Racial Equity Tool (RET), Step 3+: Engaging with Communities & Beyond (PILOT v1.0, Sept 24, 2025)

This self-paced online learning module provides an introduction to Step 3+ of the Racial Equity Tool: Engaging with Communities and Beyond.  This 35-40 minute module includes a certificate of completion at the end of the course.  (Note: This is a pilot version to test for functionality in the LMS system.)

Race Forward’s Government Alliance on Race & Equity (GARE) aims to provide resources and tools to empower government professionals to be proactive advocates for racially equitable outcomes within their organizations and communities. The GARE Racial Equity Tool serves as a framework for discerning if policies, practices, and procedures are contributing to inequitable outcomes. The Racial Equity Tool, Step 3+: Engaging with Communities and Beyond module can help you identify and address inequities experienced by communities.  The "Step 3+" in the title of this module is intended to note that while Engaging with Communities is in Step 3 of the RET, that best practices for engaging with communities is throughout a Racial Equity Tool process.

The Learning Objectives for this course are:
1. Explain the value of engaging communities as essential to racial equity work.
2. Recognize the purpose of engaging communities throughout the Racial Equity Tool process.
3. Describe the importance of knowing the history of government and race in your jurisdiction.
4. Apply the Movement Strategy Center's Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership.
5. Identify activities that government can use to share power with communities.
6. Describe actions government employees can take to build and maintain deeper partnerships and relationships with communities.

A few notes:
* Recommended prerequisite courses to help you better understand the context for this course:
      1. The Advancing Racial Equity online course is a prerequisite for completing online modules on the components of the Racial Equity Tool.  (If you've taken this course at a previous time in the GARE Learning Center, please let us know at gareselfpaced@raceforward.org so we can check our records.)  
      2. The Overview of the Racial Equity Tool course is also a prerequisite for all of the Racial Equity Tool online modules, as it helps provide context/framing for all of the RET modules.
      3. The Shifting to an Equity Mindset (Parts 1 and 2) courses will also be prerequisites for all the Racial Equity Tool online modules once the development phase of these courses are complete.

* Completion of this brief self-paced online module is part of a larger series of steps of the Racial Equity Tool methodology: the Racial Equity Tool's Desired Results, Data, Engaging with Communities, Analysis & Strategies, Implementation Planning, and Evaluation, Accountability, and Communication.  Many of these modules are currently in development; please keep an eye out for future self-paced courses in the GARE Learning Center, such as additional online modules on the components of the Racial Equity Tool.

* All of these self-paced online modules cover knowledge-based learning, which is only a first step in a larger process toward applying the skills of the Racial Equity Tool methodology on the job.  If you are seeking further support, such as in-person training and/or coaching for employees of your local, regional, or state agency, we invite you to fill out Race Forward's Intake Form in a new tab). You may also email intake@raceforward.org for any questions related to in-person racial equity training, coaching, and other services.