This paper tells the story of an intergroup grant initiative and the neighborhood projects it supported. It highlights the challenges of race and power, in conjunction with other overlapping identities and forms of discrimination. The demographics of the greater Goodland region have changed dramatically over the last few years and decades. The life for traditionally European American and African American communities is being altered by a steady influx of new immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This paper discusses a philanthropic community's response to these changes and within this, two specific neighborhood-based responses. The lessons and insights described in this paper, told by the initiative's evaluator and advisory council co-chair, are drawn from five years' of systematic data collection and analysis, focused observations, and the reflections of other participants in the initiative.
The events of September 11 gave rise to new opportunities to think about intergroup relations and how they can be strengthened. This article summarizes how communities across the nation have initiated activities to help people grieve and to prevent further violence against Arabs, Muslims, and other Middle Easterners and applies a set of research-based principles on intergroup relations to communities' responses to September 11. The article also demonstrates the importance of moving beyond the current responses to more comprehensive community strategies that are informed by these principles and other lessons learned. These strategies include multipronged approaches that help individuals grieve and heal, engage institutional leaders, and support community action.
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