That’s A Wrap: Advancement Project California’s Inaugural Funding Racial Justice Budget Advocacy Training Program for Community Power

By: Anisha Hingorani, Senior Manager of Equity in Community Investments

“Public budgets are moral documents”

These words, popularized by Black organizers during last summer’s global uprising against anti-Black racism and police brutality, galvanized immense interest and appetite for local budget advocacy and shifting dollars from policing and incarceration towards health and wellness programs. This necessary framing, coupled with the dueling pandemics of COVID-19 and structural racism, motivated our Equity in Community Investment team to build on their local budget advocacy efforts and deepen partnerships with Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)-led groups organizing around their local budgets across California.

“As a member of the historic Measure J Committee I am honored to have been able to share space with California community members, organizers, and advocates to learn essential local budget advocacy and research skills necessary to win equitable investment in our communities. I am truly grateful and humbled to have been able to participate in ADVANCEMENT PROJECT CALIFORNIA’s Funding Racial Justice 2021 Cohort.  Thanks to the extensive new set of skills I have been able to develop during this training I feel so much more capable, competent, and comfortable in advocating for equity perspectives that uplift produral, distributional and structurals to improve our most impacted and highly marginalized communities.” – Hector Manuel Ramirez, LA County Measure J Reimagine LA Advisory Committee, Los Angeles

The result was the launch of our first-ever bilingual “Funding Racial Justice: Budget Advocacy Training for Community Power,” a virtual train-the-trainer program. We brought together 15 diverse, local organizers from across California and provided participation stipends to build budgeting expertise and demonstrate how to move their local city and county budget campaigns forward. Our first cohort brought their lived experiences and perspectives to advance campaigns tackling defining and abolition of systems of incarceration, COVID-19 mutual aid, environmental justice, health equity, housing and homelessness, and youth development. Ultimately, our goal is to invest in community-based advocates with the budgeting tools needed to pass their knowledge to their colleagues and advance equitable funding initiatives in their communities. 

“The FRJ project has afforded me and others the opportunity to learn firsthand from budget experts who are also connected and vested in Justice as Community organizers and advocates freely sharing their expertise. They demystified the budget for me so our community can lean into the necessary budget work in 2022 and forward and I’m excited about using the tools they’ve provided.” – Vonya Quarles, Starting Over, Inc., Inland Empire

Throughout five English-language Zoom sessions with simultaneous Spanish interpretation, trainers, and participants:

• Worked through the fundamentals of the budget development process
• Performed a simple budget analysis
• Developed needed tools to lead budget training in their communities
• Crafted budget demands and messages necessary to support their regional budget and policy campaigns

Through story sharing and delving into historical budget data, we grappled with the complex history of structural racism in California and how that impacts the way our local budgets look today. Our trainers also underscored the need for multi-racial and multi-sector coalition building to win community investments, discussed the mechanics of moving dollars away from mass incarceration, racial profiling, and criminalization, and imparted the importance of community care and sustaining each other in our movement work.

“The Funding Racial Justice program helped deepen my understanding of not only how local budgets work, but how we can build power over the policies & tax dollars that affect our communities every day. I’m looking forward to using the lessons I’ve learned to ensure that our budgets invest in the health care, resources, and support communities of color deserve.” – Katherine Nasol, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Berkeley

Our Equity in Community Investment team’s Theory of Change highlights how centering racial equity in budget advocacy efforts can help propel our communities of color to a brighter, more equitable, and healthier future.

We designed the program with attention to accessibility, different learning modalities, and reinforcing hands-on skill-building and knowledge sharing. Between sessions, participants engaged with regular assignments to practice their budget analysis skills in addition to customized resource guides, key readings, one-on-one mentorship calls, educational games, and supplemental sessions. This work deepened knowledge of how to shift from the harms of our carceral society and use innovative data tools like RACE COUNTS to advance local budget campaigns. Our training sessions also featured guest trainers who brought their wisdom and guided participants by imparting lessons from their park equity work, People’s Budget campaigns, and justice reinvestment initiatives in Fresno, Bakersfield, Long Beach, and Los Angeles.

“Ahora estoy empoderada y con ganas de seguir aprendiendo para ayudar más a mi comunidad. Muchas gracias Advancement Project California!!” – Roxana Vanessa Sanchez, Sociedad Organizada de Latinas Activas, South Cental Los Angeles

As part of the culmination of the training program, each participant worked on and presented an individual budget advocacy project that showcased what they learned and how they plan to use their additional capacity to train residents and deepen their community efforts. Final projects included artwork, zines, budget guides, campaign plans, training slides, data tools, and more.

The Equity in Community Investments team is deeply grateful to our first cohort, who brought rigor, reflection, inspiration, and enthusiasm to our inaugural program experience. Please join us in extending a big thank you and congratulations to the graduating class of 2021!

“My experience in the Funding Racial Justice cohort was unequivocally insightful. The program overall was wholesome and well-rounded from start to finish. You can tell the team put a lot of thought and effort into making the workshop space welcoming, equitable, and scholarly. I think budget/public finance can come off as a cumbersome topic. And they did a really great job in breaking down the fundamental components – in addition to connecting the budget elements to our marginalization and everyday life. I’m glad I could participate, and I’m walking away with a much more acute understanding of how to teach, approach, collect and analyze budget data.” – Clarence Ford, Burns Institute Berkeley

Our appreciations also extend to our guest trainers and advocacy partners Diana Zuñiga (Tres Lunas Consulting), Kimberly McCoy (Fresno Building Healthy Communities), James Suazo (Long Beach Forward), and Daulton Jones (People’s Budget Bakersfield) for their time and partnership, as well as our translator Eliza Chavez Fraga and live interpreters Pablo Reyes, Irwing Madrid, and Abraham Martinez for their tireless commitment to language justice. Because of the immense interest in our inaugural program, we plan to offer additional rounds that will support region-specific budget advocacy efforts and training designed for local school district budget advocates. Sign up for our email list to get up-to-date information about this program and other Advancement Project California initiatives.

“FRJ training has been an amazing and powerful experience for me as a program coordinator for a group of community leaders. It has equipped me with the skills to better support residents and guide them through identifying funds at the City level that can support their community projects. It has helped me how to better tailor messages and campaigns to ensure that funds are invested in community.” – Deysi Merino, Vista Community Clinic, Vista