FRE Foundational Knowledge

A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

FRE Foundational Knowledge

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Foundations for Racial Equity is designed for people who already have grounding in basic racial equity terms and principles. We expect all participants to have read the SPARC report and to have familiarity with key terms and concepts. Please ensure that you have familiarity with the following terms, tools, and resources (i.e. that you've done your "homework") so that conversation as a group can focus on what we want to accomplish as a group, rather than what certain concepts are.

SPARC's Phase I Findings
- Read the full report if you have not already.
- If you've read the report and are looking for a quick refresher, watch our SPARC Phase I Findings webinar recording.
RMI Webinar Series (Nov 2018 - Feb 2019)
- Read the pre-reading, notes, and slides from each webinar.
  - Webinar 1: Unpacking Key Concepts to Address Racial Equity
  - Webinar 2: Creating a Racial Equity Backmap
  - Webinar 3: Conducting a Racial Equity Impact Analysis
  - Webinar 4: Strategies to Advance Racial Equity in Your Organization (coming soon)
  - Watch the debrief video of the first two webinars
Key Concepts: Please make sure you understand the following concepts and definitions. We've included some starter resources below, but don't limit yourself to just these for your learning journey.
- Racial equity
- Structural racism (part I and part II)
- Levels of racism: institutional racism, interpersonal, systemic (cheat sheet, longer descriptions)
- Implicit bias (also this video)
- White privilege (and another resource)
- White fragility (and another article, both by Robin DiAngelo)
- Targeted universalism
How white people can show up better in racial equity work.
- Here is a list of resources on how white people can better show up
- Why Black People Are Not Here to Teach You
- Why we need to go beyond cultural competency to talk about race and power
History of race and racism in the US
- Here is a list of resources to help educate yourself on race and racism in the US. If you haven’t already, the documentary 13^th on Netflix is a good place to start.

If you would like to have an in-depth conversation about any of these fundamentals, please reach out to Stephanie to set up a time to talk.

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We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation

FRE Foundational Knowledge

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