Fairfield County Forward, the Community Foundation’s new strategic plan, deepens our partnership with the Fairfield County community.
an evolving approach
A Focus on Trust and Collaboration
As the Community Foundation works with our community to create a Fairfield County where every person has an equitable opportunity to thrive, we are reorienting how we approach our work.
This evolving approach begins with focusing on addressing the structural and root causes of persistent racial inequities — social systems that were designed to create, enforce, and perpetuate an unjust racial caste system.
To address these root causes, the Foundation is committing to embrace trust-based approaches to its grantmaking and community leadership. This means the pace, tone, and content of our work will be informed by our community and that those negatively impacted by systemic inequities and who currently have little influence over the flow of resources and power will help guide our efforts.
In turn, we will work with all parts of the community — including residents, as well as public, private and nonprofit partners — to understand and acknowledge racial history; create a shared affirmative vision of a fair, antiracist, inclusive society; and build civic, cultural, economic, and political power by those most impacted by inequities and injustices in our current systems.
We will invest in transformative solutions and will analyze data and information about race and ethnicity within cultural and historical contexts to identify focus areas and issues in collaboration with our community partners; build an understanding of disparities and the reasons they exist; name race when talking about our issues and solutions; and measure progress toward our vision.
