Stronger Relationships, Stronger Communities: Lessons From a Regional Intergroup Grant Initiative

Abstract

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.

Listening to Diversity Stories: Principles for Practice in Community Research and Action

“…Legal status is an invisible but potentially powerful cloud that probably affected the involvement of Latino residents in Berryhill and Linney's (2006) work and hampered Martorell and Martorell's (2006) efforts to reach some Latino/a parents of children with Down Syndrome. Lee and Calvin (2006) share their understanding of how an intergroup relations initiative was impacted by the sociopolitical dynamics of a community where there were 30-40 countries represented among immigrant groups and where over 100 languages were spoken in the schools.…”

Diversity Challenges in Community Research and Action: The Story of a Special Issue of AJCP

“…One set of stories looks at issues that arise in the context of small group interventions to increase individual awareness and sensitivity to diversity (Ceballo, Ramirez, & Maltese, 2006;Chronister, 2006;Vasquez, 2006). A second set of stories tells of issues that emerged when working to address intergroup relations-some doing so within a particular setting, like a school, community-based organization, or religious institution (Borg, 2006;D'Augelli, 2006;Levine, 2006;Martorell & Martorell, 2006;Shpungin & Lyubansky, 2006;Suyemoto & Fox Tree, 2006); and others doing so within a broader community (Berryhill & Linney, 2006;Daniels, 2006;Langhout, 2006;Lee & Calvin, 2006;Messinger, 2006;Ross, 2006;Suarez-Balcazar & Kinney, 2006). A final set of stories deals with diversity issues that emerged in the context of forming research partnerships, whether it be to better understand an understudied community (Brodsky & Faryal, 2006;Gone, 2006;Miller, Forte, Wilson, & Greene, 2006;Paxton, Guentzel & Trombacco, 2006) or to develop and/or assess programs within ethnic/minority communities (Coppens, Page & Thou, 2006;Small, Tiwari, & Huser, 2006).…”

Untitled

“…However, the language and attitude of tolerance in these pleas, as well as those commonly seen in human resources (HR) policies and corporate diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices, are examples of the perpetuation of this dominant-subordinated behavior, where the mass population is the one that "tolerates" the existence and practices of the "others," the people of color (PoC). Tolerance is a topic of race and power in society, in conjunction with other identities and forms of discrimination [10], although it does not always appear blatant or may not even be recognized by the perpetrators, remaining purposefully or conditionally hidden in their unconscious states, even as a positive instead of negative social element [7]. "But you look white, so you could hide it."…”