Erika Bernabei

Many people in organizations are doing their best to help people, but do not hold themselves accountable to the impact of their work or have outcomes that are superficial. If we are serious about undoing racism then we need to be disciplined in our approach and ensure that our hard work produces real change for Black, Indigenous and all People of Color (BIPOC) inside of our organizations and in our external work. It is also very common that groups do not know how to bridge the gap between a commitment to racial equity and their day-to-day work - they don’t know how to move from the head (understanding) and heart (feeling) to the hands (or action). But when an organization with a deep understanding of antiracism through personal experience and institutional education and training uses a results driven methodology the group moves from good intentions to transformation. Antiracist Results-Based Accountability (AR RBA) begins with impact and backs into solutions to ensure that the are selected with an eye to the root causes of the racial inequity. It requires organizations to deeply consider the answer to the question, how will we know that people are better off as a result of our work? (Mark Friedman in Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough) as a central part of a rigorous process to making sure that Black, Indigenous and all People of Color (BIPOC) are centering in our work. Antiracist RBA supports the work of individual organizations or collaborative/collective impact efforts to do small and large systems change work that challenges the status quo and builds the personal and organizational “muscle” to continuously refine work through learning loops or praxis. It requires that organizations bring Black, Indigenous and all People of Color (internal staff, external partners or recipients of services like small business owners of Color, parents, community advocates) into powerful decision making roles and to reorient work towards new priorities.