Americans. In 2009, the poverty rate hit an 11-year high of 13.2%— representing nearly 40 million individuals— and between 2000 and 2009 median weekly wages fell for high school and college graduates alike.

A new report by the Center for Social Inclusion, Energy Democracy: Community Scale Green Energy Solutions, offers a unique approach to building a green energy economy that strengthens communities of color, while increasing the benefits of clean energy for the country at large.

The potential of renewable energy and small-scale electricity production has led us to conclude that community-owned or controlled renewable energy will offer diverse benefits to communities and the regions around them.

ARC releases two *new* Green Case Studies that profile winning formulas for jobs creation to improve our communities while helping the planet.

CSI is sounding the alarm on the need for broadband equity. As the FCC develops its National Broadband Plan, long-neglected communities of color must be included. People of color are getting online, but too many still don’t have the access to high-quality high-speed internet. CSI is publishing a set of talking points on broadband equity and is calling for investment in broadband infrastructure that builds equity and opportunity where it’s needed most.

NAACP recognize that federal investments in broadband and the development of the National Broadband Plan create unique opportunities to foster structural fairness and inclusion. On January 29, 2010, the organizations partnered with the Office of Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, Jackson State University, Full Spectrum South, the Center for Technology, Innovation & Community Engagement at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University and Tougaloo College to host “Building Opportunity through Broadband.”

Racing the Statehouse Finds Solutions for Racial Inequity Available to States

The Broadband in the Mississippi Delta report analyzes broadband availability and economic opportunity in Mississippi and the impact it has on communities of color. With far too little internet access in communities of color, hundreds of thousands are effectively prevented from contributing to the economy.

Facing Race: 2009 Legislative Report Card is a project of the Applied Research Center and the Community Development Institute (CDI).

ARC's 2007 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, by Jarad Sanchez and Tammy Johnson. Download a PDF here.

Building healthy, sustainable and equitable communities, and by extension a strong nation, requires civic and social engagement of community members. Civic and social engagement, in turn, requires leadership to create engagement opportunities and to facilitate it. There are many forms of community leadership, including electoral, nonprofit, associational and informal leadership. All are important. In particular, this report focuses on nonprofit, associational and informal leadership capacity: its successes, its needs and the nature and level of investment indicated to support leadership in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi which can help meet community building goals.

In order to solve a problem, we must know the problem. The problem in the Gulf Coast in August 2005 was not a hurricane. The levees broke and too many people were poor, sick and unable to flee. The “problem” is man-made, and this is good news. We can solve problems we create.

Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment. The Applied Research Center (ARC) and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) developed the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment following ARC’s 2004 publication of Short Changed: Foundation Giving in Communities of Color.

This report tells the stories of people of color who are disproportionately affected by the recession. It uncovers the root causes and proposes solutions.

Watch the Video. Read the Report. Take action.

From our media section, three videos exploring the mutual goals of the racial justice and green economy movements.

In this essay for Applied Research Center's Compact for Racial Justice, Van Jones writes on the importance of green jobs to the racial justice movement, in terms of environmental impact and economic impact. For more essays, videos, press, and conversations about the Applied Research Center's Compact for Racial Justice, visit arc.org/compact.

Applied Research Center's Terry Keleher provides this list of resources from several organizations, breaking down the politics behind the stimulus bill, and the opportunities in its application. For more essays, videos, press, and conversations about the Applied Research Center's Compact for Racial Justice, visit the Compact for Racial Justice page.

Colorlines.com's special edition on the green economy March/April 2008, features cover story "Who Gains from the Green Economy?" by Preeti Mangala Shekar and Tram Nguyen. It asks what the racial justice movement and the green jobs movement have to gain from working together.