Black Women and Girls in Contra Costa will be Valued, Seen, Heard, and Served.
RCF Connects Announces a Task Force Focused on Ensuring Equity for Black Women and Girls in Contra Costa County
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2022
Contra Costa, CA – RCF Connects, a local community foundation that is a motivator in Contra Costa County in the field of philanthropy and community change, announces the creation of the Equity for Black Women and Girls Task Force. The task force, led by RCF Connects’ Board Chair Dr. Cynthia LeBlanc, represents a collaboration of community leaders, will oversee an effort to create an awareness campaign to help inform the public of the inequities experienced by Black Women and Girls in our community and to ensure Black Women and Girls gain access to the resources that can help them overcome and change current policies, practices and attitudes that are root causes of the inequities that we see today.
This effort is in answer to a recent survey of local funding organizations (described as foundations, private funders and corporate funders) which revealed that community-based funding commitments and programming in Contra Costa County for Black/African American people is less than 5% and discouragingly, less than 1% specifically for Black Women and Girls.
“As an organization dedicated to equity, that seeks systemic change that eliminates policies, practices and attitudes that are root causes of inequity, we cannot let this stand.” said RCF Connects’ Board Chair, Dr. Cynthia LeBlanc.
RCF Connects has a unique opportunity to center Black Women and Girls in Contra Costa County as a strategic priority in alignment with its advancement of equity as a value and goal. We understand that valuing and raising-up Black Women and Girls in our community raises our entire community to a new level of health, wellness and success.
Equity for Black Women and Girls Task Force Members
We would like to introduce to our community, the members of the Equity for Black Women and Girls Task Force who are dedicated to doing this vital and important work:
The focus of the Task Force is to release RCF Connects’ position paper entitled RCF Connects’ Equity for Black Women and Girls Initiative and ensure the successful implementation of its recommendations. The position paper highlights findings and recommendations from a comprehensive study funded by RCF Connects that included interviews and focus groups of Black women and girls across Contra Costa County. It also outlines solutions that correct the current void of services, supports, and resources specifically for Black women and girls in our community.
In addition, the Task Force will also evaluate and pursue partnerships with key organizations willing to commit time, talent, and resources to support Black women and girls. Finally, the Task Force will provide expertise and insight to foundations and others willing to commit substantial funding to priorities that explicitly support Black women and girls, a valuable part of our community that is regrettably often overlooked and ignored.
In the near future, the committee will be seeking qualified candidates to head this new initiative with the core objective to fulfill The Equity for Black Women and Girls Initiative’s mission, vision, and approach.
If you would like more information about this project or seek to connect with our efforts, please contact Jim Becker, CEO, RCF Connects – jbecker@richmondcf.org. http://www.rcfconnects.org
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Media Contact: Rosalind Mays Welch
Phone #: 510-234-1200 x105
Email: rwelch@richmondcf.org
RCF Connects' Equity for Black Women & Girls Initiative
In October 2020, Dr. Cynthia LeBlanc, RCF Connects’ Board Chair recommended that the organization’s recently adopted equity statement be actualized through a board initiative to address equity for Black women and girls in Contra Costa County. The board of directors approved the RCF Connects Equity for Black Women and Girls Initiative: Black women and girls will be seen, heard, and served.
RCF Connects selected a local, Black-female led firm, Coach to Discover, Inc., to lead asurveying effort to explore the needs and existing supports for Black women and girls. Coach to Discover and a design team of Black women community stakeholders and Dr. LeBlanc collected the data through Sister Circle focus groups with Black women and girls and a focus group and electronic survey with funding organizations. The process and the resulting recommendations are summarized here.
Focus Groups and Surveying
- Five Sister Circles in West (Richmond) and East (Antioch) County
- Forty-seven Black women and girl participants
- 674 individual comments collected
- Thirty-nine exit evaluations collected
- One funder’s focus group with 7 participants
- One electronic survey. Responses collected from 4 funders.
Key Findings
- Sister Circles provided spaces for Black women and girls to be together in community, to write and dialogue about their lived experience, and to network and share about resources.
- Responses to the Sister Circle questions most often referenced: support, mental (wellness), business, and community.
- Funders that support programming in Contra Costa County do not currently prioritize funding for services exclusively for Black women and girls.
Call to Action
RCF Connects and its board of directors has a unique opportunity to center Black women and girls in Contra Costa County as a strategic plan priority in alignment with its advancement of equity as a value and goal.
Key recommendations from this survey include securing funding for:
- A Grant Funding and Technical Assistance Program to deliver Sister Circles.
- A Business Incubator Program to support Black women and girls’ new and existing business enterprises.
- Convening Black-led organizations and other organizations that serve Black people in Contra Costa County to inventory services for Black women and girls.
- Lead an ongoing task force on Black women and girls to partner on implementing these recommendations.
- Create and fund a permanent position within RCF Connects, staffed to support fulfillment of the goals of the Equity for Black Women and Girls Initiative.