STRIVE is a leading national workforce development solution for individuals facing some of the highest barriers to employment, including intergenerational poverty, housing and food insecurity, and a history of incarceration. In 2020, STRIVE sought a thought partner to guide the development and deployment of an intentional racial equity strategy that would allow them to integrate explicit racial equity approaches into core workforce development strategies for students and develop staff members of color into leadership positions in the agency. STRIVE’s priority was to develop a long-term plan for proactively applying a racial equity lens to all of STRIVE’s operations, programming, and with internal and external stakeholders.

Converge led a comprehensive organizational assessment, training and developed an implementation plan for RISE at STRIVE. The organizational assessment was developed using a variety of methodologies, including surveys, interviews and a review of organizational files to document the state of equity within the organization. Based on research and information gathered from assessment, Converge developed a customized implementation plan. Converge also conducted a Racial Equity and Inclusion (REI) training with all staff and board members to create a shared understanding of REI, to unpack how white supremacy impacts organizational capacity areas, and to introduce REI approaches.