Diversity Advancement Project

About this grant

This grant will provide continued support to the Tides Center for the Diversity Advancement Project. The goals of the project are to develop tools and resources that advocates and grassroots groups can use to generate public support for prodiversity policies and engage others to promote a more productive public discussion about the value of diversity among target constituencies. Specific work includes conducting research on contextual and environmental opportunities that create openness to discourse; developing model communication frames including messages, metaphors and symbols for use with target constituencies; creating an advisory board to guide the work; and developing a set of tools that advocates can use to improve their public education efforts to expand the base of support for race-conscious policies and programs.During the past year, specific accomplishments included meeting with advocates and community leaders from Michigan, North Carolina, California and Mississippi; convening a multi-disciplinary advisory board for the project; identifying researchers and possible organizational partners; developing criteria for site selection; identifying four possible sites for testing (Grand Rapids and Oakland County, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; California; and North Carolina); and developing a work plan that focuses on the two Michigan sites for initial testing.