An introduction to the Joint Commitment to Antiracism Work:

Since 2017, the Northside Planning Council (NPC) has had the privilege of helping to convene more than two dozen partner organizations who serve the Northside around youth violence prevention work. We were originally funded through a federal grant, and when that project ended, we developed the Northside Peace and Resilience Plan as the next phase of the work. This group has expanded and has continued to meet weekly throughout quarantine to coordinate our response to the pandemic.

After the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we all came together, shell shocked like many others, and began to examine what we could contribute to the newly energized antiracism movement. We realized that there could be no such thing as peace while structural racism still hurts the lives of so many of our neighbors, so our plan became the Peace, Justice and Resilience Plan. Racial equity had always been implicit in this work, but we are now centering it as a key strategy for community-based violence prevention.

We developed our commitments, printed below, and now we are bringing together a work group to bring life to these actions and help hold each other accountable to measurable outcomes.

Our  work plan will be organized into various focus areas, as described by the commitments. We will hold periodic fundraisers to support Black-led organizations, even as we work to raise funds for our own work at different times of the year. We will continue to learn about the history and structure of racism in this country and the role our sector has played in it, as well as the role we each play, based on our intersecting identities. 

This commitment means that we will also move beyond our service programs and prioritize advocacy that gets at true structural change, as you’ll see in this issue. We recognize that while we can and should serve folks who are in need now, our ultimate goal should be to change the systems that create inequality in the first place.

By organizations and individuals serving the Northside of Madison

Published June 22, 2020

We are a collaborative of organizations and groups that serve, at least in part, Northside Madison communities. Although our missions, programs and strategies vary, each of our organizations is committed to creating a better quality of life for Northside residents. Many of the issues that our programs address can be tied directly to the long history of colonialism and anti-Black racism in this country and in Madison. If we are dedicated to finding solutions to these issues — from housing access, public schools, policing and youth services to environmental and food justice, barriers to business ownership and more — we must address racism as a root cause. It is our responsibility as individual organizations to explicitly commit to the work of antiracism, and we hope that joining together in that work as a collaborative will increase our impact.

Although the uprisings across our country over the last two weeks were precipitated by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and by police violence against Black people across the country, they are also responding to something that has been true for centuries: racism is built into and permeates our institutions, it is doing violence to Black, Brown, Indigenous and People of Color, and it is long past time for change. 

Regardless of the size of our budget, we recognize that as an organization and even more so as a collective, we hold power: through our relationships and networks, through access to capital, through our platforms, and through the economic and/or racial privilege that many of our leaders and staff carry. Because of that power and our relationships to and/or history as institutions that have upheld racism and oppressive practices, we know that our role is not to lead in this work, but our goal is to stand with Black-led groups as antiracist allies and co-conspirators. At the same time, it is our responsibility to dedicate resources to creating change within our own organizations, our communities and our spheres of influence.

We will work together, learn together and pool our resources together to support the goals and demands of Black leadership. We will connect with our communities to have the difficult conversations about how we got here and what needs to change. We will engage with Black leadership and organizations where we are welcome. We will work with them, stand in solidarity with them and amplify their goals and demands. We will not leave this labor to people of color within or outside of our organizations. We will own and grow from our mistakes.

We recognize that the diverse communities we serve have different experiences and understandings of race and racism in America. We will center the experiences of those most impacted by racism while stepping into difficult and uncomfortable conversations about race.

We commit to: 

