Race to Equity is a comprehensive approach to engaging leaders and community members in Dane County in a broader, solution-oriented dialogue aimed at reducing the profound and persistent racial disparities in health, education, child welfare, criminal justice, employment, and income that plague the nation, state, and county. Part of the way we seek to reduce these disparities is through research, advocacy, and the dissemination of information.

Profound and persistent racial disparities in health, education, child welfare, criminal justice, employment, and income are common across the United States and in Wisconsin. These racial disparities compromise the life chances of many children and families and thwart our common interest that every child grows up healthy, safe and successful.

Kids Forward's Race to Equity project aspires to make a greater contribution to narrowing and ultimately eliminating racial disparities in Wisconsin. We hope to build upon our multi-year “Project to Reduce Racial Disparities in Dane County” to move into a broader effort to reduce racial disparities across Wisconsin.

Recognizing that many people have identified, studied, and worked on the problem of racial disparities for many years, Race to Equity will learn from and build on prior efforts, and will rely heavily on the advice and guidance of leaders and residents of Dane County’s communities of color. These past efforts will inform our collection and analysis of information on the key contributors to disparate racial outcomes in order to identify and advance comprehensive and effective solutions. We hope that the contribution of our core organizational strengths in data and policy analysis, advocacy of effective solutions, and engagement of stakeholders, can foster the necessary political and public will to enact solutions.