Streets.mn is excited to announce we have contracted with Cirien Saadeh to have a racial equity impact assessment applied to the Streets.mn organization.
We put out a call for proposals to do this work earlier in the year, and Cirien’s proposal aligned with Streets.mn’s anti-racism goals and organizational values. Cirien has already begun the work, completing their preliminary research and developing interview questions. In addition to interviewing members of the board, contributors and volunteers, Cirien also wishes to interview many of you — the Streets.mn community.
A racial equity impact assessment is a tool organizations use as they move toward their stated anti-racism commitments. The assessment identifies organizational structure and existing anti-racism frameworks and practices. Cirien will also look at the sourcing our contributors use when creating content and will interview readers about their perceptions of Streets.mn in relation to the racial equity impact assessment.
When the interviews are complete and the data has been sorted, Cirien will facilitate a discussion about their findings with the board of Streets.mn. This discussion will lead to identifying commitments, structures and practices we can adopt to empower Streets.mn as we continue our anti-racism journey as an organization.
This work aligns with Streets.mn’s anti-racism goals:
- Outreach: build inclusive partnerships.
- Content: increase diversity of contributors and anti-racism content.
- Education: educate board members, contributors, and volunteers (Streets.mn community) on anti-racism.
The assessment also aligns with Streets.mn’s mission — to foster positive connections and inclusive conversations about better places in Minnesota — and one of our core values, that a better place is justice-driven: cities, towns and streets should empower and include people of all ages, especially the vulnerable and marginalized.
We are excited about the anti-racism work ahead of us, including this racial equity impact assessment, and hope you share in our excitement. If you are a reader of Streets.mn, or a listener to our podcast, and are willing to contribute to our work by sharing your perception(s) of our organization with Cirien, please reach out to them at ciriens@journalismofcolor.com to set up an interview.
Thank you, from the Streets.mn Anti-Racism Committee
About Cirien Saadeh, Ph.D.
Dr. Cirien Saadeh is an Arab-American journalist and educator who works at the intersections of journalism, social movements, experiential education and sustainability. She was trained as a community organizer by the former Organizing Apprenticeship Project (now Voices for Racial Justice). She has written for local, national and international publications and is committed to using journalism as a tool in the pursuit of justice for all historically disenfranchised communities. She produces and hosts the Radical News Radio Hour and is co-founder and project manager of the Journalism of Color Training Center, sponsored by the Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO).
Saadeh also is executive director for The UpTake, a community news organization, and Associate Faculty at Prescott College where she received her Ph.D. in Sustainability Education in 2019. As part of her doctoral program, she developed a theory “Journalism of Color,” which asks, in short: how do we develop sustainable journalism platforms and spaces in historically marginalized communities and how do we create journalism methodologies which build community power and resilience? Saadeh is currently conducting research at the intersections of journalism, social movements and cooperative sustainability, as well as the applications of racial equity impact analyses to the practice of Journalism of Color.