In June, the John Rex Endowment published its “In Solidarity” statement announcing plans to work alongside a variety of different agencies so that systemic racism becomes a problem of the past. In August, the Endowment announced that it had taken the next step of joining with the United Way of the Greater Triangle to provide matching funds for support of a new Anti-Racism Community (ARC) Fund. The Fund will support both local leaders of color who can lead community-level change and nonprofits that are able to dismantle racist structures in housing, food, health, workforce, or education.

Now the ARC Fund has joined forces with the Justice Love Foundation to continue progress on addressing issues of systemic racism in the community.

According to Devin Desjarlais of the United Way, an important affiliation with the Justice Love Foundation will drive change by offering basic innovations to align social justice leaders and give them the best opportunity to drive exponential impact. “We have agreed on several goals as we all embark upon this expansion of our collaboration,” said Desjarlais. “The Justice Love Foundation will help us identify local leaders of color as well as anti-racism focused ideas that can transform local communities.”

Some examples of how the Justice Love Foundation will help the ARC Fund are:

• Create spaces that promote innovation, solutions and local ownership;
• Manage project funds, where appropriate, and act as a fiscal sponsor for leaders within the network; and
• Analyze the impact of intersecting initiatives to reinforce and strengthen outreach.

Desjarlais said that United Way is continuing to work with community leaders on the long-term strategy for the Anti-Racism Community Fund, and will hope to add more partners as opportunities for alignment unfold.

“We’re anticipating a winter Request for Proposals (RFP),” she commented, “and will announce it publicly as soon as we’re able.”

For further updates on the work of the Anti-Racism Community Fund and its partners, including John Rex Endowment, to address systemic racism in the community, go to https://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/arc.