We offer our social work skills to help establish anti-racist policies, practices, and procedures that promote racial equity. Public investment in rent affordability is critical to addressing the disproportionately high cost burdens and housing instability faced by black households. Housing choice vouchers are one of the most efficient tools for increasing affordability for very low-income renters, but they are currently only enough to help 1 in 4 eligible households. The federal government can quickly ease the burden of housing costs for hundreds of thousands of black renters by expanding the availability of vouchers. Charlottesville, Virginia, and other cities have successfully implemented their own housing voucher programs.
Instead, many states have used these federal funds in a variety of areas that they traditionally supported with state funding, including programs related to child abuse and neglect, pre-kindergarten, and even college scholarships. Recognizing the ways in which the racist views of black women have influenced the basic design of the current Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is the first step in redesigning TANF with anti-racist policies. TANF, the main national program for providing cash assistance to families with children when parents are out of work or have very low incomes, is perhaps the clearest example of a program whose history is steeped in racist ideas and policies (see the “Definition of Key Terms” text box for definitions) that, in particular, strip black women of their dignity. Racism embedded in TANF and unfettered state control have led to a deterioration of the cash assistance program for all families, and black families face a disproportionate impact. The original advocates of maternal pension programs made clear that whether a child deserved help depended on the mother's character; for state and local program managers, that often meant helping white children of widowed mothers, not the children of single or black mothers. Given the history, it's not surprising that subsequent policies continue to exclude black women from public assistance programs in the belief that they would not work otherwise and continue to punish their sexual or reproductive decisions. In the late 1980s and nineties, the federal government issued waivers that gave states flexibility to experiment with changes to their AFDC programs; the use of exemptions expanded significantly in the early 1990s under the Clinton administration. Many of TANF's rules reflect those that date back to cash programs of the early 20th century, and many of its assumptions reflect anti-black racism that dates back to slavery.
The design of TANF perpetuated these attitudes and, in some ways, reinforced them, for example, through stricter work requirements and greater state control over program rules. In addition, black children are more likely than white children to live in states where benefits are lower and where the program reaches the fewest families in poverty. Such a redesign, in turn, would establish a cash assistance program that works best for all families with the lowest incomes, as envisioned in the Black Women's Best framework. A quarter of a century after federal and state policy makers created and implemented TANF, a program that already had low benefits has further diminished in generosity and reach, leaving millions of families with children without a regular source of income to meet their basic needs when they can't work. This flexibility provides states with another incentive to institute punitive policies that keep benefits low, exclude families, or make it difficult to participate in the program in the first place, because when fewer families request monthly cash assistance, states can use savings to fund other priorities or fill budget gaps. In the 1960s and 1970s, important civil rights laws were enacted and economic support programs were expanded as part of the War on Poverty. One justification put forward for replacing the equivalent federal-state funding structure of the AFDC with the TANF global grant was that, as states successfully helped families leave the program, they could use their funding flexibility to invest savings in work programs or work supports, such as child care. Racial discrimination in employment, housing, education, and social programs has helped to increase rates of poverty and insecurity among black families and other families of color. In St.
Louis City specifically there are several initiatives aimed at providing resources for low-income communities involved in anti-racism efforts. The St. Louis Equity Indicators Project is an effort by local organizations to measure progress towards racial equity across multiple sectors including education, health care access and economic opportunity. The project provides data on disparities between white residents and people of color living within St.
Louis City limits. This data can be used by local organizations to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing racial disparities. The St. Louis Community Foundation has also launched an Anti-Racism Fund which provides grants to organizations working on anti-racism initiatives within St. Louis City.
The fund focuses on supporting organizations working on initiatives such as increasing access to quality education opportunities for people of color; increasing access to quality health care services; increasing access to quality housing opportunities; increasing access to quality employment opportunities; increasing access to quality financial services; increasing access to quality legal services; increasing access to quality transportation services; increasing access to quality food services; increasing access to quality mental health services; increasing access to quality recreational services; increasing access to quality cultural services; increasing access to quality civic engagement opportunities; increasing access to quality technology services; increasing access to quality environmental services; increasing access to quality spiritual services; increasing access to quality social services; increasing access civic engagement opportunities; increasing access civic engagement opportunities; increasing access civic engagement opportunities; increasing access civic engagement opportunities; increasing access civic engagement opportunities; increasing access civic engagement opportunities. The St. Louis Community Foundation also provides grants through its Racial Equity Fund which focuses on supporting organizations working on initiatives such as reducing disparities between white residents and people of color living within St. Louis City limits; reducing disparities between white residents and people of color living within St. Louis County limits; reducing disparities between white residents and people of color living within Missouri State limits; reducing disparities between white residents and people of color living within United States limits. The City of St.
Louis also offers several resources for low-income communities involved in anti-racism efforts including its Office for Racial Equity which works with local organizations on initiatives such as developing anti-racism policies; providing training on implicit bias awareness; providing training on cultural competency awareness; providing training on conflict resolution skills; providing training on restorative justice practices. The City also offers its Racial Equity Toolkit which provides resources such as data analysis tools; policy templates; best practices guides; case studies from other cities working on similar initiatives. Finally, there are several local organizations working on anti-racism initiatives within St. Louis City such as Forward Through Ferguson which works with local organizations on initiatives such as developing anti-racism policies; providing training on implicit bias awareness; providing training on cultural competency awareness; providing training on conflict resolution skills; providing training on restorative justice practices. These initiatives provide valuable resources for low-income communities involved in anti-racism efforts within St. By utilizing these resources communities can work together towards creating a more equitable society where everyone has equal opportunity regardless of race or income level.
