2018 Shriver Center Racial Justice Training Institute

February 1, 2018, NEW YORK—As our country continues to grapple with persistent poverty and our long-standing legacy of structural racism and discrimination, it is crucial that advocates understand and address the intersection of poverty and race. The Shriver Center, a national leader in the fight to advance justice and opportunity for people living in poverty, and Legal Services NYC (LSNYC), the largest civil legal services provider in the country, are excited to announce that 43 LSNYC staff will comprise the fifth cohort of advocates to participate in the Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Training Institute (RJTI).

The RJTI is a groundbreaking, nationally renowned program that trains equal justice advocates to analyze and address the role that racism plays in causing and perpetuating poverty. Following 6 months of online and in-person intensive training, RJTI Fellows join a national network of advocates advancing a coordinated racial justice agenda. In four years, the RJTI has cultivated 160 advocates from 81 organizations in 28 states. The RJTI alumni network continues to work in concert on several issues, including education equity and organizational alignment

The RJTI has historically brought together a select group of advocates from around the country each year through a competitive application process. Those advocates have gone on to serve as catalysts in bringing a race equity lens to the work of their respective organizations. But in recognition of the growing importance of state- and local-level advocacy, and the critical need for organizational investment in this type of work, this year’s training marks the launch of a pilot model that aims to equip an entire organization to more effectively advance racial equity, both internally and externally. LSNYC— with its long history of fighting poverty in one of our most ethnically and racially diverse cities—is ideally situated to both help shape the development of the pilot program and further the mission of the RJTI through their advocacy and policy work.

Legal Services NYC fights poverty and seeks racial, social, and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. As a leading force for change, LSNYC has sought and achieved justice for millions of low-income New Yorkers in its 50-year history, representing over 90,000 low-income New Yorkers every year. As the first single-site cohort for the Racial Justice Training Institute, LSNYC seeks to catalyze its race equity advocacy in recognition of the crucial intersection of race and poverty. 

Later this year, the Shriver Center will host the first convening of the RJTI network in Chicago, Illinois. RJTI Fellows and faculty will come together to explore ongoing advocacy initiatives, mounting threats to racial justice, and additional opportunities to advance racial equity at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. 

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