Giving Compass' Take:
• Changing States-Building Power on the Frontlines: Missouri highlights the ways that racial equity benefits the community, including economic growth and increased participation in democracy. 

• How can funders better understand the interconnected issues that the communities they serve face? 

• Learn about the value of racial equity impact assessments. 

A new report points to ways in which racial equity and common interests can move the St. Louis region forward.

“Changing States-Building Power on the Frontlines: Missouri,” from the University of Southern California Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, examines how Missouri can improve racial equity in the electoral, judicial and corporate arenas.

“When you bake equity into your strategy among community development, then you lend yourself to regional growth in a more fulsome way,” said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Deaconess Foundation.

Improved equity might also have an effect on the economy. That’s according to Manuel Pastor, a professor at the University of California and one of the authors of the “Changing States” report.

“If you are making sure that people can re-enter from the prison system and actually get into employment;  if you’re making sure that immigrants can start new businesses and be welcomed; if you are closing the wage gaps, you are generating economic growth,” Pastor said.

Read the full article about improved racial equity by Chad Davis at St. Louis Public Radio.