The Communities of Opportunity model advocates for a fair investment in all of a region’s people and neighborhoods—to improve the life outcomes of all citizens, and to improve the health of entire regions...
We agree that all too often implicit and explicit race talk has indeed been used to divide and alienate. At the same time, we believe colorblindness, though sometimes urged by people and organizations with the best intentions, is a mistake.
Our work operates on the premise that opportunities exist in a complex web of interdependent factors, and that to alleviate inequities in any single area, we must first consider the entire structure that supports these inequities.
We recognize that public education, like every structure in society that confers benefits to individuals unequally based on race and class, is part of a larger system with lifelong implications for both individual and group-based success.
Inequality has a geographic footprint. We have pioneered the use of maps to communicate the history and presence of discriminatory and exclusionary policies that spatially segregate people.
Social justice issues are never static and new challenges and issues are constantly emerging. In addition to our core research areas, the Institute has several emerging research initiatives that are responsive to new issues that have profound impacts on racial and ethnic groups.
john powell on WOSU Radio Open Line "Race and the election of Barack Obama" - 10am December 1, 2008
![]() |
Kirwan Statement on Senator Obama's Victory - November 6, 2008
Outlook for an Obama Presidency: Video analysis by john powell, Executive Director
A Vote to Change the World, NYU Press blog by Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Affirmative Action Ballot Initiatives Report (December 2008)
Digest - Race and the Presidential Election
Employment Opportunity - Post Doctoral Fellowship Program, 2009 Summer Internship Program

Click for more information - Conference Video Now Available
![]() |
Supreme Decisions: Your Vote, Your Rights & the Court |
|
A Message to Black Hollywood |
Introducing Juror Number Six by Rachel Lyon (click to watch& on-line)