• Raising funds for Black-led organizations, Black families and Black leadership development. It’s important that we recognize that these groups have the most difficult time breaking into traditional funding streams. We can use our privilege to support the people most directly affected by getting them the resources they need to do the work. This includes providing in-kind support to grassroots initiatives led by people of color when we’re asked.
• Supporting the goals of the movement. We will learn about and amplify the goals and demands of local organizations and of the national Movement for Black Lives. As part of our learning, we will examine how our organizational practices and presence hurt or hinder those goals. We will help develop a broad understanding of those goals in our community.
• Amplifying the voices and experiences of people of color. Many of our organizations are neither Black-led nor as diverse as they should be. We commit to making room within our organizations and our work to let people of color tell their stories in their own words. However, we will not place the burden of education or change-making on the people of color within our organizations. 
• Recognizing intersectionality. This statement’s intent is to declare our commitment to actively dismantling anti-Black racism, however we also acknowledge that various systems of oppression share a common foundation and that different groups have, historically, been intentionally pitted against one another as a means of control. Indigenous communities, immigrants and all people of color, and all those who face interpersonal and structural discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, ability, first language, class, sex or gender identity, expression and sexual orientation deserve justice and equal protection under the law. A focus on anti-Black racism is long overdue but will also act as a basis for dismantling many other forms of oppression.
• Increasing the diversity of our workplaces, including in leadership roles. We will dedicate the time and resources to create a work culture that is safe, supportive and affirming of diverse experiences and work styles. We will examine our hiring practices and turnover within the organization, and change any policies and practices that lead to the exclusion of Black people and people of color from our organizations.
• Centering the experiences of underrepresented groups in our mission. In order to continue to provide quality programs that promote the goals of racial equity, we will center the experiences of those most impacted. We will apply an antiracist lens to our various programs and decision-making processes.
• Advocating and organizing around issues that further the goals of racial justice. We commit to centering our advocacy to support issues identified by Black leaders in our community. We recognize that our silence can cause harm, and we commit to speaking out around issues that are intertwined with the work that we do.
• Providing easy access to educational resources for those who wish to be allies and co-conspirators. We will share and compile existing educational resources about antiracism, and we will not leave this labor to people of color within or outside of our organizations.
• Facilitating allyship within our communities. We commit to supporting and facilitating difficult conversations about racial justice and allyship. We will not shy away from conflict and understand that disagreement and discomfort are part of the process of change. 
• Facilitating allyship among our partner organizations. As a collaborative, we will support each other and other groups in developing our roles as allies by learning from each other and committing resources to antiracist work together. 
• Transparency in our efforts to uphold these commitments and in the moments when we fail. Antiracist isn’t a destination, but a practice we will cultivate and grow within. We will share updates on the actions we take to uphold these commitments. We know that despite our best efforts, there will be moments when we fail. We commit to developing an accountability practice for those moments.

The place that we are beginning this work is very different from the place where we will end.

The following organizations and individuals agree to uphold these commitments. Over the next three months we will share the actions we have taken in service of these commitments and as antiracist allies. As a collaborative, we will develop and participate in an accountability plan for our actions.

If you or the organization you work for would like to sign on to these commitments, please email
office@northsideplanningcouncil.org to learn more.

Signed By:

• Northside Planning Council
• Dane County TimeBank
• Rooted WI
• Northside Early Childhood Zone
• Center for Community Stewardship

Individuals

• Abha Thakkar, NPC Executive Director
• Lisa Wiese, NPC Board Chair
• Christine McFadzen, NPC Board 
• Martee Mikalson, NPC Board, FEED Bakery Training Coordinator and Martee’s Consulting LLC
• Chris Brockel, FEED Manager & Healthy Food For All Coordinator
• Oona Mackesey-Green, NPC Operations Manager
• Charisse Johnson, NECZ Family Engagement Specialist
• Frankie Pobar Lay, MarketReady, FEED and NPC Administrative Support
• Tristan Schobert-George, FEED Bakery
• Chris Moore, NPC Volunteer
• Brendon Krueger, FEED Bakery Manager
• Adalys Méndez, FEED Bakery
• Lorrie Hurckes Dwyer, Executive Director
• Damita Brown, Restorative Justice Director
• Alexis Gardner, Restorative Justice Coordinator
• Kayasia Blake, Restorative Justice Coordinator
• Araceli Esparza, Communications and Exchange Manager
• Ryan Eykholt, Transportation Coordinator
• Marcia Caton Campbell, Executive Director  
• Ginny Hughes, Deputy Director  
• Nicholas Leete, Gardens Network Manager
• Martin Bailkey, Program Manager, School for Urban Agriculture
• Renata Solan, Communications Director
• Nathan Larson, Program Director
• Stefanie Bugasch Scopoline, Outreach Specialist and Farm to ECE Trainer
• Paul Huber, Troy Farm Director 
• Sheena Tesch, Director of Urban Agriculture
• Kim Wahl, Education Director
• Hedi Rudd, Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Director  
• Sarah Karlson, Badger Rock Farm and Education Manager
• Susan Dobbe Chase, Case Worker, Community Action Coalition of South Central Wisconsin
• Paulo Delgado, Dane County Neighbors
• Rachel Deterding
• Rachel Hahn, Northside Navigator 2017-2018
• Arree Macon, Northside Navigator 2018-2020
• Justin Markofski, resident
• Georgia Mitchell, resident
• Atasha Pinnell, Northside Navigator 2017-2018 
• Mallory Saurer, Educator and Northside Navigator 2017-2018
• Tracy Stewart, Northside Navigator 2017-2018
• Pat Wongkit, resident